We found that 48/80, an MRGPRX2 agonist and commonly used mast cell activator, is toxic in HMC1.2 (human mast cells) and RBL-2H3 (rat basophils). Researchers should use caution and incorporate a viability test when performing assays in these cell lines. https://t.co/L6gfbpYmnI
@SynBio1 All of these companies are Just Another Wannabe Adimab. It doesn't matter that we can make antibodies a week or a month faster. We are in a massively target constrained environment not a binder constrained environment.
I think this was part of the implicit premise of the first incarnation of Hammer Lab at Mount Sinai, about a dozen of us with math/CS backgrounds ditched tech for biomedicine.
And we got humbled hard: most of what we did flopped & techies don't understand experimental design.
@paulg But it's a big tell that someone hasn't really ever grappled with the difficulties of actually making a confident discovery from biological messiness to think that the missing ingredient is people who took more signal processing classes or imbibed more essays on tech startups.
Have you used 48/80? How do you reliably measure mast cell activation? Let’s discuss! Comment on our paper or reply here to join the conversation. Please share this thread if you find this surprising or useful!
https://t.co/L6gfbpYmnI
How did we discover that the widely used mast cell activator 48/80 actually kills mast cells rather than selectively activating them? Here's the surprising story 🧵 (1/12)
https://t.co/L6gfbpYmnI
We found that 48/80, an MRGPRX2 agonist and commonly used mast cell activator, is toxic in HMC1.2 (human mast cells) and RBL-2H3 (rat basophils). Researchers should use caution and incorporate a viability test when performing assays in these cell lines. https://t.co/L6gfbpYmnI