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Category: biotech/medical – Page 1,070

Dr. Amy Proal, Ph.D. serves as President & CEO of the PolyBio Research Foundation (https://polybio.org/), and Chief Scientific Officer of the Long Covid Research Initiative (LCRI — https://lc19.org/).

In her work with PolyBio Research Foundation and the LCRI, Dr. Proal conceptualizes and coordinates large-scale collaborative research projects among research teams studying infection-associated chronic conditions such as Long Covid, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) and Long Lyme.

Dr. Proal has written multiple review articles that delineate core biological drivers of both the Long Covid and ME/CFS disease processes. She is a regular speaker at infection-associated chronic disease conferences including IACFS/ME, Lyme Mind and The International Congress on Autoimmunity.

Dr. Proal holds a Bachelors of Science in biology from Georgetown University and a Ph.D. in microbiology from Murdoch University in Australia. Her work examines the molecular mechanisms by which viral, bacterial, and fungal pathogens dysregulate human gene expression, immunity, and metabolism, and how dysbiosis of the human microbiome, and/or the human virome, can contribute to chronic inflammatory disease processes.

As a member of the research team at Autoimmunity Research Foundation, Dr. Proal has authored papers and written book chapters for organizations like the J. Craig Venter Institute and The Autoimmunity Network, and lectured at the NIH and numerous USA/international conferences.

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Dr. Sarita A. Mohanty, MD, MPH, MBA (https://www.thescanfoundation.org/about/board-of-directors/sarita-a-mohanty/), serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of The SCAN Foundation, one of the largest foundations in the United States focused on improving the quality of health and life for older adults. Its mission is to advance a coordinated and easily navigated system of high-quality services for older adults that preserve dignity and independence.

The SCAN Foundation was created as an independent charitable organization in April 2008 through a $205 Million one-time contribution from the not-for-profit SCAN Health Plan, a not-for-profit, Medicare Advantage based in Long Beach, California.

Previously, Dr. Mohanty served as the Vice President of Care Coordination for Medicaid and Vulnerable Populations at Kaiser Permanente; Assistant Professor of Medicine at USC; Chief Medical Officer of COPE Health Solutions, a health care management consulting company; and Senior Medical Director at L.A. Care, the largest U.S. public health plan.

Dr. Mohanty completed her Internal Medicine residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and research fellowship at Harvard Medical School. She earned her MD from Boston University, MPH from Harvard University, and MBA from UCLA. She completed undergraduate work at UC Berkeley. She currently is an Associate Professor at the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine and is a practicing internal medicine physician with Kaiser Permanente.

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These days when we are struggling with the pandemic, even breathing with peace of mind has become challenging. Especially the form of the mammalian respiratory system, requiring inhalation and exhalation, leaves us more vulnerable to the propagation of viral diseases.

But now, a group of South Korean artists, Bongkyu Song of BKID and Moon&Jeon, has devised a metal lung concept that uses algae to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. This device named Super Lung is inspired by the respiratory system of birds. Moreover, its designers assert that this concept increases mammalian respiratory efficiency by 300%. But how?

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Antibiotics are standard treatments for fighting dangerous bacterial infections. Yet the number of bacteria developing a resistance to antibiotics is increasing. Researchers from Texas A&M University and the University of São Paulo are overcoming this resistance with light.

The researchers tailored antimicrobial (aPDT)—a chemical reaction triggered by visible light—for use on strains. Results showed the treatment weakened to where low doses of current antibiotics could effectively eliminate them.

“Using aPDT in combination with antibiotics creates a synergy of interaction working together for a solution,” said Vladislav Yakovlev, University Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Texas A&M and co-director of the project. “It’s a step in the right direction against resistant bacteria.”

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Summary: Brain organoids are helping researchers map the molecular, genetic, and structural changes that occur during brain development.

Source: ETH Zurich.

The human brain is probably the most complex organ in the entire living world and has long been an object of fascination for researchers. However, studying the brain, and especially the genes and molecular switches that regulate and direct its development, is no easy task.

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A team of researchers at Northwestern University has devised a new platform for gene editing that could inform the future application of a near-limitless library of CRISPR-based therapeutics.

Using chemical design and synthesis, the team brought together the Nobel-prize winning technology with therapeutic technology born in their own lab to overcome a critical limitation of CRISPR. Specifically, the groundbreaking work provides a system to deliver the cargo required for generating the gene editing machine known as CRISPR-Cas9. The team developed a way to transform the Cas-9 protein into a spherical nucleic acid (SNA) and load it with critical components as required to access a broad range of tissue and cell types, as well as the intracellular compartments required for gene editing.

The research, published today in a paper titled, “CRISPR Spherical Nucleic Acids,” in the publication Journal of the American Chemical Society, and shows how CRISPR SNAs can be delivered across the cell membrane and into the nucleus while also retaining bioactivity and gene editing capabilities.

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