A monoclonal antibody treatment was found to be safe, well tolerated, and effective in protecting against malaria in a small group of healthy volunteers who were exposed to malaria in a challenge study, according to new research published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM).

“The study demonstrates the feasibility of using monoclonal antibody therapies to help prevent malarial infection and holds promise for deployment to places where the disease is endemic,” said Kirsten Lyke, MD, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Malaria Vaccine and Challenge Unit in the Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health (CVD) at UMSOM. “This may allow us to revisit malaria eradication efforts.”

There were 241 million malaria cases and 627,000 deaths reported worldwide in 2020 alone, which is a 12 percent increase from 2019. Public health experts contend new strategies are urgently needed to achieve the United Nation’s sustainable development goal of 90 percent reduction in malaria incidence and mortality by 2030. Scientists have tried for decades to develop a highly effective malaria vaccine without much success.

A novel virus, potentially fatal to whales and dolphins, has been discovered by researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi Health and Stranding Lab. Prior to its discovery in 10 whale and dolphin host species across the Pacific, the virus was found in only a single marine mammal worldwide, a Longman’s beaked whale stranded on Maui in 2010. The findings are published in Frontiers in Marine Science.

The discovery of beaked whale circovirus (BWCV) in whales and dolphins expands the knowledge of marine mammal species that can become infected with the disease. Circoviruses are DNA viruses that cause disease in birds, pigs and dogs, and in severe cases can become fatal.

“Our study found Cuvier’s beaked whales tested positive for BWCV in Saipan and American Samoa, nearly 4,000 miles away from the first discovered case,” said Kristi West, director of the UH Health and Stranding Lab. “The positive cases found outside of Hawaiʻi were surprising, and indicates that this virus is spread across the Central and Western Pacific and may have a global presence in marine mammals.”

Researchers at Stanford Medicine have shown they can measure thousands of molecules — some of which are signals of health — from a single drop of blood.

The new approach combines a microsampling device — a tool used to self-administer a finger prick — with “multi-omics” technologies, which simultaneously analyze a vast array of proteins, fats, by-products of metabolism and inflammatory markers.

“Even more importantly, we’ve shown you can collect the blood drop at home and mail it into the lab,” said Michael Snyder, PhD, director of the Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine and senior author on the research, which was published in Nature Biomedical Engineering on Jan. 19.

Nearly 15,500 people in the U.S. over age 50 are estimated to have VEXAS syndrome.

A rare disorder called VEXAS syndrome has bemused the United States’ health services since 2020. The syndrome was a great mystery until the researchers’ work yielded results.

As stated by NYU Langone Health, with up to 50 percent of sufferers, mostly men, passing away within five years of diagnosis, this illness has a significant mortality rate.

---

BlackJack3D/iStock.

A new study led by the NYU Grossman School of Medicine has shown that about 13,200 men and another 2,300 women in the United States over age 50 are estimated to have VEXAS syndrome.

Dr. Nadine Lamberski, D.V.M., Dipl. ACZM, Dipl. ECZM (ZHM), is Chief Conservation and Wildlife Health Officer, at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance (https://sandiegozoowildlifealliance.org/about-us/key-leaders/nadine-lamberski).

Dr. Lamberski leads a unified team of conservation scientists, researchers, wildlife nutritionists, and wildlife veterinarians, cultivating a strategic approach to conservation efforts. She is aligning San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance with other global conservation organizations and developing strategies that safeguard biodiversity so all life can thrive.

Dr. Lamberski joined the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in 2001 as senior veterinarian, following seven years as the senior veterinarian at Riverbanks Zoological Park and Botanical Garden in Columbia, South Carolina. She completed an internship at the University of Tennessee and Zoo Knoxville, followed by a zoological medicine residency at the University of California, Davis.

Dr. Lamberski has focused her career on the health and welfare of zoological species, as well as on the conservation impacts of disease on small or fragmented wildlife populations. She has participated in several field projects, most notably studying black-footed cats in southern.
Africa, thick-billed parrots in northern Mexico, desert tortoises in the Southwestern United States, and working with partners at the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary in northern Kenya. She is inspired by the next generation of wildlife veterinarians and conservationists and has a special.
interest in organizational leadership.

Dr. Lamberski is a Diplomate of the American College of Zoological Medicine (ACZM) and European College of Zoological Medicine (ECZM) in zoo health management (ZHM). She received her undergraduate degree in zoology and DVM from the University of Georgia.

Dr. Lamberski is a member and past president of the American Association of Zoo Veterinarians and a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, American College of Zoological.

Novak Djokovic, age 35, sometimes hangs out in a pressurized egg to enrich his blood with oxygen and gives pep talks to glasses of water, hoping to purify them with positive thinking before he drinks them. Tom Brady, 45, evangelizes supposedly age-defying supplements, hydration powders and pliability spheres. LeBron James, 38, is said to spend $1.5 million a year on his body to keep Father Time at bay. While most of their contemporaries have retired, all three of these elite athletes remain marvels of fitness. But in the field of modern health science, they’re amateurs compared to Bryan Johnson.

---

Middle-aged tech centimillionaire Bryan Johnson and his team of 30 doctors say they have a plan to reboot his body.