Monthly Archives: July 2020

Genetics

Why Seattle Genetics Shares Climbed 48.7% in the First Half – The Motley Fool

What happened

Seattle Genetics (NASDAQ:SGEN) shares rose 48.7% in the first half, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence, after the company gained U.S. regulatory approval for its second drug in less than six months.

Image source: Getty Images.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in April approved Tukysa for patients with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer after approving Padcev in December for locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer. In Padcev's first full quarter of commercialization, the drug generated $34.5 million in net sales, the company reported.

Urothelial cancer is the most common form of bladder cancer, and according to Grand View Research, the global drug market for the disease is growing at a 22.9% compound annual growth rate and is set to reach $3.6 billion by 2023. The global HER2-positive breast cancer market, at a 4.4% compound annual growth rate, may reach nearly $10 billion by 2025, a Global Data report shows. With these growing markets, Tukysa and Padcev have plenty of room to deliver sales increases.

Seattle Genetics' drug Adcetris, for Hodgkin lymphoma, was approved in 2011. Adcetris sales climbed 22% in the first quarter, and the company forecasts more growth as it works to further establish the drug as part of a frontline treatment, or first treatment given to patients.

The European Medicines Agency is currently reviewing Tukysa, so investors will be watching for a possible approval in Europe. Sales figures from Padcev's second quarter on the market will be another factor that could offer the stock direction in the second half of the year.

In more positive news, Seattle Genetics recently reported encouraging data from its phase 2 trial of tisotumab vedotin for recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer. The biotech company plans to speak with the FDA about the possibility of an accelerated approval process for the drug candidate. If the FDA agrees to an accelerated pathway, that likely will be another positive driver for Seattle Genetics' shares.

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Why Seattle Genetics Shares Climbed 48.7% in the First Half - The Motley Fool

Genetics

Shrimp stalwart hands over to Hendrix – The Fish Site

Dr Chamberlain has been leading the Hawaiian company for over 20 years and will continue his role as president of The Global Aquaculture Alliance.

Chamberlains career in aquaculture started in 1990 when he joined Ralston Purina Company directing their aquaculture feed programme in the Americas, Europe and Asia. After eight years, he moved to Monsanto, directing a programme on genetically selected marine shrimp, soy-based feed, and sustainable pond systems for marine shrimp.

His days as an entrepreneur started in 1999, when he established developed Black Tiger Aquaculture, an integrated shrimp farm in Malaysia, with Ken Morison. And in 2004, they established Integrated Aquaculture International, a technology company owning the Kona Bay L. vannameibreeding centre in Hawaii and operating a P. monodon breeding centre and farm in Brunei.

Over the last decade Chamberlain and his management team have built Kona Bay shrimp genetics into one of the leading brands in SPF shrimp broodstock, supporting shrimp farmers in achieving better performance in major shrimp producing countries. In addition, its food shrimp production under the Kauai Shrimp brand enjoys a reputation for premium quality in the Hawaiian and mainland US markets.

George Chamberlain commented: My career in the shrimp farming business has been deeply fulfilling. I owe whatever success our company has experienced to the support of colleagues, friends and family. Now its time to leave this enterprise in the capable hands of Hendrix Genetics whose leader, Thijs Hendrix, embodies the values and culture that our team so much admires.

Neil Manchester, managing director of aquaculture in Hendrix Genetics, said: We owe an immense amount to George, not just for bringing us into the shrimp breeding business with a world class operation like Kona Bay, but by sharing his knowledge, experience and contacts in the global industry that allows us to expand our reach and develop the Kona Bay brand in every shrimp production region. George will remain a friend and advisor, and we wish him an enjoyable retirement from shrimp breeding.

Hendrix Genetics acquired a majority shareholding in Kona Bay in 2017, as an entry point into shrimp breeding concentrating on acceleration of the breeding programme, strengthening the sales and technical support teams in Asia, and establishing a nucleus breeding and PL hatchery operation in Ecuador in 2019.

The company is investing heavily to realise a world class L.vannamei shrimp breeding operation in Hawaii, selling high quality Kona Bay broodstock to all major markets globally. The shrimp operations of Hendrix Genetics are expected to grow with the Ecuador development being a precursor to similar expansion in the major Asian markets. With the retirement of Chamberlain, Hendrix will acquire the remaining management shares in Kona Bay and subsidiaries, converting this to a 100 percent ownership.

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Shrimp stalwart hands over to Hendrix - The Fish Site

Neuroscience

Wickham ’21 Speaks on the Black Student Experience in STEM – Wesleyan Connection

As the Black Lives Matter movement continues to shine a light on the Black experience in America, one Wesleyan student is doing his part to foster better understanding for students of color in STEM fields.

On July 2, Fitzroy Pablo Wickham 21 participated in a panel discussion on Black Lives Matter and Neuroscience: Why This Moment Matters. The event, hosted by the Society for Neuroscience and moderated by Trinity College President Joanne Berger-Sweeney, provided a forum to discuss hurdles faced by Black students and faculty in STEM and ways to enhance recruitment, mentoring, and retention in STEM fields.

Wickham, a neuroscience and theater double major, is the Class of 2021 president and a College of Integrative Sciences summer research student. A native of Jamaica, Wickham prefaced his comments by acknowledging that as a West Indian Black his experience does not necessarily reflect the full breadth of experiences had by African American students in science. But for his part, Wickham hopes that in sharing his perspective as a neuroscience undergraduate, he can help move the conversation forward in terms of how we can make the field more inclusive and equitable and in particular to voice some of the challenges Black students encounter when navigating STEM.

Although the panel was convened to discuss issues faced by Black students and faculty in the field of neuroscience, the topics addressed stretched beyond scientific disciplines, touching on issues that affect people of color in all aspects of academia, including lack of representation, the misperception that rewards are dispensed based on race rather than merit, and questions of tokenism. Over the course of the hourlong panel, participants talked about their own experiences, the obstacles they themselves had faced in their varied career paths, and the individuals who had helped to mentor them and advocate for them along the way.

Nii Addy, associate professor of psychiatry at Yales School of Medicine, encouraged participants to look outside their individual departments for mentorship and support when there are few available options in their own field and said that he, himself, makes mentoring others and connecting individuals with potential mentors a priority.

Marguerite Matthews, a health program specialist in the Office of Programs to Enhance Neuroscience Workforce Diversity at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), works on diversity initiatives and programs that provide research training and career development opportunities for students from underrepresented backgrounds. She emphasized the need for academia to work in tandem with government programs to make sure underrepresented students and faculty are getting the necessary support to create an equitable situation with their peers, citing the importance of seeing diversity as something that is not an add-on. It is not an extra, not a bonus, not something special that you are doing. It is something that should be considered through every single process.

Fitzroy Pablo Wickham 21 is a neuroscience and theater double major, president of the Class of 2021, and a College of Integrative Sciences summer intern.

When asked about signs of progress and change, Wickham noted Wesleyans public support of the Black Lives Matter movement and encouraged the University to continue moving forward by supporting Black businesses and by setting a new standard for action among peer institutions.

Although the panel didnt necessarily have solutions for every issue brought up during the discussion and Q&A, Wickham did find the overall discussion itself to be a powerful first step.

This conversation is so important to so many people. I was overwhelmed by the number of registrants for the webinarboth in America and internationally, he said. The BLM movement has the undivided attention of the world right now and people are listening. These discussions are needed! The many questions posed by the attendees were very thought-provoking and show that we need more opportunities like this to hash out the matter and figure out how we will move forward, because one hour is not enough.

Link:
Wickham '21 Speaks on the Black Student Experience in STEM - Wesleyan Connection

Neuroscience

How neuro-knowledge can help us find happiness and improve mental health – ABC News

Happiness doesn't just happen.

Neuroscience tells us happiness is like a muscle that needs to be exercised, tested and toned if we are going to make the most of it.

In troubled and uncertain times, like many have experienced through the coronavirus pandemic, that means making opportunities to put your happiness muscles through their paces.

Advice from experts in personal brain training can also help break down the science and psychology behind mental health challenges.

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Practice uncertainty and seek out moments of joy

Set up schedules or daily routines theyre your secret weapon against worry and uncertainty.

A daily gratitude journal is an easy way to help identify and lock in your positive emotions.

"Fear of the unknown is perhaps the fundamental worry that underlies all our very human anxieties in 2020, many of us have been scrambling to find ways to cope with emotional turmoil," neuroscientist Sarah McKay said.

"We vary in our tolerance to uncertainty; some people are OK with not knowing what the future holds, others struggle to deal with even the smallest degree of doubt.

"The good news is tolerance to uncertainty is like a muscle and it can be strengthened."

Dr McKay is an educator and author who uses her neuro-knowledge to offer practical advice on better mental health and wellbeing.

She said taking small, positive steps was critical in a year of bushfires and now COVID-19 that has tested our collective sense of security and wellbeing.

"Control what you can, so set up schedules or daily routines they're your secret weapon against worry," she said.

"Secondly, now, more than ever, it's important to find joy in the small things and to wallow in moments of pleasure.

"Schedule indulgences that you can look forward to. People who do this experience more motivation, sense of purpose and most importantly, improved mood."

Dr McKay said keeping a daily gratitude journal was one easy way to help identify and lock in positive emotions.

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Get connected

Humans are social creatures who rely on each other for survival. We're wired to connect but it can take a conscious effort to make it happen.

We thrive when we're together and we are happier and healthier when we make the time to connect.

Since long before the arrival of COVID-19, Danielle Einstein has been researching our intuitive responses to uncertainty.

She is a clinical psychologist specialising in the treatment and prevention of anxiety.

While Dr Einstein agrees that positive psychology is important, she said understanding the cycle of negative thoughts would also help when learning how best to flex your happiness muscles.

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Smell the roses or sample a sunset

Moving your body through the natural world is one of the easiest ways to improve mood or even lift depression.

Make time for nature during your week visit the beach in the morning, do a bushwalk on the weekend, or just spend time in the garden.

"When we experience uncertainty in an area that is important to us, at the back of our mind we have thoughts about the worst possible outcome," she said.

"I call these types of thoughts uncertainty bombs they circle around and bother us.

"We can't help it, it's our tendency to look out for danger to protect ourselves."

Dr Einstein said she believed knowledge was the key to defusing uncertainty bombs or at least to limit their damage.

"Learning how uncertainty bombs derail us and how we have the power to recognise, manage and step out of the what-if spiral, will help lower anxiety levels."

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Breathe, just breathe

Minimising stress is a crucial step, and something simple we can all learn is how to use our breath to regulate the body's response to tension.

A simple exercise is the double inhale: take one breath through the nostrils, then a second ... now, slowly exhale.

Health experts say connecting with friends and community is one of the most important ways to improve your mental health, particularly in times of COVID-19 with so much forced isolation.

Dr McKay said spending time with other people, thinking about what they were thinking, feeling what they were feeling, even holding a conversation, was one of the most cognitively important functions of the brain.

"Humans are first and foremost social creatures who rely on each other for survival," she said.

"We're wired to connect, but it can take a conscious and determined effort to make it happen.

"We thrive when we're together and we are happier and healthier when we make the time to connect."

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Sleep well, eat well

Modern humans are chronically sleep deprived, which can impact cognition, mood, memory and learning, so a regular good-night's sleep should be a priority, not a luxury.

Studies by Deakin University are also helping us better understand the important relationship between the food we eat, our brain, gut and mental health.

Sunshine, light and fresh air are nature's ways of helping us chill out and gain perspective.

Moving your body through the natural world is one of the most practical ways to improve mood or even combat depression.

Dr McKay said new research suggested looking at panoramic vistas such sunsets, horizons, gazing out to sea or at mountain ranges, also regulated our stress responses and triggered happiness reflexes.

"Not only do sunrises and sunsets look beautiful, the colours are an important part of signalling when it's daytime and nightfall and when it's time to sleep, which builds resilience to stress," she said.

"Time in nature helps to improve mood, reduce blood pressure and can increase our ability to concentrate."

Excerpt from:
How neuro-knowledge can help us find happiness and improve mental health - ABC News

Neuroscience

New Study Examines Recursive Thinking – ScienceBlog.com

Recursion the computational capacity to embed elements within elements of the same kind has been lauded as the intellectual cornerstone of language, tool use and mathematics. A multi-institutional team of Carnegie Mellon University researchers, for the first time, show this ability is shared across age, species and cultural groups in a new study published in the June 26 issue of the journal Science Advances.

Recursion is a way to organize information that allows humans to see patterns in information that are rich and complex, and perhaps beyond what other species see, saidJessica Cantlon, the Ronald J. and Mary Ann Zdrojkowski Professor of Developmental Neuroscience at CMU and senior author on the paper. We try to trace the origins of our complex and rich intellectual activities to something in our evolutionary past to understand what makes our thinking similar to and distinct from other species.

The team set up a series of experiments with U.S. adults, adults from an indigenous group in Bolivia that largely lacks formal education, U.S. children and non-human primates. After training on the task, the researchers provided each group with sequences to order. They studied how each group conducted this task, either in a recursive or non-recursive way (listing) and looked to see which order they naturally chose.

The researchers found that the human participants from all age and cultural groups spontaneously ordered content from a recursive approach by building nested structures. The non-human primate subjects more commonly used a simpler listing strategy but with additional exposure began using the recursive strategy, eventually ending up in the range of performance of human children.

This ability to represent recursive structures is present in children as young as three years old, which suggests it is there even before they use it in language, said Stephen Ferrigno, a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University and first author on the paper. We also saw this ability across people from widely different human cultures. Non-human primates also have the capacity to represent recursive sequences, given the right experience. These results dispel the long-held belief that only humans have the capacity to use this rule.

The team found that working memory was an important factor affecting the sequencing abilities of participants. A strong correlation exists between working memory and the use of the hierarchical strategy.

Some of the errors were due to working memory, because participants had to remember which objects went first and relate that to other objects later in the list, said Ferrigno. Children and non-human primates had more errors, which may be due to lower working memory capacity.

The authors note that this work offers a simplified version of a recursive task using visual cues. A more complex series of tasks may not yield the same results.

There is something universal of being a human that lets our brains think this way spontaneously, but primates have the ability to learn it to some degree, said Cantlon. [This research] really gives us a chance to sort out the evolutionary and developmental contributions to complex thought.

Cantlon and Ferrigno were joined by Samuel Cheyette and Steven Piantadosi at the University of California, Berkeley on the study titled, Recursive sequence generation in monkeys, children, US adults, and native Amazonians. This work received support from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the James S. McDonnell Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the University of Rochester.

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New Study Examines Recursive Thinking - ScienceBlog.com

Immunology

Tech: Call for immunology to return to the wild Tunis Daily News – Tdnews

In an article published today in Science, a multidisciplinary research team from morethan 10 universities and research institutes outlines how integrating a more diverseset of species and environments could enhance the biomedical research cycle.The viruses that cause COVID-19, AIDS, Ebola, and rabies among others allmade the lethal jump from wildlife into humans. Understanding how the immunesystem works in animals that live with coronaviruses in a natural environment, suchas bats, can give us direction for developing treatments and vaccines to protecthumans from viruses.

Lead author, Dr Andrew Flies from the Menzies Institute for Medical Research at theUniversity of Tasmania, says this is not a new concept.

The very first vaccine arose from observing people interacting with animals in a realworldenvironment. Specifically, milkmaids who acquired a mild cowpox infectionfrom cows were protected from the deadly smallpox. That observation led to the ideaof inoculating people with non-lethal viruses to protect them from deadly viruses.This type of discovery can only be made by studying new species in variableenvironments.

Modern research relies heavily on mouse experiments in laboratory settings, whichlimits the scope for this type of ground-breaking discovery. For example, a new classof antibodies, often referred to as nanobodies, was discovered in camels. Easier andfaster to make than traditional antibodies used in biomedicine, camel-derivednanobodies are playing an import role in biomedical research, including the globalCOVID-19 response. This shows how stepping out of the lab and studying newspecies can yield large long-term payoffs.

We are really excited to see how our initial group discussions held at the firstAustralian Wild and Comparative Immunology (WACI) workshop(https://www.wacimmuno.com/ ) led to publishing a Perspective article in a worldleading journal, said co-author Dr Jerome Le Nours, from the BiomedicineDiscovery Institute at Monash University, who was co-organiser of the WACImeeting.

There are many excellent wildlife and disease ecologists, veterinarian scientists andimmunologists in Australia, and beyond. We hope that our contribution will inspirethem to seek mutually beneficial, inter-disciplinary collaboration said AssociateProfessor Anne Peters, Monash University, co-author and consortium collaborator.

WACI Consortium collaborator and co-author, Associate Professor Julie Old fromWestern Sydney University, said its important for immunology research to includemore diverse species. If we want to evolve our understanding of the immunesystem, and potentially get ahead of any future pandemics, the research communityneeds to expand. We need to broaden our scope, and bring new species and newenvironments into the research paradigm.

Realising wild immunology needs initiatives like the WACI Consortium that harnessthe wide expertise of scientists and diverse technologies within individual areas saysAssociate Professor Michelle Power from Macquarie University. The risks ofemerging infectious diseases are not going away. We need new ideas, new toolsand dynamic collaboration to address them.

Director of the Menzies Institute for Medical Research, Distinguished ProfessorAlison Venn, said new technology has broken down research barriers to integratingnew species and environments into the research cycle.Proactive investment in wild immunology can stimulate discoveries with real-worldapplications for human and veterinary medicine and conservation. It could help usprepare for the next pandemic.

###

Learn more about the call to action here: https://youtu.be/8fpW-f41j6c(video under embargo until 2pm US EST 2-July)

Media contact:

Angela Wilson

Communications Manager,

Menzies Institute for Medical Research

+61 0487 325 217

[emailprotected]

Information released by:

Communications and Media Office

University of Tasmania

+61 3 6226 2124

[emailprotected]

Twitter.com/utas_

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Tech: Call for immunology to return to the wild Tunis Daily News - Tdnews

Immunology

SARS-CoV-2-Reactive T Cells Found in Patients with Severe COVID-19 – The Scientist

In May, researchers showed that people with mild forms of COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, have circulating T cells that respond to the virus. Now, in a Science Immunology study published last week (June 26), a collaborating research team has determined that people who are sick enough with COVID-19 to be hospitalized in the intensive care unit also make SARS-CoV-2-reactive T cells. In both studies, the researchers found that a subset of healthy, unexposed people also had some of these T cells that react to the virus, perhaps due to previous exposures to other coronaviruses that cause symptoms of the common cold.

The latest study provides more solid evidence that there are SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells that are induced by the infection, says Antonio Bertoletti, who studies T cells at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore and was not involved in the work. This is important because researchers have put a lot of emphasis on antibodies, he adds, but its still not clear whether antibodies or T cells are more important for protection from the virus.

Rory de Vries, a virologist and immunologist at Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands, was visiting immunologist Alessandro Settes lab at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology in California to collaborate on another project when all hell broke loose with the pandemic, Sette tells The Scientist.Settes group had been developing tools to investigate adaptive immunity to SARS-CoV-2, but in California at that point, they didnt have a COVID-19 patient population to try them in. As de Vries prepared to return home in March, Europe already had confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2, so he took the tools the team had developed back to the Netherlands.

de Vries and colleagues collected blood from 10 COVID-19 patientsfour women and six men admitted to the intensive care unit with acute respiratory distress syndrome requiring ventilationand 10 healthy volunteers. The team exposed the study participants immune cells to a pool of predicted SARS-CoV-2 peptides in vitro to see whether or not the cells would react.

The team determined that all of the ill patients had fewer overall T cells than the healthy volunteers, which was consistent with earlier findings from other groups. All patients had helper T cells and eight of 10 had killer T cells that targeted SARS-CoV-2 proteins. These reactive T cells showed up within about 10 days of symptom onset in the patients. The strongest responses were to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, but cells responded to membrane and nuclear viral proteins, too.

The frequency of these corona-specific T cells in these patients . . . is at least at the same level, if not higher than I see in other viruses, says Nina Babel, an immunologist at Charit Universittsmedizin Berlin who did not participate in the study. This indicates that the lack of T-cell response is probably not the problem in these patients, she explains.

The study authors reported that two healthy controls also had circulating SARS-CoV-2-fighting T cells, something that showed up in healthy controls in the study of milder cases of COVID-19 in May. A likely explanation is that this is reflective of exposure to common cold coronaviruses which . . . are cousins of SARS-CoV-2, Sette says. This could give the immune system a head start by allowing it to leverage preexisting reactivity to mount a faster or better response, or it might be a disadvantage in that preexisting immunity could lead the immune system to take SARS-CoV-2 less seriously, he adds. While Sette thinks the second idea is less likely, he acknowledges that the jury is still out about the role this reactivity in unexposed people, which has also been shown in studies from other groups, plays in the severity of COVID-19.

The most curious thing is this issue of cells that recognize SARS-CoV-2 from people whove never seen the virus, says Stanley Perlman, an immunologist at the University of Iowa who was not involved in the study. His group has done work with MERS-CoVthe coronavirus responsible for Middle East Respiratory Syndromeand they see almost no evidence of this kind of preexisting immunity, he says. The authors postulate that this [cross-reactivity] comes from circulating coronaviruses or something else. It would be interesting to show what that something else is.

Understanding the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 will help researchers determine what aspects of that response they can leverage and which aspects make people sicker and are to be avoided, de Vries tells The Scientist.The next steps would then of course be treatment, but especially vaccinations, he explains. If we vaccinate people and direct the immune response, we need to know what immunity we want to induce and what immunity we want to stay away from.

D. Weiskopf et al., Phenotype and kinetics of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells in COVID-19 patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome,Science Immunology,doi:10.1126/sciimmunol.abd2071, 2020.

Link:
SARS-CoV-2-Reactive T Cells Found in Patients with Severe COVID-19 - The Scientist

Immunology

Staying Informed and Empowered as A Patient with Cancer – Curetoday.com

Cutting-edge medical information and first-person accounts empower patients to evaluate immunotherapy as a treatment option, one organization attests.

Beyond the patients health care team the oncologist, nurses and other specialists who treat and provide support throughout the cancer journey peers can be an important source of knowledge. Other patients who share their experiences with cancer and treatment provide a vital and often helpful perspective.

In addition, groups like the Cancer Research Institute (CRI), a nonprofit organization that since 1953 has worked to advance the field of cancer immunology, can help fill the gaps by providing resources that are reassuring, inspiring and even lifesaving.

CRI has created a number of resources for patients and caregivers seeking information about immunotherapy. These include a website providing updates on the latest in research and drug approvals for more than 20 major types of cancer, a webinar series featuring immunotherapy experts, an immunotherapy clinical trial finder service and a series of patient story videos.

These resources can help both patients who are eligible to take Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved immunotherapies and those whose cancers dont respond to standard therapies and must look to experimental treatment. Such treatments usually are found in clinical trials that are testing new drugs, treatment combinations or ways to administer them. Some drugs may already be approved to treat some types of cancer but are undergoing testing in others.

Because these treatments are new or not yet approved, less may be known about their potential benefits and risks compared with conventional therapies. Patients may havea lot of questions: Will it work for me? How will I know its working? How will it make me feel? What are the known side effects?

Recognizing the value of its resources in answering these questions for patients and caregivers, CRI decided in 2016 to provide an additional forum through which cancer-concerned communities can connect with one another and with scientific experts at the forefrontof cancer immunotherapy: the CRI Immunotherapy Patient Summit Series.

Over the past four years, the CRI summits, which are free to attendees, have brought the science of cancer immunotherapy to thousands of patients, caregivers and advocates, explaining in clear, accessible terms how scientists are unlocking the immune systems natural ability to fight cancer.

Importantly, the summits also feature keynote presentations and panel discussions centered on patients who share their experiences in learning about and receiving immunotherapy, participating in clinical trials and overcoming cancer.

At a recent CRI Immunotherapy Patient Summit in Houston, attendees heard from keynote patient speaker K.C. Dill, who described how researching immuno- therapy and listening to other patients stories on the CRI website inspired, informed and empowered her to take action after chemotherapy and radiation failed to keep her cancer at bay.

ONE PATIENTS IMMUNOTHERAPY STORY

When Dill learned in February 2015 that she had stage 3 non-small cell lung cancer, she was devastated and feared for the future of her husband and two daughters. Just 40 at the time, she never imagined that shed face the same rare type of lung cancer, adenosquamous carcinoma, that her mother was battling. Sadly, a few years later, cancer would take her mothers life.

Leaving the hospital that day and going to my mothers house to tell her I had the same kind of cancer she had was the hardest thing Ive ever had to do, Dill said in an interview with CRI (cancerresearch.org/kc).

Because her cancer was so advanced, Dill was ineligible for surgery. Instead, she began an aggressive regimen of radiation and chemotherapy that left her feeling sick, fatigued and in pain. After 15 weeks of severe side effects, Dill decided shed had enough and needed another option. Meanwhile, the cancer had progressed to stage 4, spreading to her lymph nodes. Dill realized her odds of survival were rapidly dwindling. She sought a second opinion and different course of treatment at Baylor College of Medicine in nearby Houston. There, she heard the word immunotherapy for the first time.

Dills oncologist at Baylor, Dr. Jun Zhang, explained that although no immunotherapy had yet been approved by the FDA for her type of cancer, there were indications that Dill might respond to treatment with a type of immunotherapy called checkpoint blockade specifically, the drug Opdivo (nivolumab), which interferes with cancers ability to disable the immune systems attack.

The drug had received FDA approval earlier that year to treat another subtype of the disease called squamous non-small cell lung cancer and showed promise in other types of lung cancer.

After her initial consultation with Zhang, Dill returned home, went online to learn as much as she could about immunotherapy and found CRIs website. She watched videos and read stories about others with advanced lung cancer who had been treated successfully with Opdivo. I thought, Wow, if it worked for them, it could work for me, Dill recalled.

She decided to find out if immunotherapy could help her immune system fight the cancer. Through the drugmakers compassionate use program, Dill began receiving treatments every two weeks. She describes the experience as unlike anything she endured while receiving chemotherapy and radiation. After my first treatment, I felt a little sore and had some flu-like symptoms, but I was able to work out the next day, she said.

After the first few weeks, Dill felt better than she had in a long time. I had color back in my skin. My hair was growing back. I had more energy, she said.

Just how well Dill was responding to immunotherapy quickly became apparent when the first scans showed that her tumors had all but disappeared. By spring 2016, she had no evidence of disease and stopped treatment later that year. She remains in remission, enjoying time with her family and spreading the word about cancer immunotherapy as a CRI ImmunoAdvocate.

Immunotherapy has given me hope, Dill said. There are so many people out there this can help. Other patients that had come before me inspired me, so thats my hope to let my experience help the next person.

A VIRTUAL CONNECTION

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the unique risks and challenges it poses to patients with cancer, CRI has reimagined its in-person summit series as the CRI Virtual Immunotherapy Patient Summit.

The CRI Virtual Summit, which will take place in autumn 2020, promises to deliver the same high-quality, expert-curated information about cancer immunotherapy, along with inspiring, first-person accounts from patients. As with other CRI summits, this virtual event will include cancer-specific breakout sessions, allowing attendees to take a deeper dive into immunotherapy for the cancers that concern them most.

As cancer immunotherapy continues to become more widely available, CRI will continue to bridge the learning gap by providing trusted information for patients, caregivers and advocates. Meanwhile, CRI remains committed to funding promising research in immunology and immunotherapy so that, someday, all patients with cancer might be able to experience the potentially lifesaving benefits of this new treatment approach.

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Staying Informed and Empowered as A Patient with Cancer - Curetoday.com

Immunology

What’s the answer to slowing the spread of COVID-19 for older adults? – Glenwood Springs Post Independent

Theres a lot of stupid floating around out there.

Thats what South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said during a recent news conference in which he pleaded with the public to make better decisions to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Thats the best quote ever its how you explain the recent surge (in cases), said Dr. Michael Schmidt, PhD, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Dr. Schmidt is the guest host of an upcoming webcast, How Colorado Can Work Smarter to Slow the Spread of COVID-19 in Older Adults, presented by Renew Senior Communities. Renew CEO Lee Tuchfarber is co-hosting.

This is a plague for which the human race has a choice, Dr. Schmidt said. We already know how to stop this virus dead in its tracks.

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Much of the discussion will focus on how we can do our part as a society to slow the spread, but Dr. Schmidt will also discuss promising light at the end of the tunnel. From the potential that oral polio vaccines can safely and cheaply protect the U.S. population to excitement over bluetooth technology expanding the efficiency of contact tracing, Dr. Schmidt said various stop-gap measures could make a big difference until theres a COVID-19 vaccine.

The only thing more infectious than this virus is hope, he said.

Personal responsibility

The way we control the virus is really straightforward, Dr. Schmidt said its hygiene.

Wearing a mask to protect others, washing your hands and keeping a physical distance of at least six feet from other people are the most effective safety precautions.

If weve learned one thing, there are a lot of folks out there who are infected and dont know it, he said. The mere act of speech actually can spread the virus. So, if youre out carrying your business and talking, wear a mask.

Physical distancing is your only hope if youre not wearing a mask. The hope being that the virus dissipates in the air before smashing into your face.

Many medical folks are wearing face shields because the virus can come in from your tear ducts, Dr. Schmidt said.

As for hand hygiene, simple soap and water is all you need. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends washing hands for at least 20 seconds.

Strict safety protocols have proven to work at Renew Senior Livings two communities in Aurora and Glenwood Springs. Tuchfarber said all residents at both communities have remained COVID-free while a great number of the senior living facilities in Colorado have experienced outbreaks.

Renew put various safety measures in place for staff before they enter the building, and theyve even provided staff with meals to take home to their families to decrease their need to go to the grocery store. Much of this decision-making is data-driven, with various phases of safety measures implemented depending on the R-naught (Ro), which is the estimate of the number of people to whom each infected person spreads the virus.

Theres an inherent spreadability of the virus itself, but theres also an environmental factor, Tuchfarber said. So behavior can really affect the Ro.

Testing

Testing serves a vital role in understanding and controlling the spread of COVID-19, Dr. Schmidt said. He points to data from Taiwan, a densely populated island that has managed to keep its number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 to date to less than 450 thanks to aggressive testing and contract tracing.

Going forward, given that we know there is significant asymptomatic and presymptomatic transmission of the virus, pre-emptive testing may be a way we help slow the spread of the virus in areas that have suddeningly seen a surge in an increase in new cases, he said. Simply, local areas may wish to routinely screen random members within their community looking for an up-turn in the number of cases. Such a program will be especially important to companies with public-facing employees, so that they can ensure that their employees and customers are as safe as possible.

Renew is working on a strategy for preemptive testing rather than waiting for a positive case and then reacting to it. Tuchfarber said Renew should be implementing that new protocol very soon.

Preemptive testing of all staff on a regular basis, unprompted by a positive test result, is presently a rarity in our industry, but is an important measure to assure safety. We are preparing to integrate this program in our COVID-19 safety regimen, Tuchfarber said. This is an extra measure of safety that we feel strongly about taking.

Facilitating a global response

In an effort to facilitate a global response, scientists are looking at three strategies: diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines.

Diagnostics essentially look at how we can slow the spread faster and better, while therapeutics focus on the use of drugs.

If were going to restart the economy, we need two to three drugs so the virus doesnt adapt to the drugs like it did with HIV and hepatitis C in the 1980s, Dr. Schmidt said.

Vaccines are the area for which Dr. Schmidt is truly excited. There are more than 90 candidate vaccines currently being studied, with microbiologists, structural biologists, physiologists and others all pulling in the same direction.

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What's the answer to slowing the spread of COVID-19 for older adults? - Glenwood Springs Post Independent

Immunology

Computational Immunology Market Growth By Manufacturers, Type And Application, Forecast To 2026 – 3rd Watch News

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Leading Computational Immunology manufacturers/companies operating at both regional and global levels:

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Computational Immunology Market Growth By Manufacturers, Type And Application, Forecast To 2026 - 3rd Watch News