All posts by medical

What We Are Reading Today: Sunny Days – Arab News

May 16, 2020 medical

Authors:William H. Karasov and Carlos Martinez Del Rio

Unlocking the puzzle of how animals behave and how they interact with their environments is impossible without understanding the physiological processes that determine their use of food resources. but long overdue is a user-friendly introduction to the subject that systematically bridges the gap between physiology and ecology.

Ecologistsfor whom such knowledge can help clarify the consequences of global climate change, the biodiversity crisis, and pollutionoften find themselves wading through an unwieldy, technically top- heavy literature.

Here, WilliamKarasov and Carlos martinez del rio present the first accessible and authoritative one-volume overview of the physiological and biochemical principles that shape how animals procure energy and nutrients and free themselves of toxinsand how this relates to broader ecological phenomena.

After introducing primary concepts, the authors review the chemical ecology of food, and then discuss how animals digest and process food. their broad view includes symbioses and extends even to ecosystem phenomena such as ecological stochiometry and toxicant biomagnification.

Physiology

Father and son celebrate marathon Guinness world record – AW – Athletics Weekly

May 16, 2020 medical

Two Northern Ireland runners arecelebrating becomingGuinness world record-holders after receiving confirmation that their fastest parent and child attempt at theFrankfurt Marathon last year has been ratified, writesMalcolm McCausland.

Tommy and Eoin Hughes registered an aggregate time of 4:59:22 in Germany in October, with father Tommy running2:27:52 at the age of 59 and his 34-year-old son Eoin setting a PB of 2:31:20.

That took two minutes and 50 seconds off the previous record mark set at the 2014 London Marathon by Graham and Ben Green from Warrington.

Another record attempt byTommy and Eoin at theBelfast Half Marathon last September saw theCounty Derry men comeup 20 seconds short of the combined 2:20:33 goal, despite Eoin finishing second overall in 68:30.

Eoin entered the veteran ranks in January this year while Tommy turned 60 the same month and they had hoped to compete in the World Masters Championships in Canada in August before it became one of the many fixtures cancelled as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic.

A recent study of their Frankfurt performance, published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, has thrown up some interesting data. The study analysed the divergent physiologies and athletic histories of the father and son. Not surprisingly, it raised intriguing questions about the roles of genetics, environment and training in marathon success and it highlighted that one persons route to a fast time could be quite different from anothers, even in the case of a father and son.

The new study followed an earlier screening of Tommy following his single-age world record of 2:30:15 in Rotterdam in April 2019. That performance caught the attention of researchers at a number of institutions who study elite athletes, including the Inserm research organisation in France.

They promptly invited Tommy to their lab for a detailed examination into what made him so outstanding for his age. They were already aware that in his prime he had represented Ireland in the marathon at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, finishing 72nd in 2:32:55, five minutes slower than he ran in Frankfurt. He then quit running for 16 years before signing up for the 2008 Belfast Marathon where, with little training, he finished sixth.

The researchers found that his aerobic capacity, even at 59, remained exceptionally high despite years without running. The scientists put this down to his training regime that sees him log at least 100 miles every week by running twice a day and using local 5km and 10km races as speed work.

During the testing, Tommy mentioned that he and his son Eoin were planning to enter the Frankfurt Marathon, with the target of breaking the Guinness world record for fastest parent and child aggregate marathon time. The researchers saw that there was a unique opportunity to carry out a compare and contrast exercise into the physiological similarities and differences of the two runners.

So, they invited both of them to the lab and completed more tests, including measuring Eoins maximum aerobic capacity, which was found to be similar to that of his father. They tracked each mans oxygen uptake (VO2) at various race paces so that the researchers could gauge how much effort they were putting in at any given time.

Then they waited for the marathon which, although it was a success in that they set a new world mark, produced divergent results for the father and son. Tommy finished almost four minutes ahead of his son with his pace hardly varying from start to finish. Eoin, on the other hand, went off hard at the start but then fell back, finishing the second half of the race about 6 per cent slower than the first 13 miles.

Eoins workload was also slightly lighter than that of his father, his average pace represented about 85 per cent of his maximal endurance capacity, meaning he was pushing himself hard. But his fathers average pace hovered at around 90 per cent of his maximal capacity, suggesting a greater tolerance to discomfort.

So what can you take from the study if you want to improve your running? The first thing is that there are more approaches to training than one. Nevertheless, high mileage and frequent races over shorter distances seems to work. The second is to choose your parents carefully. Eoin Hughes certainly did that.

For more on the latest athletics news, athletics events coverage and athletics updates, check out theAW homepageand our social media channels onTwitter,FacebookandInstagram

Physiology

A Special Issue Published on the Use of Symbiotic Bacteria to Enhance the Effectiveness and Efficiency of the Sterile Insect Technique – International…

May 16, 2020 medical

Insects are, in many ways, the dominant multicellular lifeform on land. They are successful across multiple ecosystems and maintain intricate and complex interactions with the other organisms in their habitats. Many of the interactions between insects and plants, and insects and vertebrates have been extensively studied, but the associations between insects and microorganisms, while pervasive and of paramount ecological and evolutionary importance, are only gradually being understood. Insects depend on symbiotic associations with a variety of microorganisms, which affect many aspects of the hosts biology and physiology including their nutrition, mating behaviours, immunities and reproductive success.

Tephritid fruit flies are no exception and maintain intricate interactions with multiple micro-organisms. It is these complex relationships that are being explored by the IAEA, in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), to help develop sustainable methods to reduce the spread of these destructive insect species.

The sterile insect technique (SIT) has been effectively deployed to reduce fruit fly populations for over 60 years. SIT is a species-specific and environment-friendly technology which is often used as a component of area-wide integrated pest management (AW-IPM) programmes. Experience has shown that the efficiency of SIT can be hampered by the quality of the mass-reared and sterilised male insects, that must remain competitive with wild males on release, and the cost effectiveness of mass-rearing the billions of insects required for a sustainable operational project. Research efforts focussed on ways to improve these processes have recognised the symbiotic relationships between tephritids and particular species of bacteria as potential targets for improving the quality of the sterilized males and reducing costs of production,

This area of research has been further explored in an IAEA Coordinated Research Project (CRP) on the Use of Symbiotic Bacteria to Reduce Mass-Rearing Costs and Increase Mating Success in Selected Fruit Pests in Support of SIT Application. The CRP was initiated in 2012 under the auspices of the Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture with four main objectives: To determine the effect of radiation on the symbiotic communities in target species; to develop methods of using beneficial bacteria to replace costly ingredients in larval diets; to explore the use of symbionts as probiotics provided to adult sterile males before their release to significantly improve their performance; and, to harness symbiotic microorganisms as reproductive manipulators and determine their ability to suppress target populations.

The CRP has illustrated the utility of harnessing symbiotic associations towards the reproductive manipulation and suppression of target populations. Specifically, the effect of Wolbachia infection on Ceratitis capitata has been studied, revealing the practical potential for introducing this bacterium into mass reared and wild populations. In addition, the bacteria associated with most of the tephritid pests have been identified for the first time and the role of bacteria in mass rearing facilities has been elucidated for several key pest species.

The research studied and documented the effect of sterilizing radiation on the microbiota of several mass-reared species. The use of symbionts as probiotic supplements to improve larval rearing and adult quality was also studied in several species of Anastrepha, Bactrocera, and Ceratitis capitata.

All the major achievements of the CRP were published in a dedicated Special Issue, with 19 papers, in a Cross-Journal Supplement of BMC Microbiology and BMC Biotechnology. This Special Issue provides an important contribution to our knowledge on tephritid fruit flies and their symbionts, and the related potential for enhancing applied SIT technology in the field.

In addition, an online tool for calculating distribution of operational taxonomic units generated from new generation sequencing approaches has been developed. And a compilation of all the microorganisms identified before and during the CRP was produced and included in the final report of the CRP.

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A Special Issue Published on the Use of Symbiotic Bacteria to Enhance the Effectiveness and Efficiency of the Sterile Insect Technique - International...

Physiology

BUSINESS: Can lab-grown meat save the planet and dinner? – E&E News

May 16, 2020 medical

The idea is hard to stomach at first: animal meat grown in a lab.

But proponents of "cell-based meat" say the emerging technology has the potential to tackle two global problems at once. Lab-grown beef patties, chicken cutlets and even exotic proteins could help satisfy the world's growing appetite for meat, they argue. And it could be done in a way that cuts down on the tremendous environmental impact of animal agriculture.

Standing in the way is a long list of challenges including regulatory obstacles, sky-high production costs and the ever-present ick factor.

Still, advocates say lab-grown meat could hit store shelves as soon as 2025 if not earlier.

One proponent is Krijn de Nood, the chief executive of Meatable, a Netherlands-based company that is producing animal tissue by mimicking the cellular growth that typically happens inside rather than outside of living organisms. In an interview, de Nood said Meatable is "mission driven" and that it aims to address issues from climate change to animal welfare.

The company is among dozens of startups worldwide that are racing to scale technology they claim produces "real meat" not plant-based alternatives from companies such as Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat (Climatewire, Oct. 21, 2019).

That's possible, they say, because most cultured protein products originate as stem cells from real animals. Some companies make a point to say that no animals are harmed in the process.

Here's how it typically works. Engineers obtain an animal stem cell sample and isolate "cell lines" with the strongest genetic material. The cells are then placed in an environment like a petri dish or bioreactor that encourages rapid growth, and later differentiation. The resulting fat and muscle tissue is then harvested, structured and processed to create a final product.

De Nood said Meatable already has produced small quantities of meat using this process. And the whole thing took just three weeks a far faster timeline, Meatable notes, than it takes to raise an animal for slaughter. The company plans to host its first public taste testing of a pork prototype in September.

Several other companies already have allowed outsiders to sample their products. Those include Memphis Meats, Peace of Meat and Mosa Meat, which are based in the U.S., Belgium and the Netherlands, respectively.

In fact, one of the first cultured meat tastings dates back to 2013, when Maastricht University physiologist Mark Post presented the world with a beef patty that was produced in a petri dish.

At the time, that single slab of meat cost a whopping 250,000 to produce; Google co-founder Sergey Brin picked up the tab. Several years later, Post co-founded Mosa Meat.

More recently, in March, Peace of Meat hosted an event where attendees sampled a chicken nugget.

Tasting aside, co-founder David Brandes underscored that the startup has a different ambition than many other companies. Rather than producing consumer-facing products, Peace of Meat aims to eventually grow more than 100,000 tons of pure, cultured fat per year. The startup plans to sell the fat to other companies as a key ingredient to enhance the taste and texture of alternative meat products, including those that are plant-based.

"We don't want to make the most fancy-looking piece of food, we don't want to work on exotic species," said Brandes. "You need to produce massive amounts of meat if you really want to have an impact."

Animal agriculture is responsible for a whopping 14.5% of planet-warming emissions, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. That figure includes greenhouse gases attributable to meat processing, meat-related transportation and manure storage. Then there's the issue of belching cattle which itself is responsible for 65% of the livestock sector's emissions.

Paul Mozdziak, who serves as Peace of Meat's chief scientific officer, was among those who said a central goal of cellular agriculture is to satisfy the world's staggering, and still rising, demand for animal protein but without relying on supply chains that scientists say are environmentally fraught and highly vulnerable to marketplace disruptions.

As an example, Mozdziak pointed to the novel coronavirus crisis, which in recent weeks has temporarily shuttered meat packing plants, forced farmers to cull tens of thousands of animals and spurred fears of a nationwide protein shortage (Greenwire, May 4).

"I absolutely think the pandemic supports the need for this," said Mozdziak, who also directs North Carolina State University's graduate physiology program.

"It's another way to produce food. It's another way to produce protein. It's another way to increase food security," he added. "What if something [else] happens? ... [W]here's the protein going to come from? How are we going to eat?"

But even Mozdziak, who has pondered cultured meat since the early 1990s, acknowledged the obstacles ahead. Despite entrepreneurs' ambitions, he said, the field remains deep in research and development and far from supermarket shelves.

De Nood, of Meatable, highlighted that same issue. "It's all about the scalability of the process," he said, noting that his company is working to drive down costs and move its operations from "small environments" to large bioreactors that would require major processing factories.

Peace of Meat's Brandes agreed. But he said that even if production costs fall, there's the possibility that cultured meat would not meaningfully impact the carbon footprint of the global food system.

"When it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, I think there is a big potential," said Brandes. But producing large quantities of cultured meat would inevitably require substantial amounts of energy, too, "so it really depends where you draw the energy from," Brandes said.

Despite those obstacles and more, some projections have named cultured meat as a key driver of a revolutionary shift away from animal agriculture. Independent think tank RethinkX, for instance, predicts that cell-based meat and plant-based alternatives could render industrial cow farming "obsolete" in the U.S. entirely.

Ermias Kebreab, who is a climate and animal agriculture expert at the University of California, Davis, disagreed with that assessment.

Even as the world becomes more invested in exploring alternatives to conventional protein, Kebreab said, researchers and traditional farmers are actively developing strategies like feeding seaweed to cows to cut the sector's environmental footprint.

In his eyes, sustainable agriculture, rather than cellular agriculture, is what will ultimately enhance food security in developing countries where most future population growth is predicted to occur.

"I'd rather have beef" from cows, said Kebreab, adding that cell-based meat also raises other issues for him, like the products' overall nutritional value. He said he's wary of "highly, highly processed food."

Mozdziak, of Peace of Meat, agreed in part. He doesn't see cellular agriculture putting meat companies out of business.

But "at the same time," he said, "let me vehemently state that I think cultured meat is really important. ... [I]f we're going to have a billion more people on the planet in 30 years, we're going to have to find a way to feed them."

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BUSINESS: Can lab-grown meat save the planet and dinner? - E&E News

Physiology

Organs-on-chips Market Analysis and Demand 2017 2025 Cole Reports – Cole of Duty

May 16, 2020 medical

Global AC Organs-on-chips Market: Snapshot

Organs-on-chips or organ-on-a-chip is an electronic gadget that consists of a 3D microfluidic cell culture-based multi-channel structure. This gadget essentially is a chip that can control mechanisms, activities, and physiological responses of organs and organ systems, after being implanted in the body. In a more simplistic manner, this chip acts mainly as an artificial organ, or an artificial system that undertakes processes controlled by human bodies in a natural state. A brisk rise in research in the field of biomedical engineering, particularly to find alternatives for replacing failed human organs has formed a distinct organs-on-chips market.

This market is being pushed to attain substantial growth owing to a rise in healthcare industry applications. Surging cases of organ failure in the form of liver, kidneys, lungs, and heart also are prime reasons for fueling the search to find viable alternatives.

Know the Growth Opportunities in Emerging Markets

The bioelectronics components are mainly created on small microchips, which have tiny chambers formed by living cells. These cells are arranged in such a manner that they mimic human body physiology on a micro-level scale. These simulations are utilized on a macro scale by enhancing them with the help of various methods. According to the organs mentioned above, there are separate chips made for each organ, and even for some smaller constituents that make up an organ. For example, heart-on-a-chip, skin-on-a-chip, artery-on-a-chip, lung-on-a-chip, and kidney-on-a-chip are key organ-on-a-chip gadgets that are being extensively used. Installation of each of these chips depends on several factors such as body acceptability, medical condition of patient, and physiological responses, among others.

Organs-on-chips Market: Overview

Organ-on-chip is multichannel 3D micro-fluidic cell culture gadget, which prompts mechanisms, activities, and physiological reflexes of human organs. This chip builds up a thin channel for the air and blood flow in organs including gut, lung, heart, liver, and so on. This gadgets is created on a microchip, which has constantly perfused chambers made by living cells arranged in a way to invigorate tissue- level physiology and organ-level physiology. It is utilized to sustain interior organs with the support of silicone.

The worldwide organ-on-chip market is fragmented based on geography and type. On the basis of type, the market is partitioned into human-on-chip, heart-on-chip, lungs-on-chip, intestine on-chip, liver-on-chip, and kidney-on-chip. Based on geography the organs-on-chips market is segmented into Europe, North America, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa.

The analysts of the report have utilized skilled procedures to anticipate the patterns in the market for organs-on-chips keeping in mind the end goal to make precise projections. The examination of different market components has been utilized to illustrate noteworthy, current, and provisional future patterns, which would enable the market players to get a domain of the market.

Organs-on-chips Market:Trends and Prospects

The development of the global organ-on-chip market is driven by rise in its applications in the healthcare industry, increase in demand for drug screening, and soaring demand for kidney applications and lung-based organ culture. Be that as it may, high cost and early stage in research and development obstruct the market development. These components are expected to either drive or hamper the market. But, nevertheless, rise in research processes on organ-on-chips is estimated to offer plenty of opportunities for the leading players.

Deficiency of donor lungs for transplantation has prompted increase in number of patients dying due to illness. In this way, increase in demand to create lab-engineered, functional organs is expected to supplement the development of the market. Recellularized strong organs can perform organ-specific tasks for limited amount of time, which shows the potential for clinical utilization of artificially designed strong organs later on.

Rise in demand for organ-on-chip gadgets in the medical industry is foreseen to help the development of the global market. Organ-on-chip gadgets are known to be useful in in-vitro analysis of biochemical, real-time imaging, and metabolic and genetic activities of living cells in a functional tissue, which majorly boost their adoption.

Drug screening is a practical technique utilized for quickly reviewing samples. Researchers and analysts utilize organ-on-chips culture gadgets to monitor the impacts of medications in the body. Moreover, drug effectiveness or drug toxicity in different organs of the body is checked utilizing this procedure, which helps the market development.

Order this Report TOC for Detailed Statistics

Organs-on-chips Market:Regional Outlook

The heart-on-chip segment has higher potential for development in the global market. Lung-on-chip led the global organ-on-chip market in 2016, and is anticipated to continue its predominance within the forecast period. North America held the biggest market share, because of advanced technological innovations and rise in healthcare applications. Asia-Pacific is expected to witness the most astounding development due to various growth opportunities offered by nations, for example, India, China, and Japan. The accessibility of new and advanced organs-on-chips in the market, and ideal government activities as far as financing and projects for essential drug advancement and research, and the advent of key pharmaceutical organizations. These are regions where the lions share of drug development activity is focused.

Organs-on-chips Market:Vendor Landscape

Emulate, Inc., CN Bio Innovations, Ascendance Biotechnology, Inc., Mimetas B.V., Organovo Holdings, Inc., Tara Biosystems, AxoSim Technologies LLC, Hurel Corporation, Insphero AG, and Nortis Inc. are among the major players in the global organs-on-chips market.

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Organs-on-chips Market Analysis and Demand 2017 2025 Cole Reports - Cole of Duty

Physiology

How 20th-century ‘rejuvenation’ techniques gave rise to the modern anti-ageing industry – The Conversation UK

May 16, 2020 medical

Our obsession with looking and feeling younger isnt unique to the 21st century. In fact, weve been searching for ways to turn back the clock for centuries.

Cleopatra reportedly bathed in milk to preserve her youth, women in the Elizabethan era wore thin slices of meat on their faces to get rid of wrinkles, and Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Lon was rumoured to have been searching for the mythical fountain of youth when he discovered Florida.

Although humans had long been trying to cheat ageing, the period immediately after the First World War saw new strategies to rejuvenate the body and mind gain popularity, as I write in my recent book. These included everything from surgical procedures that aimed to manipulate sex hormones, to everyday beauty products, like skin foods and moisturising creams.

All of these methods promised wildly different results. In the case of male hormone treatments, a patient might expect to regain lost fertility as well as energy. Everyday cosmetic products, marketed almost exclusively to women, promised a restored youthful appearance.

Different types of rejuvenation were considered appropriate for men and women. In men, renewed sexual function and economic productivity was the goal. For women, a return to youthful beauty was deemed to be of greatest value. Prolonging life was a goal for eugenicists and medicine, but it was not a universal concern for would-be rejuvenators. Most instead concentrated on extending their youth.

Electrical therapies, which anyone could use in their home, were also popular. One of the most widely used electrotherapy devices during the late 1920s through to the 1940s was the Overbeck Rejuvenator, which was claimed to be able to restore lost vitality by restocking the bodys supply of electrical energy. Depending on which ailment the user wanted to treat, electrodes were applied to the body on a daily basis, and a small electric current was administered.

The inventor of the Rejuvenator was Otto Overbeck, an enterprising chemist who worked in the brewing industry. He wrote two books on the subject, the first of which was published in 1925, and used these to claim that his machine would have positive results in all conditions apart from infectious diseases and deformities.

Despite a study concluding that the devices current was not strong enough to have any effect, electrotherapy continued to be popular.

In 1912, Austrian physiologist Eugen Steinach devised a series of experiments designed to manipulate the levels of sex hormone (testosterone) in guinea pigs. He concluded that the secretions of the testes governed sexuality and sexual activity and behaviour.

Based on these findings, Steinach then began performing partial vasectomies on men in an effort to increase the production of testosterone and rejuvenate his patients. But an article published in 1923 was sceptical about his work, which had an apparently irresistible appeal to elderly persons whose waning virility renders them disconsolate and fretful.

Steinach generated great public interest in his work and inspired a loyal group of supporters within the medical profession. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physiology on several separate occasions between 1921 and 1938 for his pioneering work in the fields of endocrinology, urology, and sexual health. He was also a key figure in the development of endocrinology. But he was also subject to fierce accusations of quackery and deception.

Public audiences were fascinated by press reports of successful rejuvenations using his procedure. The so-called Steinach operation was a fairly expensive treatment, and it became fashionable among the higher levels of society, as well as many artists. These included the Irish poet W. B. Yeats, who claimed that the procedure inspired him to new artistic heights.

For those unable to afford a personal treatment by Steinach, a huge range of rejuvenating options gradually became available. New diets, exercise regimes, and cosmetic products found receptive audiences who were anxious about ageing. Many of these were advertised as essential parts of a healthy life, which also promoted youthfulness.

For example, in his 1923 book Rejuvenation, the French self-styled anti-ageing specialist Jean Frumusan identified a series of domestic habits designed for staying healthier for longer.

These included instructions like drinking a large glass of water after waking up, and jumping out of bed immediately. Frumusman also advised people to eat slowly and moderately and to be carnivorous at one meal, vegetarian at the next. Frumusan also advocated periodic fasting for 24 or 48 hours at a time to restore the vitality of the body.

Read more: Fitness gurus and 'muscular Christianity': how Victorian Britain anticipated today's keep fit craze

Anti-ageing cosmetic products were also popular, marketed primarily to women. Cosmetic magnates like Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden sold youthfulness to women of all ages. They and their contemporaries created a mass market for new anti-ageing products and services that has become embedded within 21st-century culture.

Rubinstein launched her Hormone Twin Youthifiers in the United States in 1931. These were two creams - day and night - which included oestrogen to replace the vital glandular secretions of youth.

Arden shunned the use of hormones in her products but did introduce her famed Vienna Youth Mask in 1927. This device used diathery (small electrical currents) to warm a persons facial tissues and with the goal of preserving preserve a youthful complexion.

Popular rejuvenation methods in the early 20th century were remarkably different from one another showing the rich range of ideas and theories about ageing. Rejuvenation was one of the most prominent and fascinating topics of public interest in the 1920s and 1930s, and gave rise to societys enduring obsession with looking and feeling young.

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How 20th-century 'rejuvenation' techniques gave rise to the modern anti-ageing industry - The Conversation UK

Biochemistry

The coronavirus might have weak spots. Machine learning could help find them. – News@Northeastern

May 16, 2020 medical

Chemically speaking, proteins might be the most sophisticated molecules out there. Millions of different kinds of them live within our cells and work together as a fine-tuned orchestra catalyzing the biochemical reactions that keep us alive.

Few things in the world would function without proteinsnot the cells within your body, and certainly not SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19.

The proteins in the coronavirus facilitate its remarkable ability to infect human cells without resulting in visible symptoms of COVID-19 for long periods of time. Thats why researchers around the world have been investigating the roles of each of the 29 proteins packed inside SARS-CoV-2.

By learning more about each of those proteins at the molecular level, researchers want to pin down the exact parts of the SARS-CoV-2 proteins that enable it to bind itself to other proteins on the surface of human cells and enable the virus to replicate. The idea is to inhibit those chemical reactions right from the start, and render the coronavirus ineffective.

To analyze those protein interactions, Northeastern researchers are bringing another set of tools to study the coronavirus proteins down to their amino acids, the building blocks of all proteins.

Mary Jo Ondrechen, a professor of chemistry and chemical biology, wants to identify all of the amino acids responsible for the abilities of the coronavirus to infect and thrive at the expense of human cells. Together with Penny Beuning, a professor of chemistry and chemical biology, Ondrechen recently received a grant from the National Science Foundation to use machine learning algorithms and experimental lab work to do just that.

Proteins are long chains of molecules that function through cascading interactions with amino acids form other proteins. But those interactions dont always occur in the same place within the structure of a protein where the protein carries out its chemical reaction. Often, although the interactions happen outside of that site, they still control the reaction. A specific site within a protein can also control the action of different proteins, helping or hindering a specific chemical reaction.

Changes in protein behavior resulting from these networks of interactions, or from preventing interactions, are known as allosteric regulation. Ondrechens algorithm predicts many of these and other types of interactions based on the specific molecular structures of proteins.

Research led by her and Beuning could help researchers gain a better understanding of the biochemistry of SARS-CoV-2, and serve as the basis for developing new drugs to inhibit its infectious abilities.

Researchers around the world have been rushing to develop new chemicals that show promise as compounds that could hinder the coronavirus by interacting with its main active proteins.

Still, scientists are just beginning to understand many of the coronavirus proteins. And, Ondrechen says, there might be sites within those poorly understood proteins that researchers might be failing to notice.

The program, which Ondrechens lab invented in 2009, analyzes the chemical properties of each of the individual amino acids within a protein. It could predict the roles of important but subtle interactions in SARS-CoV-2 involving amino acids that arent directly linked to the main reaction sites, and which would be too difficult to analyze with conventional bioinformatic research.

In the main protease, everybody knows where the catalytic site is, in the RNA transferase, everybody knows where the catalytic site is, Ondrechen says. Our technology is special because we could predict exo-sites, allosteric sites, and other binding sites or interaction sites that can control.

The program will run those predictions against databases that include tens of thousands of compounds with anti-viral properties and compounds found in food, all in a major attempt to find proteins that might hit the predicted sites of protein interaction.

Once the program runs the computational analysis to find candidate proteins to inhibit SARS-CoV-2, it will guide Beunings experimental tests in her lab.

Well be looking at the protein level: Do the compounds actually bind those proteins, and do they modulate the activity of the protein? Beuning says. Ideally, they would inhibit the activity of the protein, and then impair the virus.

For the past 10 years, Ondrechen and Beuning have been combining their computational and experimental power to understand such questions as how proteins control the production of our DNA, and how proteins enable our bodies to carry out some of the most important metabolic functions.

Now, they are planning to move as fast as possible to identify important protein interactions in SARS-CoV-2, test them in the lab, and move on with further tests in live organisms.

Our plans are to finish in six months, Ondrechen says. If we come up with interesting compounds in vitro, hopefully we can find a collaborator that could do in vivo testing.

For media inquiries, please contact media@northeastern.edu.

Biochemistry

New research discovered how the body reacts to coronavirus, how we can support defenses – WSAW

May 16, 2020 medical

(WZAW) -- A breakthrough, preclinical study may provide some answers. It found that the coronavirus infection stresses cells and depletes cellular NAD+ levels, more than three-fold.

On Friday, Dr. Charles Brenner, Chair of Biochemistry at the University of Iowa, broke down the findings and how they could help inform how we deal with the coronavirus.

My laboratory is interested in NAD, which is the central co-enzyme, the central catalyst of metabolism. This is a molecule that is so intrinsic to life that its required for us to convert everything that we eat, not only into ATP, the biological energy to power our cells, but its required to convert everything that we eat, really into everything that we are, everything that we do, Dr. Brenner explained.

In his research, he team found that coronavirus attacks the NAD system. NAD is required for an innate immune defense against the virus.

This appears to be actionable, because not only are some of the genes that use up NAD turned on by our viral infection, but some of the genes that we use to make NAD are turned up by the viral infection, he added. We think that gives us a way to boost NAD and potentially boost our defense against viral infection.

He said there are many stressors that disturb the NAD system, such as age, obesity, type 2 diabetes, nerve damage, alcohol use, time zone disruption, DNA damage and reactive oxygen stress.

Dr. Brenner said there is good news, though, that you can increase your NAD levels.

Our laboratory discovered NR nicotinamide riboside as an NAD precursor vitamin. Its not been tested yet as a viral preventative strategy, but our research is moving in the direction for testing NR for preventability in animal models and in human systems.

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Biochemistry

Pivoting the Lab | News – WPI News

May 16, 2020 medical

D-Term 2020 was supposed to look like past D-Terms in Destin Heilmans Experimental Biochemistry labstudents were going to learn how to isolate proteins in e.coli, and experience the flow and feel of a lab on campus.

Kathleen Donovan 21

Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and all of WPIs classes were moved online, including Heilmans.

So, in typical WPI fashion, the teaching professor of chemistry & biochemistry pivoted, and transformed his in-person lab into a digital oneone that charged students to examine the coronavirus from stem-to-stern.

I thought, Why not study the very thing that has us locked in our houses? says Heilman, whose background is in virology (he even has a 3-D printed model of a virus protein on his desk).

With the term now over, he and his students reflected on the challenges and opportunities they had in virtually dissecting the coronavirus, with a particular focus on the viruss proteins, and which ones make it wreak havoc in humans. During the class, he gave his seven students documents on those proteins to read, including the work done on coronavirus by Dmitry Korkin, and challenged them to pick which one they wanted to study.

Heilman maintained his usual hands-on approach to experiments, even via remote learning. After all, some of the most important lessons students learn in the lab isnt content, he says. Its the nuances of the lab itself, being able to feel things in your hands, making mistakes. As a result, instead of physically working with students in the lab, he talked them through scenarios of mistakesmaterial spills, equipment mishapsthat could happen during their experiments, and asked them to figure out how to make the appropriate fixes.

Joe Dainis 20

The students really sank their teeth into it, he says.

Students werent champing at the bit to do a digital lab at first, and werent sure about online lab work.

I was nervous, Ive never taken online classes before, says Kathleen Donovan 21, a biochemistry major.

But, as D-Term progressed and students got their sea legs in Heilmans digital lab, their excitement blossomed.

Some students say Heilmans digital lab gave them valuable real-world experience. Being able to look at a lab and experiment from an entirely different perspective has a lot of beneficial uses, particularly in the research field, where you are developing your own protocols, says Joe Dainis 20, who is double majoring in biology & biotechnology and biochemistry.

My favorite part of the class was learning some of the techniques researchers use to study enzymes that are therapeutic targets, such as the SARS-CoV2 replicase,says Olivia Hunker 20, a biochemistry major. Im planning to pursue a PhD after I graduate and it gave me a better understanding of how to approach problems like this.

Olivia Hunker 20

Students say learning about the pandemic in the lab enables them and Heilman to learn from each other, too. Every meeting, there was an instance where we discussed COVID-19 and a student brought up a detail that Professor Heilman did not know regarding this virus, and vice versa, Dainis says. It was a unique experience to be in a professor-student relationship where you are both improving your knowledge regarding a topic that no one is an expert in.

Its nice to understand on a molecular level how the virus is working, says Donovan. Its nice to look at the research thats already been done on coronavirus. It puts into perspective how important research is, and that there is still so much to learn.

One of the most important things that Heilman learned from flipping his lab is that the process was easier than he thought it would be, and its helping to ready students for the world post-WPI.

The transition from a lab-based class to online was easy because WPI does projects, he says. Students can easily adapt, and theyll be able to digest information about coronavirus and other viruses for the greater community.

-By Jessica Messier

The rest is here:
Pivoting the Lab | News - WPI News

Biochemistry

Graduates Urged to Use Lessons From the Climb to Look Beyond the Summit – UANews

May 16, 2020 medical

How does college compare to climbing the world's tallest mountain? There are a few ways, according to someone who's done it twice.

Alison Levine, a mountaineer, adventurer and university alumna, called on her trips up Mount Everest to show the class of 2020 that the challenges they overcame this spring will only make them stronger.

Levine's speech during the university's 156th Commencement on Friday addressed head-on the unpredictable and trying times that graduates face as they enter the workforce amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The speech was delivered via video from Levine's home during the university's first-ever virtual ceremony.

"When it comes down to it, what will help you more than math or history or biology or computer science is, indeed, resilience," Levine said as she stood before a closet full of parkas, backpacks, helmets and other expedition gear. "I would argue that you, class of 2020, are coming away with more of that than any class before."

Before Levine's address, Commencement viewers heard from university President Robert C. Robbins, Dean of Students Kendal Washington White, Provost Liesl Folks, college deans, this year's senior award winners and other speakers. The clips were filmed at various locations in recent weeks, with participants following physical distancing guidelines.

Robbins, in his opening remarks, addressed graduates from Arizona Stadium, where Commencement is usually held.

"The new format of celebration this year is out of necessity, and we know that it's not traditional; however, commitment to celebrating your achievement is as robust as ever," he said.

"You have reached a milestone in your lives by earning your degrees, and now, we are all excited to see the impact you will make on our world," he said.

Levine, in her address, likened the circumstances surrounding this year's Commencement to the challenge she faced when she led the first American Women's Everest Expedition in 2002. A storm turned the team back just 300 feet from the summit.

"I can absolutely relate to what it feels like to lose an opportunity that you worked so hard for," she said.

"Everything I learned during that failed attempt on Everest prepared me for life's challenges going forward including a successful Everest climb that would come eight years later," she said.

She urged graduates to embrace and brave their fears but to not be complacent. She also assured them that changing direction like retreating back to base camp on Everest is never something to be ashamed of.

"Backing up is not the same as backing down," she said.

She reminded graduates that their summit graduation is not the end, but a time to reflect on lessons from college and how those lessons will guide them through their professional lives.

"Reaching the top of a mountain is not nearly as important as the lessons you learn along the way when you're fighting with everything you've got in you to get up there and what you're going to do with that information to be better going forward," Levine said. "It's that fight during the journey that benefits us the most, because that struggle makes us stronger."

Despite the shared challenge for the class 2020, nothing can take away from the shared accomplishment of graduation, Levine said, adding that the class has "raised the bar" with its perseverance in uncertain times.

"You are resilient, you are creative, you have learned to sacrifice, to pivot and to keep going when you thought you couldn't," Levine said.

"You are the fiercest Wildcat class ever."

Levine, a New York Times bestselling author, speaker and businesswoman, graduated from UArizona in 1987 with a bachelor's degree in communication. She has climbed the highest peak on every continent and has skied to both the North and South poles a feat known as the Adventure Grand Slam, which only 20 people in the world have achieved. In 2016, she completed first ascents or the first successful documented climbs to the top of Hall Peak in Antarctica and Khang Karpo in Nepal.

Levine is one of five honorees to receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree this year. The other recipients are Bruce and Patricia Bartlett, benefactors and champions of the university's Strategic Alternative Learning Techniques Center; Melody S. Robidoux, a businesswoman, philanthropist and UArizona alumna who co-founded the Women's Foundation of Southern Arizona; and Linda Ronstadt, a 10-time Grammy Award-winning singer, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and Tucson native.

Seven graduating seniors also were recognized for their outstanding achievements and contributions during the ceremony. The Provost Award went to Lauren Easter (law and philosophy); the Robie Gold Medal went to Tony Viola IV (literacy, learning and leadership); the Robert Logan Nugent Awards went to Lily Keane Chavez (creative writing and global studies) and Meucci Watchman Ilunga (biochemistry); and the Merrill P. Freeman Medals went to Marcos Gomez Ambriz (physiology and biochemistry) and Ahmad B. Shahin (physiology).

The virtual ceremony will be available to watch in full on the Commencement website on Monday. The class of 2020 will be celebrated with an in-person ceremony during Homecoming Weekend on Oct. 30.