News

August 1, 2022

(LOS ANGELES) – Researchers at the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation (TIBI) have developed and optimized a minimally invasive method for more targeted, efficient, and sustained delivery of immunotherapeutic treatments for cancer. Such a targeted approach cuts down on the higher dosages and possible deleterious side effects that are experienced when more systemic treatment methods are employed.

July 6, 2022

(LOS ANGELES) – The Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation (TIBI) has formally signed a collaborative agreement with San Francisco-based Openwater. TIBI, founded in 2020, fosters personalized medicine with their scientific research platforms for physiological models, devices, implants, cells, biomaterials and nutrition. They also incorporate business and technology transfer experts to adapt and develop their innovations for real-world use in the clinic.

July 1, 2022

(LOS ANGELES) – In their recent publication in Cell Reports, a team of scientists, led by Xiling Shen, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer at the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation (TIBI), has demonstrated the pivotal role of an enzyme, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), in facilitating ovarian cancer (OC) growth and metastasis in the omentum, a curtain of fatty tissue found in the abdominal cavity.

By Megan Bettilyon

Not all science leads to innovative outcomes – in fact, it’s rare when the day-to-day work of a wet-lab comes across something new. You can, however, stack the deck in your favor by encouraging yourself, and your team, to try something new. Push the boundaries of what is known and be willing to accept failure as a step toward success. You can choose to be innovative; you can choose to surround yourself with people who think differently. This is when the magic happens. This is where the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation (TIBI) recently found a way to change the game in how we can bring novel therapeutics to market faster, cheaper, and more effectively.

Published research on new eye treatment delivery shows improvement over hypodermic needles

June 17, 2022

(LOS ANGELES) – A collaborative team, including scientists from the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation (TIBI), has developed a novel, self-plugging microneedle for injecting therapeutics into the eyes, potentially solving one of the major challenges of treating eye diseases – accurate delivery of therapeutic drugs to the retina, while guarding against possible complications at the injection site.

Scientists find a new link between fructose and diabetes aggravated by dietary fat

June 9, 2022

(LOS ANGELES) – Those who are habitually inclined to consume burgers, fries and soda may think twice about their dietary choices following scientists’ latest findings about high-fat, high-fructose diets.

As reported in their recent publication in Cell Metabolism, a collaborative team, led by Xiling Shen, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer at the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation (TIBI), discovered that a high-fat diet can increase fructose metabolism in the small intestine, leading to release of a fructose-specific metabolite called glycerate into circulation. Circulating glycerate can subsequently cause damage of the insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells, increasing the risk of glucose tolerance disorders, such as Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).

May 20, 2022

(LOS ANGELES) – The Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation’s (TIBI’s) new facility in Woodland Hills has begun in earnest. Workers have installed new plumbing underneath the building and have reinforced the historic building’s 50-year-old structure. They’ve also laid down a new roof, replaced existing glass-front walls, and are working on new skylights and an elevator pit.

In order to minimize vibration in the facility’s second-floor laboratories, the second story was shored up with steel-beamed supports and framing for some of the internal walls have already gone up. In addition, the building’s electrical and heating/cooling/ventilation systems are being installed.

The remaining work will take an estimated time of six months to complete, at which time TIBI employees, along with much of their equipment and supplies, will move from their current West Los Angeles facility to Woodland Hills.

Scientists develop droplet-based microfluidic models to predict therapeutic response accurately and rapidly

May 5, 2022

(LOS ANGELES) – A patient’s tumor cell response to therapy is affected by many factors, including genetic alterations, tumor microenvironment, and intratumoral heterogeneity. This can make it extremely difficult to determine optimum treatment regimens, amidst the ever-increasing number of drug candidates and cancer therapies that have recently been developed. Added to these challenges is the limited timeframe in which treatment decisions must be made after diagnosis – frequently on the order of two weeks or less.