Blog

Bio-Techne was pleased to sponsor the 8th Annual Cancer Research Symposium, hosted by the Masonic Cancer Center at the University of Minnesota. This one-day conference featured exciting talks by luminaries in the cancer research field. Students and post-doctoral fellows presented the latest in their cancer research. 

The keynote lecture "CAR T Cells for Cancer: The Next Generation" was given by Dr....

Bio-Techne Launches MimEX^™ GI for Accessible 3-D Cell Culturing of the Gastrointestinal Tract

Bio-Techne is proud to announce the release of MimEX GI, a 3-D cell culturing platform for the generation of gastrointestinal tissue.

Human Ascending Colon Tissue Generated Using MimEX GI Reagents and Media.

This new product line utilizes the unique...

Join our panel of experts Jean Stanton (J&J), John Tomtishen (Novartis), Dr. Sadik Kassim (Mustang Bio), and Dr. Diane Wotta (Bio-Techne) as they discuss: what GMP really means in the context of raw materials and ancillary reagents; the quality of raw materials required along the commercialization pathway; when to start using GMP materials; and the current regulatory landscape.

Learn more about R&D Systems GMP Proteins

In this webinar, Professor Bruce Walcheck discusses current approaches to augment antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) by Natural Killer (NK) cells as therapies to treat cancer. This webinar also includes exciting research from his lab focused on generating enhanced versions of CD16A, an Fc receptor expressed by NK cells that recognizes tumor-targeting mAbs. Finally, his discussion covers the genetic manipulation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to derive NK cells engineered to express modified CD16A, and their potential for improving the efficacy of tumor-targeting therapeutic mAbs.

Key Topics:

• Current approaches using NK cells as therapies to treat cancer
• Augmenting ADCC using NK cells
• Genetic manipulation of iPSCs to derive engineered NK cells
• Generating enhanced...

The amyloid cascade hypothesis theorizes that the excessive accumulation of Amyloid beta (A-beta) peptides in the brain are the initiating factor for the development of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Specifically, that aggregates of A-beta peptides, which are formed following cleavage of the Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP), instigate a series of events that leads to neurodegeneration and, eventually, AD. This hypothesis arose from the observation that the plaques identified in brains afflicted with AD were composed largely of A-beta peptides, and was further supported by the finding that many AD risk and deterministic genes coded for proteins involved in the...

We have captured this month's most interesting, innovative, and maybe some of the strangest examples of stem cells in the news from around the world.

Bio-Techne is honored to receive the CiteAb Researchers’ Choice Award for 2018! The annual awards aim to celebrate the very best suppliers and individuals in the research reagent sector worldwide.

The award of Researchers’ Choice reflects what researchers’ really think about the companies they get a wide range of reagents from for their work. It was noted that Bio-Techne...

Mass cytometry, or CyTOF, is a variation of flow cytometry in which antibodies are labeled with heavy metal ion tags rather than fluorochromes. Readout is by time-of-flight mass spectrometry. This allows for the combination of many more antibodies (over 30) for phenotypic profiling and functional analysis of single cells, without significant overlap between channels. Mass cytometry has now been applied to various research areas including basic immunology, neuroscience, immuno-oncology, drug discovery, and stem cell research. While mass cytometry offers a powerful and highly multiplexed method for profiling single cells, there are various technical considerations for researchers wanting to perform a mass cytometry assay for the first time, or at a more advanced level. These steps include experimental planning, sample and reagent preparation,...

Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are a unique subset of CD4⁺ T cells with immunosuppressive properties. As a result, they are currently being investigated as a cellular therapeutic for the treatment of autoimmune diseases and long-term patient and graft survival following solid organ transplantation, and allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Studies in animal models suggest that the success of Treg cell therapy relies on the presence of a high number of Tregs in order to suppress the activities of effector T cells. Since the frequency of Tregs in the peripheral blood is low, Treg cell therapy typically requires that Tregs be isolated and expanded...

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common noncutaneous malignancy in men in the US. A significant fraction of advanced PCa treated with androgen deprivation therapy experience relentless progression to lethal metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). The PCa tumor microenvironment is comprised of a complex mixture of epithelial and stroma cell types engaged in multifaceted heterotypic interactions functioning to maintain tumor growth and immune evasion. We recently uncovered the important role played by myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) to mediate tumor immune evasion in aggressive PCa. Although, Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) has elicited durable therapeutic responses across a number of cancer types, its...

Bio-Techne Partners with Vector Laboratories To Provide Better Kits and Reagents for Immunostaining

Bio-Techne has announced a new offering of reagents and kits from Vector Laboratories, a leader in labeling and detection solutions. Beginning in October 2017, Bio-Techne began to distribute Vector Laboratories products to complement the over 40,000 primary antibodies from Novus Biologicals^® validated for immunocytochemistry and immunohistochemistry.

Vector...

Growth Differentiation Factor 15 (GDF-15) has long been recognized as a circulating biomarker for a range of human disorders, and elevated levels have been associated with suppression of appetite. The receptor for this affect was recently revealed in several publications to be GDNF receptor-alpha-like (GFRAL), a distant member of the GDNF R family of proteins (1-4). The full receptor complex is composed of both Ret tyrosine kinase and GFRAL dimers. This newly discovered role for GFRAL places it in a position to act as a drug target for appetite regulation and obesity. This is an exciting finding given the great impact obesity-related disorders have on...