Lifeboat Foundation

Southampton researchers have identified a blood profile that could help identify COVID-19 patients at greatest risk of deterioration and direct them towards trials of specific treatments that could modify their immune systems’ responses. A new study jointly led by Professor Tom Wilkinson and Dr Tristan Clark of the University of Southampton, has shown a blood test for five cytokines could help predict those at risk of life-threating overstimulation of immune defences by COVID-19, and potentially tailor their treatment to tackle this.

Southampton researchers have developed a blood test that could help identify COVID-19 patients at risk of a life-threatening overreaction of the body’s immune system.

Varian has secured an investigational device exemption (IDE) approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin a clinical trial of FLASH therapy is an experimental treatment modality designed to deliver radiation therapy at ultra-high dose rates.

With ultra-high dose rates, FLASH therapy is said to be delivered in less than one second and more than 100 times faster compared to conventional radiation therapy.

The study, which is named as FAST-01(feasibility study of FLASH radiotherapy for the treatment of symptomatic bone metastases), will include the investigational use of Varian’s ProBeam particle accelerator that is modified to deliver an advanced non-invasive treatment option for cancer patients.

Continue reading “Varian gets FDA IDE approval to begin clinical trial of FLASH therapy” »

Our overarching vision: A world where data on all treatments that have been used against COVID19 are maintained in a central repository and analyzed so that physicians currently treating COVID19 patients know what treatments are most likely to help their patients and so that clinical trials can be appropriately prioritized.

Our team reviewed 2500+ papers & extracted data on over 9,000 COVID19 patients. We found 115 repurposed drugs that have been used to treat COVID19 patients and analyzed data on which ones seem most promising for clinical trials. This data is open source and can be used by physicians to treat patients and prioritize drugs for trials. The CDCN will keep this database updated as a resource for this global fight. Repurposed drugs give us the best chance to help COVID19 as quickly as possible! As disease hunters who have identified and repurposed drugs for Castleman disease, we’re applying our ChasingMyCure approach to COVID19.

To identify possible candidates for progression towards clinical studies against SARS-CoV-2, we screened a well-defined collection of 5632 compounds including 3488 compounds which have undergone clinical investigations (marketed drugs, phases 1 −3, and withdrawn) across 600 indications. Compounds were screened for their inhibition of viral induced cytotoxicity using the human epithelial colorectal adenocarcinoma cell line Caco-2 and a SARS-CoV-2 isolate. The primary screen of 5632 compounds gave 271 hits. A total of 64 compounds with IC50 <20 µM were identified, including 19 compounds with IC50 < 1 µM. Of this confirmed hit population, 90% have not yet been previously reported as active against SARS-CoV-2 in-vitro cell assays. Some 37 of the actives are launched drugs, 19 are in phases 1–3 and 10 pre-clinical. Several inhibitors were associated with modulation of host pathways including kinase signaling P53 activation, ubiquitin pathways and PDE activity modulation, with long chain acyl transferases were effective viral inhibitors.

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The CRISPR-Cas9 system has revolutionized genetic manipulations and made gene editing simpler, faster and easily accessible to most laboratories.

To its recognition, this year, the French-American duo Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna have been awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize for chemistry for CRISPR.

Stem Cell Therapy on MP3.

The results of one empirical study have been recently published. The researchers of this study examined the effects of intravenous MSC therapy on patients infected with the COVID-19 virus[1]. It was demonstrated that intravenous administration of MSCs drastically reduced d…

A rectangular robot as tiny as a few human hairs can travel throughout a colon by doing back flips, Purdue University engineers have demonstrated in live animal models.

Why the back flips? Because the goal is to use these robots to transport drugs in humans, whose colons and other organs have rough terrain. Side flips work, too.

Why a back-flipping robot to transport drugs? Getting a drug directly to its target site could remove side effects, such as hair loss or stomach bleeding, that the drug may otherwise cause by interacting with other organs along the way.

For the first time, an Ebola therapy has been approved for use. The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved Inmazeb, an antibody cocktail made by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.

With the approval, there are now both a vaccine — Merck’s Ervebo — and a therapeutic to battle Ebola Zaire, tools that for decades were out of reach for Ebola, which is one of the deadliest infections known to humankind. There is currently an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the third in the last three years in that country.

“This is the first time the FDA has approved a treatment specifically for Ebola, which has caused a number of deadly outbreaks,” said George Yancopoulos, Regeneron’s president and chief scientific officer, in a statement. “As we apply the same sophisticated technologies and manufacturing capabilities against COVID-19, we hope this will be one of many demonstrations of how the power of science can be successfully deployed against dangerous infectious diseases.”

Nature looks how researchers and students in four countries are coping with the return to campus amid the pandemic.

From Germany to India, researchers are grappling with how to run labs and lessons under extraordinary restrictions.