A glance around the walls of Barry J. Byrnes office reveals a lot about the pediatric cardiologist who runs thePowell Gene Therapy Center at University of Florida (UF).

In one corner is an unusual painting by 9-year-old Will Barkowsky of Jacksonville, Fla. Will, the first boy with Duchenne muscular dystrophy to takeSarepta Therapeutics exon-skipping medication Exondys 51 (eteplirsen), put together his oil-on-canvas masterpiece using the tire tracks of his wheelchair, making sure the colors didnt mix.

Nearby is a movie poster for The Ataxian an award-winning 2015 documentary by Kevin Schlanser and Zack Bennett about 17-year-old Kyle Bryant, who despite having Friedreichs ataxia embarks on a cross-country bicycle trip with three buddies.

Another movie poster advertises Extraordinary Measures, the 2010 tearjerker starring Brendan Fraser as John Crowley the father of two kids with Pompe disease and later, the founder of Amicus Therapeutics and Harrison Ford as fictional researcher Robert Stonehill, who discovers a treatment for the genetic disorder that eventually saves the lives of Crowleys children.

Theres also a model of a Blalock-Taussig shunt frequently used in congenital heart surgery, as well as one of an adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector, along with a prominent photo of Byrne with Ron Bartek, co-founder and director of the Friedreichs Ataxia Research Alliance (FARA).

Friedreichs ataxia is where were putting most of our efforts now, said Byrne, who spoke to BioNews Services publisher of this website at length during a recent visit to his lab in Gainesville, Fla.

Byrne, along with Jerry Mendell, MD, a neurologist with Nationwide Childrens Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, hosted a Nov. 20 webinar on gene therapy organized by the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) and the American Society for Gene & Cell Therapy.

The two experts were introduced by Katie Kowalski, senior program manager for NORDs Educational Initiatives. The webinar, Understanding the Gene Therapy Process and Aftercare, was the fourth in a five-part series underwritten by Amicus and Sarepta, as well as two other companies, Avrobio and Bluebird Bio.

The final webinar in the series, Life After Gene Therapy, is scheduled for Dec. 18.

Mendell, who heads Nationwides Center for Gene Therapy, specializes in gene therapy research for Duchenne as well as limb-girdle muscular dystrophy, spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and X-linked myotubular myopathy. He was a principal investigator for the Novartis therapy Zolgensma, which uses an AAV vector to carry a working version of SMN1, the mutated gene in people with SMA.

Zolgensma won approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in May 2019 as the first gene therapy to treat SMA in infants up to 2 years of age.

At $2.125 million per patient, the hour-long Zolgensma infusion is the most expensive medicine in history. The cost easily eclipses that of the only other FDA-approved treatment for SMA, BiogensSpinraza(nusinersen), which retails for $750,000 the first year and $375,000 every year after.

Many of my colleagues have been trying to make inroads for years, Mendell said. When we first got into the gene therapy domain, we were limited by technology. We could not make enough virus for the kind of impact were having now. But technology has improved, and we can now deliver genes through circulation to reach all muscles.

Regardless of the disease, he said, its extremely important to confirm the patients specific mutation before anything else.

This is critical, because you dont want to deliver the wrong kind of gene in a disease like Friedreichs ataxia. That goes for all gene therapy trials, he said. Next, we want to check for pre-existing antibodies, whether theyre acquired from the environment or from close contact. They bind to the AAV and block entry to the target organ.

Checking for those antibodies requires a blood test. It generally takes 4-7 days to return lab results a nailbiting time for patients and families, Mendell said, because theyre waiting to be approved for enrollment in the trial.

Byrne estimated that 50-60% of all individuals may have been exposed to AAV.

Prior exposure at any level to any AAV infection is an exclusion in most studies, he said, noting that people who travel frequently or who have respiratory or gastrointestinal conditions are particularly susceptible. We are learning a lot about what thresholds are effective. Its about 10% of newborns and about 50% of those of school age and adulthood.

Patients must also be in general good health except, of course, for the genetic disease being treated. MRI and blood tests are done to rule out diabetes or any evidence of heart, liver, or kidney problems.

We put the patient to sleep so theres really no pain involved, Mendell said. We also use local numbing medicine, even though the patient is asleep, so theres no pain or discomfort.

The Powell Gene Therapy Center was established in 1996 the year before Byrne joined UF by Nicholas Muzyczka, PhD, who performed groundbreaking work on AAVs in the 1980s. The center has a dozen individual labs working in neuroscience and molecular genetics.

Byrne said that because gene therapy fundamentally changes many of the bodys cells, screening is crucial.

This is often a one-way street, in that since the effects are long-lasting, other experimental studies may not accept patients who have received gene therapy of any kind in the past, Byrne said. One must have the clinical features required of the study and meet certain functional and age criteria.

To prepare for screening, patients or their parents must read the informed consent and understand what the risks and benefits are. Genetic counseling also may be required to determine whether a given mutation is amenable to gene therapy.

Baseline evaluations are done when its a muscular skeletal disease timed function tests as well as lab tests and a study schedule is established, he said. In many of our studies, we see the patients very frequently, almost every day for the first two weeks. They stay in the area for up to a month. Because were often dealing with rare populations, that makes it convenient for us to evaluate these patients.

Byrne noted that gene therapy is not necessarily durable for the lifespan of the patient. Because the delivered gene does not integrate into the cells own DNA, it is not passed down to newly formed cells.

Some cells, particularly in the liver and muscle, continue to grow throughout childhood and AAV doesnt integrate, so its progressively less effective unless the cells being targeted, as in SMA, are not dividing, he said. Thats an example where newborn screening is critically important to better outcomes.

Mendell said he generally starts patients on prednisone one day before receiving gene therapy in order to suppress liver inflammation, and keeps them on it for 60 days after.

When were in the room, the first thing that happens is the gene is delivered. You push a button and get started, he said. Obviously it must be the correct gene. Its in there, but you cant see it.

The actual gene is delivered by intravenous (IV) infusion with a pump over a 90-minute period, Mendell said; anything faster than that could potentially cause harmful side effects.

We put IVs in both arms for continuous delivery in case one side gets clogged up. We dont want anything to stop gene delivery, he said. Meanwhile, the patient is constantly monitored for vital signs. We invite the whole family to stay together, and thats reassuring. Theres anxiety about gene therapy, but the potential benefits generally outweigh any risks involved.

Some patients may develop nausea and vomiting in the first one-to-three weeks following treatment. For this reason, blood is taken every two weeks for three months to check for side effects.

Mendell said he knows patients are responding to gene therapy by doing testing. In the case of Duchenne, he uses the North Star Ambulatory Assessment, which includes 17 timed tests such as climbing stairs, rising from a sitting position, and walking or running 100 meters. In addition, neck control is a very good indicator of efficacy among Duchenne boys, he said.

The FDA anticipates that within the next 10 years, it will approve up to 40 gene therapies for rare conditions. Mendell said the benefits of gene therapy for one condition in particular, SMA, are undeniable.

This is an absolutely devastating disease. In type 1 SMA, patients usually dont survive past age 2, and about 50% are gone by age 1, he said. Initially there was concern about giving this to infants, but we told the FDA we needed to test infants in order to save lives.

Continuing results from Mendells pivotal Phase 1 trial (NCT02122952) in 15 type 1 infants and along-term extension study (NCT03421977) have changed the way people view gene therapys potential in general.

After four years, he said, every patient in our trial went from being unable to sit to being able to, and several are able to walk. One patient was treated 28 days after birth, and now four years later, hes off to school. What Barry and I do is very gratifying, and we thank our patients and their families for this opportunity.

Total Posts: 85

Ana holds a PhD in Immunology from the University of Lisbon and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Instituto de Medicina Molecular (iMM) in Lisbon, Portugal. She graduated with a BSc in Genetics from the University of Newcastle and received a Masters in Biomolecular Archaeology from the University of Manchester, England. After leaving the lab to pursue a career in Science Communication, she served as the Director of Science Communication at iMM.

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Experts Barry Byrne, Jerry Mendell Lead NORD Webinar on Gene Therapy - SMA News Today

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has created a lot of buzz over the years, but perhaps one of the biggest was when he admitted he only eats one meal per daywith longer breaks on the weekends (a practice known as intermittent fasting or OMAD), meditates twice per day, and uses a combination of sauna and ice baths at night (among other daily habits). The virality was swift, and fasting was even referred to as a Silicon Valley trend. It actually has another name, though, and that is biohacking. While tech guys certainly didnt invent biohacking, they have helped increase its visibility, leading a lot of people to wonder: What exactly is biohacking and should I be doing it?

Related: Everything You Need to Know About the Crazy-Sounding OMAD Diet Thats Trending Right Now

Oxford University Press defines biohacking in a shocking way: The activity of exploiting genetic material experimentally without regard to accepted ethical standards, or for criminal purposes. This harsh definition is hardly what Ive found in my research on the topic; while hacking and criminal are often synonymous in our minds, biohacking in its more extreme forms is hardly done with malicious intent (unless you think taking science and medicine out of the hands of big corporations with the hopes of making personal discoveries and breakthroughs is malicious).

Aside from that definition, there seem to be two camps on what biohacking exactly is. On the one hand you have the side that says biohacking is anything that changes the biology of your brain function. This includes many everyday pursuits such as nutrition, sleep habits and meditation (among others). However, there are others who believe biohacking is a deeper, more intentional do-it-yourself exploration of biology. Surprisingly, it doesnt always directly involve the body; for example, some biohackers seek to learn more about biology by engineering the genes in yeast.

Since the lines are blurry, were taking a look at both sides of biohacking and the science behind it. What you may find is that youve been biohacking your brain this whole time and didnt even know it.

You dont have to be in Silicon Valley using some never-heard-of technology and supplements to biohack your brain. Thats according to Karina Benameur, MD, an assistant professor in the Department of Neurology at Emory University, who teaches the open course Biohacking Your Brains Health and shares the view that biohacking can absolutely consists of really anything that enhances brain function.

A lot of people think biohacking is this high-tech thing, but it really doesnt have to be, she explains. Exercise is biohacking; nutrition is biohacking. What I go through in my course is how to biohack using things that are accessible to you in everyday life.

Benameurs main focus of study is nutrigenomics; specifically nutrition and its effect on neurological diseases. She notes that if you eat properly you can actually change the structure of your brain, making it a form of biohacking. In the same vein she specifically notes that meditation and exercise have been proven via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to have structural and functional changes in the brain.

Everything is interconnected; for you to change the structure of your brain, the nucleus of that neuron has to have expressed proteins to build more material for those areas to increase, Benameur explains. Anything that changes in the body has a correlate in the molecular genetic model; that is called epigenetic modification.

Thus lies the argument that biohacking is actually a broad process than just scientific experiments. For example, studies have been done that show aerobic activity has direct effects on the structure of the brain. Benameur notes that exercise increases certain neurotransmitters in the brain and that MRIs have confirmed it increase the size of your memory center. She admits that we often exercise to increase muscle mass and lose weight, but in fact, we are also unintentionally biohacking. While genetics are a consideration in our overall health and well-being, they can be changed through exercise, proper nutrition and more all because you are making an impact at the molecular level.

Related: Everyday Improvements You Can Make Right Now to Boost Your Brain Health and Extend Your Mindspan

Can biohacking really be that simple? According to Josiah Zayner, PhD, founder and CEO of The ODIN (and a biohacker himself), no; it is a technical discipline. Formerly a research scientist at NASA in their Synthetic Biology Program, Zayner left and founded The ODIN to make biohacking courses and kits available to the masses. Zayner believes that biohacking gives people the chance to directly contribute to science and medicine, in order to rely less on the scientific and medical systems already in place.

I want people to learn to be their own hope, because with million-dollar drug prices science and medicine are failing us, Zayner notes. F*** the scientific and medical systems that are killing us with opiates, taking 9 years on average to approve drugs and having the audacity to charge people to read and access scientific papers.

Zayner does the type of biohacking that probably comes to mind when you first hear the word; he has given himself a fecal transplant, experimented with various ways to genetically engineer his skin and even injected himself with DNA that underwent CRISPR gene-editing (which in part led to an investigation for practicing medicine without a license).

Zayner is far from the only person doing this type of experimentation, some extreme cases include one womana magicianwho had chips and magnets implanted in her body that are used during her shows (some by herself and some by a friend who is a nurse). There is also a man that has a chip implanted that can unlock his house. These examples dont directly involve changing the structure of the brain or DNA, but biohacking in this sense doesnt have to have that result. In fact, you can genetically engineer yeast to make your own glow-in-the-dark beer thanks to a kit Zayners company sells; youre still experimenting with biology and exploring a new fieldall from the comfort of your own home.

As biohacking is an ever-evolving field with different interpretations, how you biohack is up to you. Benameur speculates the practice is gaining popularity because of Silicon Valley. Other reasons include trendy new diets (take the rise of intermittent fasting popularized by celebrities including Jennifer AnistonandVanessa Hudgens) or simply the hope to stay young forever (like biohacker Eric Matzner).

People are always interested in making themselves better, she adds. They are curious about what they can do to make themselves better and if they can find shortcuts to do that, they will.

Even self-help guru Tony Robbinstouts biohacking as a means to take charge of improving your health. Of course, some biohacking practices involve a certain amount of risk, but it isnt just those that are seen as more extreme; this can even include trying to biohack your nutrition. Intermittent fasting, for example, is noted to carry the risk of eating too restrictively and also affecting cortisol levels (which impacts stress).

Zayner asks, Want to get started in biohacking? Its more simple that it seems, he shares. You can start by reading scientific journals. buying equipment, taking classes and exploring the science of the field in which you wish to understand.

Find out why Dr. Oz says the times you eat and take your medicine can significantly affect your health.

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Biohacking 101: What Does Biohacking Mean and Is It Safe? - Parade

While robust market fundamentals point to a bright future for responsible aquaculture generally, in Norway massively improved biological material is paving the way for a rebound in cod farming in particular.

There has been very limited activity in cod production globally in recent years but that is about to change as pioneering aquaculture venture Norcod's plans to establish cod farming on an industrial scale gather momentum. Led by personnel with deep industry experience, Norcod is convinced that cod has the potential to be a significant contributor to the Norwegian economy. Quality biomass is the critical input factor.

Stemfish with poor biology and first-generation fry of inconsistent quality were partly to blame for the biomass loss seen during the last foray into cod farming between 2004 and 2012. Since then quantum leaps in biology have radically changed the landscape, with an estimated half-a-billion Norwegian kroner invested in two cod breeding programs that have been working quietly in the background in the belief that the tide would again turn.

Aquaculture-focused national research institute Nofima's breeding programme kicked off in 2002 with the goal to evolve economically important characteristics and disease resistance. Commercial hatchery player Havlandet Marin Yngel AS followed suit a year later. Their far-sighted commitment has seen the biological challenges of stagnant growth, susceptibility to infection and high escape figures systematically overcome.

Dramatically increased survival rate and quality of fry has been achieved through careful selection of eggs post fertilisation. The development of stemfish feed with minimal contamination has also boosted egg quality. Detailed comparative studies also showed that using eggs from four-year-old fish produce the best outcomes, according to Nofima.

Fish have been selected and developed for faster growth, higher harvest yield and higher resistance, while new feeds have been developed that support optimal growth and intestinal health. Farmed cod now grows up to 35 percent to 40 percent faster than fish in the wild.

Faster growth has always been the highest priority and has been the focus of the cod breeding programme. Breeding has led to a growth increase of 9 percent to 10 percent per generation, or around 3 percent per year about the same as for farmed salmon, says Atle Mortensen, senior scientist at Nofima.

Data from the stemfish produced for Norcod shows a dramatic 40 percent increase in survival rate for fish below 5 grams, up from 10 percent a decade ago. Successfully selecting for smaller heads has also been a game changer in boosting yield. In wild cod the much larger head can account for 40 percent of body weight.

Today's sixth generation of stem fish is a highly stable product and a completely different fish to 15 years ago, says Norcod managing director Rune Eriksen. Havlandet is now at capacity to deliver around three million fry, at 2-3 grams each, per annum. A kick-off batch of 260,000 fry from Nofima is already in production for Norcod and slated to go into the sea at the company's two facilities northwest of Trondheim imminently.

While growth was the holy grail, selecting specifically for other characteristics typically reduced the growth rate. Targeted breeding for disease resistance was unavoidable until the arrival of new and effective vaccines on the market. With these now available, the bacterial infections vibrosis and atypical furunculosis no longer pose a threat to farmed cod.

As per today there are no virus diseases that create problems for farmed cod. Both cod lice and sea lice affect cod but do not harm the fish like salmon lice do. Intestinal obstruction has very occasionally caused mortality in the sea phase. Compared to farmed salmon the health status of farmed cod is extremely good, says Mortensen.

The fish now show significant domestication, especially calm behaviour in the sea phase, swimming as a school in rings around the net much like salmon. That is astonishing given that selection was not made based on behaviour characteristics, says Mortensen. Not surprisingly, healthy, happy fish adapted to confinement grow faster. The high level of escape in the past was caused by the cod chewing holes in the nets. Today's tame fish display little desire to escape, while new standards and net technologies have also mitigated this tendency. Norcod's facilities are state of the art, optimising technical developments in equipment and feeding systems achieved in salmon farming in recent years.

Cannibalism is a peculiar trait of cod under stress but this problem has been virtually eradicated in the sixth generation of tame fish by means of improved feed and better feed distribution, allowing even growth across the population. Better growth, improved feed and optimal utilisation of feed also make it much easier to satisfy year-round demand.

Breeding has traditionally featured a combination of individual and family-based selection, with family selection ensuring diversity in the broodstock. The advent of molecular genetics, where information from the entire genome can be used for much greater precision in selecting for positive characteristics, promises even faster progress in the future.

Norcod stands to reap the rewards of these biological breakthroughs as a first mover. The quality of its cod is unmatched and unique globally. Initiating such a breeding project from scratch that could guarantee such strong characteristics would require a huge investment of time and money. But consumers want cod right now. Wild stocks are under pressure with limitations in capture quotas squeezing supply. Demand can only be met with cost-effective farming. Norcod's timing is on target to satisfy a market hungry for stable deliveries of fresh cod 12 months of the year.

Ensuring the welfare of the cod themselves throughout the production cycle also remains top priority. We should always remember that these are living creatures that should be handled with care and respect. No question, Eriksen says.

The production process from fry to plate takes between 23 to 26 months. Norcod has its sights set on sales of 9,000 tonnes of cod in 2021, rising to a total of 10 facilities with an output of 25,000 tonnes in 2025. We believe we have a very solid business case, says Eriksen. The market is waiting.

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Emerging science gives Norcod a path to further expansion - The Fish Site

The ability to fight disease is a driving force in human survival. Inflammation has emerged as a key weapon in this process. As pathogens change and evolve, the immune system adapts to keep up.

However, to what extent might such evolutionary adaptations also give rise to autoimmune conditions such as lupus and Crohn's disease?

This was a central question in a recent Trends in Immunology review by two scientists from Radboud University, in Nijmegen, Netherlands.

To address the issue, first author Jorge Domnguez-Andrs, a postdoctoral researcher in molecular life science, and senior author Prof. Mihai G. Netea, chair of experimental internal medicine, examined studies in the fields of virology, genetics, microbiology, and immunology.

They focused on people of African or Eurasian descent and how their ancestral origins may have influenced their risk of autoimmune diseases.

Of particular interest was how common pathogens in different communities related to changes in people's DNA, particularly when this involved inflammation.

The team found that the genetic changes made it harder for pathogen infections to take hold.

Over time, however, it seems that inflammation-related diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn's disease, and lupus, have emerged alongside improvements in immune defenses.

The findings also suggest that the human immune system continues to evolve and adapt to changes in environment and lifestyle.

"There seems to be a balance," says Domnguez-Andrs.

"Humans evolve to build defenses against diseases," he continues, "but we are not able to stop disease from happening, so the benefit we obtain on one hand also makes us more sensitive to new diseases on the other hand."

He observes that autoimmune diseases in today's humans tend to emerge later in life. These would not have caused health problems for our ancestors because their lives were much shorter.

"Now that we live so much longer," he explains, "we can see the consequences of infections that happened to our ancestors."

One of the examples that Domnguez-Andrs and Netea cover in detail in their review is malaria.

"Among various infectious diseases," they write, "malaria has exerted the highest evolutionary pressure on the communities across the African continent."

Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease that makes people very ill with flu-like symptoms, such as chills and a high fever.

While there has been much progress in the fight to control and eliminate the potentially fatal disease, it continues to threaten nearly half of the world's population, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The cause of malaria is parasites belonging to the species Plasmodium. These parasites spread to humans through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes.

Domnguez-Andrs and Netea note that Plasmodium has been infecting people in Africa for millions of years. During that period, the immune systems of those human populations have evolved stronger resistance to infection by increasing inflammation.

However, the downside of increasing inflammation to withstand infectious disease is that it favors health problems that tend to occur later in life.

Modern humans of African descent are more prone to developing such conditions, which include atherosclerosis and other cardiovascular diseases.

Another example of how ancestral changes in DNA leave imprints in the immune systems of modern humans is the interbreeding of early Eurasians with Neanderthals.

Modern humans whose genomes harbor remnants of Neanderthal DNA have immune systems that are better able to withstand staph infections and HIV-1. However, they are also more prone to asthma, hay fever, and other allergies.

Improvements in technology are making it more possible to find the downsides that can accompany disease-fighting adaptations.

Next generation sequencing, for example, is allowing scientists to delve more deeply into what happens at the DNA level between pathogens and the organisms that they infect.

Not only is new technology getting better at revealing genetic changes that occurred in our ancestors, but it is also showing that the human immune system continues to evolve and adapt.

In Africa, there are still tribes that hunt for food as their ancestors did. Thanks to new tools, scientists can see how the gut bacteria of these tribes are more diverse than those of, for example, contemporary African American people, who buy food in stores.

Other changes that have had an effect on DNA are the improvements in hygiene that have occurred in recent centuries. These have reduced exposure to pathogens and the diversity of gut bacteria.

"This reduced microbiota diversity in Western societies," the authors observe, "has been associated with a higher incidence of the so-called 'diseases of civilization,' such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, obesity, and autoimmune disorders, which are very unusual in hunter-gatherer societies, compared with communities living a Western-type lifestyle."

Domnguez-Andrs and Netea are extending their research to populations whose ancestry is other than African or Eurasian.

"Today, we are suffering or benefiting from defenses built into our DNA by our ancestors' immune systems fighting off infections or growing accustomed to new lifestyles."

Jorge Domnguez-Andrs, Ph.D.

Continued here:
Humans and autoimmune diseases continue to evolve together - Medical News Today

Transparency Market Research (TMR) has published a new report titled Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) Consumables Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 20182026.According to the report, theglobal polymerase chain reaction (PCR) consumables marketwas valued at US$ 434 Mn in 2017 and is projected to expand at a CAGR of 4.8% from 2018 to 2026. The report suggests that increase in use of polymerase chain reaction consumables in quantification of plant mutations and genetically modified organisms, assessment of bacterial and viral loads and absolute pathogen counts, quantification of NGS libraries, and detection of cancer in body fluid and stool DNA are likely to drive the polymerase chain reaction consumables market from 2018 to 2026.

The molecular diagnostic industry has emerged as a major driver of development in PCR technology-based amplification techniques. The demand for greater efficiency and productivity in the pharmaceuticals industry has led to the growth of the polymerase chain reaction consumables market. PCR technologies have been used to identify and analyze potential drug targets due to the introduction of personalized medicine. Other major factors driving the polymerase chain reaction consumables market include enhanced automation, rise in demand for analysis technologies, research-intensive investment by various biotechnological companies, and wider application areas of PCR technologies.

The report offers detailed segmentation of the global polymerase chain reaction (PCR) consumables market based on product and end-user. In terms of product, the PCR tubes segment is anticipated to have high share due to high adoption of PCR tubes in research and academic institutes as well as clinical diagnostic laboratories and hospitals.

Research and Academic Institutesto Account for Major Share

The research and academic institutes segment is expected to account for a leading share of the market in 2026. The segment is also likely to expand at a rapid pace during the forecast period. PCR has become a functional tool in the mainstream life sciences and chemistry disciplines. Its applications range from molecular genetics to microbiology assays and are expanding beyond traditional areas. The clinical diagnostic labs and hospitals segment accounted for over 24.3% market share in 2017. The combination of exceptional specificity and sensitivity, low contamination risk, and low detection time has made PCR technology a better alternative to culture- or immunoassay-based testing methods for diagnosing various infectious diseases.

Request a PDF Brochure For Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) Consumables Market @https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=43652

Market in Asia Pacific to Expand at a Significant Pace

North America held a prominent share of the global polymerase chain reaction (PCR) consumables market in 2017. The market has witnessed significant technological advancements, as companies have introduced newer PCR technologies and protocols. In addition, a large number of market players in the U.S. are focusing on R&D to introduce applications that would expand the use of PCR in new areas such as next-generation sequencing (NGS). Moreover, high awareness about latest health care technologies and higher purchasing power and affordability are anticipated to boost the PCR market in North America. Favorable reimbursement policies in the region also enable patients to avail of the best of health care facilities.

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) consumables market in Asia Pacific is expected to expand at a rapid pace mainly due to improving health care infrastructure, rising private and public investment in life science research, and technological advancements in countries such as China and India. Less competition in Asia Pacific is encouraging a large number of instrument manufacturers to enter the market. QIAGEN established its Asia regional headquarters in Shanghai, China, in 2006. Presently, the company has a strong base in Asia Pacific, primarily in China, Singapore, Japan and India.

Key Players such as Den-Mat Holdings LLC, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc., and Dexcel Pharma to Lead the Market

The report also provides profiles of leading players operating in the global polymerase chain reaction (PCR) consumables market. They include Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Qiagen N.V., Merck KGaA, Agilent Technologies, Inc., Eppendorf Group, 4titude, Corning Incorporated, and Greiner Bio-One International GmbH.

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Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) Consumables Market Research Explores The Key Success Factors, And Business Opportunities Including Key Players...