cover story
TOP FIVE TECHNOLOGIES
CRISPR
“CRISPR” (pronounced “crisper”) stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats,
which are the hallmark of a bacterial defense system which forms the basis for the popular CRISPR-Cas9
genome editing technology. The CRISPR-Cas9 system consists of two key molecules that acts as a pair of
‘molecular scissors’ that can cut the two strands of DNA at a specific location in the genome so that bits
of DNA can then be added or removed.
OPTOGENETICS
Optogenetics is a recently developed technique for controlling the activity of individual neurons.
Neuron signals are triggered by the movement of charged atoms, or ions, through channels in their cell
membranes. Some kinds of algae and other organisms possess light-sensitive channel proteins, encoded
in their DNA by specific genes. Using optogenetics, researchers can go beyond observing brain activity to
actively manipulating it. For instance, by turning on olfactory neurons, scientists could cause an animal to
“smell” light — in other words, neurons normally activated by odors now responded to a light signal.
MOLECULAR COMPUTERS
It might sound crazy but not impossible. Scientists are predicting that computers of the future may not
be made of silicon, but of DNA, an information-rich molecule that can be used for computing in a variety
of ways. Computer chips are constructed using logic gates (such as AND, OR and NOT) that perform
mathematical functions on given inputs. Similarly, these gates can be built from DNA, and connected to
run computations inside cells.
BISPECIFIC T-CELL ENGAGING ANTIBODIES
Bispecific T-cell Engaging antibodies (BiTEs) against cancer are designed to direct the body’s own
cell-destroying T cells to attack tumor cells. Micromet, which developed the bispecific antibodies from
research conducted at the University of Munich, has proven that the engaged T cells destroy tumor cells
and work at low concentrations.
THERAPEUTIC VACCINES
Therapeutic vaccines have been a holy grail of biopharma. The 2010 approval of Dendreon’s ($DNDN)
Provenge for metastatic prostate cancer proved they are the real deal, even if the high cost of
manufacturing them hurts profit margins. There are close to 10 such promising vaccine candidates that
are being studied in humans for cancer and other indications, including immune diseases.
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BioVoiceNews | June 2017