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Biotech January 21, 2020

At NSUH, a cell of the century in the Don Monti unit

By GREGORY ZELLER // That light at the end of the tunnel comes from the Northwell Health Cancer Institute, which provided hope – and bona fide bone marrowy health improvements – to a record number of patients last year. As 2019 ticked down, staffers of the NHCI’s Don Monti Adult Stem Cell Transplant Program gathered inside North Shore University Hospital to recognize what Ruthee Lu-Bayer, chief of the Don Monti Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit, called “a…

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Biotech July 9, 2019

For secure signatures, DNA is mightier than the sword

By GREGORY ZELLER // One of Long Island’s busiest biotechs has (literally) inked an exclusive security deal with a leading global penmaker. Stony Brook-based Applied DNA Sciences this week announced a five-year agreement with German manufacturer Montblanc-Simplo GMHB, master of not only “luxury writing instruments,” according to the Hamburg-based company’s website, but a wide range of watches, jewelry, eyewear, leather goods and other personal (and personalized) products. Pens, however, will be the focus of the…

Biotech June 17, 2019

With synthetic opioids lurking, DNA detector scores

By GREGORY ZELLER // With synthetic opioids increasingly implicated in the alarming number of drug-overdose deaths plaguing the nation, a stalwart Long Island biotech’s DNA-based tracking technology has received a major endorsement. The peer-reviewed scientific journal PLOS ONE has published a paper by Stony Brook-based Applied DNA Sciences on the molecular tagging of pharmaceuticals – a next-gen supply-chain authenticator that Applied DNA considers unforgeable, inescapable and particularly useful in a world where counterfeit drugs are…

Biotech April 17, 2019

Feinstein stimulates talk of an arthritis breakthrough

By GREGORY ZELLER // An encouraging new study out of the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research says noninvasive bioelectronic stimulation – administered through the outer ear – can effectively reduce symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. The potentially quantum leap for the treatment of RA and other inflammatory diseases was reported Tuesday in Bioelectronic Medicine, an open-access journal aggregating articles and data from across a dozen-plus basic and clinical disciplines, including biochemistry, neuroscience, bioengineering, artificial intelligence and…

Genetics April 15, 2019

Honey, I shrunk the shrew (and maybe your kidney)

By GREGORY ZELLER // Cutting-edge evolutionary science meets a Rick Moranis movie in an innovative international study of a surprisingly shrinkable furball. Freshly supported by a three-year grant from the international Human Frontier Science Program, Liliana Dávalos, a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution in Stony Brook University’s College of Arts and Sciences, will dive even deeper into the world of the shrew – a remarkable, mole-like mammal known to shrink its mass, including…

Biotech February 14, 2019

New licensing deal adds fresh buzz to joint venture

By GREGORY ZELLER // A partnership between a Stony Brook biotech and a Canadian pharmaceutical-solutions provider is growing like a weed. Less than a year since introducing the world’s first DNA-based cannabis-tagging system and just five months since they upgraded the system to accommodate large-scale growers, Applied DNA Sciences and Canadian/Panamanian cohort TheraCann International Benchmark Corp. have inked an exclusive licensing deal. The skinny: a long-term licensing agreement pairing Applied DNA’s proprietary CertainT supply chain…

Biotech February 4, 2019

Globetrotting Applied DNA has it made in Taiwan

By GREGORY ZELLER // Look out, Asia – here comes Applied DNA Sciences. Picking up where it left off at the end of a hyper-busy 2018 – in which it expanded its DNA-based supply-chain-authentication portfolio to include pharmaceuticals manufacturing in Pennsylvania, legalized marijuana distribution in Canada and a host of other supply chains in domestic and international markets – the Stony Brook-based biotech is sending its product-traceability solutions deep into to “the heart of Asia’s…