One story embedded in One Thousand and One Nights is the story of Aladdin. A poor boy, that one day outsmarts the evil sorcerer and get hold of the magic lamp. Inside the lamp lives the genie, who will grant him all his wishes.
Now, if you were an antibody, what would your wishes be?
- To be chemically synthesized instead of produced in cells.
- To be capable of being PCR amplified.
- To be small enough to undergo allosteric shifts when binding to a target.
Three pretty simple wishes, that I bet have occurred to almost everyone that works with antibodies. Of course, you know where I am going with this, for these reasons antibodies really wish they were aptamers.
Chemical synthesis means reliable production from lot to lot. This also means that no animals are involved or sacrificed during the process. Also, the ability to be synthesized removes the need for production schedules. This allows just in time inventory.
PCR amplifiability allows for highly sensitive detection. Once a target binds to a detection aptamer, If the amount of detection aptamer could be quantified in a qPCR assay, this would be the method of choice for all diagnostic assays for everything. This is the basis for next generation proteomics, translating information from protein abundance to DNA code. (see NVB Europe for more on this).
Smaller size enables change or displacement of structures upon binding to targets. This is the basis of fluorescent switch and electrochemistry applications. Fluorescent switch platforms are the assay of choice for high throughput analysis in bioproduction. There is no need to immobilize targets or ligands, results are rapid and sensitive. Electrochemistry is the future for point of care applications (POC). This will be enabled with the cost-effective production of consistent gold surfaces, bringing this promising technology to commercial reality.
If you asked an aptamer what it wished for, what would it answer?
It will only want to be a Neomer, so it could enjoy all the perks of being an aptamer plus the specificity of an antibody.
Neomers:a new aptamer selection method developed by NeoVentures
El Dr. Gregory Penner recibió una formación académica que combinaba teoría muy práctica de mejoramiento de plantas con biología molecular. Ha utilizado esta combinación de biología y matemáticas para desarrollar y liderar primero un equipo de investigación en biotecnología de cereales con el gobierno de Canadá y posteriormente como líder de investigación global en Monsanto Inc. Ha sido un líder de pensamiento en el desarrollo de aptámeros a nivel mundial durante los últimos veinte años como CEO y Presidente de NeoVentures. Ha llevado a esta empresa a una estabilidad financiera sin inversión externa con un enfoque integrado en el descubrimiento y comercialización de aptámeros. En 2015, cofundó una segunda empresa, NeoNeuro en París, Francia, centrada en un enfoque innovador para identificar Aptamarcadores para enfermedades complejas.
Conéctate con el Dr. Penner en LinkedIn Para actualizaciones de la compañía, sigue: NeoVentures.
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