COVID-19 Researcher Using H35 Hypoxystation

January 4, 2021

Dr James Nathan is Reader in Respiratory Medicine at the University of Cambridge, and Group Leader at the Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease (CITIID).

Dr Nathan (pictured) is a trained respiratory physician who has carried out extensive research at Harvard, and Cambridge Universities. He set up his own lab in 2013 focusing on how cells sense and adapt to oxygen and nutrients in addition to how this impacts certain diseases. Since March 2020, his group has been conducting research into how low oxygen (hypoxia) affects COVID-19 infected patients.

Read more: COVID-19 Researcher Using H35 Hypoxystation

Uncovering the Effects of Hypoxia in CNS Disorders Using Whitley Workstations

November 5, 2019
By: Don Whitley Scientific Product News

Dr Scott Allen (pictured above) is a Lecturer in Neuroscience at the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN). Part of the University of Sheffield, SITraN is one of the world leading centres for research into Motor Neurone Disease, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease.

We recently spoke to Dr Allen about his research, which focuses on how hypoxia (low oxygen) affects the metabolism of people with neurological disorders. Dr Allen remarked that historically it has been difficult to measure metabolism under hypoxic conditions due to the lack of available technology. Now, with the Whitley H35 HEPA Hypoxystation, it is possible to expose astrocytes (brain cells) to different levels of hypoxia and then asses how the metabolic profile of the cells has altered using a Seahorse Analyzer housed inside a Whitley i2 Instrument Workstation.

“Scientific advancement goes hand-in-hand with technological advancement; now we have this ability to measure and assess how hypoxia affects the metabolic profile of neurological diseases… we can hopefully improve the quality of life for people with Alzheimer’s and Motor Neurone Disease, and also extend their lives as well.”

To learn more about Dr Allen’s research, watch our video here.

Kidney Cancer Study at the University of Utah

Date: August 17, 2020

Omar Hussain, Product Specialist at Don Whitley Scientific, provides a synopsis of a paper by Dr Sophie Cowman et al, University of Utah. Their research looked at clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), which is frequently associated with inactivation of the von Hippel Lindau tumour suppressor, resulting in activation of HIF-1α and HIF-2α. The current paradigm, established using mechanistic cell-based studies, supports a tumour promoting role for HIF-2α, and a tumour suppressor role for HIF-1α. The paper is entitled:

“Macrophage HIF-1α is an independent prognostic indicator in kidney cancer”

This is something that has not been comprehensively studied before and was carried out by assessing the involvement of hypoxia associated factors/hypoxia inducible factors and their relationship to tumour grade/stage/outcome using tissue from 380 patients.

Read more: Kidney Cancer Study at the University of Utah

Hypoxia researchers win the 2019 Nobel Prize in medicine

By: Katherine Ellen Foley
October 7, 2019
Click here to read the original article at www.msn.com

This year’s Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded to three scientists whose work focused on understanding how our cells take in various levels of oxygen.

This fundamental process is key to embryonic development, adapting to high altitude, and exercising. The Nobel Assembly based at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, which made the announcement early on the morning of Oct. 7, also noted that the process plays a role in developing treatments for anemia, a common blood disorder in which there aren’t enough red blood cells able to carry oxygen to different tissues in the body, along with various type of cancers.

The winners of the prize—William Kaelin Jr., currently at Harvard Medical School and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Maryland; Sir Peter Ratcliffe, currently at the University of Oxford and Francis Crick Institute in London; and Gregg Semenza, currently at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland—will split the prize money, worth just over $9 million, equally. Want to understand why their work is important? Take a deep breath, and get ready to dive in.

Every one of your trillions of cells—and really, all animal cells everywhere on the planet—use oxygen from the air to turn food into usable energy.

Read more: Hypoxia researchers win the 2019 Nobel Prize in medicine