FROM THE LABS : TOSCANA LIFE SCIENCES
J
UST OUTSIDE THE MEDIEVAL walled city of Siena , the Tuscan hill town known for its famed
Palio horse race , a different kind of race is happening at
Toscana Life Sciences Foundation . This one is on a microscopic scale , as senior scientist Claudia Sala and her team research a treatment for COVID-19 , which is projected to cause nearly
2.7 million global deaths by year ’ s end .
Sala studies monoclonal antibodies , or mAbs , tiny proteins the human body produces to fight off infections from bacteria and viruses . By finding and cloning the right mAbs , she and other scientists are hoping to create a powerful therapy that could help treat COVID-19 and even protect frontline workers . With help from HP inkjet printing technology and other partners , researchers could find those antibodies in record time .
“ In normal conditions , the production of monoclonals would take at least one year ,” says Sala . She ’ s hoping to get these out in just six short months and to start clinical trials this December .
Here ’ s a look at Claudia Sala ’ s typical day inside the lab .
8:00 A . M . / The search kicks off Sala lives just outside Siena , once a center of political and cultural power that rivaled Florence in the 13th century . Siena ’ s population was devastated by the Black Death and the city never recovered its former glory , something the scientist reflects on every time she glimpses the town ’ s ornate but never-finished
Duomo . Her short commute takes her to Siena ’ s suburbs , where Toscana Life Sciences is home to nine research projects — including the
Monoclonal Antibody Discovery ( MAD ) Lab , led by Sala — all focused on making biomedical advances .
Sala first tackles a mountain of emails each morning . Before COVID-19 , she and her team were searching for mAbs that could fight off antibiotic-resistant bacteria . But as the pandemic swept through Northern Italy in late February , Sala and the lab ’ s principal investigator , Rino Rappuoli , decided to temporarily abandon their bacteria research and devote the lab ’ s energies and resources to finding a treatment for COVID-19 .
The MAD Lab is among a handful of research institutions benefiting from HP ’ s donation of D300e BioPrinters , supply cassettes , and training to help accelerate drug and vaccine research to combat COVID-19 . The BioPrinter emerged from HP ’ s expertise with microfluidics , which is a broad research area that ’ s enabled by precision placement of microscopic amounts of fluid .
Monoclonal antibodies work because they bind to the surface of a bacterium or virus and keep it from attaching to cells and replicating . While mAbs can be harnessed to treat a range of pathogens , each treatment relies on an antibody that is uniquely suited to bind to each virus or bacterium . “ You need a very specific key to open a specific door ,” says Sala . Testing endless variations of those “ keys ” to find the right one that will fit into COVID-19 is a slow process — unless you have a printer to set up and run those tests for you .
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