PerkinElmer, Inc., a biotechnology company, on 25 December last year has launched a new range of assay kits utilizing AlphaLISA technology for improving the safety testing, manufacturing and quality control of biotherapeutic drugs.

"PerkinElmer is continuously seeking new ways to improve human health through the development of innovative technologies," said its President - Kevin Hrusovsky. "Adverse reactions due to drug toxicity are a real issue that we are passionate about helping to minimize. We are very excited to enable our customers to improve the safety and efficacy of new biotherapeutic drugs being developed through our new assay kits which are the latest addition to our growing biotherapeutics portfolio."

This kits use the AlphaLISA technology of PerkinElmer's  to achieve higher quality results than the comparable ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) technology in half the time, for accelerating the drug discovery process, the company said.

AlphaLISA technology also has a protocol with fewer assay steps compared to standard ELISA, resulting in better inter-assay and intra-assay precision, improved coefficient of variations (CVs), and easier method transfer to downstream departments due to variability reduction.

Pina Fratamico is on the way to find the easiest and fastest way to test for harmfulEscherichia coli in ground beef. She explores using a next-generation real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) system to discover specific gene targets that indicate the presence of dangerous foodborne pathogens. The results show that assays performed using this PCR system are rapid, sensitive, and reliable.

"Testing using these types of systems is faster, easier, and more reproducible than previous methods, and this should increase food safety in the long run. I feel that we could confidently move to these new systems for screening ground beef and other foods for E. coli contamination," says Fratamico, researcher at the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania.

Certain strains produce a potentially dangerous toxin called Shiga toxin, but not all E. coli are dangerous. These Shiga toxin-producing E. coli also known as STEC can be found in raw meat and cause serious food poisoning in humans. According the FSIS - Food Safety and Inspection Service website, in October 2012 over, 2,300 pounds of ground beef were recalled due to contamination with STEC.

"Certain groups of STEC have been declared as adulterants by the USDA FSIS, and the availability of rapid and reliable tests for these pathogens is critical so that testing results are available before meat is shipped to restaurants and consumers," she explains.

In the meat industry the PCR protocol has already been used for some time. The genetic test detects the presence of specific gene targets that indicate the existence of STEC in meat. The new generation of real-time PCR systems, like the GeneDisc from France used in this particular study, employ a self-contained unit that standardizes the procedure and tend to be relatively portable and easy to use - offering obvious advantages for both meat processors and inspectors from the industry and government alike.

Immunomedics, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company primarily focused on the development of monoclonal antibody-based products for the targeted treatment of cancer, autoimmune and other serious diseases. On 21 of December they announced that it has received notice that their patent application for "Anti-CD19 antibodies," will issue as US patent No. 8,337,840 really soon. The claims, allowed under the patent cover the use of specific humanized anti-CD19 monoclonal antibodies and fragments thereof for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. The fragments and antibodies thereof can be used alone, conjugated to at least one therapeutic agent or in combination with other humanized, chimeric, human or murine monoclonal antibodies, such as antibodies reactive with CD20, CD22, CD74 or HLA-DR. The patent, which provides coverage until 2024, also protects (19)-3s, a novel T-cell redirecting agent made as a DOCK-AND-LOCK™ (DNL™) complex using the Company's patented platform technology. The DNL™ complex recognizes CD19 on B cells and binds to CD3 on T cells. At last year's Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), (19)-3s was reported to bind to T cells and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) cells simultaneously, and induce T-cell-mediated killing of NHL cells at less than 1 picomolar (pM) concentrations in an ex vivo setting, with maximal activity at 10 pM.