There is an episode in Elementary that involves the Horseshoe, its extraction and conservation. It is just a regular episode, but the visual presentation of the extraction was fascinating. I hope they are real. :)
They are a (relatively) recent part of the production pipeline. Before introducing horseshoe crab blood, they used to inject rabbits and wait a couple of weeks. Now the wait has been reduced to minutes - which reduces storage costs and increases certainty.
Recombinant factor C (rFC) has been available since 2003.
TFA alludes to it: “They have created a lab-made alternative to test medicines, so no crabs are needed.
“It is the exact same protein, it is just made through biotechnology,” Bolden said.
Bolden said scientists at Eli Lilly tested thousands of samples on hundreds of different products and determined the alternative performs the same or better than purified horseshoe crab blood does.
Starting in 2016, Eli Lilly started to switch its testing to the lab-made version. Now 80 percent of it is done using the alternative.
The company plans to entirely eliminate the use of crab blood.”
> Now 80 percent of it is done using the alternative.
Did not follow the industry since 2018, but it is quite a feat switching the supply chains to the recombinant version. Good to hear that they managed to do it. I wonder how other Pharma and Medtech players are doing in that regard.
There's economics wrapped up in finding a reproducible synthetic replacement against harvesting. If climate change causes a drop in horseshoe crab availability we might see the pressure here.
Lol. They have survived many mass extinctions. The horseshoe crabs will be aeound long after we are all dead. Once we stop actively killing them, they will recover.
Good point. I guess they've weathered acidic oceans, eutrophication, you-name-it. However there is some reason to believe things like ocean acidification is happening significantly faster than in times past. Hard to be certain but that's what I read.
The horseshoe crab story comes up on HN now and then. Typical media game, the crabs crawled out their appointed time slot in the media publishing calendar.
Here is a full disclaimer (from the trenches of startup land): I co-founded and ran a biotech startup that tried to disintermediate that particular supply chain. We even flew to SF to speak to some of the YC chaps, and talked to a strategic buyer. Our technology R&D failed to deliver, unfortunately. And the market is fairly small. But I learned a great deal re that particular business, and a lot of more general lessons. All in all, a crazy run with so many crazy stories, I need to write them down one day.
Horseshoe crabs are truly fascinating animals in respect to their physique, lineage and behaviour. But these things one can read up on Wikipedia.
We had quite a bunch of them in our lab (and living room). They were supposed to be voracious predators to all things they can eat, but ours developed a rather expensive habit in captivity by only eating the most expensive of goods from the local fish market. They would not eat anything else.
> habit in captivity by only eating the most expensive of goods
No animal behaviorist, but isn’t this depression? (Nervous system expects one reality, gets a different one, takes whatever ++ it comes across and maximizes it?)
Why do you think it is depression? My first thought was that they spoiled it by giving into its tantrums (I experienced the same with a pet in the past).
If you follow the whole process from the point of view of the horseshoe crab it is disturbingly similar to the stories many people who claim to be alien abduction victims tell.
donkey_brains | 14 hours ago
tecoholic | 14 hours ago
goosejuice | 11 hours ago
jzelinskie | 14 hours ago
wuschel | 11 hours ago
y-curious | 13 hours ago
b40d-48b2-979e | 13 hours ago
[OP] andsoitis | 12 hours ago
beagle3 | 12 hours ago
But there are other options.
vlovich123 | 12 hours ago
borski | 12 hours ago
TFA alludes to it: “They have created a lab-made alternative to test medicines, so no crabs are needed.
“It is the exact same protein, it is just made through biotechnology,” Bolden said.
Bolden said scientists at Eli Lilly tested thousands of samples on hundreds of different products and determined the alternative performs the same or better than purified horseshoe crab blood does.
Starting in 2016, Eli Lilly started to switch its testing to the lab-made version. Now 80 percent of it is done using the alternative.
The company plans to entirely eliminate the use of crab blood.”
wuschel | 10 hours ago
Did not follow the industry since 2018, but it is quite a feat switching the supply chains to the recombinant version. Good to hear that they managed to do it. I wonder how other Pharma and Medtech players are doing in that regard.
happyPersonR | 5 hours ago
Def quite nice
Some of the manufacturers of endotoxin testing kits charge less for rFC as well :)
ggm | 12 hours ago
sandworm101 | 12 hours ago
ggm | 11 hours ago
dyauspitr | 9 hours ago
rob74 | 9 hours ago
mindhash | 12 hours ago
account42 | 10 hours ago
arcanemachiner | 9 hours ago
wuschel | 11 hours ago
Here is a full disclaimer (from the trenches of startup land): I co-founded and ran a biotech startup that tried to disintermediate that particular supply chain. We even flew to SF to speak to some of the YC chaps, and talked to a strategic buyer. Our technology R&D failed to deliver, unfortunately. And the market is fairly small. But I learned a great deal re that particular business, and a lot of more general lessons. All in all, a crazy run with so many crazy stories, I need to write them down one day.
Horseshoe crabs are truly fascinating animals in respect to their physique, lineage and behaviour. But these things one can read up on Wikipedia.
We had quite a bunch of them in our lab (and living room). They were supposed to be voracious predators to all things they can eat, but ours developed a rather expensive habit in captivity by only eating the most expensive of goods from the local fish market. They would not eat anything else.
intheitmines | 10 hours ago
DANmode | 4 hours ago
No animal behaviorist, but isn’t this depression? (Nervous system expects one reality, gets a different one, takes whatever ++ it comes across and maximizes it?)
thisislife2 | 3 hours ago
DANmode | 14 minutes ago
For starters.
onlypassingthru | an hour ago
larodi | 10 hours ago
tzs | 9 hours ago
Fokamul | 9 hours ago