A method of identifying a potential therapeutic compound that affects a Receptor Tyrosine Kinase (RTK) pathway in cancer cells, which includes: providing a device capable of measuring cell-substrate impedance; culturing cancer cells in serum-free media in at least two wells of the device; adding to a first well a proposed therapeutic compound that affects a RTK pathway and a RTK stimulating factor for the RTK pathway to form a test well, and adding to another well the RTK stimulating factor to form a control well; continuously monitoring cell-substrate impedance of the at least two wells and optionally determining cell indices from the monitored cell-substrate impedance; and determining a difference in impedance or optionally cell index between the test well and control well; and if significantly different, concluding the proposed therapeutic compound is therapeutically active in the RTK pathway within the cancer cells.

A sphere-like cell aggregate according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises: a core part containing neural retina; and a covering part continuously or discontinuously covering at least a portion of a surface of the core part.

Provided herein are Si-based materials, methods of making the Si-based materials, and methods for using the Si-based materials. In embodiments, a silicon-based material comprises an aggregate of particles, the particles comprising an ordered array of nanostructures, the nanostructures comprising amorphous silicon, wherein at least some pairs of adjacent nanostructures are connected by one or more bridges comprising amorphous silicon, the one or more bridges extending from the surface of one nanostructure of the pair to the surface of the other nanostructure in the pair.

The present invention relates to cell-based methods for determining the biological activity of defibrotide. In particular, the invention provides a method for assessing the potency of defibrotide by assessing the viability of mammalian cells in the presence of at least one cytotoxic agent and one or more concentrations of defibrotide. Such methods are particularly useful for standardizing pharmaceutical compositions comprising defibrotide.

Methods of determining whether a toxicant is present in a cosmetic product, which comprise contacting a teleost embryo with a sample of the cosmetic product or an extract from a sample of the cosmetic product and determining whether the sample or the extract from the sample exerts a toxicity effect on the embryo.

The disclosure relates to the fabrication of a three dimensional [3-D] cell culture membrane comprising one or more functionalized surfaces adapted to provide cell culture conditions suitable for the analysis of proliferation, differentiation or function of cells, typically eukaryotic or prokaryotic cells.

Provided herein are methods and articles of manufacture for use with cell therapy for the treatment of diseases or conditions, e.g., cancer, including for predicting and treating a toxicity. In some embodiments, the toxicity is related to cytokine release syndrome (CRS). The methods generally involve assessing a change in a factor indicative of tumor burden in a subject that is associated with and/or correlate to a risk of developing toxicity. In some aspects, the methods can be used to determine if the subject is at risk or likely at risk for developing a toxicity following administration of the cell therapy. Also provided are methods for treating a subject having a disease or condition, in some cases involving administration of the cell therapy, based on assessment of risk of developing a toxicity following administration of the therapy. Also provided herein are reagents and kits for performing the methods.

The invention relates to a method of identifying stereodefined phosphorothioate oligonucleotide variants with reduced toxicity by creating and screening libraries of stereodefined chiral phosphorothioate variants for compounds with reduced toxicity, either in vitro or in vivo.

Disclosed are yeast expression constructs encoding a polypeptide containing a signal sequence, a Golgi-directing pro sequence, and a human amyloid beta protein, and mammalian expression constructs encoding a polypeptide containing a selected signal sequence and a human amyloid beta protein. Also disclosed are methods of screening cells to identify compounds that prevent or suppress amyloid beta-induced toxicity and genetic suppressors or enhancers of amyloid beta-induced toxicity. Compounds identified by such screens can be used to treat or prevent neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease.

The present specification discloses SNAP-25 compositions, methods of making α-SNAP-25 antibodies that bind an epitope comprising a carboxyl-terminus at the P.sub.1 residue from the BoNT/A cleavage site scissile bond from a SNAP-25 cleavage product, α-SNAP-25 antibodies that bind an epitope comprising a carboxyl-terminus at the P.sub.1 residue from the BoNT/A cleavage site scissile bond from a SNAP-25 cleavage product, methods of detecting BoNT/A activity, and methods of detecting neutralizing α-BoNT/A antibodies.