Sponsored Content by PittconJan 12 2023
Bioanalytics determines the concentration of medications, their metabolites, and pharmacodynamic markers in biological fluids. In short, biomedicine improves health.
Image Credit:Shutterstock/DanRace
Biomedical researchers study how the body works, how diseases spread, and how to treat or prevent illness, and it is down to the experts to perform lab and scientific testing to identify and treat ailments. Operating rooms, A&E, and other hospital departments simply would not be able to function without biomedical scientists. Bioanalysis is essential for diagnosing and prognosticating cancer, choosing the appropriate treatment, and tracking its performance.
Vaccine development is one of the fastest-growing pharmaceutical and biotech businesses. Ebola, malaria, HIV, and COVID-19’s disastrous consequences on world health have drawn substantial social attention to vaccinations, and new generations are being studied to develop cures for illnesses with no viable alternatives. With the current COVID-19 pandemic and other outbreaks, Bioanalytics and Life Sciences has become one of the key tracks of Pittcon, with everything from instrumentation, methodologies, and process development for measuring biological molecules and medicines and their metabolites in biological systems being discussed.
RNA
Similar to DNA, RNA is a nucleic acid with only a single helical strand of bases and has an important part to play in establishing functional proteins from DNA instructions.
RNA-based vaccine development is the most promising technology for generating safe and effective prophylactic and therapeutic vaccinations. Using messenger RNA (mRNA) as an immunogenic provides numerous advantages over other platforms, including lower costs, no cell cultures, and the flexibility to combine many targets. Two of the four most widely used COVID-19 vaccines are, in fact, based on mRNA.
mRNA
An mRNA vaccine’s delivery mechanism includes a viral outer membrane protein. (People who get an mRNA immunization are not exposed to the virus and cannot catch it through the vaccine.) mRNA helps cells make viral proteins. The immune system recognizes foreign proteins and generates antibodies in a typical immunological reaction. Antibodies help the body fight infection by detecting and sticking to certain germs. Antibodies linger in the body long after the virus is gone, so the immune system can quickly react if exposed again. Antibodies can quickly identify a virus, attach to it, and designate it for death if a person has received an mRNA vaccination for it.
Genome Editing
CRISPR genome editing can delete DNA (to fix mutations) or create new DNA. CRISPR allows scientists to edit the genetic material of living species, similar to how programmers add or remove HTML code. It targets DNA letter sequences, such as genes, and can be used to create GMOs or treat disease-causing mutations. This strategy was taken from a natural defense mechanism that allows a cell to recall an invader by inserting virus DNA near CRISPR regions in a bacterium’s genome.
Misconceptions Concerning RNA and How These Were Disproven
-
COVID-19 uses brand-new messenger RNA technology
Researchers have spent over twenty years researching the mRNA technology behind the coronavirus vaccines. Vaccine makers developed the technology to respond quickly to pandemics like COVID-19. Despite the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines being the first COVID-19 mRNA vaccines to be licensed, the technology has been around for a long time.
Human investigations of mRNA-based cancer vaccines began in 2011. Therefore, if there were any issues with the technology, we would have known about it before now.
Now that the clinical trials have proven to be a success, mRNA platforms will become a crucial part of helping avert future epidemics, and, as a result, the technology can be adopted fast.
- The mRNA vaccination modifies DNA
Some fear mRNA vaccines will affect DNA. Science refutes this claim. mRNA vaccines help your immune system fight coronavirus. Two early COVID-19 vaccines produce messenger RNA but not DNA-containing cell nuclei. mRNA induces the cell to make protein to activate the immune system, then degrades without harming DNA. Once injected, mRNA breaks down quickly and only remains in the body for a few days.
- Researchers hurried COVID-19 vaccine clinical testing and licensing. Therefore, its effectiveness and safety are questionable.
Animal trials are the first step in vaccine approval, followed by Phase 1, Phase 2, and Phase 3 human trials. Over 40,000 persons participated in Pfizer/BioNTech’s Phase 3 vaccination trial, and most vaccine safety risks tended to occur within two months.
After a vaccine is given to millions of people, rare side effects that cannot be predicted from clinical research may appear, and this was particularly important for the cutting-edge COVID-19 vaccines that we now see.
Regulatory organizations examined the data from COVID-19 vaccine studies much quicker than and on a continuous basis rather than after the trials ended, but it is important to note that they did not change their regulations at all.
As researchers had already created an mRNA platform for cancer and other vaccinations, the procedure moved faster than usual. Thus, businesses and governments were able to mass-produce immunizations before initial testing was complete, allowing them to commence human trials as soon as the results were in.
- COVID-19 is spread through vaccination.
COVID-19 vaccination cannot cause infection. The two approved mRNA vaccines guide your cells to produce the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus protein, which helps your body identify and fight the virus. COVID-19 cannot be contracted from the COVID-19 immunization, which excludes SARS-Co-2. The protein that helps your immune system recognize and fight the virus causes no illness.
- mRNA vaccines lack precision.
Distinct sections of SARS-CoV-2 prompt the immune system to develop different antibodies to neutralize it. Unvaccinated people who get the virus generate antibodies that prevent cell infection.
When it comes to more targeted mRNA vaccines, only the virus’s spike protein, which permits it to enter cells, causes an immune response, and researchers are making sure the vaccine does not cause an unexpected immunological reaction. COVID-19 immunizations have not shown unexpected immunological reactions.
- mRNA vaccinations cause adverse effects.
The vaccination triggers the immune system by generating local inflammation, causing many patients to report pain at the injection site, as well as invoking fever and discomfort for one or two days after immunization.
On the first day of mass vaccination in the UK, the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine provoked an adverse reaction in two patients with severe sensitivities. According to recent UK recommendations, anyone with anaphylaxis to medication or food should not get the shot. Nonetheless, in clinical trials, only 0.63 percent of vaccine recipients and 0.5 percent of placebo recipients had allergic responses.
Rare RNA States: Charged Bases and Tautomers
Overview
SARS-CoV2, mRNA vaccines, and CRISPR genome editing all use RNA as a target or tool. RNA may assume multiple three-dimensional folds, like proteins, and only has four identical neutral side chains; hence its role is limited. Recent findings reveal that RNA bases can assume charged and tautomeric states that affect folding, small molecule binding, and catalysis. This symposium will explore RNA chemistry and strategies to detect it. Genomics, biochemistry, synthesis, spectroscopy, and theory will be discussed.
Organizer – Philip Bevilacqua – Pennsylvania State University
Penn State’s RNA Molecular Biology Center co-founder Philip Bevilacqua’s research has been acknowledged with an NSF CAREER Award, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship, Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar, AAAS Elected Fellow, and Penn State Faculty Scholar Medal. He has also written 180 publications.
Advancing Glycobiology Through Mass Spectrometry
Protein glycosylation creates structural and functional variations of a single protein. These variations interact differently to influence viral entrance, cell-cell interactions, and cancer resistance. Mass spectrometry is essential for studying protein glycosylation. Current techniques and lingering obstacles are discussed.
Other Pittcon Talks:
Emerging Technologies for Rapid Infectious Disease Detection
Capillary-Flow Microfluidic Devices for Rapid Infectious Disease Detection
Hand-held devices for multiplexed detection of mosquito-borne and airborne viruses
Infectious diseases like COVID-19 threaten world health. Conventional diagnostic approaches struggle to quickly, accurately, specifically, inexpensively, and non-invasively diagnose many disorders, especially at the point of care. Microfluidic lab-on-a-chip, wearable devices, nano-biosensing, bar-chart detection, thermometer-based detection, etc., have been developed to address this difficulty in recent decades. This symposium will highlight recent breakthroughs in developing technologies for rapid pathogen detection, with an emphasis on point-of-care diagnosis of emerging infectious illnesses. Rapid infectious disease detection, fascinating research issues, and influential specialists should attract a large audience.
Conclusion
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic and other outbreaks, bioanalytics and life sciences are a significant part of the program at Pittcon. Instruments, methods, and processes for measuring biological molecules, medications, and their metabolites in biological systems will be discussed.
Pittcon’s Conference programs provide access to the latest research and advances from leading scientists and innovators worldwide, such as Bruker, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and Azer Scientific.
Pittcon is an international conference and exposition with a focus on laboratory science. It is also regarded as a venue for presenting analytical research and scientific apparatus and a platform for continuing education and science-enhancing opportunities. Pittcon is for scientists that develop, purchase, or sell lab equipment, do physical or chemical studies, or develop analysis methods.
Pittcon welcomes analytical chemists of all levels and is a place to share and develop ideas. Here you will find the spark that propels your research, career, and scientific outlook. Find out more about Pittcon, the technical program, or the conference sessions.
About Pittcon
Pittcon® is a registered trademark of The Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy, a Pennsylvania non-profit organization. Co-sponsored by the Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh and the Society for Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh, Pittcon is the premier annual conference and exposition on laboratory science.
Proceeds from Pittcon fund science education and outreach at all levels, kindergarten through adult. Pittcon donates more than a million dollars a year to provide financial and administrative support for various science outreach activities including science equipment grants, research grants, scholarships and internships for students, awards to teachers and professors, and grants to public science centers, libraries and museums.
Visit pittcon.org for more information.
Sponsored Content Policy: News-Medical.net publishes articles and related content that may be derived from sources where we have existing commercial relationships, provided such content adds value to the core editorial ethos of News-Medical.Net which is to educate and inform site visitors interested in medical research, science, medical devices and treatments.