The pharmaceutical industry has had to resort to rather inefficient, environmentally harmful chemical synthesis routes for the production of the active ingredient levetiracetam, a drug which is used to treat epilepsy. A consortium led by acib has now developed a chemoenzymatic manufacturing route that promises twice the yield of current production methods while being environmentally friendly. The production method could be ready for industrial use in a year’s time.

Gut ein Jahr nach dem Ausbruch der Coronavirus-Pandemie ist sie den meisten Menschen ein Begriff: die Polymerase-Kettenreaktion, kurz PCR (englisch: polymerase chain reaction). Sie ist im Moment eines der verlässlichsten Werkzeuge, um eine Coronavirusinfektion nachzuweisen. Was passiert bei der PCR und warum ist sie soviel genauer als ein Antigentest?

Like any virus, SARS-CoV-2 is constantly changing. A wide variety of mutations are the result, to which vaccine manufacturers have so far only been able to react retroactively. Researchers from Graz, Austria have succeeded in using modern AI-based screening methods and virtual scenarios to study and predict the relevance of existing, but also future corona virus variants. This will allow vaccine manufacturers to optimize existing vaccines more quickly to make them effective against a wide range of mutations and to to gain earlier control over epidemics.

Squalene acts as a booster for potential vaccines against SARS-CoV-2. However, the richest squalene source, shark liver, can and should not be exploited further. acib offers a solution: Yeast cell factories can be designed via biotechnological tools to produce high amounts of squalene.

Globally, the search for potential drugs and vaccines is proceeding rapidly. A collaborative acib-research project focuses on the identification, evaluation and pre-clinical testing of a certain group of active ingredients, combining faster availability with high effectiveness. These so-called antiviral drugs have been used in the fights against HIV, MERS and SARS. They can inhibit the multiplication rates of enzymes or prevent virus particles from invading lung cells and consequently avert  possible infections. This makes them effective tools in the fight against COVID-19.

Some magnetic materials are able to absorb electro-magnetic waves and transform them into heat. But how do they do it? And is there a single mechanism or an optimum frequency for this process? To answer these and other fundamental questions of magnetic heating, first some introductory concepts must be clarified related to the magnetic response of the materials to a magnetic field.

Contactless magnetic heating may sound scary, but it is part of your daily life experience. Every time you heat-up your morning coffee mocha with an induction cooker, you are using magnetic fields and magnetic materials. But can this kind of heating also be used to solve high-tech problems? This is the question that scientists are trying to answer in the H2020-FETOPEN project HOTZYMES.

Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has turned the whole world upside down. After weeks of curfew to relieve the national health care systems, the economic impact becomes more and more perceptible: We are facing a substantial crisis. The only way out of this misery is finding a) an effective drug for the treatment of COVID-19 or b) a safe vaccine, which prevents us from a Coronavirus infection.

It is still winter outside, and some may wish warmer temperatures to come soon. While humans sometimes need warmth to get going, cold-inducible promoters from Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells turned out to be interesting tools for the production of biopharmaceuticals at low temperatures.

Automation is the future of numerous processes – not only in our everyday life but also in more specialized areas such as bioprocessing. Researchers are eager to find solutions in order to replace routine steps by automated process sections. This gives them the opportunity to spend the gained time on more meaningful things: thinking about new innovations!