Immunology

UK professor impacted by Omicron travel restrictions – LEX18 Lexington KY News

LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) First detected in the United States Wednesday, Omicron has rapidly become the dominant variant of the coronavirus in South Africa, a country that has held a special place in Dr. Zach Porterfield's heart.

An assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases at the University of Kentucky, Dr. Porterfield told LEX 18 he has lived in South Africa on and off over the last 21 years. He has studied as an HIV virologist in the country, where he said doctors and scientists have been doing exceptional work researching COVID-19.

"We probably found [Omicron] in South Africa because there was a concerted effort to look," Dr. Porterfield said. "We have the expertise and technology to do that [genetic] sequencing."

Dr. Porterfield said he was planning to travel to South Africa next week, before learning about new travel restrictions imposed on South Africa and seven other African countries.

"I still have an apartment in Durban and projects and laboratory collaborations in South Africa that I was planning to return and try and set right," he said.

Although his plans may have been upended, Dr. Porterfield said he understands why President Joe Biden's administration implemented the latest travel bans.

"I think the right thing to do is take a moment to pause and think through what does this mean," he said.

President Biden explained earlier this week that while travel restrictions will not prevent the arrival of the variant, they could buy the administration time to prepare.

Health experts around the world, including representatives from the World Health Organization, have criticized the restrictions, suggesting they are ineffective and punitive.

"Blanket travel bans will not prevent the international spread of Omicron," said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the WHO. "And they place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods."

Continued here:
UK professor impacted by Omicron travel restrictions - LEX18 Lexington KY News

Immunology

Western News – Western researcher helping bring HIV cure within reach – Western News

At first, in the medical fight against AIDS, there was only uncertainty.

Then researchers brought hope in the form of life-saving treatment antiretrovirals that stop HIV from replicating in an infected person and reduce the risk of transmission.

Now, as the international community marks World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, a cure could be within REACH.

Western University researcher Jessica Prodger is a collaborator in Research Enterprise to Advance a Cure for HIV (REACH), an ambitious multi-institutional project funded through the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).

HIV is resilient and has, so far, been resistant to a cure. One key issue is that some of the virus, as it integrates itself into human DNA, becomes invisible to the immune system if the infected cells go dormant.But the cells retain the viral DNA, and if a person stopped taking antiretroviral treatment, the infection would reactivate and the virus would again replicate.

The work of REACH focuses on understanding this latent reservoir of infected cells and figuring out how to eliminate it.

Prodger, a professor of immunology and microbiology at Westerns Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, is a co-lead investigator in Weill Cornell Medicines new five-year, US$28.5million Martin Delaney Collaboratory grant from the NIH.

This is a huge endeavour involving 37 co-investigators, all of us attacking HIV from one important angle, Prodger said. The NIH Martin Delaney funding removes competition between individual groups, allowing us to organize cure research into large, well-funded teams, and I think were going to make huge strides.

Her research includes a study group of HIV-positive women and men in Uganda who are receiving antiretroviral therapy.

Her team has been tracking and quantifying the HIV reservoir in this cohort, and has made important discoveries, such as that latent HIV is not as easily reactivated in females.

Its one small, but vital, part in solving the larger HIV puzzle and finding a cure, said Prodger, who also holds a Canada Research Chair in genital immunology and prevention of sexually transmitted infections.

Burden of infection

Around the world, 38 million people live with human immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV) and require daily, lifelong medication.

In 2020 alone, about two million people contracted HIV and 690,000 died from AIDS-related illnesses, UNAIDS notes.

All told, 80 million people have contracted the virus; half of those have died from AIDS-related illnesses.

The heaviest burden of infection is still borne by people in low-income countries where different strains of HIV are in circulation, while most of the research is taking place in high-income countries among high-income populations with predominantly one HIV strain.

Shifting focus

But progress is taking place.

AIDS-related deaths have dropped by 64 per cent since the peak in 2004. Infection numbers last year were about half the number of infected in 1997.

Antiretrovirals and other medications are transforming HIV infection into a manageable chronic condition, and people who are on effective treatment cannot transmit the virus to others.

Scientists around the world, including many at Western, are working towards new treatments, cures and potential vaccines.

The focus of HIV research for the first 30 years (since HIV was first identified) was on treatment and prevention, to save lives and stop people from dying of AIDS.This has been hugely successful, Prodger said. The discovery of the reservoir came decades after the discovery of the virus, and the field has only just begun to focus on a cure, now that highly effective treatments have been developed.

The REACH team is composed of investigators with expertise in virology, immunology, clinical studies and community advocates.

With 18 different institutions involved, the REACH program is a model for harnessing the great power of many scientific communities and minds, said a news release from Weill CornellMedicine, based in New York.

The project team, led by Dr. Brad Jones,associateprofessor ofimmunology inmedicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Weill Cornell Medicine, received the Delaney Collaboratory grant in August 2021. The REACH Collaboratoryis co-led by Dr. Marina Caskey of The Rockefeller University.

This award represents a remarkable vote of confidence and recognition of Weill Cornell Medicine as an international hub of HIV cure research, Jones said in the news release. With this funding we will leverage novel technological and analytical methods to redefine how the immune system interacts with the HIV reservoir in people on therapy.

A cure either eradicating the virus in the body or suppressing the virus by boosting the immune system would end the need for lifelong medication.We believe that both of these outcomes are possible, but that they are complex andthere arechallenging problems to solve, Jones said.

Prodger emphasized its the collaboratorys collective work, not any one individuals, that will make the difference and, ultimately, lead to a cure.

Research is very much about building an enormous structure, brick by brick. You begin to see what an amazing thing this is when everyone adds their brick to the whole, she said.

Go here to read the rest:
Western News - Western researcher helping bring HIV cure within reach - Western News

Immunology

Viral evolution in animals could reveal future of COVID-19 – Jill Lopez

When animals catch COVID-19 from humans, new SARS-CoV-2 variants can arise. To evaluate this phenomenon, an interdisciplinary team at the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences systematically analyzed mutation types occurring in the virus after infection of cats, dogs, ferrets, and hamsters.

Confirmed COVID-19 cases in a variety of wild, zoo, and household animals demonstrate cross-species transmission, which is a rare occurrence for most viruses.

SARS-CoV-2, in the realm of coronaviruses, has a very broad species range, said Laura Bashor, one of the first authors and a doctoral student in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology. Generally speaking, many types of viruses cant infect other species of animals, they evolved to be very specific.

Humans have so much exposure to many different animals which permitted this virus to have the opportunity to expose a variety of different species, said Erick Gagne, a first author and now an assistant professor of wildlife disease ecology at the University of Pennsylvania.

The global reach and spillover of the virus have given researchers a unique opportunity to investigate the viral evolution of SARS-CoV-2, including in University Distinguished Professor Sue VandeWoudes laboratory at Colorado State University.

These specialists in disease transmission in wild and domestic cats applied their experience in sequence analysis and studying a collection of genomes to SARS-CoV-2.The studywas recently published in PNAS, the official journal of the National Academy of Sciences.

Researchers in the VandeWoude lab worked with Assistant Professor Angela Bosco-Lauth and Professor Dick Bowen in the Department of Biomedical Sciences, who used their animal modeling expertise to develop a test for SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility of animal species.

Also key to the findings was a newer sequencing technique of the virus at different stages of the study, now common to detect variants in the human population. Mark Stenglein, associate professor in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, provided computational skills in analyzing biological molecule sequences, known as bioinformatics, to the study.

We found there was evolution, we saw selection on the virus, and we saw a lot of variants emerge in the genome sequence of the virus, said Bashor.

To provide ample viral material for the study, Bosco-Lauth and Bowen cultivated a SARS-CoV-2 human sample in cells grown in the lab. Bashor and Gagne determined that multiple mutations developed, and became a greater percentage of the genetic population, at each step of this process.

Then the virus was introduced to the four household species, and samples of the virus were collected from their nasal passages after infection.

In the animals, the cell culture variants reverted back to the initial human type, which indicates that likely there is adaption occurring in that cell culture and environment that was selected for those variants, said Gagne.

Not all these mutations within the cell culture SARS-CoV-2 variant transferred in the new hosts. Instead, different mutations emerged within the virus shed by the live animals.

The initial viral sample in the study was isolated in early 2020. The team observed mutations that have since formed wide-spread SARS-CoV-2 strains in the human population at an accelerated rate throughout the study.

Among those were a number that weve since seen in humans in the alpha, beta, delta variants, said Dr. Sue VandeWoude, senior author. There were specific genetic code changes that mimicked what other scientists have reported in people.

Contact exposure between two cats demonstrated the SARS-CoV-2 variant can be transmitted with the possibility of producing a new strain within the species.

Thats what were seeing in people too, said Bosco-Lauth. Hosts that are really well adapted to support SARS-CoV-2 infection are also very good at allowing these mutations to stick and to be passed on.

Bashor did not anticipate studying SARS-CoV-2 when she came to CSU to begin her doctoral studies during the pandemic. However, it provided a unique opportunity to hit the ground running as a graduate student on a really cool and viable project in disease ecology and evolution.

Gagne was completing his postdoctoral research on cross-species transmission of feline retroviruses in the VandeWoude lab when the team launched the SARS-CoV-2 study. Now an assistant professor, he has continued to investigate SARS-CoV-2 spillover with the Wildlife Futures Program at the University of Pennsylvania.

Graduate students and early career scientists like Bashor and Gagne, have made meaningful contributions to SARS-CoV-2 research, said VandeWoude.

The team has continued their investigations to focus on cats, as they have shown higher susceptibility for COVID-19 spillover from humans and can produce variants of the virus and spread to other cats.

Bashor began analyzing SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences from a large pool of cat species all over the world, including tigers, lions and snow leopards. The publicly available data of infected cats could provide additional insights on the adaptability and mutability of COVID-19 within and among cat species.

There is not evidence of transmission from cats to humans. But cats continue to be susceptible to all variants of COVID-19 in the human population.

Read this article:
Viral evolution in animals could reveal future of COVID-19 - Jill Lopez

Immunology

Analysis shows skin peanut allergy patch safe and well tolerated over 3-year period – Hospital Healthcare Europe

The use of Viaskin, an epicutaneous patch used for children with a peanut allergy appears to be safe and well tolerated according to a three-year analysis presented by at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Conference, November 2021.

A peanut allergy is thought to affect around 2% of the general population and in a study of 3218 children, the incidence was found to be 24.8%. The presence of a peanut allergy is challenging for those affected and requires a high level of vigilance directed towards the avoidance of accidental ingestion of peanut-containing foods.

The use of viaskin represents epicutaneous immunotherapy and according to the manufacturer, DBV Technologies, is a proprietary technology platform that enables the delivery of biologically active compounds to the immune system through the skin.

The data presented at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Conference was based on the REALISE trial, which included children with documented histories of peanut anaphylaxis and who were randomised, 3:1, to either viaskin peanut 250mcg (which contains 1/1000th of the protein found in a single peanut) or a placebo for a period of 6 months. Once this initial phase was completed, all subjects continued to receive the active treatment in an open-label extension, for a period of three years. For the REALISE study, the primary outcome was set as adverse Events (AEs), treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) and serious adverse events (SAEs) throughout the study period.

The 6-month safety data for viaskin has already been published and showed that the patch was well-tolerated.

Findings

REALISE recruited 393 children with a median age of 7 years (gender not reported) of whom, 14 (3.6%) had a history of severe anaphylaxis. Throughout the study period, most subjects experienced at least one TEAE although these were reported as being mild (97.4%) or moderate (70.4%) in severity and commonly consisted of application site erythema and pruritus which fortunately decreased over time.

Overall, 16 children experienced a total of 17 anaphylactic reactions (none severe) considered to be due to viaskin. In addition, there were 2 serious that were viakskin-related TEAEs (2 anaphylactic reactions: one leading to permanent study discontinuation). No difference in TEAEs in subjects with severe anaphylaxis history was apparent.

The authors concluded that over 36-months, Viaskin Peanut was generally well tolerated, with decreasing frequency and intensity of local and systemic treatment-related AEs over time.

The product is yet to be approved by the FDA, which has requested more data or the EMA.

Citation

Brown-Whitehorn T et al. D030 REALISE (REAL-LIFE USE AND SAFETY OF EPIT) STUDY: 3 YEAR RESULTS IN PEANUT-ALLERGIC CHILDREN. Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol 2021

See the article here:
Analysis shows skin peanut allergy patch safe and well tolerated over 3-year period - Hospital Healthcare Europe

Immunology

VBI Vaccines Announces FDA Approval of PreHevbrio for the Prevention of Hepatitis B in Adults – Yahoo Finance

- PreHevbrio is the only approved 3-antigen hepatitis B vaccine for adults in the U.S.

- Shareholder conference call to be held today, December 1, at 8:30 AM ET

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., December 01, 2021--(BUSINESS WIRE)--VBI Vaccines Inc. (Nasdaq: VBIV) (VBI), a biopharmaceutical company driven by immunology in the pursuit of powerful prevention and treatment of disease, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved PreHevbrio [Hepatitis B Vaccine (Recombinant)] for the prevention of infection caused by all known subtypes of hepatitis B virus (HBV) in adults age 18 years and older. PreHevbrio contains the S, pre-S2, and pre-S1 HBV surface antigens, and is the only approved 3-antigen HBV vaccine for adults in the U.S.

"As we work to implement the ACIPs new universal hepatitis B vaccine recommendation for all adults ages 19-59, as voted on in November, we benefit from having more tools, including this newly approved 3-antigen hepatitis B vaccine," said Chari Cohen, DrPH, MPH, Senior Vice President of the Hepatitis B Foundation. "Having more vaccine options will help us effectively expand vaccine uptake, ensure more people are protected from hepatitis B infection, and reach the 2030 goal of eliminating hepatitis B in the U.S."

Jeff Baxter, VBIs President and CEO, commented: "We are proud to announce the approval of PreHevbrio, VBIs first FDA-approved vaccine. This is a substantial achievement that demonstrates the VBI teams ability to progress vaccine candidates from the clinic through to approval. This approval, however, is just the first step in our mission to provide broad access to our vaccine and to help strengthen the public health effort to put an end to adult HBV infections. We would like to thank the study participants, clinical site investigators, our employees, and all who contributed to this achievement, and we look forward to working with public health and advocacy organizations as we join the fight against hepatitis B."

Story continues

The approval of PreHevbrio was based on the results from two Phase 3 clinical studies, PROTECT and CONSTANT, data from which were published, respectively, in The Lancet Infectious Diseases in May 2021 and The Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open in October 2021. The pivotal studies compared PreHevbrio to Engerix-B, a single-antigen HBV vaccine. Data from the PROTECT study showed that PreHevbrio elicited higher rates of seroprotection in all subjects age 18+ (91.4% vs. 76.5%), including in adults age 45+ (89.4% vs. 73.1%). The integrated safety analysis of both studies demonstrated good tolerability with no unexpected reactogenicity. The most common adverse events in all age groups were injection site pain and tenderness, myalgia, and fatigue, all which generally resolved without intervention in 1-2 days.

VBI expects to make PreHevbrio available in the U.S. in the first quarter of 2022, and has partnered with Syneos Health for the past two years to ensure commercial readiness.

Outside of the U.S., VBI continues to support the European Medicines Agencys (EMA) ongoing review of the marketing authorization application for VBIs 3-antigen HBV vaccine. VBI expects to complete regulatory submissions to the United Kingdoms Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and to Health Canada in 2022.

Conference Call Details

VBI Vaccines will host a conference call on Wednesday, December 1 at 8:30 AM ET. The live call can be accessed via the Events/Presentations page in the Investors section of the Companys website, or by clicking this link: https://viavid.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1517423&tp_key=00a076a769.

A replay of the conference call will be archived on the Companys website following the live call.

To listen to the live conference call, please dial:

- Toll-free U.S. & Canada Dial-In: 877-705-6003

- International Dial-In: 201-493-6725

- Conference ID: 13725342

Indication and Use

PreHevbrio is indicated for prevention of infection caused by all known subtypes of hepatitis B virus. PreHevbrio is approved for use in adults 18 years of age and older.

Important Safety Information (ISI)

Do not administer PreHevbrio to individuals with a history of severe allergic reaction (e.g. anaphylaxis) after a previous dose of any hepatitis B vaccine or to any component of PreHevbrio.

Appropriate medical treatment and supervision must be available to manage possible anaphylactic reactions following administration of PreHevbrio.

Immunocompromised persons, including those on immunosuppressant therapy, may have a diminished immune response to PreHevbrio.

PreHevbrio may not prevent hepatitis B infection, which has a long incubation period, in individuals who have an unrecognized hepatitis B infection at the time of vaccine administration.

The most common side effects (> 10%) in adults age 18-44, adults age 45-64, and adults age 65+ were pain and tenderness at the injection site, myalgia, fatigue, and headache.

There is a pregnancy exposure registry that monitors pregnancy outcomes in women who received PreHevbrio during pregnancy. Women who receive PreHevbrio during pregnancy are encouraged to contact 1-888-421-8808 (toll-free).

To report SUSPECTED ADVERSE REACTIONS, contact VBI Vaccines at 1-888-421-8808 (toll-free) or VAERS at 1-800-822-7967 or http://www.vaers.hhs.gov

Please see full Prescribing Information.

About Hepatitis B

Hepatitis B is one of the worlds most significant infectious disease threats with more than 290 million people infected globally. HBV infection is the leading cause of liver disease and, with current treatments, it is very difficult to cure, with many patients going on to develop liver cancers. An estimated 900,000 people die each year from complications of chronic HBV such as liver decompensation, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma.

Earlier in November 2021, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventions (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) unanimously voted to recommend universal HBV vaccination for adults age 18 to 59, and for adults age 60+ with risk factors for infection, expanding the addressable adult population that should be vaccinated.

About PreHevbrio

PreHevbrio is an adult hepatitis B vaccine that contains the three hepatitis B surface antigens of the hepatitis B virus S, pre-S1, and pre-S2. PreHevbrio is also approved for use and commercially available in Israel under the brand name Sci-B-Vac.

About VBI Vaccines Inc.

VBI Vaccines Inc. ("VBI") is a biopharmaceutical company driven by immunology in the pursuit of powerful prevention and treatment of disease. Through its innovative approach to virus-like particles ("VLPs"), including a proprietary enveloped VLP ("eVLP") platform technology, VBI develops vaccine candidates that mimic the natural presentation of viruses, designed to elicit the innate power of the human immune system. VBI is committed to targeting and overcoming significant infectious diseases, including hepatitis B, coronaviruses, and cytomegalovirus (CMV), as well as aggressive cancers including glioblastoma (GBM). VBI is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with research operations in Ottawa, Canada, and a research and manufacturing site in Rehovot, Israel.

Website Home: http://www.vbivaccines.com/

News and Resources: http://www.vbivaccines.com/news-and-resources/

Investors: http://www.vbivaccines.com/investors/

Cautionary Statement on Forward-looking Information

Certain statements in this press release that are forward-looking and not statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). The Company cautions that such statements involve risks and uncertainties that may materially affect the Companys results of operations. Such forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs of management as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to management. Actual results could differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors, including but not limited to, the impact of general economic, industry or political conditions in the United States or internationally; the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on our clinical studies, manufacturing, business plan, and the global economy; the ability to successfully manufacture and commercialize PreHevbrio; the ability to establish that potential products are efficacious or safe in preclinical or clinical trials; the ability to establish or maintain collaborations on the development of pipeline candidates and the commercialization of PreHevbrio; the ability to obtain appropriate or necessary regulatory approvals to market potential products; the ability to obtain future funding for developmental products and working capital and to obtain such funding on commercially reasonable terms; the Companys ability to manufacture product candidates on a commercial scale or in collaborations with third parties; changes in the size and nature of competitors; the ability to retain key executives and scientists; and the ability to secure and enforce legal rights related to the Companys products. A discussion of these and other factors, including risks and uncertainties with respect to the Company, is set forth in the Companys filings with the SEC and the Canadian securities authorities, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on March 2, 2021, and filed with the Canadian security authorities at sedar.com on March 2, 2021, as may be supplemented or amended by the Companys Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Given these risks, uncertainties and factors, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. All such forward-looking statements made herein are based on our current expectations and we undertake no duty or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements for any reason, except as required by law.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211201005387/en/

Contacts

VBINicole AndersonDirector, Corporate Communications & IRPhone: (617) 830-3031 x124Email: IR@vbivaccines.com

See more here:
VBI Vaccines Announces FDA Approval of PreHevbrio for the Prevention of Hepatitis B in Adults - Yahoo Finance

Immunology

Letter to the editor | In support of Hakeem Jefferson and the Early Career Black Faculty Group – The Stanford Daily

To our Stanford Community,

In response to the recent racist attacks on Professor Hakeem Jefferson and the open letter published in The Stanford Daily from the Early Career Black Faculty Group, we, the chairs of the Basic Bioscience Departments in the Stanford Schools of Medicine, Humanities and Sciences, and Engineering, the directors of the Biosciences Institutes and the directors of the Interdisciplinary Biosciences Programs, express our support for Professor Jefferson and the requests made in the open letter. We condemn the coordinated, racist attacks against Professor Jefferson and call on ourselves, our community and our University to help protect and defend our Black colleagues in response to these attacks. We commit to developing proactive strategies, in coordination with our Black faculty, to prevent these attacks in the future, and when we cannot prevent them, to respond to them quickly and to mitigate their negative impacts. We hope that we can help Stanford become a community where all of our members feel safe and included as we pursue our scholarly endeavors and career aspirations.

Chairs of Basic Biomedical Science Departments in the Schools of Medicine, Engineering,and Humanities and Science, directors of the Biosciences Institutes and the directors of the Interdisciplinary Biosciences Programs

Stephen A. Baccus Chair, Department of Neurobiology

Melissa L. Bondy Chair, Department of Epidemiology and Population Health

James K. Chen Chair, Department of Chemical and Systems Biology

Jennifer R. Cochran Chair, Department of Bioengineering

Martha S. Cyert Chair, Department of Biology

Miriam B. Goodman Chair, Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology

Sherril L. Green Chair, Department of Comparative Medicine

Theodore S. Jardetzky Chair, Department of Structural Biology

Paul S. Mischel Vice Chair for Research, Department of Pathology

Thomas Montine Chair, Department of Pathology

Douglas K. Owens Chair, Department of Health Policy

Sylvia K. Plevritis Chair, Department of Biomedical Data Science

David S. Schneider Chair, Department of Microbiology and Immunology

Michael Snyder Chair, Department of Genetics

AaronF. Straight Chair, Department of Biochemistry

Anne Villeneuve Chair, Department of Developmental Biology

Steven Artandi Director, Stanford Cancer Institute

Carolyn Bertozzi Director, ChEM-H Institute

Mark M. Davis Director, Institute for Immunity, Transplantation, and Infection

Mary Leonard Director, Maternal and Child Health Research Institute

Crystal Mackall Director, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy

William Newsome Director, Wu Tsai Neuroscience Institute

Carla Shatz Director, Bio-X Program

Irving Weissman Director, Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine

Joseph C. Wu Director, Cardiovascular Institute

Olivia Martinez Director, Immunology Interdisciplinary Graduate Program

K.C. Huang Director, Biophysics Interdisciplinary Graduate Program

Tushar Desai Co-Director, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine Interdisciplinary Graduate Program

Gerald Spangrude Co-Director, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine Interdisciplinary Graduate Program

Julien Sage Co-Director, Cancer Biology Interdisciplinary Graduate Program

Laura Attardi Co-Director, Cancer Biology Interdisciplinary Graduate Program

Justin Gardner Co-Director, Neurobiology Interdisciplinary Graduate Program

Merritt Maduke Co-Director, Neurobiology Interdisciplinary Graduate Program

Link:
Letter to the editor | In support of Hakeem Jefferson and the Early Career Black Faculty Group - The Stanford Daily

Immunology

Everything We Know and Don’t Know About the Omicron Variant – WDET

This week, Michigan hit a dreadful milestone. The statehasthe highest numberof adults hospitalized with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, even as vaccines are widelyavailable.

I think its important for everyone to remember that we know so little right now. Adam Lauring, microbiologist at University ofMichigan

Now, many Michiganders and Americans are worried about anew variantthat has emerged and is spreading around theworld.

Adam Lauringis an associate professor of microbiology and immunology, and infectious diseases at the University of Michigan medical school. I think its important for everyone to remember that we know so little right now, hesays.

Laurings lab uploads the second most variant data in Michigan behind the state lab. He says some viral mutations are much more important than others, which is contingent upon how quickly the new virus spreads and the lethality that it brings withit.

WDET strives to make our journalism accessible to everyone. As a public media institution, we maintain our journalistic integrity through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.

Donate today

Continued here:
Everything We Know and Don't Know About the Omicron Variant - WDET

Physiology

Cornell Professors Explain Nobel-Winning Physiology and Physics – Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun

Physiology

The latest hype surrounding hot peppers is not some form of an internet challenge, but the latest Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

This year, the award was bestowed to Prof. David Julius, physiology, University of California, San Francisco, and Prof. Ardem Patapoutian, neuroscience, Scripps Research Institute, for their discovery of the receptors for temperature and touch. They came to this discovery by determining which of the proteins in DNA reacted to the ingredients capsaicin and menthol which are found in peppers and mint, respectively. These discoveries are instrumental to our understanding of physiology and may lead to the development of new treatments for pain disorders here at Cornell.

Prof. Simon Schuering, physiology and biophysics, notes that mammalian species have always needed to regulate body temperature to survive. But to do so, they must be able to sense and perceive the temperature of their environment. Scientists have long understood how to sense stimuli through sight and hearing, but the understanding of temperature and touch was a mystery until the discovery of transient receptor potential protein channels by Julius and Papatoution.

The TRP receptors, according to Prof. Daniel Gardner, physiology and biophysics, mediate some taste sensations, including those of chili peppers and mint. Those sensations, respectively burning and a cool minty feeling in the mouth, allowed Julius and Papatoution to determine the role of TRP receptors in detecting bodily sensations using capsaicin and menthol.

Capsaicin is a chemical responsible for the fiery sensation felt when eating a spicy chili pepper. In some cases, a hot enough chili pepper will be strong enough to bring tears to the eyes, yet, until the discovery of the TRPV1 channel protein by Julius, it was unclear what exactly was the cause. To feel that hot and painful sensation, a certain protein has to react to that chemical. By testing the reactiveness of various proteins to capsaicin, Julius was able to determine what protein causes us to sense those feelings: the TRPV1 channel protein.

The discovery of the TRPV1 channel proteins role in heat and pain detection by Julius and his colleagues later proved to be instrumental in identifying the other channel proteins responsible for sensing temperature. According to Prof. Esther Gardner, neuroscience and physiology, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, Julius discovery later allowed him and Ardem Patapoutian to independently discover other TRP receptors such as TRPM8. TRPM8 is the receptor for menthol responsible for sensing the cold. Ultimately, Julius and Patapoutian had identified the roles of TRP receptors in the senses of pain and thermal event which was a critical point in their research.

In addition to discovering the temperature-sensing TRP receptors, Patapoutian and his colleagues discovered the receptors responsible for touch named Piezo1 and Piezo2 by putting pressure on cells with a pipette.

Schuering suggests that theres significant interest in studying the TRP channels in regards to pain and inflammation treatment at Weill Cornell Medicine. Its likely in the future that this research will expand into translational research and clinical applications that will allow us to better understand our physiology.

Physics

This years Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to researchers in two fields of science. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded one half of the award to theoretical physicist Giorgio Parisi, Professor of Quantum Theories at the Sapienza University of Rome, for his discoveries of hidden patterns in disordered complex materials.

Parisis work describing equations that govern random physical phenomena, such as the physical patterns exhibited by a rapidly cooled gas, has been revolutionary for understanding complex systems.

According to Prof. James Sethna, physics, Parisi developed an amazing solution to an outstanding problem the equilibrium behavior of a spin glass, a metal alloy where magnetic atoms, or spins, are placed randomly among an array of nonmagnetic atoms and individually struggle to determine which ways to orient due to conflicting magnetic interactions.

This solution has had implications for the field of physics, with Parisi now leading a huge collaboration to work on the applications of this solution in glasses, neural networks and other kinds of complex systems, according to Sethna. His approaches to complex problems can even be applied to explain environmental variation, like the hundred-millenium cycle of glacial formation and collapse, occurring during ice ages, according to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

The methods developed by Parisi and his many collaborators are a truly new, revealing approach to the dynamics and properties of many materials, algorithms, machine learning methods all central to our technology, Sethna said. They are also solving outstanding open questions in science.

Earth and atmospheric scientists were also excited this year to learn that the Nobel Prize in Physics had been awarded to climate scientists Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann for their contributions to our understanding of the impact of humanity on our climate, especially factors causing climate change. Manabe currently serves as senior meteorologist at Princeton University, and Hasselmann is a professor emeritus at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology.

According to Prof. Natalie Mahowald, earth and atmospheric sciences, Manabe did some of the most important work to create climate models that could be used for understanding and projecting climate change. Hasselmann created a model that linked weather and climate, answering the pressing question of why climate models are reliable and yet weather models are not.

Prof. Flavio Lehner, earth and atmospheric sciences, elaborated on Hasselmanns prescient contributions to the field of detection and attribution, which focuses on detecting and attributing changes in the climate to driving factors, like carbon dioxides effect on global warming. Being able to attribute climate change to greenhouse gas emissions has proven critical to understanding the need to reduce emissions.

Although Hasselmann was recognized for linking weather and climate and attributing climate change to factors like CO2, Lehner said he had mixed feelings about the fact that recognition for climate science advances had been given to just two people.

Im not a fan of awards given to individuals in a field that, at least today, is being moved forward very much by teams, Lehner said. Hasselmann himself said he would rather have no global warming and no Nobel Prize.

While a Nobel Prize cannot honor all the people involved in solving such a complex and difficult problem, it may at least bring more attention to the problem. Hopefully this Nobel Prize will invigorate efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions significantly by 2030, Mahowald said. Perhaps with this level of recognition more resources and brilliant minds will be invested in this field.

It is great and overdue that climate science is recognized by the physics community and the world in general as a field of maturity and important breakthroughs and contributions to the human endeavor, Lehner said.

See original here:
Cornell Professors Explain Nobel-Winning Physiology and Physics - Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun

Physiology

How to calm a stressed kid? A one-minute video can help, according to Stanford researchers – Stanford University News

Designing a realistic field experiment

Mindfulness practices that incorporate deep breathing, such as yoga and meditation, have found their way into the classroom at many schools. But prior to this study, research had not clearly shown whether slow-paced breathing itself could significantly alter a young childs physiological stress response, the researchers said.

They set out to isolate the activity of breathing and investigate its impact taking practical considerations into account, including the likelihood that young children might not have the capacity for even a couple of minutes of deep breathing, and that they would need help learning how to do it.

When you ask young children to take a deep breath, many dont really know how to slowly pace their inhale and exhale, if they havent had any training, Obradovi said. Its not intuitive for young kids. They are more successful in taking several deep breaths if they have a visual guide.

To help elementary schoolers learn the technique, the researchers worked with a team of artists at RogueMark Studios, based in Berkeley, Calif., to produce a one-minute video. The animated video shows young children how to slowly inhale by pretending to smell a flower and to exhale by pretending to blow out a candle.

From a pragmatic point of view, Obradovi said, we thought a very short sequence, four breaths, seemed doable for this age group.

For their randomized field experiment, the Stanford researchers recruited 342 young children 7 years old, on average with their parents permission, at a childrens museum, a public playground and three full-day summer camps in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Roughly half of the children were assigned to a group to watch the animated video with the deep breathing guidance. The rest watched an informational video that featured similar animated images but did not involve the breathing exercise.

All of the children were shown their assigned video in small groups, at tables set up adjacent to the site from where they were recruited, to maintain a natural setting for the study. Also in keeping with the real-life approach to the study design, the researchers did not monitor children or provide extra encouragement to implement the deep breathing instruction.

This intention-to-treat approach analyzing all subjects, whether or not they engaged with the intervention is widely considered to provide more insight into the potential effectiveness of the intervention once it is applied in everyday group settings, like classrooms, where not everyone is likely to take part, Obradovi said.

Measuring the bodys response to everyday challenges

Researchers measured two biomarkers in all of their recruits: heart rate and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), which refers to the changing pace of the heartbeat when a person inhales and exhales.

RSA plays an important role in influencing heart rate, Obradovi said, and it has been linked to childrens ability to regulate their emotions, focus their attention and engage in tasks.

When it comes to measuring the effects of deep breathing on stress physiology, RSA seems to be the most appropriate biomarker, said Obradovi. RSA is the only pure measure of the activity of the parasympathetic nervous system, the system weve evolved to help us deal with everyday challenges the kinds of challenges that dont require a flight-or-flight response.

The change in the measures was profound: RSA increased and heart rate decreased only in response to the deep-breathing video, and the effects were greater during the second half of the video, which included most of the deep breathing practice. The children in the control group showed no change in either measure.

Our findings showed that guiding a group of children through one minute of a slow-paced breathing exercise in an everyday setting can, in the moment, significantly lower the average level of physiological arousal, Obradovi said.

Further research should examine the effect of deep breathing in this age group after a stressful or challenging experience, she said. But the fact that children of this age can downregulate their stress physiology even when theyre relatively calm offers promise that the technique will be even more effective when theyre frustrated or upset.

Access thefull version of the video,with an introduction to deep breathing, or a shorter video with the deep breathing practice only.

Read the original here:
How to calm a stressed kid? A one-minute video can help, according to Stanford researchers - Stanford University News

Physiology

Mahjoub wins grant to study therapy for kidney disease – The Source – Washington University Record

Mohamed Mahjoub, associate professor of medicine and of cell biology and physiology at the School of Medicine, received a three-year $1.8 million grant from U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity for research titled Targeting centrosome clustering as a noveltherapy for autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease.

Here is the original post:
Mahjoub wins grant to study therapy for kidney disease - The Source - Washington University Record