A long-acting prolactin to combat lactation insufficiency.

Human infants are born to breastfeed. While 50% of lactating persons struggle to make enough milk, there are no governmentally-approved drugs to enhance lactation. Here, we engineer a variant of the naturally-occurring driver of lactation, the hormone Prolactin, to increase its serum half-life and produce a viable drug candidate.

Rational engineering of an erythropoietin fusion protein to treat hypoxia.

Erythropoietin enhances oxygen delivery and reduces hypoxia-induced cell death, but its pro-thrombotic activity is problematic for use of erythropoietin in treating hypoxia. We constructed a fusion protein that stimulates red blood cell production and neuroprotection without triggering platelet production, a marker for thrombosis. The protein consists of an anti-glycophorin A nanobody and an erythropoietin mutant (L108A).

Design of peptide nucleic acid probes on plasmonic gold nanorods for detection of circulating tumor DNA point mutations.

Here we present a gold nanorod-based platform for the sequence-specific detection of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) point mutations without the need for amplification or fluorescence labeling. Peptide nucleic acid probes complimentary to the G12V mutation in the KRAS gene were conjugated to gold nanorods, and the localized surface plasmon resonance absorbance through the sample was measured after exposure to synthetic ctDNA at various concentrations. Each step of the reaction was thoroughly controlled, starting from reagent concentrations and including conjugation, sonication, and incubation time.

Liquid biopsy on chip: a paradigm shift towards the understanding of cancer metastasis.

This comprehensive review serves as a guide for developing scalable and robust liquid biopsies on chip for capture, detection, and analysis of circulating tumor cells (CTCs). Liquid biopsy, the detection of biomarkers from body fluids, has proven challenging because of CTC rarity and the heterogeneity of CTCs shed from tumors. The review starts with the underlying biological mechanisms that make liquid biopsy a challenge before moving into an evaluation of current technological progress.