Fabrication of electrospun ion exchanger adsorbents with morphologies designed for the separation of proteins and plasmid DNA.

Electrospun cellulose adsorbents are an emergent class of materials applied to a variety of bioprocess separations as an analogue to conventional packed bed chromatography. Electrospun adsorbents have proven to be effective as rapid cycling media, enabling high throughput separation of proteins and viral vectors without compromising selectivity and recovery. However, there is a current lack of knowledge in relation to the manipulation and control of electrospun adsorbent structure with function and performance to cater to the separation needs of emerging, diverse biological products.

Accelerating the open research agenda to solve global challenges.

Harnessing science-based policy is key to addressing global challenges like the biodiversity and climate crises. Open research principles underpin effective science-based policy, but the uptake of these principles is likely constrained by the politicisation, commoditisation and conflicting motives of stakeholders in the research landscape. Here, using the mission and vision statements from 129 stakeholders from across the research landscape, we explore alignment in open research principles between stakeholders.

Peptide ligands targeting the vesicular stomatitis virus G (VSV-G) protein for the affinity purification of lentivirus particles.

The recent uptick in the approval of ex vivo cell therapies highlights the relevance of lentivirus (LV) as an enabling viral vector of modern medicine. As labile biologics, however, LVs pose critical challenges to industrial biomanufacturing. In particular, LV purification-currently reliant on filtration and anion-exchange or size-exclusion chromatography-suffers from long process times and low yield of transducing particles, which translate into high waiting time and cost to patients.

Rational design and experimental evaluation of peptide ligands for the purification of adeno-associated viruses via affinity chromatography.

Adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) have acquired a central role in modern medicine as delivery agents for gene therapies targeting rare diseases. While new AAVs with improved tissue targeting, potency, and safety are being introduced, their biomanufacturing technology is lagging. In particular, the AAV purification pipeline hinges on protein ligands for the affinity-based capture step.

Evaluating 3D-printed bioseparation structures using multi-length scale tomography.

X-ray computed tomography was applied in imaging 3D-printed gyroids used for bioseparation in order to visualize and characterize structures from the entire geometry down to individual nanopores. Methacrylate prints were fabricated with feature sizes of 500 µm, 300 µm, and 200 µm, with the material phase exhibiting a porous substructure in all cases. Two X-ray scanners achieved pixel sizes from 5 µm to 16 nm to produce digital representations of samples across multiple length scales as the basis for geometric analysis and flow simulation.

Achieving a real-time online monitoring system for conservation culturomics.

Environmental monitoring is increasingly shifting toward a set of systems that describe changes in real time. In ecology specifically, a series of challenges have prevented the rollout of real-time monitoring for features such as biodiversity change or ecosystem service provision. Conservation culturomics, a field concerned with interactions between people and nature, is well placed to demonstrate how monitoring might move toward a network of real-time platforms, given its existence exclusively in the digital realm.

Characterizing the trophy hunting debate on Twitter.

Social media is an arena of debate for contentious political and social topics. One conservation topic debated online is the acceptability of trophy hunting, a debate that has implications for national and international policy. We used a mixed-methods approach (grounded theory and quantitative clustering) to identify themes in the trophy hunting debate on Twitter.

Socioeconomic factors predict population changes of large carnivores better than climate change or habitat loss.

Land-use and climate change have been linked to changes in wildlife populations, but the role of socioeconomic factors in driving declines, and promoting population recoveries, remains relatively unexplored. Here, we evaluate potential drivers of population changes observed in 50 species of some of the world's most charismatic and functionally important fauna-large mammalian carnivores. Our results reveal that human socioeconomic development is more associated with carnivore population declines than habitat loss or climate change.

Analysis of fouling and breakthrough of process related impurities during depth filtration using confocal microscopy.

Titer improvement has driven process intensification in mAb manufacture. However, this has come with the drawback of high cell densities and associated process related impurities such as cell debris, host cell protein (HCP), and DNA. This affects the capacity of depth filters and can lead to carryover of impurities to protein A chromatography leading to early resin fouling.

Liposome Sterile Filtration Characterization via X-ray Computed Tomography and Confocal Microscopy.

Two high resolution, 3D imaging techniques were applied to visualize and characterize sterilizing grade dual-layer filtration of liposomes, enabling membrane structure to be related with function and performance. Two polyethersulfone membranes with nominal retention ratings of 650 nm and 200 nm were used to filter liposomes of an average diameter of 143 nm and a polydispersity index of 0.1.

Associations between COVID-19 transmission rates, park use, and landscape structure.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had severe impacts on global public health. In England, social distancing measures and a nationwide lockdown were introduced to reduce the spread of the virus. Green space accessibility may have been particularly important during this lockdown, as it could have provided benefits for physical and mental wellbeing.

Analytical tools for monitoring changes in physical and chemical properties of chromatography resin upon reuse.

Protein A resins are often reused for multiple cycles to improve process economy during mAb purification. Significant reduction in binding capacity and product recovery are typically observed due to the presence of unwanted materials (foulants) deposited on the resin upon reuse. In this paper, we have used a wide spectrum of qualitative and quantitative analytical tools (particle size analysis, HPLC, fluorescence, SEM, MS, and FTIR) to compare the strengths and shortcomings of different analytical tools in terms of their capability to detect the fouling of the resin and relate it to chromatographic cycle performance.

An analysis of the frequency of Y-chromosome microdeletions and the determination of a threshold sperm concentration for genetic testing in infertile men.

Objective: To describe the prevalence of Y-chromosome microdeletions in a multi-ethnic urban population in London, UK. To also determine predictive factors and a clinical threshold for genetic testing in men with Y chromosome microdeletions.

Patients And Methods: A retrospective cohort study of 1473 men that were referred to a tertiary Andrology centre with male factor infertility between July 2004 and December 2016.