Targeting the deadly coils of Ebola
In the midst of a global pandemic with COVID-19, it s hard to appreciate how lucky those outside of Africa have been to avoid the deadly Ebola virus disease. It incapacitates its victims soon after infection with massive vomiting or diarrhea, leading to death from fluid loss in about 50 percent of the afflicted. The Ebola virus transmits only through bodily fluids, marking a key difference from the COVID-19 virus and one that has helped contain Ebola s spread.
Ebola outbreaks continue to flare up in West Africa, although a vaccine developed in December 2019 and improvements in care and containment have helped keep Ebola in check. Supercomputer simulations by a University of Delaware team that included an undergraduate supported by the XSEDE EMPOWER program are adding to the mix and helping to crack the defenses of Ebola s coiled genetic material. This new research could help lead to breakthroughs in treatment and improved vaccines for Ebola and o
Published: Dec 21, 2020
BOSTON, Dec. 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ Emulate, Inc., a leading provider of advanced
in vitro models, today unveiled the Emulate Brain-Chip, which is designed for neuroscience researchers investigating neuroinflammatory disease and for drug developers seeking to improve drug discovery for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer s and Parkinson s. The comprehensive model incorporates cells from the human brain, including the blood-brain barrier, in a dynamic microenvironment which enables cell-cell interaction.
Emulate Organ-Chips, including the Brain-Chip, are designed to enable researchers to investigate the safety and efficacy of therapeutic treatments in development, in order to reduce the high drug development failure rates that result from a poor understanding of drug mechanism of action, toxicity, pharmacokinetic profile, or overall applicability and translation of animal and
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Baltimore, MD The CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing system can help scientists understand, and possibly improve, how corals respond to the environmental stresses of climate change. Work led by Phillip Cleves who joined Carnegie s Department of Embryology this fall details how the revolutionary, Nobel Prize-winning technology can be deployed to guide conservation efforts for fragile reef ecosystems.
Cleves research team s findings were recently published in two papers in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Corals are marine invertebrates that build extensive calcium carbonate skeletons from which reefs are constructed. But this architecture is only possible because of a mutually beneficial relationship between the coral and various species of single-celled algae that live inside individual coral cells. These algae convert the Sun s energy into food using a process called photosynthesis and they share some of the nutrients they produce with their coral hosts
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Boston As colleges and universities consider strategies for the spring semester to keep COVID-19 cases down, a study conducted by experts in epidemic modeling may help shed light on what mitigation strategies may be most effective, both in terms of infections prevented and cost. Investigators from Brigham and Women s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital and Case Western Reserve University used the Clinical and Economic Analysis of COVID-19 interventions (CEACOV) model to perform their study, finding that combining a mandatory mask-wearing policy with extensive social distancing would prevent 87 percent of infections among students and faculty. Routine testing was also highly effective at preventing infections, but may be cost prohibitive for many colleges and universities. The team also reports that, even if campuses remain closed, there would likely be infections among faculty acquired from the surrounding community, as well as infections among students who return to
N.J. Sees 20% Spike; Bidens Receive Pfizer Vaccine: Virus Update
Bloomberg 12/21/2020
(Bloomberg)
Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE’s Covid-19 vaccine won the backing of a key European review panel, clearing the way for inoculations to start before year-end.
Europe and regions from Canada to Hong Kong suspended travel links to the U.K., as a full lockdown came into force in London and southeast England to contain a mutation to the coronavirus.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has asked the three airlines that fly from the U.K. directly to New York to add the state to a list of 120 countries requiring pre-boarding Covid tests. He said he believes the new strain is already circulating in New York.