The CaT stretcher: An open-source system for delivering uniaxial strain to cells and tissues (CaT).

Integration of mechanical cues in conventional 2D or 3D cell culture platforms is an important consideration for and models of lung health and disease. Available commercial and published custom-made devices are frequently limited in breadth of applications, scalability, and customization. Herein we present a technical report on an open-source, cell and tissue (CaT) stretcher, with modularity for different and systems, that includes the following features: 1) Programmability for modeling different breathing patterns, 2) scalability to support low to high-throughput experimentation, and 3) modularity for submerged cell culture, organ-on-chips, hydrogels, and live tissues.

Sedimentary legacy and the disturbing recurrence of the human in long-term ecological research.

Even as new elements of a research infrastructure are added, older parts continue to exert persistent and consequential influence. We introduce the concept of sedimentary legacy to describe the relationship between infrastructure and research objects. Contrary to common accounts of legacy infrastructure that underscore lock-in, static, or constraining outcomes, sedimentary legacy emphasizes how researchers adapt infrastructure to support the investigation of new research objects, even while operating under constraining legacies.

Toward Rapid Aspartic Acid Isomer Localization in Therapeutic Peptides Using Cyclic Ion Mobility Mass Spectrometry.

There is an increasing emphasis on the critical evaluation of interbatch purity and physical stability of therapeutic peptides. This is due to concerns over the impact that product- and process-related impurities may have on safety and efficacy of this class of drug. Aspartic acid isomerization to isoaspartic acid is a common isobaric impurity that can be very difficult to identify without first synthesizing isoAsp peptide standards for comparison by chromatography.

High-throughput multiplex analysis of mAb aggregates and charge variants by automated two-dimensional size exclusion-cation exchange chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry.

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are extremely complex due to the presence of structural modifications resulting from enzymatic and chemical reactions such as glycosylation, glycation, deamidation, isomerisation, oxidation, aggregation and fragmentation. Size and charge variants analysis are carried out from the early stages of drug development throughout product lifetime to investigate product degradation pathways and optimise process conditions. However, conventional analytical workstreams for size and charge variant characterization are both time and sample demanding, requiring the application of multiple analytical methods.

Suitability of transiently expressed antibodies for clinical studies: product quality consistency at different production scales.

Transgenic human monoclonal antibodies derived from humanized mice against different epitopes of the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and chimeric llama-human bispecific heavy chain-only antibodies targeting the Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV), were produced using a CHO-based transient expression system. Two lead candidates were assessed for each model virus before selecting and progressing one lead molecule. MERS-7.