Pandemics, Superstition and Science
My Italian town, home to the Black Death of 1348, affords a perfect view of humanity’s road to reason. Let’s walk.
Frank Viviano, a best-selling author whose global journalism has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize eight times, lives in Barga, Italy and is a staff writer for Barganews. SHARES San Rocco, a saintly figure who died in Europe’s worst plague, is commemorated in Chiesa di San Rocco, just beyond the town walls of Barga, Italy.
Photo by Keane.
A peculiar marriage of wild celebration and tacit mourning takes place each year on Aug. 15 in Barga, the hilltop Tuscan town where I’ve lived for two decades. Its people dance in the piazzas to the music of accordions and mandolins. Outdoor markets hum with shoppers until well after midnight. Dazzling fireworks explode over its medieval cathedral and ramparts.
Date Time
New Alzheimer’s research could inspire better treatments and earlier diagnosis
Neuroscientists at the University of Portsmouth, with collaborators in the UK and the USA, have made a breakthrough in the study of Alzheimer’s which could inspire better treatments and earlier diagnosis.
The researchers have for the first time found a key protein in one of the brain regions first to be affected by Alzheimer’s.
The study, led by Jerome Swinny, Professor of Neuropharmacology at the University of Portsmouth and funded by Alzheimer’s Society, set out to fully understand how this brain region changes in the earliest phases of the disease and why.
Edison Investment Research Limited: ReNeuron Group (RENE): Continuing to Gain Clinical Data in Eye Disease
LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / January 15, 2021 / After an eventful 2020, ReNeuron released updated 12-month Phase ll data in January on its lead human retinal progenitor cell (hRPC) project. This continues to show a consistent and robust, sustained average gain in visual acuity in retinitis pigmentosa (RP). A continuation study in nine patients using two million cells is underway with three- and six-month data due over H2 CY21 and the first three patients treated. This will facilitate partnering negotiations. A pivotal hRPC study may start in 2022. Deals are possible in CY21 on the exosome genetic drug delivery platform, which could be very valuable. The valuation remains at £190m with strong cash.