Biochemistry

One Major Side Effect of Eating Plant-Based Meat, Says New Study | Eat This Not That – Eat This, Not That

Every year brings a fresh wave of food trends, and 2021 seems to be shaping up as the year plant-based meats finally caught hold. Despite veggie burgers being on the market for decades, the wave of fast-food choices is highlighting these alternativesfrom Burger King's Impossible Whopper to Panda Express trying out a plant-based orange chicken with Beyond Meat products.

But a new study in Scientific Reports suggests that when it comes to nutrition, they're not exactly an even swap.

Researchers at Duke University noted that when you look at nutrition labels, the amount of vitamins, fats, and protein are very similar to real beef. However, using an approach known as "metabolomics," they were able to examine the biochemistry for 18 plant-based meat products and assess their metabolites.

RELATED:Delicious Foods You Can Eat on a Plant-Based Diet

Metabolites are essential for signaling between cells and converting food into energy, and about half of them come from our diet. When the researchers compared samples of plant-based meat with grass-fed ground beef, they found significant differences between the two in terms of metabolite contentup to 90% in some cases.

The beef contained 22 metabolites that were lacking in the plant substitute, including several amino acids and vitamins. Several of these are known to have important anti-inflammatory roles in the body, the researchers noted, such as omega-3 fatty acids, glucosamine, and creatine, which were all found in larger quantities in the real beef samples.

They aren't suggesting avoiding plant-based meat altogetherin fact, the plant-based products contained 31 metabolites that were missing in the meat. These included vitamin C and phytosterols, which are naturally occurring compounds found in plant cell membranes. These compounds are particularly important for lowering cholesterol, which is why plant-based eating is regularly touted for heart health.

In general, that means adding in these alternative meat options could be helpful for getting a full range of beneficial metabolites.

Unless you prefer to eat only plant-based foods, including both plant and animal meats in your diet could yield more nutritional advantages, says lead researcher Stephan van Vliet, Ph.D., a researcher at Duke Molecular Physiology Institute.

"The takeaway is that there are large differences between meat and a plant-based meat alternative," he states. "However, plant and animal foods can be complementary, because they provide different nutrients."

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Biochemistry

New Approach Could Boost the Search for Life in Otherworldly Oceans – Scientific American

The hottest spots in the search for alien life are a few frigid moons in the outer solar system, each known to harbor a liquid-water ocean beneath its icy exterior. There is Saturns moon Titan, which hides a thick layer of briny water beneath a frozen surface dotted with lakes of liquid hydrocarbon. Titans sister Saturnian moon Enceladus has revealed its subsurface sea with geyserlike plumes venting from cracks near its south pole. Plumes also emanate from a moon that is one planet closer to the sun: Jupiters Europa, which boasts a watery deep so vast that, by volume, it dwarfs all of Earths oceans combined. Each of these aquatic extraterrestrial locales might be the site of a second genesis, an emergence of life of the same sort that occurred on Earth billions of years ago.

Astrobiologists are now pursuing multiple interplanetary missions to learn whether any of these ocean-bearing moons actually possess more than mere waternamely, habitability, or the nuanced geochemical conditions required for life to arise and flourish. NASAs instrument-packed Europa Clipper spacecraft, for example, could begin its orbital investigations of Jupiters enigmatic moon by 2030. And another mission, a nuclear-fueled flying drone called Dragonfly, is scheduled to touch down on Titan as early as 2036. As impressive as these missions are, however, they are only preludes to future efforts that could more directly hunt for alien life itself. But in those strange sunless places so unlike our own world, how will astrobiologists know life when they see it?

More often than not, the biosignatures scientists look for in such searches are subtle chemical tracers of lifes past or current presence on a planet rather than anything so obvious as a fossilized form protruding from a rock or a little green humanoid waving hello. The instruments on NASAs Perseverance Mars rover, for instance, can detect organic compounds and salts in and around its landing site: Jezero Crater, a dry lakebed that may contain evidence of past life. And in the fall of 2020 some astronomers telescopically studying Venus may have teased out the presence of phosphine gas there, a possible by-product of putative microbes floating in temperate regions of the planets atmosphere.

The trouble is that many simple biosignatures can be produced both by living things and through abiotic geochemical processes. Much of the phosphine on Earth comes from microbes, but Venuss phosphine, if it exists at all, could potentially be linked to erupting volcanoes rather than some alien ecosystem in its clouds. Such ambiguities can lead to false positives, cases in which scientists think they see life where none exists. At the same time, if organisms possess radically different biochemistry and physiology from that of terrestrial creatures, scientists could instead encounter false negatives, cases in which they do not recognize life despite having evidence for its presence. Especially when contemplating prospects for life on distinctly alien worlds such as the ocean moons of the outer solar system, researchers must carefully navigate between these two interlinked hazardsthe Scylla and Charybdis of astrobiology.

Now, however, a study recently published in the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology offers a novel approach. By shifting attention from specific chemical tracerssuch as phosphineto the broader question of how biological processes reorganize materials across entire ecosystems, the papers authors say, astrobiologists could illuminate new types of less ambiguous biosignatures. These clues would be suitable for discovering life in its myriad possible formseven if that life employed profoundly unearthly biochemistry.

The study relies on stoichiometry, which measures the elemental ratios that appear in the chemistry of cells and ecosystems. The researchers began with the observation that within groups of cells, chemical ratios vary with striking regularity. The classic example of this regularity is the Redfield ratioa 16:1 average proportion of nitrogen to phosphorus displayed with remarkable consistency by phytoplankton blooms throughout Earths oceans. Other kinds of cells, such as certain types of bacteria, also exhibit their own characteristically consistent ratios. If the regularity of chemical ratios within cells is a universal property of biological systems, here or anywhere else in the cosmos, then careful stoichiometry could be the key to eventually discovering life on an alien world.

Importantly, however, these elemental proportions change in accordance with cell size, allowing for an additional check on any curiously consistent but possibly abiotic chemical ratios on another world. In bacteria, for instance, as cells get larger, concentrations of protein molecules decrease, whereas concentrations of nucleic acids increase. In contrast to groups of nonliving particles, biological particles will display ratios that systematically change with cell size, explains Santa Fe Institute researcher Chris Kempes, who led the new study, which expanded on prior work by co-author Simon Levin, also at the Santa Fe Institute. The trick is to devise a general theory of how, exactly, the various sizes of cells affect elemental abundanceswhich is precisely what Kempes, Levin and their colleagues did.

They focused on the fact that, at least for Earth life, as cell sizes increase in a fluid, their abundance decreases in a mathematically patterned wayspecifically, as a power law, the rate of which can be expressed by a negative exponent. This suggests that, if astrobiologists know the size distribution of cells (or cell-like particles) in a fluid, they can predict the elemental abundances within those materials. In essence, this could be a potent recipe for determining whether a group of unknown particles, say within a sample of Europan seawater, harbors anything alive. If we observe a system where we have particles with systematic relationships between elemental ratios and size, and the surrounding fluid does not contain these ratios, Kempes explains, we have a strong signal that the ecosystem may contain life.

The studys emphasis on such ecological biosignatures is the latest in a slow-simmering, decades-long quest to link life not only to the fundamental limitations of physics and chemistry but also to the specific environments in which it appears. It would, after all, be somewhat naive to assume organisms on the sunbathed surface of a warm, rocky planet would have the very same chemical biosignatures as those dwelling within the lightless depths of an oceanic moon. There has been a constant evolution in ideas, in approaches, and thats really important, explains Jim Green, NASAs chief scientist, who was not involved in the new study. Now we are entering an era where we can go after what we know about how life has evolved and apply that as a general principle.

So what does it take to bring this more holistic approach to biosignatures to our studies of worlds such as Europa, Titan and Enceladus? At the moment, Green explains, it will take more than the space agencys Europa Clipper orbiterperhaps a follow-up mission to the surface would suffice. Through Clipper, we want to take much more detailed measurements, fly through the plume, study the evolution of Europa over a period of time and capture high-resolution images, he says. This would take us to the next step, which would be to get down to the ground. Thats where the next generation of ideas and instruments need to come in.

Looking for the ecological biosignatures described by Kempes and his colleagues would require instrumentation that measures the size distribution and chemical composition of cells within their native fluid. On Earth, the technique that scientists use to sort cells by size is called flow cytometry, and it is used frequently in marine environments. But performing cytometry in an alien moons subsurface ocean would be far more challenging than merely sending instrumentation there: Because of the paucity of available energy in those sunlight-starved abysses, scientists expect any life there to be single-celled, extremely small and relatively sparse. To capture such organisms in the first place would require careful filtering and then a refined flow cytometer that would measure particles of this size range.

Our current flow cytometers are not up to that task, explains Sarah Maurer, a biochemist and astrobiologist at Central Connecticut University, who was not involved with the study. Many kinds of cells simply do not get picked up, and there are cell types that require extensive preparation or they wont go through a cytometer, she says. To work in space, instruments to filter and sort cells would need both refinement on Earth and miniaturization for spaceflight.

Progress is already being made on both fronts, according to study co-author Heather Graham of the NASA-funded Laboratory for Agnostic Biosignatures and the agencys Goddard Space Flight Center. The next steps, she says, will be to deploy new tools at marginally habitable field sites around the globe that play host to some of Earths most extreme and impoverished ecosystems. Once astrobiologists begin routinely discerning the distinctive chemical ratios associated with living ecosystems in our own planets quiescent waters, they can fine-tune the specifications for spaceflight-capable devicesand, just maybe, at last reveal a second genesis, written within the mathematics of a subsurface oceans chemistry.

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Biochemistry

Edward Westhead Obituary (1930 – 2021) – Amherst, MA – Daily Hampshire Gazette – Legacy.com

Edward Westhead

Amherst, MA Edward W. Westhead passed away from cancer at Cooley-Dickenson Hospital on Tuesday, June 1 at age 90, three weeks shy of his 91 st birthday.

A distinguished biochemist, with a passion for learning and broad interests, Ed enjoyed life to its fullest both in the lab and outside his chosen field. He was born in Philadelphia, PA on June 19, 1930 to Edward and Eleanore Westhead, the oldest of five children. He graduated high school from Archmere Academy in Delaware, received his Bachelor of Science (1951) and Masters of Science (1953) from Haverford College, and his PhD in Chemistry from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (1956).

Ed established his own lab at Dartmouth Medical School in the Department of Biochemistry after post-doctoral work at the University of Uppsala and at the University of Minnesota. He was subsequently recruited by the University of Massachusetts, Amherst to form a new Department of Biochemistry (1966) and, later, became the first director of the UMass PhD program in molecular and cellular biology. He held visiting professorship positions at the California Institute of Technology (1971); Oxford University (1972-73); University of Innsbruck (1979-80); and the University of Milan (1987; 1993). His research concentrated on topics in enzyme biochemistry and neurobiology; his work was well-published and he served in numerous professional organizations. He followed developments in his field and kept in touch with former students his entire life.

Beyond his work, Ed read broadly, enjoyed concerts and museum shows, and delighted in the interests and achievements of his family and many friends. He loved to travel, seizing any opportunity whether work-related or a personal invitation to visit, and consequently knew people almost everywhere he went. Italy held a special place in his heart; the year he spent with his wife Evelyn in Lucca was one of his fondest times, allowing him to explore his love of history and culture and savor a favorite cuisine. He had an astonishing memory for exceptional food and wine and would travel miles out of his way for a delicious loaf of bread or a dish of homemade ice cream. In his later years he began chronicling his adventures, including a solo trip he made down the Mekong river in Thailand in a foldable kayak in the mid-1950's.

Ed was an avid outdoorsman and enjoyed hiking, biking, tennis and skiing up until the last months of his life. A lifelong member of the Appalachian Mountain Club, he volunteered into his eighties on their trail crews, clearing brush and repairing bridges for the upcoming season. He started skiing in the western US at Alta in the 1950's and one of his life's greatest pleasures was qualifying for a free season ski pass there when he turned 80.

Ed is survived by his beloved wife of 24 years, Evelyn A. Villa, MD, his daughter Victoria Westhead (John), his son Edward G. Westhead, grandchildren Abby and Nat Levy-Westhead, two sisters, Barbara Lawler (Dan) and Eileen Hall (Bob), and numerous nieces and nephews. He is also survived by six stepchildren: Liz Diton (Jeff), Janet Vanoni (Pete), Karen Shailor (Chris), Mariella Villa (Ryan), Arthur Villa (Jess), and Jason Villa, their children and grandchildren.

A celebration of Ed's life will be planned for 2022. Please contact [emailprotected] or [emailprotected] if you wish to be notified of the date.

Published by Daily Hampshire Gazette on Jul. 14, 2021.

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Biochemistry

Researchers discover new set of signals that control production of goblet cells in the lung – News-Medical.Net

Proper lung function relies on the precise balance of specialized epithelial cells (cells that line the surfaces of the body) that coordinate functions to maintain homeostasis. One important lung cell type is the goblet cell, which secretes mucus that helps protect the lining of the bronchus (major air passages of the lung) and trap microorganisms. Goblet cells are often increased in lung diseases, but signals that lead to their dysregulation are not well understood.

Researchers have now discovered a new set of signals that control the production of goblet cells in the lung.

By altering the proteins that control these signals we are able to either increase or decrease the production of goblet cells which offers potential new avenues for therapeutically targeting goblet cells in lung disease."

Bob (Xaralabos) Varelas, PhD, corresponding author, associate professor of biochemistry at Boston University School of Medicine

The researchers used an experimental model carrying a genetic deletion of Yap and Taz, which are genes that encode proteins that control an important signaling network in the lung. They compared the genetic deletion model with a "control" model and found that the Yap/Taz deletion model had severe lung damage and elevated goblet cell number that was associated with increased mucin production.

In order to understand how loss of Yap/Taz led to increased goblet cell numbers, the researchers isolated cells from the experimental model and human lungs and cultured them in the lab. They then used gene expression and chromatin binding analyses to discover how these proteins control a network of genes important for mucus production. Finally, they used these cells in the lab to test inhibitors of goblet cell differentiation and mucus production.

According to the researchers, several lung diseases exhibit an expansion of goblet cells including asthma, COPD, Cystic Fibrosis and chronic bronchitis. "By identifying new regulators of goblet cell production, we offer insight into mechanisms that may contribute to these diseases. By targeting these signals we can repress the production and maintenance of goblet cells and therefore may offer therapeutic directions for limiting the expansion of these cells in lung disease," said Varelas.

These findings appear online in the journal Cell Reports.

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Biochemistry

UW-Stevens Point is among first to offer new science education major – University of Wisconsin System

A new natural science education major will give students likeChristina Mitchell, Wausau, an opportunity to add a science topicemphasis in addition to a major and minor.

UW-Stevens Point will offer a newscience education degree this fall, one of the first in the University of Wisconsin System.

The natural science forscience teaching certificationis a collaborative bachelors degree program. Students will take core science courses and select a minor in one of those disciplines and a certificate in an additional field of science.The collaboration is among the School of Education, Departments ofBiology, Chemistry, Physics and Astronomy, Geography and Geology,and the College of Natural Resources.

This program better prepares students to effectively teach to the interdisciplinary nature of science, said Krista Slemmons, associate professor of biology and coordinator of the new program. Of critical importance, it also addresses the need for qualified science teachers in school districts across the state.

The most recent Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction(DPI) report on school staffing cited chronic staffing shortages across many disciplines, including science. Teacher shortages were most pronounced in northern Wisconsin school districts and in science, technology, math (STEM) fields. Fifty percent of school districtsdescribedtheirteachershortage as extreme.

Christina Mitchell, Wausau, is one of the students who will help meet this teacher need soon. She is majoring in natural science life education, has a minor in biology with licensure in chemistry and environmental studies.

I have always wanted to be a teacher. I loved school from the very beginning and enjoyed helping others answer their questions and curiosities, she said. The junior at UW-Stevens Point has been inspired by many teachers on her educational journey.

The new natural science major will help future science teachers choose an additional area of expertise, Mitchell said. By having a certificate along with your major and minor, you are that much more prepared in another area of science. Diversifying your knowledge in different subfields will only benefit your students.

UW-Stevens Point will be able to support students even better by helping them become comfortable with various topics as the world of science continually develops, she said.

The broad array of science coursework natural science majors will take provides ampleknowledge to teach any science discipline in grades 4-12 and also allows students to focus on an area of emphasis.

Were one of the first institutions in the UW System to offer this program, and it will help fill the void of much-needed science educators in our state, said Jason DAcchioli, assistant dean, School of Biology, Chemistry and Biochemistry.

For more information, see the Science Educationwebsite.

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Immunology

The pros and cons of Freedom Daya view from immunology – The BMJ – The BMJ

Currently, there is much discussion of the UK governments vision to end all covid-19 restrictions in England on 19 July, so-called Freedom Day. This is the endpoint of the UK governments covid-19 roadmap. A postponement was previously put in place because the final condition for ending lockdownthat no new variant had appeared to raise new concernshad been missed due to steeply rising cases caused by the delta variant. As Freedom Day approaches, new cases of covid-19 are rising steeply, with projections that this may rise to 100,000 cases/day. That would be a worse trajectory than the UKs European neighbours or the USA.

The case that the end of covid restrictions will proceed as planned on 19 July is predicated on the point that, despite the enormous caseload, this no longer carries the same ramifications as in the first two waves. The link between infection, hospitalisation, and death has been weakened by the highly successful vaccines and vaccination programme. Transmission is high, but hospitalisations and fatal cases are low. To clarify, the vaccines in use, in most people, generate good levels of neutralising antibodies and substantially reduce the chance of serious infection and death by delta after two doses. The problem is the most people caveatthose at the lower end of the distribution of neutralising antibodies are susceptible to breakthrough infection. [1,2] Secondary school children are currently ineligible for vaccination, and yet are susceptible to infection and have proved an excellent viral incubator during this wave. At the time of writing, concerns about the race to unlock are being raised by experts, including Mike Ryan, the WHOs executive director for health emergencies, who has warned of the epidemiological stupidity of ending covid restrictions, and other leading public health experts who have published an open letter in The Lancet.

The polarisation of the debate bears witness to the fact that the cost benefit analysis is now more nuanced than in early 2021, when 1800 deaths were reported in a single day and the risks were immediate and self evident. With the UK among those countries with the privilege of relatively high vaccination levels and daily fatalities in double figures, it seems only right to ask what level of intervention is appropriate to our relationship with the virus as it is today and is likely to be in the future.

Among the arguments raised in support of Freedom Day are that we have to move on (the now or never), re-establish normality, and rejuvenate the economy. Israel is cited as a country achieving this, even in the face of a growing wave of delta breakthrough cases.

The difficulty is that the national situation and the interlinked global situation are far from under control. Allowing the virus freedom to circulate at high transmission levels in a partially vaccinated population is a concern. It is a real-life, population-level embodiment of viral immunologists laboratory experiments to model the emergence of immune-escape mutants. Such real-world vaccine escape variants are indeed starting to be sequenced [3]. The delta variant has replaced alpha as the dominant variant at present, but the possibility of other global variants coming around the curve remains. If the past 18 months have taught us anything, it is that virus outbreaks traverse the world fast, even in the face of border controls.

Lastly, there is the concern about the long term cost, in the form of new cases of long covid. We still cannot fully assess the time course of this disease process, but certainly there are hundreds of thousands of people whose lives have not yet returned to normal after more than a year. It is known that long covid ensues after SARS-CoV-2 infection, across the severity spectrum, and irrespective of asymptomatic or severe/hospitalised outcome. There is thus no reason to assume that an infection wave in a partially vaccinated population will incur less than the predicted 10-20% of all infections leading to long covid. This suggests a period in which we tolerate up to 10-20,000 people per day, many of them children and young adults, entering the pool of individuals with long covid.

Its important to move forward, but the list of cons reminds us that this virus is an ongoing, formidable, and unforgiving foe, demonstrating time after time the high cost of the smallest miscalculation. This supports a case for continued caution and to go slowly and steadily with a stepwise, evidence-based easings of restrictions.

Daniel Altmann, professor, Department of Immunology and Inflammation, Imperial College London.

Rosemary Boyton, professor, Department of Infectious Disease, Imperial College London, UK & Lung Division, Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals, London, UK.

Competing interests: none declared.

References:

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Immunology

St Catharines Immunology professor says 90 per cent vaccination rate will be needed to reach COVID-19 herd immunity – insauga.com

Brock University immunologist Adam MacNeil believes that Canada will need a 90 per cent fully vaccinated rate to achieve herd immunity against COVID-19.

According to data released today (July 13), slightly more than half of all eligible Canadians - 50.06 per cent - are now fully vaccinated, a long way still from 90 per cent.

However, factoring in children under 12 years of age, the actual percentage of fully vaccinated Canadian is just 44 per cent.

In a recent interview with the St Catharines campus newspaper, The Brock News, MacNeil suggested it will take a national conversation to reach Canadians reluctant to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

We are at a pivot point and need to elevate and disseminate the conversation into communities, leveraging all of our experts and their messages to create one unified, culturally-sensitive national voice that will reach those pockets of people who are hesitant because of misinformation or perhaps for ideological reasons, MacNeil told the newspaper.

MacNeil said its going to take individuals reaching out to reluctant family members, neighbours and colleagues in their personal networks to provide support for vaccination.

He believes trust is key to changing the minds of those hesitating to be vaccinated.

I dont think just pounding on the table saying, vaccines work, you have to get it, is the solution in those cases, he told the paper. It comes from genuine conversations with people they trust.

With the new Delta and Lambda variants of COVID-19 quickly spreading, MacNeil acknowledged that its pointless to try urging hardcore anti-vaxxers, always touting the latest conspiracy theories but rather he believes theres a segment of the unvaccinated population who would be willing to take the needles.

Among the issues facing them could be seniors unfamiliar with computers not being able to online book, employees who dont feel they can take the time off work and is similarly worried the after-effects may waylay them for a few days or even cultural differences where communities speaking a different language dont understand the process.

As for those who simply dont believe the vaccines work, MacNeil cited figures from Ontarios new Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Kieran Moore, who recently said that between May 15 and June 12, nearly 99 per cent of COVID cases in Ontario involved individuals who were not fully vaccinated.

With the latest social media gambit among resistors being If everyone around me is fully vaccinated, I dont need to be, MacNeil points out they are not taking into account the totality of their community which includes children under 12, people who are immuno-compromised, as well as the many who have had various types of medical conditions or recent surgeries and require immune-suppressant medications.

Given the stark difference between 50 and 90 percent vaccinated rates, it would seem the fight against COVID-19 is still far from over for Canadians.

(Adam MacNeil photo courtesy of BrockUniversity)

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Immunology

iShares Trust – iShares Genomics Immunology and Healthcare ETF (IDNA) gains 0.10% for July 15 – Equities.com

Last Price$ Last TradeChange$ Change Percent %Open$ Prev Close$ High$ low$ 52 Week High$ 52 Week Low$ Market CapPE RatioVolumeExchange

IDNA - Market Data & News

iShares Trust - iShares Genomics Immunology and Healthcare ETF (NYSE: IDNA) shares gained 0.10%, or $0.05 per share, to close Thursday at $48.20. After opening the day at $48.18, shares of iShares - iShares Genomics Immunology and Healthcare ETF fluctuated between $48.38 and $47.55. 61,343 shares traded hands a decrease from their 30 day average of 77,682. Thursday's activity brought iShares - iShares Genomics Immunology and Healthcare ETFs market cap to $315,710,000.

Visit iShares Trust - iShares Genomics Immunology and Healthcare ETFs profile for more information.

The New York Stock Exchange is the worlds largest stock exchange by market value at over $26 trillion. It is also the leader for initial public offerings, with $82 billion raised in 2020, including six of the seven largest technology deals. 63% of SPAC proceeds in 2020 were raised on the NYSE, including the six largest transactions.

To get more information on iShares Trust - iShares Genomics Immunology and Healthcare ETF and to follow the companys latest updates, you can visit the companys profile page here: iShares Trust - iShares Genomics Immunology and Healthcare ETFs Profile. For more news on the financial markets be sure to visit Equities News. Also, dont forget to sign-up for the Daily Fix to receive the best stories to your inbox 5 days a week.

Sources: Chart is provided by TradingView based on 15-minute-delayed prices. All other data is provided by IEX Cloud as of 8:05 pm ET on the day of publication.

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Immunology

Canada took a risk delaying second COVID-19 vaccine doses. Now, its vaccination campaign is one of the best in the world – AAMC

Maria Sundaram, PhD, an epidemiologist and postdoctoral fellow at the University of Torontos Dalla Lana School of Public Health, watched from afar in March and April as many of her friends and family in the United States received their first and second doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.

It was a very interesting mix of emotions, says Sundaram, who grew up in the United States. Many of us have experienced vaccine envy, watching other people get a vaccine before us, [but there was] simultaneous relief that my friends were getting protected.

Meanwhile, in Canada, vaccine supply remained scarce. Despite purchasing more than five times the number of vaccine doses needed to cover its entire population, the Canadian government experienced challenges obtaining the vaccines from the European countries that were manufacturing them. As a result, it lagged behind other wealthy countries on vaccination rates for months until the supply began to increase in May.

Finally, in mid-May, Sundaram who works for a hospital but does her research from home was able to get a dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine and was given an appointment for her second dose in September.

The four-month gap between doses more than three months longer than the 21 days that the company recommends based on clinical trial data was a result of the Canadian governments decision to focus on giving first doses to as many people as possible before administering second doses (except to those in the highest risk groups, such as people living in long-term care facilities). The delayed second dose strategy followed that of the United Kingdom, which faced a surge caused by the alpha variant in the early months of 2021 but broke from the United States strategy of sticking to the dosing regimen tested in clinical trials.

Theres been a bit of luck involved in the approach that Canada has used.

Eric Arts, PhDProfessor and Canada research chair in viral control at Western University in London, Ontario

The decision was controversial. At one point, even Canadas chief scientific advisor, Mona Nemer, PhD, called it a population level experiment when speaking with CBC News.

Still, faced with a COVID-19 surge in March and April that strained hospitals and a lack of vaccine supply, Canada took a risk.

They had to come up with strategies that would provide some protection, says Alon Vaisman, MD, an infectious disease physician at University Health Network at the University of Toronto. The thinking was, Can I protect both of us at 80% [efficacy] versus me at [almost] 100% [efficacy] and you at 0%? That was the philosophy.

Now, as Canadas vaccination rate has skyrocketed in recent weeks covering nearly 70% of the population with at least one dose, passing the United States 55% and most other nations and its cases and hospitalizations have tapered, it seems that the risk is paying off.

Theres been a bit of luck involved in the approach that Canada has used, says Eric Arts, PhD, a professor and Canada research chair in viral control at Western University in London, Ontario. It was an approach that was quite successful.

Many scientists, including top U.S. infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci, MD, have said that the best vaccination strategy is to adhere as closely as possible to the dosing regimen tested in the clinical trials: two doses of the Pfizer vaccine spaced 21 days apart or two doses of the Moderna vaccine spaced 28 days apart.

We feel strongly that we will go by the science, which has dictated for us the optimal way to get the 94 to 95 percent response, which is, in fact, durable for the period of time that weve been following it, Fauci explained at a White House press briefing on Feb. 3.

ICUs were full, people were being helicoptered out. It [was] extremely important to use every tool in our tool box.

Maria Sundaram, PhDEpidemiologist and postdoctoral fellow at the University of Torontos Dalla Lana School of Public Health

But the United States, which contracted with manufacturing plants on its soil, had access to far more doses more quickly than Canada. Although vaccines in the United States were initially limited and reserved for people in higher risk categories such as front-line workers and older adults, there was enough supply to make all adults in the country eligible for a shot by mid-April.

At that time, Canada was at the peak of a third wave of cases that was threatening to overwhelm its hospitals in some regions.

In Toronto, we had a very serious situation, Sundaram recalls. ICUs were full, people were being helicoptered out. It [was] extremely important to use every tool in our tool box.

Anticipating this, Canadas National Advisory Committee on Immunization recommended extending the time between first and second doses to four months on March 3 even longer than the three months that the United Kingdom had implemented.

The data supporting that was pretty much nonexistent, Vaisman says. There was a small gamble taken on what the efficacy was going to be like.

The decision was ethically complicated, according to Jonathan Kimmelman, PhD, director of the Biomedical Ethics Unit at McGill University in Montreal.

One of the variables that was not nailed down [in clinical trials] was how long you should wait between the first and second dose to maximize the effect, he explains. There was incredible pressure to get the vaccine out.

In a perfect world, Kimmelman says, the clinical trials would have tested spacing out the vaccine doses at different intervals to see which one was most effective. Instead, researchers focused on testing the shortest effective interval.

Still, all clinical trials have limitations.

This is no different for public health than it is for medicine, he explains. When you run a clinical trial of a drug, its rare that [doctors prescribe] that drug under the exact conditions of the trial.

In fact, some scientists said that further spacing out the doses would likely increase the effectiveness of the vaccines.

The government didnt work independently; they consulted a lot with the scientists and vaccinologists, says Arts. A lot of my colleagues felt that the rapid immunization between first and second doses was not necessary. You want to boost a secondary response with a vaccine. If you immunize too quickly from first dose, your primary response hasnt come down yet [and its] not always very efficient.

And as more data have emerged from the delayed dosing, it seems that spacing out the doses can result in a stronger immune response. One study in the United Kingdom released in May found that people over the age of 80 who received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine 12 weeks apart had three times more antibodies than those who received the doses three weeks apart. Another U.K. study at the University of Oxford found that further spacing between doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine also increased antibody production.

Canada also took a different approach than the United States by advising people that they could mix and match their vaccines: People who had received an AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for the first dose could choose either the Pfizer or Moderna mRNA vaccine for the second dose, and those who received a first dose of one mRNA brand could get the other for the second dose. This change came about as a result of some controversy surrounding the safety of the AstraZeneca vaccine in some populations earlier this year as well as shortages of the Pfizer vaccine for some time.

[Mix-and-matching] provided a lot of flexibility. It ensured vaccines werent staying in freezers where they dont offer protections.

Craig Jenne, PhDAssociate professor in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Infectious Diseases at the University of Calgary in Alberta

The shift allowed Sundaram to get her second vaccine dose months ahead of her scheduled appointment by switching to Moderna. Because of her knowledge of how other vaccines have been mixed in a similar way in the past and her understanding of how vaccines work, she was confident the two mRNA vaccines were essentially interchangeable.

Historically, we havent been watching the developing of vaccines, she explains. We havent asked, Hey, what brand is this flu shot?

Another University of Oxford study found that mixing a dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine with a dose of the Pfizer vaccine elicited a strong immune response, although there have been few real-world studies about the efficacy of mixing the two types of vaccine.

[Mix-and-matching] provided a lot of flexibility, says Craig Jenne, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Infectious Diseases at the University of Calgary in Alberta. It ensured vaccines werent staying in freezers where they dont offer protections.

While the single doses of COVID-19 vaccine have helped protect Canadas population so far, the focus is now pivoting to ramping up second doses even, in many cases, cutting short the four-month delay.

This change is being made to stay ahead of the highly transmissible delta variant, which was first identified in India and quickly became dominant in the United Kingdom and the United States. Laboratory studies are finding that single doses of the Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca vaccines are providing far less protection against this variant. One study in England suggested that one dose of the AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccine could provide as little as 33% effectiveness against symptomatic disease from the delta variant, compared with 50% against the alpha variant. However, two doses remained 60% and 88% effective, respectively.

One of the most challenging things about infectious disease pandemics is that the last inches are exactly as hard as the first hundred miles. Were not safe until all of us are safe.

Maria Sundaram, PhDEpidemiologist and postdoctoral fellow at the University of Torontos Dalla Lana School of Public Health

As of July 9, Canada was quickly gaining on the United States fully vaccinated rate of 47% of the population, which has now slowed to a crawl. On June 1, less than 6% of Canadas population was fully vaccinated, but on July 8, it had reached 40%, according to Our World in Data.

Arts compared the United States and Canadas vaccine strategies to the fable about the tortoise and the hare, saying that although the United States had a quick start like the hare, Canadas slower approach seems to be poised to win the proverbial race because of less vaccine hesitancy.

If everyone who got the first dose gets their second, well be OK, Vaisman says.

But successfully ending the pandemic cannot be done by individual countries, Sundaram cautions. As long as the virus is allowed to spread in unvaccinated communities, it has the opportunity to mutate and potentially evade vaccine protection.

Canada ordered a lot of vaccines, and that came at a cost to a lot of other countries, she says. One of the most challenging things about infectious disease pandemics is that the last inches are exactly as hard as the first hundred miles. Were not safe until all of us are safe.

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Canada took a risk delaying second COVID-19 vaccine doses. Now, its vaccination campaign is one of the best in the world - AAMC

Anatomy

‘Anatomy of a Murder’ Dissected | Northern Today – Northern Today

Author and former Army Judge Advocate Eugene Milhizer will give a free presentation on his book, Dissecting Anatomy of a Murder, on Thursday, July 29. The event begins at 2 p.m. at the Central U.P. and Northern Michigan University Archives in 126 Harden Hall at NMU. A book signing will follow.

Milhizer carefully and intelligently unravels the trial, book and movie based on one of the most famous criminal trials of the 20th century. He explores the 1952 murder in Big Bay and community attitudes about the crime. He tells the fascinating story of Anatomy of a Murder author John Voelker, who served as defense counsel for the resulting trial and then adapted the real-life courtroom drama into fictional form as a great novel. He also looks back on production of the groundbreaking film inspired by Voelker's novel, directed by Otto Preminger.

Milhizer's book considers several discrete legal and ethical issues that the novel and film raise. These include the implications of a criminal attorney explaining the law to a client in a manner that may suggest a dubious defense. It also reflects upon broader questions, such as the proper role of a jury and the impact of community standards in a criminal trial. It evaluates the capacity of the criminal justice system to achieve true justice within the context of what Voelker called the settled procedures and ancient rules of the law. And ultimately, it chronicles what some have called the greatest legal war story ever told.

For three years, Milhizer held a teaching appointment at the Judge Advocate General's School at the University of Virginia. In 2001, he joined the Ave Maria School of Law faculty, where his course offerings have included criminal procedure, criminal law, national security law, and military law.

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'Anatomy of a Murder' Dissected | Northern Today - Northern Today