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Neuroscience

Finding new approaches for emotional wellness – News from southeastern Connecticut – theday.com

As a mother who lost her son to addiction, I am always wondering how we can prioritize prevention and promote healthy behaviors at an early age? I came upon an old blog post in Psychology Today, April 16, 2010, by Ronald Alexander, author of "Wise Mind, Open Mind: Finding Purpose and Meaning in Times of Crisis, Loss, and Change" that discusses mindful meditation and how it creates new neural pathways in the brain.

In my opinion, this approach is the future of prevention, treatment and recovery. Firmlybased in neuroscience, it can teach kids the skills needed to regulate their stress and emotion, for positive relationships, and act with kindness, confidence and compassion. Through these methods children become empowered to achieve long-term success in every aspect of their lives.

I recently learned that the Goldie Hawn Foundation has an organization called MindUP with the goal of "empowering children through mindful practice based in neuroscience." It hastools for schools, teachers and parents.

I amhappy to see iconic people using their influenceand resources for good and hope our local schools and families will consider these scienced-based approaches to building lifelong protective wellnessbehaviors in our children.

Ceci Iliff

Norwich

Editor's note: Ceci Iliff is the founder of TheCharityChallenge.Net and an advisory board member of TriCircle Inc. of Middlefield.

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Finding new approaches for emotional wellness - News from southeastern Connecticut - theday.com

Neuroscience

MIT neuroscientists identify memory cells that help us interpret novel situations – News-Medical.net

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Apr 6 2020

Imagine you are meeting a friend for dinner at a new restaurant. You may try dishes you haven't had before, and your surroundings will be completely new to you. However, your brain knows that you have had similar experiences -- perusing a menu, ordering appetizers, and splurging on dessert are all things that you have probably done when dining out.

MIT neuroscientists have now identified populations of cells that encode each of these distinctive segments of an overall experience. These chunks of memory, stored in the hippocampus, are activated whenever a similar type of experience takes place, and are distinct from the neural code that stores detailed memories of a specific location.

The researchers believe that this kind of "event code," which they discovered in a study of mice, may help the brain interpret novel situations and learn new information by using the same cells to represent similar experiences.

When you encounter something new, there are some really new and notable stimuli, but you already know quite a bit about that particular experience, because it's a similar kind of experience to what you have already had before."

Susumu Tonegawa, professor of biology and neuroscience at the RIKEN-MIT Laboratory of Neural Circuit Genetics at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory

Tonegawa is the senior author of the study, which appears today in Nature Neuroscience. Chen Sun, an MIT graduate student, is the lead author of the paper. New York University graduate student Wannan Yang and Picower Institute technical associate Jared Martin are also authors of the paper.

It is well-established that certain cells in the brain's hippocampus are specialized to store memories of specific locations. Research in mice has shown that within the hippocampus, neurons called place cells fire when the animals are in a specific location, or even if they are dreaming about that location.

In the new study, the MIT team wanted to investigate whether the hippocampus also stores representations of more abstract elements of a memory. That is, instead of firing whenever you enter a particular restaurant, such cells might encode "dessert," no matter where you're eating it.

To test this hypothesis, the researchers measured activity in neurons of the CA1 region of the mouse hippocampus as the mice repeatedly ran a four-lap maze. At the end of every fourth lap, the mice were given a reward. As expected, the researchers found place cells that lit up when the mice reached certain points along the track. However, the researchers also found sets of cells that were active during one of the four laps, but not the others. About 30 percent of the neurons in CA1 appeared to be involved in creating this "event code."

"This gave us the initial inkling that besides a code for space, cells in the hippocampus also care about this discrete chunk of experience called lap 1, or this discrete chunk of experience called lap 2, or lap 3, or lap 4," Sun says.

To further explore this idea, the researchers trained mice to run a square maze on day 1 and then a circular maze on day 2, in which they also received a reward after every fourth lap. They found that the place cells changed their activity, reflecting the new environment. However, the same sets of lap-specific cells were activated during each of the four laps, regardless of the shape of the track. The lap-encoding cells' activity also remained consistent when laps were randomly shortened or lengthened.

"Even in the new spatial locations, cells still maintain their coding for the lap number, suggesting that cells that were coding for a square lap 1 have now been transferred to code for a circular lap 1," Sun says.

The researchers also showed that if they used optogenetics to inhibit sensory input from a part of the brain called the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC), lap-encoding did not occur. They are now investigating what kind of input the MEC region provides to help the hippocampus create memories consisting of chunks of an experience.

These findings suggest that, indeed, every time you eat dinner, similar memory cells are activated, no matter where or what you're eating. The researchers theorize that the hippocampus contains "two mutually and independently manipulatable codes," Sun says. One encodes continuous changes in location, time, and sensory input, while the other organizes an overall experience into smaller chunks that fit into known categories such as appetizer and dessert.

"We believe that both types of hippocampal codes are useful, and both are important," Tonegawa says. "If we want to remember all the details of what happened in a specific experience, moment-to-moment changes that occurred, then the continuous monitoring is effective. But on the other hand, when we have a longer experience, if you put it into chunks, and remember the abstract order of the abstract chunks, that's more effective than monitoring this long process of continuous changes."

Tonegawa and Sun believe that networks of cells that encode chunks of experiences may also be useful for a type of learning called transfer learning, which allows you to apply knowledge you already have to help you interpret new experiences or learn new things. Tonegawa's lab is now working on trying to find cell populations that might encode these specific pieces of knowledge.

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MIT neuroscientists identify memory cells that help us interpret novel situations - News-Medical.net

Neuroscience

Allen Institute Announces New Phase Of Neuroscience Research – Chinook Observer

SEATTLE, April 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Allen Institute today announced new phases of research for its largest division, the Allen Institute for Brain Science, as well as a leader hired to direct a new neuroscience-related division of the Institute.

This change reflects a structural transition for the Allen Institute for Brain Science as it nears the end of its current 10-year scientific timeline. Established in 2003, the Allen Institute for Brain Science has grown to more than 300 researchers and staff working in two broad research programs.

The larger of these groups, the Cell Types program, will move into a new 16-year phase that builds on the team's success in working toward a "periodic table" of brain cell types. In this new phase, the Allen Institute for Brain Science will focus solely on brain cell types and connectivity research. The MindScope Program, which seeks to understand how the brain's neural circuits produce the sense of vision, will also move into a new phase of discovery and will transition out of the Allen Institute for Brain Science to become a separate program of the Allen Institute.

"Through the vision and guidance of our late founder, Paul G. Allen, our model has always been to find scientific problems where our particular flavor of big, team and open science can have the greatest impact," said Allan Jones, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of the Allen Institute. "As we shift into the next phase of our neuroscience research, I am confident that our teams will continue to push the boundaries of discovery and create invaluable resources for the community."

Christof Koch, Ph.D., currently the President and Chief Scientist of the Allen Institute for Brain Science, will continue to lead the MindScope Program as its Chief Scientist. Hongkui Zeng, Ph.D., currently Executive Director of Structured Science, will lead the cell types and connectivity research as the Executive Vice President, Director of the Allen Institute for Brain Science.

Additionally, renowned neuroscientist Karel Svoboda, Ph.D., will join the Allen Institute in 2021 to lead a new division of the Institute, which will launch in 2022 and will focus on research related to neural computation and dynamics.

The Allen Institute for Brain Science's next phaseThe Allen Brain Observatory, established under Koch's leadership, was built to understand how the brain stores, encodes and processes information, using the mouse visual system as a model for understanding. Koch will continue to lead Observatory projects and direct a team of researchers under the MindScope Program.

"After spending the past eight years building up the tools (such as MesoScope and Neuropixels), instrumental recording capabilities and data analysis pipelines of the Allen Brain Observatory, we are now ready over the next five years to harvest the scientific insights into how the mouse cortex, 14 million complex neurons packed into the volume of a tenth of a sugar cube, represent and evaluate incoming visual information to rapidly and robustly control the behavior and the perception of the mouse," Koch said. "I'm looking forward to dedicating my efforts to this exciting area of research in the years ahead."

Zeng has been a neuroscientist at the Allen Institute since 2006 and leads several projects aiming to create a periodic table of cell types in the brain. Under her leadership, the Allen Institute for Brain Science will now dedicate its focus to defining comprehensive catalogs of mouse and human brain cell types, understanding how different cell types arise through development and evolution, and how they connect and function in health and in disease. The division will generate brain atlases, tools and foundational knowledge for the neuroscience community. Zeng is also the principal investigator on several large National Institutes of Health-funded research projects and programs, which she will continue to lead in her new role.

"I am honored to lead the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and I am confident our researchers will continue to lead their fields as we work together to tackle new and challenging scientific questions," Zeng said. "Our teams have made incredible progress in the past decade in our quest to identify the 'parts lists' of the mouse and human brains and how these parts are connected into the 'Google map' of the brain. Information gained from these efforts opens up unprecedented opportunities for us to look deeper into how brain works. I'm excited to help bring our endeavor to the next level."

A new Institute coming in 2022The Allen Institute's newest division is slated to launch in 2022 and will focus on neural computation and dynamics, with a more specific vision to be developed in several planning sessions this year and next. The new division, led by Svoboda, will focus on making new discoveries and solving hard problems in neural computation.

Svoboda is currently a senior group leader at The Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Research Campus, where his lab studies synaptic plasticity and develops new technologies and tools. He was previously a professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Bell Labs and earned his Ph.D. in biophysics from Harvard University. He has served as a member of the Allen Institute for Brain Science's scientific advisory councils over the past 10 years.

"Over the years as a frequent visitor and advisor to the Allen Institute, I have grown to know and value its unique intellectual culture," Svoboda said. "The Allen Institute has made extraordinary contributions to science and the world, and I'm so excited join this amazing community."

About the Allen Institute for Brain ScienceThe Allen Institute for Brain Science is a division of the Allen Institute (alleninstitute.org), an independent, 501(c)(3) nonprofit medical research organization, and is dedicated to accelerating the understanding of how the human brain works in health and disease. Using a big science approach, the Allen Institute generates useful public resources used by researchers and organizations around the globe, drives technological and analytical advances, and discovers fundamental brain properties through integration of experiments, modeling and theory. Launched in 2003 with a seed contribution from founder and philanthropist, the late Paul G. Allen, the Allen Institute is supported by a diversity of government, foundation and private funds to enable its projects. The Allen Institute for Brain Science's data and tools are publicly available online atbrain-map.org.

Media Contact:Rob Piercy, Director, Media Relations206.548.8486 | press@alleninstitute.org

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Allen Institute Announces New Phase Of Neuroscience Research - Chinook Observer

Neuroscience

Allen Institute reorganizes brain science division, with added focus on neural computation – GeekWire

A sculpture titled MIRALL stands sentry at the Allen Institutes headquarters in Seattles South Lake Union district. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)

Seattles Allen Institute is heading into a new phase of research into neuroscience a phase that includes reorganizing its current activities as well as adding new ones.

The Allen Institute for Brain Science, which is the largest division under the institutes umbrella, was established by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen in 2003 and has continued on its mission since Allens death in 2018. Its grown to more than 300 scientists and staff members who work in two broad research areas.

One program, known as Cell Types, focuses on mapping out a periodic table of brain cells. The Allen Institutes new 16-year plan calls for the Allen Institute for Brain Science to focus solely on studying brain cell types and neural connectivity.

The second program, known as MindScope, seeks to understand how the brains neural circuits produce the sense of vision. That field of study, along with the Allen Brain Observatory, will transition out of the Allen Institute for Brain Science to become a separate program at the Allen Institute.

A new division, due for launch in 2022, will focus on research related to neural computation and dynamics.

Allan Jones, the Allen Institutes president and CEO, said the organizational changes are in line with the vision laid out by Paul Allen.

Our model has always been to find scientific problems where our particular flavor of big, team and open science can have the greatest impact, Jones said in a news release. As we shift into the next phase of our neuroscience research, I am confident that our teams will continue to push the boundaries of discovery and create invaluable resources for the community.

Hongkui Zeng, who currently serves as executive director of structured science, will lead the institutes research into brain cell types and connectivity as executive vice president and director of the Allen Institute for Brain Science.

Our teams have made incredible progress in the past decade in our quest to identify the parts lists of the mouse and human brains, and how these parts are connected into the Google map of the brain, Zeng said. Information gained from these efforts opens up unprecedented opportunities for us to look deeper into how brain works. Im excited to help bring our endeavor to the next level.

Zeng is also the principal investigator on several large research projects and programs funded by the National Institutes of Health. Shell continue to lead those projects in her new role.

Christof Koch, who is currently president and chief scientist of the Allen Institute for Brain Science, will lead the MindScope program as its chief scientist. Koch and his colleagues have spent the past eight years building the tools, recording capabilities and data analysis pipelines for the Allen Brain Observatory, which uses the mouse visual system as a model for understanding how the brain stores, encodes and processes information.

Hell continue to lead Allen Brain Observatory projects in his new role.

We are now ready over the next five years to harvest the scientific insights into how the mouse cortex, 14 million complex neurons packed into the volume of a tenth of a sugar cube, represent and evaluate incoming visual information to rapidly and robustly control the behavior and the perception of the mouse, Koch said.

The new division on neural computation and dynamics will be headed by neuroscientist Karel Svoboda, who is currently a senior group leader at the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Janelia Research Campus in Virginia. His lab studies synaptic plasticity, and develops new technologies and tools for unraveling the mysteries of cortical functions.

Svoboda will join the institute in 2021 to help lay the groundwork for the divisions launch. He has served as a member of the Allen Institute for Brain Sciences scientific advisory councils for the past 10 years.

Over the years as a frequent visitor and advisor to the Allen Institute, I have grown to know and value its unique intellectual culture, Svoboda said. The Allen Institute has made extraordinary contributions to science and the world, and Im so excited join this amazing community.

In addition to the neuroscience groups, the Allen Institute has divisions that are devoted to cell science and immunology plus the Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group, which provides funding for researchers working on cutting-edge bioscience.

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Allen Institute reorganizes brain science division, with added focus on neural computation - GeekWire

Neuroscience

Manchester’s world leading health research partnership extended by five years – The University of Manchester

Domains provide expert horizon scanning and strategic oversight that enable disruptive innovations to be tested and prioritised such as prevention and early detection of disease, new diagnostic tests and treatments and personalised care for patients.

MAHSC, which was first designated in 2009, also works in close collaboration with Manchesters thriving scientific community, research infrastructure and Greater Manchesters other higher education institutions.

Professor Graham Lord, MAHSC Executive Director and Vice President and Dean of the Faculty for Biology, Medicine and Health at The University of Manchester, said:We have the most advanced integrated system in the UK for aligning academic research with local health needs to speed up the translation of discoveries into patient treatments and care at scale. Taking a singular One Manchester approach, this five-year AHSC designation will enable us to enhance innovation and make faster decisions that will directly impact and improve the lives of the 2.8 million population of Greater Manchester as evidenced today by the magnificent mobilisation at pace of hundreds of researchers, scientists and health care professionals in support of efforts to fight the Covid-9 coronavirus.

Professor Peter Clayton, MAHSC Clinical Director and Chief Academic Officer, Health Innovation Manchester, said:The designation of MAHSC for a further five years is recognition of the excellence within our NHS, academic and research organisation within Manchester. The world-leading work taking place in these organisations and our domains will benefit our patients, clinicians and our wider community within Greater Manchester and beyond.

Professor Neil Hanley, Group Director of Research and Innovation at MFT, said:In the current challenging times, it is great news that Manchester has been re-designated again as an Academic Health Science Centre.

We must seize the opportunity to make maximum difference over the next five years to the health and prosperity of our local communities, to connect more deeply to our incredibly diverse and talented academic and healthcare sectors, and to fly the flag for Manchester on the national and international stage.

Raj Jain, Group Chief Executive Officer of the Northern Care Alliance and MAHSCs lead for the neuroscience domain, said:I am delighted that the Manchester Academic Health Science Centre has been re designated and will continue to work with Salford Royal, part of the Northern Care Alliance NHS Group, and other partners to improve health by giving patients and clinicians rapid access to the latest research discoveries and improving the quality and effectiveness of patient care.

Delivering excellence in research and education is a key priority for the Northern Care Alliance and our partnership with MAHSC is important as we combine our expertise to establish Greater Manchester as a world leader in health research.

Sarah Leo, Head of Research & Innovation, for Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, said:We are looking forward to continuing to collaborate with our MAHSC partners over the next five years to further enhance research and innovation activity, particularly within mental health for the benefit of our service users.

Find out more about MAHSC on our website:https://healthinnovationmanchester.com/partnerships/manchester-academic-health-science-centre/

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Manchester's world leading health research partnership extended by five years - The University of Manchester

Neuroscience

There will be no prom for Susy Meza. High school seniors miss milestones amid the pandemic – Reno Gazette Journal

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Sparks High School senior Susy Meza poses for a portrait while wearing her junior prom dress from last year in her home on April 3, 2020. Meza, along with all high school seniors, will not be able to participate in a senior prom this year.(Photo: JASON BEAN/RGJ)

Susy's story: This is a first in a series of stories following Sparks High School senior Susy Meza. Susy, 17, will graduate in June. She is the student body president, played sports and was on the prom committee. Sheplans to study neuroscience at the University of Nevada, Reno in the fall. The next few months of high school weresupposed to be the culmination of all her hard work, and her first slow dance, before life was interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.

Susy Meza was going to dance near a tall cardboard Eiffel Tower on Saturday night.

Instead, Susy was at home, talking to her friends about how great prom would have been.

Susy, 17, is just one the class of 2020who now marks the culmination of four years of hard work without a senior prom.

There was no "Night in Paris," the theme of this year's Sparks High prom.

Susy Meza built up the courage to ask friend Gerardo Guerrero to the Sparks High Prom that was supposed to be April 4, 2020. Instead proms across the country and for the Washoe County School DIstrict were canceled amid the coronavirus pandemic.(Photo: Provided to the Reno Gazette Journal by Susy Meza)

Susy built up the courage to ask a friend to the April 4 dance, knowing this night was going to be different.It would be at a fancy golf course instead of the school gym, and the prom committee had lined up a DJ from a popular radio station.

The centerpieces on each table would be flowers in vases filled with Orbeez that would light up.And, she was going to make sure the DJ played the 2009 Miley Cyrus hit,"Party in the USA."

"I was so excitedfor throwback songs to dance with my friends," she said.

Instead, the Washoe County School District, like those across the country, canceled promsamid the coronavirus pandemic.

The day Gov. Steve Sisolak announced that schools in Nevada would closewas the day Susy was going to shop for her prom dress.

Susy is the student body president, acheerleader, on the tennis team and was in the middle of her last season of track when everything stopped.

"I have never felt so at home in a place that's not home," Susy said of Sparks High.

She rattles off the names of almost every administrator, teacher and staff memberwho has had an impact on her life.

"The school's custodian is everyone's grandma," she said. "I miss her."

She was going to buy a gold or red prom dress, to honor the school's colors, with money she saved working at retailer Party City.

All four years of high school, she has worked a part-time job while balancing the theNational Honor Society, playing sports, student councilandclubs, including one for math, science and engineering,

But even for a remarkable high-achieving student who will study neuroscience at the University of Nevada, Reno in the fall, asking a boy to prom this year was one of her proudest moments.

Stories of kindness: How people in Reno area are helping each other amid outbreak

"I decided to break out of my shell," she said about working up the courage to ask friend Gerardo Guerrero.

She planned an elaborate prom proposal using the school's annual Mr. Sparks High School pageant, a fundraiser to buy books for children in need.The pageant is attended by the entire school and parents.She got administrators to be part of her plan.

When it came time for a teacher to interviewGerardo, she came from behind stage holding up a sign, "Handshake? Handshake. Hug? Hug. Prom? Prom."

It's an inside joke, she explained.He said yes.

"I've never gone to a dance with a date," Susy said. Last year she went with her best friend and danced the night away. But Saturday's prom was a hard night to miss.

"I was excited for my first slow dance."

CVOID-19: WCSD says learning on track despite extraordinary circumstances amid shutdown

Siobhan McAndrew tells stories about the people of Northern Nevada and covers education in Washoe County. Read her journalism right here. Consider supporting her work by subscribing to the Reno Gazette Journal.

Read or Share this story: https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2020/04/06/missing-prom-amid-covid-19-one-wcsd-sparks-high-student/2947132001/

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There will be no prom for Susy Meza. High school seniors miss milestones amid the pandemic - Reno Gazette Journal

Neuroscience

Where We Are Investing Now: Life Sciences, Part 1 – AlleyWatch

Life Sciences are the heart of health. New approaches in bio, microbiome, treatments, disease prevention, neuroscience, and pharma propel transformation in care. As such, life sciences stand at the heart of our funds focus on individual health and happiness.

We have been investing in life sciences since 2016 when we started Joyance, our initial health-focused fund. But this year, we are going to take it up a notch.

We have deepened our deep science team. Jun Deng (PhD in Physiology), our first hire for Joyance, continues to lead our bio practice from Silicon Valley. Jun has been joined by Neha Tanna (MD/MBA) in London, as well as Michio Painter (PhD in Immunology) and Emilia Gonzalez (Harvard bioscientist) in Boston. This Gang of Four has completely rethought our approach to life sciences.

For an early and relatively small fund like ours, the key to successful life sciences investing is picking out potential winners early. Unlike other areas of investing, in Life Sciences, a company can drop to zero in value quite suddenly, after millions of dollars are expended. A treatment that worked great in the lab, and in mice and pigs, can show unexpected side effects or simply fail to work or in humans. This is dangerous investment territory. Even if things go well, it can take literally decades for a new Life Sciences approach to make the market. We are a 10-year fund that invests at inception, so those long lead times are problematic.

So, what will we do?

The watchword for our funds in life sciences is Discipline.

For 2020, we will organize Life Sciences into three sectors: Digital Health, Pharma, and Medical Devices. Our approach to each of these will be different. In this post, well look at how we organize these areas. The next post digs into the new investing frameworks weve developed.

Digital Health

The primary Life Sciences focus area for both of our funds will be Digital Health.Digital Health, broadly defined, is the convergence of digital technologies with health, healthcare, daily life, and society to enhance the efficiency of healthcare delivery and make delivery of prevention and care personalized and precise.

We only want to invest in digital health companies that address large pain points, have the potential for dramatic impact on patient/consumer outcomes, and have clear business models.

Our investments will target consumers, providers, or payers as the sources of revenue, in that order.

Our Digital Health focus areas for 2020 will be:

Healthcare-enabling technology

Major chronic diseases

Neurotech

Mental health and happiness

Nutrition and fitness

Femtech

Boomer economy/Senior care

Digital Health will be the primary Life Sciences focus area for Joyance. Digital Health is a powerful way for science to deliver Delightful Moments, which is Joyances singular target. Delightful Moments shift individuals, for at least a short time, out of the daily humdrum and toward greater joy, calm, comfort, absence of anxiety, absence of pain.

Social Starts will focus on Digital Health alongside the other deeper bioscience, pharma, and medical device areas described below. Our new Social Starts fund, Social Starts Health and Happiness, will bring resources and attention to therapeutics, pharma, and biologics we have never had before.

Our approach to Digital Health will be encompassing. We will find and evaluate many companies. Because digital health startups can achieve revenue quickly, we can evaluate these companies using tools similar to those we use for CPG.

Pharma/Biotech/TherapeuticsSocial Starts will be exceedingly disciplined yet maximize investments in pharmaceuticals, therapeutics, and biotechnologies that address a large consumer pain point, have a defined lead asset, a <24-month path to Series A, display a strong human rationale and address an obvious clinical need. Joyance will invest in these areas rarely, only when Delightful Moments emerge from clinical development.

For 2020, our Pharma/Biotech/Therapeutics focus will be:

Microbiome: When there are clear indications and evidence for species/strain value and level of importance.

Oncology: Space may be an opportunity only if the approach is novel, as it is a crowded area.

Neuro: Worth exploring, but we need to be stringent in following our rules, as there are very high failure rates.

Metabolic, cardiovascular, infectious disease, vaccines, and ophthalmology: Also worth exploring, as they have the highest approval rates from the FDA.

We need to avoid:

Big platform plays with little evidence, as they are capital intensive from the start and have long timelines.

Longevity, as the field is not mature enough; though we should watch this area and pounce when real evidence emerges.

We should work hard to uncover deep science companies in these areas. In deep science bio, though, it doesnt matter if we evaluate 500 companies and invest in only none. In every case, our task is to apply our filters and only move forward when startups completely satisfy our requirements. Charisma doesnt count in pharma/therapeutics. The market wont matter if the science doesnt work.

Medical Devices

Due to long trajectories, lack of exit paths, and heavy regulation, we will be hyper-selective in medical device investment. We will focus on medical device companies that address a large problem, have high barriers (e.g., De novo / PMA), and have veteran teams in their areas.

We will look for appropriate medical devices in these areas for 2020:

We are looking for next-generation medical devices that recognize the increasing patient-centricity of care. Merely improving the performance of current devices/technologies is not sufficient. Devices that can only operate within institutional settings are much less interesting to us than those that can bring care closer to the lives of people.

This three-part approach allows us to evaluate life sciences flexibly. This is a vast area of science and innovation. We need to adapt what we do to the characteristics of the divergent aspects of life sciences.

Reprinted by permission.

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Where We Are Investing Now: Life Sciences, Part 1 - AlleyWatch

Neuroscience

7 Scientific Pioneers Who Were Also Artistic Visionaries, From the Inventor of the Morse Code to the Founder of Neurobiology – artnet News

Art and science are often thought to fall on opposite sides of the left-right brain divide, but history has proven time and again that many of the brightest minds are polymaths.

Leonardo da Vinci, the greatest of all the artist-scientists, once wrote, To develop a complete mind: Study the science of art; Study the art of science. Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else. His suggestion is being taken even today, with many medical schools requiring soon-to-be doctors to take art and art history classes, while contemporary artists including Trevor Paglen,Anicka Yi, and Neri Oxman find influences in astronomy, biology, and geology.

Fromadventuring woman botanists to the drawing-enthused father of modern neuroscience, learn more about art historys great scientific minds below.

Maria Sibylla Merian, Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium (1705). Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Scientific Contributions: A 17th-century naturalist and botanist, Merian was one of the first European scientists to directly observe insects. When she started her research, insects were still commonly referred to as beasts of the devil and were thought to spontaneously generate from mud. Her most influential studies detailed the metamorphosis of caterpillars into butterfliesa phenomenon that was largely undocumented before her investigations.She penned a two-volume book on caterpillars, with each accompanied by 50 plates of engravings, and is today considered one of the pioneers of the field ofentomology.

Artistic Pursuits:Before her scientific investigations,Merian first earned acclaim as a botanical artist, publishing a three-volume series, each of 12 illustrated plates of flowers, in 1675. As was common at the time, these decorative illustrations, which were not drawn from direct observation, were intended to be used by upper-class ladies as designs for embroidery, drawings, and paintings. Merians interests extended far beyond the parlor, however; an adventurer to the umpteenth degree, she traveled to Dutch Surinam on a self-funded journey in 1699 (raising many eyebrows) and documented a wealth of flora, creating some of the first color illustrations of the New World.

Samuel F. B. Morse, Gallery of the Louvre (183133). Courtesy of Terra Foundation for American Art,

Scientific Endeavors:As a student at Yale, Samuel Morse studied philosophy and math, but dreamed of a career as an artist of great history paintings. After that dream cooled, he went on to pursue his interest in the burgeoning field of electromagneticsand for the future of telecommunications, his shift in studies was a godsend. Morse would go on to develop both the telegraph and the Morse code, absolutely dazzling the world when, onMay 24, 1844, he sent the biblical line, What hath God wrought? from the US Capitol in Washington, DC, to Baltimore, with his new invention.

Artistic Pursuits: Though his career in the arts was overshadowed by his stunning accomplishments in the field of communications, Morse made a serious go at art, studying under the painter Washington Allston, and then with Benjamin West at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Large-scale Neoclassical paintings of myth and history scenes were his passion, and the most famous of his works is the monumental Gallery of the Louvre,measuring an impressive six by nine feet. Returning to the United States, he found the American public unreceptive to his style, which he blamed on a culture of prevailing bad taste.

Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Lucybelle Crater and her 45-year-old husbands photo-Bell friends sonshine, Lucybelle Crater (1970-72). Courtesy of DC Moore Gallery.

Scientific Endeavors: Ralph Eugene Meatyard extended both of his careers, as a photographer and an optician, from a scientific and philosophical fascination with light and vision. Born in Normal, Illinois, Meatyard served in the military before becoming a licensed optician in 1949. A position with an optical firm would bring him to Lexington, Kentucky, in 1950. This firm also owned a photography company, which introduced the doctor to the medium. Profoundly influenced by Zen Buddhism (and a pen pal of the Trappist monk Thomas Merton), Meatyard would spend some three months looking through an unfocused camera to attain what he called a state of No-Focus, in which the appearance of an object was detached from its meaning.

Artistic Pursuits: Meatyard began taking photographs in the 1950s and would pursue the practice until his early death in 1972. His photographs were unusual for the time, and often included blurred figures, and, later, portraits of his children and himself wearing odd, monster-like masks. Meatyard earned little critical acclaim in his lifetime, though his works was presented alongside those of Ansel Adams, Aaron Siskind, and Harry Callahan in Creative Photography, an exhibition curated by Van Deren Coke for the University of Kentucky. His peculiar style often left him relegated to a regional style of Southern Gothic, though his posthumously published photo-book,The Family Album of Lucybelle Crater (named after the main character in Flannery OConnors short story, The Life You Save May Be Your Own), earned him increasing institutional attention.

Anna Atkins, (clockwise from top left) Peacock (1861), Laminaria phyllitis (184445), Papaver rhoeas (1861), and Alaria esculenta (184950). Courtesy of Hans P. Kraus Jr., New York (top left and bottom right); the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

Scientific Endeavors: This English botanist Anna Atkins was fascinated by the delicate and diverse varieties of algae to be found in the waterways of Great Britain. In 1843, Atkins published the first half of her scientific reference book, British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, using light-sensitive materials to capture her specimens, thereby establishing photography as a scientific tool.

Artistic Pursuits: Atkins is regarded as the first person to publish a book illustrated with photographs and is considered by some to be the first woman to create a photograph to begin with. Moreover, she learned about the photographic process directly from her frequent correspondent Henry Fox Talbot, the man who invented the salted paper and calotype processes, the precursors to modern film photography.

Leonardo da_Vincis drawing for his aerial screw, a prototype for a helicopter with a lifting wing. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Scientific Endeavors: A true Renaissance man, Leonardo da Vinci was fascinated by anatomy, botany, astronomy, and geology, among an unending litany of other fields. Today he is best remembered for his artistic accomplishments, but his contributions to science were revolutionary and wide-reaching. He posited that the earth was not the center of the suns orbit and dissected bodies to learn the inner workings of organs and human bone structure. His notebooks are filled with inventions that could not be realized in his lifetime, including the parachute, helicopter, and even the calculator.

Artistic Pursuits: Da Vinci believed that art, science, and nature were inextricably linked and could not be fully be appreciated except in synthesisand his contemporaries and later followers seemed to agree.His paintings the Mona Lisa and The Last Supperstill drawunbelievable crowds, and his sketch of theVitruvian Man,another cultural touchstone, is perhaps the best representation of his belief that scientific study could reveal harmony and proportion in the universe.

Santiago Ramn y CajalsCalyces of Held in the nucleus of thetrapezoid body (1934). Courtesy of Cajal Institute (CSIC), Madrid.

Scientific Contributions: TheSpanish-born Cajal has been called the father of modern neuroscience, and in 1906 won the Nobel Prize for his revolutionary research into the nervous system. He was the first person to suggest that the brain is composed of individual cell structures, and his contributions to the understanding of how the brain actually works are still studied today.

Artistic Pursuits: Cajal aspired to be an artist before his father encouraged him to pursue medicine, but his initial passion never waned. During his career, he made thousands of detailed drawings of brain matter based on what he saw through microscopes, and today these drawings remain valued sources for neurological study. His images range in style from Vienna Secession-inspired tree-like branches of the nervous system to inky, amorphic images of neurons.

John James Audubon, American Flamingo from The Birds of America. Courtesy of the Field Museum, Chicago.

Scientific Endeavors:Ornithologists around the world revere his name to this day.John James Audubon was born in Haiti and raised in France, then immigrated to Pennsylvania at the age of 18. His love of birds translated into an impassioned and scientific pursuit, as he studied their migratory habits and depicted them realistically in their habitats. He traveled the US endeavoring to depict all the birds in the county and was Americas leading wildlife artist for half a century. The Audubon Society is named after him and is inspired by his mission.

Artistic Pursuits:Audubons depictions of birds were far from purely scientific. He depicted his creatures with delicacy, color, and often bits of flora for their habitats. His Birds of America, a collection of 435 life-size prints, remains the standard for wildlife artistry. An early copy of the mammoth book sold for $11.5 million at Sothebys in 2010.

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7 Scientific Pioneers Who Were Also Artistic Visionaries, From the Inventor of the Morse Code to the Founder of Neurobiology - artnet News

Neuroscience

Sonnet BioTherapeutics Announces Formation of Scientific Advisory Board – Yahoo Finance

PRINCETON, NJ / ACCESSWIRE / April 6, 2020 / Sonnet BioTherapeutics Holdings, Inc. (SONN), a biopharmaceutical company developing innovative, targeted biologic drugs with enhanced single or bispecific mechanisms of action, announced today the formation of its Scientific Advisory Board. The Board comprises experts from leading institutions across the United States, including MD Anderson, Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Fox Chase and Robert Wood Johnson. The members bring decades of experience in oncology, neurology, drug discovery and clinical development.

"Sonnet is privileged to have this distinguished group of scientific advisors from leading institutions to help guide our clinical development and discovery programs," commented Sonnet Founder and CEO, Pankaj Mohan, Ph.D. "The advisors come to the company after reviewing its assets and are excited to be a part of the team. They share deep experience in oncology drug development from initial discovery to late-stage clinical studies, which will enhance our strategic efforts through the next phase of growth."

Sonnet Scientific Advisory Board members include:

Jason Bock, Ph.D., - Dr. Bock is the Vice President and Head of Biologics Product Development at MD Anderson Cancer Center. In this role, Dr. Bock works with MD Anderson's Therapeutic Discovery team, including world-class oncology researchers and clinicians, to create life-saving transformational medicines quickly, safely and effectively. Before joining MD Anderson, Dr. Bock spent 20 years in small, medium and large biotech and biopharma companies (including Human Genome Sciences, CoGenesys and TEVA) developing biologic therapeutics. He has brought 15 novel drugs through preclinical development into clinical studies and has guided the process to bring three biologics through the clinic and to commercialization globally. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in Molecular & Cellular Physiology.

Joseph R. Bertino, M.D., - Dr. Bertino is University Professor of medicine and pharmacology, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and is the interim director of the school's Cancer Institute of New Jersey. Dr. Bertino joined The Cancer Institute of New Jersey in 2002 as associate director and was appointed chief scientific officer in 2004. Previously, Dr. Bertino served as chair of the Molecular Pharmacology and Therapeutics Program, and member and co-head of the Program in Developmental Therapy and Clinical Investigation at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research. Dr. Bertino has been internationally recognized for his role in finding curative treatments for leukemia and lymphoma. He is the author or co-author of more than 400 scientific publications and the associate medical editor of the journal Hem/Onc Today. After earning his medical degree, Dr. Bertino did a USPHS fellowship in hematology and oncology at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

Hossein Borghaei, D.O., M.S., - Dr. Borghaei is Chief of Thoracic Medical Oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center, where he is also a Professor in the Department of Oncology/Hematology, Co-Director of the Immune Monitoring Facility and the Gloria and Edmund M. Dunn Chair in Thoracic Malignancies. In his clinical practice, Dr. Borghaei has participated in numerous immunotherapy-based clinical trials. He is also the principal investigator (PI) of a laboratory that develops new monoclonal antibodies and novel immune-modulating drugs. He served as the PI of a phase III randomized study that proved the effectiveness of nivolumab in the treatment of patients with advanced non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer after progression on prior chemotherapy. This work led to the approval of nivolumab, one of the first immunotherapy-based drugs to be approved for lung cancer in this setting. Dr. Borghaei earned his D.O. degree at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, did his residency at Graduate Hospital (Philadelphia) and was Chief Fellow, Hematology-Oncology, at Fox Chase Cancer Center.

Guido Cavaletti, M.D., - Dr. Cavaletti is Dean of Research and Professor at the University of Milan-Bicocco, and Senior consultant neurologist and head of the Neuroimmunology Center, S. Gerardo Hospital, Monza (Italy). At the University of Milan-Bicocco, he is Head of the Experimental Neurology Unit at the School of Medicine and Surgery and Director of the Ph.D. program in Neuroscience. He is also Deputy Scientific Director of the Milan Center for Neuroscience (NeuroMI). Dr. Cavaletti is coordinator of the steering committee of the international CI-PeriNoms group on the investigation of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neurotoxicity. He has authored more than 250 peer-reviewed papers. He received his medical degree from the University of Milan and is Board-certified in Neurology.

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About Sonnet BioTherapeutics Holdings, Inc.

Founded in 2011, Sonnet BioTherapeutics is an oncology-focused biotechnology company with a proprietary platform for innovating biologic drugs of single or bispecific action. Known as FHAB (Fully Human Albumin Binding), the technology utilizes a fully human single chain antibody fragment (scFv) that binds to and "hitch-hikes" on human serum albumin (HSA) for transport to target tissues. FHAB is the foundation of a modular, plug-and-play construct for potentiating a range of large molecule therapeutic classes, including cytokines, peptides, antibodies and vaccines.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, as amended, including those relating to the Company's product development, clinical and regulatory timelines, market opportunity, competitive position, possible or assumed future results of operations, business strategies, potential growth opportunities and other statements that are predictive in nature. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about the industry and markets in which we operate and management's current beliefs and assumptions.

These statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking expressions, including, but not limited to, "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "estimate," "potential, "predict," "project," "should," "would" and similar expressions and the negatives of those terms. These statements relate to future events or our financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include those set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Prospective investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Sonnet Biotherapeutics Investor Contact

Alan LadaSolebury Trout617-221-8006alada@soleburytrout.com

SOURCE: Sonnet BioTherapeutics Holdings, Inc.

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Sonnet BioTherapeutics Announces Formation of Scientific Advisory Board - Yahoo Finance

Neuroscience

Keep dreaming – Thrive Global

Today is a great day to practice shifting the focus from all the heaviness of late.

I am reminded of one of my favorite parenting memories. When my kids were little, as I tucked them in at night after reading a book, I would ask them: What was the best part of your day? It was an intuitive question.

I did not know then what I have since learned decades later as a coach trained in neuroscience: The most critical times of the day for focusing on empowering thoughts and beliefs are the first five minutes upon waking and the five minutes before going to sleep at night. And if you are agitated, you would fare better if you got up out of bed and walked around rather than trying to force yourself to sleep, according to the late Dr. Wayne Dwyer.

Think of it this way in terms of computers: You are downloading your thoughts (the software) that will circulate throughout your mind (the hardware) while sleeping. YOU CAN CHOOSE YOUR THOUGHTS. Thoughts of gratitude are known to shift mindsets. Everyone can find three to five things for which they are grateful.

Most importantly, get unplugged. I admit a couple of weeks ago I initially spent too many hours watching the news before choosing instead to use that time to be creative or to get quiet, meditate or pray.

Yesterday I made another commitment to elevate my mindset to a greater state of well-being. I chose first thing in the morning to keep dreaming about my ideal life and bringing forth my new platform around worthiness. I have a big mission, which I consider my legacy, around this dream. There are a lot of pieces now in the works behind-the-scenes that I will soon be sharing.

So, instead of watching the news or rushing to social media, or even meditating first thing in the morning, I did something totally different. I took my vision boards of the past four years and displayed them all around my bedroom. Upon waking, I now see my dreams, many of which have come true or are in development.

Rather than feel constricted by all the news of late, I switched my focus. My most recent board features the above photo of open doors, pasted in the center, to help keep my mind expanded into unlimited possibilities.

If you would like to learn more about visualizing your dreams, email me at [emailprotected],and I will send you a free handout that outlines tips for manifesting anew.

Your dreams matternow more than ever. We each have a unique gift to offer the world. Know you are worthy of finding and delivering it.

With love and blessings,

Gail

P.S.And if you want to do something proactive during this time to support those on the front lines who do not have the luxury of focusing on their dreams right now,click on this link.

This post was originally published at SupportMatters.com.

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Keep dreaming - Thrive Global