Category Archives: Molecular Medicine

You take both research projects below.

You complete a mini research project to equip you with the skills and understanding required to complete the six-month research project. The mini research project is taken over two and a half weeks, either in pairs or groups of three, providing experience of a hands-on approach to experimental work.

In a set frame of scientific theme and of available samples, equipment and reagents, you first define your working hypothesis. You subsequently answer your framed scientific questions by researching and developing the most adapted protocols, performing all the experimental work, computing and critically analysing your own data.

The mini research project will be undertaken in dedicated teaching laboratories at the Hammersmith Campus.

You complete your six-month research project in the Faculty of Medicine at Hammersmith, St Mary's, Charing Cross or South Kensington campuses (subject to approval).

Each student will be assigned a research project and will be selectedon the basis that you can reasonably be expected to make an original contribution to the chosen area of research within the time period allotted.

You are provided with training in academic research and acquisition of practical skills, including the design of a research project, planning of experiments, dealing with practical problems, recording, presenting and analysing data. Time will be allocated towards the end of the project period to write a report of 10,000 words.

Read more:
MSc Molecular Medicine | Study | Imperial College London

The Lupus Foundation of America (LFA) announced today the recipients of its most prestigious annual awards, naming Richard A. Furie, MD, Northwell Health as this years Evelyn V. Hess Award recipient and Melissa Cunningham, MD, PhD, The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) as the Mary Betty Stevens Young Investigator Prize award winner.

The Evelyn V. Hess Award was established in 2006 and is given annually to recognize the exceptional contributions of a clinical or basic researcher whose body of work has advanced the understanding of the science of lupus treatment.

Dr. Furie, Chief of the Division of Rheumatology at Northwell Health, Professor of Medicine at the Zucker School of Medicine, and the Marilyn and Barry Rubenstein Chair in Rheumatology, has dedicated his career to developing more effective and safer therapies for people with lupus. He directs The Program in Novel Therapeutics, the Health Systems clinical research program in musculoskeletal disease. As a clinical trialist with an expertise in the design and implementation of clinical trials, much of his clinical research efforts has focused on anti-rheumatic drug development.

As a Professor in the Institute of Molecular Medicine at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, the science arm of Northwell Health, Dr. Furie has authored numerous studies of novel, innovative therapies including belimumab and, very recently, anifrolumab. He also directs the Northwell Healths Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Autoimmune Disease Treatment Center, which has become internationally recognized for its role in the development of new therapies for SLE. Recognized in the New York metropolitan area as a senior rheumatologist, Dr. Furie has served as an advisor for the LFA. For over twenty years he has served on many committees of the American College of Rheumatology and was named a Master of the College in 2018.

I am pleasantly surprised by this recognition and truly honored to receive the Evelyn V. Hess Award from the Lupus Foundation of America, said Dr. Furie. Although the outlook for our patients has greatly improved since the 1950s, significant unmet needs have been present ever since. I am grateful to have contributed to improving the lives of our patients with lupus by addressing many of those unmet needs. Nevertheless, the successes we are now witnessing today, reflect the perseverance and dedication of the entire lupus community, which includes patients, clinicians, investigators, and industry. Our efforts will continue to pave the way for innovation.

Established in 2009, the annual Mary Betty Stevens Young Investigator Prize recognizes the remarkable accomplishments of an investigator in the early stages of their lupus career and memorializes Dr. Stevens outstanding contributions to lupus research throughout her career.

Dr. Cunningham, Associate Professor of Medicine at MUSC, has a great interest in womens health issues, is committed to addressing disparities in health, and has focused much of her research career on why lupus is more prevalent in women. Dr. Cunninghams work has focused on the role of nuclear hormone receptors, particularly the estrogen receptor, which has variants and isoforms that can change the way estrogen acts in different tissues. By advancing the understanding of estrogen receptor biology in immune cells, researchers may be able to harness that knowledge to develop targeted therapeutics, such as next generation selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) that may treat lupus and other female-biased autoimmune diseases, without impacting reproductive tissues.

It is incredibly humbling to receive the Mary Betty Stevens Young Investigator Prize, said Dr. Cunningham. I have heard such amazing things about Dr. Stevens work in the field and her academic enthusiasm. She inspired many students to enter the field of rheumatology and to dedicate their careers to the study of lupus. I will continue to work as hard as possible to advance lupus research, improve lupus patient care, and teach the next generation of rheumatologists in order to live up to the honor of this award.

Learn more about the Evelyn V. Hess Award,Mary Betty Stevens Young Investigator Prize and our 2021 recipients.

Read more:
Lupus Researchers Receive Prestigious Awards for Distinguished Contributions to the Field - Lupus Foundation of America

WATERTOWN, Mass., Dec. 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Acrivon Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage oncology therapeutics company with proprietary, proteomics-based technologies driving a new era of precision-based medicine, today announced the establishment of its scientific advisory board.

We are delighted to have these distinguished thought leaders in oncology research and development join our scientific advisory board, said Peter Blume-Jensen, M.D., Ph.D., chief executive officer and founder of Acrivon. Combined, they represent expertise across Acrivons key pillars of excellence including phospho-proteomics, predictive protein biomarkers, and oncology precision medicine. The caliber of this group, in addition to the high-quality investors who participated in our recent oversubscribed $100 million Series B financing, is a testament to the promise of our unique precision medicine platform.

George Demetri, M.D., professor at Harvard Medical School, co-director of the Ludwig Center, and senior vice president at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, added, I am very enthusiastic to help advance the potential benefit to patients from Acrivons pioneering proteomics-based precision medicine platform. The future of precision medicine lies in the ability to identify the right patients with complex cancers who can derive the maximal benefit from specific targeted therapies and rational combinations. Acrivons platform enables a unique approach to patient selection with the promise to be broadly applicable beyond the limitations of current tumor genome tests. We hope this will allow identification of direct mechanistic matching between the drug action with the primary drivers of malignancyin an individual patients tumor to predict treatment benefit with far less empiricism than current standards of care.

Scientific Advisory Board Members George Demetri, M.D., F.A.C.P., F.A.S.C.O., F.A.A.C.R. Dr. Demetri is co-director of the Ludwig Center at Harvard and professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and serves as senior vice president for experimental therapeutics at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI). Dr. Demetri was instrumental in the development of Gleevec (imatinib) as the first effective therapy for gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) as a mutationally-driven solid tumor. His collaborative research efforts have contributed to worldwide regulatory approval of several other therapies, including sunitinib and regorafenib for GIST, as well as pazopanib, trabectedin, eribulin, and tazemetostat for other sarcomas. He is a member of the board of directors for Blueprint Medicines.

Dr. Demetri received his A.B. in Biochemistry at Harvard College and M.D. from Stanford Medical School. He completed his residency and chief residency at the University of Washington Hospitals in Seattle and his medical oncology fellowship at DFCI and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Demetri was the 2020 recipient of the David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

Robert (Bob) Abraham, Ph.D. Dr. Abraham is executive vice president and head of cancer biology at Odyssey Therapeutics. Before that, he was most recently chief scientific officer at Vividion Therapeutics. Prior to Vividion, he was the senior vice president and world-wide head of the oncology R&D group at Pfizer. From 2005-2009, he was the head of oncology discovery research at Wyeth. During his tenure at Wyeth and Pfizer, Dr. Abraham contributed to the development of eight FDA-approved cancer drugs. Prior to joining industry, Dr. Abraham was a professor at the Sanford-Burnham-Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBPMDI) in La Jolla, CA, where he served as the director of the NCI-designated SBPMDI Cancer Research Center. Prior to SBPDMI, he was endowed chair in the Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology at the Duke University Medical Center. Prior to Duke University, Dr. Abraham held dual professorships in the departments of Immunology and Pharmacology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. He maintains adjunct professor appointments at U.C. San Diego (Department of Pharmacology), and at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Institute.

Dr. Abraham began his career as an academic investigator, with enduring interests in cancer biology and immunology. His major research interests included characterization and functional analysis of the mammalian Target of Rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway, cancer metabolism, cellular signaling and DNA damage responses. Dr. Abraham has authored over 225 scientific publications, and his published work has been cited over 48,000 times. Dr. Abraham received his B.S. in Biology from Bucknell University and his Ph.D. in Pharmacology at the University of Pittsburgh, and he completed his postdoctoral training in Pharmacology and Immunology at the Mayo Clinic.

Timothy A. Yap, M.B.B.S., Ph.D., F.R.C.P. Dr. Yap is an associate professor in the departments for Investigational Cancer Therapeutics and Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology at the MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is also the medical director of the Institute for Applied Cancer Science, a drug discovery biopharmaceutical unit where drug discovery and clinical translation are seamlessly integrated. He is also an associate director of translational research at the Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy, an integrated research and clinical trials program. Previously, Dr. Yap was a consultant medical oncologist at The Royal Marsden Hospital in London, UK and National Institute for Health Research BRC clinician scientist at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, UK.

Dr. Yaps primary research focuses on development of targeted agents and their acceleration through biomarker-driven clinical trials. His main interests include targeting of the DNA damage response as well as the development of novel immunotherapeutics, and past and currenthe is and/or has been a principal investigator for multiple clinical trials evaluating novel strategies for targeting the DNA damage response in cancer. Dr. Yap obtained his B.Sc. degree in Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Imperial College London, UK, and subsequently went on to attain his medical degree from Imperial College London, UK. He has a Ph.D. in Molecular Pharmacology from the Division of Cancer Therapeutics at the Institute of Cancer Research, London, UK.

David Berman, M.D., Ph.D. Dr. Berman is a professor and chair of the department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. He is board certified in Anatomic Pathology and practices urologic surgical pathology at Kingston Health Sciences Centre while also running a biomarker discovery laboratory focused on urologic cancers. Dr. Berman earned his M.D. and Ph.D. (Genetics and Development) degrees from the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center. He completed residency training and a postdoctoral research fellowship at Johns Hopkins where he established his independent research laboratory, which moved to Canada in 2012. The Berman laboratory focuses on basic, translational, and clinical aspects of prostate and bladder cancer. His research has helped identify bladder cancer stem cells and druggable targets in embryonic signaling pathways, and it has helped improve surgical pathology practice.

Dr. Berman was director of the Queens Cancer Research Institute from 2015-2021 and has served on research advisory committees for the Canadian Cancer Society (ACOR), the Canadian Cancer Trials Group, and Bladder Cancer Canada. He currently leads a translational research effort for the Canadian Bladder Cancer Research Network.

Jesper Olsen, Ph.D. Dr. Olsen is an academic co-founder and head of phosphoproteomics at Acrivon Therapeutics, Inc. He is a professor in quantitative proteomics at the University of Copenhagen and vice director of the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research. Dr. Olsen is a pioneer in mass spectrometry based phosphoproteomics and its applications to decipher cell-signaling networks at a systems-wide scale, and his research interest is developing and applying phosphoproteomics technologies for comprehensive kinase drug profilings with clinical actionability. Dr. Olsen is the most cited phosphoproteomics expert world-wide and among top 0.1% in protein sciences.

Dr. Olsen received his M.Sc. in Analytical Chemistry at the University of Southern Denmark and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the same place under the supervision of Prof. Matthias Mann. Dr. Olsen completed his post-doctoral training in proteomics and cell signaling at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Munich. He is based in Copenhagen since 2009, where he joined the newly established Center for Protein Research, initially as group leader and since 2014 as vice director.

About Acrivon Acrivon is a clinical stage oncology company leveraging its unique, proprietary phosphoproteomics technology called Acrivon Precision Predictive Proteomics, or AP3, in development of its pipeline of oncology drugs. The AP3 platform enables the creation of drug-specific proprietary OncoSignature companion diagnostics that can be used to identify patients most likely to benefit from Acrivons medicines. Through its highly specific patient selection, the company seeks to accelerate clinical development and increase the probability of successful treatment outcome for patients. The companys pipeline includes the clinically advanced lead program, ACR-368 (also known as prexasertib), a targeted oncology asset in-licensed from Lilly which has demonstrated evidence of durable responses, in solid cancers in Phase 2 trials. Acrivon is also developing additional pipeline programs targeting critical nodes in DNA Damage Response (DDR) and cell cycle regulation. Please visit the companys website at https://acrivon.com for more information.

Acrivon Contacts: Alexandra Santos asantos@wheelhouselsa.com

Aljanae Reynolds areynolds@wheelhouselsa.com

See the original post:
Acrivon Therapeutics Announces its Scientific Advisory Board with Renowned Oncology Thought Leaders - The Bakersfield Californian

Richard Lerner, MD, a scientific pioneer who developed technologies that had a major impact on science and medicine, and who played a critical role in shaping Scripps Research and San Diegos burgeoning life sciences sector, passed away on Dec. 2, 2021. He was 83 years old.

Richard had a tremendous influence on science, the institute, and the lives and work of many of us at Scripps Research, says Peter Schultz, PhD, president and CEO of Scripps Research and a long-time collaborator with Lerner. He was truly a giant and his vision, leadership and passion for science will be deeply missed.

A Stanford-trained physician-scientist, Lerner served as director and president of Scripps Research from 1987 through 2012. During his tenure, Scripps Research established a Florida campus and launched the institutes bi-coastal graduate school, now named the Skaggs Graduate School of Chemical and Biological Sciences. With its interdisciplinary research focus, the school soon ranked among the top 10 graduate programs of its kind in the US.

Richards fearlessness and bold ideas propelled Scripps Research to its current stature as one of the worlds leading biomedical research institutes, says Schultz.

Paul Schimmel, PhD, a professor in the institutes Department of Molecular Medicine, says Lerner infused the institute with an esprit de corps that invigorated the science. We felt we were with him on a non-stop adventure, says Shimmel, like pioneers of the old west, who would transform medical research and its associated graduate education.

Lerner also recruited an impressive cadre of scientists to La Jolla in fields ranging from structural and computational biology to immunology and molecular medicine, and also established the institutes now top ranked Department of Chemistry.

Scripps Research chemistry professor Barry Sharpless, PhD, who Lerner recruited in 1991, says Lerner provided a remarkable environment for the institutes researchers. He just hired us and said I will support you, do your thing, says Sharpless, who won the 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. That was something rare in a leader.

Lerner was known as a highly creative and interdisciplinary scientist and his lab produced numerous impactful discoveries and technologies. Among more than 400 published works, his achievements include the development of synthetic peptide vaccines, catalytic antibodies, and combinatorial antibody and DNA-encoded chemical librariesinnovations that are used by academic and industry laboratories worldwide.

His work paved the way to widely used novel therapeutics including the arthritis drug Humira and the lupus treatment, Benlysta. He was a visionary, says Sharpless He saw what chemistry could do for medicine and biology.

Highly entrepreneurial, Lerner was an early advocate of pushing new basic research discoveries and technologies toward their useful and practical applications in the marketplace. He cultivated relationships between academia and industry at a time when such partnerships were unusual. His boundary-crossing ideas helped establish Scripps Researchand the entire San Diego science sectorinto the global hub for translational research and entrepreneurship that it is today.

Originally from Chicago, Lerner received his bachelors degree from Stanford University in 1959 and his medical degree from Stanfords School of Medicine in 1964. After finishing medical school, he interned for a year at Stanford Hospital, then accepted a postdoctoral fellowship in 1965 in the Department of Experimental Pathology at Scripps Research, known at the time as the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation. After his fellowship, he joined the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia where he conducted research for a year before returning to Scripps Research as a faculty member in 1970.

In 1987 Lerner was named president of the institute. He served in that position for 25 years, during which time the institutes research operations grew substantially, including nearly tripling its laboratory space. Scripps Research attracted some of the worlds top scientific talent during his tenure, including several Nobel laureates.

In 2012, Lerner was appointed as the founding director of the Shanghai Institute for Advanced Immunochemical Studies at Shanghai Tech University, Shanghai, China. In this capacity he recruited world scientific leaders to implement the institutes strategic focus, as well as directed research in his own laboratory.

He received numerous honors over his career, including the Wolf Prize in Chemistry, California Scientist of the Year Award, the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize, the Windhaus Medal, and the Prince of Asturias Award. He was an elected amember of the National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences,and received honorary degrees from Oxford University, Ben-Gurion University, Northwestern University, Karolinska Institute, and Florida Atlantic University.

He held positions on many boards of directors, including Kraft Foods, Sequenom, and OPKO Health, Intra-Cellular Therapies and Teva Pharmaceuticals, and served on the scientific advisory boards of 5AM Ventures, Bay City Capital and Sorrento Therapeutics.

Lerner also served on the editorial boards of high-impact scientific journals, including the Journal of Virology, Molecular Biology and Medicine, Vaccine, Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters, Drug Targeting and Delivery, Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry, Molecular Medicine, Catalysis Technology, and Angewandte Chemie.

A long-time resident of La Jolla, Lerner is survived by his wife, Nicky, and three children, Danica, Arik, and Aaron.

See more here:
Obituary: Scripps Research mourns passing of pioneering scientist Richard Lerner - Richard Lerner MD a scientific pioneer who developed technologies...

The University of Maryland has awarded Roberto Romero, M.D., D.Med.Sci., the Deans Distinguished Gold Medal for contributions to medicine and science, particularly for his achievements in the areas of pregnancy and preterm birth.

Dr. Romero, the chief of the National Institutes of Healths Perinatology Research Branch, based at the Wayne State University School of Medicine, and professor of Molecular Obstetrics and Genetics at the WSU School of Medicine, received the medal Dec. 7.

We are proud and delighted to bestow upon Roberto Romero this deans distinguished gold medal, said Claire Fraser, Ph.D., professor and director of the University of Marylands Institute for Genome Sciences, and president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in reading the proclamation. This medal represents the school of medicines highest honor given to an individual whose contributions in medical research, education, patient care, or service have significantly advanced medicine and science to the benefit of our local, national, global community ,

Previous medical luminaries who have received the medal include Anthony Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases; Francis Collins, M.D., director of the National Institutes of Health; Victor Dzau, M.D., president of the National Academy of Medicine and former chancellor of Duke University; and Darrell Kirch, M.D., president emeritus of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

The award is presented byE. Albert Reece, M.D., Ph.D., theJohn Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and Dean of the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. Reece isan obstetrician and gynecologist.

The recognition noted Dr. Romeros national leadership, vision and expertise in maternal-fetal medicine that have proven integral in improving the health and well-being of women and children throughout the world and his seminal discoveries and contributions in the prenatal diagnosis of congenital anomalies and theprediction and prevention of pre-term labor and delivery.

Dr. Romero, director of the Division of Obstetrics and Maternal-Fetal Medicine for the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, established the role of progesterone in the reduction of spontaneous preterm birth, the leading cause of perinatal morbidity and mortality worldwide. The discovery is estimated to save the United States health care system $500 million per year.

The member of the National Academy of Medicine also discovered the role of cytokines in the onset of labor and fetal injury, and wrote and co-wrote more than 1,200 peer-reviewed publications and several books, including the medical best-seller Prenatal Diagnosis of Congenital Anomalies. He is the editor-in-chief for obstetrics for the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

I am honored to receive the Deans Distinguished Gold Medal from the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Dr. Romero said. The work described in the proclamation has been in the service of mothers and children.

Obstetrics, he said, is the only discipline in medicine with two patients: mother and fetus; and the unborn child is the most challenging patient to diagnose and treat; for they cannot speak, are invisible without technology, and they have been virtually inaccessible until the latter part of the 20th century.

Armed with a new understanding of the unique nature of obstetrical disease, we have begun to successfully predict and prevent two of the most elusive and enigmatic pregnancy complications: premature labor and preeclampsia.

Who would have thought, that in the early part of the 21st century, a whole fetal genome could be deduced from circulating nucleic acids in maternal blood? Dr. Romero added. The immediate challenge is to decipher the vocabulary, grammar and syntax of the most fascinating dialogue in biology: the conversation between the mother and her unborn child.

He called human reproduction one of the most exciting frontiers of the 21st century the true terra incognita of medicine and biology.

See the rest here:
Dr. Romero awarded University of Maryland School of Medicine Dean's Distinguished Gold Medal for contributions to maternal-fetal medicine - The South...

The aerosol platform promises broader protection against SARS-CoV-2, and is currently being trialed as a booster.

Fiona Smaill and research coordinator Emilio Aguirre demonstrate the use of the nebulizer with a volunteer. Photographer: Georgia Kirkos

A team of scientists from McMaster University, Canada have announced that two new inhalable COVID-19 vaccines have been approved for human clinical trials beginning in 2022. The vaccines will be administered as boosters, given to healthy individuals who had previously received two doses of an approved COVID-19 vaccine.

Inhalable nasal spray vaccines have been gaining momentum, especially in the last year, with greater potential to break infectious chains by providing a more accessible means of protection to individuals. The idea is to halt infection at the bodys point of entry, where SARS-CoV-2 viral particles infect cells in the nose before progressing to the lungs and other organs.

Where current vaccines, including Pfizer, Moderna, and J&J, all incorporate elements of the virus spike protein to stimulate an immune response against SARS-CoV-2, the new vaccines include two additional proteins in addition to the spike protein.

This is the first time that a vaccine has been developed containing three [] important proteins of the COVID virus, and so our belief is that this will broaden the immune response and lead to better protective immunity, said infectious disease specialist and professor of pathology and molecular medicine at McMaster University, Fiona Smaill.

The downside to targeting the spike protein, as were seeing with new and emerging variants of concern, is that it is very likely to mutate, making it trickier for our immune systems to recognize it. Thats what the concern is about the existing vaccines that they target only the original spike and may be waning in effect, said Smaill.

By incorporating two SARS-CoV-2 proteins from regions in the genome that remain conserved through each new variant, the team hopes their booster will remain effective in an ever-changing viral landscape. By targeting a breadth of immune responses to different parts of the COVID virus, we expect to see broader protection, she added.

The vaccine delivery platform was modelled off a tuberculosis vaccine that Smaills co-investigator, Zhou Xing, professor of medicine at McMaster, has been researching and developing for over two decades.

Our [vaccines get] delivered into the lung via inhaled aerosol to inducerespiratory mucosal immunity, known to provide best protection against respiratory pathogens, explained Xing.

The new vaccines are adenovirus vectors, platforms commonly used for flu vaccines as well as AstraZenecas COVID-19 vaccine.

In their natural form, adenoviruses cause respiratory infections such as the common cold, and in rare cases can cause a lung infection such as pneumonia, wrote the team in a press release. In their weakened form, they do not spread disease, but can be customized to serve as vehicles, or vectors, to trigger targeted immune responses.

At least 30 healthy volunteers have been recruited for this first phase of the study, which is expected to run for four to six months. During this time, the team will be investigating how the bodys immune response develops in both the lungs and the blood after inhaled inoculation, as well as monitoring for possible adverse reactions and side effects.

If successful, sufficient vaccine doses have been produced to move forward with much larger clinical trials.

This human trial builds on pioneering work, and in addition to addressing an issue of tremendous public health importance, will also advance our fundamental understanding of how to use these viruses most effectively as vaccine vectors, said Matthew Miller, an associate professor with McMasters Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research and co-principal investigator, in a statement.

Here is the original post:
An inhaled COVID-19 vaccine makes it to human trials - Advanced Science News

Iron is an essential nutrient that almost all life requires to grow and thrive. Irons importance goes all the way back to the formation of the planet Earth, where the amount of iron in the Earths rocky mantle was set by the conditions under which the planet formed and went on to have major ramifications for how life developed. Now, scientists at the University of Oxford have uncovered the likely mechanisms by which iron influenced the development of complex life forms, which can also be used to understand how likely (or unlikely) advanced life forms might be on other planets. The work was published today in PNAS.

The initial amount of iron in Earths rocks is set by the conditions of planetary accretion, during which the Earths metallic core segregated from its rocky mantle, says co-author Jon Wade, Associate Professor of Planetary Materials at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford. Too little iron in the rocky portion of the planet, like the planet Mercury, and life is unlikely. Too much, like Mars, and water may be difficult to keep on the surface for times relevant to the evolution of complex life.

Initially, iron conditions on Earth would have been optimal to ensure surface retention of water. Iron would have also been soluble in sea water, making it easily available to give simple life forms a jumpstart in development. However, oxygen levels on Earth began to rise approximately 2.4 billion years ago (referred to as the Great Oxygenation Event). An increase in oxygen created a reaction with iron, which led to it becoming insoluble. Gigatons of iron dropped out of sea water, where it was much less available to developing life forms.

Life had to find new ways to obtain the iron it needs, says co-author Hal Drakesmith, Professor of Iron Biology at the MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford. For example, infection, symbiosis and multicellularity are behaviours that enable life to more efficiently capture and utilise this scarce but vital nutrient. Adopting such characteristics would have propelled early life forms to become ever more complex, on the way to evolving into what we see around us today.

The need for iron as a driver for evolution, and consequent development of a complex organism capable of acquiring poorly available iron, may be rare or random occurrences. This has implications for how likely complex life forms might be on other planets.

It is not known how common intelligent life is in the Universe says Prof Drakesmith. Our concepts imply that the conditions to support the initiation of simple life-forms are not enough to also ensure subsequent evolution of complex life-forms. Further selection by severe environmental changes may be needed for example, how life on Earth needed to find a new way to access iron. Such temporal changes at planetary scale may be rare, or random, meaning that the likelihood of intelligent life may also be low.

However, knowing now about how important iron is in the development of life may aid in the search for suitable planets that could develop life forms. By assessing the amount of iron in the mantle of exo-planets, it may now be possible to narrow the search for exo-planets capable of supporting life.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Temporal variation of planetary iron as a driver of evolution

6-Dec-2021

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

See the article here:
Iron integral to the development of life on Earth and the possibility of life on other planets - EurekAlert

Dishman Carbogen Amcis Limited, a global outsourcing partner for the pharmaceutical industry, welcomes the results of a new Clinical Research Study which shows that oral 25-Hydroxyvitamin D3 (Calcifediol) was able to correct vitamin D deficiency / insufficiency in patients with COVID-19 and that it resulted in improved immune function by increasing blood lymphocyte percentages. The research was supervised by Tehran University of Medical Sciences and Boston University School of Medicine and supported in part by a grant from Dishman Carbogen Amcis Ltd's wholly owned subsidiary CARBOGEN AMCIS B.V.

Dishman Carbogen Amcis Ltd (DCAL) is a leading global manufacturer of vitamin D plus its analogs and related APIs with over 70 years of experience in the field. DCAL partnered with Dr. Michael Holick, MD, PhD, professor of medicine, physiology and biophysics and molecular medicine at Boston University School of Medicine and its team for the Clinical Research Study to be run by the Tehran University of Medical Sciences on treatment with 25-Hydroxyvitamin D3 (Calcifediol) of hospitalized patients with COVID-19.

The study showed that patients receiving the 25-hydroxy metabolite had, in comparison to those receiving a placebo, a demonstrably more favorable development of their immunological defense against COVID-19. Thus, dosing the metabolite significantly increased the blood levels as well as the comparative percentage of lymphocytes in blood, i.e. a reduced Blood Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio.

"A person's vitamin D status is defined as the person's blood level of the vitamin's 25-hydroxy metabolite (Calcifediol), i.e. the vitamin's natural form in circulation which the body can quickly access and finally activate. Therefore, Dishman Carbogen Amcis Ltd has for years studied the effects of dosing either the vitamin and/or the metabolite. Said Dr. Scott Miller, Sr. Scientific Advisor at DCAL, "Our support of this study of Calcifediol in the context of COVID-19 was motivated by the fact that the blood level of the metabolite can be increased more rapidly and more distinctly, if supplemented directly."

To support the Clinical Research Study CARBOGEN AMCIS B.V. (Netherlands) provided the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (Calcifediol) and the capsules and placebo were made at Dishman Carbogen Amcis Ltd's plant in Bavla, India, specifically for this study.

"There are several studies that have reported that a good vitamin D status i.e. a healthy blood level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D, can not only dramatically reduce the risk of being infected by this deadly virus but also a higher vitamin D status reduced risk for serious symptoms and death caused by the virus." Commented Dr. Michael Holick. "This controlled study similar to the one conducted in Spain recently [1] demonstrate that the rapid improvement in vitamin D status can improve positive outcomes for patients infected with COVID 19."

"The COVID-19 pandemic hitting the world in early 2020 resulted in unprecedented global focus of R&D efforts and of solidarity in coping with the sudden and unexpected high need for intensive care beds, which didn't hit all countries to the same degree." Said Arpit Vyas, Global Managing Director of Dishman Carbogen Amcis Limited: "It is important for us to play a role in this new challenge, not only for our corporate interests but to contribute to the possible future of the fight against COVID-19. Therefore, to follow up with this Clinical Research Study, Dishman Carbogen Amcis Ltd is currently conducting a second round of study in a larger scale in India."

Shares of Dishman Carbogen Amcis Limited was last trading in BSE at Rs. 243.80 as compared to the previous close of Rs. 245.30. The total number of shares traded during the day was 112820 in over 1984 trades.

The stock hit an intraday high of Rs. 253.65 and intraday low of 242.55. The net turnover during the day was Rs. 28017343.00.

Continued here:
Dishman Carbogen Amcis Ltd announces successful results from the partnership with Boston University School of Medicine - Equity Bulls

All COVID-19 tests start with a sample, but the scientific process goes very differently after that. Morsa Images/Digital Vision via Getty Images Nathaniel Hafer, UMass Chan Medical School

At this point in the pandemic, you or someone you know has probably received at least one COVID-19 test. But do you know which kind of test you got and the strengths and weaknesses of these different tests?

Im a molecular biologist, and since April 2020 Ive been part of a team working on a National Institutes of Health-funded program called RADx that is helping innovators develop rapid tests to detect when a person is infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

Two major types of tests are used to diagnose infection with SARS-CoV-2: molecular tests better known as PCR tests and antigen tests. Each detects a different part of the virus, and how it works influences the tests speed and relative accuracy. So what are the differences between these types of tests?

The first step for either kind of test is to get a sample from the patient. This can be a nasal swab or a bit of saliva.

For PCR tests, the next step is amplification of genetic material so that even a small amount of coronavirus genes in the patients sample can be detected. This is done using a technique called a polymerase chain reaction. A health care worker takes the sample and treats it with an enzyme that converts RNA into double-stranded DNA. Then, the DNA is mixed with a solution containing an enzyme called a polymerase and heated, causing the DNA to separate into two single-stranded DNA pieces. The temperature is lowered, and polymerase, with the help of a small piece of guide DNA called a primer, binds to the single-stranded DNA and copies it. The primers ensure that only coronavirus DNA is amplified. Youve now created two copies of coronavirus DNA from the original one piece of RNA.

Laboratory machines repeat these heating and cooling cycles 30 to 40 times, doubling the DNA until there are a billion copies of the original piece. The amplified sequence contains fluorescent dye that is read by a machine.

The amplifying property of PCR allows the test to successfully detect even the smallest amount of coronavirus genetic material in a sample. This makes it a highly sensitive and accurate test. With accuracy that approaches 100%, it is the gold standard for diagnosing SARSCoV2.

However, PCR tests have some weaknesses too. They require a skilled laboratory technician and special equipment to run them, and the amplification process can take an hour or more from start to finish. Usually only large, centralized testing facilities like hospital labs can conduct many PCR tests at a time. Between sample collection, transportation, amplification, detection and reporting, it can take from 12 hours to five days for a person to get results back. And finally, they arent cheap at $100 or more per test.

Rapid, accurate tests are essential to contain a highly contagious virus like SARS-CoV-2. PCR tests are accurate but can take a long time to produce results. Antigen tests, the other major type of coronavirus test, while much faster, are less accurate.

Antigens are substances that cause the body to produce an immune response they trigger the generation of antibodies. These tests use lab-made antibodies to search for antigens from the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

To run an antigen test, you first treat a sample with a liquid containing salt and soap that breaks apart cells and other particles. Then you apply this liquid to a test strip that has antibodies specific to SARS-CoV-2 painted on it in a thin line.

Just like antibodies in your body, the ones on the test strip will bind to any antigen in the sample. If the antibodies bind to coronavirus antigens, a colored line appears on the test strip indicating the presence of SARS-CoV-2.

Antigen tests have a number of strengths. First, they are so easy to use that people with no special training can perform them and interpret the results even at home. They also produce results quickly, typically in less than 15 minutes. Another benefit is that these tests can be relatively inexpensive at around $10-$15 per test.

Antigen tests do have some drawbacks. Depending on the situation, they can be less accurate than PCR tests. When a person is symptomatic or has a lot of virus in their system, antigen tests are very accurate. However, unlike molecular PCR tests, antigen tests dont amplify the thing they are looking for. This means there needs to be enough viral antigen in the sample for the antibodies on the test strip to generate a signal. When a person is in the early stages of infection, not a lot of virus is in the nose and throat, from which the samples are taken. So, antigen tests can miss early cases of COVID-19. Its also during this stage that a person has no symptoms, so they are more likely to be unaware theyre infected.

[Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend. Sign up for our weekly newsletter.]

A few antigen tests are already available over the counter, and on Oct. 4, 2021, the Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization to another at-home antigen test. The U.S. government is also pushing to make these tests more available to the public.

At RADx, the project I am a part of, we are currently conducting clinical studies to get a better understanding of how antigen tests perform at various stages of infection. The more data scientists have on how accuracy changes over time, the more effectively these tests can be used.

Understanding the strengths and limitations of both PCR and antigen tests, and when to use them, can help to bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control. So the next time you get a COVID-19 test, choose the one that is right for you.

Nathaniel Hafer, Assistant Professor, Program in Molecular Medicine, UMass Chan Medical School

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

See more here:
What's the difference between a PCR and antigen COVID-19 test? A molecular biologist explains - YubaNet

This article was originally published here

Mol Med Rep. 2022 Feb;25(2):39. doi: 10.3892/mmr.2021.12555. Epub 2021 Dec 8.

ABSTRACT

Subsequently to the publication of this paper, an interested reader drew to the authors attention that Fig. 5D on p. 5180 appeared to contain a pair of data panels with overlapping data comparing between the H1299/NC and H1299/Mimic experiments, such that these data panels may have been derived from the same original source. The authors have consulted their original data, and realized that one of the images was inadvertently selected inappropriately for the figure. Nevertheless, they were able to present all the original data to the Editorial Office, and the repeated experiments revealed the same trends in terms of significant differences in cell migration and invasion. The corrected version of Fig. 5, showing all the correct data for Fig. 5D, is shown on the next page. Note that the errors in Fig. 5 did not significantly affect the results or the conclusions reported in this paper, and all the authors agree to this Corrigendum. The authors are grateful to the Editor of Molecular Medicine Reports for allowing them the opportunity to publish this corrigendum, and apologize to the readership for any inconvenience caused. [the original article was published in Molecular Medicine Reports 20: 51725182, 2019; DOI: 10.3892/mmr.2019.10776].

PMID:34878153 | DOI:10.3892/mmr.2021.12555

Continued here:
[Corrigendum] miR-593 inhibits proliferation and invasion and promotes apoptosis in non-small cell lung cancer cells by targeting SLUG-associated...