StemCell Therapy

Humanity is currently facing a huge challenge imposed by the coronavirus. Borders are being shut down, planes grounded, and factories closed. At the same time, scientists and public health professionals are working on tests, treatments, and vaccines to soon provide a medical response. Coping with corona might be one of the largest tests humans have faced in the past decades but it wont be the last virus we need to defeat. It is time to embrace bioscience and allow more research and applications of genetic alteration methods.

For the layman, all this technobabble about mutagenesis and genetic engineering is difficult to comprehend and it took me personally a good amount of reading to start grasping what different methods exist and how these can massively improve our quality of life.

Lets first look at the four most common ways to alter the genes of a plant or animal:

This can be even done in grown humans that are alive, which is a blessing for everyone who suffers from genetic disorders. We are able to repair genes in live organisms. Gene editing is also thousands of times more accurate than just bombarding seeds with radiation. Some applied examples are deactivating the gene responsible for generating gluten in wheat: The result is gluten-free wheat. There are several methods that achieve this. One of the most popular ones these days is the so-called CRISPR Cas-9. These scissors are usually reprogrammed bacteria that transmit the new gene information or deactivate defunct or unwanted genes. Many science fiction novels and movies show a future in which we can deactivate genetic defects and cure humans from terrible diseases. Some examples of stories in which CRISPR-like techniques have been used are movies such as GATTACA, Star Treks Wrath of Khan, or the Expanse series in which gene editing plays a crucial role in growing crops in space.

Synthetic biologists have started usingCRISPR to synthetically create partsof the coronavirus in an attempt to launch a vaccine against this lung disease and be able to mass-produce it very quickly. In combination with computer simulations and artificial intelligence, the best design for such a vaccine is calculated on a computer and then synthetically created. This speeds up vaccine development and cuts it from years to merely months. Regulators and approval bodies have shown that in times of crisis they can also rapidly approve new testing and vaccination procedures which usually require years of back and forth with agencies such as the FDA?

CRISPR also allows the search for specific genes, also genes of a virus. This helped researchersto build fast and simple testing proceduresto test patients for corona.

In the long term, gene editing might allow us to increase the immunity of humans by altering our genes and making us more resistant to viruses and bacteria.

While the coronavirus seems to really test our modern society, we also need to be aware that this wont be the last pathogen that has the potential to kill millions. If we are unlucky, corona might mutate quickly and become harder to fight. The next dangerous virus, fungus, or bacteria is probably around the corner. Hence we need to embrace the latest inventions of biotechnology and not block genetic research and the deployment of its findings.

Right now a lot of red tape and even outright bans are standing between lifesaving innovations such as CRISPR and patients around the world. We need to rethink our hostility towards genetic engineering and embrace it. To be frank: We are in a constant struggle to fight newly occurring diseases and need to be able to deploy state of the art human answers to this.

Fred Roeder is a Health Economist from Germany and has worked in healthcare reform in North America, Europe, and several former Soviet Republics. One of his passions is to analyze how disruptive industries and technologies allow consumers more choice at a lower cost. Follow him on Twitter @FredCyrusRoeder

A version of this article was originally published at Consumer Choice Center and has been republished here with permission. The center can be found on Twitter @ConsumerChoiceC

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What comic book super heroes and villains tell us about plant and human gene editing and the coronavirus - Genetic Literacy Project

GGG>AAC changes in the SARS-CoV-2 have resulted in two types of strains with different infectivity as shown in the research of Dr. Mustak Ibn Ayub. These two strains can be further subdivided which helps to understand both infectivity and lethality of SARS-CoV-2 in different regions Courtesy

The observation sheds light on the association between Sars-CoV-2 mutations and its infectivity for the first time

Sars-CoV-2, the new strain of coronavirus behind the global Covid-19 pandemic, has changed in different countries by accumulating only a handful of key changes in its genome. Among them, a unique change has made the virus less infective, according to a research.

Dr Mustak Ibn Ayub, assistant professor at the department of genetic engineering and biotechnology at Dhaka University, discovered the unique change during his research of the virus' genetic mutations, according to a press statement.

A genome is the complete genetic information of any living entity that works as the blue print to determine its characteristics.

Dr Mustak, who obtained his PhD from Oxford University in the UK, characterized two strains of the virus after analyzing 3,000 complete genome sequences of Sars-CoV-2.

Designated as Sars-CoV-2a and Sars-CoV-2g, the strains have a unique difference in the 28,881-28,883 position of their genomes.

In Sars-CoV2g, those three positions are occupied by GGG, but in Sars-CoV2a, the GGG positions have mutated into AAC, the research findings show.

This is a unique event where three nucleotide (the building blocks of the virus genome) have changed as a bloc among 30,000 such positions in the virus genome.

Dr Mustak Ibn Ayub | CourtesyThe research also showed that this unique mutation negatively affects the nucleocapsid (N) protein, a crucial component for virus multiplication and infection of new cells.

The journal paper written based on the research is waiting peer review but has been published as a preprint here.

A remarkable finding in Dr Mustaks research is that the Sars-CoV-2a strain is prevalent in areas or countries with relatively low Covid-19 cases, such as Portugal, Netherlands, and Belgium, whereas in highly affected countries such as the US, Spain, France, and Germany, Sars-CoV-2g is predominant.

This trend is also true in different regions within a country, as shown in the research; Abruzzo in Italy has very low Covid-19 cases and high presence of Sars-CoV-2a.

This crucial observation sheds light on the association between Sars-CoV-2 mutations and its infectivity for the first time.

However, Dr Mustak cautioned that more studies need to be designed and executed on this aspect of Sars-CoV-2 mutation across the world.

He expects that from such research, monitoring the dynamics of these two strains will give valuable information to understand and manage the course of Covid-19 pandemic around the globe.

Read more here:
Coronavirus might be changing into less infective form, DU teacher's research finds - Dhaka Tribune

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in December 2019, many hypotheses have been advanced to explain where the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) actually came from. Initial reports pointed to the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, China, as the source of infection, however later studies called this into question. Given the uncertainty, many have suggested that a laboratory in Wuhan may be the actual source of the novel coronavirus. In this Insight article, we examine the three most widespread origin stories for the novel coronavirus, and examine the evidence for or against each proposed hypothesis. The hypotheses are listed in order from least likely to most likely, based on currently available evidence.

Although none of the individual pieces of evidence described below definitively identify the virus origin, the preponderance of evidence when taken together currently points to a natural origin with a subsequent zoonotic transmission from animals to humans, rather than a bioengineering or lab leak origin.

Hypothesis 1: The novel coronavirus is manmade, genetically engineered as bioweaponry or for health applications This hypothesis began circulating in February 2020. To date, it has been largely rejected by the scientific community. Some of the early claims have their roots in a preprint (a study in progress which has not been peer-reviewed or formally published) uploaded to ResearchGate by Chinese scientists Botao Xiao and Lei Xiao, who claimed that somebody was entangled with the evolution of 2019-nCoV coronavirus. In addition to origins of natural recombination and intermediate host, the killer coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory in Wuhan.

However, the only piece of evidence the authors provided to support their conclusion was the proximity of both the Wuhan Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) to the seafood market. The authors later withdrew their article, saying that their speculation about the possible origins was not supported by direct proofs. Copies of the original article can still be found online.

The withdrawal of the preprint did not stop this hypothesis from spreadinginstead it continued to grow in complexity, with some claiming that the virus showed signs of genetic engineering. Some of these claims were based on a preprint uploaded to BioRxiv, purporting to show that genetic material from the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) had been inserted into the novel coronavirus.

This study was found to have significant flaws in design and execution and was also later withdrawn, as reported in our review explaining that No, HIV insertions were not identified in the 2019 coronavirus. However, the poor quality of the preprint did not prevent this baseless speculation from being promoted by blogs such as Zero Hedge, Infowars, Natural News, and even some scientists like Luc Montagnier, a French virologist who co-discovered HIV, but has recently become a promoter of numerous unsupported theories.

Indeed, scientists who examined the preprint highlighted that these so-called insertions are very short genetic sequences which are also present in many other life forms, such as the bacterium Magnetospirillum magnetotacticum, the spider Araneus ventricosus, and the parasites Cryptosporidium and Plasmodium malariae, which cause cryptosporidiosis and malaria, respectively[1,2]. Trevor Bedford, virologist at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and professor at the University of Washington, explained on Twitter that a simple BLAST of such short sequences shows [a] match to a huge variety of organisms. No reason to conclude HIV. [] These inserts are nothing of the sort proposed by the paper and instead arose naturally in the ancestral bat virus.

In other words, the sequences analyzed by the study authors were so short that it is easy to find similarities to a wide variety of organisms, including HIV. An analogy would be to search for a short and commonly-used word, like sky, in a search engine and claim that the search results show content that is identical or similar to each other solely because of that one word.

Another version of the engineered-virus story stated that a pShuttle-SN sequence is present in the novel coronavirus. The pShuttle-SN vector was used during efforts to develop candidates for a SARS vaccine[3] and was therefore used to support claims of human engineering. These claims appeared in blogs such as Infowars, Natural News, and The Epoch Times. However, analysis of the genomic sequence of the novel coronavirus showed that no such man-made sequence was present, as reported in our review.

Other claims regarding the purported manmade origins of the virus have linked it to bioweapons research. These have appeared in articles such as a 22 February 2020 story by the New York Post, which we also reviewed and scientists found to be of low scientific credibility. The article provided no evidence that the novel coronavirus is linked to bioweapons research.

On 17 March 2020, a group of scientists published findings from a genomic analysis of the novel coronavirus in Nature Medicine[4], which established that SARS-CoV-2 is of natural origin, likely originating in pangolins or bats (or both) and later developing the ability to infect humans. Their investigation focused mainly on the so-called spike (S) protein, which is located on the surface of the enveloping membrane of SARS-CoV-2. The S protein allows the virus to bind to and infect animal cells. After the 2003-2005 SARS outbreak, researchers identified a set of key amino acids within the S protein which give SARS-CoV-1 a super-affinity for the ACE2 target receptor located on the surface of human cells[5,6].

Surprisingly, the S protein of SARS-CoV-2 does not contain this optimal set of amino acids[4], yet is nonetheless able to bind ACE2 with a greater affinity than SARS-CoV-1[7]. Taken together, these findings strongly suggest that SARS-CoV-2 evolved independently of human intervention and undermine the claim that it was manmade[1]. This is because if scientists had attempted to engineer improved ACE2 binding in a coronavirus, the best strategy would have been to harness the already-known and efficient amino acid sequences described in SARS-CoV-1 in order to produce a more optimal molecular design for SARS-CoV-2. The authors of the Nature Medicine study[4] concluded that Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus.

In summary, the hypothesis that the virus is manmade or engineered in any way is unsupported and inconsistent with available evidence, leading Bedford to assess the probability of this hypothesis being correct as extremely unlikely. Kristian Andersen, professor at the Scripps in San Diego declared during an online seminar, I know there has been a lot of talk about Chinese bioweapons, bioengineering, and engineering in general. All of that, I can say, is fully inconsistent with the data.

Like Andersen, other scientists have repeatedly explained that there is no evidence to support the claim that the virus was human engineered. In a statement published on 19 February in The Lancet, 27 eminent public health scientists in the U.S., Europe, the U.K., Australia, and Asia cited numerous studies from multiple countries which overwhelmingly conclude that this coronavirus originated in wildlife[8-15] as have so many other emerging pathogens.

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Hypothesis 2: The novel coronavirus is a natural virus that was being studied in the lab, from which it was accidentally or deliberately released Many have pointed out that even though the virus was unlikely engineered, it still might have been purposely or accidentally released from a lab. Claims about a possible laboratory release often point to a laboratory in China as the source, more specifically the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), given that one of its laboratories studies bat coronaviruses. Similarly speculative claims have also implicated laboratories in the U.S. and Canada.

However, there is no evidence in either scientific publications or public announcements indicating that a virus resembling SARS-CoV-2 had been studied or cultured in any lab prior to the outbreak. While this of course does not rule out the possibility that scientists were working on it in secret, as of today, this claim is speculative and unsupported by evidence.

A January 2020 study in The Lancet, which found that about one-third of the initial round of infections had no connection to the Huanan seafood market[15], has been suggested as evidence that the virus may have leaked from a nearby lab. Richard Ebright, a professor of chemical biology at Rutgers, said in this CNN article:

It is absolutely clear the market had no connection with the origin of the outbreak virus, and, instead, only was involved in amplification of an outbreak that had started elsewhere in Wuhan almost a full month earlier.

Ebright also told CNN that The possibility that the virus entered humans through a laboratory accident cannot and should not be dismissed.

Nikolai Petrovsky, a professor at Flinders University who specializes in vaccine development, also supported the hypothesis that the virus could have escaped from a lab. In this article, he stated that no corresponding virus has been found to exist in nature and cited as-yet unpublished work, saying that the hypothesis is absolutely plausible. Petrovsky suggested that the virus could have escaped [the biosecure facility in Wuhan] either through accidental infection of a staff member who then visited the fish market several blocks away and there infected others, or by inappropriate disposal of waste from the facility that either infected humans outside the facility directly or via a susceptible vector such as a stray cat that then frequented the market and resulted in transmission there to humans.

Some have argued that instead of originating in nature, the virus could have been generated through simulated evolution in the lab. Christian Stevens, from the Benhur Lee lab at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, explained in this article the extreme unlikelihood of this scenario.

Briefly, the mutations in the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the S protein in SARS-CoV-2 resembles that of some pangolin coronaviruses. These mutations are also what make SARS-CoV-2 much better at infecting humans compared to SARS-CoV-1. Such mutations could be evolved in the lab through simulated evolution, however the likelihood of simulated natural selection stumbling on the near exact RBD from a previously unknown pangolin coronavirus is mathematically unlikely, said Stevens.

Furthermore, scientists would have had to know about these mutations in the S protein of some pangolin coronaviruses before the outbreak, and then tried to evolve a bat coronavirus with the same characteristics through animal experiments. As these mutations in pangolin coronaviruses were not identified until after the outbreak[16], it does not make sense for scientists to have performed such experiments in the lab, as there would have been little to no scientific justification for doing so.

Other considerations are the polybasic cleavage site and the O-linked glycan additions to the S protein, which have not been identified in bat betacoronaviruses nor the pangolin betacoronaviruses sampled so far. However, evidence indicates that these features are much more likely to have arisen in the presence of an immune system, suggesting that this is a natural adaptation by the virus to a live host, either an animal or a human. Because lab-based cell cultures do not have immune systems, Stevens explained that it is extremely unlikely that the virus would have developed such features using cell culture approaches, thereby undermining the lab-generated claims that some have proposed.

What about using animal models for evolution, which would provide selective pressure from an immune system? Stevens also examined this possibility and explained that there is no known animal model that would allow for selection of human-like ACE2 binding and avoidance of immune recognition. This strongly suggests that SARS-CoV-2 could not have been developed in a lab, even by a system of simulated natural selection.

In other words, the overall combination of features observed in SARS-CoV-2 is extremely unlikely to have arisen through experiments, even simulated evolution, because the experimental tools are not available at the moment.

Zhengli Shi, the head of the laboratory studying bat coronaviruses at the WIV, clarified in a Scientific American report published on 11 March, that during the early days of the outbreak, she had her team check the genome sequence of SARS-CoV-2 against the bat coronavirus strains being studied in her lab to ensure that the outbreak had not resulted from any mishandling of experimental materials, especially during disposal. They found that none of the sequences matched those of the viruses her team had sampled from bat caves.

However, this testimony has not satisfied those who allege a cover-up of a lab accident due to inadequate biosecurity, intentional release, or plain carelessness. Recent opinion pieces published by the Washington Postone on 2 April 2020 and another on 14 April 2020have also fueled speculation that the virus was accidentally released from a laboratory at the WIV due to biosafety lapses reportedly documented in diplomatic cables from 2018. The authors of these opinion pieces were careful to distance themselves from earlier claims that the coronavirus was bioengineered or resulted from deliberate wrongdoing, as one author stated. In any event, the accidental release scenario is currently being considered by scientists and U.S. intelligence and national security officials.

Indeed, despite safeguards, laboratory accidents can and do occur, and some have even caused outbreaks. In 2007, an outbreak of hand-foot-mouth (HFM) disease among livestock in the U.K. was linked to a faulty gas valve connected to labs involved in researching and producing HFM vaccines. And in 2004, a re-emergence of SARS occurred in Beijing, China, as a result of two lab accidents.

In an article published on 6 April, experts expressed skepticism at the lab leak hypothesis. Vincent Racaniello, a professor of virology at Columbia University, said I think it has no credibility. And Simon Anthony, an assistant professor at Columbia who studies the ecology and evolution of viruses, stated, it all feels far-fetched [] Lab accidents do happen, we know that, but [] theres certainly no evidence to support that theory.

In an April 10th article, Amesh Adalja from Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security stated that he thought the lab leak hypothesis had a lower probability than the pure zoonotic theory. I think as we get a better understanding of where the origin of this virus was, and get closer to patient zero, that will explain some of the mystery. Bill Hanage, associate professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said If there is evidence to really support this theory beyond the coincidence of the location of the lab, then I havent seen it, and I dont make decisions on the basis of coincidence.

Several scientists have taken to Twitter to ponder the lab leak hypothesis made by the Washington Post opinion articles:

Overall, we have virus group, molecular features, market association, and environmental samples all pointing strongly towards zoonosis. The location in Wuhan is the only thing at all suggestive of lab escape. I see strength of evidence entirely for zoonosis.

Trevor Bedford

We dont know how this virus emerged, but all evidence points to spillover from its natural reservoir, whether that be a bat or some other intermediate species, pangolins or otherwise. Pushing this unsupported accident theory hinders efforts to actually determine virus origin.

Angela Rasmussen

The bottom line is that those vague diplomatic cables do not provide any specific information suggesting that [SARS-CoV-2] emerged from incompetence or poor biosafety protocols or anything else.

Angela Rasmussen [referencing the 14 April Washington Post opinion piece]

Most likely either 1) virus evolved to its current pathogenic state via a non-human host and then jumped to humans, or 2) a non-pathogenic version of the virus jumped from an animal into humans then evolved to a pathogenic state.

Josh Michaud

All current data supports that the ancestral station strain of the virus is in batsthey serve as the zoonotic reservoir. Then a spillover event occured into humans, perhaps aided by another mammal, although thats debatable.

Ryan McNamara

There is strong evidence that the #SARSCoV2 #coronavirus is NOT an engineered bioweapon.

That said, its important to be upfront that we do not have sufficient evidence to exclude entirely the possibility that it escaped from a research lab doing gain of function experiments.

Carl T. Bergstrom

In summary, the hypothesis that the virus escaped from a lab is supported largely by circumstantial evidence and is not supported by genomic analyses and publicly available information. In the absence of evidence for or against an accidental lab leak, one cannot rule it out as the actual source of the outbreak. I dont think we have real data to say when these things began, in large part because the data are being held back from inspection, said Gerald Keusch, associate director of the Boston University National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories, in this LiveScience article.

Given allegations of a cover-up, it appears that only an open and transparent review of the laboratory activities at WIV can allow us to confirm or reject this unlikely hypothesis.

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Hypothesis 3: The novel coronavirus evolved naturally and the outbreak began through zoonotic infection Virologists explain that the most likely hypothesis is that the outbreak started with a naturally-occurring zoonotic infectionone that is transmitted from animals to humansrather than a lab breach. This is largely due to what we know of the virus genomic features, which strongly indicate a natural origin. For example, if a virus had escaped from a laboratory, its genome would likely be most similar to those of the viral strains cultured in that lab. However, as shown in this phylogenetic tree by Bedford (see figure below), SARS-CoV-2 does not cluster in the same branch as the SARS-like coronavirus WIV1 (WIV1) and SARS-CoV-1, which are commonly cultured lab strains with the closest similarity to SARS-CoV-2 at the WIV facility, which is the lab that some have suggested might be a potential source of a lab leak. Instead, SARS-CoV-2 aligns most closely with coronaviruses isolated in the wild from bats and pangolins, indicating that it is more likely to have come from a natural source than from a lab:

FigurePhylogenetic tree showing evolutionary relationships between different coronavirusesmostly bat coronaviruses and some pangolin coronaviruses (by Trevor Bedford). Different lab strains of SARS-CoV-1 (referred to as SARS-CoV here) are represented by yellow dots. WIV1, another common lab strain, is indicated with a black arrow.

Furthermore, SARS-CoV-2 displays evolutionary features which suggest that the virus originated in animals and jumped to humans. The closest sequenced ancestor of SARS-CoV-2 is RaTG13, a bat coronavirus with about 96% genome sequence identity[8]. But SARS-CoV-2 also has features that distinguish it from RaTG13 and other SARS-like coronaviruses including SARS-CoV-1. As mentioned in the previous section, these features are: mutations in the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the S protein, a polybasic cleavage site, and a nearby O-linked glycan addition site in the S protein[4]. The mutations in the RBD of the S protein resemble those of some pangolin coronaviruses, suggesting that the virus made a jump from bats to an intermediate (perhaps pangolins), and then later to humans.

To briefly re-cap from the previous section discussing the hypothesis of a lab origin, Christian Stevens explained in this article that the polybasic cleavage site and the O-linked glycan additions to the S protein have not been identified in bat betacoronaviruses nor the pangolin betacoronaviruses sampled so far. However, evidence indicates that these features are much more likely to have arisen in the presence of an immune system, suggesting that this is a natural adaptation by the virus to a live host, either an animal or a human.

And again, there is no known animal model that would allow for selection of human-like ACE2 binding and avoidance of immune recognition, Stevens explained. This strongly suggests that SARS-CoV-2 could not have been developed in a lab, even by a system of simulated natural selection. In other words, the overall combination of features observed in SARS-CoV-2 is extremely unlikely to have arisen through experiments, even simulated evolution, because the experimental tools are not available at the moment.

Finally, Christian Stevens highlighted that the Ka/Ks ratio of the virus strongly indicates that the virus did not come from lab-simulated evolution. The Ka/Ks ratio calculates the level of synonymous mutations (which do not produce any functional change in proteins) and non-synonymous mutations (which produce functional changes in proteins). Non-synonymous mutations are more likely to occur in the presence of selective pressure, such as a need to adapt to a new environment:

Because synonymous mutations should have no effect, we expect them to happen at a relatively consistent rate. That makes them a good baseline that we can compare the number of non-synonymous mutations to. By calculating the ratio between these two numbers we can differentiate between three different types of selection:

We would expect a virus that is learning to exist in a new context would be undergoing Darwinian selection and we would see a high rate of non-synonymous changes in some part of the genome. This would be the case if the virus were being designed via simulated natural selection, we would expect at least some part of the genome to show Darwinian selection.

An analysis by Bedford demonstrates that the level of non-synonymous mutations between SARS-CoV-2 and the naturally occurring RaTG13 are highly similar, standing at 14.3% and 14.2%, respectively.

Both of these numbers indicate a purifying selection, with very few non-synonymous changes. This holds true across the entire genome with no part of it showing Darwinian selection. This is a very strong indicator that SARS-CoV-2 was not designed using forced selection in a lab, Stevens concluded.

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Conclusions Taken together, the information presented here suggests that it is much more likely that SARS-CoV-2 was generated naturally and transmitted zoonotically, without any engineering or lab growth. Especially given the fact that the prior probability for the zoonotic hypothesis is high. Indeed, zoonotic infections (transmission of pathogens from animals/insects to humans) are not only plausible but common throughout the world, and have also caused outbreaks in the past. For example, the SARS outbreak, which began in 2002, was linked to civet cats. Outbreaks of Middle East respiratory syndrome have been linked to contact with camels. Nipah virus infection has been linked to fruit bats and caused outbreaks in Asia. Mosquitoes transmit viruses such as Zika, dengue, and chikungunya, while ticks also carry a range of pathogens, such as Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. In fact, according to the World Health Organization, about 60% of emerging diseases are zoonotic infections.

In summary, the hypothesis that the virus escaped from a lab is supported largely by circumstantial evidence and is not supported by publicly available information. In the case of the hypothesis that the outbreak began with zoonotic infection, at the moment genomic analyses are consistent with a natural origin for the virus and support the idea that the outbreak began zoonotically. Unlike the manmade virus and lab escape hypotheses, there is no compelling evidence against the hypothesis for natural zoonosis. As Stevens concluded, the hypothesis for natural zoonosis is the one that fits all available evidence, is most parsimonious, and best satisfies the concept of Occams Razorthat the simplest solution is most likely the right one.

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Christian Stevens from the Benhur Lee lab at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine has provided a comprehensive explanation of the multiple scientific studies examining the origin of the coronavirus.

Scientists explained in this 23 April NPR article why they found the lab accident hypothesis unlikely. In fact, the article states that there is virtually no chance that the new coronavirus was released as result of a laboratory accident in China or anywhere else.

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Did the COVID-19 virus originate from a lab or nature? Examining the evidence for different hypotheses of the novel coronavirus' origins - Health...

There has beenno scientific findingthat the novel coronavirus was bioengineered, but its origins are not entirely clear. Deadly pathogens discovered in the wild are sometimesstudied inlabs and sometimes made more dangerous. That possibility, and other plausible scenarios, have been incorrectly dismissed in remarks by some scientists andgovernment officials, and in the coverage of most major media outlets.

Regardless of the source of this pandemic, there is considerable documentation that a global biological arms race going on outside of public view could produce even more deadly pandemics in the future.

While much of the media and political establishment have minimized the threat from such lab work, some hawks on the American right like Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., have singled outChinese biodefense researchers as uniquely dangerous.

But there is every indication that U.S. lab work is every bit as threatening as that in Chinese labs. American labs also operate insecret, and are also known to beaccident-prone.

The current dynamics of the biological arms race have been driven by U.S. government decisions that extend back decades. In December 2009, Reuters reported that the Obama administration was refusing even to negotiate the possible monitoring of biological weapons.

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Much of the left in the U.S. now appears unwilling to scrutinize the origin of the pandemic or the wider issue of biowarfare perhaps because portions of the anti-Chinese right have been sovocal in making unfoundedallegations.

Governments that participate in such biological weapon research generally distinguish between "biowarfare" and "biodefense," as if to paint such "defense" programs as necessary. But this is rhetorical sleight-of-hand; the two concepts are largely indistinguishable.

"Biodefense" implies tacit biowarfare, breeding more dangerous pathogens for the alleged purposeof finding a way tofightthem. While this work appears to have succeeded in creating deadly and infectious agents, including deadlier flu strains, such "defense" research is impotent in its ability to defend us from this pandemic.

The legal scholar who drafted the main U.S. law on the subject, Francis Boyle, warned in his 2005 book "Biowarfare and Terrorism" that an "illegal biological arms race with potentially catastrophic consequences" was underway, largely driven by the U.S. government.

For years,many scientistshave raised concerns regarding bioweapons/biodefense lab work, and specifically aboutthe fact that huge increases in funding have taken place since 9/11. This was especially true afterthe anthrax-by-mail attacks that killed five people in the weeks after 9/11, which the FBI ultimately blamed on a U.S. government biodefense scientist.A 2013 study found that biodefense funding since2001 hadtotaled at least $78 billion, and more has surely been spent since then. This has led to aproliferation of laboratories, scientists and new organisms, effectively setting off a biological arms race.

Following the Ebola outbreak in west Africa in 2014, the U.S. governmentpaused fundingfor what are known as "gain-of-function" research on certain organisms. This work actually seeks to make deadly pathogensdeadlier, in some cases making pathogens airborne thatpreviously were not. With little notice outside the field, the pause on such research was lifted in late 2017.

During this pause, exceptions for funding were made for dangerous gain-of-function lab work. This included work jointly done by U.S. scientists from the University of North Carolina, Harvard and the Wuhan Institute of Virology. This work which had funding from USAID and EcoHealth Alliance not originally acknowledged was published in2015 in Nature Medicine.

A different Nature Medicine article about the origin of the current pandemic,authored by five scientists andpublished on March 17,has been touted by major media outlet and some officials including current National Institutes of Health directorFrancis Collins as definitively disproving a lab origin for the novel coronavirus. That journal article, titled "The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2," stated unequivocally: "Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus." This is a subtly misleading sentence. While the scientists state that there is no known laboratory "signature" in the SARS-Cov-2 RNA, their argument fails to take account of other lab methods that could have created coronavirus mutations without leaving such a signature.

Indeed, there is also thequestion of conflict of interest in the Nature Medicine article. Some of the authors of that article, as well as aFebruary 2020Lancet letter condemning "conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin" which seemed calculated to minimize outside scrutiny of biodefense lab work have troubling ties to thebiodefense complex,as well as to the U.S. government. Notably, neither of these articles makes clear that a virus can have a natural originand then be captured and studied in a controlled laboratory setting before being let loose, either intentionally or accidentallywhichis clearly a possibility in the case of the coronavirus.

Facts as "rumors"

This reporter raised questions about the subject at a news conference with a Center for Disease Control (CDC) representative at the now-shuttered National Press Club on Feb. 11. I asked if it was a "complete coincidence" that the pandemic had started in Wuhan, the only place in China with a declared biosafety level 4 (BSL4) laboratory. BSL4 laboratories have the most stringent safety mechanisms, but handle the most deadly pathogens. As I mentioned, it was oddthat the ostensible origin of the novel coronavirus was bat caves in Yunnan province more than 1,000 miles from Wuhan. I noted that "gain-of-function" lab work can results in more deadly pathogens, and that major labs, including some in the U.S., have had accidental releases.

CDC Principal Deputy Director Anne Schuchat saidthatbased on the information she had seen, the virus was of "zoonotic origin." She also stated, regarding gain-of-function lab work, that it is important to "protect researchers and their laboratory workers as well as the community around them and that we use science for the benefit of people."

I followed up by asking whether an alleged natural origin did not preclude the possibility that this virus came through a lab, since a lab could have acquired a bat virus and been working on it. Schuchat replied to the assembled journalists that "it is very common for rumors to emerge that can take on life of their own," but did not directly answer the question. She noted that in the 2014 Ebola outbreak some observers had pointed to nearby labs as the possible cause, claiming this "was a key rumor that had to be overcome in order to help control the outbreak." She reiterated: "So based on everything that I know right now, I can tell you the circumstances of the origin really look like animals-to-human. But your question, I heard."

This is no rumor. It's a fact: Labs work with dangerous pathogens. The U.S. and China each have dual-use biowarfare/biodefense programs. China has major facilities at Wuhan a biosafety level 4 lab and a biosafety level 2 lab. There are leaks from labs. (See "Preventing a Biological Arms Race," MIT Press, 1990, edited by Susan Wright; also, a partial review in Journal of International Law from October 1992.)

Much of the discussion of this deadly serious subject is marred with snark that avoids or dodges the "gain-of-function" question. ABC ran a story on March 27 titled "Sorry, Conspiracy Theorists. Study Concludes COVID-19 'Is Not a Laboratory Construct.'" That story did not address the possibility that the virus could have been found in the wild, studied in a lab and thenreleased.

On March 21, USA Today published a piece headlined "Fact Check: Did the Coronavirus Originate In a Chinese Laboratory?" and rated it "FALSE."

That USA Today story relied on the Washington Post, which publishedawidely cited article onFeb.17headlined,"Tom Cotton keeps repeating a coronavirus conspiracy theory that was already debunked." That article quoted public comments fromRutgers University professor of chemical biology Richard Ebright, but out of context and only in part. Specifically, the story quoted from Ebright's tweet that the coronavirus was not an "engineered bioweapon." In fact, his full quote included the clarification that the virus could have "entered human population through lab accident." (An email requesting clarification sent toPost reporterPaulina Firoziwas met with silence.)

Bioengineered From a lab

Other pieces in the Post since then (some heavily sourced to U.S. government officials) have conveyed Ebright's thinking, but it gets worse. In a private exchange, Ebright who, again, has said clearly that the novel coronavirus was not technically bioengineered using known coronavirus sequences stated that other forms of lab manipulation could have beenresponsible for the current pandemic. This runs counter to much reporting, which is perhaps too scientifically illiterate to perceive the difference.

In response to the suggestion that the novel coronavirus could have come about through various methodsbesides bioengineering made by Dr. Meryl Nass, who has done groundbreaking work on biowarfareEbright responded in an email:

The genome sequence of SARS-CoV-2 has no signatures of human manipulation.

This rules out the kinds of gain-of-function (GoF) research that leave signatures of human manipulation in genome sequences (e.g., use of recombinant DNA methods to construct chimeric viruses), but does not rule out kinds of GoF research that do not leave signatures (e.g., serial passage in animals). [emphasis added]

Very easy to imagine the equivalent of the Fouchier's "10 passages in ferrets" with H5N1 influenza virus, but, in this case, with 10 passages in non-human primates with bat coronavirus RaTG13 or bat coronavirus KP876546.

That last paragraph is very important. It refersto virologist Ron Fouchier of the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, who performed research on intentionally increasing rates of viralmutation rate by spreading a virus from one animal to another in a sequence.The New York Times wrote about this in an editorial in January 2012, warning of "An Engineered Doomsday."

"Now scientists financed by the National Institutes of Health" have created a "virus that could kill tens or hundreds of millions of people" if it escaped confinement, the Times wrote. The story continued:

Working with ferrets, the animal that is most like humans in responding to influenza, the researchers found that a mere five genetic mutations allowed the virus to spread through the air from one ferret to another while maintaining its lethality. A separate study at the University of Wisconsin, about which little is known publicly, produced a virus that is thought to be less virulent.

The word "engineering" in the New York Times headline is technically incorrect, sincepassing a virus through animals is not "genetic engineering." This same distinction has hindered some from understanding the possible origins of the current pandemic.

Fouchier's flu work, in which an H5N1 virus was made more virulent by transmitting it repeatedly between individual ferrets, briefly sent shockwaves through the media. "Locked up in the bowels of the medical faculty building here and accessible to only a handful of scientists lies a man-made flu virus that could change world history if it were ever set free," wrote Science magazine in 2011 in a story titled "Scientists Brace for Media Storm Around Controversial Flu Studies." It continues:

The virus is an H5N1 avian influenza strain that has been genetically altered and is now easily transmissible between ferrets, the animals that most closely mimic the human response to flu. Scientists believe it's likely that the pathogen, if it emerged in nature or were released, would trigger an influenza pandemic, quite possibly with many millions of deaths.

In a 17th floor office in the same building, virologist Ron Fouchier of Erasmus Medical Center calmly explains why his team created what he says is "probably one of the most dangerous viruses you can make" and why he wants to publish a paper describing how they did it. Fouchier is also bracing for a media storm. After he talked to ScienceInsider yesterday, he had an appointment with an institutional press officer to chart a communication strategy.

Fouchier's paper is one of two studies that have triggered an intense debate about the limits of scientific freedom and that could portend changes in the way U.S. researchers handle so-called dual-use research: studies that have a potential public health benefit but could also be useful for nefarious purposes like biowarfare or bioterrorism.

Despite objections, Fouchier's article was published by Science in June 2012. Titled "Airborne Transmission of Influenza A/H5N1 Virus Between Ferrets," it summarized how Fouchier's research team made the pathogen more virulent:

Highly pathogenic avian influenza A/H5N1 virus can cause morbidity and mortality in humans but thus far has not acquired the ability to be transmitted by aerosol or respiratory droplet ("airborne transmission") between humans. To address the concern that the virus could acquire this ability under natural conditions, we genetically modified A/H5N1 virus by site-directed mutagenesis and subsequent serial passage in ferrets. The genetically modified A/H5N1 virus acquired mutations during passage in ferrets, ultimately becoming airborne transmissible in ferrets.

In other words, Fouchier's research took a flu virus that did not exhibit airborne transmission, then infected a number of ferrets until it mutated to the point that it was transmissible by air.

In thatsame year, 2012, asimilar studyby Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin was published in Nature:

Highly pathogenic avian H5N1 influenza A viruses occasionally infect humans, but currently do not transmit efficiently among humans. ... Here we assess the molecular changes ... that would allow a virus ... to be transmissible among mammals. We identified a ... virus ... with four mutations and the remaining seven gene segments from a 2009 pandemic H1N1 virus that was capable of droplet transmission in a ferret model.

In 2014, Marc Lipsitch of Harvard and Alison P. Galvani of Yale wrote regarding Fouchier and Kawaoka's work:

Recent experiments that create novel, highly virulent and transmissible pathogens against which there is no human immunity are unethical ... they impose a risk of accidental and deliberate release that, if it led to extensive spread of the new agent, could cost many lives. While such a release is unlikely in a specific laboratory conducting research under strict biosafety procedures, even a low likelihood should be taken seriously, given the scale of destruction if such an unlikely event were to occur. Furthermore, the likelihood of risk is multiplied as the number of laboratories conducting such research increases around the globe.

Given this risk, ethical principles, such as those embodied in the Nuremberg Code, dictate that such experiments would be permissible only if they provide humanitarian benefits commensurate with the risk, and if these benefits cannot be achieved by less risky means.

We argue that the two main benefits claimed for these experiments improved vaccine design and improved interpretation of surveillance are unlikely to be achieved by the creation of potential pandemic pathogens (PPP), often termed "gain-of-function" (GOF) experiments.

There may be a widespread notion that there is scientific consensus that the pandemic did not come out of a lab. But in factmany of the most knowledgeable scientists in the field are notably silent. This includes Lipsitch at Harvard, Jonathan A. King at MITand many others.

Just last year, Lynn Klotz of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation wrote a paperin the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientistsentitled "Human Error in High-biocontainment Labs: A Likely Pandemic Threat." Wrote Klotz:

Incidents causing potential exposures to pathogens occur frequently in the high security laboratories often known by their acronyms, BSL3 (Biosafety Level 3) and BSL4. Lab incidents that lead to undetected or unreported laboratory-acquired infections can lead to the release of a disease into the community outside the lab; lab workers with such infections will leave work carrying the pathogen with them. If the agent involved were a potential pandemic pathogen, such a community release could lead to a worldwide pandemic with many fatalities. Of greatest concern is a release of a lab-created, mammalian-airborne-transmissible, highly pathogenic avian influenza virus, such as the airborne-transmissible H5N1 viruses created in the laboratories of Ron Fouchier in the Netherlands and Yoshihiro Kawaoka in Madison, Wisconsin.

"Crazy, dangerous"

Boyle, a professor of international law at the University of Illinois, has condemned Fouchier, Kawaoka and others including at least one of the authors of the recent Nature Medicine article in the strongest terms, calling such work a "criminal enterprise." While Boyle has been embroiled in numerous controversies, he's been especially dismissed by many on this issue. The "fact-checking" websiteSnopeshas described him as "a lawyer with no formal training in virology" without noting that he wrote the relevant U.S. law.

As Boyle saidin 2015:

Since September 11, 2001, we have spent around $100 billion on biological warfare. Effectively we now have an Offensive Biological Warfare Industry in this country that violates theBiological Weapons Conventionand myBiological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989.

The law Boyle drafted states: "Whoever knowingly develops, produces, stockpiles, transfers, acquires, retains, or possesses any biological agent, toxin, or delivery system for use as a weapon, or knowingly assists a foreign state or any organization to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for life or any term of years, or both. There is extraterritorial Federal jurisdiction over an offense under this section committed by or against a national of the United States."

Boyle also warned:

Russia and China have undoubtedly reached the same conclusions I have derived from the same open and public sources, and have responded in kind. So what the world now witnesses is an all-out offensive biological warfare arms race among the major military powers of the world: United States, Russia, Britain, France, China, Israel, inter alia.

We have reconstructed the Offensive Biological Warfare Industry that we had deployed in this county before its prohibition by the Biological Weapons Convention of 1972, described by Seymour Hersh in his groundbreaking expose "Chemical and Biological Warfare: America's Hidden Arsenal." (1968)

Boyle now states that he has been "blackballed" in the media on this issue, despite his having written the relevant statute. The group he worked with on the law, the Council for Responsible Genetics, went under several years ago, making Boyle's views against "biodefense" even more marginal as government money for dual use work poured into the field and criticswithin the scientific community have fallen silent. In turn, his denunciationshave grown more sweeping.

In the 1990 book "Preventing a Biological Arms Race," scholar Susan Wright argued that current laws regarding bioweapons were insufficient, as there were "projects in which offensive and defensive aspects can be distinguished only by claimed motive." Boyle notes, correctly, that current law he drafted does not makean exception for "defensive" work, but only for "prophylactic, protective or other peaceful purposes."

While Boyle is particularly vociferous in his condemnations, he is not alone. There has been irregular, but occasional media attention to this threat. The Guardian ran a piece in 2014,"Scientists condemn 'crazy, dangerous' creation of deadly airborne flu virus," afterKawaoka created a life-threatening virus that "closely resembles the 1918 Spanish flu strain that killed an estimated 50m people":

"The work they are doing is absolutely crazy. The whole thing is exceedingly dangerous," said Lord May, the former president of the Royal Society and one time chief science adviser to the UK government. "Yes, there is a danger, but it's not arising from the viruses out there in the animals, it's arising from the labs of grossly ambitious people."

Boyle'scharges beginning early this yearthat the coronavirus was bioengineered allegationsrecently mirrored by French virologist andNobel laureate Luc Montagnier have not been corroborated by any publicly produced findings of any U.S. scientist. Boyle even charges that scientists like Ebright, who is at Rutgers, arecompromised because the university got abiosafety level 3 lab in 2017though Ebright is perhaps the most vocal eminent critic of this research, among U.S. scientists. These and other controversies aside, Boyle's concerns about the dangers of biowarfare arelegitimate; indeed, Ebright shares them.

Some of the most vocal voices to discuss the origins of the novel coronavirushave been eager to minimizethe dangers of lab work, or have focused almost exclusively on "wet markets" or "exotic" animals as the likely cause.

The media celebrated Laurie Garrett, the Pulitzer Prizewinning author and former senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, when she declared on Twitter on March 3 (in a since-deleted tweet)that the origin of the pandemic was discovered: "It's pangolins. #COVID19 Researchers studied lung tissue from 12 of the scaled mammals that were illegally trafficked in Asia and found #SARSCoV2 in 3. The animals were found in Guangxi, China. Another virus+ smuggled sample found in Guangzhou."

She was swiftly corrected by Ebright: "Arrant nonsense. Did you even read the paper? Reported pangolin coronavirus is not SARS-CoV-2 and is not even particularly close to SARS-CoV-2. Bat coronavirus RaTG13 is much closer to SARS-CoV-2 (96.2% identical) than reported pangolin coronavirus (92.4% identical)." He added: "No reason to invoke pangolin as intermediate. When A is much closer than B to C, in the absence of additional data, there is no rational basis to favor pathway A>B>C over pathway A>C." When someone asked what Garrett was saying, Ebright responded: "She is saying she is scientifically illiterate."

The following day, Garrett corrected herself (without acknowledging Ebright): "I blew it on the #Pangolins paper, & then took a few hours break from Twitter. It did NOT prove the species = source of #SARSCoV2. There's a torrent of critique now, deservedly denouncing me & my posting. A lot of the critique is super-informative so leaving it all up 4 while."

At leastone Chinese governmentofficialhas respondedto the allegation that the labs in Wuhan could be the source for the pandemic by alleging that perhaps the U.S. isresponsibleinstead. In American mainstreammedia, that has been reflexivelytreated as evenmore ridiculousthan the original allegation that the virus could havecome froma lab.

Obviouslythe Chinese government'sallegations should not be taken at face value, but neither should U.S. government claims especially considering that U.S. government labs were the apparent source for theanthrax attacks in 2001. Those attacks sent panic through the U.S. and shut down Congress, allowing the Bushadministration to enact the PATRIOT Act and ramp up the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Indeed, in October2001, media darlings like Richard Butler and Andrew Sullivan propagandizedfor war with Iraq because of the anthrax attacks. (Neither Iraq nor al-Qaida was involved.)

The 2001 anthrax attacks also provided muchof the pretext forthe surge in biolab spending since then, even though they apparently originated in a U.S. or U.S.-allied lab. Indeed, thoseattacks remain shrouded in mystery.

The U.S. government has also come up withelaborate cover stories to distract from its bioweapons work. For instance, the U.S. government infamously claimed the 1953 death of Frank Olson, a scientist at Fort Detrick, Maryland, was anLSD experiment gone wrong;it now appears to have been an execution to cover up for U.S.biological warfare.

Regardless of the cause of the current pandemic, these biowarfare/biodefense labs need far more scrutiny. The call to shut them down by Boyle and others needs to be clearly heard and light must be shone on precisely what research is being conducted.

The secrecy of these labs may prevent us ever knowing with certainty the origins of the current pandemic.What we do know is this kind of lab work comes with real dangers. One might make a comparison to climate change: We cannot attribute an individual hurricane to man-made climate disruption,yet science tells us that human activity makes stronger hurricanes more likely. Thatbrings us back to the imperative to cease the kinds of activities thatproduce such dangers in the first place.

If that doesn't happen, the people of the planet will be at the mercy of the machinations and mistakes of state actors who are playing with fire for their geopolitical interests.

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Did this virus come from a lab? Maybe not but it exposes the threat of a biowarfare arms race - Salon

As the coronavirus pandemic continues unabated around the world, we are, understandably, all concerned about the best ways to protect ourselves against viruses and other infections.

First and foremost, we all need to follow government advice to stay home and social distance. But, beyond this, we can all use the time to rest up and dose up so that when we are able to get back to work, we are geared up to stay healthy and thrive.

I consider myself a natural biohacking expert. Biohacking is the practice of enhancing our bodies and our health through science and self-experimentation. It can be as simple as implementing lifestyle and dietary changes that improve the functioning of your body, or as extreme as using implant technology and genetic engineering. I believe in the power of food, utilising the natural chemistry of the body and good cognitive function to slow the ageing process, strengthen our immune systems and generally make us superhuman.

Incorporating some of these simple biohacks into your routine is the most effective way to ensure your defences are as effective as they can be against viral infection and pathogens.

You are what you eat (and put anywhere near your body)

We are, quite literally, what we eat. We live in a symbiotic relationship with around 30 trillion microbes that live in our bodies, collectively making up our microbiome. Our microbiome programmes our immune system and is strengthened by fermented foods, fibre, pulses and plant-based food in general. Make sure you eat as balanced a diet as possible. Otherwise, you are just leaving the door open for enemy viruses to walk straight in and start making themselves at home. Superfoods that feature in my diet everyday include bee pollen (an antioxidant that speeds up healing) aai (contains healthy fats and could be anti-cancer agent) and blue spirulina (improves muscles strength and endurance).

Use supplements strategically

I use a range of supplements to complement my diet and ensure I am giving my body the nutrients it needs to stay healthy. The combination you take will depend on your age, gender, whether youre pregnant and even where you live. Vitamin D is advised for most people, particularly as it can be difficult to get enough through your diet alone. These nutrients are needed to keep bones, teeth and muscles healthy. Echinacea is one of the most popular immune-boosting herbs, it can reduce inflammation and has been found to shorten the duration of flu-like viruses. I also take vitamin C, zinc and probiotic supplements.

Stay active- but rest is just as important

To enjoy a functioning immune system it will come as no surprise that exercise is key, but the impact that sleep has on our bodies is less well known. In our industry, were used to a work hard, play hard culture, but if were not getting enough sleep then were putting ourselves at risk of burning out and succumbing to illness. Long-term, a lack of sleep can increase the risk of conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and obesity. Sleep is your bodys time to repair and reset- and it will switch off your bodys chemical stress response too.

The current public health emergency has given us all time to pause and reflect. If youre lucky enough to be able to stay home and stay safe, why not try to incorporate some of these natural bio hacks into your life? Youll feel the benefits in no time.s

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Comment: Nassau executive chef Silvena Rowe on biohacking the body - Caterer Middle East

We all want to be the best we can be. And of course, we want to surround ourselves with the best of the best. But this seemingly positive motive has led some people to say and do some pretty horrific things throughout history.

The Greek Philosopher Plato suggested selective mating to breed a higher class of humans. In Sparta, a council of elders inspected every child to determine if he or she was fit to live. In early ancient Rome, fathers were expected to immediately kill their child if they were disabled in any way.

But its not just ancient history. In the 19th and 20th century a new system of beliefs began to emerge Eugenics. The idea that through selective breeding we can improve the genetic make-up of the human race. Sound familiar?

But where did Eugenic thought originate?

Professor Amir Teicher discusses exactly that in his new book, Social Mendelism: Genetics and the Politics of Race in Germany, 1900-1948 Professor Teicher is an assistant professor of history at the University of Tel Aviv. His research is focused on Germany, eugenics, the development of modern biological thinking, racism and antisemitism, and the history of medicine.

We are super thrilled to be joined today by Professor Amir Teicher to talk about his new book and the history of Eugenics.

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Episode 190: Genetics and Nazism - Jewish Journal

For the 39th year, M&T Bank, in conjunction with PennLive and the Harrisburg Lions Club, has been honoring central Pa.s top student-athletes with the John Travers Award.

The 2020 finalists have all excelled as athletes, students, and voices in their communities. Today, we shine a spotlight on the 5 female finalists.

Winners will be announced next month along with the A.I. Garner Outstanding Coach Award winner. The Travers Award is named for the late executive sports editor of The Patriot-News.

Gabriella Recce, Central Dauphin

Gabriella Recce Central Dauphin track and field during media day on February 28, 2019.Sean Simmers | ssimmers@pennlive.comPENNLIVE.COM

Varsity sports: Track and Field (4 letters), Indoor Track (3 letters), Golf (4 letters), Cheerleading (1 letter), Swimming (1 letter)

College choice: University of Virginia

Finalists voice: I chose to pursue engineering as my career, because engineers can change the way we live in the world. Whether eradicating cancer and other debilitating diseases, improving our health with stem cell therapies, cleaning the environment with sustainable approaches or creating novel transportation methods, engineers are trained to solve problems and generate new solutions. My passion for this career comes from my dedication to my academic journey, my learning as a multi-event athlete and the support and encouragement of my family.

Describe yourself in one word: Positive

Gabriella Recce of Central Dauphin competes in the girls 3A long jump during the District 3 Track & Field Championships at Shippensburg University on May 18, 2019.Joe Hermitt | jhermitt@pennlive.com

Accomplishments: Theres no question Recce was aligned for a terrific final season in track and field. Earning three PIAA medals in the pole vault, long jump and triple jump at last years PIAA Championship meet, Recce was poised to add a few more records to her already glowing career. Shes earned a dozen top finishes during Mid-Penn and District 3 competitions. Plus, she qualified and competed at the prestigious Penn Relays, New Balance Outdoor and Indoor National competitions along the way. Recce was coming off an outstanding Indoor season when the spring sports calendar was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Reece, also an accomplished golfer, helped the Rams golf team win a District 3 title in 2017. Vice-President of CDs National Honors Society, Recce also served as Editor of the Key Club and volunteered with PAWS, LPGA Girls Golf of Harrisburg, the Four Diamonds Club and PanRam Field Day for special needs students. In addition, the senior won a national gold medal in scholastic art and writing (2016) and was part of Hershey Medical Centers PULSE Program.

Katie Sajer, Trinity

Katie Sajer (20) of Trinity girls basketball during Mid-Penn basketball media day on Nov. 14, 2019.Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com

Varsity sports: Volleyball (4 letters), Basketball (4 letters), Lacrosse (4 letters)

College choice: University of Notre Dame

Finalists voice: The ROTC program offers chances to earn skill sets and exposure otherwise unavailable to civilians. These skills will be necessary to ensure the lives and safety of my team. By using my athleticism in this regard, I will be able to give back to the country that has made me into the person I am today, and fight for the people who came before me. I will be able to make a larger impact through this use of my athleticism than anything I would be able to do on the athletic field or court.

Describe yourself in one word: Hard-working

Trinity's Katie Sajer drives past a Central Dauphin defender during Central Dauphins 55-42 win over Trinity in the Mid-Penn girls basketball championship, February 13, 2020.Vicki Vellios Briner | Special to PennLiveVicki Vellios Briner | Special to PennLive

Accomplishments: Among the most versatile athletes in the Mid-Penn Conference, Sajer captained a pair of Trinity sports programs and is a two-time All-State pick in volleyball. In fact, Sajer was a 2019 nominee for the Under Armour High School All-American volleyball team. Awarded a national four-year Army ROTC Scholarship at Notre Dame, Duke University, the University of Delaware and Bucknell University, Sajer opted to focus on physical, mental and leadership training in South Bend. Sajer has worked as marketing intern for Pennsylvania Wounded Warriors, developing a campaign that has raised approximately $145,000 to support servicemen and women in Pa. Sajer, a member of Trinitys French Foreign Language Honors Society, also served as a property manager in her family business, and worked as a school mentor and activities leader.

Gery Schnarrs, East Pennsboro

Gery Schnarrs of East Pennsboro field hockey during high school football media day on July 31, 2019.Sean Simmers | ssimmers@pennlive.com

Varsity sports: Field Hockey (4 letters), Track and Field (2 letters)

College choice: University of Virginia

Finalists voice: I would tell young athletes to stay at it. Obviously, you are going to face a lot of obstacles. You are going to think a lot of times that, maybe if you dont make a team, you should move on to something different? I think its important to stay at it and keep following what you want to do. I think thats how you succeed. If you want to do it, then I think thats where youre going to put most of your effort.

Describe yourself in one word: Determined

Gery Schnarrs, East Pennsboro M/D (Univ. of Virginia). The Mid-Penn is overflowing with field hockey players who will take their talents to the next level. Oct. 24, 2019. Sean Simmers | ssimmers@pennlive.com

Accomplishments: Ever since the Virginia recruit broke onto the field hockey scene, scoring 10 goals with 12 assists as a freshman, Schnarrs has impacted the Mid-Penn Conference and beyond. A current member of USA Womens National Indoor Development team, Schnarrs capped her brilliant run with a spot on Max Field Hockeys HS All-American team. She holds East Pennsboro career mark with 198 points and earned multiple All-State appointments. The Panthers won four straight division titles, and four trips to states, with No. 37 digging in. A Scholar of Distinction on the National Field Hockey Coaches Association Academic team, Schnarrs has served as treasurer for three different school programs, including that National Honors Society. A Girl Scouts Gold Award winner through her Get in the Game initiative. Schnarrs also won a Silver Presidential Volunteer Service Award last year and coordinated multiple service drives like Purses for a Purpose for the homeless and a bedding rive for the Speranza Animal Shelter. Shes also volunteered with the Bethesda Mission Womens Shelter, Salvation Army and more.

Marlee Starliper, Northern

Northern's Marlee Starliper shows off her NC State gear Sunday after committing to the Wolfpack.

Varsity sports: Cross Country (4 letters), Track and Field (4 letters), Indoor Track (4 letters)

College choice: North Carolina State

Finalists voice: I aspire to run professionally after college with the hope of having a long career in which I can pursue qualifying for several Olympic teams. Another aspect of y athletic goals is to continue enjoying the sport, have fun discovering more of my capabilities, and be a positive impact within the running community and beyond.

Describe yourself in one word: Passionate

Northern's Marlee Starliper trails Greencastle's Taryn Parks in the AAA 1600 meter run during day 2 of the 2019 PIAA Track and Field Championships at Shippensburg University. May 25, 2019 Sean Simmers | ssimmers@pennlive.comPENNLIVE.COM

Accomplishments: Starlipers resume is overflowing with state and national records, including three consecutive PIAA cross country titles. She was runner-up as a freshman. Pa.s Gatorade Cross County Player of the Year three times, Starliper also twice claimed Foot Locker Northeast regional titles and was runner-up at Foot Locker Nationals in the fall. She now holds the states all-time mark. On the track, Starliper is a four-time state champion and her mile (4:37) and 3k (9:07) standards rank No. 1 nationally. Invited to the Reykjavik Games in Iceland by the National Scholastic Athletic Foundation, Starliper finished third in the 800. Shes also competed for USATF in the Pan-American Games in Costa Rica, becoming a U20 national champion. An active member of the World Harvest Outreach Church in Chambersburg, Starliper has participated in Direct Call, a student-led Christian group at Northern, volunteered as a Special Olympics buddy and served a regular speaker to middle school cross country and tracks teams about nutrition. Recently, Starliper signed to write and illustrate a childrens book in Spanish.

Maddie Zimmer, Hershey

Maddie Zimmer, Hershey MF (Northwestern). The Mid-Penn is overflowing with field hockey players who will take their talents to the next level. Oct. 24, 2019. Sean Simmers | ssimmers@pennlive.com

Varsity sports: Field Hockey (4 letters), Lacrosse (3 letters)

College choice: Northwestern University

Finalists voice: This winter Ive actually been helping to coach at multiple field hockey clubs. I never thought I would like it, but I actually really like coaching the little girls. I didnt think I had the patience for it, but they improved so much and its so rewarding to see how excited they are. Thats how I was when I was their age. All I wanted to do was play field hockey and its so exciting to be a part of their journey. Its so rewarding and fun to watch.

Describe yourself in one word: Dedicated

Hershey's Maddie Zimmer brings the ball down field against Lower Dauphin in their high school field hockey game at Hershey. Sept. 11, 2019.Sean Simmers | ssimmers@pennlive.com

Accomplishments: As one of the nations top field hockey players in her class, Zimmer is a four-time All-State pick and high school All-American in her final two seasons. The midfielder also led the Trojans to the PIAA Class 3A title in 2018. She also earned US Lacrosse All-American honors as a junior. Continuing to rehab an ACL tear she suffered in November, Zimmer is planning to compete for the U21 U.S. National Field Hockey Team against Ireland in June. Her first cap came against Canada last summer. After Ireland will be the Junior Pan American Games in Chile, an official qualifier for the 21 Junior World Cup. Continuing to make an impact in her community, Zimmer has coached youth field hockey and lacrosse programs, donated her time to Purses full of Hope, raised funds for the Walk for Clean Water Organization and co-chaired the Herren Project, a non-profit that supports families with addiction and prevention of substance abuse.

2020 Travers Award female nominees

Follow Eric Epler on Twitter -- @threejacker

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Originally posted here:
Meet the 5 female finalists for the 2020 M&T Bank John Travers Award - PennLive

Exercising your eyes can keep your eyesight stronger for longer.

Just like the rest of your body, your face and eyes have muscles. Because of overuse, your eye muscles may become weak and you may be unable to see as clearly. If you regularly exercise your eyes you can keep your eyes safe and healthy.

Rub your palms vigorously until moist, and then gently place them over your eyelids. Let the palm warmth transfer to the head. You can feel the muscles of the eye relax as your eyes find comfort in the night. Persist until eyes completely absorb the heat from the palms. Repeat two to three times daily.

Sit back on your chair or bed with open eyes. Blink rapidly 10 to 15 times. Close your eyes, and take 20 seconds to relax. Repeat five times.

Another successful eye practice is to zoom in. As you might have inferred from the name, you are zooming in on an object to change your visions focus. Sit with your arm extended with your thumb up. Now, slowly bend your wrist, and bring your hand closer to your head, until you thumb is in focus.

Shifting is about shifting the eyeballs or turning them from one direction to another. Look to the right corner, then slowly turn your attention in the opposite direction. With the spurt of blood pumped in from the move, the tiny eye muscles get more active and healthy.

Carrot eating is good for your vision. Carrots are rich in vitamin A, an essential vision nutrient. Vitamin A is not the only vitamin that promotes healthy eye function, however. Make sure your diet contains foods that are rich in vitamin C, vitamin E, copper and zinc.

Its good to close your eyes just for a few minutes. If youre hard at work, you can do this once an hour, or several times. So if your work includes sitting in front of a computer or reading it can be soothing to close your eyes. This exercise, as basic as it sounds, will protect the eyes from over-exertion or fatigue.

This content has been created as part of our freelancer relief programme. We are supporting journalists and freelance writers impacted by the economic slowdown caused by #lockdownlife.

If you are a freelancer looking to contribute to The South African,read more here.

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Healthy eyesight: Exercises to keep your peepers in top form - The South African

Diagnostic overshadowing is not a term which makes it into the mainstream media very often. It refers to a tendency to attribute all of a patients problems to a major condition, thereby allowing other co-existing conditions go undiagnosed.

It is a particular problem for people with learning disabilities, who often find health professionals make assumptions that their behaviour is a part of their disability without exploring other factors such as biological determinants.

This is an area which has interested Kathryn Saunders, professor of optometry and vision science at Ulster University, for many years. Prof Saunders has led pioneering research addressing a significant knowledge gap in understanding myopia prevalence amongst children with a developmental disability. Her work has had significant impact in developing public health information relating to myopia and securing commitment for enhanced eye-care services for children in special education settings in England.

This is an area of research Ive been involved in for over 30 years, she says. Everyone is interested in myopia but research into children with disabilities is less sexy and less interesting for people. But the difference you can make to peoples lives and families is just unbelievable. Its something Im very passionate about.

Part of the problem is that we expect children to tell us if they cant see something properly. Children with learning disabilities have different ways of communicating or may not communicate at all, Saunders explains. If the child doesnt see the difference between a horse and a cow it can be put down to their learning disability rather than a sight defect. People have low expectations of the children and the problems are attributed to their underlying disability, whereas the child may have difficulty seeing colours, focusing and so on. This results in diagnostic overshadowing and its a very big problem for children with learning disabilities.

The issue is compounded by the fact that many conditions have associated vision problems. You have to know whats normal for the particular condition. I have concentrated on Down syndrome, autism and cerebral palsy. The brain is a huge part of how we see the world.

The scale of the problem is highlighted by research carried out by UK charity SeeAbility, which found children in special schools in England are 28 times more likely to have problems with their vision and a six-year-old child with Down syndrome is 10 times more likely to have a sight defect.

Its not as simple as carrying out normal eye tests, however. Think about a child with learning disabilities and what they see when an optometrist comes up to them with a shining bright light in a dark room its quite frightening.

Saunders own research has led to significant progress in the area. The Special Education Eyecare (SEE) project, which was funded by Action Medical Research, saw a comprehensive eye-care service being provided in a special school in England to establish if it resulted in a measurable benefit.

A school is a very good setting for eye tests, Saunders says. You can do part of the test in the morning and finish it in the afternoon, so it is not overwhelming for the child.

The results, which showed clear benefits, were published in a research paper last year. The outcomes included an improvement in visual status, with more children having their visual problems managed properly and an improvement in classroom engagement. Another benefit saw parents and teachers reporting value from the in-school service and from the reports and advice they received from the eye-care professionals on each childs visual status and visual needs.

They not only understood the lay description of the vision information but used this information to help the child at home and in the classroom, says Saunders.

NHS England have used the outcomes from the SEE project in their design and implementation of a new, evidence-based in-school eye-care programme which will reach over 100,000 children each year, she adds. We are working with the Public Health Agency and the Health and Social Care Board in Northern Ireland to do something similar.

Her research has also addressed testing difficulties. I did my PhD in the University of Cardiff with Maggie Woodhouse, who is a pioneer in this area. We wanted to find a way to measure focus in an objective way.

This resulted in the development of the Ulster-Cardiff Accommodation Rule (or UC-Cube), the first commercially available tool that allows rapid, clinical assessment of focusing accuracy without the need for the patient to communicate.

The UC-Cube is a unique tool providing a standardised stimulus and measurement framework within which to conduct dynamic retinoscopy, objectively measure focusing ability and contextualise outputs against research-derived normative data.

We started out by getting the technicians in the universities to make it for us but then Maggie and I put our heads together to make it commercially available, says Saunders. All the child has to do is look at an illuminated picture and the device does the rest. It can even be used with tiny babies.

The UC-Cube is now used in countries across the world, including Australia, Sweden, South Africa, Antigua, India and the United States, with users confirming benefits to patients and clinical practice.

The next step will be to take the testing out of the special school setting. Once we have comprehensive eye-care services up and running in special schools, we will try to prove if it works for children in mainstream schools. More and more children with learning disabilities are being educated in mainstream settings.

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Bringing the benefits of eye-care to vulnerable children - The Irish Times

As social distancing restrictions continue due to the coronavirus there are extra challenges for those who are blind or have sight loss.

Louise Neeson has limited vision and is registered blind. She is originally from Maghera, County Londonderry, but now lives in Belfast with her fiance Joe, who is also registered blind.

Everybody is having difficulties receiving grocery deliveries these day and we find that exceptionally difficult," she said.

Whenever I go to the shop, Ive had the experience of there being a queue outside and not realising.

Meanwhile Debbie Shaw from Randalstown has had some initial difficulties getting her guide dog much needed exercise.

Debbie was born with albinism, which causes her eyes to be light sensitive and in recent years her eyesight has deteriorated to the point where she requires the aid of her guide dog, Frizz.

However, her underlying health conditions means she has had to self-isolate, which has limited Frizzs time outside.

She has had to look to local volunteers for a solution.

The Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) helpline number: 0303 123 9999

Video journalist: Niall McCracken

See the rest here:
Coronavirus: Life in lockdown when you are blind - BBC News

Researchers at Trinity have discovered a potential new therapeutic target for eye disease after studying the role of an executioner protein in retinal degeneration.

Research led by a team from Trinity College Dublin (TCD) has helped pinpoint a potential therapeutic target for a disease that affects thousands in Ireland.

While millions of people worldwide live with vision loss due to irreversible retinal degenerative diseases, its estimated that 5,000 people in Ireland inherit retinal degenerations, with a further 80,000 known to live with age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

This latest research, published to the journal Life Science Alliance, has revealed a protein called SARM1 that is involved in neuronal cell injury, but could also play a role in the progression of retinal degeneration.

Photoreceptor cells are specialised neurons found in the back of our eyes that convert light into electrical signals that allow us to see. It is the death of these cells, and the cells that nourish them, that is termed retinal degeneration and is characteristic of blinding diseases such as AMD and retinitis pigmentosa.

Researchers said this report is the first to describe a role for SARM1, referred to as the executioner protein, in photoreceptor cell biology.

Our research indicates that SARM1 is likely to be a key executioner in the process of retinal degeneration, because if we remove it from our experimental model system this has the effect of delaying the photoreceptor cells from dying, said Dr Sarah Doyle of the research team.

This is an important finding because the first steps involved in processing light into sight take place in the photoreceptors. As a result, losing photoreceptors ultimately equates to losing vision. For this reason, interventions that prevent or delay photoreceptor cell death are critical to preserve sight for as long as possible in people with degenerative retinal diseases.

The team was also able to show that the remaining photoreceptors maintained their function and continued to transmit electrical signals to the optic nerve.

This is particularly exciting for the future because others have recently shown that a gene therapy approach for inhibiting SARM1 is effective in protecting against neuronal degeneration, Doyle added.

We know that gene therapy is well suited as a treatment for retinal disease, so such an approach for inhibiting SARM1 activity may offer an option for protecting vision across multiple retinal degenerative diseases.

Go here to see the original:
'Executioner protein' discovery could lead to new eye disease therapeutics - Siliconrepublic.com

Of these 34 risks, three are potential showstoppers: radiation, gravity (or lack thereof), and the need for surgery or a complicated medical procedure.

The Gravity of the Situation

Lets explore the gravity issue.

Some science fiction writers in the mid-20th century speculated that zero gravity would be life-giving: blood would flow more easily; arthritis would be a thing of the past; back pain would be cured for good; and aging itself would slow down. So, bring grandma along for the ride. We had hints from early in the space program that such a rosy scenario wasnt true. Astronauts returned from just a few days of weightlessness feeling weak. But they recovered; and many thought, well, maybe it isnt so bad. Then we spent more time in space. Russians on the Mir space station for months appeared to have some serious, prolonged health issues on their return. The Russians were tight-lipped about the health of their cosmonauts, though, so we never knew for sure. Many of these cosmonauts, championed as heroes, were rarely seen in public after their return. It was the ISS missions that drove home the message: long-term exposure to zero gravity is detrimental to human health on many levels. Kudos to NASA for that.

Before I continue, I should first define some terms. Zero gravity, however visually convenient, can be a misnomer in the context of near-earth activity. The astronauts on the ISS are not living in the absence of gravity. Rather, they are in free-fall, forever falling over the horizon and missing the Earth. The ISS and other satellites are not floating in space because they have escaped the pull of Earths gravity; they stay up there because of their terrific horizontal speed. The ISS is moving at 17,500 miles per hour. If, somehow, it came to a complete stop, it would fall straight down to Earth, and down would come astronaut, cradle and all. The Earths gravitational force, in fact, keeps the moving satellites in orbit as a perfectly balanced counterforce, in a downward motion, to the lateral motion set in place during the launch. Without the Earths gravitational force (if the Earth suddenly, magically, disappeared), the satellites would shoot off in a straight line. Therefore, more accurate terms for describing the lack of sensation of gravity aboard the ISS are microgravity and weightlessness. Yet, even these terms are neither perfect nor synonymous. Astronauts on the ISS have weight, about 90 percent of their weight on Earth, which is only about 200 miles below their feet. Theyd be much lighter on the Moon, actually, at just about 16 percent of their weight. Absolute zero gravity is not attainable, because gravity is the force of attraction between any two objects. But in deep space, far from the gravitational tug of any moon, planet, or star, gravity is attenuated to almost zero. I tend to use the terms zero gravity, micro-gravity, and weightlessness interchangeably in the context of space travel.

Our understanding of gravitys effect on the body has only two data points: one and zero. On Earth, we live with a gravitational force of 1G. On the ISS, astronauts live in 0G. We really dont know about anything in between. Air force pilots might accelerate their jets so quickly that they experience forces of 5G or higher, which sometimes causes them to black out. Thats five times the force of normal Earth gravity, which pushes blood out of their brains. But such forces typically last only a few seconds; the pilots arent living in a hyper-gravity environment. And anyway, we dont care too much about forces greater than 1G because every place we want to go in our Solar SystemL2 orbit, the Moon, Mars, and so onhas a gravitational force less than 1G.

Read more:
How Space Travel Tries to Kill You and Make You Ugly - WIRED

Each week, HealthDay's Physician's Briefing division rounds up the most important COVID-19 developments in the medical field. See this week's edition below for April 20-April 24.

FDA Warns About Treating COVID-19 With Unproven Drugs

FRIDAY, April 24, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Malaria drugs touted by some as potential "game changers" against COVID-19 are actually too dangerous for general use, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned Americans on Friday.

Read Full Article

Premature Posting of Remdesivir Findings Were 'Inconclusive'

FRIDAY, April 24, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Inconclusive findings from a study investigating the antiviral drug remdesivir as a treatment for COVID-19 were posted to the World Health Organization website "prematurely," drug maker Gilead Sciences said Thursday.

Read Full Article

HTN, Obesity, Diabetes Common in U.S. COVID-19 Patients

FRIDAY, April 24, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- The most common comorbidities among patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in the New York City area are hypertension, obesity, and diabetes, according to a study published online April 22 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Read Full Article

Americans Report Concerns Over Their Mental Health During Pandemic

FRIDAY, April 24, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Mental health concerns top economic worries during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the results of a survey released by the University of Phoenix.

Read Full Article

COVID-19-Linked Changes Reported in Rheumatic Disease Patient Care

FRIDAY, April 24, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Changes to health care have been reported among patients with rheumatic diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study published online April 20 in ACR: Open Rheumatology.

Read Full Article

More Than One in Five Children in Home Confinement Report Depression

FRIDAY, April 24, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- During the COVID-19 outbreak in Hubei province in China, 22.6 percent of children in home confinement reported depressive symptoms, according to a research letter published online April 24 in JAMA Pediatrics.

Read Full Article

SARS-CoV-2 Stays in Respiratory Samples Longer in Severely Ill

FRIDAY, April 24, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- The median duration of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 RNA is significantly longer in the respiratory samples of patients with severe versus mild disease, according to a study published online April 21 in The BMJ.

Read Full Article

COVID-19 Outcomes Worse With Diabetes, Hyperglycemia

FRIDAY, April 24, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Diabetes and/or uncontrolled hyperglycemia occur frequently among hospitalized patients with COVID-19 and are associated with worse outcomes, according to a study accepted for publication in the Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology.

Read Full Article

Survey Finds Anesthesiologists Prepared for COVID-19 Patients

FRIDAY, April 24, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Anesthesiologists on the front lines of treating surgical COVID-19 patients in Turkey are generally knowledgeable about airway management, according to the results of a national survey published online April 6 in Surgical Infections.

Read Full Article

'Health Force' to Combat Pandemic Proposed by U.S. Senators

THURSDAY, April 23, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- A bill to create a "Health Force" to help combat the U.S. COVID-19 outbreak has been announced by two Democratic senators.

Read Full Article

White House Announces Payment Plan for Uninsured COVID-19 Patients

THURSDAY, April 23, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- A plan to begin paying hospitals and doctors who treat uninsured COVID-19 patients was announced by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on Wednesday.

Read Full Article

SARS-CoV-2 Can Spread Rapidly in Homeless Shelters

THURSDAY, April 23, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 can spread rapidly in homeless shelters, according to two studies published in the April 22 early-release issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Read Full Article

CDC: More Chemical Exposures Reported in January to March 2020

THURSDAY, April 23, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- In January to March 2020, there were more chemical exposures reported to the National Poison Data System than in the corresponding months of 2019 and 2018, according to research published in the April 20 early-release issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Read Full Article

ACEIs/ARBs Not Linked to Severity or Mortality of COVID-19

THURSDAY, April 23, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- For patients with hypertension hospitalized with COVID-19 infections, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin receptor blockers are not associated with the severity or mortality of COVID-19, according to a brief report published online April 23 in JAMA Cardiology.

Read Full Article

Mild, No Symptoms Seen for Most Children With SARS-CoV-2 Infection

THURSDAY, April 23, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Most children with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection have mild respiratory symptoms or are asymptomatic, according to a review published online April 22 in JAMA Pediatrics.

Read Full Article

AAD Establishes Registry for Skin Manifestations of COVID-19

THURSDAY, April 23, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- A registry has been created for reporting skin manifestations of COVID-19 following reports of patients presenting with skin conditions, including findings outlined in a letter to the editor published online March 26 in the Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology.

Read Full Article

Lopinavir/Ritonavir, Umifenovir Ineffective for Mild COVID-19

THURSDAY, April 23, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- For patients hospitalized with mild/moderate COVID-19, lopinavir/ritonavir or umifenovir monotherapy offers little benefit, according to a study published online April 17 in Med.

Read Full Article

Rapid COVID-19 Test Can Produce False Negatives

WEDNESDAY, April 22, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- A widely used rapid COVID-19 test can produce false negatives if a certain solution is used to move or store patients' samples, the test's maker said.

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Expert Panel: There Are No Proven Drug Treatments for COVID-19

WEDNESDAY, April 22, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- There is no proven drug treatment for COVID-19 patients, according to a panel of experts convened by the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Read Full Article

Hydroxychloroquine Seems Not to Cut Ventilator Use in COVID-19

WEDNESDAY, April 22, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- There is no evidence that use of hydroxychloroquine alone or with azithromycin reduces the risks for mechanical ventilation or death from any cause in patients hospitalized with COVID-19, according to a study that has not yet been peer reviewed and was posted online April 21 at medRxiv.org.

Read Full Article

ST-Segment Elevation Described in Patients With COVID-19

WEDNESDAY, April 22, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- For patients with COVID-19 who have ST-segment elevation, indicating potential acute myocardial infarction, there is considerable variability in presentation, and prognosis is poor, according to a letter to the editor published online April 17 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Read Full Article

Obesity Ups Risk for COVID-19 Severity

WEDNESDAY, April 22, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- There is a high frequency of obesity among patients admitted to intensive care for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, according to a study published online April 9 in Obesity.

Read Full Article

Scoring System Helps Guide Surgical Care During COVID-19

WEDNESDAY, April 22, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- A scoring system for medically necessary time-sensitive procedures can facilitate decision making and triage in the setting of COVID-19, according to a study published online April 9 in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

Read Full Article

LA County COVID-19 Infections Far Exceed Number of Confirmed Cases

TUESDAY, April 21, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- An early analysis of antibody testing from Los Angeles County reveals a COVID-19 infection rate that is up to 55 times the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases.

Read Full Article

FDA Authorizes COVID-19 Test That Uses Samples Collected at Home

TUESDAY, April 21, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved emergency use of the first COVID-19 test that enables patients to take samples at home.

Read Full Article

Mental Health Consequences of COVID-19 Pandemic Explored

TUESDAY, April 21, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- A new position paper, published online April 15 in The Lancet Psychiatry, highlights the mental health consequences of COVID-19 management.

Read Full Article

COVID-19 Tied to Unique Nasal Symptoms

TUESDAY, April 21, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- COVID-19 is not associated with the symptoms typically associated with a viral cold or allergies, such as nasal blockage or mucus production, according to a review published online April 10 in Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology.

Read Full Article

Expanding Symptom Screening Criteria Can Up COVID-19 Detection

TUESDAY, April 21, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Expanding COVID-19 symptom screening criteria to include myalgias and chills could identify more health care personnel with the illness, according to a research letter published online April 17 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Read Full Article

176,190 U.S. Children Estimated to Have SARS-CoV-2 by April 6, 2020

TUESDAY, April 21, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- About 176,190 children nationwide were estimated to be infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 by April 6, 2020, according to a study published online April 16 in the Journal of Public Health Management & Practice.

Read Full Article

Coinfection With SARS-CoV-2, Other Respiratory Pathogens ID'd

TUESDAY, April 21, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- About 20 percent of specimens positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection are positive for other respiratory pathogens, according to a research letter published online April 15 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Read Full Article

Cardiac Cath Lab STEMI Activations Drop During Pandemic

TUESDAY, April 21, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- During the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a 38 percent reduction in U.S. cardiac catheterization laboratory ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction activations, according to a research letter published online April 10 in the Journal of the American College of Cariology.

Read Full Article

Lab Protocol Failures Led to Ineffective COVID-19 Tests From CDC

MONDAY, April 20, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- The first COVID-19 tests in the United States were ineffective due to poor laboratory practices at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said.

Read Full Article

Public Health Measures Cut COVID-19 Transmission in Hong Kong

MONDAY, April 20, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Public health measures implemented to suppress local transmission of COVID-19 in Hong Kong were associated with reduced transmission of COVID-19 and influenza, according to a study published online April 17 in The Lancet Public Health.

Read Full Article

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New Study Finds That Wearing Contact Lenses Doesn't Increase Risk of COVID-19 Infection - HealthDay Coronavirus Liveblog

Peripheral neuropathy is a common complication of primary Sjgren syndrome and may be associated with a diminished health-related quality of life (HR-QoL), according to research results published in Rheumatology International.

Researchers sought to compare HR-QoL outcomes in patients with primary Sjgren syndrome, both with and without peripheral neuropathy. They also aimed to examine the associations between the neurologic complications and components of HR-QoL outcomes using the 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36). Overall, 50 adult patients with primary Sjgren syndrome (median age, 57.5 years; 96% women) were included in the study.

Of the total cohort, 80% (n=40) reported subjective symptoms, including paresthesia or other symptoms that were suggestive of neuropathic pain on a periodic or permanently present basis. In total, 46% (n=23) of patients met the criteria for a diagnosis of peripheral neuropathy (PNS+); the remaining patients were referred to as PNS-.

Researchers indicated the most common peripheral nervous system manifestation to be sensorimotor neuropathy, which was present in 47% of patients who were PNS+. Mononeuropathy was present in 26%, pure axonal sensory neuropathy, axonal motor neuropathy, and small fiber neuropathy were each present in 4.3%, and cranial nerve involvement was present in 17.4% of patients who were PNS+; 1 patient experienced both cranial and sensorimotor neuropathy. Among 35% of patients who were PNS+, neurologic symptoms preceded patients diagnosis of primary Sjgren syndrome.

Investigators studied data from both groups of patients in terms of clinical characteristics and laboratory testing results, and observed similarity in age, disease duration, time from diagnosis, and time of symptom onset. Clinical manifestations, including parotid enlargement, respiratory tract involvement, lymphadenopathy, and hypocomplementemia were significantly more prevalent among patients who were PNS+ vs those who were PNS- (74% vs 44%; 65% vs 37%; 61% vs 19%; and 26% vs 7%, respectively). In addition, patients in the PNS+ vs PNS- group were statistically significantly more likely to frequently use cyclophosphamide because of extraglandular manifestations (17% vs 0%, respectively).

Both groups were also compared based on the results of the visual analog scale (VAS)-pain scale, SF-36, and an interview regarding pain type. Among patients who were PNS+ vs PNS-, median VAS-pain was 3 vs 0, respectively (range, 0-7; P =.229). Neuropathic type pain was often observed across both subgroups but was predominantly among patients who were PNS+ compared with those who were PNS- (70% vs 41%).

Across the 5 domains of the SF-36, patients who were PNS+ vs PNS- had significantly lower results in terms of physical and emotional roles, vitality, bodily pain, and general health (P .05).

Study limitations included potential referral bias in patient selection, researchers inability to conduct neurophysiologic testing in individuals suspected of pure small-fiber neuropathy, and a lack of unambiguous differentiation between Sjgren syndrome-related neuropathy and other forms of neuropathy.

Our study showed that peripheral nervous involvement is frequent in [patients with primary Sjgren syndrome] and it is correlated with worse HR-QoL, the researchers concluded. To get the complete picture of [patients with Sjgren syndrome], a holistic approach starting with a comprehensive assessment of disease activityis needed.

Reference

Jasklska M, Chylinska M, Masiak A, et al. Peripheral neuropathy and health-related quality of life in patients with primary Sjgrens syndrome: A preliminary report [published online March 14, 2020]. Rheumatol Int. doi:10.1007/s00296-020-04543-2

Go here to see the original:
Peripheral Neuropathy Is Common, Associated With Diminished Health-Related Quality of Life in Sjgren Syndrome - Rheumatology Advisor

Dont be surprised if the next time you see Elias Theodorou compete, hes a different fighter than he was in the UFC.

The Spartan parted ways with the promotion last May coming off of a loss to Derek Brunson at UFC Ottawa, despite that being his first loss in four fights and his overall UFC record standing at 8-3. In those 11 appearances, Theodorou only logged two finishes his last in March 2015 and that lack of an exclamation point on his performances may have contributed to his departure.

In February, Theodorou became the first MMA fighter to receive a therapeutic use exemption for medical cannabis, which was granted to him by the British Columbia Athletic Commission. The 31-year-old Canadian has long been an advocate for the use of cannabis as a medical treatment and he has used it to help him to deal with bilateral neuropathy pain that affects his arms and hands.

Theodorous condition influenced his approach to his UFC fights, with cannabis strictly prohibited in competition under USADA guidelines, and he spoke about how much being able to self-medicate will benefit him in the future.

I have bilateral neuropathy, so nerve damage of my upper extremities, Theodorou said on Mondays episode of The A-Side live chat. My actual hands are where the issues are and a lot of my fighting style over the last couple of days was actually taking that into account and moving around it.

Now, being able to medicate and not having those flare-ups that I normally have, because again putting your body through not only training and the condition that I already have and also the weight cut itself inhibits my ability to compete at a level playing field.

Theodorou said that medical cannabis is useful both for calming his nerves and dealing with the pain management of a competitive fighting career. Athletes in pro sports are often prescribed opioids, pain killers, and other drugs to address their maladies, and Theodorou believes adding cannabis to that list is a matter of medical equality.

While he may have utilized different tactics inside the octagon with his bilateral neuropathy unchecked, Theodorou isnt blaming his three UFC losses on not being allowed to medicate with cannabis.

I fought some really tough guys and I won more than Ive lost many times over, Theodorou said. The ones that I lost I wouldnt chalk it up to anything in regards to inability to medicate. Each individual fight is each individual situation, so Id never use an excuse, the better man won I would say. But again, the only people that Ive ever lost to were top-10 in the world at the time, and one of those persons happened to be Thiago Santos. Even in that situation I was able to take everything he threw at me and never quit.

One of the things I was able to learn from it is that even as a professional fighter, fight or flight is kind of still ingrained in us. Even when push comes to shove, I can still fight under the worst situations and in the bloodiest of wars.

In celebration of 4/20 the April 20 celebration widely recognized by cannabis culture Theodorou was hoping to fight in April in British Columbia, where he was granted his exemption, though a bout was never finalized. Wherever he competes next, Theodorou is optimistic that his TUE will carry over to other jurisdictions.

Because of the way that the whole system works in regards to the commissions, now that I got a therapeutic use exemption in one jurisdiction, most if not all should validate my exemption because of the way it all works out, Theodorou said. The case in point would be if someone got suspended for steroid use and they were suspended for a year in, lets say, New York, California wouldnt allow them to get registered until their suspension is over.

Well, the same thing happens in positive rulings. Thats the case in regards to my therapeutic use exemption. Theres already preliminary conversations with other commissions that, again, once I get a fight booked in that area theyll most likely validate my therapeutic use exemption. Obviously, it was a lot of hard work and it was able to [happen] because of me arguing my fundamental Canadian right to medicate as prescribed by my doctor in B.C., but now because of that ruling Im able to take that precedent and run with it not only in B.C. but everywhere else I fight.

Theodorou has already fought once since leaving the UFC, picking up a third-round finish against fellow big show vet Hernani Perpetuo at a show in Windsor, Ontario, last December. According to Theodorou, he was not tested for cannabis ahead of that fight and being able to self-medicate made a world of difference.

In reality, that was the first fight I was able to medicate as prescribed by my doctor and obviously, the results show for themselves, Theodorou said. Competing at the highest level at the way I was because of the strict testing, in many ways I was competing at a disadvantage compared to other athletes that can medicate as prescribed by their doctors. So now with the TUE and other avenues to compete on a competitive playing field, Im excited to keep that win streak going and smash the next person that stands in front of me.

See the rest here:
Elias Theodorou: Fighting style was affected by bilateral neuropathy before receiving cannabis TUE - MMA Fighting

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Some key points of Neuropathic Pain Management Market research report:

Strategic Developments: The custom analysis gives the key strategic developments of the market, comprising R&D, new product launch, growth rate, collaborations, partnerships, joint ventures, and regional growth of the leading competitors operating in the market on a global and regional scale.

Market Features: The report comprises market features, capacity, capacity utilization rate, revenue, price, gross, production, production rate, consumption, import, export, supply, demand, cost, market share, CAGR, and gross margin. In addition, the report offers a comprehensive study of the market dynamics and their latest trends, along with market segments and sub-segments.

Analytical Tools: The Global Neuropathic Pain Management Market report includes the accurately studied and assessed data of the key industry players and their scope in the market by means of a number of analytical tools. The analytical tools such as Porters five forces analysis, feasibility study, and many other market research tools have been used to analyze the growth of the key players operating in the market.

COVID-19 Impact on Neuropathic Pain Management Market

Adapting to the recent novel COVID-19 pandemic, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global Neuropathic Pain Management market is included in the present report. The influence of the novel coronavirus pandemic on the growth of the Neuropathic Pain Management market is analyzed and depicted in the report.

The global Neuropathic Pain Management market segment by manufacturers include

Segmented as Follows:

This report covers the global neuropathic pain management market performance in terms of revenue contribution from various segments. The report begins with an overview of the neuropathic pain management and its definitions. The market viewpoints section underlines macro-economic factors influencing the growth of the neuropathic pain management market along with detailing its opportunity analysis.

The global neuropathic pain management market is segmented based on drug class, indication, distribution channel and region. On the basis of drug class, the market has been segmented as tricyclic anti-depressants anticonvulsants, serotoninnorepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, capsaicin cream, local anaesthesia, opioids, steroids and others.

On the basis of indication, the market is segmented as diabetic neuropathy, trigeminal neuralgia, post-herpetic neuralgia, chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy and others.

On the basis of distribution channel, the market is segmented as hospital pharmacies, retail pharmacies and online pharmacies.

A detailed analysis has been provided for each region in terms of market size, BPS analysis, Y-o-Y growth rate, absolute $ opportunity, and market attractive index. The regional market dynamics provide the key growth driver, restraints, and trends pertaining to each region. The forecast of the neuropathic pain management market by country, drug class, indication, distribution channel are represented in the tabular form for each region. This section also helps to understand the opportunity of the neuropathic pain management market in major countries by each segment.

In the next section of the report, the Competitive Landscape is included to provide report audiences with a dashboard view and to access the key differentiators among the competitor firms. This section is primarily designed to provide clients with an objective and detailed comparative assessment of product offerings and strategies of key providers specific to the market segments. Detailed profiles of players in the neuropathic pain management market are also provided in the report, which highlights company description, product/segment overview, SWOT analysis, financial information, key developments related to market and strategic overview.

The next section of the report highlights the market outlook for 20182026 and sets the forecast within the context of the neuropathic pain management market by region. The key regions assessed in this report include North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific and MEA. A detailed analysis has been provided for each region in terms of market size, Y-o-Y growth rate, absolute $ opportunity, and market attractive index.

The above sections by drug class, indication, distribution channel evaluate the historic market analysis for the period of 20132017 and growth prospects of the neuropathic pain management market for the period 20182026. We have considered 2016 as the base year and provided data for the forecast period.

The final section of report represents the global scenario for the neuropathic pain management market along with Y-o-Y growth and market forecast till 2026. This section also evaluates the global market opportunity over the forecast period and also the absolute dollar opportunity for each year. This section will help to understand the overall market growth of the neuropathic pain management market and the opportunity analysis for each year over the forecast period.

Bottom-up approach is used to validate the total market size obtained. The forecast presented in the report provides total revenue of the neuropathic pain management market over 20182026. While forecasting the market size, we have considered the impact of several factors such product approvals for neuropathic pain management, R&D investment by major players, pipeline analysis, penetration of products in different distribution channel, generic penetration across all regions, etc. However, quantifying the market across the aforementioned segments and regions is more a matter of quantifying expectations and identifying opportunities rather than rationalizing them after the forecast has been completed. In addition, we have taken into consideration the year-on-year growth to understand the predictability of the market and to identify the right growth opportunities in the global market.

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Important queries addressed in the report:

Moreover, the report highlighted revenue, sales, manufacturing cost, and product and the States that are most competitive in the lucrative market share idea. There is a discussion on the background and financial trouble in the global Neuropathic Pain Management economic market. This included the CAGR value during the outlook period leading to 2025.

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COVID-19: Responding to the business impacts of Neuropathic Pain Management Revenue Growth Predicted by 2019-2028 - Jewish Life News

Pain is inevitable but can be managed This often results in a way of numbness, or lack of sensation. However, in some cases when this technique is injured, individuals experience pain within the affected region. Neuropathic pain doesnt start abruptly or resolve quickly; its a chronic condition that results in persistent pain symptoms. for several patients, the intensity of their symptoms can wax and wane throughout the day. Although neuropathic pain is assumed to be related to peripheral nerve problems, like neuropathy caused by diabetes or spinal stenosis, injuries to the brain or medulla spinalis also can cause chronic neuropathic pain.

Neuropathic pain is often contrasted to nociceptive pain, which is that the sort of pain which occurs when someone experiences an acute injury, like smashing a finger with a hammer or stubbing a toe when walking barefoot. this sort of pain is usually short-lived and typically quite aware of common pain medications in contrast to neuropathic pain.

Tramadol is a medication that is available online and can be used to relieve pain.

Tramadol without prescription in USA is available on the web if you want to check it out

Anything that results in loss of function within the sensory systema nervosum can cause neuropathic pain. As such, nerve problems from carpal tunnel syndrome or similar conditions can trigger neuropathic pain. Trauma, causing nerve injury, can cause neuropathic pain. Other conditions that may predispose patients to develop neuropathic pain include diabetes, vitamin deficiencies, cancer, HIV, stroke, MS, shingles, and cancer treatments.

Neuropathic pain may be a painful condition thats usually chronic. Its usually caused by chronic, progressive nerve disease, and it also can occur because of the results of injury or infection.

If youve got chronic neuropathic pain, it can flare up at any time without a clear pain-inducing event or factor. Acute neuropathic pain, while uncommon, can occur.

Typically, non-neuropathic pain (nociceptive pain) is thanks to an injury or illness. for instance, if you drop an important book on your foot, your system a Nervo sum sends signals of pain immediately after the book hits.

With neuropathic pain, the pain isnt typically triggered by an occasion or injury.

People with this painful condition may experience shooting, burning pain. The pain could also be constant or may occur intermittently. a sense of numbness or a loss of sensation is common, too.

Neuropathic pain tends to urge worse over time. About 1 in 3 Americans experience chronic pain. Of those, 1 in 5 experience neuropathic pain.A 2014 study estimated that as many as 10 percents of USA citizens experience some sort of neuropathic pain.

Understanding the possible causes can assist you to find better treatments and ways to stop the pain from getting worse over time.Nerve Pain & Nociceptive PainYou can have nerve pain and nociceptive pain together. Both pain types are often caused by an equivalent condition.

Nerve pain is a smaller amount likely than nociceptive pain to be helped by traditional painkillers like paracetamol, anti-inflammatories, and codeine. However, other sorts of medicines often work well to ease the pain. Nerve pain is usually eased by anti-depressant or anti-epileptic medicines. Please ask your doctor for more advice.

There are pain medication like Tramadol COD available from many online pharmacies and can be bought easily

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Nerve Pain: Know Everything About it - Living Gossip

Multiple disease categories will be covered during this 2 1/2-day course, which will focus on diagnosis, treatment, image-guided diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, indications for surgery, and evaluation of the post-operative patient.

At the conclusion of this activity, participants should be able to:

-Identify key imaging findings in spine trauma and other spine emergencies

-Understand imaging techniques and observations in peripheral neuropathy, vascular diseases of the spine and spinal cord lesions, spine infections and spine tumors.

-Describe degenerative changes in the spine and the radiologists role in diagnosis of spine conditions and pain management.

-Understand the basics of Regenerative Medicine

-Be familiar with advanced imaging techniques of the spine including diffusion imaging and fMRI.

-Know what the spine surgeon is looking for in the preoperative and postoperative imaging studies.

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Category: Conferences | Science, Health and Medicine | CME (Continuing Medical Education)

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Speakers: Blake Johnson, MD, John Feller, MD, Adam Flanders, MD, Wende Gibbs, MD, David Polly, MD, Phillip Tirman, MD

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Mar 4 | Spine Imaging and Intervention in Palm Springs | Palm Desert - Patch.com

When I was born, my parents were super surprised. They had never seen a child with albinism, and they could not understand what had happened. But they always loved and supported me.

I grew up in a city in the Indian state of Haryana, near Delhi. There were so many social issues because of my different appearance, and I didnt get accepted in society.

I have a vision impairment and my parents didnt know how to help. They tried their best, but they felt sad because whenever we went to doctors, they said, We have no solution for that.

My academic life has been very challenging because of my vision impairment. But a strong determination, my parents love and educators support helped me to overcome every challenge.

I earned an Honours degree in Chemistry from one of the best institutions in India, St Stephens College, which belongs to Delhi University. I followed this with a Masters in Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT-Kanpur).

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I received a number of awards and honours for academic excellence during my studies. These included the Sangeeta Predham Memorial Medal for the most outstanding graduating Master of Science student, and the Dr Elizabeth and Dr Verkey Cherian Award for Best Project at the summer undergraduate research and graduate excellence program, to name few examples.

I wanted to pursue my love for chemistry, so I moved to the University of Melbourne to do a PhD with Dr Lars Goerigk. My studies here in Melbourne are supported by the Melbourne International Engagement award through the Melbourne India Postgraduate Program.

The broad aim of my PhD is to assess the applicability of density-functional theory (DFT) approximations. DFT has become the most important electronic-structure calculation tool both in the computational/theoretical chemistry as well as in the experimental community.

The latter use it to validate their findings and predict experimentally challenging and unexplored questions. As such, DFT plays an important role in the synthesis of new molecules and materials. Density-functional theory (DFT) approximations are readily available in many quantum chemistry programs.

Many high-impact studies rely on DFT, but they often ignore that the field is more complex than it seems. Despite being popular and easily available, people have to rely on approximations to the unknown true model.

A large number of these approximations have been developed, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, the field is full of misconceptions, suffers from confusion in the user community, low-acceptance rate of newly developed methods and, ultimately, the high risk of providing the wrong answer to a research question.

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In the first project of my PhD, we addressed some of these risks and misconceptions. This work is one of the largest and most thorough DFT benchmarking studies in existence, and allowed us to clean up the ever-growing zoo of DFT methods. We identified a handful of computational strategies that distinguish themselves in terms of their accuracy and reliability.

This study identifies the most accurate density functionals, and so impacts the general chemistry community beyond my own specialised field. Our work was very well received by reviewers, published as a front-cover article in one of the leading journals in my field, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP), and made it into the 2018 PCCP HOT article themed collection.

It immediately went to the top 25 per cent of all research outputs scored by Altmetrics (which tracks the attention that research is getting) and was acknowledged with two poster prizes at the fifth Royal Society of Chemistry Twitter Poster Conference, which reached more than two million viewers.

We also presented a new analysis of the openly available data published in Swart and co-workers famous annual DFT poll (an online poll that asks the DFT community to identify their preferences among the many approximations that are available.)

We demonstrated that there is a communication gap between the DFT user and developer communities. We showed that despite considerable methodological advances in the field, the perception of some parts of the user community regarding their favourite approaches has changed little since 2010.

Now that we have identified the most reliable and fast DFT approximations, we are using these to gain computational insights into various chemical systems that have proven difficult to explore experimentally. These results are providing an insightful understanding and useful guidance for future synthesis of various chemical systems.

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On International Day of Persons with Disabilities last December, I had the great honour to receive the National Award for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities. This award was in the category of Role Model in a presidential ceremony in India.

This award is for all those who have supported me, including my friends, supervisor Dr Lars Goerigk, parents Sunita Mehta and Ved Prakash Mehta, and brother Sourabh Mehta.

This moment is to tell the world Yes, I look different, my eyesight is weak, but my vision is strong.

- As told to Dr Daryl Holland.

Banner: Getty Images

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My eyesight is weak, but my vision is strong - Pursuit

Social distancing is not stopping CERA scientists from continuing critical research to discover better treatments to prevent vision loss and restore sight.

Managing Director Professor Keith Martin says most of our scientists are now continuing their research remotely and coming up with novel solutions to keep their investigations on track at new locations.

Even though we are not all together in the clinic or lab, we are still working towards our common goal of discovering better ways to diagnose, prevent and treat vision loss and, ultimately, find cures that will restore lost sight, he says.

However, our team at the Clinical Trials Research Centre, which has recently relocated back to the main hospital building at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital in East Melbourne, is working on-site providing continuity of care for trial participants.

The Clinical Trials Research Centre is continuing to treat patients with conditions including diabetic macular oedema, wet age-related macular degeneration, uveitis, corneal disease and glaucoma, says Professor Martin.

We have temporarily stopped recruiting patients for new clinical trials but are providing important continuity for patients who are receiving critical sight-saving treatment as part of existing trials.

Face-to-face visits in our Macular Research Unit have been deferred for now.

Trial coordinators from our macular team are in touch with their trial participants about upcoming appointments and are available to answer any queries patients have over the phone.

However, the teams critical work to find better treatments, and a cure, for AMD is continuing.

Face-to-face visits for macular research have been deferred.

Our macular researchers are now working from home, analysing images and data collected from patient visits to gather more evidence about what causes AMD.

Other research teams analysing results from laboratory-based experiments, developing algorithms for artificial intelligence diagnostic tools, creating new tele-medicine tools to monitor eye health, or building and testing innovative imaging devices.

Professor Martin says that even though routines have changed because of COVID-19 social distancing rules, older people and those with conditions like diabetes should continue to keep an eye on their vision at home.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a difficult time for all of us, but it is still important to keep looking after your eyes, he says.

Although many ophthalmologists and optometrists have deferred routine appointments, visits for sight-saving treatments like injections for age-related macular degeneration or diabetic eye diseases are considered essential.

Anyone who experiences a sudden change in their vision or is concerned about their sight should contact their regular optometrist or ophthalmologist.

Professor Martin, a glaucoma specialist, and some of CERAs other eye research experts offered the following eye health tips during the COVID-19 crisis.

If you have glaucoma, your routine appointment with your eye specialist may have been deferred but you shouldnt be concerned about this, says Professor Martin.

Its very important that they keep using their regular eye drops as prescribed by your ophthalmologist until your next appointment. You dont need to worry if you run out of drops before your next appointment as your pharmacist can provide up to one months supply of your regular prescription.

If you are receiving regular eye injections for AMD, it is important that you attend these as determined by your ophthalmologist if you can, says Professor Robyn Guymer AM, ophthalmologist and Head of CERAs Macular Research Unit.

These appointments are considered essential medical treatments and you can take along a support person if you need to.

Eye clinics are adhering to physical distancing measures, minimising time spent in the waiting room and using personal protective equipment to safeguard patients during their clinic visits.

While you are at home staying safe from COVID-19 you should continue to monitor your eye health.

You should still look at your Amsler Grid once a week and if there is distortion or blur and its persistent, contact your regular optometrist or ophthalmologist.

Associate Professor Peter van Wijngaarden, CERA Deputy Director and Clinical Director of the KeepSight Program, says regular eye checks are important for people with diabetes.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, most routine eye checks for people with diabetes can be safely deferred, he says.

However, if you have existing eye damage or disease, or usually have check-ups more than every six months, you should phone your eye care provider to clarify when you should see them again.

If you are having laser treatments or injections you should contact your ophthalmologist to discuss your treatment, as in some cases interruption of treatment can lead to vision loss.

And anyone with diabetes who has sudden changes in vision should treat it as an emergency and contact their optometrist or ophthalmologist for advice.

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Vision research and eye health in time of COVID-19 - Mirage News