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Cell Biology

Scientists Are Questioning Past Research By The Founder of Surgisphere – BuzzFeed News

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The founder of Surgisphere, the little-known health data analytics company blamed for the retraction of two prominent scientific papers on COVID-19, is in more trouble.

On Friday evening, Elisabeth Bik, a consultant who specializes in analyzing scientific papers for signs of data manipulation, spotted multiple duplications in images from a paper published by Sapan Desai in 2004, four years before he founded Surgisphere.

Manipulating images to change their scientific meaning, sometimes involving subtle duplications using the clone tools in Photoshop or similar software, is a major cause of scientific misconduct.

BuzzFeed News asked two other independent experts in scientific data manipulation to review the images. Both confirmed Biks findings, and one said it was one of the most egregious examples he had seen.

Its like the guy went crazy with Photoshop, Daniel Acuna, a computer scientist at Syracuse University in New York, who has developed software to spot image duplications in scientific images, told BuzzFeed News.

Desai did not immediately return requests for comment.

The paper in question was published by the Journal of Neurophysiology in 2004, as part of Desais graduate studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The new concerns about its validity add to the growing number of questions about Desai and Surgisphere.

Desai was one of four researchers behind a massive study published on May 22 that linked hydroxychloroquine, the malaria drug hyped by President Donald Trump as a treatment for COVID-19, to an increased risk of death. The paper said the study was based on data on more than 96,000 COVID-19 patients from 671 hospitals across six contents provided by Surgisphere.

Other studies have also concluded that the drug isnt effective against the coronavirus. But after The Lancet published the study about the drugs potentially lethal effects, the World Health Organization paused its human trial of hydroxychloroquine.

The paper was retracted on June 4 after scientists and journalists raised questions about inconsistencies and demanded access to the studys raw data. In the retraction notice, the three other members of the research team admitted that they can no longer vouch for the veracity of the primary data sources.

They wrote that they wanted outside experts to independently audit the data, but Surgisphere would not hand it over due to client agreements and confidentiality agreements.

Another study using Surgisphere data to study the coronavirus and cardiovascular disease, involving several of the same researchers, was also retracted on June 4 by the New England Journal of Medicine. This time Desai was an author of the retraction notice, which similarly explained that the scientists were unable to validate the primary data sources.

Surgisphere, which Desai founded in 2008 while a surgical resident at Duke University, is based in Palatine, a suburb of Chicago. Scientists have wondered how this little-known company has been able to obtain all the data it claims to have. The retractions followed stories about Surgisphere in the Guardian and the Scientist, including that the company only appeared to have a handful of employees and that raised serious questions about the legitimacy of its data sources.

Desai has previously stood by his companys data. Our strong privacy standards are a major reason that hospitals trust Surgisphere and we have been able to collect data from over 1,200 institutions across 46 countries, he told BuzzFeed News by email last week, before the two studies were retracted.

The 2004 paper was on the anatomy of the vestibular system, part of the inner ear important for the sense of balance, in various rodents including rats, mice, and squirrels. The main panel of images in the paper shows images of sections of tissue from a structure called the crista ampullaris, which detects rotational movement.

Bik looked at Desais past papers after learning of the concerns about Surgisphere. I immediately saw that there seemed to be very repetitive areas in these images, Bik told BuzzFeed News. After spending a couple of hours finding multiple duplications within the images, she posted her concerns on PubPeer, a website where scientists critique one anothers work. Bik also published a blog post about her concerns on Saturday.

This is highly unusual, Bik said. Its a very, very severe case of duplication.

Acuna, the computer scientist from Syracuse University, ran the images through his software, confirming many of the problems flagged by Bik. Ive never seen something like this, Its outrageous, he said.

I concur with the allegation that there appear to be numerous small duplicated regions in the photographs, Mike Rossner, a former managing editor of the Journal of Cell Biology who now runs a consultancy firm called Image Data Integrity, told BuzzFeed News by email.

The Journal of Neurophysiology said it would look into the matter, after BuzzFeed News reached out about the paper. This has been referred to the journals ethics officer for investigation, Bill Yates, a neuroscientist at the University of Pittsburgh and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Neurophysiology, said by email.

Anna Lysakowski, the professor who supervised Desais graduate work at the University of Illinois and was named as the senior author on the paper, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Scientists Are Questioning Past Research By The Founder of Surgisphere - BuzzFeed News

Cell Biology

A Short History of Gene Therapies – News-Medical.net

Sponsored Content by OXGENEJun 1 2020

The relatively short history of gene replacement therapies is a story of the scientific enterprise, perseverance in the face of adversity, and revolutionary discoveries. It includes breakthroughs in cell biology, molecular biology, structural biology, biochemistry, immunology, oncology, virology, engineering, and biotechnology.

However, despite its hypothetical simplicity - overruling the disease-causing effect of an absent or damaged gene by inserting a properly functioning copy - there are still hardly any gene replacement therapies on the market, even though it has been thirty years since Rosenberg et al. proved the potential of retroviral based gene transduction in humans (Rosenberg et al. N Engl J Med 1990; 323:5708).

The early 1990s were simpler times for gene therapies. Both researchers and clinicians believed that they possessed the key to treating all genetic diseases. Start-ups, spinouts, academics, and investors rushed to engage in this encouraging new market, prompted by the opportunity to develop innovative treatments for gene-based disorders.

During this time, the majority of gene therapy trials employed adenoviruses to deliver the transgene into patients, a technique which was made possible by Professor Frank Graham in the 1970s, via his efforts to understand why some viruses are oncogenic, while others are not.

In 1973, Graham who, at the time, was a postdoc at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands was able to create an adenovirus-transformed immortal human cell line, the Human Embryonic Kidney (HEK)293 (Graham et al. J. Gen. Virol. 1977; 36 (1): 5974).

HEK293 cells can be easily transfected and include the adenoviral E1 genes, which enable replication-incompetent adenoviruses to continue to grow within these cells. These characteristics make them a clear choice for the production of the substantial quantities of a viral vector that are needed for human gene therapy.

While gene therapy was rapidly developing, the human genome project was underway, marking another extraordinary feat of scientific investigation. 2003 saw the first publication of the complete human genome sequence the result of fifteen years of global research collaboration.

Following this landmark publication, scientists not only had access to the sequence of every human gene, but there were also now maps which detailed the location of these genes within chromosomes, as well as linkage maps which allowed them to track the inheritance of genetic disease (Science. Apr. 11, 2003 and Nature Apr. 24 2003, full issues).

With the sheer amounts of information now available, it comes as no surprise that the gene therapy industry continued its work to revolutionize modern medicine. In 2003, the China State Food and Drug Administration was the first health authority in the world to specifically approve a gene therapy - an adenoviral vector called Gendicine, which carried the P53 tumor suppressor gene. However, it was not until 2017 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved its first gene therapy - Luxterna for retinal dystrophy - for use in the United States (source: genetherapy.net).

Despite many years of investment and research, the comparative lack of gene therapies currently available on the market, coupled with the cost of those that are available, are a testament to the challenges still hindering their development and manufacture.

A key challenge still to be overcome is that of ensuring cost-effective manufacture at the necessary speed, scale, and quality for clinical development. Gene therapies which target localized diseases and necessitate only small doses (like Luxterna), involve relatively simple manufacturing processes.

Published results from a successful hemophilia gene therapy trial in 2011 have, however, reinvigorated the gene therapy industry, as well as highlighting the requirement for innovative, scalable technologies which can support the manufacture of gene therapies for systemic diseases which necessitate high treatment doses (Nathwani et al. N Engl J Med 2011; 365:2357-2365).

Many gene therapy manufacturers currently rely on the scaling out of transient expression platforms. This is resource-intensive and expensive however, due to the significant amounts of GMP-grade plasmid DNA required, and/or the massive cell culture footprint needed by adherent cell cultures.

The future of gene therapy vector production unquestionably lies in stable, scalable manufacturing solutions.

OXGENE is a recognized expert in DNA design and engineering, development of cell lines, upstream and downstream processing, and automation. This expertise is leading the transformation of its fully optimized AAV and lentiviral transient expression platforms, moving them towards innovative technologies for scalable and stable manufacturing.

OXGENE is building on strong foundations. Its gene therapy production platforms are based on the proprietary SnapFast plasmid technology - modular plasmids that have been designed to function like molecular Lego, employing a catalog of characterized DNA elements which can be reliably and easily inserted into specific locations in the plasmid.

OXGENEs engineered AAV and lentiviral plasmids are able to considerably enhance packaging efficiency and viral titer, while its clonal HEK293 suspension cell line has been specifically chosen for optimal viral vector production.

Partnering with OXGENE in the early stages of gene therapy development facilitates the establishment and optimization of transient production, with validated production up to 10 L scale. This process enables straightforward transitioning to a stable technology platform designed for large scale clinical manufacture.

The additional regulatory advantage is gained, as a result of utilizing the same genetic system throughout clinical development. This is because the stable platform maintains the same base cell line and expression cassettes as the transient system.

Producer cell lines are an appealing substitute for transient transfection. Within producer cell lines, all the elements needed for viral vector production, including the transgene of interest, are stably incorporated into the cells genome.

Therefore, these need no transfection and a comparatively little manipulation in order to scale up and reliably produce sizable quantities of the viral vector, with reduced batch-to-batch variation and with considerably fewer cost implications.

OXGENE has successfully developed producer cell lines and stable packaging for lentiviral-based gene therapies. A stable lentiviral packaging cell line was generated by transfecting packaging plasmids reconfigured with inducible vsv-g and gag-pol and constitutive rev expression into the HEK293 cell line.

Next, single-cell clones were screened for growth kinetics, as well as stable and inducible expression of viral genes. After numerous rounds of testing and analysis, a single clonal lentiviral packaging cell line was selected to expand, characterize, and optimize further.

Process optimization has improved viral titer more than ten-fold to date. The sheer level of optimization involved in refining OXGENEs lentiviral packaging cell line makes this an ideal starting point from which to create producer cell lines by stably transfecting a transfer plasmid that contains a self-inactivating lentiviral genome and the transgene of interest.

After a further iteration of the cell line development process, clones which performed the best are expanded further, then transferred for process optimization and scaling up in order to maximize viral titer.

With AAV, however, a different approach was taken. Here, a novel Tetracycline-Enabled Repressible Adenovirus (TERA) system was used as the basis for a stable AAV production platform.

This makes use of an engineered Ad5 adenoviral helper plasmid which includes a switchable negative feedback loop in the viral genome, reducing helper adenovirus contamination to practically zero while increasing AAV yields. This system has also been shown to amplify both AAV rep and cap DNA from the cells chromosomes through the use of the well-established AAV Cis-Acting Replication Element (CARE).

This technology enables the stable integration of DNA into cells, as well as its subsequent amplification and concomitant high protein expression levels, which in turn provides a stable, scalable, and adenovirus contaminant-free manufacturing process for AAV.

To summarize, gene therapies are once again set to transform the treatment of some of the worlds most debilitating diseases. While manufacturing challenges have impeded their development and approval, OXGENE has continued to transform gene therapy manufacturing by pioneering the development of tightly controlled, meticulously optimized technologies which facilitate fully scalable, high-quality and cost-effective gene therapy manufacture meaning that ultimately, gene therapies can be made available to patients who require them.

OXGENE combines precision engineering and breakthrough science with advanced robotics and bioinformatics to accelerate the rational design, discovery and manufacture of cell and gene therapies across three core areas: gene therapy, gene editing and antibody therapeutics.

Gene therapy: Were transforming the vision of truly scalable gene therapies into a reality; progressing our industry leading transient gene therapy systems towards alternative technologies for scalable, stable manufacturing solutions.

Gene editing: We have automated gene editing to deliver CRISPR engineered cell lines at unparalleled speed, scale and quality and generate complex disease models in mammalian cells.

Antibody therapeutics: Were employing a novel proprietary mammalian display technology to discover antibodies against previously intractable membrane proteins.

OXGENE works at the edge of impossible in mammalian cell engineering. Our scientific expertise and technology solutions address industry bottlenecks. For more information, please visit http://www.oxgene.com

Sponsored Content Policy: News-Medical.net publishes articles and related content that may be derived from sources where we have existing commercial relationships, provided such content adds value to the core editorial ethos of News-Medical.Net which is to educate and inform site visitors interested in medical research, science, medical devices and treatments.

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A Short History of Gene Therapies - News-Medical.net

Cell Biology

This Synthetic Biology Company Is On The Cusp Of Using Live, Engineered Bacteria As A Cancer Drug – SynBioBeta

Injecting mice with engineered, live bacteria has been shown to shrink cancer tumors. With trials underway to bring this immunotherapy solution to the clinic, Synlogic is paving the way for synthetic biology and living medicines to transform the landscape of healthcare and medicine.

In 1890, William Coley, a young cancer surgeon, was distraught. One of his first patients had just died of widespread cancer, despite Coley amputating his forearm. Determined to do something about it, Coley came across an intriguing solution.

The medical literature of the day hinted that dozens of cancer patients had a regression of their disease while they were also carrying a separate infection. Could the body, in fighting against a pathogen, also be battling a tumor? After injecting bacteria into a patient who showed tumor shrinkage, Coleys toxin, as it came to be known, was tried out on nearly a thousand patients to varying degrees of success.

Controversial at the time, and almost forgotten in the age of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, cancer immunotherapy (also known as immuno-oncology) has been rediscovered by modern-day researchers, who are leveraging the incredible power of our own human immune system to bring new cancer treatments to the mainstream.

William Coley is the grandfather of immunotherapy, says Aoife Brennan, CEO ofSynlogic, a synthetic biology company on the cusp of using live, engineered bacteria as a cancer drug in humans.A new study from the Synlogic teamshows that injecting cancerous mice with live, engineered bacteria can cause long-term remission of certain cancer types.

Many of the observations [Coley] had we are now rediscovering when we look at predictors of response to immunotherapy, Brennan told me. Weve really started to understand that stimulating an immune response can be an appropriate way to treat cancer.

Cancer immunotherapy has come a long way since Coleys day. Treatment options are now available that use antibodies to target specific proteins of cancer. These antibodies come as drugs, vaccines or immune cell infusions, and they work to enable the bodys natural defenses to fight cancer normally.

We also now know that tumors come in a wide range of forms. Some are hot and some are cold, but were not talking about temperature here.

A hot tumor shows signs of inflammation, meaning that the immune system is alert to the tumor and has dispatched T-cells to attack it. But they can get war-weary due to the presence of the bodys checkpoint system, which is there for a good reason: to stop immune cells from going too strong on the offensive. Tumors can trick this checkpoint system into ignoring cancer. Drugs known as checkpoint inhibitors can block these proteins, letting T-cells proceed with their attack.

The problem is that few tumors are hot. Cold tumors are more common and more deadly, including breast cancer, prostate cancer, and pancreatic cancer. How can we get the body to attack cold tumors, too? Heres where a living therapeutic system comes in.

We have this great platform to stimulate an immune response, Brennan says of the method Synlogic is pioneering to treat multiple forms of cancer. Our immune systems evolved to recognize pathogens and have a number of pathways to deal with them. We had this concept: what if we could engineer bacteria to stimulate the right immune responses and multiple different pathways in the same way an infection would?

To take advantage of both biotechnology and the human bodys amazing immune capabilities, companies like Synlogic work at the intersection of biology and engineeringa field we callsynthetic biologyto make useful biological applications. Using tools like gene editing and machine learning, synthetic biology researchers can, for example, develop a strain of bacteria that is stripped down to its bare essentialsyou can think of it as a chassis, like the basic framework of a car. They can then engineer that chassis to include specific, desirable components, and ultimately fine-tune its behavior and functions.

In Synlogics case, they are using these techniques to design living therapeutics programmed to treat disease in new ways. To develop a cancer therapy, Synlogics solution is to inject living bacteria directly into a tumor to stimulate the bodys defenses to act right where theyre needed, not unlike Willam Coley did all those years ago. The best part? Synthetic biology can be used to engineer bacteria that elicit an immune response but pose no danger of causing disease themselves, reducing a danger Coley first recognized in 1891.

Instead of using an attenuated [weakened] pathogen, Brennan continues, we are taking non-pathogenic bacteria and engineering in certain pathways and effectors that are important in the immune response. The first strain weve taken forward, to prove the pathway is viable, is called SYNB1891, in honor of William Coley and the year he injected live bacteria into a patients tumor.

To make their SYNB1891 strain, Synlogic started with a non-pathogenic version ofE. coliknown as the Nissle chassis. To it, they introduced a STING agonist from a different microorganism, Listeria. The STING agonist boosts the bodys defense pathways and is apotent inhibitor of pancreatic cancer. It is further engineered so that it only works in the specific anaerobic environment of the tumor its been injected into.

Once inside the tumor, these therapeutic bacteria can live for up to 10 days, acting like a flare that alerts the bodys immune cells to come and investigate whats going on. When they arrive, they engulf the bacteria with the STING agonist, which then triggers the persons immune system to target and attack the tumor itself.

The publication in Nature Communications highlights the effectiveness of Synlogics technique in mice and points to its potential for human therapeutics.

Weve looked in animals and shown that we can cause tumor regressions, even in cold tumors, says Brennan of the treatment. We can stimulate an immune response in mice that is tumor-specific and that causes complete remission.

In fact, the study shows that around one-third of mice with melanoma showed complete tumor rejection after tumors were injected with SYNB1891. The combined effect of the STING agonist and the bacterial chassis was crucial. Injection of the STING agonist alone led to 10% long-term survival of mice, but SYNB1891 injection increased that to 40%. With lymphoma, the effects were as high as 80% tumor rejection depending on the dose.

The treatment also appeared to provide mice with long-term protection in the form of immune memory. When cured mice were reexposed to the same tumor at least 60 days after the treatment, they remained tumor-free.

Promisingly, treatment of human cells with SYNB1891 led to a similar stimulation of the immune response as seen in mouse models, providing a positive indication that success in mouse models can be translated to treatments in people.

SYNB1891 is now in phase one clinical trials. The first patients that Synlogic is working with are those with cancers that can be accessed close to the skin surface, including breast cancer, melanoma, and lymphoma. The phase one study will slowly increase the dose of the live therapeutic, ensuring safety, primarily, as well as clinical effectiveness.

Weve worked with the FDA to carve a path for this kind of approach and are now treating patients who have tumors with the engineered bacteria, Brennan said.

An exciting prospect is the potential for treating a broad spectrum of tumors, regardless of the type, providing a more off-the-shelf solution that does not require the complexities of personalized treatments.

If you have the right immune cells in the vicinity and overcome some of the cloaking mechanisms that tumors use to evade the immune response, Brennan says, we can essentially take the brake off the immune system and allow it to do its thing with the cancer.

Where William Coleys pioneering experiments were met with skepticism in the late nineteenth century, Synlogic has picked up the mantle and is paving the way for the acceptance of live therapeutics as not just a viable option, but an effective one that can broaden and enhance the landscape of medicine.

The challenge, according to Brennan, is to show that this is a drug development approach that has legs.

With promising preclinical evidence and clinical trials underway for this synthetic biology approach, we hope its just a matter of time before this proof of concept becomes a life-saving treatment.

Follow me on twitter at @johncumbers and @synbiobeta. Subscribe to my weekly newsletters in synthetic biology. Thank you toPeter Bickertonfor additional research and reporting in this article. Im the founder ofSynBioBeta, and some of the companies that I write aboutincluding Synlogicare sponsors of theSynBioBeta conferenceandweekly digestheres the full list of SynBioBeta sponsors.

Originally published on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johncumbers/2020/06/01/this-synthetic-biology-company-is-on-the-cusp-of-using-live-engineered-bacteria-as-a-cancer-drug/

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This Synthetic Biology Company Is On The Cusp Of Using Live, Engineered Bacteria As A Cancer Drug - SynBioBeta

Cell Biology

Lockdowns and logistics – HeraldScotland

PREVENTING a second wave, an unnecessary lockdown and the importance of logistics were the topics debated by columnists and contributors in the newspapers.

Dr Rupert Beale, head of the cell biology of infection laboratory at the Francis Crick Institute in London, said he and his staff could see the benefit of going into lockdown as they tested for Sars-Cov-2 to support local hospitals.

"When we ran our first samples, at the peak of the first wave, nearly half were positive. Now we see perhaps one or two positive samples in a thousand," he said. "When Boris Johnson recovered sufficiently to address the nation on 10 May, he outlined a new approach: suppressing this virus, keeping R below 1.Finally, we were pursuing the correct strategy."

He said we now had the right mindset but the challenge facing us is greater than that faced by countries which locked down early.

"We have to turn tests around more quickly, and we must be able to persuade asymptomatic contacts [of those testing positive] to self-isolate," he said. "There is good reason to believe that mask-wearing will only have a substantial effect when most people wear one."

He said recent data from Public Health England showed that less than 10 per cent of the UK was immune to the virus.

"The great majority of us are still susceptible to this virus, and if we allow it to transmit easily between us we will see a second wave possibly during the winter, where it may be even more deadly," he warned.

"If we get the next phase of our response testing, tracing and isolation wrong, our two remaining options are semi-permanent lockdown, or hundreds of thousands of deaths in an uncontrolled epidemic."

The Daily Express

Leo McKinstry asked whether, once the final death toll is known, lockdown caused more deaths than it prevented.

" It is already established government policy swerved violently from inadequate to panic-stricken around March 14," he said. "This was because the Government swallowed the prediction of one man that without total lockdown there would be a holocaust of over half a million casualties."

He said the first action when faced with an enemy was a rapid and accurate analysis.

"Get it wrong and nothing will work," he added, "Worse, it might even be counterproductive. That is the accusation now being levelled at lockdown."

He said the scientists all said different things and the Government listened to 'the scariest'.

"Of the previous pandemics the worst was Asian flu which ran through most of 1969 and spring 1970. When it finally faded we had lost 80,000 citizens," he said. "But we did not close down a single bar, restaurant, pub, corner shop, major industry, airline, hotel, public park or anything else. "

He said thousands of treatments for non-Covid illnesses had been cancelled and non-Covid deaths are mounting.

"We know our Covid deaths are 40,000. But have all the other causes plus non-Covid flu topped that figure? Have we been duped?"

The Scotsman

Professor Alan McKinnon, Professor Emeritus Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, said few people appreciated the 'extent, diversity and complexity of the supply chains that support modern life until they fail, of course, as some clearly have during the coronavirus crisis.'

He said the World Bank rated the UK sixth in the world in terms of its logistics capacity and cited the supermarkets as a case in point with their ability to cope with panic buying and increased demand.

"It is in the health sector that the supply chain response has been woefully inadequate the very place where logistical failures are a matter of life and death," he said. "Chronic shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE have exposed staff in hospitals, care homes and other essential services to serious risk of infection and, as a result, many people have died.

"Given the critical importance of logistics to the management of the Covid19 crisis it is odd that there is no specialist in this field on the governments Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (SAGE).

"Hopefully governments everywhere will be drawing more effectively on logistics expertise by the time a vaccine is available and the truly monumental task of distributing it globally begins."

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Lockdowns and logistics - HeraldScotland

Cell Biology

Beneath the Oceans Surface, a Virus Is Hijacking the Most Abundant Organism on Earth – SciTechDaily

Rice University scientists are analyzing the role of ferredoxin proteins produced when viral phages alter electron transfer in ocean-dwelling, photosynthetic bacteria that produce oxygen and store carbon. When the virus (pink) infects the bacteria, it produces a ferredoxin protein that hooks into the bacterias existing electrical structure and alters its metabolism. Credit: Illustration by Ian Campbell/Rice University

Rice scientists analyze structure, mechanism of phage protein that steals electrons.

Beneath the oceans surface, a virus is hijacking the metabolism of the most abundant organism on Earth. That may be of interest to those of us above who breathe.

Rice University scientists analyzed the role of ferredoxin proteins produced when phages alter the ability of Prochlorococcus marinus to store carbon and counter the greenhouse gas effect arising from fossil fuel consumption.

P. marinus is a photosynthetic cyanobacteria that resides primarily in the tropics and subtropics, where an estimated 10-to-the-27 (an octillion) of them use sunlight to produce oxygen and collectively store four gigatons of carbon annually. Some of this carbon provides critical feedstocks for other marine organisms.

But phages are not their friends. The virus strengthens itself by stealing energy the bacteria produces from light, reprogramming its victims genome to alter how it transfers electrons.

P. marinus and its carbon-storing mechanism are sensitive to temperature, so it bears watching as climate change warms the oceans and extends its range, said Ian Campbell, a Rice postdoctoral researcher and lead author of the study in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

The growth in the range of this organism in the oceans could increase the total carbon stored by these microbes, he said. Alternatively, the viruses that infect these bacteria could alter carbon fixation and potentially prevent gigatons of carbon from being taken out of the air annually, according to one recent projection.

Rice University synthetic biologist Jonathan Silberg, left, and postdoctoral researcher Ian Campbell led a team that analyzed the role of ferredoxin proteins produced when viral phages alter electron transfer in ocean-dwelling, photosynthetic bacteria that produce oxygen and store carbon. Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University

Campbell said the goal of the study was to explore the variety of ways viruses interact with their hosts. In the process, the researchers discovered the phage wrests control of electron flow in the host itself, rewiring the bacterias metabolism. When the virus infects, it shuts down production of the bacterial proteins and replaces it with its own variants, he said. I compare it to putting a different operating system in a computer.

The researchers used synthetic biology techniques to mix and match phage and cyanobacterial proteins to study how they interact. A part of the study led by Rice biochemist George Phillips also determined for the first time the structure of a key cyanophage ferredoxin protein.

A phage would usually go into a cell and kill everything, said Rice synthetic biologist Jonathan Silberg, the studys lead scientist and director of the universitys Systems, Synthetic and Physical Biology program.

But Ians results suggest these phages are establishing a complex control mechanism, he said. I wouldnt say theyve zombified their hosts, because they allow the cells to continue doing some of their own housekeeping. But theyre also plugging in their own ferredoxins, like power cables, to fine tune the electron flow.

Instead of working directly with cyanophages and P. marinus, Campbell and his team used synthetic biology tools to reprogram much larger, better-understood Escherichia coli bacteria to express genes that mimicked interactions between the two.

Taking a phage and a cyanobacteria from the ocean and trying to study the biology, especially electron flow, would be really hard to do through classical biochemistry, Silberg said. Ian literally took partners from both the phage and the host, put them together by encoding their DNA in another cellular system, and was able to quickly develop some interesting results.

Its an interesting application of synthetic biology to understand complex things that would otherwise be arduous to measure, he said.

The researchers suspect the protein they modeled in E. coli, the Prochlorococcus P-SSM2 phage ferredoxin, is nothing new. People knew phages encode different things that do electron transfer, but they didnt know how to connect the wires between the phage and the host, Silberg said. They also didnt know a lot about the phages evolution. The structure makes it clear this phage can be traced to specific ancestral proteins involved in photosynthesis.

Reference: Prochlorococcus phage ferredoxin: Structural characterization and electron transfer to cyanobacterial sulfite reductases by Ian J. Campbell, Jose Luis Olmos Jr., Weijun Xu, Dimithree Kahanda, Joshua T Atkinson, Othneil Noble Sparks, Mitchell D. Miller, George N Phillips Jr., George N. Bennett and Jonathan J. Silberg, 19 May 2020, Journal of Biological Chemistry.DOI: 10.1074/jbc.RA120.013501

Co-authors of the paper are graduate student Jose Luis Olmos Jr., research technician Weijun Xu, postdoctoral researchers Dimithree Kahanda and Joshua Atkinson, undergraduate alumnus Othneil Noble Sparks, research scientist Mitchell Miller, and George Bennett, the E. Dell Butcher Professor of BioSciences and a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering. Phillips is a professor of biosciences. Silberg is the Stewart Memorial Professor of Biochemistry and a professor of biosciences, bioengineering, and chemical and biomolecular engineering.

The Department of Energy, NASA, the National Science Foundation, the Moore Foundation, the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences supported the research.

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Beneath the Oceans Surface, a Virus Is Hijacking the Most Abundant Organism on Earth - SciTechDaily

Cell Biology

NASA-SpaceX launches will boost science research on the space station – CNN

"I was stunned, in a good way, at the high quality of the science," she told CNN. During her time on the space station, Aun-Chancellor worked on hundreds of experiments across a variety of sciences, including biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science.

As a practicing physician, as well as clinical associate professor of medicine at Louisiana State University Health New Orleans School of Medicine's branch campus in Baton Rouge, she could see the real-world applications of the medical experiments on the station.

"I could picture a patient with each of these experiments," she said. "It's tremendously enlightening and heartwarming because a good portion of the life sciences research on the space station is for people on Earth, not for astronauts who will go to Mars."

She and her fellow astronauts also installed a new Life Sciences Glovebox suited for biological research, which also allows two astronauts to simultaneously interact with the experiment inside.

Aun-Chancellor said that astronauts tend to have an eight-hour workday on the space station, and much of that is dominated by science experiments. She could spend as much as four hours on one experiment alone while the other astronauts worked on different experiments, she said.

From the time construction began on the space station in 1998 until now, nearly 3,000 different experiments have been conducted on the station.

More than 4,000 scientists have had their work represented on the station, with those scientists and research stemming from 108 countries globally, according to NASA.

Now, NASA's Commercial Crew program can expand the amount of astronauts on the space station which means that more science, and even new types of experiments, can happen in the unique microgravity environment.

SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft launched Saturday atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral carrying NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley. It's the first time in history that a commercial aerospace company has carried humans into Earth's orbit.

The United States hasn't launched its own astronauts into space since the Space Shuttle Program ended in 2011. Since then, NASA's astronauts have had to travel to Russia and train on the country's Soyuz spacecraft.

This mission, called Demo-2, is just the beginning of launching astronauts from American soil for stays of varying lengths on the space station. That means more scientific experiments in space that can help us out on Earth, as well as astronauts who may be going to the moon or eventually, to Mars.

The laboratory orbiting Earth

The majority of the science that has occurred on the space station has taken place over the last 10 years the 10 years prior were spent building and outfitting it to be a laboratory orbiting the Earth.

While the astronauts also work on maintaining the space station, exercising, working with robotics and preparing for and executing spacewalks outside the station, the majority of each day is spent on science, Aun-Chancellor said.

National labs on Earth tend to focus on one kind of science.

"We focus on what we can offer that is unique, which is withholding gravity as a variable," said NASA astronaut Christina Koch, who returned to Earth in February. "The space environment affords a wide spectrum of discovery."

One of the many experiments Koch worked on during her record-breaking stay of 328 days on the space station involved protein crystal growth. Understanding those proteins could lead to pharmaceuticals that can fight cancer.

Zero gravity conditions

Two decades of research on the space station has allowed scientists to realize the potential of eliminating gravity as a factor from their experiments.

They're physiological systems on something the size of a USB stick that can be used to test drug efficiency and model patients, Buchli said.

The experiments vary in how much interaction they require from the crew on the space station. Some are self sufficient, only requiring occasional interaction by an astronaut, while others are much more hands on.

"Science is a time-intensive task and the crew members are our hands, eyes and ears to complete a lot of science," Buchli said.

But the basic fact remains that more people on the space station means more science can be achieved because the amount of crew has been a limiting factor. With Commercial Crew, four NASA astronauts can go up at one time, rather than the three astronauts and Russian cosmonauts that can fit in the Soyuz.

"Commercial Crew can also launch more frequently and bring the woman and manpower to get it done," Aun-Chancellor said. "The science is up there, it's just waiting for us to complete it."

"When we have four US crew members, we can double the number of hours devoted to science each week and accomplish science that wasn't previously feasible in a crew day," Buchli said. "That means more than 100 hours per week can be spent on science in the future."

This means that astronauts could either double up on experiments by working together or split into shift teams where they stagger when the astronauts are awake and asleep, so crews could hand off an experiment that requires 13 hours rather than six especially an issue in life sciences, cell biology and rodent research.

Commercial Crew also expands the flexibility for transporting things to and from the station, she said. The Soyuz launches occur about every six months, while Commercial Crew vehicles will allow them to launch and land with varying lengths of time on station.

That means more live refrigerated samples and cells grown and tested on the space station can be returned exactly when they need to be for scientists to study them on the ground and detail how they changed in space.

More repeats of science experiments can also occur. If a research team is granted a second flight of an experiment, they can repeat it to gather additional data.

"You don't just run an experiment once on the ground," Buchli said. "You refine things as you go. This is exciting because the space station is starting to function more like a ground lab, allowing repetition and the chance to optimize and tweak science."

More frequent flights means that astronauts can also experience missions of shorter duration, which can fill a crucial gap when it comes to monitoring astronaut health. These missions would last between two to three months.

It also means that extended stays are possible to prepare for the long flight to Mars.

This will allow NASA and their Human Research Program to better study the effects of space on human health and develop countermeasures to mitigate them especially as they prepare to send astronauts back to the moon and eventually on to Mars.

The future of science in space

Non-NASA research is managed by the ISS National Laboratory, which utilizes the space station's unique microgravity environment to send up experiments from commercial businesses, academic institutions and government agencies that can benefit Earth.

During his time with the ISS National Lab, Chief Operating Officer Ken Shields has enjoyed watching the variety of both experiments and their investigators as they "push the envelope of existing technologies."

"We're breaking barriers in the world of research development and technology," Shields told CNN. "And we're entering a new era in space research and development."

The space station is like a test kitchen to experiment and prove out concepts, he said.

A small scale of success on the space station may mean that an investigation could later be moved to another low-Earth orbit vehicle. Multiple commercial research and development partners have been running a portion of their business in space through installations on the space station, and the technology advancements gained in space can help Earth.

"The International Space Station is an unmatched tool of inspiration and engagement," he said.

Some of the science conducted on the space station actually stems from student experiments. Seeing their research happen in space will inspire future generations, he said. Going forward, the ISS National Lab wants to make sure that all students, especially those in underrepresented demographics, have the opportunity.

The last 20 years saw the building and completion of the space station, as well as research and development of science and technology experiments in space to provide people with applicable innovations on Earth.

Shields saw nothing but opportunities ahead.

"I'm hopeful that we can continue to enable and facilitate more groundbreaking efforts that have importance not only to individual academic institutions or companies, but are more broadly felt to create solutions to problems that are important to us as a nation," Shields said.

Jackie Wattles contributed to this story.

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NASA-SpaceX launches will boost science research on the space station - CNN

Embryology

Over 180 fertility specialists trained in Africa through Merck Foundation – The Southern Times

Sharon Kavhu

WindhoekOver 180 doctors across Africa and Asia have received clinical and practical training for fertility specialists and embryologists under Merck Foundations Embryology and Fertility Program, The Southern Times has learnt.

The initiative which is also part of the foundations More Than A Mother campaignwhichhas trained doctors from countries such as:Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, CAR, Cte D'IVOIRE, DRC, Congo Brazzaville, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Malaysia, Liberia, Mali, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Nigeria, Niger, Philippines, Russia, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, The Gambia, Togo, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

In an interview, Merck Foundations Chief Executive Officer Dr Rasha Kelej told The Southern Times that the program has introduced debut fertility specialists and embryologiststraining programsin some African countries.

We are veryproud that we made history in many countrieswhere we trained the first fertility specialists and embryologists. These countries include: Divas, Chad, Nige, Central African Republic, Zambian, Malawi, Gambia, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Rwanda, said Kelej.

Through Merck Foundations Embryology and Fertility Program, doctors now appreciate the psychological and emotional stress that infertile couples face andthe best ways toaddress their needs accordingly. Fertility specialists in Africa have been exposed to better ways of counselling their patients to ensure that they are emotionally stable while attending to their medical needs.

Kelej said the training has significantly increased the numbers and broadened the understanding of fertility specialists across Africa and Asia on how infertility clinics should be conducted in order to break the infertility stigma, and encouragesmen to join their wives for treatment. She said the training is also a huge positive step towards creating awareness on infertility prevention.

She added, The doctors we trained have taken an extra mile in their approach, the training graduates from Ghana and Liberia for instance, have moved into communities to educate people on infertility and the need to break the stigma around infertile couples and especially around women.

Merck Foundation has also supported the establishment of the first ever Public In vitro fertilization (IVF) centres in Rwanda and Ethiopia. Meanwhile, in Uganda, Merck Foundation is still waiting for the list of candidates proposed by the countrys ministry of health to start the training program.

IVF is an assisted reproductive technology where fertilization is done by extracting eggs and retrieving sperm samples and then manually combining the egg and sperm in a laboratory dish.

The IVF centres in those countries have recorded several stories and celebrations of first babies for couples who suffered infertility for over ten years. Such news gives us joy, said Kelej.

She said at least 1,400 couples have benefited from the IVF sites in Rwanda and Ethiopia centres which are less than a year old. Rwanda and Ethiopia recorded 1,000 and 400 couples respectively.

While the COVID-19 phase has inconvenienced travelling, Merck Foundation has started a scholarship program for one year online diploma and two years master degree in sexual and reproductive medicines from the United Kingdom Universities. Kelej said her foundation is looking forward to receiving the most of proposed candidates from each African country and the program will scale up to South East Asia.

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Over 180 fertility specialists trained in Africa through Merck Foundation - The Southern Times

Embryology

New data supports the theory of Neanderthal’s low genetic diversity as the main cause for their extinction – HeritageDaily

What caused the disappearance of the Homo Neanderthalensis, a species that seemingly had as many capabilities as the Homo Sapiens?

There are several theories that attempt to explain it: the climate, competition with the Homo Sapiens, low genetic diversity A study that Valencia University (UV) participates in has analysed the first cervical vertebra from several Neanderthals and confirms that the genetic diversity of the population was low, which hindered their ability to adapt to possible changes to their surroundings and, therefore, their survival. The study has been published in the Journal of Anatomy.

Professor Juan Alberto Sanchis Gimeno, from the Department of Human Anatomy and Embryology at the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry of the UV, the National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN-CSIC) and the National Centre of Research on Human Evolution (CENIEH) all took part in the study. Three vertebrae from the Kaprina (Croatia) site have been analysed, and material from other sites has been revised.

Neanderthals populated the European continent merely 30,000 years ago, and their disappearance continues being a mystery. Work deciphering their genome has been conducted to learn their genetic diversity, as well as analysing different anatomic traits of the fossil register of the species. In this study we focused on the anatomic variants of the first cervical vertebra, known as the atlas. The anatomic variants of this vertebra have a strong link with genetic diversity: the greater the prevalence of this type of anatomic variants, the lower the genetic diversity of the population, explains MNCN researcher Carlos A. Palancar.

In Homo Sapiens, the anatomic variants of the atlas have been thoroughly studied in recent years. In the case of modern humans, the atlas shows anatomic variants in almost 30% of cases. However, probably due to the bad preservation of this cervical vertebra and the limited material recovered in the fossil register, the atlas of Neanderthals have been looked at this way, explains UV professor Juan Alberto Sanchis Gimeno.

Recently, researchers from the Palaeoanthropology Group of the MNCN established the presence of several anatomic variants in the atlases of Neanderthals of the El Sidrn (Asturias) site. With the objective of confirming the high prevalence of the anatomic variants of this species, the fossil atlases of Neanderthals from the Krapina (Croatia) site have been thoroughly analysed. Krapina is a site that is around 130,000 years old, compared to the 50,000 of El Sidrn. It is the site from where the largest amount of Neanderthal remains have been recovered, which makes it a sample of especial interest for the analysis of the genetic diversity of this species, as all individuals potentially belonged to the same population, says Daniel Garca-Martnez, researcher at the CENIEH.

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The study of the anatomy of the three atlases recovered at this site has revealed the presence of anatomic variants in two of them (66%). One of them, known as Unclosed Transverse Foramen, UTF, has a prevalence of just 10% in modern humans. Verifying the presence of these anatomic variants in Krapina, along with the revision of other atlases submitted to the scientific community, which has not been analysed from this viewpoint heretofore and which offers similar data (over 50%), suggest that the amount of variants in Neanderthals is significantly greater than in current humans, says Palancar. This data supports the theory that their genetic diversity was very low and confirms that it could have been one of the causes for their disappearance, concludes MNCN researcher Markus Bastir.

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New data supports the theory of Neanderthal's low genetic diversity as the main cause for their extinction - HeritageDaily

Human Behavior

By now, you probably have experienced the long lines and empty shelves at grocery and warehouse stores. Or you – mg Cannabis Retailer

By now, you probably have experienced the long lines and empty shelves at grocery and warehouse stores. Or you may have tried to buy staples such as canned food and toilet paper online from companies such as Walmart, Target, and Amazon only to discover they are sold out.

This seems unprecedented, but a look back at our history helps explain the phenomenon.

Sander van der Linden, an assistant professor of social psychology at Cambridge University, said a fear contagion phenomenon has taken hold in America. When people are stressed their reason is hampered, so they look at what other people are doing, he said. If others are stockpiling, it leads you to engage in the same behavior. People see photos of empty shelves and regardless of whether its rational, it sends a signal to them that its the thing to do.

As humankind has become more civilized and technological advancements have changed our lives, the survival instinct can become dormant. However, as current events clearly indicate, this survival behavior quickly can be reignited and spread like wildfire.

A look back to the Great Depression can cast some light on human behavior during a crisis.

John Montgomery Ph.D., wrote about this human condition. When we live in environments, such as modern cities, that are drastically different from the environments that were biologically adapted for, we become subject to various evolutionary mismatch effects that can be extremely detrimental to our physical and emotional health, he wrote. Perhaps the most important consequence of this mismatch is that we become highly prone to being triggered repeatedly and unnecessarily into various states of survival mode.

A look back to the Great Depression can cast some light on human behavior during a crisis. As conditions worsened over the course of the Depression and people increasingly lost confidence in banks, they started withdrawing their money in large numbers. Recognizing the crisis, in 1932 President Herbert Hoover denounced traitorous hoarding and organized an anti-hoarding drive. He also delivered a radio address pleading for people to stop hoarding and cease converting bank deposits into cash. Few listened.

Why policy and leadership matter

In the aftermath of the Great Depression, many argued the financial sector was so important it needed to be closely monitored and regulated. For a while it was. But then Republican administrations continued to wind back many of the regulations that kept financial institutions from gorging themselves to death. The lack of oversight ultimately led to the Great Recession of 2007 2009.

After then-President George W. Bush left office, President Barack Obama implemented new regulations aimed at keeping the banking system healthy. However, those safeguards again were rolled back once Donald J. Trump took office.

Early in his administration, as if a thank you to Wall Street, Trump signed a directive aimed at dismantling the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, crafted by the Obama administration in response to the 2008 economic meltdown. Trump also signed a memorandum to reverse the fiduciary rule, which requires brokers to act in their clients best interest, rather than seek the highest profits for themselves, when providing financial planning advice.

Trumps action on the fiduciary rule, which Democrats and consumer groups immediately denounced, allows financial advisors to steer unsuspecting clients toward investments that may enrich the broker but not be in the clients best interest.

The great disconnect from the facts

The premise that the Republican party is the party of fiscal conservatives and the Democrats are fiscal numbskulls just doesnt fit with the facts. In fact, during the past thirty-nine years, all the United States recessions occurred under Republican administrations.

The Great Recession, set off by a subprime mortgage crisis, began in December 2007 under President George W. Bush.

The early 2000s recession, sparked by the dot-com market crash, began in March 2000 under President George W. Bush.

The early 1990s recession, precipitated by a savings-and-loan crisis, began in July 1990 under President George H.W. Bush.

The 1981 recession, which found its genesis in an energy crisis and stagflation, began in July 1981 under President Ronald Reagan.

Moreover, Americas deficit spending, once anathema to Republicans, has increased more under recent Republican administrations than under Democratic presidencies.

Reagan took the federal deficit from $70 billion to $175 billion. George H.W. Bush took it to $290 billion. President Bill Clinton reduced it to zero. George W. Bush took it from zero to $1.4 trillion. Obama halved it to $584 billion. The Trump administration has raised it back to more than $1 trillion.

The U.S. is now in another crisis. The health of the countrys citizens and economy is under attack. People are hoarding supplies, and a survivalist mentality has infected the populace.

In this election year, voters can decide whether we have thoughtful, intelligent, compassionate leaders in Washington or boisterous, dishonest fools on the hill. The choice may be at the very heart of our survival.

Randall Huft is president and creative director at Innovation Agency, an advertising, branding, and public relations firm specializing in the cannabis industry. While working with blue-chip companies including AT&T, United Airlines, IBM, Walgreens, American Express, Toyota, and Disney, he discovered what works, what doesnt, and how to gain market share.

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By now, you probably have experienced the long lines and empty shelves at grocery and warehouse stores. Or you - mg Cannabis Retailer

Human Behavior

COVID-19 Is a Symptom of a Bigger Problem: Our Planets Ailing Health – TIME

The COVID-19 outbreak is a global tragedy. Hundreds of thousands have died, healthcare systems are buckling, and the future is uncertain for millions of people whose livelihoods are collapsing. It is absolutely right that the focus today is on saving lives here and now. In the same spirit of doing what we can to safeguard peoples wellbeing, we must not content ourselves with containing the acute crisis. We must also look ahead to what we can learn from this crisis to prevent future risks. COVID-19 is a reminder of how vulnerable even our modern, technologically advanced societies are.

The biggest lesson is that COVID-19 is more than an illness. It is a symptom of the ailing health of our planet. Humanitys dysfunctional relationship with nature has caused this wider disease. Understanding this root cause is critical, if we want to rise stronger after the crisis. COVID-19 is a zoonotic virusmeaning it spilled over from wild animals to humansand evolved into a pandemic due to the now well-established risk cocktail of the 21st century: ecosystem destruction, species loss, global warming, colliding with risky human behavior like illegal wildlife trade. All of this has played out in a globalized network of trade and travel.

COVID-19 is not an isolated event. Research shows that 60% of all known infectious diseases in humans and 75% of all emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic. As we move into natural habitats, and exploit ever more wildlife, contact between humans and disease-carrying species increases.

Zoonotic diseases arent the only symptom of poor planetary health. Climate change is an even more serious crisis; it potentially poses existential risks for future generations, and is already having real-time impact on millions globally, for example through extreme weather events such as cyclones and floods. Changes in climate have a multiplier effect, leading to other problems, from ecosystem stability to food production and human conflict. Ecosystem and biodiversity loss are threatening the planets ability to provide goods and services deforestation for example, disrupts our weather patterns and the water cycle, contributes to climate change, and destroys the habitats of important species. Chemicals and waste are polluting the air, soil and water, killing millions each year.

All of these symptoms make clear that the planets health, and therefore our health, is deteriorating rapidly. And nature, just like a human, can only take so much before things reach the point of collapse.

We have known for a long time that we face a climate crisis and an ecological crisis. And now we are in the midst of another crisis, a tightly interconnected pandemic. It is not enough to focus only on economic recovery. Building resilience based on a whole-system approach is fundamental. This means the protection and sustainable management of our global commonssuch as our atmosphere and the earths rich diversity of plant and animal speciesmust be center-stage of priority-setting in our societies.

This year was meant to be a super year for nature,the world was due to agree on a global plan to protect and restore biodiversity beyond 2020. The next global climate meeting was scheduled to take place in Glasgow, with natural solutions to climate change a key issue for discussion and countries expected to propose new commitments to lower their emissions, in line with the Paris Agreement. The international community was also due to set out a framework for better management of chemicals and waste.

COVID-19 has made it crystal clear that we must deliver on these agendas. They are the means to form a blueprint for an economic and societal future that factors nature into everything we plan and build, from homes to cities to food systems.

But we cannot effectively address common global concerns, such as the environment, individually. The spread of this virus has proven once and for all that, in this globalized world, there are no local problemspollution and pathogens know no borders. Faced with the multifaceted impacts of COVID-19, multilateralism has to evolve. Governments, businesses, the UN, international organizations, scientists and individual citizens need to unite as a single global community to safeguard people from avoidable risks.

After COVID-19, nothing will be the same. But life can be better. We have had a moment to think and reflect. Perhaps we dont need as much stuff as we thought we did. Perhaps we can fill our lives with closer relationships, with moments, with creativity. Perhaps we recognize what really counts in our lives: being safe and being free. When we overcome COVID-19, we should not risk what we have won. We should do what we can to stabilize our environment, our support system. We need to think about how we can restore nature by living life differently.

One thing is clear. We cannot just develop a vaccine for COVID-19, call it job done and rev the economic engines back into the red. We need to use the reboot to incentivize sustainable innovation and green investment. The credits and subsidies that many governments are handing out so generously in this moment are not just a necessitythey are also a chance to direct economic progress towards sustainable development. This is an important insurance policy to avoid future pandemics.

To stabilize the climate, we have the Paris Agreement on keeping global temperature from rising more than 2C above pre-industrial levels. This translates into reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. For biodiversity and ecosystem stability, we need a similar binding target to halt the loss of biodiversity. Of course, setting targets alone does not do the job. Governments must work hard to achieve them. However, we have an important window right now, thanks to the bailout programs and financial stimulus packages arising from the COVID-19 crisis. Coupling science-based targets on climate and nature with these recovery mechanisms is a key strategy we need to deploy now, to win twice: we build resilience against future shocks and we create healthier economies. Because investing in sustainability is not something we do for nature or for the climate. We do it for us.

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Contact us at editors@time.com.

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COVID-19 Is a Symptom of a Bigger Problem: Our Planets Ailing Health - TIME