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Physiology

Medical Students’ Perception of Their Education and Training to | AMEP – Dove Medical Press

Mohamed Abdelrahman Mohamed Iesa

Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Umm Al-Qura University, Al Qunfudhah, Makkah, Saudi Arabia

Correspondence: Mohamed Abdelrahman Mohamed IesaDepartment of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Umm Al-Qura University, P.O. Box: 715, Al Qunfudhah, Makkah, Saudi ArabiaTel +966 538832384Fax +966 177461197Email mohamedovi1@gmail.com

Purpose: Medical studies is a very diverse field of education that seeks to prepare students for a rapidly evolving healthcare market. This study presents the findings of a survey about the perception of medical students about whether they receive training in professionalism and management skills and whether their education prepares them to face the evolving market trends.Methods: This was a qualitative study that used descriptive data obtained via an online survey conducted among medical students via WhatsApp. The sample included 500 students from 10 medical schools across the UK. The survey was divided into three parts: The first part contained questions related to professionalism and the training they received at the basic level. The second part contained questions about management and leadership training for the medical field and whether the students thought it was important for their future. The last part contained questions about whether the students thought that their level of education was competitive enough to ensure their survival in the face of future market trends.Results: Most students (77%) thought that training in leadership and management skills was necessary to prepare them for the future market, and 68% felt that they were not receiving satisfactory training in leadership and management skills. The students also felt that they need to be taught more about the market and its various changing features. Finally, the majority (62%) of the students felt that their courses did not focus on social and professional skills.Conclusion: The findings from the survey indicate that there is a clear need for courses on professionalism and management among medical students and that institutes need to keep up with these emerging needs in terms of training.

Keywords: professionalism, management skills, qualitative study, team work, elements of professionalism

This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License.By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms.

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Medical Students' Perception of Their Education and Training to | AMEP - Dove Medical Press

Physiology

How to live well with stress even in the coronavirus era – University of California

Understanding the science of stress has never seemed more important for our health. It doesn't just make your palms sweaty, after all: it causes health problems and can even age you! Learn how to cope with tips from UCSF psychologist Elissa Epel.

Bills, family, health worries, jobs Americans are some of the most stressed out people in the world.

And that was before coronavirus.

A 2019 Gallup poll of more than 150,000 people around the world found that 55 percent of American adults said they spent much of their past day stressed, 20 points higher than the global average. If continued for months and years, thats a level of stress experts like UC San Francisco psychologist Elissa Epel call chronic stress, which is linked to elevated risks for health problems from heart disease to depression. And if thats not enough, chronic stress can actually, physically age you, according to studies by Epels lab.

But take a deep breath. Its not all bad news.

We tend to think that stress is a bad thing, but actually it really matters what type of stress we're under, and how we respond to it, she says.

Some stress, according to Epel, is actually good for you.

Epel and her lab study stressors and our reactions to them and how we react to stressors is more important than you might guess. Stressors can be acute or chronic.

Chronic stressors are things that are ongoing like financial strain, caretaking duties for a sick family member or a demanding job the things that never seem to go away and deplete us.

An acute stressor might be a presentation you have to make in class, or trying something new youve been afraid to do. Theyre a little bit like growing pains your heart might pound, your palms might get sweaty, but it will soon be over and once it is, you might even feel great. And not just because you took on a challenge and succeeded your cells are reacting to this short-term stress in a very healthy way.

When worms or mice are exposed to short bursts of stress, they actually become healthier and can live longer, Epel says. Thats because of a phenomenon known as hormesis when our bodies mount a stress response, they also mount a counterregulatory stress response to help us recover.

Call it a challenge response to stress. The small dose of stress prompts an adaptation to stress, which leaves our cells younger. A process like Pac-Men in our cells starts cleaning up junk what scientists call autophagy. The physical stress of exercise, heat and intermittent fasting may cause autophagy to increase. The science of autophagy is still emerging, but so far it seems like it can help protect us from diseases from Parkinsons to Huntingtons, or even dementia.

Discoveries in the field won Japanese cell biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi the 2016 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.

But if your psychological reaction to chronic or even acute stress is a threat response meaning you perceive a minor threat as a true threat to your ego or survival you might not get the same beneficial recovery process. You may have a very slow physiological recovery from the stressor, and less clean up activity in the cell. You may even be unconsciously carrying this level of high alert around with you. Its like a novice playing Pac-Man on the highest difficulty level. The ghosts win, and yet you have to keep playing. Thats your cells wearing out.

To get a clearer picture of how stress acts at a cellular level, Epel and her collaborators teamed up with UC San Franciscos Elizabeth Blackburn, a Nobel Prize winner in her own right. Blackburn is a pioneer in studying cell aging. She studies telomeres, the caps on the end of our chromosomes, and telomerase, the enzyme that protects them from things like oxidative stress.

Our telomeres grow shorter as we age. Studies have shown that when people have genes for lower telomerase, they have more rapidly shortening telomeres and tend to get earlier onset of diseases of aging, like Alzheimers and dementia.

So Epel wanted to ask a very simple question do people under chronic stress have shorter telomeres?

They measured the telomeres of people who report high levels of chronic stress caregivers of children with serious ongoing medical conditions and found a direct correlation between the number of years spent caring for their child and decreased telomere length. Having shorter telomeres means the cells will reach replicative senescence sooner, in that they will lose the ability to keep dividing into new cells, and will instead stick around wreaking havoc creating inflammation in the blood. Chronic stress causes at least this one type of biological aging.

But when they took a closer look at the data, they found that shorter telomeres werent caused by the situation of caregiving but how stressed the caregiver felt.

It wasn't being a caregiver per se that predicted ones telomere length, but whether someone felt overly stressed by life. So the caregivers who have felt particularly high levels of stress from their life had significantly shorter telomeres, Epel says.

Fortunately, scientists like Epel have learned many things about stress resilience by studying people in caregiving roles.

For women who reported higher levels of stress related to their role as parents, those who saw their role as giving their life meaning and purpose had the best biological health. The term researchers use for it is eudaimonic well-being, a term defined by UCSF assistant professor and psychologist Alexandra Crosswell as a sense of inner wellness that comes from self-realization and feeling that one's life has meaning and purpose.

Greater sexual intimacy with their partner was associated with better metabolic health and longer telomeres, too.

So how do we increase our resilience to stress, and improve our emotional health?

Creating buffers between us and our stress is one of the most important things we can do. One way is through daily habits that reduce physiological stress. An antioxidant diet (whole foods, fruits and veggies) is powerful. Deep, restful sleep is, too. Both have been linked to longer telomeres. And meditation or other mind body practices are important creating restorative time for your body and mind to recover.

When we become aware of how we are thinking during stress, and see these as just thoughts rather than reflecting some ultimate reality, we can actually take away the power these thoughts have over our body, Epel says.

Conditioning our bodies to realize that a lot of the things we get stressed about arent life-threatening can be really helpful.

Triggering our challenge response with some types of brief acute stress can also help keep us healthy. Exercise is one of the most important things we can do in terms of chronic stress, Epel says. The Wim Hof breathing method, which involves meditation with a specific breathing sequence, is currently being studied by Epel and her colleague Wendy Mendes to see if it might induce cellular health and rejuvenation, too.

Other acute stressors commonly found in traditional cultures are also getting a closer look, including fasting and hot/cold exposure. UCSF assistant professor Ashley Mason, for example, is studying the use of sauna for relieving depression. Again, acute stress isnt always good, because too much of it can lead to chronic stress. But paired with a positive mental challenge response, it may bolster our energy and health.

And what about the new stressor that has just landed in America the coronavirus?

It is natural and effective to have anxiety in the context of a pandemic, Epel says. But we can use stress science to help us distinguish a useful stress response from an exaggerated one. Our anxiety about coronavirus drives us to perform safety behaviors like physical distancing. It's a miserable situation for many, but it does show how the natural stress response of fear motivates us to stay safe from natural threats. On the other hand, when we catastrophize about the level of risk, perceiving it as the apocalypse, we dont think clearly and may engage in excessive panic buying, along with making others feel panicky, too.

Alexandra Crosswell has some tips on how to make the best of coronavirus anxiety.

Research suggests that stressors can be good because they help us refine our values, focus on what's important in our lives, make needed changes (e.g. start exercising, cooking healthy meals, get more sleep), and help us connect meaningfully with our loved ones, she says.

She suggests using this current moment to take stock of your life and make changes that promote a feeling of well-being even if you're worried about the virus or the rapidly evolving situation. To the extent coronavirus is experienced as an acute stressor, and we dont let it turn into panic, there are opportunities to be healthier.

Even having to work harder to make time for friends or to fill our time could actually be ... good for us.

Yes, its possible! Trying new things is good for us! Crosswell says. One of the keys to maintaining cognitive health as we age is novelty. One of my neighbors said her mother, who is in a nursing home and thus is isolated from visitors, is thriving because they got a new care staff and now she is in charge of showing the new staff how things work (e.g. this is how you wrap my leg, this is how we determine who sits where at dinner), and she loves the ability to finally feel like she's contributing and in control. Being open to the changes that this situation will force on us may be one of the best ways to cope with this uncertainty.

So while you might not like having to stay inside, think of it as a chance to pick up the guitar, take an online class in something new, or try a novel way of helping and connecting with others. There are studies that show that acute stressors (especially when perceived as challenges) directly lead to more creativity, too.

Of course, coronavirus is not just an acute stressor, and for some in the U.S. who are at very high risk it may already be overwhelming, or exacerbating existing chronic stressors. While meditation cant fix the coronavirus or job loss, it can help mitigate the impact of the negative emotions that come with those pressures.

In a piece for the San Francisco Chronicle, Epel addressed some of the other ways we can cope with how coronavirus might affect us.

Humans are built for enduring long periods of adversity, Epel says. We get over stressful periods. As long as we dont have a prolonged and exaggerated emotional response, we recover really well. Getting too absorbed in images of disasters on the media for too much of the day predicts longer term mental and physical health problems. Try to take only small doses of media, and many restorative breaks during the day.

One of the most powerful ingredients for stress reduction is warm, caring emotional support. Helping behaviors are known to be happiness behaviors, as well.

She suggests we first acknowledge the situation, and that we cannot control it but that we can control our behaviors to lessen the chance of contagion and flatten the curve, as they say. This has already been helpful in places like China, she points out, and it can work for us, too. Label your thoughts and emotions, so you can switch from an emotional mode to a kind and reflective observer mode: So this is what it feels like to live in a pandemic. It will help the emotion pass more quickly.

Epel also suggests we embrace the opportunity to be extra kind to ourselves and to others, acknowledging that anxiety is inevitable and commonly shared.

One of the most powerful ingredients for stress reduction is warm, caring emotional support, she writes. Opportunities to help abound. Helping behaviors are known to be happiness behaviors as well.

We can check on elderly neighbors, friends and relatives who cannot leave home easily (especially if they are sick), with caring calls or texts, and offers to bring food and medications. Communities are rapidly building their own support networks, using networks such as Nextdoor or Facebook. This is a time we discover who we are as a nation, an opportunity to strengthen our worn-down social cohesion and live our core values.

Whether it be the minor stressors of the everyday concerns, or the real threat of coronavirus, its important to nourish your well-being as a buffer and build your resilience. Learning to cope with stress has never been more important for your health.

Get more coping tips from Elissa Epel and UCSF's stress researchers here.

The research highlighted in this article was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health (National Institute of Aging, The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health).

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Physiology

What Coronavirus Isolation Could Do to Your Mind (and Body) – WIRED

By now, you may have noticed a divide among your friends. As social distancing and self-imposed quarantine wear on and more workplaces urge employees to avoid the office, the Covid-19 outbreak has left many people more alone than theyve been in a long time, or ever. Some are responding by hunkering down into cozy domesticity: baking bread, reading books, taking long baths. Others have begun to fray: FaceTiming with friends is a necessity, not a luxury; the closure of a favorite coffee shop is cause for tears; the walls seem to be closing in. Be kind to your local extroverts. Theyre having a hard time.

Still, no matter how hygge youre feeling at this moment, experts suggest that the negative feelings and experiences associated with prolonged isolation will come for us all. Humans are social creaturesyes, all of us. While the coronavirus pandemic is an extreme, largely unprecedented moment, the kind of seclusion thats been eating at people over the last few weeks is not as uncommon an experience as you might imagine. The impacts of social isolation on our bodies and minds have been felt and studied in a variety of different groups, from astronauts to incarcerated people to immunocompromised children to Antarctic researchers to the elderly. The patterns that have emerged from their experiences with radical aloneness illuminate ways to understand and improve your own.

First off, its important to remember that isolation doesnt just numb your brain with boredom. People start getting lethargic when they dont have positive inputs into their small worlds, says John Vincent, a clinical psychologist at the University of Houston. We can expect depression to kick in, and depression and anxiety are kissing cousins. These symptoms are likely to be particularly intense during coronavirus-related isolation, according to Lawrence Palinkas, who researches psychosocial adaptation to extreme environments at the University of Southern California. Oftentimes, if you have a very well defined period of time in which youre isolated people do pretty well up until the halfway point, Palinkas says. Then they experience a let down. But when youre in a situation like we are now, when youre not certain how long youll be asked to maintain social distance, that produces anxiety as well.

When people, like those kept in solitary confinement or scientists working in a remote region, know their sentence is nearly up, their mood lifts again in anticipation. Those practicing social distancing due to Covid-19 may not get that any time soon. Open, transparent, consistent communication is the most important thing governments and organizations can do: Make sure people understand why they are being quarantined first and foremost, how long it is expected to last, says Samantha Brooks, who has studied the psychological impact of quarantine at Kings College London. A huge factor in the negative psychological impact seems to be confusion about what's going on, not having clear guidelines, or getting different messages from different organizations. So far, many governments, including the United States, havent been heeding this advice.

Read all of our coronavirus coverage here.

Perhaps even more concerning is that the psychological strain of loneliness manifests physiologically, too. Harry Taylor, who studies social isolation in older adults, particularly in the black community, says that its one of the worst things that humans can do to their overall well-being, adding that the mortality effect of social isolation is like smoking 15 cigarettes per day. In older people, social isolation seems to exacerbate any preexisting medical conditions, from cardiovascular diseases to Alzheimers, but its ill effects arent limited to those over 60.

Alexander Chouker, a physician researcher who studies stress immunology at the University of Munich, has seen radical changes in the bodies of people participating in simulations of manned spaceflight missions like Mars-500. They were young and trained people not in a condition of real threat, he says. The pure fact of being confined affects the body. If you change your environment in a quite extreme way, it is changing you. Participants, some of whom were only isolated for three months, experienced changes to their sleep, changes to their immune, endocrine, and neurocognitive systems, and alterations to their metabolisms. Being confined and isolated affects the human physiology as a whole, Chouker says.

Does this mean your body will go wonky like an astronaut trapped on fake Mars for over a year? Not necessarily. You probably arent truly socially isolated, at least not to that extreme degree. And even those who study the negative consequences of social isolation still think practicing social distancing is a good idea. Covid-19 is flipping everything on its head, Taylor says. This is the first time since we have been alive that actively practicing social isolation is a method to improve health.

Plus: How can I avoid catching it? Is Covid-19 more deadly than the flu? Our in-house Know-It-Alls answer your questions.

The people who are most at risk from the isolation associated with Covid-19 are the people who are at heightened risk of social isolation in the first place. Among older adults, lower income people and men experience isolation at a different level, says Thomas Cudjoe, a geriatrician researching the intersection of social connections and aging at Johns Hopkins University. (In both cases, Cudjoe says that a lack of time or inclination to develop social ties outside of work creates the disparity between those groups and their female or higher income counterparts.) Taylor points out that anyone who is marginalized is more likely to have a more limited social network, whether they are a member of the LGBTQ+ community, a survivor of domestic abuse, or just live in a more isolated rural area.

These people may not have friends or family to call, or may be unable to do so. Some people have posited technology as a means of connecting people, but lower income groups might not even have FaceTime or Skype or minutes on their phone, Cudjoe says. People take that for granted, using their devices can be a strain on peoples incomes. Particularly if Covid-19 has left them out of a job. Minority bodies are going to be hit particularly hard because they often work in service industries, which increases risk for social isolation and loneliness and coronavirus, says Taylor. It could create an economic and social recession.

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What Coronavirus Isolation Could Do to Your Mind (and Body) - WIRED

Physiology

Even After Being a Continuous Process of Plantation and Manufacturing Tea Industry Not Exempted from Lockdown – Guwahati Plus

GUWAHATI: In the 21-day lockdown ordered by PM Narendra Modi to combat COVID-19, the ministry of home affairs has exempted a few services and businesses.

As per point number 5 of the order no. 40-3/2020 dated 24th March of the ministry, industrial establishments are to remain closed. The exceptions to this closure are:

a. Manufacturing units of essential commodities.b. Production units, which require continuous process, after obtaining required permission from the state government.

Despite this order, the tea industry of Assam has not been exempted from the lockdown.Given the fragile and perishable nature of the tea plants, the Assam Valley Branch of Consultative Committee of Plantation Associations had requested the Labour Commisssioner to exempt specific operations of the industry.

The application requested that tea gardens be allowed to work for the protection of the plants by spraying of pest repellents and pest killers as there might be huge and permanent damage to the plants during such a long closure period.

Further, irrigation of plants to be continued, given scanty rainfall during the period.

Dipanjol Deka, Secretary of Tea Association of India, speaking to G Plus informed, The Deputy Commissioner of some districts have allowed us to keep five workers per day per garden for the required work. However, all district authorities have not yet complied to our request.

Given that the tea plantation and manufacturing business is a continuous process, the state government should have exempted us from the lockdown, he added.

Nazrana Ahmed, President of Assam Tea Planters Association said, The tea industry was already in a crisis in the last two years, and from the beginning of this year there has been a drop of sale prices in the Gauhati Tea Auction by an average of Rs. 80 to Rs. 90 per kg.

Further, the tea industry is dealing with a very fragile and perishable commodity dependent on plant physiology and are infected by pests. The plucking is done on a round of every six to seven days. So during lock down these plants would grow about a foot long and has to be skiffed as these cannot be used for the manufacture of tea. We have to wait for regeneration of the bushes again. So a lock down of five days actually means about a month long lock down for the tea industry

As such given the three-week long lockdown the losses to be incurred by the industry could be highly extensive.

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Even After Being a Continuous Process of Plantation and Manufacturing Tea Industry Not Exempted from Lockdown - Guwahati Plus

Immunology

Immunology and Numerology | DG Hart – Patheos

Lots of people are panicking about the spread and threat of COVID-19. Among those fearful is Angelo Cataldi, a sports-talk radio host on Philadelphias 94WIP. One of the reasons Cataldi and his morning team are still on the air is that Pennsylvanias governor, Tom Wolf, deemed radio stations an essential business. To its credit, the station regularly plays either public service announcements about washing hands (and more) or reports news about the pandemic.

One of the seeming misunderstandings about this virus is the mortality rate. The way Cataldi usually reacts to news that one of his co-works is symptomatic or that a sports celebrity being tested positive (like Rudy Gobert) is as if he had heard that someone heard the sentence of cancer. With governors and health authorities projecting millions of cases, and with largely high-end attention to every single death from the disease (in ways similar to nightly reports by Walter Cronkite about the Vietnam War), Cataldi may be spared of blame. All the news sounds horrible. Thats why the response of shutting down businesses seems proportionate.

The problem is that people are paying attention to a very small range of numbers. Italy is arguably the worst case of the COVID-19 outbreak and so far the nation has almost 70,000 cases with the astounding result of 6,800 deaths. [All of these dates are from March 24, 2020.] That is twice as many deaths as China (3,281), though reporting from the country in which the virus originated is largely unreliable. Compared to the United States (674), Italy has ten times the number of deaths and almost thirty-three percent more cases (the US has almost 50,000 cases). An important data point to keep in mind is the mortality rate. In the case of Italy, the rate is close to 10 percent, which is extraordinarily high. It is not as high as the mortality rates for Ebola (50%), MERS (33%), or polio (20%). But it is much higher than seasonal flu (0.1%). Even so, if you project Italys numbers onto the United States, with .0001 percent (7,000 cases out of 60,000,000 people) of Americans (320,000,000) getting the virus, that results in 320,000 total cases. A death rate of ten percent (roughly) projects to 32,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the United States. Thats a lot. But its also about the same number of people who die in auto accidents each year roughly 31,500. Imagine if newspapers and sports talk show hosts gave daily updates on the number of auto accident fatalities. Some people would likely be afraid to drive.

All of these numbers, though, are remarkably low when it comes to professional sports. Angelo Cataldi was rightly offended yesterday morning that Josh Harris, the owner of the Philadelphia Seventy-Sixers, had decided to cut staff (not players) salaries by twenty percent. The team later reversed its decision. The principal owner of the team, Harris, is reported to be worth $3.5 billion. Not a good look cutting five-figure salaries.

Hargrave: The biggest deal handed out by the Eagles so far was to defensive tackle Javon Hargrave, a three-year, $39 million deal. Over The Cap has the details of that contract.

The cap hits:

2020: $3.4 million

2021: $15.2 million

2022: $15.4 million

The cap hit in 2020 is small, but as you can see, it raises significantly in 2021.

The Hargrave deal costs the Eagles $3.4 million in cap space for 2020, bringing them down to around $40 million.

Rodney McLeod: The Eagles signed Rodney McLeod to a two-year, $12 million deal. The details on the cap hit are not yet known, but if you use the average of the contract, it will cost the Eagles $6 million in salary cap space, bringing them down to around $34 million.

Jalen Mills: Mills is back with the Eagles on a one-year deal that could be worth up to $5 million with incentives. His cap hit is going to be lower than the $5 million the deal could be worth, however, coming in at $4 million. The Mills signing brings the Eagles down to around $30 million in cap space.

$3 million compared to $39 million does seem small. And that is small compared to Tom Bradys $50 million deal with the Tampa Bay Bucs.

But wouldnt you think all those zeros in football player contracts might put 677 in perspective (number of deaths so far from COVID-19 in the US). Might you also be mindful of the astronomic salaries that professional athletes receive, compared to the ninety-nine percent, in an era when a socialist is one of the leading candidates for the Democratic Partys nominee for POTUS? Of course, death is awful and human life is much more valuable than dollars.

But when you are in the habit of counting, numbers could yield perspective. And so the number of deaths from this virus are comparatively small (Heart disease: 647,457; Cancer: 599,108; Accidents (unintentional injuries): 169,936; Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 160,201; Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 146,383; Alzheimers disease: 121,404.

Image

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Immunology and Numerology | DG Hart - Patheos

Immunology

Berkeley Lights Announces the Global Emerging Pathogen Antibody Discovery Consortium (GEPAD) to Attack COVID-19 and Other Viruses – Yahoo Finance

In collaboration with Vanderbilt University Medical Center, La Jolla Institute for Immunology and Emory University, viral neutralization workflows on the Berkeley Lights platform are under accelerated development in response to the Coronavirus outbreak

EMERYVILLE, Calif., March 25, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Today Berkeley Lights, Inc., announced the Global Emerging Pathogen Antibody Discovery Consortium (GEPAD) with founding members Dr. James Crowe and Dr. Robert Carnahan at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Dr. Erica Ollman Saphire at La Jolla Institute for Immunology and Dr. Frances Eun-Hyung Lee at Emory University with the aim to accelerate the discovery of neutralizing antibodies from patient blood samples. Processing precious blood samples and fragile cells can be challenging with traditional technologies. The consortium will leverage Berkeley Lights' Beacon platform for antibody discovery using the blood of recovering patients as the foundation for therapeutics, with COVID-19 as a first target.

(PRNewsfoto/Berkeley Lights)

While researchers around the world are quickly characterizing the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the ability to screen single B cells expressing a SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody remains a significant and time-consuming challenge.The body has billions of B cells. After a patient recovers from SAR-CoV-2, they generate many B cells specific for the virus; however, some B cells will make antibodies that just bind to the virus but are not protective. Hence, finding the special B cells that eliminate or neutralize the virus is exceedingly rare. It is like finding a "needle in a haystack". The existing technologies can only search for binders, not neutralizers so researchers are forced to sequence and re-express the antibody from non-specific B cells wasting significant time and resources. The Beacon system and the viral neutralization assay is designed to address this problem by directly screening single cells for neutralizing function in a single day.

The primary goal of the GEPAD Consortium is to enable the quickest therapeutic response to emerging pathogens. The GEPAD Consortium is requesting that anyone interested in this viral neutralization workflow and advancing the state of the art reach out and join them in forming a defensive barrier worldwide against diseases caused by emerging pathogens. Members will be enabled to rapidly discover potential treatments using small volume blood samples from recovering patientsboth acute and convalescent. The consortium is rapidly iterating and improving the viral neutralization workflow executing on the Berkeley Lights platform and hopes that more collaborators will come forward to participate in fighting this epidemic and be better prepared for the next one.

"We have long sought to study the antiviral capacity of antibodies secreted by single human B cells, but the instruments and protocols for doing those studies didn't exist. Partnering with Berkeley Lights on developing innovative approaches to this single-cell biology task is now becoming a reality," said Dr. James Crowe, MD, Director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Center.

"We have developed a specialized survival media for plasma cells and envision the use of it for rapid upfront selection of a rare target monoclonal antibody," said Dr. Lee. "Berkeley Lights together with this consortium will make this method a reality for COVID-19 neutralizing antibodies. We hope this helps in this pandemic to save lives."

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"There's an opportunity here to quickly mobilize something that could protect frontline workers or treat those who have been infected," explained Dr. Saphire. "Vaccines aren't available yet. Providing some immediate immunity using antibodies could be lifesaving for those who haven't been vaccinated or can't be vaccinated, or if the eventual vaccines aren't completely protective."

"COVID-19 is a serious threat to our health, our way of life, and the world economy," said Dr. Eric Hobbs, CEO of Berkeley Lights. "We are committed to doing our part by developing assays and workflows that researchers and therapeutic developers can use to rapidly discover antibodies that are key to treatments."

About Vanderbilt University Medical CenterVanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) is one of the nation's largest academic medical centers. As part of its research enterprise, in partnership with the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, the Vanderbilt Vaccine Center is participating in the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA's) Pandemic Protection Platform (P3) program, a five-year cooperative agreement to develop protective antibody treatments that can be rushed to health care providers within 60 days after the outbreak of viral diseases anywhere in the world.

About La Jolla Institute for Immunology La Jolla Institute for Immunology is dedicated to understanding the intricacies and power of the immune system so that we may apply that knowledge to promote human health and prevent a wide range of diseases. Since its founding in 1988 as an independent, nonprofit research organization, the Institute has made numerous advances leading towards its goal: life without disease.

About Emory UniversityEmory University is one of the world's leading research universities. Its mission is to create, preserve, teach and apply knowledge in the service of humanity. The Emory effort is led by Dr. Lee of the Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care & Sleep Division, The Lowance Center for Human Immunology and the Emory Vaccine Center. She contributes culture methods developed in her lab that greatly improve the survival of B cells and plasma cells thereby facilitating the isolation of extremely rare cells producing the antibodies of interest.Dr. Lee's work is supported by NIH, the Lowance Center, Gates Foundation, and the Georgia Research Alliance.

About Berkeley LightsHere at Berkeley Lights, we think cells are awesome! Cells are capable of manufacturing cures for diseases, fibers for clothing, energy in the form of biofuels, and food proteins for nutrition. So the question is, if nature is capable of manufacturing the products we need in a scalable way, why aren't we doing more of this? Well, the answer is that with the solutions available today, it is hard. It takes a long time to find the right cell for a specific job, costs lots of money, and if you have picked a suboptimal cell line, has a very low process yield. Berkeley Lights has the complete solution to find the best cells by functionally screening and recovering individual cells for antibody discovery, cell line development, T cell analysis, and synthetic biology. Our proprietary technology, including the Beacon and Lightning platforms accelerate the rate you can discover and develop cell-based products in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost of conventional, legacy research methods. Using our tools and solutions, scientists can find the best cells, the first time they look. For more information, visit http://www.berkeleylights.com.

Berkeley Lights' Beacon and Lightning systems and Culture Station instrument are:

For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.

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Berkeley Lights Announces the Global Emerging Pathogen Antibody Discovery Consortium (GEPAD) to Attack COVID-19 and Other Viruses - Yahoo Finance

Immunology

Harvard Prof.: Don’t Count On A COVID-19 Vaccine In 12 To 18 Months – WBUR

Take a step back from the breakneck COVID-19 news cycle and it doesn't take much to wonder: How long is this pandemic going to last and ultimately, what can be done to stop it?

To better-understand the long-term outlook for the novel coronavirus and the trade-offs inherent in our current social-distancing strategy, WBUR spoke with Michael Mina, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Harvard specializing in immunology and infectious diseases.

Minas research focuses on the life-history of infectious pathogens, and he begins with the concept of herd immunity."

On how "herd immunity" works

Herd immunity is actually quite a simple idea, in that once there are enough people in the population who have been exposed to the virus or perhaps in other cases, a vaccine so that they are immune, then each one of those people that is immune becomes almost like a firebreak for preventing spread.

So if you walk into a room, for example, and everyone is susceptible to a virus and you bring that virus in, then there's no herd immunity. And on average, you'll infect two or three people. But if 90% of the room is immune already, then it's unlikely that when you walk into that room, you'll infect more than one person because most of the people you bump into will already be immune.

On whether the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is susceptible to herd immunity

Absolutely. That's one of the great things about herd immunity, is that as long as people can individually become immune to the virus, then herd immunity is possible. And for this particular virus, it's about 65% of the population that might need to be immune before we actually can really inhibit further spread of the virus.

On the importance of establishing herd immunity vs. social distancing

That's a very good and somewhat controversial question. Essentially, a different way to put it is, 'Could we just get lots of younger people infected with this virus so that they can no longer necessarily transmit it?' And because we know that younger people maybe don't experience as severe a disease as older people, that would be a benefit.

The problem there is we know that actually, younger people can still get very sick and can die. But I think that there are some takeaways that we could get from this idea: One small slice of that question might be: 'Well, if we know that there are a number of young people who have already been infected and are immune, then maybe they can be the ones who are the nurses for people in a nursing home,' for example.

But I think it is a controversial idea to just say that all young people should go out and get infected in order to confer greater herd immunity because we know that it still is a dangerous virus even for the young people in this population.

On the balancing act we need to achieve to prevent spread

That's one of the real dilemmas we find ourselves in today. I've been astounded to see just how much social distancing is happening, at least in some of our states and cities; and this is really terrific. This is what is needed at this moment in time to prevent ... a collapse of the health care system, if you will, in terms of the hospitals getting overridden with people.

But the problem with doing such a good job right now is that we might come out of this wave of the epidemic with less than 2% of the population infected. And as a population, we'll be just as susceptible, say, come the fall, as we were a few months ago.

On the necessity of social distancing at this particular point in time

Because this virus came into our population pretty quickly and then we kind of squandered a couple of months in figuring out how to deal with it ... now we're trying to catch up, if you will, to really control some of our essential services, like ensuring that we have enough ICU beds and ventilators for all the people who might need them. We just are trying to buy some time so that we can deal with it more appropriately in a more prepared way, maybe in a few months from now.

On whether an effective vaccine is likely in 12 to 18 months

Twelve to 15 months has been a timeframe that's been passed around as a minimum that it could take to develop a vaccine and bring it to market. But there's a caveat out there. That 12-to-15-month timeframe assumes that the vaccine actually works and protects us. But that's actually really the hard part ... finding the right combination of things to put in the vaccine to make sure that it elicits a good amount of immunological protection. And so it could be that 12 months from now, we're starting back at ground zero with a new trial.

I think that 12 to 15 months is probably not the most realistic timeframe. I anticipate that it will be quite a bit longer, if ever. And it's important to remember that we don't have any useful vaccines currently for many of the seasonal viruses that we see every year.

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Harvard Prof.: Don't Count On A COVID-19 Vaccine In 12 To 18 Months - WBUR

Immunology

Beyond the Surface – Uncovering the Layers of Immune Cell Complexity – Technology Networks

Application NoteMar 25, 2020

Immunology and infectious disease research continues to advance our understanding of significant health issues including cancer, autoimmune diseases, and emerging pathogens. However, the field faces significant challenges due to the complex nature of the immune system and the limitations of prevailing research tools.

In order to comprehensively understand the immune response, scientists need the ability to characterize cell types and functional states in individual cells at high throughput.

In this app note, discover flexible solutions to the challenges of immunological studies, allowing you to:

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Beyond the Surface - Uncovering the Layers of Immune Cell Complexity - Technology Networks

Immunology

Gossamer Bio Announces Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2019 Financial Results and Provides Business Update – Yahoo Finance

Clinical trial results for all four clinical-stage product candidates in target areas of immunology, inflammation and oncology expected in 2020

Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities totaled $401.8 million at year-end 2019

Gossamer Bio, Inc. (Nasdaq:GOSS), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, acquiring, developing and commercializing therapeutics in the disease areas of immunology, inflammation and oncology, today announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2019 and provided a business update.

"Our hearts are with the patients, families, caregivers and medical professionals suffering and sacrificing in the ongoing Covid-19 viral pandemic. We are monitoring the situation on a daily basis to understand the impact on Gossamer and our programs and are taking the necessary actions now to do what is best for our patients, employees and company," said Sheila Gujrathi, M.D., Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Gossamer Bio.

"2019 was a year of execution for Gossamer Bio, as we continued to advance all four of our clinical-stage product candidates in our target areas of immunology, inflammation and oncology. Notwithstanding the Covid-19 pandemic, we expect to continue our momentum in 2020, with data from all of our candidates expected this year. We are committed to advancing our product candidates and the field of medicine for the betterment of patients and their families, and we look forward to providing updates on these efforts throughout the year."

Clinical-Stage Product Candidate Updates

GB001: Oral DP2 Antagonist for Eosinophilic Asthma and Chronic Rhinosinusitis (CRS)

GB002: Inhaled PDGFR Inhibitor for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH)

GB004: Oral HIF-1 Stabilizer for Inflammatory Bowel Disease

GB1275: Oral CD11b Modulator for Oncology Indications

Financial Results for Quarter and Full Year Ended December 31, 2019

About Gossamer Bio

Gossamer Bio is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, acquiring, developing and commercializing therapeutics in the disease areas of immunology, inflammation and oncology. Its goal is to be an industry leader in each of these therapeutic areas and to enhance and extend the lives of patients suffering from such diseases.

Forward-Looking Statements

Gossamer cautions you that statements contained in this press release regarding matters that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on the Companys current beliefs and expectations. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the anticipated timing of initiation and enrollment of clinical trials for our product candidates; plans to rapidly advance our product candidates; expectations on the timing of data readouts from our clinical studies; the potential clinical benefits of our product candidates; the indications we intend to pursue and our related business strategies; the expected timeframe for funding our operating plan with current cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities; and access to the Companys senior debt facility. The inclusion of forward-looking statements should not be regarded as a representation by Gossamer that any of its plans will be achieved. Actual results may differ from those set forth in this press release due to the risks and uncertainties inherent in Gossamers business, including, without limitation: potential delays in the commencement, enrollment and completion of clinical trials; disruption to our operations from the recent global outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic; the Companys dependence on third parties in connection with product manufacturing, research and preclinical and clinical testing; the success of Gossamers clinical trials and preclinical studies for its product candidates; regulatory developments in the United States and foreign countries; unexpected adverse side effects or inadequate efficacy of the Companys product candidates that may limit their development, regulatory approval and/or commercialization, or may result in recalls or product liability claims; Gossamers ability to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection for its product candidates; Gossamers ability to comply with its obligations in collaboration agreements with third parties or the agreements under which it licenses intellectual property rights from third parties; the risk that the funding under the senior debt facility may not be completed on the timeframe Gossamer expects, or at all, including as a result of Gossamer's failure to meet the conditions required for such funding or failure to comply with the affirmative and negative covenants under the credit facility; and other risks described in the Companys prior press releases and the Companys filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Companys annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent filings with the SEC. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof, and Gossamer undertakes no obligation to update such statements to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date hereof. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement, which is made under the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

GOSSAMER BIO, INC.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENT DATA

(UNAUDITED; IN THOUSANDS, EXCEPT SHARE AND PER SHARE DATA)

Three months ended December 31,

Year Ended December 31,

STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS DATA:

2019

2018

2019

2018

Operating expenses:

Research and development

$

42,596

$

25,872

$

143,403

$

55,283

In process research and development

1,600

-

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Gossamer Bio Announces Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2019 Financial Results and Provides Business Update - Yahoo Finance

Immunology

How Cornell Departments Are Helping in the Fight Against Coronavirus – Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun

With the spread of COVID-19 affecting communities across the nation and recently even Cornells campus itself a wide range of academic departments are doing what they can to help during the pandemic.

Labs in the College of Veterinary Medicine run by Profs. Brian VanderVen and David Russell, microbiology and immunology have donated over 600 respirator masks to Cayuga Medical Center amid a national shortage of protective medical gear.

VanderVen explained that they had started stockpiling masks earlier in the year, fearing that a future supply-chain problem could result in a lack of necessary protection for those in the lab.

However, the lab ultimately found alternate ways of protecting themselves and donated the masks to physicians on the front lines.

We certainly could still use them, VanderVen said. But the clinicians are going to need them more than us.

The lab is still exploring ways of helping Cayuga Medical beyond its initial donation, according to VanderVen. For instance, longer-term, faculty across Cornells immunology department are looking at new ways to diagnose and treat coronavirus, he said.

Other University labs have been asked to donate supplies in the fight against COVID-19, including one run by Prof. Maureen Hanson, molecular biology, whose lab donated 3,000 pairs of nitrile gloves to be distributed as necessary by the Tompkins County Health Department.

After hearing about the nationwide mask shortage, Prof. C.C. Chu, fiber science and apparel design, emailed colleagues with an idea.

I thought, we have a design component to the department, maybe they can use their knowledge and expertise to make surgical masks? he said.

Beyond developing more efficient mask design, Chu hopes to see a prior research interest of his revived in the fight against the pandemic. In the late 2000s, his lab developed a family of pseudo-protein biomaterials that a company eventually licensed to develop synthetic vaccines.

The synthetic vaccine technology based on my labs pseudo-protein biomaterials is still there, Chu said. If someone would have enough resources, this synthetic vaccine technology can be reactivated again to help the fast development of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Some Cornell labs are also doing their part by continuing ongoing research.

Prof. Matthew DeLisa, chemical and biomolecular engineering, said his lab is working on National Institutes of Health-funded research that could assist in efforts to better model and understand the spread of COVID-19.

Insight gained here could guide vaccine design and development, DeLisa said.

DeLisas colleague, Prof. Susan Daniel, chemical and biomolecular engineering, runs a lab whose research is so relevant right now that she applied for an exemption that will enable her to continue work despite the campus shutdown.

The focus of this project is to understand how coronavirus enters its host cell and specifically how the spikes that decorate the virus facilitate that entry, Daniel explained.

Stemming from that work, her lab is now screening drugs that could inhibit the virus infection, developing antibodies and small molecules that could more effectively block its entry into human cells.

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How Cornell Departments Are Helping in the Fight Against Coronavirus - Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun