Immunomic Therapeutics Forms Collaboration with EpiVax and PharmaJet to Develop Novel Vaccine Candidate Against COVID-19 Using Its Investigational…

April 9, 2020 medical

ROCKVILLE, Md. & PROVIDENCE, R.I. & GOLDEN, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc., a privately held clinical stage biotechnology company pioneering the study of nucleic acid immunotherapy platforms, announced today that it is developing a nucleic acid vaccine candidate against COVID-19 leveraging its investigational UNITE platform for prevention of the novel coronavirus disease caused by SARS-Cov-2 coronavirus. Immunomic will work with leaders from EpiVax and PharmaJet, who have a wealth of immunology and vaccine delivery expertise, to rapidly develop its COVID-19 vaccine. Immunomics UNITE platform has been widely applied to create vaccine candidates for rabies, yellow fever, dengue fever, hepatitis C and SARS, a relative to the SARS-Cov-2 coronavirus.

COVID-19 is a global pandemic and fighting this will take a major global effort investigating many prevention therapies, treatment options and new modalities. We believe that our UNITE platform, which has shown promising results in infectious disease applications, is well-suited to develop novel vaccines for coronaviruses, said Dr. William Hearl, CEO of Immunomic Therapeutics. To rapidly advance our COVID-19 program, we are excited to collaborate with EpiVax, PharmaJet and our academic and strategic partners to explore ways to flatten the curve and prevent the spread of this deadly virus.

EpiVax CEO, Dr. Annie De Groot, said My company is thrilled to partner with ITI and PharmaJet on this important project. We believe that the UNITE platform, combined with epitopes that have been carefully triaged by EpiVaxs advanced computational tools, will generate a highly effective immune response against the pathogen that causes COVID-19, while reducing off-target effects.

We are pleased to be collaborating with Immunomic and EpiVax on this important program, said Chris Cappello, President and CEO of PharmaJet, Inc. The PharmaJet Tropis intradermal Needle-free Injection System has had great success in clinical studies as well as improved the immune response of multiple nucleic acid based (DNA and RNA) vaccines.

This collaboration will combine leading technologies from all three companies: Immunomics UNITE platform, EpiVaxs in silico T cell epitope prediction tool, and PharmaJets well established Tropis Needle-free Injection System that precisely targets delivery to the intradermal tissue layer. By bringing these companies and their technologies together, Immunomic aims to create a vaccine against COVID-19 that produces broad and potent immune responses, is feasible for rapid-responses, scalable, thermostable, safe and easy to administer by healthcare professionals.

In addition to working with EpiVax and PharmaJet, Immunomic plans to explore grant initiatives through the U.S. government, other companies and institutions, non-profit organizations, and investigators in the infectious disease field to advance its efforts against COVID-19.

About Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that usually cause mild to moderate upper-respiratory tract illnesses, like the common cold, in people. Coronaviruses can be transmitted between animals and people and evolve into strains not previously identified in humans.

Three of the coronaviruses can have more serious outcomes in people, and those diseases are SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) which emerged in late 2002 and disappeared by 2004; MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome), which emerged in 2012 and remains in circulation in camels; and COVID-19, which emerged in December 2019 from China and for which a global effort is under way to contain its spread. COVID-19 is caused by the coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2.

As of April 8, 2020, the number of reported COVID-19 infections has surpassed 1.3 million cases with over 79,000 deaths. (Source: World Health Organization).

About UNITE

ITIs investigational UNITE platform, or UNiversal Intracellular Targeted Expression, works by fusing pathogenic antigens with the Lysosomal Associated Membrane Protein, an endogenous protein in humans, for immune processing. In this way, ITIs vaccines (DNA or RNA) have the potential to utilize the bodys natural biochemistry to develop a broad immune response including antibody production, cytokine release and critical immunological memory. This approach could put UNITE technology at the crossroads of immunotherapies in a number of illnesses, including cancer, allergy and infectious diseases. UNITE is currently being employed in Phase II clinical trials as a cancer immunotherapy. ITI is also collaborating with academic centers and biotechnology companies to study the use of UNITE in cancer types of high mortality, including cases where there are limited treatment options like glioblastoma and acute myeloid leukemia. ITI believes that these early clinical studies may provide a proof of concept for UNITE therapy in cancer, and if successful, set the stage for future studies, including combinations in these tumor types and others. Preclinical data is currently being developed to explore whether LAMP nucleic acid constructs may amplify and activate the immune response in highly immunogenic tumor types and be used to create immune responses to tumor types that otherwise do not provoke an immune response.

About Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc.

Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc. (ITI) is a privately-held, clinical stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of vaccines through its proprietary technology platform, UNiversal Intracellular Targeted Expression (UNITE), which is designed to utilize the bodys natural biochemistry to develop vaccines that generate broad immune responses. UNITE has a robust history of applications in various therapeutic areas, including infectious diseases, oncology, allergy and autoimmune diseases. ITI is primarily focused on applying the UNITE platform to oncology, where it could potentially have broad applications, including viral antigens, cancer antigens, neoantigens and antigen-derived antibodies as biologics. The Company has built a large pipeline from UNITE with six oncology programs and two allergy programs. ITI has entered into a significant allergy partnership with Astellas Pharma and has formed several academic collaborations with leading Immuno-oncology researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute, Johns Hopkins University of Medicine, and Duke University. ITI maintains its headquarters in Rockville, Maryland. For more information, please visit http://www.immunomix.com.

About EpiVax

EpiVax is a 21-year old privately held biotechnology company located in Providence, Rhode Island. Scientists at EpiVax, led by co-founders Annie De Groot, MD and Bill Martin, lead in the fields of immunogenicity risk assessment and computational vaccinology with expertise in T cell epitope prediction, immune modulation, and rapid vaccine design. EpiVaxs broad portfolio of projects includes vaccines and immunotherapies for infectious diseases, autoimmunity and cancer. EpiVaxs proprietary in silico immunogenicity screening toolkits for therapeutics and vaccines, ISPRI and iVAX, are employed in advancing the research of a global roster of companies. Visit http://www.epivax.com for more information.

About PharmaJet

PharmaJets mission is worldwide acceptance of PharmaJet needle-free injection systems as a standard of care in the vaccine delivery market. The PharmaJet Needle-free systems are safe, fast and easy-to-use. They eliminate needlestick injuries, needle reuse and cross contamination, and help reduce sharps waste disposal. The Tropis Needle-free Injection System has CE Mark and WHO PQS certification for intradermal injections. Visit http://www.pharmajet.com for more information.

Immunology

Sweden Thinks Herd Immunity Is the Answer to Coronavirus – VICE

April 9, 2020 medical

As other countries around the world order lockdowns to stop the spread of COVID-19, Sweden is charting a different course: Its keeping schools and businesses open, with the idea that resistance to a disease comes when enough people in the general population have survived it -- aka "herd immunity.

No other country has attempted a similar approach to COVID-19 because of the risk it poses to healthcare systems. But Sweden wants to keep its economy functioning while slowing the rate at which people get sick.

"I think all countries, all epidemiologists you talk to, will agree that herd immunity is the one thing that would eventually slow down the spread of this virus. Nothing else will slow it down in the long term," Dr. Anders Tegnell, chief epidemiologist at Sweden's public health agency and the architect of its coronavirus plans, told VICE News. "Either you reach it by people getting infected and getting well again, or you reach it by vaccinating people. And the vaccine is fairly far off."

Swedens scientific community is at odds with Tegnells strategy. More than 2,000 doctors, professors, and researchers signed a petition urging the government to introduce more aggressive measures against COVID-19.

According to Dr. Cecilia Sderberg-Nauclr, professor of immunology at the Karolinska Institute, there is no evidence to support taking such a dangerous approach during a pandemic.

"The problem with herd immunity is that we don't have any data on this yet," Sderberg-Nauclr said. "The data that we at least have access to and the developments that we've seen in different countries just say that, no, this is not a path that is safe to take."

Indeed, the death rate from COVID-19 in Sweden is currently accelerating faster than its neighboring countries. The government has announced no plans to change its strategy.

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Sweden Thinks Herd Immunity Is the Answer to Coronavirus - VICE

Immunology

Who is on the BBC Question Time panel tonight? | Latest Brexit news and top stories – The New European

April 9, 2020 medical

PUBLISHED: 14:22 09 April 2020 | UPDATED: 14:22 09 April 2020

Matt Withers

Question Time presenter Fiona Bruce. Photograph: BBC.

Archant

Who is on Question Time tonight? Heres your guide

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Tonights audience-free Question Time virtually comes from Uxbridge - in that they wont actually be in the West London town, but have sought out video questions from its inhabitants. But whos on the panel? Heres your complete guide...

Brandon Lewis

Who? Northern Ireland secretary

One of the most regular media faces in last years general election campaign despite both looking and sounding like someone has typed generic Conservative MP into a 3D printer and whacked whatever came out in front of a camera, the former Tory Party chair has a curious habit of looking on the verge of falling asleep, A Theresa May loyalist who acted as a buffer between the long-forgotten former prime minister and the pro-Brexit grassroots, he quickly transferred his loyalty wholesale to Boris Johnson. Campaigned for Remain in the EU referendum but following the result said he would now vote Leave, describing himself as first and foremost a democrat. A candidate for the cabinets most boring tweeter (although he did tweet this week that Mrs Lewis has been busy baking a get well soon message for the PM borisjohnsonuk), Lewis is seen as a solid nightwatchman.

Rachel Reeves

Who? Shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

A Corbynsceptic MP who was condemned to the Gulag under the Absolute Boys regime, Reeves career has been resuscitated by Keir Starmer as he returns people who are vaguely competent to the frontline. Widely tipped to be shadow chancellor, she has been given the constitutionally important role of keeping an eye on what Michael Gove is up to. Shadow work and pensions secretary under Ed Miliband, she chaired the business, energy and industrial strategy effectively for the past three years, but her appointment has gone down particularly badly with the Corbynite media outriders, who are unaccountably still a thing. Decided she was Labour when she was eight years old and her dad pointed out Neil Kinnock on the television and told us that was who we voted for.

Peter Openshaw

Who? Professor of experimental medicine at Imperial College

A clinician-scientist working in lung immunology, particularly defence against viral infections, Openshaw is the latest beneficiary of Question Times recent policy of sometimes booking guests who might actually know what theyre talking about. He created the academic department of Respiratory Medicine and the Centre for Respiratory Infection at Imperial College and was elected President of the British Society for Immunology in 2014. One of the leading figures in a little-known network of British epidemiologists who have been quietly preparing for another pandemic since the swine flu outbreak of 2009-10, he bought his son the board game Pandemic for Christmas last year as a joke but is now spending all my waking and sleeping hours gathering information on the new coronavirus.

Loki

Who? Rapper, social commentator and activist

Real name Darren McGarvey, the Glaswegian hip-hop musician and former rapper-in-residence at Police Scotlands Violence Reduction Unit won the Orwell prize for political books in 2018 for his examination of poverty in Britain, Poverty Safari. Used his Daily Record column today to say that gloating about [Boris Johnson] being ill is not the most graceful way to behave, but the idea such sentiment should draw more condemnation than the policies that partly created it is ludicrous, adding that the well-to-do personalities in the media and online now so predictably corralling everyone to play nice... may have developed herd immunity to the scent of their own bulls**t. A vocal supporter of Scottish independence, he said earlier this year that strategically there should be no rush for another Scottish referendum, which went down about as well as Russ Abbot in a comedy tam oshanter.

Question Time is on BBC One at 8.05pm tonight

Almost four years after its creation The New European goes from strength to strength across print and online, offering a pro-European perspective on Brexit and reporting on the political response to the coronavirus outbreak, climate change and international politics. But we can only rebalance the right wing extremes of much of the UK national press with your support. If you value what we are doing, you can help us by making a contribution to the cost of our journalism.

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Who is on the BBC Question Time panel tonight? | Latest Brexit news and top stories - The New European

Immunology

Covid-19: Trinity researchers seek to crack code of how immune systems react to the virus – Independent.ie

April 9, 2020 medical

The battle against Covid-19 is taking place on many fronts.

n the mix of clinicians, scientists and innovators taking up the challenge are the immunologists who focus on the body's own capacity to fend-off dangerous invaders.

Prevention is the best defence, but if the novel coronavirus finds a way in, a person relies on their immune system to fight it off - or not.

What is it about some people's immunological response that allows them be infected and show no, or only mild, symptoms, while for others, the consequences can be fatal?

Decoding the immunological signature of coronavirus patients is the focus of an academic medical research team working between Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and St James's Hospital, Dublin.

It is one of several key Covid-19-related studies in which Trinity immunologists and infectious disease specialists are engaged.

In this one, they are gathering blood and nasal swab samples from all patients with the disease admitted to St James's and are hoping for a breakthrough in the short term.

The project is being led by Cliona N Cheallaigh, infectious disease consultant at St James's, and Cliona O'Farrelly, professor of comparative immunology at Trinity BioSciences Institute.

Prof O'Farrelly said the group was "looking for markers of the patients who will have a catastrophic response to infection and markers of those who will have a quick, effective and protective immune response".

She said there was a realisation that a lot of people who got infected did not get that sick and "it is something to do with their immune system. We are trying to find what is different about immune systems of people who have catastrophic responses".

Proteins

Already preliminary results are showing that patients who require ventilation have altered immune cells and raised levels of some immune proteins in their blood.

"It would be really useful," Prof O'Farrelly said, "if we can identify which patients will not have a catastrophic response because then they can be sent home quicker and free up hospital beds for those who become dangerously ill."

Ultimately, success could also help in the search for an effective vaccine and new ways of treating the disease.

Prof O'Farrelly, whose background is in human immunology, is currently leading a Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) project into women who were exposed to the contaminated anti-D immunoglobulin in the 1970s but who did not get infected.

But it was one of her students, Dr Liam Townsend, a clinical fellow on the Wellcome-Health Research Board (HRB) Irish Clinical Academic Training Programme (ICAT), who inspired the Covid-19 study.

She and Dr N Cheallaigh are co-supervising his PhD.

Dr Townsend, a registrar in infectious diseases at St James's, tweeted: "One of the hardest aspects of managing #COVID patients is that it's the first serious illness I've come across where I have no effective intervention to offer other than calling my critical care colleagues."

He was already looking to his specialism for answers and, according to Prof O'Farrelly, "he was saying we should be looking for the immunological signature of people who have a catastrophic response".

The research team, which also includes Dr Nollaig Bourke, Dr Colm Bergin, Dr Jean Dunne and Dr Niall Conlon, got fast-tracked ethics approval to carry out their patient study and support from the Dean of Research at TCD and the Trinity Translational Medicine Institute.

The work has been greatly assisted by Trinity's collaboration with Dr Darragh Duffy from the internationally renowned Paris-based Pasteur Institut, which has sent over specialised technology for their laboratory tests.

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Covid-19: Trinity researchers seek to crack code of how immune systems react to the virus - Independent.ie

Immunology

Immune-system cells of fish are ingesting plasticand then dying – William & Mary News

April 9, 2020 medical

Its become an all-too-common variety of news story: Dead whales whose digestive systems are clogged with plastic. Increasing numbers of seabirds eating plastic, often with dire consequences. Ditto with turtles and fish.

Plastic ingestion by aquatic life is well documented. Less well known is the damage plastic does to the immune systems of fish.

There's very little research done on that, Patty Zwollo said. A lot of studies have focused on the larger pieces of plastics. I think the field is still trying to figure out where the microplastics are in different animals, including fish.

Zwollo is an immunologist, a professor in William & Marys Department of Biology. Immunologists study the bodys mechanism that provides resistance to disease. Her lab has discovered that just as whales swallow plastic thinking its food, some cellular components of the immune system in fish swallow bits of microplastic that they mistake for invading pathogens.

Zwollo compares the immune system to an army: Its a complex organization that has evolved to protect the body from invaders.

First, an army needs to be trained to recognize the enemy, she explained. And then when it's trained to do that, it has all kinds of different ways of fighting the enemy.

Her research focuses on the immune systems in salmon and trout and she further specializes in a specific category of soldier in the immune system army. Its known as the B cell, a specialized white blood cell commando.

When B cells recognize a pathogen or a toxin or whatever, they will bind to the invader, Zwollo said. Theyll start to make antibodies and then remove the pathogen from your body.

Once bits of plastic get small enough the size of a bacterium they can be mistaken for bacteria or viruses and ingested by certain cells in the immune system army. An immune cells act of ingesting a foreign body is known as phagocytosis. Those cells are called phagocytes.

And once the plastic gets inside of the cell, they cant be digested because theyre not organic. Theyre plastic, so the plastic stays inside the cell, Zwollo explained.

She says that lab studies have shown that if an immune cell absorbs a great deal of microplastic, the cell will die pretty quickly. But thats probably not biologically relevant, she added, explaining that in the natural environment, the levels of microplastic are almost certainly much lower than what the cells were getting in the lab.

So now that my students are feeding cells very small amounts of those microplastics, really low levels, she said. And then we see that they do survive longer, but they still die. So probably that is more realistic in comparison with what happens in the oceans.

When it comes to B cells, things get a little more complicated. B cells in mammals differ in a number of ways from B cells in fish, Zwollo explained. Its one of the many complexities in the study of the immune system. For one thing, mammals produce B cells in their bone marrow.

Fish dont have bone marrow, she said. So all their immune cells are made in this weird organ, the anterior kidney. The kidney of fish is very different from our kidney.

More to the point, mammalian B cells are not phagocytic they do their antibody work without engulfing the invading pathogen (or errant microsliver of plastic). Our B cells bind to the invader, then start producing antibodies.

But in fish, B cells can also be phagocytic, she said. So that, to me, is the most interesting thing about it. It doesnt seem to just affect phagocytes.

Zwollo stressed that her labs results are preliminary. She recently received funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to continue her studies on the effect microplastics are having on the immune systems of trout and salmon, commercially important fish.

After Zwollos lab completes its work, the second aspect will be conducted at William & Marys Virginia Institute of Marine Science, where researchers will expose whole fish to microplastics.

Ill be involved in that part too, she said. But most of my contribution will be in the first aspect.

She said she expects her investigations to take another year. Much of the work in the Zwollo lab is done by students. She has a graduate student, Fatima Quddos, working on the project. She also has an undergraduate, Lauren Abderhalden 22 involved.

Lauren is culturing cells, Zwollo said. Ive given her a lot of freedom, so she can learn the effect of little tiny plastic beads versus beads that are a little larger. What is the effect of concentration? And time, she is looking at how long you have to leave those cells with the microplastics.

Zwollo is teaching two sections of Immunology Laboratory this semester with eight students in each section. Shes launched her lab students loose on a journey of discovery.

I basically told them, all right, you get to decide what sizes of beads you want to work with, she said.

The lab students set their own course, deciding on all the conditions for their own experiments. Then, of course, they will analyze the data.

The students are really engaged, Zwollo said. Im interested in anything that comes out, pretty much. Because we really dont know much about this situation.

Link:
Immune-system cells of fish are ingesting plasticand then dying - William & Mary News

Immunology

Have a Condition That Can Affect Breathing? What You Need to Know About COVID-19. – Yale News

April 9, 2020 medical

For those who suffer from chronic pulmonary diseases, such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), or interstitial lung diseases (ILD), the news around the COVID-19 pandemic can be scary. But dont fret. Experts at Yale School of Medicine (YSM) have guidance on how to protect against the virus.

To limit your risk of becoming infected with COVID-19, It is important to be strict with your hand washing, and avoid contact with others, said Charles Dela Cruz, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine (pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine) and director of Yales Center for Pulmonary Infection Research and Treatment. Distance yourself from other people because someone could look healthy, but they might be carrying the virus.

We know that some patients are at a greater risk, explained Naftali Kaminski, MD, Boehringer-Ingelheim Endowed Professor of Internal Medicine and chief of pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine. The good thing is that once you recognize the risk, you can take steps to protect yourself.

Asthma, COPD and Allergies

Allergy season is rapidly approaching, and while many people may start coughing and sneezing, it is important to remember the differences between COVID-19 symptoms, and those of an allergy sufferer, or someone with asthma or COPD.

The thing to remember is that COVID-19 has a very particular clinical profile: fever, sometimes a high grade one, and a dry cough. Some have reported a loss of taste or smell, said Christina Price, MD, assistant professor of medicine (immunology) and chief of allergy & immunology at the CT VA Healthcare System. So if you're congested, you would have some of those similar symptoms if you have allergies, but if you had those symptoms without your regular itchy eyes, watery nose, congestion, then that would be of concern.

Remember that allergies can exacerbate existing lung conditions. Price admits there is symptom overlap, but reminds patients that they know themselves best. Where it's difficult is when people have asthma, because there's a component of shortness of breath and chest tightness too. One of the clinical pearls we tell people all the time is that you know yourself the best. If you typically feel a certain way in the springtime, or when you have allergy-related asthma exacerbation, that is probably what you have. If you have unusual symptoms, or something outside of the norm, that's when people should be concerned.

Patients with a pulse oximeter or spirometer at home can monitor their breathing and lung function.

If you have an exacerbation of your asthma or COPD and are not feeling well, call your physician or your primary care physician, said Geoffrey Chupp, MD, professor of medicine (pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine) and director of Yales Center for Asthma and Airways Disease. The capacity for Telehealth visits is increasing and your doctor can determine if treatment is necessary. Most important is to continue taking your inhaled medications to prevent exacerbations, there is no risk these medications increase your risk of getting COVID-19.

ILD such as Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) or Pneumonitis

Danielle Antin-Ozerkis, MD, associate professor (pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine) and medical director of the Yale Interstitial Lung Disease Center of Excellence acknowledges that we are going through a challenging time.

People with interstitial lung disease and pulmonary fibrosis are considered to be in a higher risk group for serious infection, said Antin-Ozerkis. Follow the Center for Disease Controls guidance on personal hygiene including frequent hand washing, covering coughs, wiping and disinfecting high-touch surfaces.Stay at home as much as possible and avoid crowds. It is not the time for travel or visitors to your home. If you need to see your doctor, many programs including ours are offering telemedicine visits.

Kaminski wants to assure patients that IPF research will continue. Although much research is stopped right now, the work into IPF and other ILDs will not go away, he said. I feel that since COVID-19 is a pulmonary disease, research into pulmonary diseases will only increase.

Cystic Fibrosis

Individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF) may have decreased lung function, which would put them at potentially greater risk if they contract COVID-19.

From a preparedness perspective, individuals with CF are ready, explained Jon Koff, MD, associate professor (pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine) and director of Yales Adult Cystic Fibrosis Program. CF patients understand staying six feet away and self-isolation. They often wear masks for personal protection too, and may use airway clearance therapies to help clear their lungs. All these steps will help them avoid viral infection.

Providers at the Adult Cystic Fibrosis Program are contacting patients via Telehealth, phone calls, and a newsletter with information on how to stay healthy. In addition, Koff and the Adult CF Team are working on starting a virtual support group so that patients can share their experiences, and ask additional questions.

I want to let patients know to keep doing what you are doing, said Koff. In addition to hand hygiene, using airway clearance therapies aggressively specific for your disease may help.

While it is important for everyone to avoid catching an infection, people with these conditions may want to take extra precautions to stay healthy.

Dela Cruz suggests asking family or friends to complete tasks for you, like getting groceries.

It is important to distance yourself from others during this time, especially for people with chronic lung diseases, he explained. We know that people with lung conditions are already at some disadvantage based on their lung function. They could also be more susceptible to these kind of infections, and if they get COVID-19, the severity could be worse.

But if you were to develop symptoms of infection such as fever, new cough or shortness of breath beyond what is typical, they all advise to call first before rushing to the emergency room or doctors office. Be aware of your symptoms and contact your doctor or the local hospitals hotline, said Dela Cruz.

While all this advice is important to preserve your physical health, dont neglect your mental health.

To manage stress, use an app such as Calm or Headspace, for guided meditation. If it is sunny outside, going for a short walk is good for your well-being. And make sure you are taking your medications for your chronic conditions, said Kaminski.

Antin-Ozerkis echoes this sentiment. Use FaceTime, Zoom and other video services to connect with others. Try to avoid too much news and social media. Stay optimistic and know that we will all get through this together.

The Department of Internal Medicine is the largest department within the Yale School of Medicine and one of the nation's premier departments, bringing together an elite cadre of clinicians, investigators, and educators in one of the world's top medical schools. To learn more, visit Internal Medicine.

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Have a Condition That Can Affect Breathing? What You Need to Know About COVID-19. - Yale News

Immunology

More Clinics Turn To Telemedicine During Covid19 Outbreak – Red River Radio

April 9, 2020 medical

TELEMEDICINE - While hospitals and clinics have been open to see patients during the Covid-19 outbreak, many patients who need to visit clinics for non-covid19 issues have become concerned about going to the doctor during the Stay-at-Home orders to avoid community spread of the virus. In response to these concerns more healthcare providers are implementing Telemedicine. 70 of the Willis-Knighton Physician Network clinics in Northwest Louisiana are now offering a telehealth virtual visit for existing patients whose records are accessible by the physicians. Dr. Caroline Caperton is with the Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Center and explains how it works.

"It's an opportunity for the patient and the physician to have an encounter or a visit over the phone with a video camera," Caperton said. "It allows the physician to see the patient and the patient to see the physician and talk in real time."

Clinics offering the service have placed instructions on their websites. Following the instructions, a patient will download an app that will allow a secure connection for the visit. The Virtual Visits are for less-serious health conditions and offer convenience for patients to see a doctor without leaving home but doctors will recommend a patient come for an in-person follow-up should their conditions require it.

"Obviously we love inpatient visits, we like to put our hands on patients and listen," Caperton explained. "But there are opportunities to see patients and see your doctor and have that access while still going by the mandate of shelter-at-home and to stay at home."

( NOTE- Willis Knighton is an underwriter for Red River Radio. )

More healthcare providers are turning to telemedicine to provide better access to patients during the Covid-19 outbreak.

Genetics

SOPHiA GENETICS Expands Its Executive Team, Naming Lara Hashimoto Chief Business Officer – PRNewswire

April 9, 2020 medical

Lara Hashimoto joined the healthcare industry 20 years ago holding several leadership roles spanning Pharma clinical drug development, sales and marketing before moving toRoche Diagnostics. Here, she held a number of roles responsible for IVD development and commercialization, including the launch of the Oncology companion diagnostics portfolio. Her most recent position before joining SOPHiA GENETICS was Chief Commercial Officer for Roche Sequencing Solutions.

"Lara is a stellar addition to our successful team. She shares the company's vision regarding multi-modal data approaches and the optimization of drug development and has made it her mission to help improve patients' lives. Lara will greatly further our efforts to democratize Data-Driven Medicine worldwide," said Jurgi Camblong, Founder and CEO of SOPHiA GENETICS.

"I believe the future in healthcare will be increasingly individualized with significantly improved outcomes through the application of multi-modality prediction modelling," said Hashimoto. "SOPHiA GENETICS is best positioned to drive this transformation."

About SOPHiA GENETICS

SOPHiA GENETICS is a health tech company democratizing Data-Driven Medicine to improve health outcomes and economics worldwide. By unlocking the power of new-generation health data for cancer and rare disease management, the universal SOPHiA Platform allows clinical researchers to act with precision and confidence. The company's innovative approach enables an ever-expanding community of over 1,000 institutions to benefit from knowledge sharing, fostering a new era in healthcare. SOPHiA's achievement is recognized by the MIT Technology Review's "50 Smartest Companies."

More info: SOPHiAGENETICS.COM, follow @SOPHiAGENETICS on Twitter.

USA Media Contact: Don Granese [emailprotected] Tel: +1-857-263-7972

Global Media Contact: Sophie Reymond[emailprotected] Tel: +41-79-784-63-76

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SOPHiA GENETICS Expands Its Executive Team, Naming Lara Hashimoto Chief Business Officer - PRNewswire

Genetics

Genetic Testing Reveals the True Nature of Coffee Varieties – Daily Coffee News

April 9, 2020 medical

One of the hallmarks of the single-origin specialty coffee movement has been an appreciation for specific varieties within the arabica species of coffee.

Like the Pinot Noir or Cabernet Sauvignon varieties to wine, coffee varieties such as Bourbon, Pacamara or Gesha are not merely used as identifiers; theyre also employed as marketing terms. But what if that 91-point Gesha in your cup is actually a 91-point something else? Heaven forbid.

Research released last month that used genetic fingerprinting to determine the veracity of genetic labeling of thousands of coffee plant suggests the mis-identification of varieties on farms and even in nurseries may be widespread.

DNA fingerprinting provides different actors in the coffee sector with a powerful new tool farmers can verify the identity of their cultivated varieties, coffee roasters can be assured that marketing claims related to varieties are correct, and most of all, those looking to establish a more professional and reliable coffee seed sector have a reliable new monitoring tool to establish and check genetic purity of seed stock and nursery plants, the authors of the open-access study in the in theJournal of AOAC International.

Behind the study is the Portland, Oregon-based nonprofit World Coffee Research, which it should be noted has a vested interest in promoting this type of DNA fingerprinting. The group launched a DNA fingerprinting service for the authentication of arabica coffee in 2017, and charges $130 per sample.

For the newly published study, researchers applied the DNA fingerprint testing to more than 2,500 coffee samples in its database, which came from numerous sources, including WCRs core collection and anonymized samples sent by individuals. Samples originated from coffee-growing countries all over the world.

In one of the starkest examples of genetic nonconformity, only 39% of the 88 samples identified as the famous Gesha variety (often written as Geisha elsewhere) were found to truly be Gesha.

Researchers noted incidental cross-pollination on the farm as a potential likely route to genetic ambiguity on farms and in nurseries.

Experience with the WCR genetic database points to the conclusion that a recently selected variety in a region with a relatively organized research and nurseries network exhibit higher genetic conformity, the authors wrote. The best example of this currently is the Marsellesa variety, with 91% of genetic conformity. However, when varieties are older and/or the research and nurseries network is poorly organized, the percentage of genetic conformity can drastically decrease.

See the full open-access study here.

GOP Rep. Who Said Evolution Was a Lie from the Pit of Hell Wants His Seat Back – Patheos

April 9, 2020 medical

For eight years, from 2007 to 2015, Paul Broun was a Republican member of Congress, representing Georgias 10th district. In 2012, as a sitting member of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, he made nationwide news when video emerged of him speaking at a Baptist church and telling the crowd that evolution, embryology, and the Big Bang were lies straight from the pit of Hell.

Gods word is true. Ive come to understand that. All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and the Big Bang Theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of Hell. And its lies to try to keep me and all the folks who were taught that from understanding that they need a savior. You see, there are a lot of scientific data that Ive found out as a scientist that actually show that this is really a young Earth. I dont believe that the Earths but about 9,000 years old. I believe it was created in six days as we know them. Thats what the Bible says.

And what Ive come to learn is that its the manufacturers handbook, is what I call it. It teaches us how to run our lives individually, how to run our families, how to run our churches. But it teaches us how to run all of public policy and everything in society. And thats the reason as your congressman I hold the Holy Bible as being the major directions to me of how I vote in Washington, D.C., and Ill continue to do that.

Broun also anointed the doorway through which President Obama walked before delivering his first inaugural address and co-sponsored a bill reaffirming In God We Trust as our nations official motto. Thats besides all the deranged right-wing policies he supported.

Now hes running for his old seat, now in the 9th district, once again. (Collins has that seat right now, but hes running for U.S. Senate.)

Broun is already stirring up controversy with an AR-15 giveaway to help the (mostly white) residents in his district protect themselves against the looting hordes from Atlanta. (Wink wink nudge nudge)

Guns and racism, all in one. What else is new from a conservative Christian?

In a phone interview Tuesday, Broun defended the reference to looting hordes from Atlanta as not racial.

Only the liberal press would take that kind of position, he said. There are a lot of white people in Atlanta as well.

Youre the racist, he added.

This is the best Jesus followers can do, apparently. Its appalling that in the middle of a pandemic, a candidate who openly rejects science could get anywhere close to Congress. But when Republicans are in the majority, the dumbest people get elected.

See the rest here:
GOP Rep. Who Said Evolution Was a Lie from the Pit of Hell Wants His Seat Back - Patheos