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Updated on Aug 21, 2023 Share

COVID-19 Reinfection In January 2020, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) confirmed the first domestic case of COVID-19, an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Soon after, COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, spreading at exponential rates and drastically altering the world as we knew it. After more than a year of research and experiments, we’ve begun to learn more about the mechanisms of this coronavirus variant, and how …

Updated on Aug 4, 2023 Share

  Saliva-based tests can simplify, accelerate, and increase the availability of COVID-19 testing – and potentially lead to better patient outcomes.   The COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause illness across the world, but there is hope on the horizon as improved testing, treatments, and vaccines make their way to the global population. With the emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants and mutations, however, it is more important than ever that testing …

Updated on Aug 21, 2023 Share

What is an mRNA Vaccine? Messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) is genetic material that acts as instructions for cells to develop proteins. An mRNA vaccine harnesses the productive capabilities of mRNA to build up immunities by subjecting the body to proteins that will be recognizable in the future if naturally exposed to a virus. How do mRNA Vaccines Work? While most vaccines contain a weakened or inactive infectious pathogen, mRNA vaccines …

Updated on Nov 29, 2023 Share

What Is Cell Clumping? When working with single-suspension cell cultures in a growth medium, it is not uncommon to experience cell loss in a sample. As cells are ruptured, they release DNA and debris that cause cells to aggregate into large clumps that make it difficult for them to expand. Cell clumping can both lead to and be caused by cell apoptosis, or cell death.  As more cells die and …

Updated on Jan 23, 2024 Share

Isolating Cell Cultures From a Medium The process of culturing cells involves the introduction of a host population to a growth medium, allowing the population to reproduce quickly in a nutrient-rich environment. After enough cells have spawned to satisfy the requirements of the intended experiment, those same cells need to be removed from the cell culture medium. The cells are intertwined within the substance in which they multiplied and need …

Updated on Aug 21, 2023 Share

Contamination in Cell Cultures Medical research is an ever-evolving field that continues to contribute to the advancement of human health. A key component of this type of research is the process of cell culturing, which involves the isolation and expansion of a cell population. The cell culture process begins with the extraction of a target sample. Once the desired cells have been acquired, they must be purified to minimize contamination. …

Updated on Nov 29, 2023 By Dominique Badea, PhD Share

T Cells are a critical component of the immune system. They play a pivotal role in the body’s defense against infections, cancer, and a variety of other diseases. To harness the full potential of these immune warriors, scientists have worked hard on perfecting the art of T cell culturing. Research and development of new immunotherapies requires robust techniques to purify and culture T cells. This article serves as a primer …

Updated on Aug 21, 2023 Share

T Cells and COVID-19 The body is naturally equipped with a variety of T lymphocytes that work together to fend off harmful pathogens. The human immune system routinely battles mild diseases with recognizable antigens. By attacking the source of a virus or bacteria, damage to healthy cells can be minimized. The T cell immune response to COVID-19 is different because it’s caused by an RNA virus (SARS-CoV-2). RNA viruses insert …

Updated on Aug 18, 2022 Share

“The resulting sample looked perfect after using microbubbles – very happy with the product.” Get an inside look into how products from Akadeum Life Sciences perform in real-world research that is happening in laboratories across the country. A research group at the University of California San Francisco recently used the Mouse B Cell Isolation Kit from Akadeum Life Sciences in the course of their research into understanding how autoreactive B …

Updated on Aug 21, 2023 Share

RNA-Sequencing Medical advancements have provided researchers with strategies that change the way in which we understand biology. Scientists are now capable of studying coded protein patterns at a genomic level. RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) is the process of detecting and analyzing the messenger RNA (mRNA) of a cell type. The range of mRNA molecules present in an organism is also known as the transcriptome. Identifying a biological transcriptome can give a better …