LAB ROUNDUP 27 March: Virology, automation, anniversaries, lab builds, awards, product innovation

Clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company Vaccitech plc (NASDAQ: VACC) announced topline interim data from the HPV001 study NCT04607850, a Phase 1b/2 clinical trial of VTP-200 in women with low-grade cervical human papillomavirus (HPV) lesions. Data from the first 58 women enrolled who reached their sixmonth timepoint in the HPV001 placebo-controlled study were reviewed internally; immunogenicity results showed high responses, defined as an average greater than 1,000 spot-forming units per million peripheral blood mononuclear cells in an ELISPOT assay. The trial will continue to the 12 month primary endpoint.  “Currently people with persistent HPV infections have no treatment options until they develop high grade lesions… VTP-200 is intended to treat HPV infections, potentially before the virus causes these.” said CEO Bill Enright.

IFF (NYSE: IFF) a global leader in solutions for food and beverages, health, biosciences, and scent has added two new sweet and culinary flavour creation labs at its facility in Brabrand, Denmark. The original site was opened in 1964, spanning more than 312,150 square feet, with the innovation hub home to more than 400 employees engaged in research, application development, ingredient and flavour creation.

UK-based laboratory automation solutions company Labman Automation has partnered with collaborative robots manufacturer Universal Robots to develop its MultiDose powder dosing system, intended to enable pharmaceutical companies bring products to market faster and saving technicians up to six hours per experiment, compared to manual processes. The system also allows experiments to be performed automatically out of normal working hours. 

Analytik Jena has received two Product of the Year 2023 awards from the industry journal LABO for its products in both the Laboratory 4.0 and Analytics categories. Its AOX sample preparation series APU 28 Connect rapid screening method for determining contamination by organic halogens in accordance with official standards won Product of the Year. Meanwhile its CyBio Carry automation robot won the Lab 4.0 category. (See video below)

Hamamatsu Photonics is constructing a new factory building to meet the growing demand from the opto-semiconductor device market at its Shingai in Hamamatsu City, Japan to increase overall production capacity in the post-processing (dicing, assembly, and inspection) of opto-semiconductor devices. The building is due for completion in March 2025.

Global contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) for biopharmaceuticals, Rentschler Biopharma SE, has been awarded CDMO Leadership Awards in the Service, Reliability, Capabilities and Compatibility categories. In addition, Rentschler was recognized as a CDMO Leadership Award Champion in the Compatibility category. The awards are based on client feedback and presented by Life Science Leader and Outsourced Pharma, based on research conducted by Industry Standard Research (ISR).

Drug discovery company Sygnature Discovery has unveiled its new CHARMED technology platform designed to accelerate and support early-stage targeted protein degradation (TPD) programmes. It offers combined high-throughput chemistry, in vitro biology and DMPK assays, as well as access to 96-well plates that capitalise on diverse linkers and popular ligase warheads, delivering rapid synthesis, screening, and characterisation of bifunctional degraders to speed up the identification of lead compounds for novel targets. Founder and CEO Dr Simon Hirst stated: “The CHARMED platform combines our world-class, in-house expertise across chemistry, in vitro biology, and DMPK with a practical toolkit that helps clients to expedite their drug discovery. Across the industry, we are seeing a significant amount of interest in targeted protein degradation, but a lot of organisations are struggling to find either start points in their programmes, or molecules that have the right properties to succeed in the clinic. In the CHARMED platform, we bring together a number of technologies at Sygnature, combining our high throughput chemistry capabilities with high throughput biology,” Simon explains, “We are supporting the rapid synthesis of bi-functional molecules with a series of assays and platforms that will assess their potential to go forward.” 

Europe’s fastest supercomputer, the LUMI AMD-powered supercomputer has been awarded the Green Data Centre of the Year at the 2023 Data Centre World Awards.The HPE Cray EX system has a sustained computing power of 375 petaflops in its final configuration and is one of the world’s leading platforms for artificial intelligence. It uses 100% hydropower, and its waste heat accounts for up to 20% of the annual district heating needs of the city of Kajaani, Finland, in which it is based, having the potential to reduce 12,400 tons of CO₂ annually.

Imaging technologies specialist Abberior, has placed a super-resolution STED microscope at MBC BioLabs, the leading San Francisco Bay Area biotech incubator network. The installation is part of Abberior's efforts to support biotech entrepreneurs in launching and growing innovative life science companies. The STEDYCON  STED microscope is a super-resolution fluorescence microscope, which allows researchers to visualise biological structures and processes at the nanoscale level with high accuracy and detail. The instrument will be an essential resource for biotech entrepreneurs at MBC BioLabs, enabling them to develop new products and therapies with increased efficiency and effectiveness.