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Theology professor John Cavadini records one of his classes in a vacant DeBartolo Hall. Photo by Matt Cashore 94

Michael Chamberlain 20 carried all his belongings out of ONeill Hall on March 16 and packed them into his car. A California resident, the Notre Dame senior planned to drive to Houston and stay with his brother for the near future.

I was ready to leave, but I wasnt ready to leave this soon, Chamberlain said, noting that the final months of senior year are a memorable time, but the Class of 2020 would be forced to forego many traditional senior rituals.

Spring 2020 was a semester unlike any other in Notre Dames history. Students left for spring break expecting to return in a week for the second half of the semester and the promise of spring weather and campus activities. Suddenly, before they knew it, daily life was upended.

In February, as the coronavirus spread through Italy, the University halted its study programs in Rome and flew students home to the United States. In early March, the University recalled all students studying abroad and suspended its international programs until further notice. The change impacted 483 students who had been overseas.

Notre Dame announced March 11 that all in-person classes were suspended, joining colleges across the country that did the same. The University extended spring break an additional week, then resumed classes entirely via online instruction for the rest of the semester.

A modern pandemic is uncharted territory for Notre Dame and other universities. Administrators have no playbook for how to proceed.

Traditional lecture and laboratory courses transformed into online courses using Zoom video conferencing. Many undergraduates returned to their childhood bedrooms, taking classes online, sharing time and space with their parents and siblings, and keeping in virtual touch with Notre Dame friends.

Faculty members accustomed to teaching in lecture halls got quick training on how to transition to online instruction. In a concession to the unusual circumstances, undergraduates were given the option after seeing their grade for each course for the spring semester of choosing either to receive the letter grade or take a pass/no credit for that course.

One would have to go back to World War II, when most of the campus was transformed into a U.S. Navy training facility, to find such a major disturbance to University routine. Between 1942 and 1946, when the undergraduate population was reduced to a few hundred students, some 11,925 men completed their officer training at Notre Dame before entering military service.

To prevent spread of the virus, faculty and nonessential staff members were told to work from their homes starting in mid-March. Some students returned briefly to campus after spring break to collect some of their belongings from their residence halls. For those who requested it, the University gathered and shipped laptops, textbooks and other academic materials to students homes. And a total of 127 students, including international students who could not return home, were provided housing on campus.

After in-person classes halted, second-year law student Kaitlyn Wallace moved back to Kansas City, Missouri. She lived at home with her parents and younger brother and sister, participating in classes online from her bedroom.

I think I was really fortunate. My parents have good Wi-Fi, Wallace says. Everyone in the family knew my class schedule. They wouldnt bother me during class time. The family sheltered at home and stayed well, venturing out only for walks and trips to the grocery store.

Wallace says online classes went more smoothly than she expected, with professors and students adapting quickly. It was really pretty seamless, she says. She kept in touch with law school friends via daily phone calls and continued to pay rent on her South Bend apartment.

Wallace was looking forward to a job as a summer associate at a Chicago law firm. Although many students found their summer positions canceled because of the pandemic, hers was not. However, because of the coronavirus, the job became virtual, with Wallace working for the firm online from a Chicago apartment rather than in the office.

She is hoping Notre Dame can adhere to plans to resume in-person classes in August that the Universitys president, Rev. John I. Jenkins, CSC, 76, 78M.A., announced in May. I would much prefer the classes be in-person, but I dont want there to be a COVID-19 outbreak in South Bend, she says. She feels University leaders have done a good job through the coronavirus crisis, and she trusts them to make the right decision about fall classes. Theyve been really transparent about all the decisions theyve had to make.

As winter turned into spring, Notre Dame looked and felt different.

No celebrations marked St. Patricks Day. The Blue-Gold football game and all other spring sports events were canceled. DeBartolo Performing Arts Center cut short the remainder of its spring season. Corridor walls in campus classroom buildings were covered with flyers about lectures and arts events that would never happen. Fewer candles burned in the Grotto.

In accordance with a decision by Indianas Catholic bishops, all public Masses in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart and elsewhere on campus were suspended from mid-March until late May. For probably the first time in Notre Dame history, there was no public Mass on Easter Sunday. Masses continued to be celebrated in the basilica and were livestreamed online.

By late March, in an unprecedented move, the University suspended laboratory research operations across campus, the only exception being for coronavirus-related research. The hibernation included more than 300 laboratories, most in science and engineering.

Donny Hanjaya-Putra 07, an assistant professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering, studies stem cells and molecular therapies. His lab, which includes one graduate student and two postdoctoral researchers, was among those closed.

He says he understood the need for the hibernation, but worried about how it would impact the careers of those in his lab. The most precious resource we have is time. For grad students and postdocs, time is critical for them, Hanjaya-Putra says. For some students, the shutdown might mean a delay in their coursework and postponement of graduation.

While hibernation will cause delays for some research, the COVID-19 crisis likely will point to expanded research paths for academics, says Robert Bernhard, Notre Dames vice president for research. There will be infectious disease research opportunities, he says.

As spring progressed, thousands of tulips and other spring flowers were in full bloom, but few people were around to see them. Wearing face masks and practicing social distancing, construction workers continued their labors on the new Corby Hall, a new residence hall and the McKen-na Hall replacement. Based on the international economic downturn and financial uncertainty, future construction projects were placed on hold.

Notre Dame instituted a staff hiring and wage freeze, but continued to pay and provide benefits to all full-time and benefits-eligible part-time regular employees. The University refunded undergraduates $20 million in room and board for the portion of the spring semester they were not on campus. Administrators further barred nonessential expenses, including business travel, for the foreseeable future.

The University established a Student Emergency Relief Fund with donations from senior campus administrators and other private gifts. The fund will assist students whose families face unemployment and other hardships caused by the pandemic.

Meanwhile, some members of the Notre Dame community tested positive for COVID-19, the University announced on its coronavirus response web page. To protect privacy, no numbers or details were released.

By June 11, Indiana recorded more than 38,700 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 2,198 deaths. St. Joseph County had reached 1,475 confirmed cases and 56 virus-related deaths.

The commencement ceremony set for May 17 in Notre Dame Stadium was canceled. Instead, the University held a virtual online degree ceremony on that day, and plans a full, in-person Class of 2020 commencement on Memorial Day weekend 2021.

During the virtual ceremony, Father Jenkins formally conferred degrees on the graduates. In his charge to the class, Jenkins made reference to the Greatest Generation, as Americans who grew up during the Great Depression and helped win World War II have come to be known. What set them up for greatness was the adversity in which they were reared and the challenges that shaped them, he said.

Hardship has a way of bringing out what is highest and best in all, Jenkins told the graduates. The story of the Class of 2020 will include the massive social, economic and public health challenges that are now facing the world.

Im sorry for these hardships, but they are your opportunity, he said. You see, you cannot be the Fighting Irish if you never had to fight through anything. You have your fight. Seize it.

In advance of the ceremony, all graduates received commemorative boxes from the University containing a letter from Jenkins, a graduation stole, a candle and a copy of the 2020 Dome, the campus yearbook.

A virtual commissioning ceremony for Notre Dames 2020 ROTC graduates was livestreamed the same weekend. One by one, the graduates took their commissioning oath online. Many participated from their homes, often joined by close family.

Summer classes, at least through July 6, were online-only. Reunion weekend, traditionally the first weekend in June, was canceled, with plans to reschedule it in the future. And the various conferences, programs and camps that usually make campus a busy place even in summer were shuttered.

Jenkins plan to begin the fall semester on August 10 brings students to campus two weeks earlier than originally scheduled. The plan eliminates fall break and sets final exams before Thanksgiving.

Notre Dames leaders have been consulting with experts from Johns Hopkins and the Cleveland Clinic, as well as the St. Joseph County Health Department, to prepare for comprehensive COVID-19 testing, contact tracing, quarantining and isolation space for those infected when in-person classes resume.

The plan for students, faculty and staff will include social distancing, mask requirements and extensive cleaning of campus spaces. Faculty have been asked to prepare courses for both in- person and remote instruction, which would allow any student in isolation or quarantine to continue to participate.

Patrick Paulsen 20 spent the spring living in a house in South Bend with nine other seniors, staying mostly to themselves and focusing on their online classes. As the weather warmed, they invited other friends to visit them outdoors, where they could keep their distance.

While Senior Week activities were canceled, the group organized its own informal Champagne on the Steps, a tradition of toasts on the front steps of the Main Building. There were no caps and gowns this year, but the housemates were going to watch their virtual commencement together at their house. Paulsen says they made a day of it.

The week after the virtual commencement, Paulsen and his girlfriend planned to drive home to the Pacific Northwest. Hes from Seattle, and shes from Portland. The idea was to fill the car Grapes of Wrath style, and head west, he says.

Prior to the pandemic, Paulsens postcollege plan was to work for a couple years and then apply to law school. With the world economy battered and the U.S. unemployment rate at 14.7 percent by May, he realized full-time job openings would be rare. Paulsen plans to live with his parents at home in Seattle, seek a part-time job and study for the LSAT.

Paulsen and his friends already are looking forward to reuniting next May to celebrate their commencement. The housemates took time this spring to talk about the impact of the pandemic and the abrupt shift in their world. They know it will have a lasting impact on their lives, he says. This is a once-in-a-hundred-years kind of thing.

Margaret Fosmoe is an associate editor of this magazine

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Notre Dame Adjusts to the COVID-19 Pandemic | Notre Dame Magazine | University of Notre Dame - ND Newswire

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The chairmen of four U.S. bishops' committees, joined by the leaders of several health care, bioethics and pro-life organizations, "urgently and respectfully" implored the commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ensure any vaccines developed for the coronavirus "are free from any connection to abortion."

"To be clear, we strongly support efforts to develop an effective, safe, and widely available vaccine as quickly as possible," the leaders said in an April 17 letter to Dr. Stephen M. Hahn, the FDA commissioner.

"However, we also strongly urge our federal government to ensure that fundamental moral principles are followed in the development of such vaccines, most importantly, the principle that human life is sacred and should never be exploited," they said.

Copies of the letter were sent to President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Health and Humans Services Secretary Alex M. Azar. The text of the letter was released late April 17 by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The chairman who signed it and their respective USCCB committees were: Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, Committee on Pro-Life Activities; Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, Domestic Justice and Human Development; Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, Committee on Doctrine; and Bishop John F. Doerfler of Marquette, Michigan, the Subcommittee on Health Care Issues, which is a subcommittee of the doctrine committee.

Other signatories were the heads of 20 organizations such as the Catholic Medical Association, National Catholic Bioethics Center, American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, National Association of Catholic Nurses, Southern Baptist Ethics &Religious Liberty Commission, Children of God for Life, March for Life Education & Defense Fund, Family Research Council and Students for Life of America.

"We are aware that, among the dozens of vaccines currently in development, some are being produced using old cell lines that were created from the cells of aborted babies," they said.

They noted that, for example, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a substantial contract from HHS and "is working on a vaccine that is being produced using one of these ethically problematic cell lines."

Other vaccines such as those being developed by Sanofi Pasteur, Inovio and the John Paul II Medical Research Institute "utilize cell lines not connected to unethical procedures and methods."

"It is critically important that Americans have access to a vaccine that is produced ethically: No American should be forced to choose between being vaccinated against this potentially deadly virus and violating his or her conscience," the group said.

"Fortunately, there is no need to use ethically problematic cell lines to produce a COVID vaccine, or any vaccine, as other cell lines or processes that do not involve cells from abortions are available and are regularly being used to produce other vaccines," they said.

The group told Hahn: "We urgently and respectfully implore you to not only ensure that Americans will have access to a COVID vaccine that is free of ethical concerns, but to encourage and incentivize pharmaceutical companies to use only ethical cell lines or processes for producing vaccines."

On April 6, a group of about a dozen Democrats in Congress sent a letter to Azar urging the Trump administration to lift restrictions on research that uses human fetal tissue for potential treatment for COVID-19. They argued that allowing fetal tissue in such studies could lead more quickly to a treatment.

On June 5, 2019, The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services banned the National Institutes of Health from using human fetal stem cells from electively aborted babies for government funded research. The department also issued a $20 million grant for research to develop models that do not rely on human fetal tissue.

(The full text of the letter with all the signatories can be found online at http://usccb.org/about/pro-life-activities/index.cfm.)

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Head of FDA urged to ensure any COVID vaccine be free of abortion connection - My catholic standard

An EMT wearing protective equipment moves a patient into Elmhurst Hospital Center in the Queens borough of New York. Preliminary data suggest COVID-19 is having a disproportionate impact on communities of color. Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption

An EMT wearing protective equipment moves a patient into Elmhurst Hospital Center in the Queens borough of New York. Preliminary data suggest COVID-19 is having a disproportionate impact on communities of color.

As data emerges on the spectrum of symptoms caused by COVID-19, it's clear that people with chronic health conditions are being hit harder.

While many people experience mild illness, 89% of people with COVID-19 who were sick enough to be hospitalized had at least one chronic condition. About half had high blood pressure and obesity, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And about a third had diabetes and a third had cardiovascular disease. So, what explains this?

"Obesity is a marker for a number of other problems," explains Dr. Aaron Carroll, a public health researcher at the Indiana University School of Medicine. It's increasingly common for those who develop obesity to develop diabetes and other conditions, as well. So, one reason COVID-19 is taking its toll on people who have obesity is that their overall health is often compromised.

But does obesity specifically affect the immune system? Perhaps.

Prior research has shown that people with obesity are less protected by the flu vaccine. They tend to get sicker from the respiratory disease even if they've been immunized. In fact, researchers have found that as people gain excess weight, their metabolism changes and this shift can make the immune system less effective at fighting off viruses.

"What we see with obesity is that these [immune] cells don't function as well,' says Melinda Beck, a health researcher at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Basically, she explains, obesity throws off the fuel sources that immune cells need to function. "The [immune cells] are not using the right kinds of fuels," Beck says. And, as a result, the condition of obesity seems to "impair that critical immune response [needed] to deal with either the virus infection or [the ability] to make a robust response to a vaccine."

So this is one explanation as to why people with obesity seem more vulnerable to serious infection. But, there are many more questions about why some people are hit harder, including whether race is a factor.

The CDC found that 33% of people who've been hospitalized with COVID-19 are African American, yet only 13% of the U.S. population is African American. Some local communities have found a similar pattern in their data. Among the many (26) states reporting racial data on COVID-19, blacks account for 34% of COVID deaths, according to research from Johns Hopkins University.

This disproportionate toll can be partially explained by the fact that there's a higher prevalence of obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes among African Americans compared with whites.

And as Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health said last week at a White House coronavirus task force briefing, this crisis "is shining a bright light on how unacceptable that is, because yet again, when you have a situation like the coronavirus, [African Americans] are suffering disproportionately."

There are several factors, including some genetic ones, that may make African Americans more vulnerable to COVID-19. "There have been a few studies that have pointed to African Americans potentially having genetic risk factors that make them more salt-sensitive," says Ren Robinson, a professor of chemistry who researches chronic disease at Vanderbilt University. This may increase the likelihood of high blood pressure, which, in turn, is linked to more serious forms of COVID-19. "It could be a contributing factor," she says, but there are likely multiple causes at play.

Another issue to consider, she says, may be high stress levels. She says when a person experiences racial discrimination, it can contribute to chronic stress. She points to several studies that link discrimination and stress to higher levels of inflammation among black adults. "And chronic stress can make one more vulnerable to infection because it can lower your body's ability to fight off an infection," she says.

Chronic stress is linked to poverty so this could be a risk factor for low-income communities. In fact, research has shown that people who report higher levels of stress are more likely to catch a cold, when exposed to a virus, compared with people who are not stressed.

According to a new survey from Pew Research Center, health concerns about COVID-19 are much higher among Hispanics and blacks in the U.S. While 18% of white adults say they're "very concerned" that they will get COVID-19 and require hospitalization, 43% of Hispanic respondents and 31% of black adults say they're "very concerned" about that happening.

And other aspects of structural racism could contribute to the elevated risk for black Americans.

"Every major crisis or catastrophe hits the most vulnerable communities the hardest," say Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League. And he points to several factors that help to explain the racial divide.

"Black workers are more likely to hold the kinds of jobs that cannot be done from home," Morial says. So, they may be more likely to be exposed to the virus, if they are working in places where it's difficult to maintain social distancing. In addition, he points to longstanding inequities in access to quality care.

"There also is bias among health care workers, institutions and systems that results in black patients ... receiving fewer medical procedures and poorer-quality medical care than white individuals," he says. He says an expansion of Medicaid into those states that still haven't expanded would be one effective policy to address these inequities.

The characteristics of the communities where people live could affect risk, too especially for those who live in low-income neighborhoods. The roots of chronic illness stem from the way people live and the choices that may or may not be available to them. People who develop the chronic illnesses that put them at higher risk of COVID-19 often lack access to affordable and healthy foods or live in neighborhoods where it's not safe to play or exercise outside.

"Let's take a patient with diabetes for example. They are already at high risk for COVID-19 by having a chronic condition," says Joseph Valenti, a physician in Denton, Texas, who promotes awareness of the social determinants of health through his work with the Physicians Foundation.

"If they also live in a food desert, they have to put themselves in greater risk if they want access to healthy food. They may need to take a bus, with people that have COVID-19 but aren't showing symptoms, to get access to nutritious food or even their insulin prescription," he says.

Poor nutrition, and the obesity linked to it, is a leading cause of premature death around the globe. And, this pandemic brings into focus the vulnerability of the millions of people living with lifestyle-related, chronic disease.

"We're seeing the convergence of chronic disease with an infection," says UNC's Beck. And the data suggest that the combination of these two can lead to more serious illness. "We're seeing that obesity can have a great influence on infection," she says.

So, will this shine a spotlight on the need to address these issues? "Hopefully," Beck says. "I think paying attention to these chronic diseases like obesity is in everybody's best interest."

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What Explains The COVID-19 Race Gap? : Shots - Health News - NPR

In early March, Michelle Tran drove 1,500 miles from her home in Wichita, Kansas, to visit her husband Thai at Californias Avenal State Prison.

Its a trek that Tran makes every 45 to 60 days. She typically spends a week in California so that she can visit her husband for two weekends. During the week, she visits family in Fresno and drives to Los Angeles to check on Thais mother, who is battling Stage IV cancer.

That first weekend, the couple sat at the small round tables in the prisons visiting room. They were able to hold hands, hug, kiss and eat snacks from the prisons vending machines. On Sunday, Tran ended their visit after two hours to drive to Sacramento for a Drop LWOP rally urging lawmakers to change laws and end sentences of life without the possibility of parole. The couple planned to say their goodbyes during her visit the following weekend.

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That visit never happened. On Wednesday, March 11, Tran received a memo announcing that, to stem possible exposure to COVID-19, or the novel coronavirus, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation was canceling all visits until further notice.

I traveled 1500 miles to see my husband for basically eight hours, recalled Tran. Despite her disappointment, she understands the need for caution, especially in a prison like Avenal where men live in dormitories with 200 beds and in a prison system which has long had problems with inadequate, substandard and even life-threatening medical care.

California is not the only prison system to cancel visits to stem possible exposure to COVID-19. Across the country, as health officials urge people to keep their distance and cities institute shutdowns of nonessential businesses and issue orders to shelter in place, 47 state prison systems, the federal prison system and Immigration and Customs Enforcement prisons have canceled in-person visits. As of March 16, only Arkansas, Nebraska and Wyoming are still allowing visits in their state prisons.

Given that social distancing has been the most effective preventive measure thus far for this rapidly spreading virus for which we have no vaccine, treatment or cure, its reasonable to believe that minimizing outside visitations can reduce the risk of transmission/exposure, Lipi Roy, the former chief of addiction medicine for New York Citys jail system, told Truthout. For the time being, we need to aggressively minimize exposure and optimize ALL preventive measures.

But, she adds, the minimization or ban on visits should be temporary.

Jack Beck, a correctional health expert and former director of the Prison Visiting Project at the Correctional Association of New York, noted that suspending visits wont prevent COVID-19 from entering state prisons. In my view, the most likely way COVID-19 will enter prisons is through the jails, he told Truthout. In 2018, over 19,000 people entered the New York state prison system. Many had previously been held in local jails where turnover and risks of exposure to COVID-19 as well as other viruses and diseases is high. Even if they discover it [COVID-19] a week after [admission], that person will have spread it to a number of other people.

On March 15, a New York City jail investigator became the first city worker to die from the COVID-19. Jail commissioner Cynthia Brann stated that, as an investigator, the man had limited contact with the incarcerated population. Two others, an incarcerated man and a correctional officer, at Rikers have also tested positive. In the state prison system, an employee at Sing Sing, one of New Yorks maximum-security prisons, also tested positive for COVID-19.

Furthermore, Beck noted that prison policies make hygienic practices recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, such as washing hands frequently with soap and water, nearly impossible. Hand sanitizer, which has alcohol, is prohibited in prisons (though New York prisoners are manufacturing hand sanitizer for outside use, and are paid an average of 65 cents per hour). Many people are in cells without hot water and, sometimes, without working sinks.

At the same time, social distancing is impossible in a prison setting. You cant control who youre interacting with, Beck noted. At meal times, for instance, people are herded into meal halls where they sit where someone else ate 15 minutes ago. But that area hasnt been sterilized.

Thats true in Michigan as well. Tara, imprisoned in Michigans sole womens prison, told Truthout that, although two of the prisons 36 housing units have been quarantined because of women with flu-like symptoms, women still go to the cafeteria together with the quarantined women going after those in general population. When I asked security, Isnt this a crowd over 100? they called me smarty pants, she stated.

Texas prisons have also not reported any cases of COVID-19. But Coretta, currently imprisoned in Texas, worries that exposure will come from a staff member. In a letter to Truthout, she wrote, these COs [correctional officers] are always sick. They are constantly coughing and sneezing.

Coretta is in the prisons restricted housing unit, where she and others are locked in their cells nearly 24 hours each day. But even in isolation, incarcerated people are at risk for exposure. Prison policy dictates that officers conduct cell inspections every three days. They take us out of our cell handcuffed, she described. They enter, flush our toilets, turn on the faucets, hit the walls with a black rubber mallet, then return us to the cell. When we are waiting beside our cell door, there [are] two officers, one on each side, holding each arm. Theyre coughing and sneezing. Im fussing, Sneeze in your elbow! Use that Purell before you touch me!

Indiana prisons have not reported cases of COVID-19. Its only a matter of time though, wrote Sarah Pender, currently imprisoned at the womens Rockville Correctional Facility, in an e-message to Truthout. We understand that when it comes here, we will not get any kind of treatment except Tylenol and temperature monitoring. We will suffer, and there will be people who die. There are several women who have compromised immune systems, are diabetic, who have lung issues, or are over 60. Since the death rate is 2 to 3 percent, that means we will inevitably have some deaths here.

In another e-message, Pender added, I dont want to think about what they will do with women who need ICU treatment or ventilators. We only have 13 beds in the infirmary, and only one isolation room. I hope we dont have to find out.

For the past three years, Donna Robinson has traveled over 400 miles from her home in Buffalo, New York, to visit her daughter Missy, who is serving a 15 years-to-life sentence at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility. Robinson has no car, so she must travel from Buffalo to New York City where she then boards a Metro-North train. Once at Bedford Hills, she takes a five-minute taxi ride to the prison.

The last time she visited Missy was in late January. By then, cases of COVID-19 had already been confirmed outside of China and the World Health Organization was days away from declaring a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. In the prison visiting room, however, there was no hand sanitizer or soap for visitors or their incarcerated loved ones.

Even before New York suspended prison visits on March 13, Robinson, now age 64, realized that she could no longer visit. Im in the high-risk category, she told Truthout. Im over 60. I have a lowered immune system. I have diabetes.

New York prisons offer video visits (or televisits) and, in some cities such as Buffalo and New York City, have satellite locations where family members can video visit with their loved ones for free. Robinson has signed up for video visits and is now awaiting both approval and information on where she can go to access these visits for free. Video visits will never take the place of in-person visits, Robinson acknowledges. Theres nothing like that hug, she said. During their six-hour visits, mother and daughter play Uno, eat food from the prison vending machines, and take pictures together. Now, she and Missy stay in touch by phone at the cost of 43 cents per minute.

At 10 cents per minute, the cost of prison phone calls in Massachusetts is less than a quarter of the cost of calls in New York state. Even so, many families struggle with the cost of staying in contact with their incarcerated loved ones.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley knows about these difficulties. Her father was in and out of prison throughout her childhood. As an adult, Pressley married a man who had served 10 years in prison. Though Conan Harris had already been released and successfully rebuilt his life in Boston by the time they met and married, hearing about his struggles gave the lawmaker insight into the challenges faced by many families, including the high price to stay connected.

Any avenue to maintain familial bonds should be free, Pressley said in a webinar about COVID-19 and the prison system. If visits are going to be cancelled as a strategy of containment, then video conferencing and phone calls should be free.

Jack Beck noted that phone time is already limited and, with visits canceled, there will be greater demand for the limited number of phones inside the prison. At the same time, calls continue to be restricted to small blocks of time, typically 15 to 20 minutes.

For Cat Perkins and her husband Gary, that 15-minute call ends way too quickly. He always asks, Why do those 15 minutes go by so fast? Perkins told Truthout. Her husband is in Chuckawalla Valley State Prison, California, where 2,733 people are incarcerated in a prison designed for 1,738 people. Many of the men around him cannot afford phone calls or have families in other countries, so Gary does not face longer phone lines. Nonetheless, Perkins pays $1.30 for a 15-minute call, a sharp decrease from the previous $5 per call.

In Georgia, a 15-minute phone call ranges from $1.95 to $2.40, depending on the distance. Thats now the only way that Cynthia Holland can stay in touch with her daughter Michelle, who is serving a life sentence at Georgias Arrendale State Prison.

For the past 11 years, Holland has visited Michelle every weekend, driving the 90 miles from her home in Atlanta. Now, like Robinson and Missy in New York and families across the country, the two must rely on phone calls and e-messages.

But Holland now gets fewer phone calls from Michelle. It makes you worry more, she told Truthout. She has avoided using video visits because of the cost (33 cents per minute as of 2016). If it [the ban on visits] goes on too long, I guess Ill have to start, she said. She, too, thinks that prisons should decrease the cost of video visits and phone calls, especially while visits are suspended. (The company JPay, which provides e-messages for Georgia prisons, has stated that it will now provide two free e-messages per week while visits are suspended.)

Michelle Tran spends between $100 to $150 each month for phone calls and knows many family members who spend twice that amount. She expects that, as businesses close and employees lose paychecks and possibly jobs in attempts to prevent COVID-19 exposure, the cost of prison calls will become increasingly prohibitive. That, in turn, adds to the stress of not being able to see an incarcerated loved one. She thinks prison phone companies should offer free calls during this time. We know its a billion-dollar industry, she reflected.

In some states, prisons and private contractors are offering reduced rates to keep in touch. In New York, while visits are suspended, incarcerated people will receive five free postage stamps, two free e-messages and one free phone call per week. Incarcerated people in Connecticut will receive two free phone calls each week. Illinois prisons are allowing two free 20-minute calls and one free video visit during this time. This is not a weekly offer, noted Alexis Mansfield of the Womens Justice Institute. Mansfield also noted that Illinois prisons do not have enough phones to meet demand even during non-pandemic times.

Officials in Shelby County, Tennessee, announced that they would waive all fees for phone calls and video visits in its jails. Utah prison officials are offering 10 free 15-minute phone calls per week. On March 17, California followed suit, announcing that prison phone calls will be free from March 19 to March 26. At Chuckawalla Valley, however, people were issued a memo stating that they would only be allowed free phone calls on March 19 and March 26, not continually throughout that week. For many inside that prison, even two days of free calls was a boon. In his nightly call on March 18, Perkinss husband told her that men had started lining up at 6 pm so that they could call their families for free once midnight struck.

However, many other state prisons and the private telecommunications companies with which they contract have been slow to offer similar cost reductions.

Meanwhile, at least one other country is taking more dramatic steps in the face of the virus: Iran temporarily released 85,000 prisoners to slow the spread of COVID-19.

In the United States, advocates in Indiana, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, California and New York are demanding that their states do the same. They have issued open letters to their respective governors calling on them to release people who are most vulnerable, including people who are over the age of 60 and/or medically fragile.

Cat Perkinss husband Gary, age 56, does not fall into either category. Nonetheless, shes advocating that California Gov. Gavin Newsom consider early release for people who are over age 60, medically fragile or have anticipated release dates in 2020 or 2021.

We have a lot of inmates who are sickly. Why not release them? she asked. She notes that her husband, who has been incarcerated since 1986 and is serving a life without parole sentence, is no longer the same man that he was at age 22. The same holds true for the many other people who have spent decades in prison. Theyve done 30, 40 years. Why not give them a little bit of freedom?

Across the country, in New York, Donna Robinson, a member of Release Aging People in Prison, has joined the call for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to release incarcerated people who are most vulnerable to COVID-19. That would not affect her daughter Missy, now in her 40s, but Robinson remembers and is still outraged by the death of 61-year-old Valerie Gaiter. Gaiter was 40 years into a 50-to-life sentence and 10 years from her first parole hearing when she died of esophageal cancer. That could be my daughter dying behind bars at the age of 61 after complaining about pain for a year, Robinson reflected.

No governors have yet responded to this call for releasing the most vulnerable people.

On the city level, however, judges, jail officials, jail oversight monitors and even prosecutors are considering mass release as a way to slow exposure. In Chicago, the Cook County sheriffs office has already released several people who were determined to be at higher risk, including a pregnant person and a person who had been hospitalized for treatment not related to coronavirus.

The Los Angeles sheriffs department and judges in Cleveland are considering doing the same. In New York City, the Board of Correction, which oversees conditions in the citys jails, recommended the immediate release of people over age 50, those with underlying health conditions, people detained for technical violations of probation or parole, and those sentenced to less than one year behind bars.

Thirty-one prosecutors, in places ranging from San Francisco and Brooklyn to Mississippi and Alabama, issued a joint statement pledging to reduce the numbers held in jails by releasing people detained because they cant afford cash bail, those with six months or less to serve, and people considered at high risk for COVID-19.

Not every county official is taking measures to reduce the flow of people into jails and prisons. Andrea James, co-founder of the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, stated that a federal judge recently denied a motion from a woman who was scheduled to self-surrender and begin her prison sentence. The woman, said James, has a severely compromised immune system, recently underwent surgery, and is about to begin chemotherapy.

We need to start from the framework of release, not hand sanitizers, said James.

View post:
If Social Distancing Is Impossible in Prisons, People Should Be Freed - Truthout

The tiny body seemed consumed by tubes and wires and monitors.

Just one day prior, Stephanie and Cody Smith had learned the terrible truth about why their 18-month-old son, Charlie, had been so sick recently. He had neuroblastoma, a cancer that forms on the nerve endings. Scans revealed cancer was on his kidney, lungs, bone and lymph nodes.

To stem the aggressive cancer, his doctors immediately got to work, putting in catheters, taking bone marrow biopsies and preparing for the start of intense chemotherapy. Charlie lay in his hospital bed eating Cheetos Puffs, his favorite food, and sitting with his parents.

"It was hard when we got the news," Stephanie Smith said. "I tried to be calm and collected; I had to be strong for my baby. But its been hard."

Story continues below gallery

The past two months have come straight out of a nightmare for the Smith family. Since Charlie was diagnosed with Stage IV neuroblastoma in November, each day brings uncertainty.

The Franklin family has spent 49 of the last 60 days at Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health. Charlie has gone through rounds of chemotherapy, suffering through fevers, mouth sores, extreme fatigue and nausea that wracked his small body. His treatment will last over the next 18 months, and will include chemotherapy, stem cell transplants, blood transfusions, radiation and immunotherapy.

But despite everything theyve been through, the Smiths remain resolute that Charlie will get better. They have relied on their faith, and an army of supporters who have stepped forward to help them in their worst time, to get them through.

"It was amazing to see so many people come up and love on us. It has taught us to be generous people; weve always thought we were generous people, but when you see the number of people who care for you and pray for you and support you, its really amazing," Stephanie Smith said.

The Smiths have partnered with Versiti Blood Center of Indiana to host a blood drive in Greenwood Saturday. The Cheering for Charlie event will be held from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., to help increase blood supplies for patients such as Charlie who rely on transfusions to survive.

Every two seconds, someone needs life-saving blood, whether theyre bravely battling disease like Charlie, undergoing surgery or are victims of trauma," said Duane Brodt, spokesman for Versiti. "People need people since blood cant be manufactured."

For most of his life, Charlie was a happy-go-lucky toddler. He loved to smile and laugh, beaming joy. Where his 3-year-old brother Henry was more of a wild child, Stephanie Smith said, Charlie seemed to always be in a pleasant, good mood.

His parents described him as their "happy baby."

Thats what made his lethargy, lack of appetite and gradual decline in health so concerning.

"He was learning how to walk over the summer, and started getting sick," Stephanie Smith said. "We just thought it was a virus; we didnt think of the worst."

Charlie developed a low-grade fever, wasnt eating well and was falling asleep unexpectedly while playing with toys. He wasnt acting like himself, Stephanie Smith said.

During a visit to his pediatrician, the doctor found a hard area on Charlies abdomen, and recommended doing some blood tests and taking an X-ray. Those tests only led to more questions he had severe range anemia and elevated levels of platelets in his blood. But the doctor didnt have any conclusive answers as to what was causing it.

Stephanie Smith, a nurse at Franciscan Health, started hearing warning bells in her mind. That, combined with a mothers intuition, convinced her that they needed to take Charlie to Riley Hospital for Children. After 12 hours in the emergency room, and dozens of tests, doctors found a large tumor in Charlies abdomen.

"Sometimes, when kids are diagnosed with cancer, they can go home and be in and out of the hospital for treatment, but Charlie was really sick. The tumor was pushing on his kidney, damaging his kidney, so we had to stay in the hospital," Stephanie Smith said.

The pathology lab at Riley Hospital for Children confirmed the tumor was neuroblastoma. The cancer forms in immature nerve endings, often in the adrenal glands located near the kidneys and is most common in children age 5 and under, according to the American Cancer Society.

But the cancer is very rare; only about 800 new cases are diagnosed in the U.S. each year, according to the American Cancer Society.

Neuroblastomas grow and spread very rapidly, so treatment would have to be aggressive, doctors explained to the family. Charlies oncologist recommended starting with two rounds of focused chemotherapy, followed by the extraction of his red blood cells for stem cell transplants, then another three rounds of chemotherapy.

Two different stem cell transplants would be held about a month apart, and Charlie would start radiation treatment. Immunotherapy, which jolts the immune system into targeting and killing cancer cells, would be the final part of the regimen.

Almost immediately, Charlie started his chemotherapy.

"It grows so quickly, that we had to be aggressive. The beginning was pretty intense," Stephanie Smith said.

The treatment was hard on Charlies young body. He developed mouth sores and didnt want to eat, and his nausea left him miserable. The Smith family essentially relocated to the hospital, staying with him constantly.

But at the same time, their friends and family, as well as complete strangers, stepped up to offer help. A meal train was set up to provide the family with food, and prayers came from all directions.

A GoFundMe page has raised more than $36,000 for the family. A community Facebook page has more than 5,000 members.

"We had a rally of people come around us," Stephanie Smith said. "We couldnt have done it without all of the people who have come together."

Charlie has completed his first four rounds of chemotherapy, and on Jan. 20, he was able to return home with his family to wait for surgery to remove the tumor in his abdomen. That operation is tentatively going to be early to mid February.

In the meantime, the family has been soaking in the opportunity to be together somewhere besides the hospital. They have also been working to plan the blood drive being held on Saturday.

Charlie has relied on blood transfusions throughout his treatment, and a blood drive would be a way to raise awareness of the importance of those transfusions to cancer patients, Stephanie Smith said.

"Charlie received quite a few blood products, especially early on in his treatment. He had 12 transfusions in these 2 1/2 months. For his little body, thats a lot," she said. "Being a nurse, I didnt realize the number of cancer patients who need blood products. Its so important. So this was a way to let people know that."

Stephanie Smiths sister, Shelby Richards, knew people who had organized drives with their friends and helped the family get the Cheering for Charlie drive going.

The drive is a perfect opportunity to remind people that blood donations are vitally important, Brodt said. Versiti Blood Center of Indiana needs to collect at least 560 blood donations every day to support the need at its 80 hospital partners throughout the state, he said.

"So our Cheering for Charlie will truly make a difference and help save lives," Brodt said.

For the Smith family, the drive is a way to give back for all the love theyve been shown.

"Its really cool for us to see how many people have signed up, and also be advocates for other people who need blood, to just get the word out there about how important it is," Stephanie Smith said. "Its encouraging for us to see people come out to support Charlie and kids like him."

If you go

Cheering for Charlie blood drive

What: A blood drive honoring Charlie Smith, an 18-month-old Franklin child diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a cancer of the nerve cells.

When: 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday

Where: Versiti Blood Center of Indiana, 8739 U.S. 31 S., Indianapolis

Who can donate: Generally, anyone in good health age 16 and up can donate. Make sure you do not have a cold, flu or sore throat at the time of donation.

How to schedule an appointment: Go to Versiti.org/Indiana

Information: Learn more about Charlie on the Cheering for Charlie! Facebook group page.

View post:
Blood drive to honor Franklin child with cancer - Daily Journal

Spinal Stenosis and Stem Cell Therapy. Emerging Treatments for Spine Health

Our spines are responsible for our ability to stand upright, but they do so much more. Without a healthy spine, moving and even just standing can be painful or difficult. Injuries to the spine, even seemingly-minor ones, can have long-lasting, major impacts on our quality of life. Those injuries may not come from an outside source in some cases.

Spinal stenosis is a leading cause of back pain, weakness, and even numbness in parts of the body. While some people are born with the condition, it is generally something that develops over time, and is closely related to the aging process, as well as normal wear and tear on the bodys musculoskeletal system.

According to the National Institutes of Health, spinal stenosis is

Healthline further expands on this by stating,

Spinal stenosis does not have a single underlying cause that applies to all patients. While the most common cause of the disease is a significant change to the spine due to age-related wear and tear, there are other potential causes. For instance, spinal arthritis may be the culprit. In some individuals, inherited spine shapes can lead to the condition. Tumors in the spine, injuries due to external forces, Pagets disease, calcium deposits on spinal ligaments, and even too much fluoride can all lead to this disease.

Many patients experience no symptoms at all during the early stages of spinal stenosis. It is only once the condition develops more fully that they become noticeable. Ultimately, they can become so painful that they force people to change their lifestyles to accommodate a reduced range of motion, weakness, instability, or other effects.

Some of the more common symptoms of spinal stenosis include pain the neck, pain in the back, numbness or weakness in the arms or legs, pain radiating down one leg, pain and other problems with the feet, loss of feeling in one or both legs, and even difficultly having sex. Some patients with severe spinal stenosis may also experience loss of bladder or bowel control.

As with many other diseases, there are several different treatment options open to those suffering from spinal stenosis. The ultimate course of action will depend on several factors, including the severity of the symptoms.

Medications: Many different medications can help to alleviate the pain and discomfort associated with spinal stenosis. Over the counter pain relievers can help with early stages and mild symptoms. Older antidepressants have been shown to help reduce pain when taken before bed, and even anti-seizure medication can be used. In a worst-case scenario, opioids may be used, but this treatment is very much out of favor nowadays and should be discouraged.

Physical Therapy: May patients find that they alter their lifestyle due to pain from spinal stenosis. This can cause further loss of muscle tissue and strength. Physical therapy can be used to build strength and endurance, to improve balance, and even to help improve the stability of the spine.

Steroids: Depending on the area of the spine affected, steroid injections may be a potential treatment option. Steroids are generally only used when root irritation and inflammation are the underlying cause of the stenosis.

Decompression: Decompression is the process of using a needle-like tool to excise a portion of a thickened spinal ligament to alleviate pressure on the spine and spinal roots. It may also be called image-guided lumbar decompression or minimally invasive lumbar decompression.

Spinal Surgery: Surgery is used as a last resort, and may include any of a range of types, including:

Stem cells have been used successfully to treat an incredibly wide range of medical conditions in medical studies and laboratory settings. These are the building blocks of the bodys regenerative system they can heal and regenerate damaged cells, and even scar tissue. Stem cells can even transform themselves into other cell types to repair damage when necessary.

As such, these cells may be the ideal treatment option for patients suffering from spinal stenosis. Because stenosis is often caused by inflammation due to damage or irritation, and the growth of scar tissue, these cells hold the potential to address the underlying issue in a way that conventional treatments cannot.

There are two types of stem cells used in medical research studies and laboratory testing today autologous stem cells and allogeneic stem cells but they are not the same. Most studies focus on the use of autologous stem cells. These are harvested from the patients own body, usually from fat tissue, and are then injected into the area where treatment is needed. However, there are significant problems with this method.

Autologous stem cells are as old as the patient, meaning that they have lost much of their energy, and their ability to regenerate and heal has been compromised by accumulated damage and cellular mutations. Because of those mutations, theres even the chance that the patients immune system will attack the cells.

Allogeneic stem cells, on the other hand, are harvested from banked umbilical cord blood and tissue. These are blank cells, meaning that they are essentially invisible to the immune system. Theyre also very energetic, and because of their youth, they have almost limitless regenerative capabilities.

In the end, stem cell therapy may be able to provide relief from the symptoms of spinal stenosis. In some cases, it may be able to halt the progression of the disease. However, no stem cell therapy is approved by the FDA, and all treatments are considered experimental.

Source:

View post:
Spinal Stenosis and Stem Cell Therapy ... - Indiana Polyclinic

MICHIGAN CITY Safe Harbors RoboBlitz Michigan City Robotics Team gathered at the old Mullen School on Saturday in eager anticipation of learning what their mission would be in this years FIRST Robotics Competition.

Nearly 60 other teams met at exactly the same time Saturday in various locations across the state to watch the live announcement, broadcast by FIRST Indiana Robotics, formerly IndianaFIRST Inc.

The name of the 2020 game? Infinite Recharge FIRST Rise, powered by Star Wars: Force for Change.

The theme this year is Star Wars; and theres three different sets of challenges that we have to accomplish in order to get a ranking point, said Michigan City High School sophomore Taylor Denvit.

The first challenge, she said, will be for the robot to shoot foam balls called power cells into a bay or goal.

Second, the robot will have to be able to spin a turntable according to specific instructions.

The third or end-game challenge will be for the robot to operate a teeter-totter-like" balancing rack.

I know from last year that you learn a lot about teamwork and incorporating different skills in these challenges, Denvit said. We learn so much, from mechanical to coding. We use a thing called CAD very intricate. This year, Im just hoping to gain new knowledge and have fun while doing it.

Denvit and the rest of the RoboBlitz Team met in their lab at the A.K. Smith Area Career Center on Monday night to talk strategy, familiarize themselves with the Infinite Recharge game field, and check out the FIRST Indiana Robotics-issued kit of parts, which included motors, batteries, control system components, construction materials and various automation components.

With a limited set of instructions from FIRST Indiana Robotics, the students will work with their mentors over the next six weeks to design, build, program and test robots.

We start from the frame and put everything on there ourselves, said MCHS senior Robert Lemon. We build a lot of what we put on there as well, and its good problem-solving experience. This year, Im hoping to take what we learned from the mistakes we made last year and bring that knowledge to this competition so we can be more successful. But the number one objective is just to have fun.

At the district competition, scheduled for later this semester, each teams robot will be judged based on effectiveness. The collaboration and determination of the students, who will work in alliances made up of three teams apiece, also will be measured.

Renee Becker-Blau, president of FIRST Indiana Robotics, said in a statement Monday, As a leader of this organization, I believe that our future is built better together and our students will improve the world with the skills they learn in this program.

"Between our mentors who teach students through hands-on learning, the problem-solving students do, not only with a robot but also to solve community challenges, and finally the focus of core values during times of intense competition these students are developing all the skills they need to be leaders in our futures.

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) aims to tackle declining enrollment in science, technology, engineering and math programs by using a competition sports-style model in an effort to make STEM learning fun for students.

The organizations mission proved effective in the case of Luke Cloninger, a member of the RoboBlitz Team all four years he was a student at Marquette High School. After graduating in 2015, Cloninger went on to Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, where he began as a mechanical engineering major and ultimately graduated with a degree in computer science.

I dont think I would have been interested in either major without the experience I got here, said Cloninger, who now works for ArcelorMittal in Burns Harbor. I did my first coding here. I helped build the robots. I participated all four years of high school, and that experience definitely motivated me and made me sure that that was what I wanted to do.

This year, Cloninger has returned to work with the RoboBlitz students as a mentor.

The world is changing as far as career prospects, he said. Theres a big shortage of skilled workers, especially at the mill. We dont have enough people to fill engineering positions.

"So, I really hope that people will find their passion here whether it be engineering, marketing, programming, operating a CNC machine or mill. Whatever it may be, this is a place where they can gain the skills that they need to pursue future careers.

More than 3,600 teams consisting of more than 91,000 students and 26,000 professional mentors in 27 countries around the world will participate in FIRST Robotics Competitions this year at the district, state and world levels.

The Michigan City team brought home the title of state champions during the 2018 season.

Read more here:
Robots help them 'find their passion' - News Dispatch

ROCKVILLE, Md., Jan. 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Innovative Cellular Therapeutics (ICT), a clinical stage biotechnology company developing a comprehensive platform of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapies for liquid and solid tumors,today announced the appointment of Christopher Ballas, Ph.D., as Senior Vice President of Manufacturing. Dr. Ballas previously served in senior manufacturing roles at Rocket Pharmaceuticals and WuXi AppTec, with a focus on gene and cell-based therapies.

Our need for quality vector and cell production is growing as we advance our liquid and solid tumor CAR-T programs into the clinic in the United States. We intend to assume full control of our key manufacturing processes, said Larry (Lei) Xiao, Ph.D., ICTs Founder and Chief Executive Officer. Chris is a valued addition to the ICT management team, as he will lead our manufacturing efforts and the expansion of our related infrastructure, Dr. Xiao added.

Dr. Ballas brings more than 20 years experience of working on cell and gene therapies. Most recently, he served as Vice President of Manufacturing for Rocket Pharmaceuticals, a leading publicly traded U.S. gene therapy company. Previously, he served as Senior Director of Process Development and Commercialization for WuXi AppTec, where he was responsible for manufacturing operations and program management for gene therapy clients. Dr. Ballas oversaw key programs including CAR-T, TIL, and classic CD34+ stem cell gene therapy.

Prior to WuXi AppTec, Dr. Ballas ran autologous cell therapy clinical trials for Cook Medical. Dr. Ballas also held several roles at the Indiana University School of Medicine, where he developed the initial, scalable, clinical production capabilities for lentiviral vectors at the IU Vector Production Facility. As a faculty member, Dr. Ballas developed his own research programs targeting stem cells for gene therapy, which resulted in the collaborative development of an ultra-high throughput microinjection device with colleagues at the University of California Riverside (US9885059). In the past, Dr. Ballas served as an expert consultant to numerous companies on gene therapy and the production and use of viral vectors for gene therapies with contributions to Chemistry, Manufacturing and Control (CMC), regulatory filings, and regulatory meetings.

Dr. Ballas has a Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Pathology from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and was a Childrens Brittle Bone Foundation fellow during his post-doctoral fellowship at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

Dr. Ballas said, I have a passion for solving the practical challenges associated with producing and using viral vectors to deliver genes and create differentiated therapies. ICTs CAR-T platform is unique and compelling, and I look forward to leveraging my experience to optimize and expand our manufacturing capability to produce world-class products with the potential to transform cancer immunotherapy.

About Innovative Cellular TherapeuticsInnovative Cellular Therapeutics (ICT) is a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on the development of cellular immunotherapies for the treatment of liquid and solid tumors. ICT has achieved promising preclinical and clinical results in late-stage leukemia and lymphoma with its next generation CAR-T constructs. ICTs lead candidate in the United States, ICTCAR014, is a next generation CD19-targeting ArmoredCARTM T cell therapy that expresses a dominant negative PD-1 (dnPD-1) protein to block immunosuppression by cancer cells. ICTCAR014 has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Investigational New Drug (IND) application clearance and is being developed for patients with relapsed or refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), including PD-L1 positive patients. In solid tumor, ICT has compelling human data from IRB-approved proof-of-concept trials in China demonstrating the viability of its proprietary CoupledCARTM technology platform. For more information, please visitwww.ictbio.com.

See original here:
Innovative Cellular Therapeutics Appoints Cell and Gene Therapy Manufacturing Expert Christopher Ballas, Ph.D., as SVP of Manufacturing - BioSpace

Organizations are using the microgravity environment of the International Space Station to develop unique new products. One of them is Kentucky-based Space Tango. Well meet its chairman and co-founder and the woman who manages its Tangolab. Also, a NASA rep who works with these pioneers. Time magazine has named the Planetary Societys LightSail its aerospace invention of the year! Society CEO Bill Nye is grateful to all who have been part of the project. Bruce Betts provides a solar sail update at the top of this weeks Whats Up, and wishes Mat a happy 17th anniversary of Planetary Radio.

What is the largest known object in our solar system that, as of now, has NOT been visited by a spacecraft? Flybys count. The Sun does not.

What is the new or relatively new name for the most distant object visited by a spacecraft?

The winner will be revealed next week.

The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity was the first spacecraft to see a planetary transit (Mercury) from another planet.

Mat Kaplan: [00:00:00] Hemp in space, how about beer? That's this Week on Planetary Radio.

Welcome. I'm at Kaplan of the Planetary Society with more of the human adventure across our solar system and beyond. Kentucky based Space Tango is actually conducting International Space Station research on far more than the catchy items in my opening line. We'll talk with co-founder Kris Kimel and others about the burgeoning effort to find the killer app or product for production at Zero-G. Happy Anniversary to us whose stats will help me celebrate 17 years of Planetary Radio in this week's what's up. He'll also give us a LightSail 2 update.

LightSail is also why we'll be joined by Planetary Society CEO, Bill Nye the planetary guy right after we check in with the downlink. The Planetary Society's weekly collection of the top headlines in Space [00:01:00] exploration presented by our editorial director Jason Davis. The insight lander on Mars keeps plugging or pounding away with help from the crafts robotic arm. The long trouble Mole hit probe is once again hammering itself below the surface of the Red Planet. Boeing has put at CST 100 Starliner spacecraft on top of an atlas five rocket. With luck, it will make its first voyage to the ISS in December. Science human crew, I'll also note that SpaceX hopes to fly a test of the Crew Dragon capsules escape system next month. Meanwhile, a prototype of that company Starship blew its top a few days ago. SpaceX says the mishap shouldn't delay development of the huge vehicle.

Lastly, scientists have for the first time directly detected water vapor above Europa using the Keck Observatory in Hawaii. The finding support prior research indicating that there may be transient [00:02:00] plumes erupting from the moon's subsurface ocean. Though other explanations are also possible. Go Europa Clipper. For more on these and other stories, including great links, visit planetary.org/downlink. Now to Bill Nye, who is celebrating recognition of the Planetary Society's LightSail solar sail project by the leading news magazine in the US. Bill, not that we needed Time Magazine to acknowledge the, uh... our pride or the success of LightSail 2 but, but it doesn't hurt, does it?

Bill Nye: No, no, it's pretty cool. So Time Magazine's inventions of the year, we are the aerospace invention of the year. It's certainly a heck of a thing. You know, and it's of the year, of, of a year. This thing depend when you start counting is you know, 42 years in the making. And so, uh, it's really gratifying, you know. And for those members who are listening or people who are not yet members, you know, [00:03:00] we flew Cosmos 1 in 2005 but it ended up in the ocean. And then we had an opportunity, uh, four years ago to fly LightSail 1 and we just took it because you just don't know when you're gonna get an opportunity to, to get on a NASA Flight or an ELaNa, Educational Launch of Nanosatellites opportunity so we took that. But LightSail 2 we were able to get to a high enough altitude, 720 kilometers where we could prove that the thing works. Is just... It's really gratifying, Mat. It's just cool as heck.

Mat Kaplan: You mentioned our members, but other people as well. I hear the number 50,000 bandied about.

Bill Nye: Yeah. That's what we say. 50,000 people contributed to LightSail... the LightSail program. Most of them were more recent LightSail 2 when we had Kickstarter awareness and so on. So, thank you all. Really, Mat, another extraordinary aspect of it is, I mentioned Kickstarter, that was one way we raise money, but the main way is just through membership in the Planetary Society. We did [00:04:00] our first $7 million over, over, uh, it depends how you count, over the last 12 years or what have you. If you were gonna do that at a regular space agency like NASA, or ISA, or CNES, or French Space Agency, it would cost about, people estimate about 20 times as much. 140, 150 million to do this project to fly two Solar sails in Earth orbit.

And the reason we did it so much more cheaply is we took risks. And we also do not have continuous coverage around the world. We don't have the Deep Space Network, we just have Hawaii, San Luis Obispo, California, Purdue in Indiana and Georgia Tech in Georgia in the US. And so it's very cool. We pulled it off.

Mat Kaplan: And I am very proud. I am, I'm proud to be a member who stood behind this, who stands behind this and I... I'm proud to be part of the organization, if not a direct part of the team that, uh, that put it up [00:05:00] there.

Bill Nye: Yeah. I'm not a direct part of the team either, Mat, I'm, once in a while I'd say, "Okay, write a check."

Mat Kaplan: [laughs]

Bill Nye: No. So the, the problems that these guys and gals overcame is really, really exciting. You know, and, and pers... the whole thing is so romantic, you know. If you're keeping track, it goes back to Johannes Kepler in 1607 looking at what we now call Comet Halley... Halley's Comet before Edmond Halley ever saw it. He noticed this comet in the night sky, and he noticed that the tail, noticed very carefully that the tail always pointed away from the sun. And Kepler, not really having any knowledge of photons or modern physics of light, he just reason that there's something about the sun that's creating this tail or these tails, the ion tail and the dust tail. Then 400 years later, we were able to exploit that feature of sunlight to fly. It's just exciting.

And so we [00:06:00] hope, as, as the goal of the Planetary Society this... democratizes spaceflight that other organizations, universities will use Solar sails to go to other destinations in the solar system.

Mat Kaplan: Or perhaps beyond.

Bill Nye: Whoo. Yeah, it really is the only technology anybody's thought of right now that could take you to another star system and that is you build a Solar sail, uh, similar in shape to LightSail 2 and you give it a push with a la- with a laser or a group of lasers either on earth or on the far side of the moon, has been discussed, where you'd have solar panels to make electricity to crank huge lasers and give this thing a push. And so the existing drawings, or plans, or artists concepts of inter [inaudible 00:06:48] or flight, uh, always... we always have a square sail very similar to LightSail. You know, you converge on the same answer, right? Do you want booms, things to hold the sail rigid, [00:07:00] or would you rely on just the spin of a sail. Just the centripetal centrifugal action of, uh, something on the, on the corners or the ci- circumference of the sail... perimeter of the sail. And, uh, now right now everybody's thinking is we... booms are good. Booms ar, are efficient.

Mat Kaplan: I would say that LightSail has had a good part in helping to convince people that those booms are a, are a, a, a good way to go.

Bill Nye: Or a worthy way to go. So everybody if you haven't done it, go to our control panel-

Mat Kaplan: Mm-hmm [affirmative]-

Bill Nye: Our mission, mission control, rather, on our website, planetary.org, and you'll find when you can go looking for it in the night sky, in the evening sky, the morning sky. It's really something... when... it's just a dot, it's just a pinprick of light, but it's, it's our.of light people built by citizens around the world who just thought that this was a worthy technology to pursue, and this... there are a couple missions [00:08:00] that a future LightSail style spacecraft is ideal for climate monitoring from above the poles, and, uh, the search for asteroids and especially monitoring solar weather. So there'll be a coronal mass ejection event on the sun. And this stream of particles is hurtling toward our planet that would damage... excessively damage, will create excessive damage to our satellites, to our space assets.

And with the solar sail station keeping with the earth at an inferior orbit, say around the orbit of Venus 0.7 astronomical units from the sun, you could get a head start. You could get three, three and a half, four hours warning against the stream of charged particles. In 2012 there's a very serious event that mised the earth by about two weeks.

Mat Kaplan: Mm-hmm [affirmative]-

Bill Nye: It, it slashed through Earth's orbit two weeks behind us. So we, uh, we... this is a real practical use of this technology along with the [00:09:00] romance.

Mat Kaplan: And I will say with a wink of my eye as we close here, more news approaching, more honors approaching-

Bill Nye: Oh, yes. Yes, your eyes are, are a wink.

Mat Kaplan: [laughs]

Bill Nye: That's cool. It's... But you guys in Time Magazine, come on, it's like Person of the Year, except it's our spacecraft with 99 other cool inventions. Carry on, Mat.

Mat Kaplan: Thank you, Bill. We will. Thanks for, uh-

Bill Nye: Let's keep them flying.

Mat Kaplan: Thanks for the leadership. That's Bill Nye. He's the CEO of the Planetary Society, which, uh, stands behind and under LightSail 2, which, uh, could be sailing on the light of the sun over your head right now.

Another SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule will head for the International Space Station in early December. It will carry a metric ton of science experiments to that national laboratory. One of them will contain barley seeds provided by none other than Anheuser-Busch Brewer of Budweiser and [00:10:00] many other beers. The fascinating story behind this and other efforts is what brought me in early October to the Kentucky headquarters of Space Tango. My host was the company's co-founder and chairman, Kris Kimel. Kris, it's pretty fun to be here at the home of Space Tango in, uh, Lexington, Kentucky. What is happening here? I see a whole bunch of workbenches.

Kris Kimel: Well, fundamentally there's... everybody's preparing for the next launch. Space Tango, of course, is really a research design and manufacturing company that just doesn't do work on the planet Earth. Uh, so everybody is busy preparing for, uh, a series of missions and experiments that will go up on, on the next launch, which I believe is going to be in, in late October. Um, we'll... we generally launch now about, about, uh, six times a year. So it's always very active. Uh, a lot of interesting things going on, and what you're basically around is all the, uh, engineering capabilities as well as some of the biotechnology.

Mat Kaplan: You know, the line from, uh, Captain James Kirk. He said, "Yeah, I'm from Iowa. I just work up there."

Kris Kimel: That's [00:11:00] basically it. Yeah. You know, I tell people about... when I give talks often, I say that or if I'm talking about some of the biot... biomedical things that we do that are really interesting. I sometimes say, you know, "What if the next big... Have you ever thought about it, the next big biomedical breakthrough isn't on the planet Earth?" Just to give them a sense of, yeah, its space it's exotic. But on the other hand, it's really just a... it's another physics environment. And we along with others are now be a- able to exploit that physics environment, use that physics environment for trying to answer different kinds of questions and look for different kinds of solutions.

Mat Kaplan: You're the chair... chairman, but you're also one of the co-founders. Why did you wanna create a company like this?

Kris Kimel: I would like to say that, oh, um, it all started when I was five years old, um, but it didn't have... I think a lot of people my, my, uh, my interest in my career have been very circuitous. Um, at one point I was president of the Kentucky Science Technology Corporation. Um, and that's where the genesis for this, this kind of organization started to, to percolate and we [00:12:00] created... the first organization we created was something called Kentucky Space, which was an independent nonprofit subsidiary. And, um, actually we started thinking we were going to, to build, um, small satellites. CubeSat.

Mat Kaplan: Mm-hmm [affirmative]-

Kris Kimel: Is which was where we started. We started will help high-altitude balloons, then moved to suborbital and into orbital. Um, actually Twyman Clements, who's now the CEO of Space Tango was actually hired, hired as a student to work at Kentucky space. So he's, he's been there since the... he's the other co-founder and has been there since the beginning. It kind of evolved.

And as we started to go into the, the CubeSat, uh, arena, and then had, had an opportunity to build something for Space Station, it was just one of those things where I think our curiosity, um, and the opportunity kind of converged and then we realized that low Earth orbit and microgravity, uh, may be a, a revolutionary, uh, new pathway for all sorts of no... new discoveries with materials and, and particularly in the, in the biomedical area for applications on earth in addition to no space medicine, which is, you [00:13:00] know, how do we keep people alive in space? Which is obviously a, a big issue too. But really our focus has been more on how do we, you know, utilize microgravity for... to benefit people on earth.

Mat Kaplan: Kentucky Bourbon Thoroughbred's, nothing against this town. It's a lovely town. But Lexington, Kentucky is not the first place most people think of in terms of developing or exploring space. And yet you've been able to build this company here. I mean, it seems to say something about the progress that we've made in space development, space utilization.

Kris Kimel: Well, I think clearly over the, particularly the past 10 years, five to 10 years, the spa- you know, the space industry, commercial space research has, has really opened up. I think a couple things have been driving that that made it more difficult for places like Lexington or people here and other places to get involved. One was the access to space. Um, I, I think since actually I think, at the time, it was controversial, but I think NASA's decision to scrub The Shuttle, uh, and then move to a different vehicle and encourage the private [00:14:00] sector to get involved, really opened things up. Uh, it was very difficult for anyone to compete with The Shuttle because of the cost and et cetera. I think that opened things up.

The other thing I think it's really been... is revolutionary, uh, is just the relentless and continued, uh, miniaturization and develop of new technologies.

Mat Kaplan: Mm-hmm [affirmative]-

Kris Kimel: Everything that we do here most everything is, um, is very small, very robust, very technical, and that ability to develop very, very small technologies, uh, and be able to partner with a NASA, or an Orbital, or SpaceX or some of the other vehicle, uh, launch vehicle companies to put things it's ve... it's really something that was not available 10 years ago. And because of that, I mean, we have a lot of people here in Lexington, like everywhere else in the country in the world that have great ideas and are very smart. I think a lot of things that, that may be kept us from creating, uh, synergy here in the past wasn't the lack of ideas. It wasn't a lack of people. It was just lack of the infrastructure and ability to do that.

Um, you know, you needed big stuff, you needed to be, you know, [00:15:00] you needed to, to handle... to launch capability or be near a NASA facility. And I think that's all changed. And that's opened a lot of opportunity up for places like this.

Mat Kaplan: What is the infrastructure? I mean, what have all these developments allowed you to create on the International Space Station so that you can basically host this work?

Kris Kimel: Uh, I think it's a lot of things. Uh, our, our engineers probably have or have a better deeper sense of some of the specifics. But clearly, we now know... we know, um, that, you know, when you move into microgravity, all biological and physical systems are scrambled. Uh, and that scrambling process, uh, opens up a whole new, uh, opportunity, one, to understand, uh, how things operate not only in microgravity, but they act differently there. Is it, you know, sometimes it tells us something about the system, how it operates on earth that we may not have seen on Earth. Just very briefly, we did an experiment a year, a year or two ago with Tuft University dealing with planarian flatworm is which our major focus were regenerative medicine. Those of you who didn't sleep [00:16:00] through high school sciences, I did.

Mat Kaplan: [laughs]

Kris Kimel: Know that when you cut them in threes, they regenerate heads, tails, and the midsection grows a head and tail. So they were very interested in one big, you know, focuses. Understand that mechanism. So we put, you know, we put 15 in space and then cut 15 other and cut them. And when we came back, they saw some really interesting differences. And one of the most intrig- intriguing differences they saw is that one of the mid sections had grown to heads. And I believe their offspring had two heads. So that's one of those things where you go, "Gosh, wh- wh... how did that happen?" And we don't know.

A lot of times people will ask us when we're doing experiments, "What do you think you're gonna see when you send something..." we planned experiments, for example, uh, plants that are the basis for chemo drugs, looking for chemistry changes or any kind of alterations. We've done, you know, things with stem cells, brain organoids. And people often ask, "What do you think you're gonna see?" And the answer most of the time is, "We don't know." Uh, this is very much a frontier and that's why we're going to space. But that microgravity environment, because of its very nature is, is opening up and allowing us and [00:17:00] others into a different room to look for different kinds of solutions that really we haven't been able to do in the past.

Mat Kaplan: Of course, that brain organoid work, we're also talking about because of the folks at UCSD that you're working with. But I'm curious about some of the other... some of these other experiments that have been set up. Uh, what's this thing about hemp?

Kris Kimel: Well, uh, we're a curious company. People understand that one of the aspects of, of Space Tango is that we, we don't see ourselves simply as a service company or a transactional company. I mean, that's a lot of what we do right now. Uh, but we also see ourselves as an idea company. We see ourselves as a company also pushing the envelope with our own ideas or ideas in partnership with others, to try to figure out new ways and new things, new ideas. We became, uh, very interested last year in looking at some of the potential biomedical applications primarily of things like cannabinoids, and CBD, and, and things of that nature and did a lot of research on, on CBD and of course, hemp being the non psychoactive cousin of THC, [00:18:00] and discovered, discovered or you know, uncovered in our mind, some... we thought are some very interesting opportunities to look at the properties of cannabinoids in a Zero-G environment.

Um, for example there's over, I think approximately 130 cannabinoids actually. And we really could only access wi- with any degree of accuracy and volume, a co... just a couple [inaudible 00:18:22] a THC and CBD I think, CBA or CB other things, other... a few others. But... So, one of the things we're really interested in is do we see which we have seen in the past with other planets perhaps epigenetic changes in the space that might turn on some of those genes that might, uh, allow us to see or turn on or activate, uh, other kinds of, of, uh, cannabinoids, uh, et cetera. Do we see differences in the plants and the chemistry and the genes. And so our really interest is looking at cannabinoids, looking at the hemp plant in that environment as a possible, understand is a possible pathway to enhancing the biomedical potential.

Mat Kaplan: Mm-hmm [affirmative]-

Kris Kimel: [00:19:00] Uh, and health and, and wellness potential of CBD and other cannabinoids and other chemistry that are part of the hemp plant.

Mat Kaplan: So it's 95 degrees here today in Lexington, I maybe therefore I'm not that sorry that we're not gonna make it out to a field just out of town. You showed me some pictures and maybe we'll post one of those on the show page. Uh, were you doing a little bit of cultivation.

Kris Kimel: Yeah. Um, Space Tango is a small company, uh, which is great. And when you're in a small company, uh, you have to do a lot of things. And, uh, when we brought the hemp seeds back one of the things we did we planted them in a greenhouse, uh, and then we grew them out of the greenhouse and evaluated them, uh, at certain, certain intervals. And then we're gonna put them in the field and then once they've grown out in the field, and then harvest them from the field at a particular, uh, interval and then do genetic and chemistry analysis and see what, what, uh, might evolve from that point.

And, um, as luck would have it, last week, I got a call on Tuesday from one of our... Rob Gabbert who works with us and said, "Hey, we got to get 60 plants out in the [00:20:00] field by Friday." And I said, "Well, Who's we?" And he said, "Well, I guess it's you and me since the engineers are busy preparing for the next flight and we don't have, you know, people out there."

So, um, I put on my, my, my jeans and work shirt and Rob and I went out and dug and planted, uh, 60 holes and planted out, uh, 60, uh, of the hemp plants that had been in the, in the greenhouse that he had both the control group and the plants that had been, uh, the dry from seed that had been in space. Uh, and I will say, like a lot of places in this country, it hasn't rained here in about two months. So the, the ground was rock hard.

Mat Kaplan: Mm-hmm [affirmative]-

Kris Kimel: Uh, but that's what we had to do. And that's like a small company. You do what you have to do. There's no such thing as a small company as, that's not a good use of my time.

Mat Kaplan: Such other duties as maybe a sign.

Kris Kimel: That's right.

Mat Kaplan: I- I'm curious about the relationship with NASA. Because obviously, the space agency had to enable these things to happen on the ISS. How does that work for you?

Kris Kimel: NASA has been an, an amazing partner with Kentucky Space and Space Tango from the very beginning, as they have with a lot of other emerging space companies. We fortunately have [00:21:00] something called a Space Act Agreement with NASA that basically, uh, gives us access to the station, it gives us launch opportunities in partnership with NASA and some of the launch, launch companies. And so they're very much, uh, very much a... an ongoing full time really partner o- of what we do. Um, and wi- without NASA and some of their new innovative policies, we certainly couldn't... wouldn't able to be achieving what we do. And, uh, those Space Act Agreements and other kinds of, of collaborations that we have in NASA are, are absolutely essential. Not only to I think Space Tango, uh, feature, but really the, the, the commercialization of space in general.

Mat Kaplan: It sure seems like all of this is still happening at a pretty embryonic level. Do you see enormous potential? Do you expect to see, well, I'll call it the killer app, but it might be a killer product or do you think that microgravity is going to pay off basically? Not just in terms of a profit for you and your partners, but in, in terms of, uh, helping us down here on the surface of [00:22:00] earth.

Kris Kimel: Absolutely. Um, a lot of times its Space Tango we talk about. You know, every time we've, we have been able to get a hold of, or, uh, capture a physics environment, a new physics environment, um, harness it, whether it be, uh, electromagnetism or the vacuum, it has led to a couple of things. It has inevitably led to exponential growth in new ideas and, and applications and, and significant capital creation. And really what we're talking about here is the fact that we are now at the beginning of being able to harness the physical environment of microgravity in a real way.

You know, on Earth, you can't mimic it on Earth, you know, drop towers, you know, the vomit comet, you get a few minutes, but-

Mat Kaplan: Mm-hmm [affirmative]-

Kris Kimel: ... you really don't get any kind of prolonged exposure like we do now. And yes, we're on the, we're on the cusp of that. But just like other physics environments, we fully expect and anticipate that this too, uh, we will look back upon, um, in the years ahead and realize that this was a, a monumental breakthrough that has led to all [00:23:00] sorts of new understandings and improvement in, in people's lives.

Mat Kaplan: We like pioneers on this show. Kris. Thank you. Exciting stuff. Best of success.

Kris Kimel: Thank you.

Mat Kaplan: That's Kris Kimmel. By the way, we'll learn more about those so called brain organoids Kris mentioned in an upcoming episode of Planetary Radio, stick around, we're about to meet the woman who manages all of the amazing research taken on by Space Tango and its clients.

Casey Dreier: I know you're a fan of space because you're listening to Planetary Radio right now. But if you want to take that extra step to be not just a fan, but an advocate, I hope you'll join me Casey Dreier, the Chief Advocate here at the Planetary Society at our annual Day of Action this February 9th and 10th in Washington, DC. That's when members from across the country come to DC and meet with members of Congress face to face and advocate for space. To learn more, go to planetary.org/dayofaction.

Mat Kaplan: Back to Space Tango.

Gentry Barnett: My name is Gentry Barnett and [00:24:00] I am the TangoLab Program Manager at Space Tango.

Mat Kaplan: And do a lot of the biomedical stuff here right here.

Gentry Barnett: I am a biomedical, uh, engineer by trade. Yes. And so I, I, I oversee all the payloads in this role. For each mission we'll select a couple of mi... payloads for that mission depending on payload readiness, uh, and some of the logistics they need for each flight. So that, that kind of determines what payloads go on a mission. Uh, yes, and then I will oversee all those, the development, the engineering, uh, a- and making sure those get to space.

Mat Kaplan: So as our listeners know, I'm a gear head at least that's what my boss, the, the science guy says. Uh, this is kind of heavenly. And tell me about this amazing collection of circuit boards, and tubes, and, and a bag of seeds. What's going on here?

Gentry Barnett: So this is actually a payload that's going up on our next mission. This is a payload with, uh, Anheuser-Busch. Um, what they're looking at or the seeds you're looking a, um, are barley seeds.

Mat Kaplan: Uh-huh.

Gentry Barnett: And, and they're really exploring with this payload, the malting process. [00:25:00] Uh, wh- which consists of three different phases: Steeping, uh, germination, and kilning. Normally, obviously, they do this in a much larger environment. Um-

Mat Kaplan: They make a lot of beer.

Gentry Barnett: Yes, they do. Uh, so we, we went out to their facilities in Fort Collins, Colorado, uh, to learn this process. So what we do, uh, uh, air space thing, uh, with the engineers is, is we really miniaturize that process, uh, into something, um, slightly bigger than a, than a shoe box, uh, which we call a CubeLab. Uh, and this is a self-contained environment, uh, that we automate from our offices in Lexington.

Mat Kaplan: They come to you Anheuser-Busch, "We would like to do something about malting, part of the beer mak... process of making beer in space in microgravity. You figure out how to make that work on the ISS.

Gentry Barnett: Yes, that's exactly what we do. A- as an engineer i- in this, uh, specific company, we have to have a very quick, uh, learning process. So, yes, we went out there, we, we went over the process that they normally [00:26:00] do. Uh, a- and then we have to, we have to miniaturize that. We have to learn each component of that. Uh, a- and then we'll set up what, what you're seeing in front of you, uh, this is the payload sprawled out, uh, i- in more of a benchtop prototype fashion, uh, so that we can see every functional piece of how this is working and, and follow along at e- at every step of the way.

Um, and what you'll see in the bag over here is actually the, the end of the steeping process. The seeds have actually developed these acro spires which is tunney, uh, growth at the end o- of one end of the seed. Uh, and that's exactly what we were looking for. So then tomorrow we'll, we'll go into the germination phase. Uh, and then the kilning where we will actually draw these seeds out and the end result will be malt that will send to them and they'll do a chemical profile and compare that... the different chemical profile and the, the taste profile, uh, that results from this malt. Uh, and then obviously we'll do the same thing for the result and malt that comes back from the Space Station.

Mat Kaplan: So this will all go into, I assume some kind of a rack mount unit and the self contained? I mean, [00:27:00] will astronauts have to tend this or will it pretty much take care of itself.

Gentry Barnett: Uh, no, once we, once we, uh, put the tops on our CubeLabs they become a, a self contained environment. So really the only crew interaction that we have is moving it from the rocket that takes it up. So either from the dragon or the Cygnus module, uh, will take that out and install it into our TangoLab facilities, um, on the Space Station that are in EXPRESS rack. And from that point forward, they will be fully automated. And we control that from our up station, um, here in Lexington upstairs.

Mat Kaplan: Is this experiment that has already been completed at least the first phase of it with so called brain organoids that we're also talking about today. Is it essentially similar to this? Where they, they came to you from UCSD and you had to figure out how to make it go into space?

Gentry Barnett: Yes, absolutely. So with the UCSD project, the brain, the organoids, they're studying how the brain develops, uh, in a microgravity environment under these different kinds of stresses that are normally [00:28:00] seen on Earth, obviously. What we have to do, um, as Space Tango is we have to take the environment that they have, uh, in their labs at UCSD, you know, how they normally keep these cells alive and do that in a much smaller, automated, fully sealed environment. Um, so we, we work directly, uh, you know, one on one with that team to understand their different requirements, uh, to explain our different requirements and really come together to develop this very unique, uh, minilab system that's put in our CubeLab.

Mat Kaplan: From beer to brains, with all kinds of other stuff in between, seems like a pretty fun job.

Gentry Barnett: Absolutely. It is a lot of fun. What's unique about everybody that works here and really all of our customers, um, is we're willing to discover. And we're willing to open the doors to whatever we may find, whatever we may not find. Uh, we're, we're always looking for another answer. We're always asking a different question. That drive for innovation, the drive for something new, just asking the question of, of what could happen, [00:29:00] uh, that's really what makes this job so interesting, and I think what brings a lot of our customers to our doors.

Mat Kaplan: Have you seen enough that you have confidence as Kris Kimel does in the potential of microgravity for developing manufacturing products that will be unlike any we can create on earth?

Gentry Barnett: 100%, yes. There's, there's really endless potential here. Uh, and again, it's just being... having that willingness to ask these questions. Every question you ask may not have this profound answer that you were expecting, uh, that these unique, I guess, side questions that you could also ask along the way, tend to bring results that you weren't expecting.

Mat Kaplan: Mm-hmm [affirmative]-

Continue reading here:
Seeking the Killer Space App with Space Tango - The Planetary Society

Since ancient times, herbs have been used as natural treatments for various illnesses, including viral infections.

Due to their concentration of potent plant compounds, many herbs help fight viruses and are favored by practitioners of natural medicine.

At the same time, the benefits of some herbs are only supported by limited human research, so you should take them with a grain of salt.

Here are 15 herbs with powerful antiviral activity.

Oregano is a popular herb in the mint family thats known for its impressive medicinal qualities. Its plant compounds, which include carvacrol, offer antiviral properties.

In a test-tube study, both oregano oil and isolated carvacrol reduced the activity of murine norovirus (MNV) within 15 minutes of exposure (1).

MNV is highly contagious and the primary cause of stomach flu in humans. It is very similar to human norovirus and used in scientific studies because human norovirus is notoriously difficult to grow in laboratory settings (2).

Oregano oil and carvacrol have also been shown to exhibit antiviral activity against herpes simplex virus type-1 (HSV-1); rotavirus, a common cause of diarrhea in infants and children; and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which causes respiratory infections (3, 4, 5).

Also a member of the mint family, sage is an aromatic herb that has long been used in traditional medicine to treat viral infections (6).

The antiviral properties of sage are mostly attributed to compounds called safficinolide and sage one, which are found in the leaves and stem of the plant (7).

Test-tube research indicates that this herb may fight human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), which can lead to AIDS. In one study, sage extract significantly inhibited HIV activity by preventing the virus from entering target cells (8).

Sage has also been shown to combat HSV-1 and Indiana vesiculovirus, which infects farm animals like horses, cows, and pigs (9, 10).

Many types of basil, including the sweet and holy varieties, may fight certain viral infections.

For example, one test-tube study found that sweet basil extracts, including compounds like apigenin and ursolic acid, exhibited potent effects against herpes viruses, hepatitis B, and enterovirus (11).

Holy basil, also known as tulsi, has been shown to increase immunity, which may help fight viral infections.

In a 4-week study in 24 healthy adults, supplementing with 300 mg of holy basil extract significantly increased levels of helper T cells and natural killer cells, both of which are immune cells that help protect and defend your body from viral infections (12).

Fennel is a licorice-flavored plant that may fight certain viruses.

A test-tube study showed that fennel extract exhibited strong antiviral effects against herpes viruses and parainfluenza type-3 (PI-3), which causes respiratory infections in cattle (13).

Whats more, trans-anethole, the main component of fennel essential oil, has demonstrated powerful antiviral effects against herpes viruses (14).

According to animal research, fennel may also boost your immune system and decrease inflammation, which may likewise help combat viral infections (15).

Garlic is a popular natural remedy for a wide array of conditions, including viral infections.

In a study in 23 adults with warts caused by human papillomavirus (HPV), applying garlic extract to affected areas twice daily eliminated the warts in all of them after 12 weeks (16, 17).

Additionally, older test-tube studies note that garlic may have antiviral activity against influenza A and B, HIV, HSV-1, viral pneumonia, and rhinovirus, which causes the common cold. However, current research is lacking (18).

Animal and test-tube studies indicate that garlic enhances immune system response by stimulating protective immune cells, which may safeguard against viral infections (19).

Lemon balm is a lemony plant thats commonly used in teas and seasonings. Its also celebrated for its medicinal qualities.

Lemon balm extract is a concentrated source of potent essential oils and plant compounds that have antiviral activity (20).

Test-tube research has shown that it has antiviral effects against avian influenza (bird flu), herpes viruses, HIV-1, and enterovirus 71, which can cause severe infections in infants and children (8, 20, 21, 22, 23).

Peppermint is known to have powerful antiviral qualities and commonly added to teas, extracts, and tinctures meant to naturally treat viral infections.

Its leaves and essential oils contain active components, including menthol and rosmarinic acid, which have antiviral and anti-inflammatory activity (24).

In a test-tube study, peppermint-leaf extract exhibited potent antiviral activity against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and significantly decreased levels of inflammatory compounds (25).

Rosemary is frequently used in cooking but likewise has therapeutic applications due to its numerous plant compounds, including oleanolic acid (26).

Oleanolic acid has displayed antiviral activity against herpes viruses, HIV, influenza, and hepatitis in animal and test-tube studies (27).

Plus, rosemary extract has demonstrated antiviral effects against herpes viruses and hepatitis A, which affects the liver (28, 29).

Echinacea is one of the most popularly used ingredients in herbal medicine due to its impressive health-promoting properties. Many parts of the plant, including its flowers, leaves, and roots, are used for natural remedies.

In fact, Echinacea purpurea, a variety that produces cone-shaped flowers, was used by Native Americans to treat a wide array of conditions, including viral infections (30).

Several test-tube studies suggest that certain varieties of echinacea, including E. pallida, E. angustifolia, and E. purpurea, are particularly effective at fighting viral infections like herpes and influenza (31).

Notably, E. purpurea is thought to have immune-boosting effects as well, making it particularly useful for treating viral infections (30).

Sambucus is a family of plants also called elder. Elderberries are made into a variety of products, such as elixirs and pills, that are used to naturally treat viral infections like the flu and common cold.

A study in mice determined that concentrated elderberry juice suppressed influenza virus replication and stimulated immune system response (32).

Whats more, in a review of 4 studies in 180 people, elderberry supplements were found to substantially reduce upper respiratory symptoms caused by viral infections (33).

Licorice has been used in traditional Chinese medicine and other natural practices for centuries.

Glycyrrhizin, liquiritigenin, and glabridin are just some of the active substances in licorice that have powerful antiviral properties (34).

Test-tube studies demonstrate that licorice root extract is effective against HIV, RSV, herpes viruses, and severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (SARS-CoV), which causes a serious type of pneumonia (35, 36, 37).

Astragalus is a flowering herb popular in traditional Chinese medicine. It boasts Astragalus polysaccharide (APS), which has significant immune-enhancing and antiviral qualities (38).

Test-tube and animal studies show that astragalus combats herpes viruses, hepatitis C, and avian influenza H9 virus (39, 40, 41, 42).

Plus, test-tube studies suggest that APS may protect human astrocyte cells, the most abundant type of cell in the central nervous system, from infection with herpes (38).

Ginger products, such as elixirs, teas, and lozenges, are popular natural remedies and for good reason. Ginger has been shown to have impressive antiviral activity thanks to its high concentration of potent plant compounds.

Test-tube research demonstrates that ginger extract has antiviral effects against avian influenza, RSV, and feline calicivirus (FCV), which is comparable to human norovirus (43, 44, 45)

Additionally, specific compounds in ginger, such as gingerols and zingerone, have been found to inhibit viral replication and prevent viruses from entering host cells (46).

Ginseng, which can be found in Korean and American varieties, is the root of plants in the Panax family. Long used in traditional Chinese medicine, it has been shown to be particularly effective at fighting viruses.

In animal and test-tube studies, Korean red ginseng extract has exhibited significant effects against RSV, herpes viruses, and hepatitis A (47, 48, 49).

Plus, compounds in ginseng called ginsenosides have antiviral effects against hepatitis B, norovirus, and coxsackieviruses, which are associated with several serious diseases including an infection of the brain called meningoencephalitis (49).

Dandelions are widely regarded as weeds but have been studied for multiple medicinal properties, including potential antiviral effects.

Test-tube research indicates that dandelion may combat hepatitis B, HIV, and influenza (50, 51, 52).

Moreover, one test-tube study noted that dandelion extract inhibited the replication of dengue, a mosquito-borne virus that causes dengue fever. This disease, which can be fatal, triggers symptoms like high fever, vomiting, and muscle pain (53, 54).

Herbs have been used as natural remedies since ancient times.

Common kitchen herbs, such as basil, sage, and oregano, as well as lesser-known herbs like astragalus and sambucus, have powerful antiviral effects against numerous viruses that cause infections in humans.

Its easy to add these powerful herbs to your diet by using them in your favorite recipes or making them into teas.

However, keep in mind that most research has been conducted in test tubes and animals using concentrated extracts. Therefore, its unclear whether small doses of these herbs would have the same effects.

If you decide to supplement with extracts, tinctures, or other herbal products, consult your healthcare provider to ensure safe usage.

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15 Antiviral Herbs to Keep You Healthy - Healthline