into the unknown - risky research

DIY self experiment in gene therapy. 

Advances made in type 1 diabetes therapy - new trials

Here:

http://www.guysandstthomasbrc.nihr.ac.uk/2017/08/09/pioneering-immunotherapy-shows-promise-in-type-1-diabetes/


also see:

https://www.diabeteshealth.com/reprogrammed-cells-in-mice-reverse-late-stage-type-1-diabetes/

New Open Insulin video

International biohacker project Open Insulin is hard at work.  At Counter Culture Labs, after early experiments with expression in E. Coli Bacteria, the emphasis has shifted to the yeast Pichia Pastoris. Here's a new video by Noel Carrascal PhD, who is working with us on computational design and simulation of the insulin protein.  

Summer in the lab updated 07 July 2017

We are starting our synthetic gene expression experiment soon.  This will be to see if we can express a peptide in bacteria that has shown properties as an entry inhibitor antiviral.  It has been a long time getting to this stage of actually doing the wetwork.   Monday we prepared 14 amp agar plates.  

The open insulin project is also going on this summer and we are looking at expression in Pichia (yeast) after a few initial experiments with E-Coli.  This is an international project with multiple biohacker labs so if your  biohacker lab is interested in participating and developing methods for making better and cheaper insulin please get in touch with us. 
Check out the project: http://openinsulin.org/ , and here , and then leave a message here if you would like to join us (or have a bake sale for us to raise more money, as we are all volunteers but materials cost $).  

Update: 7 July 2017  
Here at Nenufar molecules for life we are waiting for the fedex delivery today of our gene of interest (VRBNCR-01) in the  pET 15b plasmid.  Last night we made 100mL of SOC, again, as our first batch appeared to be contaminated.  Tonight we'll start more media prep as the LB amp agar plates we poured are too old and the ampicillin is likely losing potency.  
Open insulin is working on size exclusion chromatography of the pichia pastoris expressing pro insulin (both inducible and constitutive expression constructs are being researched)  

CRISPR/CAS9 Delivery Webinar 4-18-17

Allison Mayle, PhD. Gerstner Sloan-Kettering Teaching Fellow, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center presents this webinar.  
The webinar covers best practices for increasing CRISPR/Cas9 editing efficiency. Viewers will learn discover online tools to aid in CRISPR/Cas9 design and delivery, and tips for optimizing your CRISPR/Cas9 experiments.

Dr. Mayle will review the factors influencing genome editing, including target sequence selection and CRISPR/Cas9 delivery methods. A comparison of plasmid and viral vector delivery will be provided, as well as an introduction to DNA-free CRISPR/Cas9 ribonucleoprotein reagents. Additionally, Dr. Mayle will cover best practices for CRISPR knock-in mutagenesis via homology-directed repair (HDR) and applications available from new Cas9 protein variants.

The webinar is free but registration is required HERE by the hosts GenScript.

Ebola Vaccine proves effective against Zaire strain

Usually most of the daily news is bad but today we woke up to very good news.  rVSV-ZEBOV, a recombinant, replication competent vesicular stomatitis virus-based candidate vaccine expressing a surface glycoprotein of Zaire Ebolavirus has completed phase 1 human trials in Guinea, West Africa.  Vaccine efficacy was 100%  Fast track this one please (Merck has 300,000 doses ready in case of an outbreak).  We are highly impressed by this work and hope it will serve as a model for the future of rapid drug development and deployment in response to emerging epidemics.   

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(16)32621-6/fulltext

making drugs with bugs

The ring study and Aspire

http://ipmglobal.org/our-work/our-products/dapivirine-ring/phase-iii-results


These trials indicate encouraging progress.  We find this very much related to what we are developing with our experimentation at Nenufar Molecules for Life.

more:

http://www.mtnstopshiv.org/node/6527

https://aidsinfo.nih.gov/drugs/523/dapivirine/0/patient

Ebola Virus

In 1976 the first Ebola outbreak was reported in Zaire, Africa (now the DRC) with the virus infecting 318 people out of which there were only 38 survivors.  In March 2014 there was an outbreak of Ebola in Sub Saharan West Africa that has claimed 11,173 lives as of June 2015.  In 2014 there also occurred a much smaller unrelated outbreak in the DRC.   The West African epidemic is under control at this time, but announcements that Ebola was no longer present in Liberia and Sierra Leone have proven to be premature.  The latest such announcement by the WHO was last Thursday that West Africa was Ebola-Free

 (http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2016/ebola-zero-liberia/en/) 

and was followed in just a few hours by the sad news of a new fatality, as a 22 year old woman had fallen victim to the virus in Sierra Leone.  Viruses such as Ebola can persist even after a patient is apparently cured.  They find hiding places in the body and can still be transmitted through bodily fluids.  In laboratories around the world, research is making progress, there are vaccines currently available.  A 2014 document on potential therapies and vaccines may be viewed here  It is interesting to note that Marburg virus is similar enough to Ebola that any outbreak of Marburg could likely be controlled with the same or like therapies and vaccines used against Ebola.

NML is also conducting research that may eventually add a useful medicine to combat the future spread of Ebola.  We'll keep you updated here.  For more information about other research and development please visit: 

http://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/ebolamarburg/research/pages/default.aspx

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-01/aeco-eiz010716.php

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/video/2016-01/16/c_135015519.htm

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/01/160111152819.htm

http://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/ebolamarburg/pages/maskingtechnique.aspx

http://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/ebolamarburg/pages/rabiesvaccebola.aspx

https://idsa.confex.com/idsa/2015/webprogram/Paper54208.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brincidofovir

http://investor.arbutusbio.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=918694

BLOG INAUGURATION

BLOG INAUGURATION

This blog could also be titled "adventures in biology" because it is going to chronicle our journeys into the life of cells and molecules.  The San Francisco Bay Area is a brilliant point of light in the global science network (You knew that, didn't you?). I'd like to thank the citizen scientists of the Bay Area biohacker community for your kind help and support.  I'm not mentioning any names in this post but you know who you are.  Nenufar loves you!
Nenufar is preparing to conduct our first experiment to produce a peptide,  Hey, why don't we give it a name?

NML-0001

Our interest in lectins with antiviral properties led to research that indicates that this peptide may have medical applications.  We will say more about this in future posts.

We will welcome any interested parties interested in science to join with us on this adventure,  please leave your comments and questions as the experiment progresses.