Lifeboat Foundation

Under certain circumstances in patients, the human immune system can spin out of control and become highly toxic, resulting in cytokine release syndrome (CRS). CRS has been observed in certain autoimmune diseases (Grom et al. 2016), during highly infectious diseases like COVID-19 (Zhang et al. 2020), and following immune-enhancing treatments that include monoclonal or bispecific antibodies, or CAR T therapies (Shimabukuro-Vornhagen et al. 2018). CRS, which can be deadly, has been notoriously difficult to study and for which to develop novel treatments. However, encouraging new data indicates that many aspects of human CRS can be modeled in immunodeficient NSG mice engrafted with human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). This model provides hope that new immuno-modulatory therapies can be safely developed and tested before clinical trials.

Figure 1. TGN1412 analogue (anti-CD28 superagonist) mediated CRS dose response. Human PBMC engrafted NSG™-SGM3 recipient mice (stock# 013062) were treated with anti-CD28 mAb positive control or TGN1412 analogue at low, medium or high dosing. Human IFN- ɣ, TNF-α, and IL-6 were measured quantitatively at 1, 2, 4, and 6 hours post treatment. Increasing doses of TGN1412 analogue showed a progressively increased cytokine release response.

The next question was whether PBMC donor-specific differences in drug response could be observed, mimicking what is observed clinically. Cohorts of mice were engrafted with nine different human PBMC donors, and each donor cohort was tested with PBS, OKT3, or anti-CD28. In mice treated with OKT3, 7 out of 9 donors displayed a severe IFN-ɣ CRS response, 5 showed a severe IL-6 response and all exhibited a strong TNF-α response (figure 2). Donors G and H showed a milder response. When treated with anti-CD28, 2 out of 9 donors showed a severe IFN-ɣ response. Collectively, the data described in the experiments above demonstrate that specific mAbs are capable of initiating a CRS response in this model and that the response is both dose and PBMC donor dependent.

Continue reading “Battling COVID-19; A New Model of Cytokine Release Syndrome” »

The certificates do not require a college degree, can be completed in 3 to 6 months and are offered through an online learning platform.

Today, Google announced three new online certificate programs in data analytics, project management and user experience design.

The certificates are created and taught by Google employees, do not require a college degree, can be completed in three to six months and are offered through the online learning platform Coursera. Google says it will consider all of its certificates as the equivalent of a four-year college degree for related roles at the company.

Continue reading “Google announces 100,000 scholarships for online certificates in data analytics, project management and UX” »

AMD is bringing its acclaimed Ryzen Threadripper processor lineup to the workstation PC market, starting with a new Lenovo ThinkStation model that can be equipped with 64 processor cores.

The new Ryzen Threadripper Pro chips, unveiled on Tuesday, will mark the first time in three years that workstation customers can look to AMD as an alternative to Intel’s Xeon CPUs. The current Xeon W offerings for workstations max out at 28 cores, while the new flagship Threadripper Pro 3995WX has 64 cores and 128 processor threads, which AMD says is the highest number of cores and threads available in a workstation PC.

The ThinkStation P620, the first PC to offer the new Threadripper Pro, will start shipping to customers in September for a starting price of $4,599. When equipped with the 64-core chip, it will offer better performance for some processing tasks—including rendering a 3D image with Maxon’s Cinebench R20 app—than a workstation equipped with two of the 28-core Xeon W chips, AMD says.

“With the help of advanced sensors, AI, and communication technologies, it will be possible to replicate physical entities, including people, devices, objects, systems, and even places, in a virtual world,” the white paper states.

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Machine-learning methods can predict the long-term stability of planetary configurations 100,000 times faster than previous approaches.

These days, you’d have to actually be living on Mars not to have heard that Elon Musk wants to colonize it — and his team at SpaceX is putting in overtime to make it happen. They worked straight through December on refinements to their latest Starship spacecraft prototype, which Musk says will begin performing high-altitude tests within 2 to 3 months.

SpaceX has set the goal of first sending a cargo mission to Mars in 2022, and following it up with a manned mission in 2024 — which makes SpaceX the contender to put the first human footprint on the Red Planet.

Continue reading “Will SpaceX Colonists Find Life On The Red Planet?” »

Car buyers in Europe can now get their hands on a brand-new electric vehicle for less than the typical cost of a mobile-phone contract. Thanks to newly generous subsidies, some are even free.

Shoppers have swarmed virtual showrooms in Germany and France — the region’s two largest passenger car markets — after their national governments boosted electric-vehicle incentives to stimulate demand. Their purchase subsidies are now among the most favorable in the world.

The state support is allowing Autohaus Koenig, a dealership chain with more than 50 locations across Germany, to advertise a lease for the battery-powered Renault Zoe that is entirely covered by subsidies. In the 20 days since it put the offer online, roughly 3,000 people have inquired and about 300 have signed contracts.

Scientists from the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine have discovered a compound commonly found in capers, regulates proteins required for normal human brain and heart activity.

Featured Image Source: SpaceX / FCC document.

SpaceX is in the process of building its Starlink broadband internet network that will offer service worldwide to fund future missions to the moon and Mars. The aerospace company has been deploying internet-beaming Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit. As of today, there is a total of 540 satellites in space, out of the 12,000 SpaceX plans to deploy. The next deployment of 57 satellites is scheduled for this month [date pending]. Company officials said 800 satellites will offer “moderate” internet coverage; 60 Starlink satellites can provide service to 40,000 customers streaming high-definition videos simultaneously. “With performance that far surpasses that of traditional satellite internet, and a global network unbounded by ground infrastructure limitations, Starlink will deliver high-speed broadband internet to locations where access has been unreliable, expensive, or completely unavailable,” the company website states.