CAT-ECRN seminar

Join us on Teams from 4-5pm, Thursday 23^rd February to hear two fantastic talks from researchers at Thermo Fisher Scientific. The first, presented by Jennifer McCormack, will focus on using Digital PCR as a technique for absolute quantification of DNA compared to qPCR, a. Secondly, Dr Leticia Montoya will be presenting on new methods to study the specific killing of target cells by immune cells, critical to help accurately assess the in vivo behavior of these approved biotherapeutics and cell therapies. 

Advancing nucleic acid detection and quantification using Digital PCR - Jennifer McCormack

Digital PCR is a specialized approach to nucleic acid detection and quantification that estimates absolute numbers of molecules through statistical methods. Digital PCR (dPCR) uses the same fundamental chemistry as qPCR, but unlike qPCR data, dPCR data are collected at the endpoint of the reaction mix. This technology offers an alternative to qPCR for absolute quantification and rare allele detection rather than relying on the number of amplification cycles to determine the initial amount of template nucleic acid in each sample.

Development of in vitro immune effector function assays for research to better approximate the in vivo behavior of biotherapeutics and cell therapies - Dr Leticia Montoya

With continued growth in development and approval of biologic drugs and cell therapies comes a need for more robust and reliable cell-based assays and analysis systems to develop accurate research data regarding the in vivo behavior of these approved biotherapeutics and cell therapies. Here we describe methods to assess the specific killing of target cells by NK and T cells, and antibody-dependent cellular phagocytosis (ADCP). These methods are demonstrated with single-cell analysis models compatible with image-assisted flow cytometry and image-based analysis.