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Category: biotech/medical – Page 1,943

Li Wenliang, the doctor in China who raised early awareness of the new coronavirus, died of the virus in February at 34. His death was shocking not only because of his role in publicizing the developing epidemic but also — given that young people do not have a high risk of dying from Covid-19 — because of his age.

Is it possible that Dr. Li died because as a doctor who spent a lot of time around severely ill Covid-19 patients, he was infected with such a high dose? After all, though he was one of the first young health care workers to die after being exposed up close and frequently to the virus, he was unfortunately not the last.

The importance of viral dose is being overlooked in discussions of the coronavirus. As with any other poison, viruses are usually more dangerous in larger amounts. Small initial exposures tend to lead to mild or asymptomatic infections, while larger doses can be lethal.

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In a joint press statement, the Ministry of Health (MoH) and the Ministry of Innovation and Technology (MoIT) said: “a domestic treatment drug” is being developed by the traditional medicine experts of the country.

The two ministries said the drug was prepared by integrating indigenous traditional medical knowledge with modern science.

The Country says it is developing a cure for Covid-19.

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Big biotech company Amgen Inc. is joining the race to discover new drugs that can treat the novel coronavirus, the latest drugmaker redirecting resources toward the pandemic.

Amgen, which is partnering with Adaptive Biotechnologies Corp. in the effort, is an unlikely hunter of antiviral treatments. The company, a pioneer of biotechnology, is best known for its drugs for cancer, with other products targeting high cholesterol, kidney disease and migraines.

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What is Universal Basic Income (UBI) and how could it help us deal with the coronavirus outbreak? What if… we gave people free money?

The idea of a basic income is that everybody would receive a modest amount paid each week or each month without conditions, paid equally to every man and every woman with a smaller amount to pay for every child.

Advocates for Universal Basic such as Guy Standing, co-founder of the Basic Income Earth Network, argue that it would be the ideal response to the crisis, but that it would also bring huge long term benefits, which he explains in this video.

This video was produced as part of Digital Society, a publishing partnership between WIRED and Vontobel where all content is editorially independent. Visit Vontobel Impact for more stories on how technology is shaping the future of society: https://www.vontobel.com/en-int/about-vontobel/impact/

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Dozens of other teams around the world have potential vaccines in development.

But the Pittsburgh research is the first study on a Covid-19 vaccine candidate to be published after critique from fellow scientists at outside institutions.

The scientists were able to act quickly because they had already laid the groundwork during earlier epidemics of coronaviruses: Sars in 2003 and Mers in 2014.

“These two viruses, which are closely related to[Covid-19], teach us that a particular protein, called a spike protein, is important for inducing immunity against the virus. We knew exactly where to fight this new virus,” said Andrea Gambotto, associate professor of surgery at the Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Vaccine developed by US researchers is injected by 400 ‘microneedles’ stuck onto the skin like a plaster.

Continue reading “Potential coronavirus vaccine ‘generates enough antibodies to fight off virus’” | >

Can we build a better world with the lessons learned around this pandemic?

There is discussion that globalism will give way to community resilience and local digital manufacture, storage and transportation to provide abundant resources for normal and unanticipated needs.

#CommunityResilience #CommunityResourceCentres

We must pressure our leaders to take the long view in any coronavirus economic recovery package, even if this feels like a short-term emergency.

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Cells will ramp up gene expression in response to physical forces alone, a new study finds. Gene activation, the first step of protein production, starts less than one millisecond after a cell is stretched—hundreds of times faster than chemical signals can travel, the researchers report.

The scientists tested forces that are biologically relevant—equivalent to those exerted on by breathing, exercising or vocalizing. They report their findings in the journal Science Advances.

“We found that force can activate genes without intermediates, without enzymes or signaling molecules in the cytoplasm,” said University of Illinois mechanical science and engineering professor Ning Wang, who led the research. “We also discovered why some genes can be activated by force and some cannot.”

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