Keeping an Eye on Monkeypox

While we are coming to the realization that COVID is going to continue to be with us, we are now experiencing a monkeypox outbreak. Monkeypox is a viral-based infectious disease that infects several species of mammals. A recent Nature article provides an overview of the unique characteristics of this current outbreak. Treatments and vaccines for monkeypox are available (although not readily or widely as of yet), so we expect this should prevent monkeypox from affecting the global population like COVID-19. Kerafast does offer antibodies to both monkeypox and orthopox for scientists researching this disease. Read more on our blog!

BioNTech Cites Kerafast COVID Reagents

BioNTech, developers of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine, has been using Kerafast’s VSV reagents in their research since the start of the pandemic. Today, we are still seeing their publications citing our VSV reagents. Recently their article in Science Immunology looked at Omicron breakthrough infections, citing our VSV-G antibody. We are excited to see their continued research, as we were recognized in 2021 for our support in developing their COVID-19 vaccine. They have also previously used our Delta-G-VSV Pseudotyping System for SARS-CoV-2 research as it enables studies of COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness at just BSL-2 containment.

News from our Sister Company, Absolute Antibody

It’s been an exciting quarter for our sister company, Absolute Antibody. We recently saw them featured on the “World’s Greatest!...” television show for their recombinant antibody technology! You are now able to watch the segment online here. Additionally, our colleagues launched a few new downloadable resources, showing the growth of their antibody humanization service and expression platform. The Prometheus™ 2.0 poster describes humanization from non-murine origin species, while the CHO application note details the development and characterization of a new transient CHO expression platform for recombinant antibody production. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.

New Provider Research Published

New research from our provider, Dr. Ravindra Uppaluri, looks at checkpoint blockade-induced CD8+ T cell differentiation in head and neck cancer responders. This article was published in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer. Dr. Uppaluri provides Mouse Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cell Lines in our reagents catalog; MOC1 was used in this research study. If you are also a Kerafast provider who has recently published research, let us know! We would love to feature your research.

Featured Lab

Robert M. Strongin, PhD, Portland State University

Research in the Strongin laboratory focuses on designing, synthesizing and evaluating novel sensors. Their contributions include powerful new techniques for the visual detection of several biologically important molecules such as saccharides, amino acids, ribonucleotides, phospholipids, etc. Recently, they have discovered a versatile new method for the visual sensing of saccharides via the formation of characteristically color complexes with artificial receptors. Their products in our catalog include Large Stokes-Shift NIR Dyes and other detection agents