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Category: biotech/medical – Page 1,963

Dr Jennifer Garrison, PhD — Global Consortium for Reproductive Longevity & Equality — Buck Institute

Dr. Jennifer Garrison, PhD (http://garrisonlab.com/) is Assistant Professor, Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Founder & Faculty Director, Global Consortium for Reproductive Longevity & Equality (https://www.buckinstitute.org/gcrle/), Assistant Professor in Residence, Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, UCSF and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Gerontology, USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology.

Dr. Garrison’s lab is interested in understanding how neuropeptides (a large class of signaling molecules which are secreted from neurons and transmit messages within the brain and across the nervous system) regulate changes in normal and aging animals as well in understanding how they control behavior at both the cell biological and neural circuit level.

Dr. Garrison received her PhD from the University of California San Francisco in Chemistry and Chemical Biology in the laboratory of Dr. Jack Taunton, where she discovered the molecular target of a natural product and elucidated a novel mechanism by which small molecules can regulate protein biogenesis. As a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Cori Bargmann’s lab at the Rockefeller University, she showed that the nematode C. elegans produces a neuropeptide that is an evolutionary precursor of the mammalian peptides vasopressin and oxytocin, and mapped a neural circuit by which this molecule, nematocin, modulates mating behavior.

Dr. Garrison was named an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow and received a Glenn Foundation Award for Research in Biological Mechanisms of Aging in 2,014 and a Next Generation Leader at the Allen Institute for Brain Science in 2015. Her work is funded by the NIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences, the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Larry L. Hillblom Foundation.

Epic deploys tech to verify COVID-19 vaccination status, test results

Epic has developed technology that serves as a digital vaccination verification by binding a person’s identity with their vaccination or lab results and displaying it via QR codes on a smartphone, Wisconsin State Journal reported Sept. 27.

Epic has rolled out technology that serves as a digital vaccination verification by binding a person’s identity with their vaccination or lab results and displaying it via QR codes on a smartphone, Wisconsin State Journal reported Sept. 27.

Seven things to know:

1. The new tech is currently live for 25 million patients, and 70 million to 80 million people will have access to it by the end of 2,022 Nick Frenzer, an Epic implementation executive, told the publication.

Do we finally have control over ageing? | Prof David Sinclair

In case this hasn’t been posted here yet.

Ageing is inevitable, but what if everything we’ve come to believe about ageing is wrong and we’re able to choose our lifespans? What if ageing is a disease?

In this week’s #HealthyLongevity #webinar, Prof David Sinclair from Harvard Medical School shares a bold new theory for why we age. Prof Sinclair is also the author of “Lifespan, Why We Age – and Why We Don’t Have To” (https://lifespanbook.com/).

Register for upcoming webinar sessions at https://nus-sg.zoom.us/webinar/register/9516279955794/WN_JhWMZNz0QGOgNqxtSBYedw.

#NUSMedicine #webinarseries

Continue reading “Do we finally have control over ageing? | Prof David Sinclair” | >

FDA approves first drug to treat lymphoma in dogs

To treat lymphoma in dogs, veterinarians have traditionally relied on chemotherapy drugs first designed for people.

Now, the FDA has approved a medication specifically designed to treat canine cancer — and the new approach to chemo drug development might end up helping humans.

Lymphoma in dogs: Lymphoma is a cancer that starts in the cells and tissues of the lymphatic system. It’s one of the most common cancers in dogs, accounting for up to 24% of all new cases and affecting up to 70,000 pets in the U.S. annually.

The FDA has approved a medication specifically designed to treat lymphoma in dogs, potentially helping extend the lives of thousands of pets.

Pfizer Tests Pill That Could Prevent Covid Infection

Pfizer is investigating an oral antiviral drug that could prevent Covid-19 infection after being exposed to the virus, the company announced Monday, as scientists around the world work to develop new tools to fight Covid-19 and ease the burden on overwhelmed hospitals.

Pfizer said it is launching a mid-to-late-stage clinical trial to test whether the antiviral drug, PF-07321332, can prevent Covid-19 infection in some 2,660 healthy adults living in the same house as someone with a confirmed symptomatic infection.

The trial will test the safety and efficacy of the pill with ritonavir, another antiviral widely used to treat HIV.

Pfizer hopes the pill, taken twice a day, would stop someone from becoming infected with Covid-19.

DNA robot controls live cells’ movement

A DNA robot that can walk across biological cell membranes is the first one that can control living cells’ behaviour. The researchers who made the robot hope that it could improve cell-based precision medicine.

A team led by Hong-Hui Wang and Zhou Nie from Hunan University, China, has created a synthetic molecular robot that walks along the outer membrane of biological cells. The robot, powered by an enzyme’s catalytic activity, traverses across receptors that act as stepping stones on the cell surface. With each step, the robot activates a signal pathway that regulates cell migration. Driven by the robot’s movement, the cells can reach speeds of 24 μm/hour.

The researchers write that the DNA robot offers, for the first time, an opportunity to accurately and predictably control the nanoscale operations that power a live cell. They suggest that similar molecular machines that guide cell behaviours could play a role in cell-based therapies and regenerative medicine.

Zydus Cadila: What we know about India’s new Covid vaccines

The ZyCoV-D vaccine is also the world’s first DNA vaccine against Covid-19.

Like other vaccines, a DNA vaccine, once administered, teaches the body’s immune system to fight the real virus.

ZyCoV-D uses plasmids — or small rings of DNA that contain genetic information — to deliver the jab between two layers of the skin.

ZyCov-D is also India’s first needle-free Covid-19 jab.

It is administered with a disposable needle-free injector, which uses a narrow stream of the fluid to penetrate the skin and deliver the jab to the proper tissue.

India has given a boost to its vaccination programme by approving its first vaccine for those under 18.

Continue reading “Zydus Cadila: What we know about India’s new Covid vaccines” | >

Vaccination slows antimicrobial resistance

A new computer model demonstrates that vaccinations have impacts well beyond just preventing disease and death: they can also slow the spread of antimicrobial resistance.

Pneumococcal diseases—which include illnesses ranging from inner ear infections to pneumonia and meningitis—are a leading cause of death globally among children under five. While there are effective vaccines against pneumococcal diseases, access is still a challenge for populations in low-income—and some middle income—countries. And antimicrobial resistance to the antibiotics commonly used to treat these infections is a growing problem.

“We wanted to the value of vaccinating—not only to show that vaccination reduces death or disability from these diseases, but also to quantify whether vaccination can slow antimicrobial resistance,” says Andrew Stringer, an assistant professor of veterinary and global health at NC State.

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