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Neuroscientists routinely store brain tissue samples in brain banks for future analysis. Being able to use cell-sorting techniques such as flow cytometry on this preserved tissue would allow researchers to study the effects of drugs, environmental factors, and diseases on specific brain cell types. However, it’s difficult to separate cells from chemically fixed, frozen tissue samples and prepare them for flow cytometry without causing damage. Now, Charles D. Nichols of the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans and colleagues have developed new protocols to overcome these limitations (ACS Chem. Neurosci. 2017, DOI: 10.1021/acschemneuro.6b00374). The researchers separated cells from human and rodent brain tissue samples—fixed using preservatives such as formalin, zinc, and paraformaldehyde—by passing liquefied frozen tissue through needles multiple times and applying an enzyme solution that cleaves chemical bonds between cells. They then fluorescently tagged the cells and passed cell suspensions through a flow cytometer to isolate two

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Antibody-drug conjugates are promising next-generation cancer therapies that can target and kill malignant cells while sparing healthy ones. These conjugates—in which a drug is bound to an antibody through a chemical linker—not only harness the antibody’s ability to recognize cancer cell markers but also bring the drugs to their intended site of action. But one conundrum for scientists has been how to consistently tether a drug onto a predictable site on an antibody. Now, chemists report a new metallopeptide catalyst that can reliably put a drug linker on antibodies at the same location every time it’s used (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2017, DOI: 10.1021/jacs.7b06428). Previously, scientists genetically engineered antibodies with chemical groups to which drugs could be attached. “This new technique is truly unique because it doesn’t require any engineering of any amino acids; the catalyst controls the reaction,” says Dennis G. Gillingham of the University of Basel, who was