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Clinical teams ready; research for vaccines, drugs underway

Postdoctoral researchers Brett Case, PhD, (left) and Adam Bailey, MD, PhD, wear full personal protective equipment to study the COVID-19 virus. Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis physicians and researchers are preparing for COVID-19 cases and working on drugs and vaccines to fight the disease.

Soon after a novel coronavirus first appeared in China in late 2019, researchers, doctors and staff at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis began preparing for the possibility of an outbreak. Infectious disease physicians started planning how to respond if a person with suspected exposure to the virus arrived on campus, and researchers set to work finding drugs or vaccines to treat or prevent COVID-19, the name given to the illness caused by the virus.

New infectious diseases emerge every so often, and we have to be vigilant, said Steven J. Lawrence, MD, an associate professor of medicine. Over the last few decades weve had HIV, Ebola, SARS, Zika and now COVID-19. Such diseases usually arise when an animal virus manages to jump into people because of close contact between people and animals. The chance of preventing that happening anywhere in the world is probably zero. What we can do is be prepared to respond as rapidly as possible when it happens.

In December, China reported the first cases of a mysterious illness characterized by fever, a dry cough and difficulty breathing. Within weeks, Chinese scientists had identified the cause as a never-before-seen member of the coronavirus family. Coronaviruses typically cause mild infections such as the common cold. But in 2002, a newly emerged strain of coronavirus caused an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) that killed nearly 1,000 people before it was contained.

It quickly became evident that the 2019 coronavirus strain, named SARS-CoV-2, was more like SARS than the common cold. By late January, tens of thousands of people in China were infected. At the time, the only cases in the U.S. were believed to be in people who had been infected while traveling in China.

In January and February, we had a brief moment of opportunity to contain this outbreak in the U.S. by knowing where people had traveled, Lawrence said. Thats why the efforts to identify and isolate people with the virus were so robust, even though we had such few cases. Once the virus started spreading from person to person in the U.S., it became much, much more complicated.

Washington University infectious disease physicians (from left) Stephen Y. Liang, MD, Steven J. Lawrence, MD, Hilary M. Babcock, MD, and David K. Warren, MD, are preparing for the possibility of COVID-19 cases in St. Louis. Pictured is the team, in 2014, discussing emerging infectious diseases.

Hilary M. Babcock, MD, a professor of medicine and medical director of the Infection Prevention and Epidemiology Consortium for BJC HealthCare, and David K. Warren, MD, a professor of medicine and the medical director for infection prevention at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, did not wait for the virus to start spreading in the U.S. In January, they established a virtual incident command center at BJCHealthCare and called twice-weekly meetings to develop a coronavirus outbreak response plan for all BJC hospitals, including hospitals and clinics staffed by Washington University physicians. The team started by dusting off a plan developed in 2002 for SARS and adapting it to COVID-19 as more information emerged.

The data on mortality for COVID-19 remains a moving target and continues to be assessed. So far, people who are older and those with underlying health conditions, such as heart disease, lung disease or with compromised immune systems, have a higher risk of death. Early data suggests that the illness is more deadly than seasonal flu. Like SARS and the flu, COVID-19 spreads easily through droplets released when infected people cough or sneeze. The viruss contagiousness means that proper use of personal protective equipment is crucial to protect health professionals caring for coronavirus patients.

Communication is one of the most important tools at a time like this, Babcock said. We needed to make sure that our front-line clinicians can very quickly recognize that someone might be infected, and that they know what to do if a potentially infected person presents at their clinic. We also developed guidance regarding which personal protective equipment to wear when working with a patient suspected of having COVID-19 mask, gloves, eye shield, respiratory equipment, and gown how to put it on so it is most effective, and, most importantly, how to take it off without contaminating yourself.

Babcock and Warren also are keeping a close watch on outbreaks in other countries and implemented new travel screening recommendations across the university as the virus has spread to other countries, notably South Korea, Italy and Iran.

We are ready, Babcock said. Weve been ready for weeks. Its only a matter of time before we get our first case.

Building the toolkit to fight COVID-19

Across campus, a team led by Sean Whelan, PhD, the Marvin A. Brennecke Distinguished Professor and head of the Department of Molecular Microbiology, and Michael S. Diamond, MD, PhD, the Herbert S. Gasser Professor of Medicine, is looking for ways to treat COVID-19 or reduce its spread.

We had a discussion in early January and decided then to work on advancing therapeutics and vaccines for coronavirus, because it had the potential to be a significant problem, said Whelan, who took over as head of the molecular microbiology department on Jan. 1. It is our responsibility as part of the biomedical research community to do this. The consequences of this virus in places where there isnt a good health-care system could be dire.

Whelan called weekly meetings to coordinate the School of Medicine coronavirus research effort. He and Diamond have special expertise in emerging viral infections. Diamond led the School of Medicine response to Zika virus, during which he and others developed a mouse model of Zika infection and identified an antibody that is now used as part of a diagnostic test. While on the faculty at Harvard, Whelan studied Ebola and identified a critical protein that the virus exploits to cause deadly infections.

Whelan and Diamond built a research team including influenza experts Jacco Boon, PhD, an associate professor of medicine, and Ali Ellebedy, PhD, an assistant professor of pathology and immunology, who provided advice and scientific tools for studying respiratory viruses; structural immunologist Daved Fremont, PhD, a professor of pathology and immunology, who has begun studying the interactions of coronavirus proteins with antibodies and other human proteins to facilitate vaccine design and improved diagnostics; David T. Curiel, MD, PhD, the Distinguished Professor of Radiation Oncology,who began designing a potential vaccine; and Siyuan Ding, PhD, an assistant professor of molecular microbiology, who is investigating whether the virus also can be transmitted through the fecal-oral route.

The team is analyzing the structure of the viruss proteins to find possible targets for drugs or vaccines, looking for antibodies that might protect against disease, creating potential vaccines using multiple strategies, and developing a mouse model that can be used to test potential drugs and vaccines.

In addition, geneticist Ting Wang, PhD, the Sanford and Karen Loewentheil Distinguished Professor of Medicine, and members of his lab built a genome browser to help researchers study the genetics of the COVID-19 virus and compare different strains. Greg Bowman, PhD, an associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics whose work focuses on how proteins take their shape, has mobilized his crowdsourced Folding@home Consortium to find the shape of coronavirus proteins to inform drug and vaccine development.

The speed of research on coronavirus has been extraordinary, Diamond said. Chinese scientists identified the virus, sequenced its genome, identified the probable animal source, and released the genomic sequence to the public in a matter of weeks. Groups around the world have been creating and sharing the tools we need to interrogate this virus. But even so, these things take time. Every day, the U.S. is seeing new cases. We are racing against the clock.

Washington University School of Medicines 1,500 faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Childrens hospitals. The School of Medicine is a leader in medical research, teaching and patient care, ranking among the top 10 medical schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Childrens hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.

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School of Medicine physicians, researchers tackle coronavirus Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis - Washington University School of...

WASHINGTON, March 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --On March 5, U.S. House and Senate lawmakers introduced the VALID Act, which would give the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) new, expansive powers to regulate laboratory developed teststests that are already regulated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and are subject to stringent personnel, quality control, and proficiency testing requirements. This bill promotes duplicative, costly federal regulations for clinical laboratories that will result in decreased patient access to essential medical tests. AACC urges Congress not to act on this bill until its impact on healthcare can be thoroughly evaluated.

When the coronavirus was declared a public health emergency, all coronavirus tests had to receive emergency use authorization (EUA) from the FDA. This meant that CMS-certified labs, which are not typically subject to FDA oversight, now had to get prior approval from the FDA before introducing their coronavirus test. This administrative requirement created new, burdensome regulatory barriers that delayed laboratories from developing their COVID-19 test. If it had not been corrected, many of the labs that are responding today to the urgent need for testing would remain stymied by insurmountable regulatory hurdles.

In response to concerns from AACC and the clinical laboratory community, FDA amended its EUA requirements last week to allow all qualified labs to develop and perform coronavirus tests prior to obtaining an EUA, as long as they submit an EUA request to FDA within 15 days of the tests' launch. The lawmakers behind the VALID Act have stated that this bill would benefit patients by making permanent this decision by the FDA. However, the rest of the bill introduces new and redundant regulatory hurdles for labs to overcome when developing tests for numerous conditions that are not public health emergencies but are nonetheless critical in everyday patient care.

If this bill were to pass, it would mean new, duplicative regulation and cost-prohibitive user fees for labs developing non-public health emergency tests. It would prevent labs from performing these tests, and it would limit patients' access to testing. The single provision on public health emergencies touted by the bills' supporters does nothing to reverse the crippling effect the legislation would have on hospitals and smaller labs in day-to-day healthcare situations.

FDA's involvement in the regulation of laboratory-developed coronavirus tests caused significant, potentially harmful delays in containing this epidemic. It would have the same result across the healthcare system should the VALID Act become law.

"FDA's EUA requirements clearly deterred many AACC member laboratories from developing tests for coronavirus," said AACC President Dr. Carmen L. Wiley. "We support FDA's decision to ease the EUA requirements for coronavirus, as well as efforts to expand access to diagnostic testing during this and future public health emergencies. However, we are very concerned that the VALID Act would have the same prohibitive effect on all laboratory developed tests that EUA requirements had on coronavirus tests. We therefore urge Congress to resist the impulse to prematurely take up this bill during the current crisis, and to wait to address this legislation until its impact on patient care can be thoroughly assessed."

About AACCDedicated to achieving better health through laboratory medicine, AACC brings together more than 50,000 clinical laboratory professionals, physicians, research scientists, and business leaders from around the world focused on clinical chemistry, molecular diagnostics, mass spectrometry, translational medicine, lab management, and other areas of progressing laboratory science. Since 1948, AACC has worked to advance the common interests of the field, providing programs that advance scientific collaboration, knowledge, expertise, and innovation. For more information, visit http://www.aacc.org.

Christine DeLongAACCSenior Manager, Communications & PR(p) 202.835.8722[emailprotected]

Molly PolenAACCSenior Director, Communications & PR(p) 202.420.7612(c) 703.598.0472[emailprotected]

SOURCE AACC

http://www.aacc.org

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New Legislation Would Jeopardize Patient Access to Medical Tests Across the Board by Restricting Policy that Removed Barriers to Coronavirus Testing -...

During 2019, the University School of Medicine met multiple milestones. The Federal Drug Association approved an artificial pancreas for Type I diabetics developed over the past decade at the University. Another team of researchers discovered the protein that allows the bacteria species Geobacter sulfurreducens to conduct electricity, which could have implications for biomedical device development.

While commonalities between these projects may not be immediately apparent, they all are similar in that they have the same major source of funding the National Institutes of Health, a federal agency that conducts and supports medical research. In the past year, NIH awarded the University a record amount of funding $146.3 million, a $25.4 million increase from fiscal year 2018.

David S. Wilkes, dean of the School of Medicine, attributed the Universitys growing number of approved grant proposals from NIH, as well as the more than $400 million the School of Medicine received overall this year, to a targeted approach to research that focuses on specific areas of study. Emphasizing depth over sheer breadth, Wilkes claimed, served the School of Medicine well in terms of finances and achievements.

We put plans in place to reinvigorate the research enterprise at the medical school, Wilkes said. That was in part through finding specific areas of research to invest in, investing in current faculty and also making strategic hires of additional faculty.

Faculty and staff implemented these new strategies at the School of Medicine nearly five years ago when they committed to promoting seven core biological and medical fields cancer, cardiovascular medicine, metabolic disorders, neurosciences, organ transplant, precision medicine and regenerative medicine. In each of these key disciplines, researchers conduct basic, clinical and translational studies to learn how the body functions and develop novel treatments and therapies.

Were hoping for discoveries that enhance the care of patients, the way healthcare is delivered or novel techniques for diagnosing disease and testing how medicines work, Wilkes said. Were hoping for a better understanding of biology as it relates to human conditions.

One of the beneficiaries of numerous NIH grants is Boris Kovatchev director of the University Center for Diabetes Technology and a pioneer on the artificial pancreas, a device thousands already rely on for life-sustaining insulin. When explaining why he has stayed at the University for 28 years, Kovatchev noted that the Universitys Center for Diabetes Technology is well-respected when it comes to diabetes technology development. He also expressed gratitude for several colleagues at the University including Marc Breton, Sue Brown, Mark DeBoer and Stacy Anderson for their expertise on Type I diabetes treatments and the funding from NIH they contribute to the program.

When I came to U.Va. a long time ago, U.Va. already had a very strong endocrinology and diabetes program, Kovatchev said. Now, the U.Va. Center for Diabetes Technology is probably number one in the world.

Initial funding for Type I diabetes research for Kovatchev started over 20 years ago, and for almost 12 years, NIH has continuously awarded Kovatchev and his team grants. In 2016, they received over $12 million for clinical trials of the artificial pancreas. Not only did this sum significantly surpass the average amount of NIH research project grants in fiscal year 2018 $535,239 but it is also the largest given by NIH for research on Type I diabetes.

NIH has special diabetes funding, and that has been a reliable source of funding for specific areas of research related to Type I diabetes, Kovatchev said. They have been our major source.

Similarly, contributions from NIH subsidize the work of Edward H. Egelman, professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics. Along with other scientists from Yale University and the University of California, Irvine, in 2019, Egelman discovered the structure that enables certain bacteria species to conduct electricity.

While it was commonly accepted that bacteria transported electrons via filamentous appendages that can cause infections, or pili, researchers found that distinct filaments encase molecules with metal and compose a nanowire to facilitate electron transfer. Egelman cited recent and past NIH grants as essential for this type of research, as well as for exploring novel topics that led him to unexpected conclusions.

I am very fortunate to have had sustained funding from the NIH for almost all of my career, and this has allowed my research to go off in unanticipated directions, Egelman said in an email to The Cavalier Daily. The point is that with fundamental or basic research we never quite know what the consequences will be but my NIH funding allowed me to pursue these studies that may have direct implications for everything from nanoelectronics to biomedical engineering.

NIH continues to support a variety of ongoing endeavors at the University. For example, researchers at the University and Virginia Tech recently accepted $3.4 million to develop a miniature model of a lymph node they hope will aid future studies of the organ. The integrated Translational Health Research Institute of Virginia, an initiative throughout the state to connect clinical researchers, disbursed $200,000 from NIH to four multi-institutional research projects several of which involve University faculty in its initial effort to sponsor combined biomedical and data-driven projects, such as the use of ultrasounds to help treat depression.

At the start of a new decade, the challenge for the School of Medicine, Wilkes said, is not necessarily if there will be adequate monetary resources for research, but rather if there will be adequate laboratory space. With a record year behind them, University researchers are looking forward now, as research expansion is likely on the horizon.

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University School of Medicine surpassed funding record with grants from NIH - University of Virginia The Cavalier Daily

Transcendental meditation (TM) involves sitting with eyes shut for 1520 minutes twice a day while saying a mantra. The practice has several advantages for mental health but, until now, it was unclear how those effects came about.

TM differs from other meditation practices in that it does not require concentration or visualization.

Instead, TM practitioners come up with a mantra, which is a word or phrase that has no real meaning.

The practitioners silently think this mantra, allowing the mind to naturally transcend, while both the mind and body remain awake, yet relaxed.

Most people can learn TM in a few months, and benefits from regular practice may include reduced feelings of stress and anxiety in a persons everyday life.

Research has found some evidence of this. A 2013 study, appearing in Military Medicine, listed TM as a feasible treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in active-duty military personnel.

Similarly, a study appearing in The Permanente Journal in 2014, concluded that a TM program was effective in reducing psychological distress in teachers.

A 2016 study from the same journal found significant reductions in symptoms of trauma, anxiety, and depression in prison inmates who practiced TM.

With benefits seen in a relatively short period, one field of study has dived deeper into TM to find out exactly how it helps.

Now, new findings published in Brain and Cognition point to measurable functional effects in the brain of TM practitioners.

The study took place in the Molecular Mind Laboratory of Italys IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca and involved 34 participants.

Of the volunteers, 19 had to complete two 20-minute TM sessions a day for 3 months one session in the morning and one in the evening.

The remaining 15 participants continued with their usual daily routines.

At the beginning of the study, the researchers used psychometric questionnaires to measure how well each participant could handle stressful situations.

All participants also underwent a functional magnetic resonance imaging test (fMRI) to assess brain activity and functional connectivity between various areas of the brain.

At the end of the 3 months, each participant underwent another fMRI test and filled in the questionnaires again.

After 3 months, the participants who practiced daily TM perceived feeling markedly less stress and anxiety.

Specifically, following TM practice, the group of meditators reported a reduction in psychometric scores reflecting perceived depression, anxiety and stress in opposition to resilience and social skills, the authors write in the paper.

Results from the fMRI scans also showed that the reduction of anxiety levels is associated with specific changes in the connectivity between different cerebral areas, such as precuneus, left parietal lobe, and insula, which all have an important role in the modulation of emotions and inner states, says first author Giulia Avvenuti.

However, none of these changes [were] observed in the group that did not practice TM, Avvenuti points out.

Pietro Pietrini, study coordinator and IMT Schools director, says these findings raise further questions about the link between the brain and the mind.

The fact that [TM] has measurable effects on the dialogue between brain structures involved in the modulation of affective states opens new perspectives for the understanding of brain-mind relationships, he says.

The results may also indicate just how quickly TM can have a tangible effect on the brain and the feelings of individuals.

Organizations such as the David Lynch Foundation which co-funded the study encourage people with trauma or individuals who experience high levels of stress in work and education environments to practice TM.

The organization will likely use the results to amplify their work across the globe.

This work adds to the growing body of evidence in support of this form of meditation. It also raises other questions.

As Pietrini explains, his teams findings extend the results of recent research suggesting that drug therapies and psychotherapy leverage on the same biological mechanism.

Future research may, therefore, look at different ways of targeting these biological pathways.

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How transcendental meditation alters the brain - Medical News Today

The Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future and the Center for the Study of Asia invite you to attend an upcoming seminar, Coronavirus and the Future of Infectious Disease, on Wednesday, April 1 from 12:00 1:30 pm at the Pardee Center, 67 Bay State Road. Lunch will be provided beginning at 11:30 am.

The seminar will feature a panel discussion including Nahid Bhadelia (Associate Professor, Medicine/Infectious Diseases, BU School of Medicine), Davidson Hamer (Professor, Global Health & Medicine, BU School of Public Health & BU School of Medicine), and Gerald T. Keusch (Professor, Medicine & International Health, BU School of Medicine & BU School of Public Health).

This event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP below.

Dr. Nahid Bhadelia is an infectious diseases physician and the medical director of Special Pathogens Unit at Boston University School of Medicine, a medical unit designed to care for patients with highly communicable diseases. She is an Associate Professor in the Section of Infectious Diseases. She oversees the medical response program for Boston Universitys maximum containment biosafety level 4 program at National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories.

During the West African Ebola epidemic, she served as a clinician in several Ebola treatment units, working with World Health Organization and Partners in Health. She currently serves as the clinical lead for the Joint Mobile Emerging Disease Intervention Clinical Capability (JMEDICC) program which a joint US-Ugandan effort to create clinical research capacity to combat viral hemorrhagic fevers in Uganda at the border of Democratic Republic of Congo. She serves on national and interagency groups focused on medical countermeasures, the intersection between public health preparedness, research and clinical care for emerging pathogens. Her research focuses on identification of safe and effective clinical interventions and infection control measures related to viral hemorrhagic fevers.

She has served as a subject matter expert to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Defense, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and World Bank.

Dr. Bhadelia is also an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Human Security at the Tufts Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, where she teaches a course on human security and emerging infectious diseases. She received her Doctorate of Medicine from Tufts University and completed her internal medicine residency and chief residency at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Her Infectious Diseases Fellowship was completed at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.

Davidson Hamer, MD, FACP, FIDSA, FASTMH, FISTM is a Professor of Global Health and Medicine at the Boston University School of Public Health and School of Medicine, and Adjunct Professor of Nutrition at the Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. Dr. Hamer, a board-certified specialist in infectious diseases with a particular interest in tropical infectious diseases, has extensive field experience in neonatal and child survival research including studies of micronutrient interventions, maternal and neonatal health, malaria, pneumonia, and diarrheal diseases. During the last 20+ years, he has supervised and provided technical support to more than 50 studies in developing countries that evaluated interventions for improving neonatal survival, improving access for pregnant women to emergency obstetrical care, treatment and prevention of malaria, HIV/AIDS, micronutrient deficiencies, diarrheal disease, and pneumonia. Dr. Hamer received a MD from the University of Vermont College of Medicine and a BA in biology and French from Amherst College. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, Infectious Diseases Society of America, American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, and the International Society of Travel Medicine. Dr. Hamer currently has active projects in Bangladesh, Zambia, South Africa, and the United States. Major current projects include neonatal sepsis prevention using prebiotics and probiotics in Bangladesh; using community health workers to improve early childhood development in rural South Africa, antiretroviral adherence among congenitally infected HIV-positive children in Lusaka, Zambia; and a scaled-up evaluation of community-based mothers groups for improving early child development in rural Zambia. In addition, Dr. Hamer is the PI for the GeoSentinel Surveillance Network, a global network of 70 sites in 31 countries that conducts surveillance of emerging infectious diseases using returning travelers, immigrants, and refugees as sentinels of infection (www.istm.org/geosentinel).

Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Keusch has been involved in clinical medicine, teaching, and research for his entire career, most recently as Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine and Senior Attending Physician and Chief of the Division of Geographic Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the New England Medical Center in Boston. His research has ranged from the molecular pathogenesis of tropical infectious diseases to field research in nutrition, immunology, host susceptibility, and the treatment of tropical infectious diseases and HIV/AIDS. He was a Faculty Associate at Harvard Institute for International Development in the Health Office. Dr. Keusch was the Director of Training Programs in Infectious Disease, including HIV, with over 200 graduates of the program from the U.S. and developing countries who are serving presently in important positions in academic and government institutions.

Under his leadership, the programs of the Fogarty International Center were greatly expanded and focused on the creation of a global culture of science and to harness science for global health. Fogarty now supports research, capacity building, and science policy on the pressing global issues in infectious diseases, the growing burden of noncommunicable diseases, and critical crosscutting social science issues such as the ethical conduct of research, intellectual property rights and global public goods, stigma, the impact of improved health on economic development, and the effect of economic development on the environment and health.

Dr. Keusch is the recipient of all three of the major awards from the Infectious Diseases Society of America (the Squibb, Finland, and Bristol awards for research and training excellence) and has delivered numerous named lectures on topics of science and global health at leading institutions around the world. Dr. Keusch continues to be involved in international health training and policy with the NIH, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine, the United Nations University, and the World Health Organization.

Posted 2 days ago on Friday, March 6th, 2020 in 2020, News, Upcoming Events

Tagged: Health, Seminar

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Upcoming Seminar: Coronavirus and the Future of Infectious Disease | The Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future - BU...

It is the National Party leaders job to oppose the government. But as a second case of Covid-19 in New Zealand is confirmed, he should tone down the anecdotal criticisms, and rein in MPs explicitly urging people to panic-buy, writes Siouxsie Wiles, an associate professor in molecular medicine and pathology.

Dear Simon

I do understand that you lead the Opposition. I get that its your job to hold the government to account, and that this is an election year. Of course you and your caucus are keen to score points against the government wherever you can. But the reality is, you dont actually have to oppose everything it does. Sometimes, such as in the case of a public health emergency, it might be worth putting the kneejerk response on hold.

I was really disappointed to hear you get stuck into the official response to the coronavirus outbreak and the testing regime in comments relying on anecdotal feedback.

And when I heard your colleague David Bennett, MP for Hamilton East, telling the listeners of Hamiltons local radio station FreeFM that the government had dropped the ball, big-time and put New Zealanders safety at risk, and that people should be out there panic-buying, well, then I started to see red.

I cant quite believe I need to tell you this, but during a serious outbreak of a new infectious disease, the last thing we need is for our elected representatives to be undermining the important messages coming from the government, scientists, and public health officials.

For example, themessageI have been sharing with the public is that we shouldnt be panic buying and hoarding. That leads to shortages. And shortages mean instead of everyone having what they need, some of the most vulnerable people in our communities will be left with nothing. Is that what the National Party wants? Surely not. Likewise, does Mr Bennett know more about this than I do? Im going to take a wild stab in the dark here and say that, with a degree in Commerce and Law, and previous portfolios in Veterans Affairs and Racing, he does not.

Now I know all our favourite disaster books, movies, and shows might tell us that the way to deal with a situation like this is to grab some weapons, batten down the hatches, and protect our resources from everyone around us. But, in fact, as most people recognise, in the real world the opposite is true. The communities that survive disasters the best are those that work together to share their resources and make sure no one is left out in the cold.

This is one of those times. Without the surest of evidence, it is downright irresponsible during an outbreak such as this to undermine public confidence in the official response. Because when people are scared and panic, they dont respond well to difficult situations. And this could get very difficult. Rest assured, the government is being advised by a team of infectious diseases and public health experts who know their shit, are monitoring whats happening around the around, and adjusting their advice as needed.

It was encouraging to hear signs that youre toning down your response this morning on RNZ in advising people, for example, not to panic. But as we all work to ensure calm, to avoid stoking fear, and to communicate clear scientific information, I would urge you and your colleagues to bite your tongues until we are through this global emergency.

Yours sincerely

Siouxsie

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Some advice for Simon Bridges on being responsible in a health emergency - The Spinoff

Ever since the earliest reports of a pneumonia-like illness spreading within Hubei province in China, the resemblance to the SARS outbreak of 2002-2003 has been uncanny: probable origins in the wild-animal markets of China; an illness that in some people resembles the common cold or a flu, but in others leads to pneumonia-like symptoms that can cause respiratory failure; community transmission that often occurs undetected; super-spreader events; and reported vertical transmission in high-rises or other living spaces where the waste systems are improperly engineered or drain catch-basins are dry, allowing aerosolized particles to pass from one floor of a building to another (see The SARS Scare for an in-depth description of the epidemiology and virology of the SARS outbreak of 2002-2003 and the four independent zoonotic transmissions of 2003-2004).

UPDATED 3-04-2020 at 12:57p.m. See below.

At first, this latest outbreak was referred to as a novel coronavirus, then in the media as COVID-19 (formally, the name for the disease in an infected person who has become sick, a distinction analogous to that between a person who is HIV positive and one who has developed AIDS). Now that the virus has been characterized and its relationship to SARS firmly established, its designation is SARS-CoV-2severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.

Will public-health measures be sufficient to contain its spread? How infectious is it? What is the incubation period? Is this a pandemic? What role does the immune-system response play in the progression of the disease? Which populations are most at risk? Can scientists develop a vaccine, and how quickly? These are some of the questions that scientists worldwide are asking, and that a collaboration among Harvard University and Chinese researchers will address as part of a $115-million research initiative funded by China Evergrande Group, which has previously supported Universitygreen-buildings research at the Graduate School of Design, research onimmunologic diseases, and work inmathematics. (See below for the University press release describing the initiative.)

Harvard Magazinespoke with some of the researchers involved in fighting the first SARS outbreak, and those who will be collaborating with Chinese colleagues, in what is already a worldwide effort to control SARS-CoV-2.

Michael Farzan 82, Ph.D. 97, who in 2002 was an assistant professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at Harvard Medical School (HMS) studying the mechanism that viruses use to enter cells, was the first person to identify the receptor that SARS used to bind and infect human cells. SARS-CoV-2 is a close cousin to SARS, and uses the same human receptor, ACE2, reports Farzan, who is now co-chair of the department of immunology and microbiology at Scripps Research. The ACE2 receptor is expressed almost exclusively in the lungs, gastrointestinal tract, and the kidneys, which explains why the disease is so effectively transmitted via both the respiratory and fecal-oral routes.

But there are subtle differences in the new virus behind the current outbreak, he explained in an interview. The viruss receptor binding domainthe part that attaches to the human receptorhas undergone a lot of what we call positive selection, meaning there has been a good deal of evolutionary pressure on that region from natural antibodies, probably in bats or some other animal host that is a reservoir for this disease. So while the virus retains its ability to bind ACE2, Farzan explains, it no longer binds the same antibodies. That is unfortunate, because as the first SARS epidemic wound down, HMS professor of medicine Wayne Marasco had identified a single antibodyfrom what was then a 27-billion antibody librarythat blocked the virus from entering human cells. (Marasco is actively testing new antibodies, hoping to find one that will have the same effect on SARS-CoV-2. For more on Marascos work, see below.) Still, we are not starting from square one, says Farzan.

In animal studies,Remdesivir [a new and experimental antiviral drug] has seemed to work against SARS-like viruses, he says. Its effectiveness will probably hinge on getting it early enough, in the same way that the antiviral drug Tamifluis most effective against the seasonal flu when given to patients early in the course of infection.

And there is a reasonable hope that a vaccine canbe developed, Farzan adds, because the part of the virus that binds the human receptor is exposed and accessible, making it vulnerable to the immune systems antibodies. In addition, the viral genome is relatively stable. That means SARS CoV-2 wont evolve much over the course of an epidemic, so a vaccine that is relatively protective at the beginning of an epidemic will remain effective until its end.

Another reason for optimismdespite the long road to deploying any vaccine in humansis that the science that allows researchers to understand the viruss structure, life cycle, and vulnerabilities is progressing far more rapidly today than during the first SARS outbreak 17 years ago. So, too, is the understanding of the human immune response to the virus, and of the most effective public-health strategies based on the epidemiology of the disease.

When epidemiologists assess the severity of an epidemic, they want to know how effectively the disease can propagate in a population. The first measure they attempt to calculate is the reproductive number (R0)the number of people that an infected individual will in turn infect in an unexposed population, in the absence of interventions. When the reproductive number is greater than 1 (meaning each infected person in turn infects more than one other person), more and more people become infected, and an epidemic begins. Public-health interventions are therefore designed to lower the rate of transmission below 1, which eventually causes the epidemic to wind down. The second number epidemiologists focus on is the serial intervalhow long it takes one infected person at a particular stage of the disease to infect another person to the point of the same stage of the disease. The serial interval thus suggests how rapidly the disease can spread, which in turn determines whether public-health officials can identify and quarantine all known contacts of an infected individual to prevent their retransmitting the disease to others.

Epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch will be one of several Harvard scientists collaborating with Chinese colleagues to fight SARS-CoV-2Photograph by Kent Dayton

Marc Lipsitch, a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health (HSPH), and director of the schoolsCenter for Communicable Disease Dynamics, helped lead one of the two teams that first calculated the reproductive number of SARS in the 2002-2003 outbreak. SARS had an R0 of 3, he recalls: each case led to three others. In that outbreak, about 10 percent of those who became sick died. The good news is that SARS CoV-2 appears to have a much lower R0 than SARS, ranging from the high ones to low twos, and only 1 percent to 2 percent of those who become sick have died. On the other hand, the serial intervalstill being worked outappears to be shorter, meaning the new virus has the potential to spread faster.

In the current epidemic, Lipsitch notes a further concern: the fact that the incubation-period distribution and the serial-interval distribution are almost identical. Thats a mathematical way of saying that people can start transmitting the virus even when they are pre-symptomatic, or just beginning to exhibit symptoms. That makes tracing and quarantining contacts of infected individualsa classic, frontline public-health measurenearly impossible.

Tracing, quarantining, and other public-health interventions, such as distancing measures (closing workplaces or asking employees to work from home, for example) proved sufficient to defeat SARS in the early 2000s. But with SARS-CoV-2, public-health measures alone may prove inadequate. Controlling this version of SARS may require antivirals, stopgap antibody therapies, and ultimately, vaccines, deployedtogetherwith robust public-health containment strategies.

Unfortunately, SARS-CoV-2 is almost certainly already a pandemic, Lipsitch continues: demonstrating sustained transmission in multiple locations that will eventually reach most, if not all places on the globe. The disease appears to be transmitting pretty effectively, probably in Korea, probably in Japan, and probably in Iran. He now estimates that 20 to 60 percent [figures updated 03-04-2020 at 12:57 p.m.]of the adult global population will eventually become infected.

That said, Infected is different from sick, he is careful to point out. Only some of those people who become infected will become sick. As noted above, only about 1 percent to 2 percent of those who have becomesickthus far have died, he says. But the number of people who areinfectedmay be far greater than the number of those who are sick. In a way, he says, thats really good news. Because if every person who had the disease was also sick, then that would imply gigantic numbers of deaths from the disease.

I'm very gratified, Lipsitch continues, to see that both China and Harvard recognize the complementarity between public health and epidemiology on the one hand, and countermeasure-development on the other hand. We can help target the use of scarce countermeasures [such as antivirals or experimental vaccines] better if we understand the epidemiology; and we will understand the epidemiology better if we have good diagnostics, which is one of the things being developed in this proposal. These approaches are truly complementary.

In the short term, Lipsitchwho has sought to expand the modeling activities of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics to better understand the current outbreaks epidemiologysays, It would be great toexpand collaborations with Chinese experts. Longer term, I see a really good opportunity for developing new methods for analyzing data better, as we have in previous epidemics. After the first SARS outbreak, for example, epidemiologists developed software for calculating the reproductive number of novel diseases; that software now runs on the desktop computers of epidemiologists around the world. And in 2009, during an outbreak of swine flu in Mexico, Lipsitch and others developed a method for using the incidence of the disease among awell-documented cohort of travelerswho had left Mexico, to estimate the extent of the disease among amuch larger and less well surveyedpopulation of Mexican residents.

What they found then was that the estimated number of cases in Mexican residents likely exceeded the number of confirmed cases by two to three orders of magnitude. The same method is being used to assess the extent of SARS-CoV-2 in China right nowso far without any hiccups. In the Mexican case, Lipsitchreports, the estimates suggested that severe cases of the disease were uncommon, since thetotal numberof cases was likely much larger than the number ofconfirmedcases. So I think we have learned from each epidemic how to do more things. And in between them, you solidify that less visible, less high-profile research that builds the foundation for doing better the next time. His group, for example, has been developing ways to make vaccine trials faster and better once a vaccine candidate exists.

A vaccine is the best long-term hope for controlling a disease like SARS-CoV-2. Higgins professor of microbiology and molecular genetics David Knipe, who like Lipsitch will participate in the newly announced collaboration, works on vaccine delivery from a molecular perspective. Knipe has developed methods to use the herpes simplex virus (HSV) as a vaccine vector and has even made HSV recombinants that express the SARS spike proteinthe part of the virus that binds the human ACE2 receptor. He now seeks to make HSV recombinants that express the new coronavirus spike protein as a potential vaccine vector.

But Knipe also studies the initial host-cell response to virus infection, which is sometimes called the innate immune response. And he has used HSV vectors that expressed the first SARS spike protein to study how it activates innate immune signaling. That is important because inSARS 1, initial symptoms lasted about a week, but it was the second phasecharacterized by a massive immune-system response that began to damage lung tissuethat led to low levels of oxygen saturation in the blood, and even death.The inflammation in the lungs is basically a cytokine storm, an overwhelming and destructive immune response thats the result of innate signaling, Knipe explains. So were going to look at that with the new coronavirus spike protein, as well. This could help to determine the actual mechanism of inflammation, and then we can screen for inhibitors of that that might be able to alleviate the disease symptoms.

The idea, he says, is to stop theinflammatoryresponse now killing people in the respiratory phase of the disease by targeting the specific molecular interaction between the virus and the host cell. This, he explains, aligns with one of the principal initial goals of the collaboration, which is to support research both in China and at Harvard to address the acute medical needs of infected individuals during the current crisis.

Another form of frontline defense against the virus is antibody therapy. In an epidemic, this type of therapy is usually administered as a prophylaxis to first responders at high risk of infection, or as treatment to patients who are already sick or to people who might be harmed by a vaccine, such as pregnant women, the elderly, or those with co-morbidities. Wayne Marasco, an HMS professor with a lab at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, was the first to develop antibody therapies against SARS and MERS, a related coronavirus, in 2014. What he learned in those outbreaks was that using only a single antibody to bind the viruss receptor binding domainthe part of the virus that attaches to the human receptoris not enough to prevent escape through mutations that neutralize the therapy. You have to use combinations of antibodies to block the escape pathways, he explains. But the combinations have to be carefully designed to avoid the risk that the virus will evolve a gain of functionor the virus coming out of the patient is more pathogenic than the virus you started to treat.

During the MERS outbreak, Marasco led the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agencys 7-Day Biodefense program.DARPA would drop an unknown pathogen off at our doorstep, Marasco says, and we had seven days to develop a therapeutic that could be manufactured at scale. A second DARPA-funded project focused on reducing the cost of therapies to less than $10 a dose. The government has made efforts to streamline that process to get the production sped up and the cost decreased, he notes, although the efforts are independent of regulatory approval, which has a life of its own.

Marasco currently collaborates with an international team that can perform studiesincluding some that cant be done at Harvardthanks to ready access to a Biosafety Level 4 laboratory and to non-human primates for testing. The team is working to develop antibody therapies effective against SARS-CoV-2, but Marasco cautions that the situation is pretty worrisome with a disease that has a long latency period when people show no symptoms, and when public-health officials cannot identify source cases (as in Italy and in the single case of apparent community transmission in California reported February 26).

The problem in getting ahead of this now, he continues, is funding. Government resources are generally a redistribution of funds that have previously been granted to projects such as the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, or come as administrative supplements to preexisting grants. But with the pace of this epidemic, a lack of resources is limiting what can get done and how quickly it can be accomplished. Beyond the creation of therapeutics, there are all kinds of epidemiologic considerations that require rapid funding, from investigating modes of transmission to field testing for infection.

In the near term, the way to treat masses of patients, he says, is to take blood plasma from someone who has recovered and administer it to an infected person. The convalescents antibodies then fight the infection. The FDA would never approve it, he notes, but it does work. Ultimately, the treatment of choiceand the most cost-effective approach, he says, will be a vaccine.

In the last days of 2019 and the first days after the New Year, we started hearing about a pneumonia-like illness in China, says Dan Barouch, an HMS professor of medicine and of immunology known for his anti-HIV work, whose lab has developed a platform for rapid vaccine development. (During the Zika virus outbreak of 2016, for example, his group was the first to report, within a month, a vaccine protective in animal models.) When the genome of the virus was released on Friday, January 10, we started reviewing the sequence that same evening, working through the weekend. By Monday morning, we were ready to grow it.

His concern about this latest outbreak was that the rate of spread seemed to be very rapid. In addition, the outbreak had the clinical features of an epidemic. We reasoned that this might make it difficult to control solely by public-health measures, he says, particularly because the virus can be transmitted by asymptomatic individuals. Thus, if the epidemic is still spreading toward the end of this year or early 2021, by which point a vaccine might be available, Barouch explains, such a remedy could prove essential. Historically, when viral epidemics don't self-attenuate, the best method of control is a vaccine.

Although Barouchs Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center lab is working on DNA and RNA vaccines, a new technology that has the potential to cut vaccine development times in half, large-scale manufacturing using so-called nucleotide vaccines is unproven. That's why I think there needs to be multiple parallel vaccine efforts, he emphasizes. Ultimately, we don't know which one will be the fastest and most protective. At the moment, he reports, there are at least a half dozen scientifically distinct vaccine platforms that are being developed and he believes that vaccine development for this pathogen will probably go faster than for any other vaccine target in human history.

Ever since I graduated from medical school, he points out, there have been new emerging or re-emerging infectious disease outbreaks of global significance with a surprising and disturbing sense of regularity. There is Ebola. There was Zika. There were SARS, MERS; the list keeps growing. With climate change, increasing globalization, increasing travel, and population shifts, the expectation is that epidemics will not go away, and might even become more frequent.

In this global context, Barouch emphasizes the importance of a collaborative response that involves governments, physicians, scientists in academiaandin industry, and public-health officials. It has to be a coordinated approach, he says. No one group can do everything. But I do think that the world has a greater sense of readiness this time to develop knowledge, drugs, and therapeutics very rapidly. The scientific knowledge that will be gained from the vaccine efforts [will] be hugely valuable in the biomedical research field, against future outbreaks, and in the development of a vaccine to terminate this epidemic.

University provost Alan Garber, a physician himself, adds that Global crises of such magnitude demand scientific and humanitarian collaborations across borders. Harvard and other institutions in the Boston area conduct research on diagnostics, virology, vaccine and therapeutics development, immunology, epidemiology, and many other areas.With its tremendous range of expertise and experience, our community can be an important resource for any effort to address a major global infectious disease outbreak. Our scientists and clinicians feel an obligation to be part of a promising collaboration to overcome the worldwide humanitarian crisis posed by this novel virus.

UPDATED 3-03-2020 AT 12:10 p.m.TO INCLUDE A REPORT FROM THE MEETING WITH CHINESE COLLEAGUES

In a closed-door meeting that took place Monday, March 2, 2020, at Harvard Medical School, nearly 80 Boston-area scientists gathered to discuss with colleagues from China participating via video link how to respond to COVID-19 disease and the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes it. This was the first meeting to take place as a result of the collaboration with scientists at theGuangzhou Institute of Respiratory Health announced on Monday, February 24.In attendance locally were experts from Harvard Medical School (HMS), the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the HMS-affiliated hospitals, the Ragon Institute, Boston University, the Broad Institute, MIT, the Wyss Institute, as well as representatives from industry. The workshop, convened by HMS dean George Q. Daley, was a planning session to map out the process for coordinating on collaborative projects, designed to allow the participants to meet, form working groups by research area, and determine next steps.

The collaboration harnesses the strengths of the Boston scientific and biomedical ecosystem, the events organizers said in a statement, with the critical experience of Chinese scientists, who are providing on-the-ground insight into diagnostics and care for patients on the frontlines.

This public health crisis, they continued, is an opportunity to catalyze an unprecedented level of collaboration among various scientific efforts across Boston and Cambridge to address both the acute, most pressing challenges of this particular epidemic but also to establish a framework for future collaborations and create a more nimble rapid-response system for other epidemics.

The meeting was organized according to areas of research interest, need, and opportunity including:

The meeting demonstrated the need to establish a collaborative regional response capacity, not only for this outbreak, but for other future emerging infectious diseases, said the organizers. They are now working to create an organizational structure that will formalize the working groups in each of the above areas, and allow for the optimal deployment of resources including disciplinary and clinical expertise, shared core facilities, and funding.

The official Harvard press release follows:

Harvard University Scientists to Collaborate with Chinese Researcherson Development of Novel Coronavirus Therapies, Improved Diagnostics

At a glance:

Since its identification in December, the novel coronavirus has quickly evolved into a global threat, taking a toll on human health, overwhelming vulnerable health care systems and destabilizing economies worldwide.

To address these challenges, Harvard University scientists will join forces with colleagues from China on a quest to develop therapies that would prevent new infections and design treatments that would alleviate existing ones.

The U.S. efforts will be spearheaded by scientists at Harvard Medical School, led by DeanGeorge Q. Daley, working alongside colleagues from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Harvard Medical School will serve as the hub that brings together the expertise of basic scientists, translational investigators and clinical researchers working throughout the medical school and its affiliated hospitals and institutes, along with other regional institutions and biotech companies.

The Chinese efforts will be led by Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Health and Zhong Nanshan, a renowned pulmonologist and epidemiologist. Zhong is also head of the Chinese 2019n-CoV Expert Taskforce and a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Through a five-year collaborative research initiative, Harvard University and Guangzhou Institute for Respiratory Health will share $115 million in research funding provided by China Evergrande Group, aFortuneGlobal 500 company in China.

We are confident that the collaboration of Harvard and Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Health will contribute valuable discoveries to this worldwide effort, said Harvard University President Lawrence Bacow. We are grateful for Evergrandes leadership and generosity in facilitating this collaboration and for all the scientists and clinicians rising to the call of action in combating this emerging threat to global well-being.

Evergrande is honored to have the opportunity to contribute to the fight against this global public health threat, said Hui Ka Yan, chair of the China Evergrande Group. We thank all the scientists who responded so swiftly and enthusiastically from the Harvard community and are deeply moved by Harvard and Dr. Zhongs teams dedication and commitment to this humanitarian cause. We have the utmost confidence in this global collaborative team to reach impactful discoveries against the outbreak soon.

While formal details of the collaboration are being finalized, the overarching goal of the effort is to elucidate the basic biology of the virus and its behavior and to inform disease detection and therapeutic design. The main areas of investigation will include:

With the extraordinary scale and depth of relevant clinical and scientific capabilities in our community, Harvard Medical School is uniquely positioned to convene experts in virology, infectious disease, structural biology, pathology, vaccine development, epidemiology and public health to confront this rapidly evolving crisis, Daley said. Harnessing our science to tackle global health challenges is at the very heart of our mission as an institution dedicated to improving human health and well-being worldwide.

We are extremely encouraged by the generous gesture from Evergrande to coordinate and supportthe collaboration and by the overwhelmingly positive response from our Harvard colleagues, said Zhong, who in 2003 identified another novel pathogen, the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus and described the clinical course of the infection.

We look forward to leveraging each of our respective strengths to address the immediate and longer-term challenges and a fruitful collaboration to advance the global well-being of all people, Zhong added.

Harvard University ProvostAlan M. Garbersaid outbreaks of novel infections can move quickly, with a deadly effect.

This means the response needs to be global, rapid and driven by the best science. We believe that the partnershipwhich includes Harvard and its affiliated institutions, other regional and U.S.-based organizations and Chinese researchers and clinicians at the front linesoffers the hope that we will soon be able to contain the threat of this novel virus, Garber said. The lessons we learn from this outbreak should enable us to respond to infectious disease emergencies more quickly and effectively in the future.

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Harvard and Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Health Team to Fight SARS-CoV-2 - Harvard Magazine

Verena Gudernatsch, Sylwia Anna Stefaczyk, Valbona Mirakaj

Molecular Intensive Care Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, University Hospital Tbingen, Eberhard Karls University Tbingen, Tbingen, Germany

Correspondence: Valbona MirakajMolecular Intensive Care Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, University Hospital Tbingen, Eberhard Karls University Tbingen, Hoppe-Seyler-Strae 3, Tbingen 72076, GermanyTel +49 7071 29-86622Fax +49 7071 29-5533Email valbona.mirakaj@uni-tuebingen.de

Abstract: Nonresolving inflammation, a hallmark of underlying severe inflammatory processes such as sepsis, acute respiratory distress syndrome and multiple organ failure is a major cause of admission to the intensive care unit and high mortality rates. Many survivors develop new functional limitations and health problems, and in cases of sepsis, approximately 40% of patients are rehospitalized within three months. Over the last few decades, better treatment approaches have been adopted. Nevertheless, the lack of knowledge underlying the complex pathophysiology of the inflammatory response organized by numerous mediators and the induction of complex networks impede curative therapy. Thus, increasing evidence indicates that resolution of an acute inflammatory response, considered an active process, is the ideal outcome that leads to tissue restoration and organ function. Many mediators have been identified as immunoresolvents, but only a few have been shown to contribute to both the initial and resolution phases of severe systemic inflammation, and these agents might finally substantially impact the therapeutic approach to severe inflammatory processes. In this review, we depict different resolution mediators/immunoresolvents contributing to resolution programmes specifically related to life-threatening severe inflammatory processes.

Keywords: inflammation, resolution, specialized lipid mediators, neuronal guidance protein, sepsis, immunoresolvents

This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License.By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms.

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Novel Resolution Mediators of Severe Systemic Inflammation | ITT - Dove Medical Press

( NewMediaWire ) - February 14, 2020 - DALLAS - A Newark, N.J., researcher studying a new way to prevent heart injury and eventual heart failure and a Houston physician-scientist working to better understand and prevent stroke risk transmission from mother to child are the most recent American Heart Association Merit Award recipients. Each researcher will receive $1 million in funding from the Association, the worlds leading voluntary organization focused on heart and brain health and research.

Junichi Sadoshima, M.D., Ph.D., professor and chair of cell biology and molecular medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, and Louise D. McCullough, M.D., Ph.D., professor and chair of neurology at McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston will receive $200,000 a year for five years.

The American Heart Associations annual Merit Award aims to fuel highly promising, novel research that has the potential to move cardiovascular science forward.

With the Merit Award, we are searching for researchers with fresh ideas and the potential to make a huge impact, which is in line with the American Heart Associations mission to be a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives, said American Heart Association President Robert Harrington, M.D., FAHA, an interventional cardiologist and chair of the department of medicine at Stanford University in California. These exceptional scientists are asking the questions that havent been asked and are looking for answers in what we may consider to be nontraditional places. In the end, their work could transform cardiovascular and stroke science.

Sadoshimas research addresses the major public health problem that many people who have a heart attack or stroke die from heart failure or other complications within a few years after their first event. He and his colleagues are studying how inhibiting a previously uncharacterized type of cell death in the heart might prevent weakening of the heart and brain after a heart attack or stroke.

Just like we replace broken or worn-out parts in our cars to make them run better, our cells discard old or broken materials every day through a process called autophagy. While autophagy is a fundamentally important mechanism to maintain the function in the heart, the process can sometimes go awry and actually promote cellular suicide. This cell death triggered by excessive autophagy is termed autosis, Sadoshima said. Our goal with this award is to develop treatment to make the heart stronger when patients have a heart attack or stroke by understanding how autosis is stimulated and how it kills heart and brain cells.

Sadoshima said focusing on this previously uncharacterized form of cell death in the heart may have a significant impact on the future treatment of patients with reduced blood supply to the heart and brain.

McCulloughs research also looks at a big public health issue, stroke, in a new way.

It has been known for some time that health problems that occur during pregnancy, such a mothers high blood pressure, obesity or diabetes, can cause changes leading to obesity and hypertension in the child shes carrying. Initially, it was thought that a lot of this was genetic but there also are epigenetic factors outside factors that can change the genes to increase risk, McCullough said.

Prior research led McCullough and her colleagues to believe the mothers microbiome, the collection of microorganisms that reside in the gastrointestinal tract and are passed during childbirth to the child, might modify genes and increase later stroke risk in offspring. The health of the microbiome tends to change with age, becoming more likely to cause inflammation.

Were studying whether a mothers unhealthy microbiome can be manipulated and improved with diet or supplements, perhaps, to reduce stroke risk in her offspring, she said. If successful, these findings could have huge health ramifications for many generations to come.

Funding research such as the annual merit awards is a cornerstone of the American Heart Associations lifesaving mission. The Association has funded more than $4.6 billion in cardiovascular research since 1949, making it the single largest non-government supporter of heart and brain health research in the U.S.

Additional Resources:

Follow AHA/ASA news on Twitter @HeartNews

###

The American Heart Association receives funding primarily from individuals; foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific association programs and events. The Association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing the science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and device corporations and health insurance providers are available at https://www.heart.org/en/about-us/aha-financial-information.

About the American Heart Association

The American Heart Association is a leading force for a world of longer, healthier lives. With nearly a century of lifesaving work, the Dallas-based association is dedicated to ensuring equitable health for all. We are a trustworthy source empowering people to improve their heart health, brain health and well-being. We collaborate with numerous organizations and millions of volunteers to fund innovative research, advocate for stronger public health policies, and share lifesaving resources and information. Connect with us on heart.org, Facebook, Twitter or by calling 1-800-AHA-USA1.

For Media Inquiries and AHA/ASA Expert Perspective: 214-706-1173

Cathy Lewis: 214-706-1324; cathy.lewis@heart.org

For Public Inquiries: 1-800-AHA-USA1 (242-8721)

heart.org and strokeassociation.org

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Researchers from Houston and Newark awarded $1 million each to tackle major challenges in heart disease treatment and stroke prevention - Associated...

Feb. 13, 2020 06:00 UTC

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. & TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Foundation Medicine, Inc. and Chugai Pharmaceutical, Ltd. (TOKYO: 4519) have entered into an agreement with the National Cancer Center (NCC) for the use of FoundationOneLiquid, Foundation Medicines laboratory-developed liquid biopsy test, in the third stage of SCRUM-Japan, the largest cancer genomic screening consortium in Japan. The multinational program provides genomic screening in collaboration with hospitals on a regional scale in Japan and other countries in Asia, and aims to accelerate the development of innovative biomarker-driven precision medicine cancer therapies.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200212005980/en/

The third stage of SCRUM-Japan is structured in two programs LC-SCRUM-Asia and MONSTAR-SCREEN. LC-SCRUM-Asia is investigating genomic changes with the aim of delivering precision medicine to lung cancer patients. MONSTAR-SCREEN is investigating genomic changes across all types of advanced solid tumors, expanding beyond gastrointestinal cancer which was the focus of the second stage.

The SCRUM-Japan program is a model of how collaboration between industry and academia is making precision medicine a reality for people in need of new treatment approaches, said Brian Alexander, chief medical officer of Foundation Medicine. Utilization of FoundationOne Liquid in this program underscores its value in informing potential therapy selection for advanced-stage cancer patients. We look forward to continuing to expand access to comprehensive genomic profiling through this collaboration.

SCRUM-Japan is a groundbreaking program to find therapies for patients with advanced cancer. There is an increasing need for blood-based genomic testing in patients who cannot give tissue samples, including those who are unable to undergo invasive tumor biopsy, said Dr. Minoru Watanabe, vice president, head of Chugais Foundation Medicine Unit. We believe that this collaboration with the NCC, which has led genomic screening in Japan, will pave the way to realize true precision medicine across the country.

With the aim of delivering optimal treatments to patients, SCRUM-Japan was started with a view to detect cancer genomic alterations. The important achievements we saw from the first two stages include registration of over 10,000 patients clinical and genomic data, and approval of five therapeutic drugs and six in vitro diagnostics products based on clinical studies conducted by utilizing the data, said Atsushi Ohtsu, M.D., Ph.D., director of National Cancer Center Hospital East and Representative of SCRUM-Japan. Cancers remain leading causes of deaths in Japan and lung cancer has been ranked as the first leading cause of death among all cancer types. By incorporating FoundationOne Liquid into LC-SCRUM-Asia and MONSTAR-SCREEN, we believe the third stage of SCRUM-Japan will further prove the benefit of comprehensive genomic profiling tests such as FoundationOne Liquid.

Lung and gastrointestinal cancers are among the leading causes of cancer-related deaths in Japan, accounting for over 72 percent of cancer deaths in 2018, according to the World Health Organization. Through this collaboration, Foundation Medicine and Chugai will provide FoundationOne Liquid to academic centers participating in LC-SCRUM-Asia and MONSTAR-SCREEN.

In April 2018, Foundation Medicine received Breakthrough Device Designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (U.S. FDA) on a forthcoming version of Foundation Medicines liquid biopsy test, which is currently under U.S. FDA review. Chugai and Foundation Medicine are preparing for the regulatory filing of this version of the test in Japan with the intention that the product will be approved for use under the National Health Insurance coverage in Japan. The parties intend that both LC-SCRUM-Asia and MONSTAR-SCREEN will transition from the existing FoundationOne Liquid test to the forthcoming version of Foundation Medicines liquid biopsy test following its anticipated approval by the U.S. FDA and subject to the terms of the agreement.

About SCRUM-Japan SCRUM-Japan is the largest cancer genomic screening consortium in Japan and aims to accelerate the development of innovative biomarker-driven precision medicine cancer therapies. Since its launch in 2015, more than 10,000 patients with advanced cancers have participated in SCRUM-Japan. The third stage of SCRUM-Japan started in June 2019, and includes two programs LC-SCRUM-Asia and MONSTAR-SCREEN. LC-SCRUM-Asia is investigating genomic changes with the aim of delivering precision medicine to lung cancer patients. More than 200 hospitals in Japan and Taiwan have joined the program and its scope area is expanding across Asia. MONSTAR-SCREEN is investigating genomic changes across all types of advanced solid tumors including gastrointestinal cancer. 28 hospitals have registered in Japan, and it aims for patients with various types of cancer to participate in the program.

About Foundation Medicine Foundation Medicine is a molecular information company dedicated to a transformation in cancer care in which treatment is informed by a deep understanding of the genomic changes that contribute to each patient's unique cancer. The company offers a full suite of comprehensive genomic profiling assays to identify the molecular alterations in a patients cancer and match them with relevant targeted therapies, immunotherapies and clinical trials. Foundation Medicines molecular information platform aims to improve day-to-day care for patients by serving the needs of clinicians, academic researchers and drug developers to help advance the science of molecular medicine in cancer. For more information, please visit http://www.FoundationMedicine.com or follow Foundation Medicine on Twitter (@FoundationATCG).

About Chugai Chugai Pharmaceutical is one of Japans leading research-based pharmaceutical companies with strengths in biotechnology products. Chugai, based in Tokyo, specializes in prescription pharmaceuticals and is listed on the 1st section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. As an important member of the Roche Group, Chugai is actively involved in R&D activities in Japan and abroad. Specifically, Chugai is working to develop innovative products which may satisfy the unmet medical needs.Additional information is available at https://www.chugai-pharm.co.jp/english/.

Foundation Medicineand FoundationOne are registered trademarks of Foundation Medicine, Inc.

Source: Foundation Medicine

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Foundation Medicine and Chugai Announce Partnership with National Cancer Center for the Use of FoundationOneLiquid in the Third Stage of SCRUM-Japan -...