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Archive for the ‘biotech/medical’ category: Page 1331

Feb 7, 2021

Breakthrough drug might cure COVID-19 in just five days

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, innovation

It’s too early to call it a miracle cure, but if the conclusions from a recent Phase 1 trial for a new drug called EXO-C24 are backed up in subsequent trials, we might have the first true breakthrough therapy for COVID-19. That’s in addition to coronavirus vaccines, of course, which will help prevent severe COVID-19 cases and deaths, and even reduce the spread of the illness. But while vaccines can give the immune system a heads-up to the threat it might have to deal with — the real virus — they have a few limitations. First of all, they don’t work on infected people. Secondly, vaccine supply is still limited and vaccinations aren’t available to anybody who might want one. Then there’s the threat of coronavirus mutations that might reduce vaccines’ effect on the virus and extend the pandemic.

Feb 6, 2021

Experimental vaccine blunts the deadliest of synthetic opioids

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

O,.o.


As the opioid epidemic raged on with an even greater force during COVID-19, the Scripps Research laboratory of chemist Kim Janda, Ph.D., has been working on new therapeutic interventions that may be able to prevent the bulk of deaths from opioid overdose.

Feb 6, 2021

New AI Tool Can Thwart Coronavirus Mutations

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, robotics/AI

Summary: A new AI system is not only able to analyze potential new variants of COVID-19, it can also vaccine design cycles within minutes, researchers report.

Source: USC

Feb 6, 2021

Total Artificial Heart Approved for Sale in Europe

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

It can keep blood pumping for years while patients with heart failure wait for donor organs.


The European Commission has approved the sale of Carmat’s total artificial heart, which is designed for patients with end-stage heart failure.

Feb 6, 2021

Researchers create virtual reality cognitive assessment

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience, virtual reality

Virtual reality isn’t just for gaming. Researchers can use virtual reality, or VR, to assess participants’ attention, memory and problem-solving abilities in real world settings. By using VR technology to examine how folks complete daily tasks, like making a grocery list, researchers can better help clinical populations that struggle with executive functioning to manage their everyday lives.

Feb 6, 2021

Temperature, humidity, wind predict second wave of pandemic

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

The ‘second wave’ of the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in much blame placed on a lack of appropriate safety measures. However, due to the impacts of weather, research suggests two outbreaks per year during a pandemic are inevitable.

Feb 6, 2021

Researchers engineer a tiny antibody capable of neutralizing the coronavirus

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

At 2 a.m. one night last April, Michael Schoof triple-checked the numbers on his screen, took a deep breath, and fired off an email he’d been waiting all day to send.

Feb 6, 2021

Insta-crop: CRISPR enables high-speed plant domestication

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food

A lanky species of wild rice turns compact and docile in a jiffy.

Feb 6, 2021

New Israeli drug cured 29 of 30 moderate/serious COVID cases in days — hospital

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Possibly this will make covid-19 less severe and manageable.


Medicine developed at Ichilov moderates immune response, helps prevent deadly cytokine storm, researchers say; 29 of 30 phase 1 trial patients left hospital within 3–5 days.

Feb 6, 2021

The SARS-CoV-2 Virus Mutates Fast: The Science You Need to Understand About Coronavirus Variants and COVID-19 Vaccines

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, evolution, science

The SARS-CoV-2 virus mutates fast. That’s a concern because these more transmissible variants of SARS-CoV-2 are now present in the U.S., U.K. and South Africa and other countries, and many people are wondering whether the current vaccines will protect the recipients from the virus. Furthermore, many question whether we will we be able to keep ahead of future variants of SARS-CoV-2, which will certainly arise.

In my laboratory I study the molecular structure of RNA viruses – like the one that causes COVID-19 – and how they replicate and multiply in the host. As the virus infects more people and the pandemic spreads, SARS-CoV-2 continues to evolve. This process of evolution is constant and it allows the virus to sample its environment and select changes that make it grow more efficiently. Thus, it is important to monitor viruses for such new mutations that could make them more deadly, more transmissible or both.