Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: biotech/medical – Page 2,129

Indian Army has disinfectant drone, UV gun that kills virus in seconds in its Covid arsenal

The cost of the sanitiser would be Rs 800, and the Army can turn out 10 pieces a day.

The third innovation is a 3D-printed mask priced at Rs 1,200 apiece. Other products being devised include thermal scanners and anti-aerosalination boxes to keep doctors safe. The boxes are made up of transparent acrylic sheets and kept over patients to protect doctors and other healthcare workers from infection. Holes cut into the box help medical staff administer treatment to the patient without coming into direct contact.

The Army is just one of several sections across Indian society that are trying to chip in for the country’s battle against coronavirus, from scientists who have banded together to bust myths to IITians churning out cost-effective and innovative solutions to ease the burden on the healthcare framework.

New universal Ebola vaccine may fight all four virus species that infect humans

CINCINNATI — Infectious disease scientists report early development of a potential universal vaccine for Ebola viruses that preclinical tests show might neutralize all four species of these deadly viruses infecting people in recent outbreaks, mainly in Africa.

Scientists at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center report their preclinical results in the Journal of Virology, published by the American Society for Microbiology.

Although still in early preclinical testing, researchers report that their data indicate that the prospective vaccine has potential to be a stand-alone protection from Ebola. It also could broaden and extend the durability of protective immunity induced by current live vaccines already being tested in clinical trials against individual Ebola virus species, said Karnail Singh, PhD, the study’s co-principal investigator in the Division of Infectious Diseases.

No guarantees of Covid-19 vaccine but prospects very good, scientist says

Nobody can be “completely certain” that it is possible to find a vaccine for Covid-19, but the prospects are “very good”, according to a scientist who is leading a team attempting to develop one.

Sarah Gilbert, Professor of Vaccinology at Oxford University, said they hope to begin clinical trials towards the end of next week.

And she said that alongside these trials, preparations need to be made to manufacture the vaccine in large amounts.

Israeli scientist claims he is two-thirds the way to COVID-19 vaccine

Even so, a vaccine would still take more than a year to develop, he said.

Gershoni, who has studied the family of viruses for 15 years, said that he was recently granted a patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office for his vaccine design. He explained that the vaccine intends to target the virus’s Receptor Binding Motif (RBM), a critical weak point which allows the virus to attach itself and infect a target cell.

COVID-19: Teenage Muslim boy from Lucknow “beaten” for buying biscuits, dies

A teenaged Muslim boy from Lucknow who was allegedly beaten up by policemen while he was trying to buy food has succumbed.

The slain has been identified as Mohammad Rizwan, he has become the first fatality from purported police high-handedness in enforcing the lockdown in Uttar Pradesh.

Rizwan’s father, Mohammed Israil, said his son had felt very hungry on Thursday night.

Under pressure: New bioinspired material can ‘shapeshift’ to external forces

Inspired by how human bone and colorful coral reefs adjust mineral deposits in response to their surrounding environments, Johns Hopkins researchers have created a self-adapting material that can change its stiffness in response to the applied force. This advancement can someday open the doors for materials that can self-reinforce to prepare for increased force or stop further damage. A report of the findings was published today in Advanced Materials.

“Imagine a bone implant or a bridge that can self-reinforce where a high force is applied without inspection and maintenance. It will allow safer implants and bridges with minimal complication, cost and downtime,” says Sung Hoon Kang, an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hopkins Extreme Materials Institute, and Institute for NanoBioTechnology at The Johns Hopkins University and the study’s senior author.

While other researchers have attempted to create similar synthetic materials before, doing so has been challenging because such materials are difficult and expensive to create, or require active maintenance when they are created and are limited in how much stress they can bear. Having materials with adaptable properties, like those of wood and bone, can provide safer structures, save money and resources, and reduce harmful environmental impact.

Frozen in time: You can be cryogenically preserved, but will you ever be revived?

Why is Alcor in Arizona? The main reason is that the risk of earthquakes and other natural disasters is fairly low. People opting for cryonics expect that their bodies might be in stasis for timescales measured in centuries.

As far as financial matters go, many of Alcor’s clients use life insurance policies to cover the cost of preservation and maintenance ($200,000 for a whole body or $80,000 for just the head). People use trust funds if they have net worth they want to recover when revived in the future.

The rationale presented to those considering cryonics is that there’s no guarantee they will ever be revived, but that it is reasonable that they might be. Along with chemicals called cryoprotectants, bodies getting preserved receive a host of medications. The list of the agents used is constantly evolving and continuing research is likely to reveal alternative methods that preserve organ function and cell integrity better. This means that cryopreservation is likely to work better years and decades into the future than it works now, even before getting to the milestone of having somebody revived.

Confusion, seizure, strokes: How COVID-19 may affect the brain

A pattern is emerging among COVID-19 patients arriving at hospitals in New York: Beyond fever, cough and shortness of breath, some are deeply disoriented to the point of not knowing where they are or what year it is.

At times this is linked to low oxygen levels in their blood, but in certain patients the confusion appears disproportionate to how their lungs are faring.

Jennifer Frontera, a neurologist at NYU Langone Brooklyn hospital seeing these patients, told AFP the findings were raising concerns about the impact of the coronavirus on the brain and nervous system.

Will Covid-19 accelerate the use of robots at work?

“People usually say they want a human element to their interactions but Covid-19 has changed that,” says Martin Ford, a futurist who has written about the ways robots will be integrated into the economy in the coming decades.

“[Covid-19] is going to change consumer preference and really open up new opportunities for automation.”

Robot workers can help us keep social distance but once machines take over it will be hard to go back.

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