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Category: health – Page 260

Johns Hopkins startup aims to shake up AI with a research-first approach

The formula for launching a machine learning company in health care looks something like this: Build a model, test it on historical patient data in a computer lab, and then start selling it to hospitals nationwide.

Suchi Saria, director of the machine learning and health care lab at Johns Hopkins University, is taking a different approach. Her company, Bayesian Health, is coming out of stealth mode on Monday by publishing a prospective study on how one of its lead products — an early warning system for sepsis — impacted the care of current patients in real hospitals.

GSK and Vir, navigating early antibody pitfalls, tout delta variant-busting data for latecomer sotrovimab

To develop its drug, Vir “deliberately isolated an antibody that binds to a part of the virus that is very difficult for the virus to mutate,” he said. That piece of the virus is “conserved, not only in all the variants, but in SARS-1… and in a whole family of coronaviruses.”

Vir knew the variant onslaught was coming, said the company’s executive vice president of research and chief scientific officer, Herbert “Skip” Virgin, M.D., Ph.D. So far, added Scangos, its premise of targeting a conserved site to maintain efficacy against mutations “seems to be holding true.”

Sotrovimab “appears to retain activity against variants of concern” like alpha, beta, gamma, epsilon and iota, the National Institutes of Health noted in recently updated COVID-19 treatment guidelines. Last week, GSK and Vir provided data suggesting that delta also belongs to that list. Updated lab experiment data posted on the preprint repository bioRxiv showed sotrovimab’s activity against 14 variants including the troubling delta variant—which first surfaced in India and appears to spread more rapidly than the already-speedy alpha—was very similar to that against the original SARS-CoV-2 virus.

While several vaccines now stand tall in the fight against COVID-19, therapies—and antibody drugs in particular—have had a decidedly tougher time. Saddled with access issues and beset by fast-emerging variants, firstcomer Eli Lilly has recently been forced to rethink its tactics. Now, GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology are applying those lessons to their solo agent sotrovimab.

Backed by promising phase 3 data and lab results showing efficacy against a suite of virus variants including the lurking delta variant, sotrovimab still has a big role to play in the pandemic, executives from GSK and Vir said in a recent joint interview with Fierce Pharma and Fierce Biotech.

Federal officials seem to agree. Late last week, the U.S. paused the distribution of Eli Lilly’s combo of bamlanivimab and etesevimab until further notice, citing the ascent of the gamma and beta variants stateside. With Lilly’s drug struggling to keep pace with mutations, the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness Response and the FDA urged healthcare providers to switch to other authorized antibodies like sotrovimab and Regeneron’s cocktail REGEN-COV, both of which are “likely to retain activity” against the gamma and beta variants, which now make up more than 11% of sequenced U.S. coronavirus cases, ASPR said in a release.

Continue reading “GSK and Vir, navigating early antibody pitfalls, tout delta variant-busting data for latecomer sotrovimab” | >

Nanofiber membrane makes seawater drinkable in minutes

Safe and readily available water is important for public health, whether it is used for drinking, domestic use, food production, or recreational purposes. Despite the vast quantity of water on Earth, just 2.5% of it is freshwater, and an estimated 785 million people lack a clean source of drinking water. Desalination of seawater could be a vital technology to meet the world’s drinking water needs.

Now, Korean engineers have developed a new desalination technique that takes just minutes to make seawater drinkable. They used a new nanofiber membrane distillation process that could desalinate water with 99.99% efficiency. Engineers believe that commercializing such technology could help humankind cope with the shortage of fresh drinking water in the future.

Amongst the most challenging issues in membrane distillation is membrane wetting that causes the pollution of permeate, reduction in vapor production, and finally, reduction in the performance of the membrane. If a membrane exhibits wetting during membrane distillation operation, the membrane must be replaced.

How a Series of Sleep Loss Impacts Mental and Physical Wellbeing

A previous study led by Lee found losing just 16 minutes of sleep could impact job performance. Her previous findings also show that minor sleep loss can decrease daily mindfulness, which is a critical recourse for managing stress and maintaining healthy routines.

Summary: Three consecutive nights of sleep loss can have a negative impact on both mental and physical health. Sleep deprivation can lead to an increase in anger, frustration, and anxiety. Additionally, those who experienced sleep loss reported a change in physical wellbeing, including gastrointestinal and respiratory problems.

Source: USF

All it takes is three consecutive nights of sleep loss to cause your mental and physical well-being to greatly deteriorate.

A new study published in Annals of Behavioral Medicine looked at the consequences of sleeping fewer than six hours for eight consecutive nights – the minimum duration of sleep that experts say is necessary to support optimal health in average adults.

Mapping phenotypic and aetiological associations between ADHD and physical conditions in adulthood in Sweden: a genetically informed register study

This mapping of aetiological sources of cross-disorder overlap can guide future research aiming to identify specific mechanisms contributing to risk of physical conditions in people with ADHD, which could ultimately inform preventive and lifestyle intervention efforts. Our findings highlight the importance of assessing the presence of physical conditions in patients with ADHD.

Swedish Research Council; Swedish Brain Foundation; Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life, and Welfare; Stockholm County Council; StratNeuro; EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme; National Institute of Mental Health.

Cyber Shield enhances partnerships as cyber threats continue

Cyber incidents are an ongoing and substantial threat. Find out how The National Guard is working to deter, disrupt and defeat malicious cyber activity.

ARLINGTON, Va. – The National Guard plays a critical role in defending computer networks and mitigating cyber-attacks that occur almost daily, said Guard senior leaders during a roundtable discussion Tuesday.

“Cyber incidents are an ongoing and substantial threat,” said Army Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau. “In 2021 alone, America’s power plants, food supply, water supply, health care, law enforcement, and defense sectors have all come under attack.”

That’s why upcoming exercises like Cyber Shield 2021 – which helps prepare “Guard cyber warriors to deter, disrupt and defeat malicious cyber activity” – are important, he said. Adding the Guard plays a key role in the Department of Defense’s cyber enterprise while partnering with outside agencies.

Dr Veronica Rodriguez-Bravo PhD — Nuclear Pore Complexes — Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, Philadelphia

Nuclear Pore Complexes and Genome Integrity — Dr. Veronica Rodriguez-Bravo Ph.D., Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center — Jefferson Health, Thomas Jefferson University.

Dr. Veronica Rodriguez-Bravo, PhD, is Assistant Professor, Department of Cancer Biology, at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, Thomas Jefferson University, in Philadelphia, PA, USA. (https://sidneykimmelcancercenter.jeffersonhealth.org/)

Dr. Rodriguez-Bravo obtained her PhD in Pathology and Cell Biology (Summa Cum Laude) from the University of Barcelona in 2007, where she also received the Extraordinary Doctorate Award for her studies on the distinct DNA replication checkpoint mechanisms of tumor cells. During her postdoctoral training at the Experimental Oncology Department of the University Medical Center of Utrecht (UMC, The Netherlands) and at the Molecular and Cell Biology Programs of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC, New York), she specialized in the study of chromosome segregation during mitosis and the role of nuclear pores in genome integrity maintenance.

Dr. Rodriguez-Bravo’s post-doctoral work allowed her to apply genome-editing techniques crucial to dissect the function of mitotic and nuclear pore proteins in chromosomal stability and resulted in the recognition with the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Postdoctoral Research Award.

Dr. Rodriguez-Bravo’s research focuses on the study of genome integrity maintenance mechanisms and the relationship of defects in cell division to cancer pathogenesis with special emphasis in the pathways contributing to cancer cells’ more aggressive phenotypes.

Continue reading “Dr Veronica Rodriguez-Bravo PhD — Nuclear Pore Complexes — Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, Philadelphia” | >

Skin in the game: Transformative approach uses the human body to recharge smartwatches

As smart watches are increasingly able to monitor the vital signs of health, including what’s going on when we sleep, a problem has emerged: Those wearable, wireless devices are often disconnected from our body overnight, being charged at the bedside.

“Quality of sleep and its patterns contain a lot of important information about patients’ health conditions,” says Sunghoon Ivan Lee, assistant professor in the University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Information and Computer Sciences and director of the Advanced Human Health Analytics Laboratory.

But that information can’t be tracked on smartwatches if the wearable devices are being charged as users sleep, which prior research has shown is frequently the case. Lee adds, “The main reason users discontinue the long-term use of wearable devices is because they have to frequently charge the on– battery.”

Predicting new major depression symptoms from long working hours, psychosocial safety climate and work engagement: a population-based cohort study

Objectives This study sought to assess the association between long working hours, psychosocial safety climate (PSC), work engagement (WE) and new major depression symptoms emerging over the next 12 months. PSC is the work climate supporting workplace psychological health.

Setting Australian prospective cohort population data from the states of New South Wales, Western Australia and South Australia.

Participants At Time 1, there were 3921 respondents in the sample. Self-employed, casual temporary, unclassified, those with working hours 35 (37% of 2850) and participants with major depression symptoms at Time 1 (6.7% of 1782) were removed. The final sample was a population-based cohort of 1084 full-time Australian employees.