All posts by medical

United Against COVID-19 – The UCSB Current

July 2, 2020 medical

The coronavirus pandemic demands innovative and creating thinking, and UC Santa Barbaras Graduate Division is answering the call with the Multidisciplinary Research on COVID-19 and its Impacts (MRCI) Program.

Launched in May by Graduate Dean Carol Genetti, the program has made 44 new grants to 55 grad students to support their summer research and creative projects on the pandemic. The program provides a $2,000 mini-grant to an individual or team project that explores, analyzes and responds to the COVID-19 pandemic. Of the 44 funded proposals, six were collaborative team proposals. The awards, running from June 22 through Sept. 22, may also include funding for direct project research costs (up to $500).

The coronavirus pandemic has changed nearly every aspect of human life, from family relationships to schooling, communication, the economy, politics and the arts, Genetti said. This is a dramatic, historic event and todays scholars have a remarkable opportunity to bring wide-ranging perspectives and methods of 21st- century scholarship to study it in real time.

In addition, she continued, some graduate students have had to delay their research due to the pandemic, and some have been impacted financially. MRCI addresses all of these at once, in generating research related to the pandemic, developing new opportunities and partnerships, and providing small stipends. Its a win all around.

Mary Hegarty, who serves as Graduate Division associate dean and leads the MRCI program, says this is a unique opportunity for graduate students to redirect their research.

Students have already received important guidance on proposal writing and will participate in collaborative groups throughout the summer to explore the perspectives of different disciplines on the current pandemic, she said. For some students, MRCI will lead to a new publication; for others, their MRCI project will be included as a chapter in their dissertation or will contribute pilot data for a grant proposal to a federal agency. In general, the projects speak to the resilience of our students in adapting their research and creative activities to provide new insights into the challenges of COVID-19.

Topics that received funding ranged from projects that will use seismic data to analyze the degree of compliance with shut-down orders to an examination of COVID-19 related policies and rhetoric in a variety of contexts.

Suyi Leong, a Ph.D. student in psychological and brain sciences, will be focusing on understanding how different cultural values affect the use of digital contact tracing (DCT).

I hope this project informs policy makers and app developers about peoples concerns for using the tool, and address them so that DCT can be effectively implemented, she said.

In this new world of remote engagement and research, graduate students will also explore the impact and efficacy of telehealth in the context of its greatly expanded use, and how different communities, such as religious institutions, have moved their face-to-face activities into online settings to serve their members.

Anthropology Ph.D. student Lauren Smyth is researching Southern Californian religious communities and their shift to digital and mixed digital/physical ritual sites in response to the pandemics stay-at-home orders and social distancing.

With the MRCI, Im most excited about the diverse range of incredible projects from across the university that I otherwise wouldnt get the chance to learn directly from, and sharing our different expertise to better understand pandemic-related research.

Statistics and applied probability doctoral student Mingzhao Hu will research the effects of COVID-19 on dialysis patients.

My research investigates effects of COVID-19 on dialysis patients via smoothing of longitudinal patient physiology variables and analyzes deviations during the pandemic with mixed effect state-space model based on first-hand recordings from treatment clinics, Hu said. I look forward to the cross-discipline collaboration opportunities offered by MCRI, and the generous funding is essential for me to carry out the research and perform the analysis to the best of my abilities.

Social justice themes also figure widely in the summer research projects, such as the analysis of the pandemics impact on vulnerable populations, indigenous peoples, undocumented, and economically marginalized populations.

Sarah Alami, another Ph.D. student in anthropology, will be modeling the spread of the coronavirus among the Tsimane, an indigenous population living in the Bolivian Amazon, using secondary data collected by the Tsimane Health and Life History Project (THLHP).

I am hoping this project will help assist in ongoing management of COVID-19 among Tsimane by detecting at-risk individuals and hotspots, or areas of elevated disease risk, she said.

Holly Carpenter, who joined the Graduate Division team as Crossroads Program Coordinator right before the March shelter-in-place order, hailed the diversity of topics and research approaches in the proposals was incredible.

It was a wonderful reminder of the passion and creativity that UCSB graduate students bring to their work and the many ways that graduate student research contributes to understanding complex problems and finding solutions.

Carpenter now works with Hegarty and Robby Nadler, the Graduate Divisions academic, professional and technical graduate writing development director, to facilitate multidisciplinary intellectual discourse among program participants.

I was touched by the generous spirit of our students projects, Nadler said. They embraced this opportunity as a way to help others through their expertise, not as a mechanism to pursue their own research agendas. At the end of the day, that is what a UC Santa Barbara education is about.

In addition to working on their research over the summer, students will also participate in the MRCI Research Collaborative, which will include presentations, small and large group discussions, and networking. To foster this community, the MRCI program in collaboration with the Graduate Student Resource Center staff and peers will hold a series of webinars as part of the proposal and research funding process.

Awardees will also participate in discussions and will share their final research findings with the community with a fall symposium where students will present short overviews of their work and outcomes. The programs organizers also hope the mini-grants will help seed the creation of future grant proposals, articles, works of art, or other scholarly products by graduate students.

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United Against COVID-19 - The UCSB Current

Physiology

How to rid East Africa of locusts? Serve them in a kebab or drive them to cannibalism – WTVB News

July 2, 2020 medical

Thursday, July 02, 2020 3:04 a.m. EDT by Thomson Reuters

By Ayenat Mersie

NAIROBI, (Reuters) - Eat them, poison them, and use scent to drive them to cannibalism - as a second wave of locusts threatens to devour East Africa's crops, scientists in a Nairobi lab are experimenting with novel ways to kill them.

Swarms are the worst for three generations, encouraged by unseasonably wet weather and dispersed by a record number of cyclones. The destructive pests could cost East Africa and Yemen $8.5 billion this year, the World Bank has said.

Locusts are usually controlled by spraying them with pesticides before they can fly, but the chemicals can damage other insects and the environment.

So scientists at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) are experimenting with biopesticides and the use of locusts as human and animal food as they look for environmentally-friendly extermination methods.

ICIPE researchers were a part of a group that discovered an isolate from a fungus, Metharizium acridum, could kill locusts without harming other creatures. The isolate is now being used across East Africa.

Now researchers are pouring through 500 other fungi and microbes in their bio bank in the hope of discovering another locust poison.

ICIPE scientist Baldwyn Torto's research has mostly focused on locust smells and pheromones.

Before locusts can fly they have a certain chemistry and therefore a unique smell that allows them to remain in a group, he said. That smell changes as locusts mature.

Disseminating the scent of an adult among the young can help destroy swarms.

"They get disoriented, the group breaks into pieces, they cannibalize each other and they become even more susceptible to biopesticides," he said.

A lower-tech, but still environmentally-friendly way of combating locusts is eating them.

ICIPE is developing nets and backpack-vacuums to capture large numbers of locusts. The protein-rich insects can then be cooked or crushed into meal or oil suitable for animal feed or human consumption. ICIPE organizes regular events to normalize the consumption of insects.

Researcher Chrysantus Tanga eats the insects himself. In the ICIPE cafe, the heads, legs and wings have been removed.

"They have to make it presentable for a first-timer," Tanga said motioning towards colourful plates of locust-based meals prepared by ICIPE chefs, ranging from deep fried with tartar sauce, to skewered among vegetables in a kebab.

"For me, I'll eat 100% of it... whatever is crunchy."

(Editing by Katharine Houreld and Alexandra Hudson)

Neuroscience

Neuroscience reveals the mental blindspots that can become deadly in a pandemic – AlterNet

July 2, 2020 medical

As the vast majority of companies rush to reopen and people rush back to public life, theyre falling into the trap of getting back to normal. Theyre not realizing were heading into a period of waves of restrictions once again, due to many states reopening too soon.

Indeed, some of the states to open early onward have alreadyreimposed some restrictions. This shows that as I predictedin a newspaper editorialway back at the start of the pandemic on March 10, 2020, we will greatly underestimate the pandemic and need to prepare to face rolling waves of restrictions and shutdowns until a vaccine. To avoid the trap of normalcy, we need to understand the parallels between whats going on now, and what happened at the start of the pandemic.

Very many prominentbusinessandpoliticalleaders downplayed the pandemic in its early stages. As a result, most business owners and plenty of ordinary citizens initially perceived the pandemic as little worse than the common cold.

This initial impression anchored their opinions toward minimizing the threat posed by COVID-19. In neuroscience and behavioral economics research, we call such initial impressions an anchor. Our minds tend to fall into a dangerous judgment error called theanchoring bias or focalism, where we give too much credit to the initial piece of information we received on a topic and perceive the rest of the information through the filter of that initial impression.

Yes, first impressions really matter, too much for our own good! That means as new information became available about the danger of COVID-19, people stuck to their initial impressions. They feel very reluctant to change their minds based on new evidence. Nowhere is this more evidence than in guidance on wearing masks.

Initially, the CDC indicated that theres no need to wear masks to protect yourself or others from COVID-19. Over time, as research evidence accumulated on the benefits of wearing masks, the CDCchanged its guidelines, highlighting the importance of masking in public.

Thats how science works: changing evidence results in changing guidelines. But thats not how our brains work, at least for those without training in critical evaluation of evidence.

The result? Many disregarded the new guidance, especially if those they consider authority figures did not reinforce it. Due to a mental blindspot calledemotional contagion, we tend to adopt the perspectives of those we see as authority figures. With their guidance, we can overcome initial anchoring; without it, we will stick to our initial perspective.

Just as dangerous is another dangerous judgment error that cognitive neuroscientists call thenormalcy bias. This mental blindspot refers to the fact that our gut reactions drive us to feel that the future, at least in the short and medium term of the next couple of years, will function in roughly the same way as the past: normally.As a result, we tend to vastly underestimate both the possibility and impact of a disaster striking us. Moreover, we will rush to get back to normal even when we should be preparing for the aftershocks or continuation of the disaster.

The normalcy bias, anchoring bias, and emotional contagion are three of over one hundred mental blindspots that cognitive neuroscientists and behavioral economists like myself callcognitive biases. Fortunately,recent research by myself and other scholarshas shown us how we can effectively defeat such dangerous judgment errors.

First you need to understand and evaluate where you yourself and your organization have fallen into each of these biases, and evaluate the damage caused by doing so. Then, you need to consider realistically the long-term outcomes and plan for a realistic scenario that addresses the likelihood of major disruptions.

Prepare to deal with waves of restrictions and loosenings for the long haul, especially as its likely that the coronavirus will get worse in the Fall, as weather gets colder. Remember, even if you made some bad decisions in the past, you always have the opportunity to make better decisions going forward tosurvive and thrive through the pandemic.

then let us make a small request. AlterNets journalists work tirelessly to counter the traditional corporate media narrative. Were here seven days a week, 365 days a year. And were proud to say that weve been bringing you the real, unfiltered news for 20 yearslonger than any other progressive news site on the Internet.

Its through the generosity of our supporters that were able to share with you all the underreported news you need to know. Independent journalism is increasingly imperiled; ads alone cant pay our bills. AlterNet counts on readers like you to support our coverage. Did you enjoy content from David Cay Johnston, Common Dreams, Raw Story and Robert Reich? Opinion from Salon and Jim Hightower? Analysis by The Conversation? Then join the hundreds of readers who have supported AlterNet this year.

Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure AlterNet remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to AlterNet, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.

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Neuroscience reveals the mental blindspots that can become deadly in a pandemic - AlterNet

Neuroscience

Fall 2020: How to Achieve Continuity in Teaching and Learning – Bowdoin News

July 2, 2020 medical

Broene is a professor of chemistry and chair of the Continuity in Teaching and Learning Group (CTLG), a collection of twenty-three faculty, students, and staff charged by President Clayton Rose with developing an online teaching and learning model that will approach the challenge from a fresh perspective while building on the lessons learned during the spring 2020 semester. The group spent the better part of ten weeks coming up with a comprehensive plan for Bowdoin College in the falla plan that guides faculty in creating an online learning environment that delivers the defining aspects of a Bowdoin education.

About half of the group was made up of faculty members, the rest being technology, education, and communications specialists from the Bowdoin staff, as well as several students. Extensive surveys were conducted to assess what worked and what didnt in the second half of the 2020 spring semester, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the College to pivot quickly to remote teaching. In issuing its findings and recommendations, the group also drew on the latest pedagogical research regarding online instruction and interviews with external consultants in the field.

After consulting with experts in the fields of science, medicine, and public health, President Rose recently unveiled Bowdoins plan for the upcoming academic year. Its designed to ensure the health and safety of the College community amid the uncertainty of the ongoing pandemic, while providing an excellent Bowdoin education to all students.

According to the plan, all first-year students will be on campus for the fall semester, along with transfer students, student residential life staff, students who for personal reasons are unable to pursue an online education at home, and a small number of senior honors students who require access to physical spaces on campus for their projects and can do so under health and safety protocols. All classes will be taught online, with the exception of most first-year seminars. As for the spring 2021 semester, Rose says: Assuming we are able to make it through the fall successfully in protecting the health and safety of our community, it is my intention and expectation to have sophomores, juniors, and seniors back on campus in the springwith priority given to seniors.

In planning for the fall, Broene says the group gave a lot of thought to the kinds of classes faculty have to deliver online. We have discussion-based classes; we have lecture-based classes. And then, he adds, there are lab-based classes, as well as performance, arts, and language-based learning. We asked faculty who taught in all of these modes to talk about what went well, what didnt, and what ideas they had.

The group has developed recommendations for all types of courses, suggesting what can best make them Bowdoin courses. One of the biggest takeaways from the spring experience concerned content delivery and the need for clear separation of synchronous learning, which is live and collaborative, involving all the students, and asynchronous content, which is prerecorded and on-demand. In a normal face-to-face classroom, we can improvise, says Crystal Hall. Students can ask questions of faculty right in the moment. It's harder to do that in an online setting.

Hall is associate professor of digital humanities and director of the digital and computational studies program. The recommendation, she says, is to break up larger classes into small groups (around twelve or fewer) for the discussion portion of the lesson. The feedback we had said that smaller groups are more enjoyable: there's more contact, theres time for everyone to participate, for people to ask questions and to really get their hands on the material. While professors continue to teach the class, they will benefit from an expanded use of student teaching assistants (TAs) to help with larger classes, as TAs are employed to facilitate and organize these smaller discussion groups.

The lectures, meanwhile, are to be delivered asynchronously and distilled into digestible chunks of fifteen or twenty minutes each that can be easily downloaded and listened to on-demand. This actually has some advantages over a classroom situation, says Broene. In a classroom you're watching somebody lecture while writing something. You're listening and you're trying to think about it all at the same time. Whereas online, he explains, you can review the content until you understand it.

Professor of Neuroscience and Biology Manuel Daz-Ros chaired the subcommittee that studied the issue of laboratory-based learning and how that will work. In their search for creative solutions, he and his colleagues have recommended a number of initiatives. Daz-Ros cited one example from his own work: Were going to ship equipment to students so they can conduct experiments on their own. That equipment includes an outreach effort called Backyard Brains, designed to introduce students to neuroscience. Among the pieces of the kit coming their way are headbands made to amplify, measure, and record brain activity. Its quite exciting, he says. Students can perform experiments on themselves!

There are many portions of our lab work that we can do well in an online environment, says Broene. For example, he points out, students can do fieldwork, collect data and interpret it, learning on the way how to use new types of instrumentation.

Some lab work, though, cannot be done remotely, he continues. I cant, for example, send a bottle of ether to my organic chemistry students. That would be dangerous and probably illegal.

This is where flexibility is required. Flexibility is key, he stresses, and that might include the flexibility to postpone a lab-based course that has to be done on campus until the spring semesterwhen a more regular routine will have hopefully returnedand use the fall semester to pursue labs that lend themselves more to online learning.

Carrie Scanga, associate professor of art, chair of the department of art, and director of the visual arts division, worked on performance-based classestheater and dance, music, language, visual artsto figure out best practices for online learning. Performance-based classes in general, says Scanga, will be influenced by what is going on in the outside world and the highly unusual circumstances under which students are learning. We know from our spring experience that the most impactful courses for students are ones that address contemporary issues. These classes give students a chance to interact with their feelings about these times, she adds.

As the report states, performance-based courses have the opportunity to directly address how the arts function to heal, maintain community, or disrupt societal systems in this era. Examples cited include courses on film acting, Dance in the TikTok Era, and improvised musical communities (balcony singing) as ways of interacting with the wider world. All of these courses, says Scanga, are reliant on creating a space where students can feel comfortable, whether they are singing, dancing, acting, or practicing a foreign language.

As with all classes, there is a heavy reliance on technology to achieve these goals and a great deal of the CTLG report is dedicated to this issue.

A number of lessons were learned in the spring about what technology best suits an online learning model, says Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer Michael Cato. We were reacting to an emergency so we encouraged faculty to work with the tools they knew, and they used a lot of approaches and platforms. Now, as we plan for the fall, he says, we will emphasize consistency.

Decreasing the cognitive load for students is key, says Cato, so that the way in which they are learning does not distract from the learning itself. The new experience will be centered around two or three learning platforms with everything going through Blackboard. Classes may employ technologies like Zoom and Microsoft Teams, but the gateway to them, the starting point, will be the familiar Blackboard platform, he explains, where all student assignments and material for the week will be posted.

Then theres the issue of connectivity and how to ensure that all students, off campus and on, will be technically able to have the same learning experience. In addition to shipping equipment like tablets and laptops to students who need them, the College is also partnering with institutions that might be local to off-campus students and able to provide them with wireless internet connections. Theres also the eduroam initiative, says Cato. Its a global partnership of higher education institutionsincluding Bowdointhat offers shared free access to high-speed wireless networks. If a student lives near a college or a university, they may be able to access the institutions WiFi network using eduroam.

There is, explains Kathyrn Byrnes, an inherent paradox in the new teaching model, and its a welcome one. Shes director of the Baldwin Center for Learning and Teaching. As a student, while youre doing more on your own and working independently, there are also many opportunities to build community through one-on-one connections with your professors and fellow students.

Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Elizabeth Pritchard says it was also really important to involve students in the process and to learn from them. One of the things students are really good at is creating community online, she says. Five students served on the CTLG and helped address a number of issues, including that of time zones. We decided to change the time-block format, says Caroline Poole 22, to accommodate students across all time zones. To solve this problem, courses are being offered at different times for different days of the week.

Gavin Shilling 21 worked on a subcommittee looking at lecture-based classes. Our balance was trying to create a structure that everyone could work within but also allow for some flexibility for the professors to improvise and be creative in the moment.

Peyton Tran 23 says shes really optimistic going into the next semester because I know that Bowdoin professors are going to still be high-quality professorsjust through a different medium.

The terms remote instruction and online instruction are often used interchangeably. The difference is that the first entails temporarily transitioning content designed for face-to-face instruction to the internet, whereas the second is the purposeful design and implementation of a course for delivery online. Thus, Bowdoins spring semester was an instance of remote instruction, whereas planning for the fall entails the development of online teaching and learning.Page 5, CTLG final report.

The CTLG report lays out a detailed timeline for faculty, to help them prepare all the components and materials they need for the upcoming semester. Putting together an online course requires a lot of support from academic technology staff, and after extensive discussions with several companies, Bowdoin has hired a firm of outside experts to complement the internal team, selected because of their deep understanding of online education and that they get what is special about a liberal arts education.

With classes due to start on September 2, 2020, work is underway in earnest to ensure students this fall will experience the full benefits of a Bowdoin education, even if it is one that will look different from anything thats gone before.

While we dont have all the answers yet, says Broene, I learned enough in this work to be sure of two things: that the Bowdoin faculty is fully committed to their students education and that they are determined to get this right.

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Fall 2020: How to Achieve Continuity in Teaching and Learning - Bowdoin News

Immunology

Immunology expert says Ireland needs to be ready for Covid-19 travel spikes – Irish Examiner

July 2, 2020 medical

A 'green list' of countries with unrestricted travel access to Ireland could be published next Thursday.

A final decision on air bridges is being made by a Cabinet sub-committee tomorrow, before being approved by Ministers on Monday.

People could travel to countries on this list, without a 14-day quarantine on their return, but the National Public Health Emergency Team's concerned it could lead to more Covid-19 cases being re-imported.

Professor Luke ONeill from the school of Immunology at Trinity College Dublin says we need to be prepared for spikes in travel-related cases.

Professor O'Neill says: "Even the famous 'green' countries, that's a good idea of course,

"And we have sympathy for the airlines with the airlines of course we do, but this 'green' country [Ireland] is a good one, but we have got to be ready for that [Covid-19 clusters],

"The timing has to be right for these things to happen or otherwise,

There will definitely be spikes coming into Ireland with all kinds of consequences.

Earlier, Tnaiste Leo Varadkar said a green list of countries for travel - to be published on July 9 - may only allow people fly at a later date.

The Government continues to advise against all non-essential travel.

Speaking at a launch of 6.5m in online support grants for 183 businesses, Mr Varadkar said: That is still the plan [to publish on July 9] to publish a greenest or shortlist of countries, which you can travel to without the 14-day quarantine.

But we do have a new government. And in fairness to the new government and to the new Taoiseach, the new minister of health, they're going to want to study matters and bring proposals to a Cabinet sub-committee this week.

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Immunology expert says Ireland needs to be ready for Covid-19 travel spikes - Irish Examiner

Immunology

Iowa-developed mice used to test coronavirus therapies – The Gazette

July 2, 2020 medical

IOWA CITY As medical researchers worldwide began to study COVID-19 to try and develop a vaccine or other therapies to blunt the deadly disease, they soon realized common lab mice werent useful.

Normal mice could not be infected with the virus, said Dr. Stanley Perlman, a University of Iowa professor of pediatrics, microbiology and immunology as well as the Mark Stinsky Chair in Virology.

Perlman and Dr. Paul McCray, also a UI professor of pediatrics, microbiology and immunology, realized they had something in their labs that might help: Decade-old frozen mouse sperm.

The researchers, along with Jincun Zhao, now at Medical University in Guangzhou, China, in 2005 developed a transgenic mouse that could be infected with SARS-CoV, a viral respiratory illness that spread to more than 8,000 people worldwide in 2003.

By the time the UI came up with the mice, the epidemic was over, Perlman said. They kept the mice around for a few years, but then decided it was easier just to preserve the sperm.

When SARS-CoV-2 hit the population, we didnt have live mice, Perlman said, referring to the new coronavirus that has infected more than 9 million people worldwide and killed more than 490,000 since last year. We had to rederive the mice, then we could study them.

The UI has made information about how they developed the transgenic mice available for free to any other researchers who want it.

The way they did it was using an adenovirus gene therapy vector that is inhaled by the mice to deliver the human ACE2 protein into mouse airway cells. Once the airway cells have the protein, the mice become able to be infected with SARS-CoV-2 and can develop COVID-19-like lung symptoms.

Although the disease is not fatal in the mice, they do get sick, losing weight and developing lung damage.

But research on mice may be critical to ending the pandemic.

What it allows you to do is test vaccines, test anti-viral therapies, learn how the virus is causing the disease things you do not want to learn for the first time on people, Perlman said.

The researchers, reporting in the journal Cell, showed these transgenic mice could be used to evaluate a vaccine and several potential COVID-19 therapies, including a preventive strategy known as poly I: C, which boosts the natural immune response, convalescent plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients, and the anti-viral drug Remdesivir.

Therapies tested on the mice so far have prevented weight loss, reduced lung disease and increased the speed of virus clearance in the mice, the UI reported.

The Iowa mouse model isnt the only one available for coronavirus research, Perlman said.

It turns out, because COVID-19 is so important, lots of people are developing mouse models. There are several others that are similar or in some ways better or worse, he said. But the Iowa model is widely used and a lot of people are interested in using it.

Comments: (319) 339-3157; erin.jordan@thegazette.com

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Iowa-developed mice used to test coronavirus therapies - The Gazette

Immunology

Harpoon Therapeutics Announces Changes to Board of Directors – BioSpace

July 2, 2020 medical

Joanne Viney, Ph.D., brings expertise as an immunologist and veteran biotech executive to the board

Drs. Luke Evnin and Patrick Baeuerle step down from the Harpoon board

Dr. Baeuerle remains as a scientific advisor to the company

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., July 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Harpoon Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: HARP), a clinical-stage immunotherapy company developing a novel class of T cell engagers, today announced the appointment of veteran biotech executive Joanne Viney, Ph.D., to its board of directors as an independent board member. Current board members, Luke Evnin, Ph.D, and Patrick Baeuerle, Ph.D., will be stepping down from the board. Following these changes, Harpoons board will be composed of nine directors.

Jo is an accomplished executive with an impressive track record of scientific achievement and drug development, said Jerry McMahon, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Harpoon Therapeutics. Her expertise as an immunologist will be helpful to the company as we continue to advance our TriTACT cell engager platform.

I am excited to join the board of Harpoon and am looking forward to contributing to the companys immuno-oncology efforts and impacting the lives of people with cancer, said Dr. Viney.

Dr. Viney is an entrepreneurial scientist and experienced biotech executive with deep autoimmune and inflammatory disease expertise. Dr. Viney currently serves as President, CSO and Co-founder of Pandion Therapeutics, a privately held startup drug discovery and development company focused on developing modular biologics for regulating autoimmunity and inflammatory disease. Previously, Dr. Viney worked at Biogen where she began as Vice President, Immunology Research and was responsible for building and advancing the companys immunology portfolio before moving on to become Senior Vice President, Drug Discovery and a member of the senior R&D leadership team. Previous roles include Director of Inflammation Research at Amgen as well as Director, Department of Autoimmunity and Inflammation at Immunex. She received a Ph.D. in immunology from the University of London, St. Bartholomews Hospital Medical School and a B.Sc. in biophysical science from the University of East London. Dr. Viney is a member of the Board of Directors of Finch Therapeutics and Quench Bio, and is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for HotSpot Therapeutics.

In addition, I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to Patrick Baeuerle and Luke Evnin, who were instrumental in founding Harpoon in 2015, for their years of service, dedication, impactful contributions, and valuable insights that both of them have brought to Harpoon, said Jerry McMahon.

In the relatively short time since Harpoon was launched, the company has created a significant clinical pipeline of products that have the potential to impact human diseases, and I am proud to leave the Harpoon board in capable hands to execute against the ambitious vision for the company and to deliver value to itsstakeholders, said Luke Evnin, Ph.D., Founder and Managing Director of MPM Capital.

While I am leaving the Harpoon board, I am pleased to continue to advise the company on scientific matters as the company executes its founding mission to bring T cell engagers to cancer patients with solid tumor malignancies, said Patrick Baeuerle, Ph.D., Executive Partner at MPM Capital and CSO of Cullinan Oncology.

About Harpoon Therapeutics

Harpoon Therapeutics is a clinical-stage immunotherapy company developing a novel class of T cell engagers that harness the power of the bodys immune system to treat patients suffering from cancer and other diseases. T cell engagers are engineered proteins that direct a patients own T cells to kill target cells that express specific proteins, or antigens, carried by the target cells. Using its proprietary Tri-specific T cell Activating Construct (TriTAC) platform, Harpoon is developing a pipeline of novel TriTACs initially focused on the treatment of solid tumors and hematologic malignancies. HPN424 targets PSMA and is in a Phase 1 trial for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. HPN536 targets mesothelin and is in a Phase 1/2a trial for cancers expressing mesothelin, initially focused on ovarian and pancreatic cancers. HPN217 targets BCMA and is in a Phase 1/2 trial for relapsed, refractory multiple myeloma. HPN328 targets DLL3 and Harpoon plans to initiate a Phase 1/2a trial in the second half of 2020. For additional information about Harpoon Therapeutics, please visit http://www.harpoontx.com.

Cautionary Note on Forward-looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as may, will, expect, plan, anticipate, target, estimate, intend and similar expressions (as well as other words or expressions referencing future events, conditions or circumstances) are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on Harpoon Therapeutics expectations and assumptions as of the date of this press release. Each of these forward-looking statements involves risks and uncertainties that could cause Harpoon Therapeutics clinical development programs, future results or performance to differ significantly from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements about the timing of clinical trials. Many factors may cause differences between current expectations and actual results, including unexpected safety or efficacy data observed during clinical studies, clinical trial site activation or enrollment rates that are lower than expected, unanticipated or greater than anticipated impacts or delays due to COVID-19, changes in expected or existing competition, changes in the regulatory environment, the uncertainties and timing of the regulatory approval process, and unexpected litigation or other disputes. Other factors that may cause Harpoon Therapeutics actual results to differ from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements in this press release are discussed in Harpoon Therapeutics filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Risk Factors sections contained therein. Except as required by law, Harpoon Therapeutics assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in expectations, even as new information becomes available.

Contacts:

Harpoon Therapeutics, Inc.Georgia ErbezChief Financial Officer650-443-7400media@harpoontx.com

Westwicke ICRRobert H. UhlManaging Director858-356-5932robert.uhl@westwicke.com

Immunology

Mark Wahlberg Health ‘WTF Moment’ Is One Every Man Can Learn From – DMARGE

July 2, 2020 medical

Mark Wahlberg has been a fitness icon since the early 90s. The 49-year-old actor, restaurateur and former rapper has always had an incredible rig, and keeps in tip-top shape through a frankly ridiculous daily routine including a pre-dawn workout and cryotherapy.

Wahlberg owns a stake in Australian international fitness phenomenon F45, and even produced some (now cringy) workout videos in the 90s during his Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch days. In short? Hes afitness inspiration for men the world over, whod like to emulate his remarkable build and youthful vigour.

But his latest fitness escapade, a recent trip to an immunologist, perhaps shouldnt be so quickly emulated.

The big Boston boy posted a photo of his (huge) back covered in welts from an allergy sensitivity test, also called a scratch test. For those who are unfamiliar, sensitivity or tolerance tests involve having your skin pricked with a variety of different, common allergens in order to diagnose potential allergies or intolerances.

Wahlbergs comment is obviously a joke, but allergy tests can be scary (and a pain in the arse). Getting treated like a corkboard and getting a nasty rash to boot? Its hardly the kind of thing youd do just for kicks.

Fellow actor (and Hollywood heartthrob) Chris Pratt saw the funny side too.

Im no doctor, but based on the inflammation near the puncture marks it looks like youre allergic to getting poked by needles, Pratt commented on the Instagram post.

Marks nephew Jeff joined in on the fun, commenting what if u found out u were allergic to wine.

All jokes aside, Wahlbergs allergy experiment might have done him more harm than good.

DMARGE spoke to A/Prof Sheryl van Nunen, Senior Staff Specialist in the Department of Clinical Immunology and Allergy at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, and Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Sydney. As an internationally recognised authority on allergies and clinical immunology, she warns that sensitivity tests can sometimes return false positives.

While it is possible to develop allergies later in life, its more common among kids or the elderly.

Youre likely to return a positive reaction towards something, but that doesnt mean that you have a serious allergy. Whatever you do, make sure your testing is factually and clinically based. Different testing regimes pick up different things, too, she explains.

In short? Just because Wahlbergs back looks bad, doesnt mean he necessarily has a bad allergy, and certainly doesnt mean you need to run off and get an allergy test.

Because strong allergies are so uncommon, its unlikely that cutting out a food or allergen you have a sensitivity to isnt going to miraculously improve your health. So keep that cat around and keep eating prawns (unless have an anaphylactic reaction, in which case, uh, dont).

Prof van Nunen reveals that the most common allergy in Australia is hayfever, 74% of which is caused by dust mites.

Australias climate makes it easy for dust mites to proliferate they thrive in warm conditions. Additionally, dust mites are more prevalent on the coast, as they like humidity. Essentially, good weather equals more dust mites.

Food allergies affect around 2% of Australian adults, with the most common being egg, milk, nuts, sesame, soy, fish, shellfish, and wheat allergies, according to the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy.

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Mark Wahlberg Health 'WTF Moment' Is One Every Man Can Learn From - DMARGE

Immunology

Spanish immunity expert on coronavirus: Those who have tested positive for antibodies are protected – EL PAS in English

July 2, 2020 medical

Six months after the coronavirus began to spread across the world, there is still little understanding of how the human body responds to the infection. Knowing whether or not a person is immune to Covid-19 after recovering from the disease, and for how long, and why there are some people who do not contract the virus even though they are exposed to it and have no immunity, are some of the main questions immunologists are trying to answer.

Resolving these questions would reveal whether or not it would make sense to create immunity passports for the coronavirus, and shed light on what part of the population is at greatest risk to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Manel Juan, the head of the immunology department of the CBD-Clnic Hospital in Barcelona, is one of the researchers trying to solve these issues. This expert is currently coordinating a project between several medical centers in Europe to find out what happens in the immunological system of coronavirus patients when they have an excessive response to the virus (which is one of the ways that Covid-19 kills), and to create more accurate diagnostic tests. In some cases, current tests for Covid-19 fail to detect antibodies even though a person has recovered from the disease, or may even have developed immunity through exposure to other kinds of coronavirus that produce nothing more than cold-like symptoms.

Question. Do the current antibody tests allow us to know if we are immune to a new contagion?

Answer. The determining factor to know whether or not there is immunity are T-cells, which are the ones that offer protection. But the type of test needed to detect them is very complex, takes too long and is not practical. Thats why a test is done with a subrogated marker, which are the antibodies. If you are positive for IgG antibodies [the most common antibody in fighting bacterial and viral infections], we know that there has been a response by T-cells. Its all connected.

Q. If a person tests positive for Covid-19 antibodies, can they be considered protected? Or does it depend on their antibody levels?

A. Antibody levels are an approximation. It is a mistake to think of them as an absolute figure in a diagnosis. You can have low levels and this may be enough to know that the immune system is working. Saying that if you have more antibodies you will have more immunity, or longer-lasting immunity, is incorrect. Antibodies are not the only element that is immunizing and protecting us in the future. You can have a lot of antibodies yet immunity can last for a shorter period of time, and you can have practically none and it can last a long time. [...] Antibodies are not a real marker of immunity.

We know that patients who have had SARS, which is the most similar to Covid-19, have maintained antibodies for at least one or two years

Q. Does it make sense to create an immunity passport that offers a guarantee that a person is immune?

A. The passport makes sense from the point of view of knowing whether or not a person is immune, but the consequences of using this passport are complex. In the workplace, the existence of this passport could involve discrimination based on the presence or not of antibodies. Whats more, a person with a negative antibody test could also be protected. This is more of a political and social debate, even one for the unions.

Q. Is it possible for a person who tests positive for antibodies to contract the virus again or transmit it?

A. There have been millions of cases in the world and a clear reinfection due to a new entry of the virus once there were antibodies has not been detected. In cases where there was doubt as to whether this had happened, it was demonstrated that it was a reactivation of the same virus, which at that time, the immune system had not been able to eliminate sufficiently for it to not be detected by a PCR lab test. At any rate, among the millions of cases, there may be one who despite having the virus is not able to maintain protective immunity and avoid reinfection.

Q. Its also been suggested that a person with an asymptomatic infection will have a lower immunological response and could be reinfected, although with a less severe case. Is this something you rule out?

A. It has not been ruled out, but I believe that during the pandemic we have often forgotten the positive data that exists, or we have opted for the most negative possibility if there was still no data. This is not very scientific, although many scientists have argued this way. Researchers need data to affirm that this virus will last a long time or that a specific infection is protective or not. Until this is demonstrated, it is not possible to know. But science is also based on comparisons of similar situations. What we know now is that in patients who have had SARS, which is the most similar thing [to Covid-19] that we know of, even those who have not experienced symptoms, have maintained antibodies for at least one or two years.

A clear reinfection due to a new entry of the virus once there were antibodies has not been detected

Q. Your message is more positive than what is normally heard about the coronavirus.

A. I think that those who have transmitted the most negative version have based their views more on making sure that no one can later tell them but you said that than on actual science. Science is centered on the analysis of data, which is very often similar, because you never have 100% of biological figures. But we have enough information on viral infections, even on very similar viruses like SARS, which makes me think the way I do. We have to say that we will never know whether protection lasts one year until a year has passed, but all the data, for now, suggests that this is the case. [Spanish scientist and politician] Eduard Punset used to say that until proven otherwise, he would not die. In the end, he died. Looking around us everyone dies, so the most scientific thing to say is that everyone will die one day. This is similar. In biology, for now, what we know is that those who have antibodies are protected.

Q. If someone tested positive for antibodies two months ago, but negative today, would you say that person has lost their immunity?

A. You have to consider that they are immune, you cant worry about that. If they have generated IgG antibodies it is because there is a response from T-cells. It is the same thing that happens with vaccines. Vaccines work, although if you look later at the antibodies, you may not have them, but you are still protected, sometimes for five or 10 years. You dont keep measuring whether your antibody count has dropped. It doesnt work that way.

English version by Melissa Kitson.

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Spanish immunity expert on coronavirus: Those who have tested positive for antibodies are protected - EL PAS in English

Immunology

Reven Announces the Appointment of Eminent Physician-Scientist Fatih M. Uckun, M.D., Ph.D., Internationally Recognized for His Seminal Contributions…

July 2, 2020 medical

GOLDEN, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Reven Holdings, Inc. (Reven), a privately held clinical stage biotechnology and pharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery and development of novel treatment platforms for cancer, viral illnessesincluding COVID-19and inflammatory disorders, today announced the appointment of Dr. Fatih M. Uckun as its Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientific Officer.

In his new position at Reven, Dr. Uckun will provide executive oversight for Revens global Research & Development and clinical programs. In addition, Dr. Uckun will contribute medical-scientific leadership and direction for Revens basic and translational research activities, R&D and clinical development programs in cancer, transplantation immunology, sepsis, metabolic disorders, inflammatory disorders, and the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in patients with sepsis, including COVID-19 patients with viral sepsis.

Dr. Uckun stated, It is an exceptionally exciting time to join Reven to support a global registration strategy for its unique RJX platform. The components of RJX exhibited very promising activity in clinical studies involving ARDS patients and non-clinical studies in animal models of ARDS. The published data from these clinical, and recent non-clinical, studies confirming its unique mechanism of action, provide the medical-scientific rationale for Revens clinical development strategy for RJX. The clinical study in COVID-19 patients is a logical next step. I very much look forward to working with the talented and experienced leadership team of Reven and our collaborators. The goal is to diligently advance the RJX clinical trial program with the vision of developing RJX-based new treatments for COVID-19 patients, as well as patients with difficult-to-treat forms of cancer and inflammatory disorders who are in urgent need for therapeutic innovations.

As we move forward with our planned clinical trial of Rejuveinix (RJX) for treatment of COVID-19, Dr. Uckuns decades of drug development experience will be critical in successful execution and the establishment of effective collaborations with other stakeholders, said Peter Lange, Chief Executive Officer of Reven. Dr. Uckun embodies Revens core values: dedication to patients, passion for science, and excellence in execution. I am delighted to have the opportunity to welcome Dr. Uckun as part of Revens leadership team.

About Dr. Uckun

Dr. Uckun is an elected Member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), an honor society for physician-scientists, and an active member of several professional organizations. He received numerous awards for his work on monoclonal antibodies, recombinant cytokines and fusion proteins, radiation sensitizers, kinase inhibitors and targeted therapeutics for difficult-to-treat cancers, including the Stohlman Memorial Award of the Leukemia Society of America, the highest honor given to a Leukemia Society Scholar. He has served as a member of several editorial boards and National Institutes of Health grant review/special emphasis panels.

Dr. Uckun earned his doctoral degrees at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, where he also served as an active member of the autologous bone marrow transplant and peripheral stem cell transplant clinical research teams of the Tumor Center. Dr. Uckun completed his residency training in pediatrics, clinical fellowship training in Hematology/Oncology/Blood and Bone Marrow Stem Cell Transplantation, as well as postdoctoral research training in immunology and microbiology at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Uckun has more than thirty years of professional experience in developmental therapeutics with a special emphasis on targeted therapeutics/precision medicines and biopharmaceuticals. He has published more than 500 peer-reviewed papers, authored numerous review articles and book chapters, and is an inventor on numerous patents.

For eleven years, Dr. Uckun worked as a Professor of Bone Marrow Transplantation, Therapeutic Radiology-Radiation Oncology, Pharmacology, and Pediatrics as well as Director of the Biotherapy Institute at the University of Minnesota, where he became the first recipient of the Endowed Hughes Chair in Biotherapy. At the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, he was a Professor and Head of Translational Research in Leukemia and Lymphoma of the CCBD and a Principal Investigator of the Stem Cell-Regenerative Medicine Initiative for six years. From 2012 to 2015, Dr. Uckun served as chair of the Biotargeting Working Group and a Member of the Coordination and Governance Committee of the National Cancer Institute Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer.

Dr. Uckun has held executive positions in multiple biotechnology companies and has extensive regulatory experience. Prior to joining Reven, Dr. Uckun served as Vice President of Scientific Solutions at Worldwide Clinical Trials, Chief Medical Officer of Oncotelic and Mateon Therapeutics, Head of Immuno-Oncology at Ares Pharmaceuticals, and as Executive Medical Director and Strategy Lead in Global Oncology and Hematology at Syneos Health. Previously, he was Vice President of Research and Clinical Development at Nantkwest, and Chief Scientific Officer of both Jupiter Research Institute and Paradigm Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Uckun is a former Vice Chair of the New Agents Committee as well as a Member of the Leukemia Steering Committee of the Childrens Cancer Study Group, an NCI-funded cooperative clinical trials consortium that coordinated pediatric and adolescent/young adult leukemia trials at 120 institutions in the U.S., Canada, Australia and Europe.

Dr. Uckun has deep knowledge and experience in the treatment of infectious diseases and their complications. In particular, he has extensive experience in viral, fungal, and bacterial infections of immunocompromised hosts, septic shock, ARDS, systemic capillary leak syndrome and cytokine release syndrome (CRS). He served as the Principal Investigator of a virus neutralizer project funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as part of its unconventional countermeasures program. Dr. Uckun directed several federally funded virology/innate immunity projects and published numerous peer-reviewed papers on RNA viruses and anti-viral agents.

About Rejuveinix (RJX)

RJX is an intravenous (IV) formulation of known physiologically compatible compounds that is being developed for more effective supportive therapy of patients with sepsis, including COVID-19 patients with viral sepsis and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The RJX formulation is a solution of buffered acid products, electrolyte components, and vitamins, including ascorbic acid, cyanocobalamin, thiamine hydrochloride, riboflavin 5 phosphate, niacinamide, pyridoxine hydrochloride, and calcium d-pantothenate, and magnesium sulfate heptahydrate, a mineral with a negative oxidation-reduction potential. The components of RJX exhibited promising activity in clinical studies involving ARDS patients and/or non-clinical studies in animal models of ARDS. The published data from these clinical and non-clinical studies provided the medical-scientific rationale for Revens clinical development strategy for RJX and a clinical study in COVID-19 patients. The clinical tolerability of RJX was confirmed in a recently completed double blind, placebo-controlled Phase 1 dose-escalation study in healthy volunteers (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03680105).

About Reven Holdings, Inc.

Reven Holdings, Inc., a Delaware corporation, through its Golden, Colorado-based operating company Reven, LLC, is a biopharmaceutical company. Revens vision is to make a difference in the world by making its products accessible to everyone suffering the effects of vascular and metabolic related diseases. Reven is committed to being the premier, research-intensive biopharmaceutical company that advances the health and well-being of people around the world. Its primary product, Rejuveinix (RJX), targets patients suffering from COVID-19, sepsis, vascular and metabolic related diseases as well as specific patient populations suffering PAD and other cardiovascular related medical conditions.

Revens Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, included in this communication regarding strategy, future operations, future financial position, prospects, plans and objectives of management are forward-looking statements. Words such as may, on-track, expect, anticipate hope, vision, optimism, design, exciting, promising, will, conviction, estimate, intend, believe and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements about future plans, the progress, timing, clinical development, scope and success of future clinical trials, the reporting of clinical data for the companys product candidates and the potential use of the companys product candidates to treat various disease indications. Each of these forward-looking statements involves risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Many factors may cause differences between current expectations and actual results, including unexpected safety or efficacy data observed during preclinical or clinical studies, clinical trial site activation or enrollment rates that are lower than expected, changes in expected or existing market competition, changes in the regulatory environment, failure of collaborators to support or advance collaborations or product candidates, and unexpected litigation or other disputes. These risks are not exhaustive; the company faces known and unknown risks, including the risk factors described in the companys periodic SEC filings. Forward-looking statements are based on expectations and assumptions as of the date of this press release. Except as required by law, the company does not assume any obligation to update forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in expectations, whether as a result of new information regarding future events, or otherwise.