Contents

features

A Tale of Two Crises

16

8

Cellular protein factories may contribute to ageing and related diseases

Potential breakthrough in treatment of rare disease

20

contents

/ www.biosciencetoday.co.uk / issue 27 /

3 Foreword 4-5 Contents 8-9 ageing r&d

Research finds that the cellular assembly line that produces proteins can stall with age, triggering a snowball effect that increases the output of misfolded proteins. In humans, clumps of misfolded proteins contribute to age-linked Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. Taylor Kubota discusses the Stanford University study.

12-15 the big interview

Peter Wrighton-Smith, CEO of Oxford Immunotec, talks to Bioscience Today about growing understanding of the importance of T cells in protecting us from disease, as well as their critical role in measuring immune responses to infection.

20-21 thought leadership

A Tale of Two Crises: Unfortunately, it appears that being slow to recognise a crisis is part of the human condition, and medical research has had its fair share. Often there needs to be a key event (or series of events) to highlight the situation and signal a turning point. Robert Hewitt, MB BS, PhD, of Biosample Hub, looks at two examples with differing outcomes.

26-27 INDUSTRY FIRST

In an industry first, biotech pioneers PacBio announce significant enhancements to the Sequel II/IIe platform include methylation calling in native DNA, greatly accelerated sample preparation, and support for gene therapy applications.

28-29 PERSONALISED MEDICINE

Precision medicine using personalised treatments has entered mainstream healthcare. Closed Loop Medicine Ltd aims to level the playing field further with its drug and digital combination products.

Closing the Loop on personalised healthcare