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Qigong meditation is an ancient Chinese healing practice that combines controlled breathing, gentle movement, and meditation to promote good mental, physical, and spiritual health.

Similar to tai chi, qigong meditation is believed to treat a variety of health conditions, including high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, chronic fatigue, insomnia, and leg and back pain, among others. Yet, research backing these claims is limited.

With qigong meditation growing in popularity, you may wonder whether its something you should try.

Qigong (pronounced chee-gong) meditation is an ancient Chinese healing practice that combines meditation, controlled breathing, and gentle movement.

Its roughly translated as the master of ones energy and combines two important concepts of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Qi roughly translates to vital life force, while gong means mastery or cultivation (1, 2).

This practice is meant to cultivate the energy and strength of nature into ones body to promote better mental, physical, and spiritual health (1, 2).

In TCM, poor health is the result of blocked energy that flows through the twelve meridians or sections of the body. Thus, qigong is believed to promote health by allowing your energy, or qi, to flow through the body (1, 2).

Qigong is popular in China for exercise, recreation, relaxation, preventative medicine, and physical and mental healing. Plus, its even employed in martial arts training. Despite its widespread use, research to support the theory of qi energy is lacking (2).

Qigong (pronounced chee-gong) is a traditional Chinese medicine healing practice thats believed to support mental, physical, and spiritual health through gentle movement, meditation, and breathing techniques.

While there are many ways to practice qigong, there are two main categories: active (dynamic) qigong and passive qigong. Active qigong uses controlled, slow movements, while passive qigong involves stillness and calm breathing.

Qigong can also be practiced internally (by yourself) or externally (via a qigong therapist). With external qigong, a therapist provides emitted qi to promote healing. Though, for most people, qigong is a self-healing technique thats practiced without a therapist (1).

Regardless of the form of qigong, the goal is to allow energy to freely move throughout the body and reconnect with the earth for healing (1).

Active qigong also known as dong gong involves intentional, active movement and breathwork that enhances yang energy. In TCM, yang represents active energy, strength, and vibrancy, while yin depicts passive energy, calmness, and gentleness (1).

It includes repeating gentle, coordinated movements to promote blood and lymphatic drainage, balance, muscle strength and flexibility, and a greater awareness of ones body in space (known as proprioception) (3).

This type of qigong is considered exercise but shares mutual characteristics with passive qigong, such as good posture, controlled breathing, focus on relaxation, and visualization.

Passive qigong focuses on embracing yin energy through body stillness and the mental cultivation of qi energy (1).

During this form of qigong, the body is not moving externally, but the mind is actively working to cultivate and move qi energy throughout the body. This practice would be similar to traditional meditation.

The two main categories of qigong include active and passive qigong. Active qigong uses controlled, slow movements to help energy or qi flow through the meridians of the body, while passive qigong involves stillness and calm breathing.

Qigong offers many benefits. Some of them are backed by research, including improved balance and gait, as well as reduced stress levels.

Other purported benefits include a lower risk of chronic disease and improved focus.

Qigong focuses on controlled, slow movements of the body to improve your proprioception, or awareness of your body in space, which helps increase balance, muscular strength, and flexibility (3).

In a 2020 study in 95 adults ages 5196, participants that practiced weekly qigong for 12 weeks had significant improvements in balance and gait (walking) scores (4).

Interestingly, qigong can also improve balance in younger adults. One randomized pilot study in 30 people ages 1825 showed a 16.3% increase in stability scores after weekly qigong for 8 weeks. No changes were observed in the control group (5).

Considering that all age groups can safely participate in qigong, it may be an effective and enjoyable strategy to improve balance and lower the risk of falls.

Qigong involves meditation, controlled breathing, and gentle movements, all of which have all been shown to help lower stress and symptoms of anxiety (6, 7, 8, 9).

Calm, controlled breathing tells your body theres no immediate threat and activates the parasympathetic nervous system the rest and digest system. It also slows your bodys stress response system known as the hypothalamicpituitaryadrenal (HPA) axis (9, 10).

Also, incorporating qigong into ones daily or weekly practice has been linked to greater quality of life due to less stress, greater self-efficacy, and better physical health. Still, higher quality studies are needed (11, 12, 13, 14).

By incorporating qigong into your weekly or daily routine, it may help you better manage the daily stressors of life (15).

Qigong is a gentle form of exercise and emphasizes calm, meditative breathing. Together, this may reduce stress on the body, increase blood flow, and improve your overall fitness all of which can lower your risk of chronic disease (16, 17).

In particular, qigong has been shown to lower the risk and improve symptoms of type 2 diabetes and heart disease (18, 19, 20, 21).

Still, researchers urge that larger, more robust studies are needed before qigong can be recommended as a standard treatment.

That said, most people can safely practice it in addition to their current medical treatments prescribed by their healthcare provider (21, 22).

Many people struggle to focus on tasks due to the busyness of day-to-day life.

Qigong requires focus of the breath, mind, and body. Through regular practice, qigong may help improve your ability to focus and concentrate by helping you learn to regulate thoughts in a more productive manner (23).

Despite the many benefits of qigong, higher quality research studies are needed.

The benefits of qigong include improved balance, greater mental focus, lower levels of stress and anxiety, and decreased chronic disease risk. Though many people report the benefits of qigong, larger studies are needed.

There are dozens of variations of qigong. To get started, heres a basic guide for passive and active qigong. However, before beginning any new exercise routine, its best to speak with your healthcare provider.

Passive qigong is very similar to traditional meditation. Two main types of passive qigong exist: mental focusing (ru jing) and visualization (cun si).

To practice mental focusing, simply sit in a comfortable upright position, close your eyes, and breathe in and out with your belly (diaphragmatic breathing). Ideally, try to sit for at least 10 minutes or longer and focus on your breath.

Visualization involves a similar practice but with added imagination. With your eyes closed, imagine things that bring you joy or relaxation (e.g., the beach, a flower-filled valley, a mountaintop). Use these visualizations to help direct positive energy throughout your body.

You may also visualize energy going toward an organ or area in the body that requires healing. To enhance your practice, attend classes or read qigong guides to learn chants, visualizations, and other meditative techniques.

If youre unsure where to start, there are many free meditation videos online, or you can download meditation apps on your phone.

The goal of active qigong is to continuously keep your body in flow. Unlike yoga, which generally focuses on static stretches, active qigong requires you to keep your body moving through various movement sequences.

Since qigong involves a sequence of movements, its best to start with a beginners class or online video. Ideally, active qigong is practiced in a group setting to promote connectedness and community, which TCM believes is important for health and healing.

With either passive or active qigong, remember to practice patience while you learn and enjoy the process.

When learning active qigong, its best to visit an in-person class to learn the sequences correctly and build a sense of community. You can also watch beginner videos online. For passive qigong, try adding 10 minutes of meditation per day to your routine.

Qigong is a meditation and healing practice that has been part of traditional Chinese medicine for centuries.

Benefits of qigong include lowered stress and anxiety, increased focus, and improved balance and flexibility. It may even reduce your risk of certain chronic diseases. Nevertheless, more high quality research is needed.

Most forms of qigong can be practiced by people of all age groups and conditions. However, if you have a chronic illness or injury, its best to speak with your healthcare provider before introducing any new form of exercise to your regimen.

If youre interested in calming your mind and body, you will want to give qigong a try.

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Qigong Meditation: For Beginners, Techniques, Benefits, and More - Healthline

While the bulk of the current research on COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) is focused on its impact and transmission in humans, a group of researchers at Ohio State University is testing animals and environmental reservoirs for the virus, says Vanessa Hale, DVM, PhD, assistant professor of veterinary preventative medicine at Ohio State University.

We have an incredible team of over 20 researchers looking for the virus in all of the environments outside of humans, Hale told AgriTalk Host Chip Flory on Tuesday.

Earlier Tuesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that the virus causing Covid-19 most likely jumped from one animal species to another before entering the human population and is highly unlikely to have leaked from a laboratory, a WHO investigative team said during a news conference in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

Hale says the OSU research teams objective is to see if it can find potential reservoirs of the Covid-19 virus in water or animals and to assess the risk to animal health and potential re-entry into the human population. In addition, the team is also studying mutations.

So, we've been hearing a lot about variants the past couple of weeks and concerns about variants that may spread faster, Hale says. Were trying to understand, (will) we see this virus in animals? Is the virus changing in a way that is concerning?

The good news to date is the researchers have not detected a single positive result in more than 1,000 animal samples evaluated throughout Ohio.

Weve not seen a single SARS-CoV-2 positive in any of those animals, Hale says. That includes shelter cats, farm animals at agricultural fairs around the state and wildlife.

The testing and evaluation work has been done in partnership with hunters and trappers and also with organizations such as Ohio metro parks and the Ohio Wildlife Center.

There have been reports from other states that mink have been infected with the virus. Hale notes that mustelids, in general, are highly susceptible to the virus. They can have clinical signs, get quite ill and die from the disease, she says.

According to an article published by The Atlantic on December 8, COVID-19 cases had been confirmed in animals at 16 mink farms in four states: 12 in Utah, one in Michigan, one in Oregon, and two in Wisconsin (see https://bit.ly/3cVZyzW).

No problems in Ohio have been identified, though Hale says the OSU team plans to check for it in wild mink populations in the state.

Our goal is to see if we can find this virus anywhere else outside of humans, and then use that information to figure out how we can predict and prevent future pandemics, she says. We want to know if there is going to be a reservoir and if that reservoir is going to pose a problem to animal or human health.

The complete discussion on AgriTalk is available here:

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Researchers Hope To 'Predict and Prevent' Future Pandemics - Agweb Powered by Farm Journal

A recent study conducted by investigators from the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine, in collaboration with the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, has found that the experimental antiviral EIDD-2901 stopped the replication of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and prevented human cells from becoming infected. Results from the study were published in the journal Nature.

"We show that LoM allow for the in vivo study of all recently emerged human coronaviruses in a single platform," Lisa Gralinski, PhD, co-author on the study said. "Our model allows researchers to directly compare infection between human coronaviruses and the effectiveness of potential preventative and therapeutic approaches."

With cases of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) rising across the globe, it is paramount to find therapies that will halt its spread. Although various vaccines have been authorized for emergency use, the levels of vaccination needed will take time, as issues with manufacturing, shipping, storage and distribution are still being sorted out.

The investigators behind the study created human lung tissues models and implanted them in immune-deficient mice, which allowed the virus to replicate and infect them. Early diffuse lung damage caused by the disease presented in the mice similarly as it does in humans. Additionally, the infection induced a robust and sustained type 1 interferon and inflammatory cytokine/chemokine response. They then administered the antiviral therapy to the mice 24 or 48 hours after exposure to SARS-CoV-2, and every 12 hours after.

"We found that EIDD-2801 had a remarkable effect on virus replication after only two days of treatment - a dramatic, more than 25,000-fold reduction in the number of infectious particles in human lung tissue when treatment was initiated 24 hours post-exposure," J. Victor Garcia, senior author and professor of medicine and director of the International Center for the Advancement of Translational Science said. "Virus titers were significantly reduced by 96% when treatment was started 48 hours post-exposure."

Separate phase 2 and 3 trials are currently ongoing to evaluate EIDD-2801 safety in humans, as well as its impact on viral shedding in patients with a confirmed case of COVID-19.

"Previously, we demonstrated that EIDD-2801 is also efficacious against SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV infection in vivo and in primary human airway epithelial cultures," Ralph Baric, the William Kenan Distinguished Professor of Epidemiology at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and the UNC School of Medicine said. "Overall, these results indicate that EIDD-2801 may not only be efficacious in treating and preventing COVID-19, it could also prove to be highly effective against future coronavirus outbreaks as well."

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Experimental Antiviral Effective at Treating and Preventing COVID-19 - Contagionlive.com

A drug called molnupiravir, which scientists originally developed to treat influenza, is showing promise as a treatment for COVID-19.

A study by researchers at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, recently published in Nature, found that the drug dramatically reduced the number of virus particles in a mouse model of the disease.

It also protected against infection when given 12 hours before exposure to the virus and every 12 hours thereafter.

Stay informed with live updates on the current COVID-19 outbreak and visit our coronavirus hub for more advice on prevention and treatment.

Phase 2 and phase 3 clinical trials of molnupiravir are already under way, with some results expected as soon as March 2021.

In addition to testing the drugs safety and efficacy, one of the trials is also investigating its effect on viral shedding, which is the amount of virus released into the environment by people who have it. Analyzing this helps determine how likely a person is to transmit the virus.

Remdesivir, which speeds the recovery of adults hospitalized with the illness and which may reduce mortality rates, is currently the only proven antiviral treatment for COVID-19.

One potential advantage of molnupiravir is that patients can take it orally, whereas remdesivir has to be injected. This would make molnupiravir easier to give to lots of people as a preventive, or prophylactic, drug in high risk settings, such as nursing homes and long-term care facilities.

Another, more long-term benefit of molnupiravir is that it may be effective against other emerging coronavirus infections that like SARS-CoV-2 probably originate in bats.

To test the efficacy of molnupiravir against SARS-CoV-2, the researchers created a completely new model of COVID-19 in mice that may prove useful for testing the efficacy of other antiviral drugs.

Human coronaviruses are unable to infect mouse cells unless researchers either adapt the viruses or genetically modify mice to produce receptors that allow them to invade cells.

These models also fail to reflect the diversity of cells found in human lungs, where the infection can cause life threatening damage.

To get around these limitations, the researchers implanted human lung tissue into specially bred immunodeficient mice that tolerate foreign tissue.

Virus replication in this model occurs in bona fide human lung tissue and does not require any type of adaptation of the virus or the host, the researchers write in their paper.

They demonstrated that the newly emerged human coronaviruses SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2 were all able to replicate in the implanted human lung tissue.

Our model allows researchers to directly compare infection between human coronaviruses and the effectiveness of potential preventative and therapeutic approaches, says co-first author Dr. Lisa Gralinski, assistant professor of epidemiology at UNC.

When infected with SARS-CoV-2, the human lung tissue sustained damage similar to that seen in the lungs of COVID-19 patients. The infection also induced an inflammatory response reminiscent of the excess inflammation that characterizes the disease in people.

Next, the researchers treated the mice with molnupiravir, starting either 24 or 48 hours after they were exposed to SARS-CoV-2.

We found that [molnupiravir] had a remarkable effect on virus replication after only 2 days of treatment a dramatic, more than 25,000-fold reduction in the number of infectious particles in human lung tissue when treatment was initiated 24 hours post-exposure, said senior author Dr. J. Victor Garcia-Martinez, professor of medicine and director of the International Center for the Advancement of Translational Science at UNC.

When the treatment was started 48 hours after exposure to the virus, the concentration of virus particles fell by 96%.

Finally, the researchers tested the ability of molnupiravir to prevent infection.

When they gave the drug to mice 12 hours before exposure to SARS-CoV-2, and every 12 hours afterward, it reduced the concentration of virus particles by over 100,000-fold compared with untreated mice.

In previous lab-based studies by the same group, the drug showed promise against two other newly emerged coronaviruses that may have originated in bats: SARS-CoV, which causes SARS, and MERS-CoV, which causes MERS.

This suggests that molnupiravir could protect against a range of bat coronaviruses that make the leap into humans.

Overall, these results indicate that EIDD-2801 may not only be efficacious in treating and preventing COVID-19, it could also prove to be highly effective against future coronavirus outbreaks as well, said co-author Dr. Ralph Baric, the William Kenan Distinguished Professor of Epidemiology at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and the UNC School of Medicine.

For live updates on the latest developments regarding the novel coronavirus and COVID-19, click here.

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COVID-19: Antiviral prevents and treats infection in lab tests - Medical News Today

A coalition of community groups from across Rhode Island called on presumptive future Governor Daniel McKee to adopt a state budget that stimulates an economic recovery that addresses the root causes of our current crisis, and invests in the well-being of all Rhode Islanders.

The coalition expressed concerns about what kind of budget might be adopted this legislative season, saying that the budget must include policies and investments that move towards achieving racial, economic and gender equity and that cuts to programs and services that foster equity must be avoided.

The communities we serve are all too familiar with the cost of austerity, writes the coalition, and Rhode Island is no stranger to the detrimental long-term impact of budget cuts in times of economic recession.

The coalitions proposal calls for taxing high-income earners and ending the car tax rollback, while investing in programs that provide housing for those most in need. In addition, the proposal emphasizes diverting funds from prisons and policing to serve community needs, as you can read below:

Its time for the richest among us to pay their fair share, especially if we want to live in a fair society with a high standard of living, said Kinverly Dicupe, Co-Organizing Director at ReclaimRI, There should be no reason why the tax burden is on working families when we know so many of these tax benefits only help the wealthy. That has to end. We can begin righting these wrongs by taxing the rich and investing in our communities.

Funding for our reporting relies on the generosity of readers like you. Our independence allows us to write stories that hold RI state and local government officials accountable. All of our stories are free and available to everyone. But your support is essential to keeping Steve and Will on the beat, covering the costs of reporting many stories in a single day. If you are able to, please support Uprise RI. Every contribution, big or small is so valuable to us. You provide the motivation and financial support to keep doing what we do. Thank you.

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No matter where we come from or what our color, Rhode Islanders work hard for our families. Its time we had a state budget that works hard for us too, said Zack Mezera with the RI Working Families Party. Lets invest our way out of this crisis by funding schools, jobs, and housing, and lets make sure that the wealthiest in our state pay their fair share toward this recovery.

Weve all heard it more times than any one of us can count. Preventative medicine is the best medicine,' said Leonard Jefferson, a member of the Direct Action for Rights and Equality Behind the Walls Committee. We call on our legislators to support these sage policy recommendations, which will interrupt systemic cycles of poverty and incarceration and allow our community members to thrive.

The coalition includes ReclaimRI, Demand Progress, RI Interfaith Coalition to Reduce Poverty, RI Working Families Party, Economic Progress Institute, RI Center for Justice, Direct Action for Rights and Equality, Housing Network of Rhode Island, Temple Sinai, Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere, Childhood Lead Action Project, The Womxn Project and Womens Fund of Rhode Island.

About the Author

Steve Ahlquist is Uprise RI's co-founder and lead reporter. He has covered human rights, social justice, progressive politics and environmental news for nearly a decade.

atomicsteve@gmail.com

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Coalition to future Governor McKee: Tax the rich and invest in housing, economic justice and decarceration Uprise RI - Uprise RI

CMI has added latest research report on Global Electronic Nose Market, this report helps to analyze top manufacturers, regions, revenue, price, and also covers Industry sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, research findings, conclusion, appendix and data source.

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Electronic nose is a device that collects data from the surrounding and then processes the data with the help of sensors that are built in the device. The application area of electronic nose in healthcare sector includes diagnostics, immunology, pathology, patient recovery, pharmacology, physical therapy, physiology, preventative medicine, remote healthcare, and wound and graft healing. Electronic nose has been used in a variety of commercial agricultural-related industries, including biochemical processing, botany, cell culture, plant cultivar selections, environmental monitoring, horticulture, pesticide detection, plant physiology, and pathology.

The Electronic Nose market has witnessed growth from USD XX million to USD XX million from 2015 to 2020. With the CAGR of X.X%, this market is estimated to reach USD XX million in 2027.

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Leading Players:Alpha MOS, Odotech, E-nose Pty, The E-nose Company, Electronic Sensor Technology, Scent Science Corporation, Airsense Analytics GmbH, Scentsational Technologies, and Scensive Technology

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Originally posted here:
Electronic Nose Market Shows Expected Trend to Guide from 2021-2027 with Growth Analysis| Alpha MOS, Odotech, E-nose Pty, The E-nose Company,...

Dr. L. Ray Matthews is a retired trauma/critical care surgeon and director of Surgical Critical Care at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta. Our Time Press interview with Dr. Matthew on Vitamin D will appear later this month. Below is an interview with EUR writer Steffanie Rivers, which appeared in January.

EUR associate Steffanie Rivers interviewed Dr. Matthews about his work in preventative health maintenance and why he thinks taking the coronavirus vaccine is not the best defense against contracting COVID-19. He advocates using something else that will protect against COVID-19 and other viruses most people dont realize are just as deadly.*Pharmaceutical companies created coronavirus vaccines in record time less than ten months. Now all the states are tasked with getting vaccine shots into the arms of millions of people with the same urgency because the numbers of COVID-19 infected and deaths continue to rise daily.

Steffanie Rivers/EUR: Youre known as the premier expert in the benefits of vitamin D3. Why is vitamin D3 important to our bodies for preventative health maintenance?DR. MATTHEWS: First of all, vitamin D3 is actually a hormone that controls 3,000 out of 30,000 human genes (10% of our DNA). Hormone/vitamin D3 regulates our immune response system and inflammatory response systems. Vitamin D3 increases the white blood cell count (B-cells, T-cells, monocytes) to help the body fight off bacterial, fungicidal, and viral infections plus cancer cells. The inflammatory response system reduces inflammation by decreasing IL-6, Tumor Necrotic Factor (TNF), and C-Reactive Protein (CRP) which reduces the cytokine storm associated with corona-virus infections.

In laymans terms, vitamin D3 regulates the human immune system and controls a significant portion of our human DNA. The trouble is most people dont eat nutritious food and dont take supplements, therefore their vitamin D3 intake is low.

SR/EUR: Most Black and Brown people believe their melanin prevents them from having to worry about the need to maintain optimal vitamin D3 levels. Is that true?DR. MATTHEWS: The opposite is true. Melanin is a natural sunscreen that protects you from the sun. Melanin blocks 95% of vitamin D3 production. As a result, people of colors vitamin D3 levels tend to run 30% lower than lighter-skinned people. This alone makes people of color more susceptible to corona-virus and most chronic diseases of aging such as heart disease, strokes, higher maternal/fetal mortality rates, cancer and many more chronic diseases.

SR/EUR: What are the signs that a person is vitamin D3 deficient?DR. MATTHEWS: Signs and symptoms of vitamin D3 deficiency are fatigue, insomnia, joint pain, muscle pain, frequent fractures/broken bones, recurrent infections, brittle nails, hair loss, memory loss, lack of focus, and poor wound healing.

SR/EUR: List the ailments that can be prevented by taking vitamin D3.DR. MATTHEWS: That is a very long list. Almost all diseases of chronic aging can be slowed down with vitamin D3 such as heart disease, strokes, cancer, and many other diseases.

SR/EUR: Some people drink milk to get their vitamin D3, is that the best way? Others are lactose intolerant and need to absorb in other ways, and whats the optimal daily amount of vitamin D3 needed?DR. MATTHEWS: Ninety percent (90%) of vitamin D3 production comes from the sun striking the skin producing a chemical that goes to the liver and kidneys to make vitamin D3. Only ten percent (10%) of vitamin D3 comes from the diet. As a result, most people need sunlight (apply sunscreen after 15 minutes of exposure to avoid skin cancers) and supplements. Supplements come in liquid, chewables, soft gels, capsule, or tablet form. The recommended daily allowance (RDA) requirements for vitamin D3 is 600 international units for younger adults and 800 IU for older adults; however, in my first manuscript published on vitamin D3, we challenged that as being too low based on our present technological society. In an agricultural society fifty years ago, people spent most of their time outdoors (more sunlight) and did not have sunscreen. Today we spend most of our time indoors (less sunlight) and use sunscreen.Depending on an individuals lifestyle and what part of the country/world they live in vitamin D3 supplementation will be different. Outdoors people might need less supplementation than people who spend more time indoors or who live in colder, less sunny climates.

SR/EUR: Can a person take too much Vitamin D3?DR. MATTHEWS: Vitamin D3 toxicity is very rare. A person will have to take more than one million IU in a short period of time. Vitamin D3 deficiency is more dangerous than vitamin D3 toxicity. Vitamin D3 levels less than 18 ng/ml increases the risk of death by thirty percent (30%) from all causes including corona-virus.Since the levels of vitamin D3 decreases in the human body with age, coupled with less physical activity, low supplementation and under-nourishing diets, its no wonder the health of African-Americans have been more negatively affected by the coronavirus. Yet many African-Americans are suspicious of government-sponsored medical mandates and shy away from taking vaccines.

SR/EUR: Do you and your family and friends plan to take the vaccine, why or why not?DR. MATTHEWS: I took all the required vaccines during my 31-year medical career. I knew all the long term side effects because it took 5-20 years to make a vaccine prior to the mRNA corona-virus vaccines. The long-term side effects of the mRNA vaccines are unknown. I will stick with the vitamin D3 for now.

SR/EUR: In relation to the COVID-19 virus and the vaccine: Why do health officials (like those on the presidents health panel) rarely talk about preventative maintenance?DR. MATTHEWS: In the world of medicine, the big money is in intervention rather than prevention; however, a study found that 70% of doctors take supplements but do not tell their patients.

SR/EUR: What does your ounce of prevention look like when it comes to building ones immune system? What are some old faithful products you suggest people keep in their homes at all times?DR. MATTHEWS: A worldwide expert virologist once said that there are 1,400 viruses that have the potential to become a pandemic. Do you take 1,400 shots every year, or do you make the immune system stronger to fight off all infections? I would recommend vitamin D3, zinc, and vitamin C. These are natural supplements with minimal side effects. I worked around some of the most contagious infectious diseases on earth and did not catch any infections during my 31-year medical career.

SR/EUR: Most Black men do little in preventative healthcare maintenance. They shy away from going to doctors appointments, and they rarely take supplements. They spend more time on outward physical appearance working out at fitness centers than on caring for their bodys internal systems. Whats the best way to change that?DR. MATTHEWS: Women are usually more health-conscious than men. You have to encourage their mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters to be more proactive in their mens health. Men tend to listen to them.

SR/EUR: Please add any information you want to include that wasnt asked.DR. MATTHEWS: If given the opportunity, I can help to bring the corona-virus pandemic under control worldwide in three months. I understand the biology, pathophysiology, biochemistry, and pharmacology of corona-virus and vitamin D3. I call vitamin D3 Gods miracle vitamin.(To be continued)To find out more about Dr. Matthews and his work in preventative health maintenance contact him at prteam@epimediagroup.com

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Can Vitamin D3 Be Used as a Bridge to Contain the Coronavirus ? - Our Time Press

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro, pictured here in December 2020 during a government ceremony, is backing unproven COVID-19 remedies but not the vaccine. Photo by Andre Borges, NurPhoto via Getty Images).

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil- When Brazils President Jair Bolsonaro was diagnosed with COVID-19 in July last year, he appeared in a video on social media ingesting hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria pill thatis not proven to work against the coronavirus. Like former U.S. President Donald Trump, who also praised the drug, Bolsonaro said that despite the lack of scientific evidence its working for me, adding I believe in hydroxychloroquine, what about you?

Now, Bolsonaro says he is tired of being called Captain Chloroquine and in a live transmission last week announced that if the pill turns out to be a placebo then at least I didnt kill anyone. The episode is the latest in the presidents cavalier attitude towards COVID-19, which has killed more than 200,000 people in one of the worlds worst-hit nations.

The drug is part of what Bolsonaro calls the early treatment kit. It includes other medications like ivermectin and azithromycin and is marketed by the government as a treatment for patients with preliminary coronavirus symptoms. The government already spent over $16 million on medicine for the kit, even though neither the World Health Organization nor Brazils health regulatory agency, Anvisa, recognizes any of the treatments as effective against the disease.

Meanwhile, slow moving vaccination efforts have reached less than two percent of the countrys 200 million people so far. Brazil has surpassed nine million confirmed coronavirus cases. Despite this, Bolsonaro is still betting on his kit, and last month he compared using the so-called treatment to tending to a wounded soldier in a battlefield. If they waited for scientific approval, think of how many lives they would have lost, said Bolsonaro in a live transmission.

Other Brazilian politicians have been following his lead. Sebastio Melo, the newly elected mayor of the southern city of Porto Alegre, kicked off his term in January announcing that he would be securing a new shipment of 100,000 pills from Bolsonaros kit. The supplies are set to hit public pharmacies and clinics all over the city by the end of this month. Outrage from Brazils medical community prompted a group of leftist congressmen to start a civil lawsuit against the distribution of the medication.

Located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre wasnt the only city in the region to embrace the controversial kit. Another 27 municipalities in the state are being audited for using it, and in the south western state of Mato Grosso, the local government prided itself in a public statement on having distributed over 12,000 kits at the public clinic Centro de Triagem.

The government even launched a nation-wide app that has since been taken down, with a step-by-step procedure on how to use the kit. Legal threats and ample criticism from the scientific community led the health ministry to stop recommending the use of hydroxychloroquine on their website. But without a proper campaign to warn people that the drugs in the kit arent effective, the damage has already been done, says prominent pulmonologist and health care researcher in Rio de Janeiro, Margareth Dalcolmo.

I see heaps of [patients] at the ICU whose bellies are filled with the nonsensical drugs because they buy into the illusion that if they take them, they are protected [from Covid-19], Dalcolmo said. She calls Bolsonaros kit a little bag of illusions, adding that a preventative medical treatment against COVID-19 does not currently exist.

The mixture of drugs pushed by Bolsonaro arent likely to produce severe side-effects but are causing people to pump unnecessary chemicals into their bodies, said Dalcolmo. Ivermectin, for instance, is used to treat parasite infections like lice and is also typically administered on animals by veterinarians.

I would love to say these drugs work against COVID-19, but they dont. I have to tell the truth, said Dalcolmo. This misinformation is very detrimental to the population. People fall for it because the example comes from up top, from a figure of authority.

And at the same time that Bolsonaro endorses the use of unproven treatments, he has publicly positioned himself against the vaccination campaign. Not long before Brazilians began getting vaccinated in mid-January, a maskless Bolsonaro discouraged a room full of supporters from having it. He said that pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer will not come to your aid if you turn into a crocodile or develop other side effects like a woman growing a beard or a man suddenly talking in a high-pitched voice.

In the south western Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, the local government prided itself in having distributed over 12,000 early treatment kits at the public clinic Centro de Triagem, Brazil. Photo by Christiano Antonucci, provided byCentro de Triagem, Mato Grosso.

Bolsonaro has also specifically targeted a vaccine produced by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac, in partnership with the state of So Paulo. The president and others in government have backed fake theories shared on the internet about vaccines coming from China not being effective. This stance muddied relations with China and delayed new shipments of raw materials needed to make new doses. To top it off, the government received three offers from So Paulo to secure millions of doses of the Chinese vaccine for national distribution, but never responded.

Hes created a cult-like following that has ended up dividing the country between those who fight for the early treatment and those in favor of the vaccine, said researcher Gustavo Cabral, who leads the group at the University of So Paulo that is developing Brazils own coronavirus vaccine. This pushed him to join #TeamHalo a project spearheaded by the United Nations to spread awareness about how the vaccine hopes to end the pandemic.

Doctors and scientists all over Brazil have signed on to similar campaigns to debunk mistrust around the vaccine. The country needs to react, or things could get much worse, according to Cabral.

Bolsonaro has sparked an early treatment movement online around his unproven kit that gives the anti-vaxxer movement a voice, Gustavo warns. The researcher believes Brazil's strong history of running successful vaccination efforts is at risk and that is why doctors and scientists all over the country are also joining campaigns to debunk mistrust around the vaccine. "We face the possibility that we won't vaccinate the two thirds of the population that we need to be able to control the pandemic. That is our greatest fear."

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Bolsonaro is Pushing Quack COVID Cures Instead of the Vaccine - VICE

TUESDAY, Feb. 9, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- An experimental antiviral drug known as peginterferon lambda can speed up COVID-19 patients' ability to shed the virus and recover, scientists report.

"One of the important things about this treatment that's different from the other things that have been studied for COVID-19 is that this is working on the person, not on the virus. So it doesn't depend at all on the strain or the sequence of the virus ... we've heard all about these concerning variants that are escaping from the vaccine and escaping from monoclonal antibodies," said lead researcher Dr. Jordan Feld, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Toronto, in Canada.

"The way peginterferon lambda works is it turns on the immune system to fight the virus. It's something that the body normally does, but one of the things this virus does is it blocks your body from producing interferon, so we're sort of giving back what the body normally uses to fight off this infection," he explained.

According to the study, patients given a single injection of peginterferon lambda were over four times more likely to have cleared the infection within seven days, compared with patients given an inactive placebo.

Among patients with the highest levels of the virus, 79% were more likely to shed the infection than those given a placebo (38%). The viral levels rapidly decreased in all who received peginterferon lambda, the researchers found.

That could prevent patients with high levels of COVID-19 from becoming severely sick or giving it to others.

For the study, 30 patients were given the drug and 30 received the placebo. Among the 60 patients, five went to emergency rooms with severe respiratory symptoms. Among those, four had received placebo and only one received peginterferon lambda.

Dr. Mangala Narasimhan is director of critical care services at Northwell Health in New Hyde Park, N.Y. She said, "This study is promising, but the question remains if this will mean a decrease in the severity of the symptoms of COVID. Further studies will have to be done to follow these patients to see if the course of disease is changed with this therapy."

The drug mimics an interferon produced by the body that responds to viral infections by turning on pathways to kill the virus. COVID-19 prevents the body from producing interferons, which is one way it gets past the body's immune system. Unlike other interferons, peginterferon lambda doesn't affect every cell in the body, but only cells in the lungs, liver and intestine, the places where COVID-19 replicates.

But because the drug's action is limited, it doesn't have the serious side effects associated with other forms of interferon. In this phase 2 trial, patients given peginterferon lambda had similar side effects to those given placebo.

Feld also said that it's possible that giving peginterferon lambda before someone is infected might prevent the infection and stop the spread of the virus. It's also being tested in patients with severe COVID-19 to see if it will speed recovery, he said.

The next step before the drug can be made generally available is a phase 3 trial where the drug will be tested on a larger group of people. Feld said the trial should begin soon, and if successful, approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration would come in a few months.

Dr. Marc Siegel, a professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, described the findings as "very promising" and "very exciting."

"I think the interferons as a group have a lot of potential. It's too early to say -- it's not yet ready for primetime -- we need phase 3, we need a large control group. We need to figure out where in the process this best works," he said.

Siegel added that everybody makes different amounts of interferon and giving interferon might boost the response needed to fight the virus.

"I agree with using this as a preventative, and using it early in the game makes sense," Siegel said. "You're getting around the virus' ability to trigger the inflammatory response -- that's the hope."

The report was published online Feb. 5 in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.

More information

For more on COVID-19, head to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

SOURCES: Jordan Feld, MD, MPH, associate professor, medicine, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Marc Siegel, MD, professor, medicine, NYU Langone Medical Center, New York City; Mangala Narasimhan, DO, director, critical care services, Northwell Health, New Hyde Park, N.Y.; The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, Feb. 5, 2021, online

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Interferon Shot Might Keep COVID-19 Patients Out of the Hospital - HealthDay News

SOMETIMES one of the best solutions for a problem can be the low-tech, simple one. I'm thinking about migraine.

This is a neurological disorder caused by a fault in nerve and brain function. People who have more than six to eight migraine episodes a month are usually prescribed preventative medicine.

The migraineur also needs a calm life, regular sleep, meals, exercise and minimal stresses. All this is hard, if not impossible, to achieve.

But a recent study has presented us with a new strategy one that doesn't involve medication yet has been shown to be effective: mindfulness meditation.

This is a way of focusing your attention on the present moment, while being aware of your thoughts but not engaging with them.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, showed that mindfulness worked just as well as giving people detailed headache information' tutorials when it came to reducing the frequency of their headaches.

But only the mindfulness group experienced less pain.

The lesson here is that we must not put all our efforts into drug therapies for migraine: mindfulness, relaxation training and yoga all have their place in the management of this painful condition.

This underlines the fact that lifestyle and behaviour plays as great a part in dealing with migraine as drug therapy does.

Solo dmg media

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The GP's View: Mindfulness can help ease the pain of your migraine - The Irish News

Newswise Children treated for cancer with approaches such as chemotherapy can develop therapy-related myeloid neoplasms (a second type of cancer) with a dismal prognosis. Scientists at St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital have characterized the genomic abnormalities of 84 such myeloid neoplasms, with potential implications for early interventions to stop the disease. A paper detailing the work was published today in Nature Communications.

The somatic (cancer) and germline (inherited) genomic alterations that drive therapy-related myeloid neoplasms in children have not been comprehensively described, until now. The researchers used a variety of sequencing techniques (whole exome, whole genome and RNA) to characterize the genomic profile of 84 pediatric therapy-related myeloid neoplasms. The data came from patients with leukemia, solid tumors or brain tumors who were treated with different types of chemotherapy and who all later developed myeloid neoplasms.

One thing that we've known for a long time is once kids develop this secondary tumor, the outcome is really poor, said co-corresponding author Jeffery Klco, M.D., Ph.D., St. Jude Pathology. The alterations that drive these tumors are different in children than they are in adults, underscoring the need to study these tumors specifically in pediatrics.

Collaboration yields new understanding

Results of the study revealed several notable mutations in the somatic setting, including changes in the Ras/MAPK pathway, alterations in RUNX1 or TP53, and rearrangements of KMT2A. Additionally, the results showed increased expression of a transcription factor called MECOM, which was associated with MECOMs abnormal proximity to an enhancer as a result of genetic rearrangements.

The research benefited from computational tools developed at St. Jude that are aimed at reducing error rates, including CleanDeepSeq and SequencErr. These approaches help to discriminate between true mutations and sequencing errors.

With these tools, the researchers could trace the mutations back as far as two years before a therapy-related myeloid neoplasm developed, when early interventions could potentially benefit patients.

This work indicates that we can detect this type of malignancy early, to study if preventative therapies could benefit patients, said co-senior author Xiaotu Ma, Ph.D., St. Jude Computational Biology.

The studys other co-corresponding author is Tanja Gruber, Stanford University School of Medicine. Co-first authors are Jason Schwartz, Vanderbilt University Medical Center; Jing Ma, St. Jude; and Jennifer Kamens, Stanford University School of Medicine. Other St. Jude authors of the study are Tamara Westover, Michael Walsh, Samuel Brady, J. Robert Michael, Xiaolong Chen, Lindsey Montefiori, Guangchun Song, Gang Wu, Huiyn Wu, Ryan Hiltenbrand, Kim Nichols, Jamie Maciaszek, Yanling Liu, Priyadarshini Kumar, John Easton, Scott Newman, Jeffrey Rubnitz, Charles Mullighan, Stanley Pounds and Jinghui Zhang. Additional paper authors include Cristyn Branstetter, Arkansas Childrens Northwest Hospital; and Michael Walsh, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

The research was funded in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health (1K08HL150282-01, P30CA021765, R01HL144653), Alexs Lemonade Stand Foundation, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, EvansMDS Foundation and ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization of St. Jude.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is leading the way the world understands, treats and cures childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. It is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted solely to children. Treatments developed at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20% to 80% since the hospital opened more than 50 years ago. St. Jude freely shares the breakthroughs it makes, and every child saved at St. Jude means doctors and scientists worldwide can use that knowledge to save thousands more children. Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing and food because all a family should worry about is helping their child live. To learn more, visit stjude.org or follow St. Jude on social media at @stjuderesearch.

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Study reveals mutations that drive therapy-related myeloid neoplasms in children - Newswise

In the early months of the pandemic, doctors offices suspended appointments and hospitals cancelled routine procedures as they pivoted focus to managing the coronavirus. Even as those operations have slowly opened back up, the fear of contracting COVID-19 has kept thousands of Americans from getting their standard health screenings.

The numbers have been especially stark for cancer-screening rates, which according to Dr. Carmen E. Guerra dropped by 90% for colon and breast cancer at the height of the pandemic.

Guerra is an associate professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and a health equity researcher who studies cancer-screening disparities in Black and immigrant communities. She said that while colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in both Black men and women, colonoscopies are the only cancer test that are preventative meaning screening for colon cancer could also mitigate the risk of cancer down the line.

Its an invasive procedure and our most complicated test, said Guerra. Most people dont realize that most cancer screenings just detect cancer once its there. But [colonoscopies] remove polyps that look like they want to become dysplastic, which is a term we use for transforming itself into a high-risk lesion.

According to the American Cancer Society, Black Americans have the highest rates of colorectal cancer when compared to other racial/ethnic groups in the United States. They are 40% more likely to die from this cancer as well. Thats largely due to lack of access to health insurance and high-quality medical care, and to being diagnosed at later stages in the disease.

Even before the pandemic, there were a whole host of structural and social barriers that prevented communities of color across the spectrum from getting screened. A cancer-screening test can be as simple as having a blood test. But for colonoscopies, your colon and rectum must be empty and clean so your doctor can see the entire lining during the test. You might hear this referred to as a bowel prep. That requires time off from work, and access to transportation to and from the procedure. In addition, colon cancer tests require sedation during the procedure, which means youll need someone to pick you up when youre finished.

Pre-pandemic, underserved communities were having a really difficult time accessing colonoscopy because they [are not] in an economic position to be able to take off work, said Guerra. Many communities dont have the luxury of having a caregiver. They are stretched, everyone in the household is working.

But then the pandemic swept in, and added another layer of barriers to an already vulnerable segment of the population. Jody Hoyos is the executive vice president of the Prevent Cancer Foundation, which in December, in collaboration with Omnibus, conducted a survey in which 1,200 Black, Hispanic, Asian, and Native Americans were asked questions about their reasons for missed cancer screenings and medical appointments during the pandemic.

Hoyos said the survey found that communities of color, across age and ethnicity, were more likely to have missed appointments during the pandemic than white Americans, with Black and Hispanic Americans about 40% more likely to have missed, postponed, or canceled a health appointment.

The volume of missed appointments is concerning, said Hoyos. We know that the five-year survival rate for cancer is over 80% [when] detected early, but that drops down to 21% if its detected in later stages.

Hoyos also noted that across all groups surveyed, fear of exposure to COVID-19 was the number one reason for missed appointments. For Black and Hispanic Americans in particular, loss of health insurance since the start of the pandemic was the most significant financial barrier this surveyed population brought up.

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Black and Hispanic Americans are most likely to miss health screenings due to COVID-19. A Penn physician is meeting the need. - WHYY

Ancient Egyptians identified three seasons based on cycles of the Nile River: inundation, emergence and harvest. In tropical countries, its the rain that tends to divide the year in two: a wet and a dry season. Elsewhere the calendar demarcates four seasons: autumn, winter, spring and summer.

But now, researchers at Stanford University have found that human biology, rather than rivers, rainfall or calendars, could be used to determine the seasons. In their study, published in the journal Nature Communications in October 2020, the Stanford researchers discovered our bodies seem to set their own rhythm, splitting the year into two seasonal time periods.

Or at least thats the case if you live in California, where the study was carried out. Since every geographical location has unique environmental conditions, their approach may be used the count the seasons in other parts of the world too.

People say there are four seasons of three months each. But why four? There could be 15 or could be 2. Why dont we let biology tell us? asks Prof Michael Snyder, principal investigator of the study.

To determine the human seasons, Snyders team profiled the biology of 105 volunteers in the San Francisco Bay area over a period of four years. They regularly sampled and measured tens of thousands of molecules and microbes from the participants blood, noses and guts. This type of study is called deep longitudinal multiomics profiling.

On sample days, the researchers also collected meteorological data (such as air temperature and solar radiation) and airborne pollen counts.

This massive effort was undertaken to create a better picture of how the changing seasons might be affecting our physiology and health.

Read more about the biometrics:

When added to a molecular or microbial term, the suffix -omics refers to the comprehensive analysis of a collection of those molecules or microbes. For example, genomics is the comprehensive study of all of an organisms genes. Genomics is different from genetics, which considers single genes or their variants.

Scientists often talk informally of omics or omics groups, which may include genomics, metabolomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, epigenomics, microbiomics and others.

Multiomics, which formed the basis of the study led by Snyder, is a branch of molecular biology in which researchers combine and analyse large data sets representing different omics groups. The goal of multiomics is to highlight relationships among the collections of molecules and their functions.

After four years of testing poo, taking blood samples and logging the weather, the team used powerful computational tools to try and find patterns between the volunteers biology and their environment. What they found surprised them.

There were two signals. One was a group of molecules that seemed to peak in December a season the researchers dubbed late fall/early winter. This included markers related to immune responses such as the complement system, a collection of proteins that work together to eliminate infectious microorganisms, which peaked during this time. Unsurprisingly, this correlated with the period we know viral infections are also high.

The second signal, however, did come as a surprise.

I thought the other [season] would be in June or July when its pretty hot, but that wasnt true, Snyder says. Instead, the second season peaked in late April a season they called late spring.

This seasons peak made sense in hindsight, as late April also corresponded with a time of high pollen counts at the end of Californias rainy season. The pollen caused a reaction in a large enough subset of people to contribute to the seasonal peak in the immune response.

Pollen (seen here under a scanning electron microscope) peaks in late April in California, just as some of the participants immune systems reached a second high point Getty Images

The findings added nuance to earlier understandings regarding how human biology interacts with seasonal patterns in the presence or absence of disease. For example, scientists had known that the disease risk marker HbA1c (an indicator of recent average blood glucose levels) was often higher in winter than in summer for diabetic patients.

What they didnt know was how levels varied throughout the year for non-diabetic patients. This study revealed that participants in general diabetic or not experienced peak HbA1c levels in late April. Snyder made sense of this by noting that late April is a time when people emerge from a somewhat more dormant period of not exercising as much.

The team also observed that PER1, a gene responsible for circadian rhythms, had a seasonal pattern, with its highest expression in spring. Furthermore, other studies have found that PER1 may play a role in the development of cancer and that incidences of localised tumours appear to be highest in the spring.

Snyders team suggests that their observation of a spring peak for PER1 provides additional evidence that the gene may contribute in some way to cancer growth.

So how could this research be useful? For a start, it will help us understand the fluctuations in the human body from patient to patient variations that cant be measured in the tests we typically get when we visit the GP.

But also, a standalone measure, such as a temperature reading, is often interpreted against a population average, without the context of the individuals normal, healthy baseline. For example, the average human temperature is 36.5C, though even that varies by gender, age and throughout the day, according to a Journal Of Internal Medicine study.

The study was carried out in the San Francisco Bay area, but the methods could be used for people in other regions Getty Images

But an individuals normal temperature may range from 36.1 to 37.2C. A patient with a low baseline who registers a temperature thats towards the high end of the normal range may indeed have a fever, even though the doctor taking that patients temperature may not realise it.

People usually go to the doctor when theyre ill. They dont often go when theyre healthy. We never take advantage of the longitudinal nature of data collecting data over time. Thats the essence of what were trying to do, Snyder says.

Besides, an individuals temperature or other health metrics may vary over a given year, even when theyre healthy. And disease markers for conditions such as arthritis, sleep disorders, and many neurological and psychiatric illnesses may also vary throughout the year. All of which raises questions about seasonal influences on health.

If your cholesterol is higher in the winter than in the summer, is that normal biological variation or is that signifying a potential health problem? asks Dr Laura Cox, professor of molecular medicine at Wake Forest School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study.

Read more about the future of medicine:

Until nearly the end of the 20th Century, researchers did not understand the existence or usefulness of a multiomics approach to human biology. Instead, they conducted targeted studies that looked at the influence of a single gene or a single protein on health or disease.

In recent decades, however, multiomics such as genomics and proteomics (collections of genes or proteins, respectively) have allowed researchers to gain a more integrated understanding of biological impacts on health and disease.

The genes and the proteins and the metabolites and the lipids are all talking to each other all the time, Cox explains. By quantifying tens of thousands of these measurements in a deep longitudinal multiomics profile, researchers may then determine what is, and is not, likely to be biologically important.

Snyders study offers personalised health models one for each study participant that follow and predict health trajectories. The models paint a picture of the normal biological variation in the different omics groups for the patient throughout the year, which is key in catching disease in its early stages.

Evidence supporting this approach is compelling. Snyder reports that the deep longitudinal multiomics profiles uncovered major health discoveries among nearly half of the participants, including early diagnoses of lymphoma, heart problems anda BRCA gene mutation indicating a high risk for breast cancer.

Snyder himself is a devout health logger. He even published results from his personalised omics profile in a 2012 paper in the journal Nature Reviews Genetics (he was both an author and the studys only participant).

Study leader Prof Michael Snyder is a fan of tracking his health he wears eight devices every day. Hes keen for personalised health data to be more widespread Steve Fisch/Stanford University

Today he wears eight portable devices to track his daily health, including four smartwatches, a continuous glucose monitor, a meter that measures environmental exposures, a health tracker ring, and a pulse oximeter. Recently, his smartwatch and pulse oximeter indicated that his blood oxygen level had dropped at the same time that his heart rate had increased, which turned out to be the first indication of a forthcoming diagnosis of Lyme disease.

The seasonal study that Snyder and his team have carried out is a research version of personalised health medicine that represents deep profiling, but he accepts that it will be difficult to do for the entire population.

Youre not going to do that for everybody. But we can try and figure out whats most useful and then try to put out a cheaper, higher utility, most bang-for-the-buck version, Snyder says. He also mentions that his ultimate goal is to use big data to build personalised health models depicting trajectories for every single person on the planet.

Cox, who has no connection to Snyder, calls the study a tour de force, as few others have studied as much multiomics data over such a long a period of time. Often, we see a very brief snapshot in time and infer a whole, continuous timeline based on that one brief snapshot, she says. It brings up: how much are we missing?

Its clear to see how tracking someones every bodily fluid, microbe and molecule for four years would create a higher resolution picture of their health, and allow doctors to take preventative measures protect them from disease. Sadly, however, this wont be manageable in the real world.

For a start, the culture of medicine would need to shift its focus from the current model of diagnosing and treating someone according to their symptoms, to focusing on early diagnostics and prevention. This is assuming that the high cost of comprehensively tracking everyones health metrics not to mention any privacy concerns could be addressed.

Nonetheless, in revealing that, according to their biology, northern Californians experience two seasons rather than the traditional four we associate with the calendar, this research suggests that seasonal influences should be considered when addressing human health and disease management.

Plus, the study offers a template for identifying seasonal counts and influences in other parts of the world, which may have an impact on our understanding of human health and disease management in those regions.

So how many seasons are there? Well, its difficult to say for certain, but your health likely depends on the answer. Even so, Snyder notes, I predict that there arent going to be four seasons with three months each.

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The seasons of your body: How health-tracking tech will change how we approach medicine - BBC Focus Magazine

Personalized Medicine at FDA: The Scope & Significance of Progress in 2020describes how newly approved tests and therapies will help transform care for molecularly selected subsets of patients with cancer, rare diseases, and common/infectious diseases. Seven of the personalized therapies listed in the report are designed to address the root causes of devastating rare genetic diseases for which patients had few treatment options before. The report also notes how expanded indications will extend the unprecedented benefits of cancer immunotherapies to patients with solid tumors of all types that are tumor mutational burden-high (TMB-H). Perhaps most significantly, it explains how the first FDA-approved blood-based biomarker tests for cancer will help guide targeted treatment strategies for patients who are unable to undergo invasive operations to obtain tissue biopsies. The emergence of blood-based biomarker testing anticipates a new era in which cancers are detected at earlier stages, when they are easier and less expensive to treat.

"Personalized Medicine at FDA: The Scope & Significance of Progress in 2020 documents FDA's unwavering commitment to expanding the frontiers of personalized medicine while also demonstrating industry's commitment to developing innovative and groundbreaking products that serve patients and make health systems more efficient," said PMC President Edward Abrahams.

About the Personalized Medicine Coalition:The Personalized Medicine Coalition, a 501(c)3 organization comprised of 14 distinct stakeholder groups within health care, promotes the understanding and adoption of personalized medicine concepts, services and products to benefit patients and the health system. For more information, please visit http://www.personalizedmedicinecoalition.org.

Contact: Christopher J. WellsPersonalized Medicine Coalition[emailprotected]202-580-9780

SOURCE Personalized Medicine Coalition

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Personalized Medicines Top One-Third of All New Drug Approvals in 2020 for Third Time in Last Four Years - PRNewswire

February 11, 2021 -A team from Cleveland Clinic has developed a precision medicine platform designed to accelerate cancer gene therapies and genome-informed drug discovery.

In a study published in Nature Genetics, researchers describe the My Personal Mutanome (MPM) platform. The platform features an interactive database that offers insight into the role of somatic mutations in cancer acquired mutations that cant be passed to offspring and prioritizes mutations that may be responsive to drug therapy.

Although advances in sequencing technology have bestowed a wealth of cancer genomic data, the capabilities to bridge the translational gap between large-scale genomic studies and clinical decision making were lacking, said Feixiong Cheng, PhD, assistant staff in theGenomic Medicine Institute, and the studys lead author.

MPM is a powerful tool that will aid in the identification of novel functional mutations/genes, drug targets and biomarkers for cancer, thus accelerating the progress towards cancer precision medicine.

The team used clinical data to integrate nearly 500,000 mutations from over 10,800 tumor exomes the protein-coding part of the genome across 33 cancer types into the platform. The team then systematically mapped the mutations to over 94,500 protein-protein interactions (PPIs) and over 311,000 functional protein sites where proteins physically bind with one another. Researchers then incorporated patient survival and drug response data.

The platform analyzes the relationships between genetic mutations, proteins, PPIs, protein functional sites, and drugs to help users easily search for clinically actionable mutations. The MPM database includes three interactive visualization tools that offer two- and three-dimensional views of somatic mutations and their associated survival and drug responses.

According to the researchers, previous studies have linked disease pathogenesis and progression to mutations and variations that disturb the human interactome, the complex network of proteins and PPIs that impact cellular function. Mutations can disrupt the network by directly changing the normal function of a protein, known as nodetic effect, or by altering PPIs, known as edgetic effect.

Additionally, in a separate, previous study, a team of researchers found that somatic mutations were highly enriched where PPIs occurred. The group also demonstrated that PPI-perturbing mutations were significantly correlated with drug sensitivity or resistance as well as poor survival rate in cancer patients.

The results from another study published inNature Genetics, which was a collaboration between Cleveland Clinic and several other institutions, motivated us to develop the mutanome platform, said Cheng.

OurNature Geneticsfindings, along with previous research, provide proof-of-concept of both nodetic and edgetic effects of somatic mutations in cancer. What we learned from that study inspired us to develop a systems biology tool that, by mapping mutations to PPI interfaces and protein functional sites and integrating survival and drug response data, identifies cancer-driving and actionable mutations to guide personalized treatment and drug discovery.

Researchers expect that MPM will lead to a better understanding of mutations at the human interactome network level. This could lead to new insights in cancer genomics and treatments, ultimately achieving the goal of cancer precision medicine.

The team will continue to update MPM annually in order to provide researchers and physicians with the most comprehensive, complete data available. Researchers also plan to apply advanced analytics technologies to their insights to improve treatment development for other conditions.

OurNature Geneticsstudy also demonstrates the nodetic and edgetic effects of mutations/variations in other diseases, said Cheng.

As a next step, we are developing new artificial intelligence algorithms to translate these genomic medicine findings into human genome-informed drug target identification and precision medicine drug discovery (i.e., protein-protein inhibitors) for other complex diseases, including heart disease and Alzheimers disease.

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Precision Medicine Platform Aims to Advance Cancer Gene Therapies - HealthITAnalytics.com

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GATC Health, an innovative technology company focused on whole genome testing and Predictive Multiomics, today announced the completion of its Viral Immunity Platform (VIP), a prediction tool for personal immune response analysis. VIP can predict the likelihood of infection and severity of outcomes for SARS-CoV-2 and other viral infections.

VIP runs on the companys Multiomic Advanced Technology (MAT), which combines machine learning, neural networks, deep sequencing and bioinformatics in a comprehensive platform. MAT integrates personal metadata to accurately predict individual immunity response to agents compromising the immune system. MAT also combines advanced AI systems and quantitative genomics, proteomics and microbiomics to decipher billions of datapoints, delivering extremely accurate results.

VIP provides personalized medical analysis that assesses risk of infection, predicts immune response, identifies potential complications, and could even provide therapeutic guidance. The results enable patients and physicians to make informed decisions about individual immunity and safety, including who can return to work, who should attend social gatherings, who may have a moderate illness, and who is at high risk for a serious infection or prone to complications.

In our current climate, its more important than ever to have accurate information about how we will react to COVID or other viral infections so that we can make well-educated decisions, said John Stroh, Interim CEO of GATC Health. Our new VIP technology platform has the ability to provide predictive, actionable information about how an individual will respond when exposed to a virus. Armed with this knowledge, physicians and patients can make decisions to reduce their risk of infection, determine the most likely course of an infection if it does occur, and plan the appropriate treatment.

GATC Healths Viral Immunity Platform will provide customers with a personalized report outlining predicted viral infection risk, immunity response, and potential complications. VIP is expected to be available for consumers and physicians in Q2 2021.

About GATC Health

GATC Health is a pioneering technology company using Predictive Multiomics to advance drug discovery and improve human health. GATC Healths proprietary Multiomic Advanced Technology (MAT) sequences an individuals DNA, reading the entire genome and analyzing the full data set of omics, including genomics, proteomics, and microbiomics. A complete understanding of a persons genetics combined with the evaluation of other omics yields the most comprehensive individual health analysis available, which can lead to fast-tracking drug development, pre-screening clinical trial participants, identifying new drugs and repurposing existing treatments. GATC Healths innovative technology can help take healthcare from reactive to predictiveit is truly personalized medicine. For more information about GATC Health, visit http://www.GATCHealth.com.

Disclaimer

The information set forth herein is presented for informational purposes only and should not be deemed an offer to sell securities. This presentation contains information which the Company believes to be correct, including certain financial information and projections, but the Company does not guarantee as to the accuracy or completeness of such information. The Company reserves the right to modify or amend the information contained herein.

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GATC Health Introduces Personalized Immunity Platform to Predict Individual Response to SARS-CoV-2 and Other Viral Infections - Business Wire

SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Myriad Genetics, Inc.. (NASDAQ: MYGN), a leader in genetic testing and precision medicine, announced today additional data further validating the prognostic power of its Prolaris test and its ability to help accurately predict which men with more aggressive prostate cancer will benefit from intensification of therapy and which patients may safely avoid such treatments. This second validation study was presented during an oral presentation at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Genitourinary Cancer Symposium (ASCO-GU) by Jonathan Tward M.D., Ph.D, associate professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Utah.

According to estimates by the American Cancer Society, 248,530 new cases of prostate cancer are expected to be diagnosed this year in the U.S. While early screening tests have helped reduce the mortality rate, they can often result in overdiagnosis and overtreatment of a disease that is clinically insignificant. The Prolaris test can more accurately predict the aggressiveness of the cancer allowing for more precise treatment and avoidance of more intense therapies with a patients parallel morbidities.

There are many viable treatment paths for men with prostate cancer, said Dr. Tward. This new data helps distinguish the most appropriate personalized treatment path for each patient based on how their specific tumor is behaving. For some men, this means being able to avoid overtreating patients with therapies including hormone treatment that can momentously impact their quality of life, while still appropriately treating their prostate cancer.

The new data comes from a second study following previous data, recently published in Clinical Genitourinary Cancer in January 2021, that incorporated men treated surgically or with radiation therapy. This new study combined a Prolaris molecular risk score threshold with a clinical model for predicting a patients benefit from androgen deprivation therapy. Prolaris determined that about one of every two men with unfavorable intermediate-risk and one of every five men with high-risk prostate cancer are below the proposed threshold associated with aggressive disease and can therefore safely be treated with less intense therapy while maintaining the benefits of treatment. Additional key findings revealed that the Prolaris test was an accurate predictor of progression to metastatic disease.

Myriad Genetics was the first company to offer a test that directly measures the molecular biology of an individual patients prostate cancer, said Todd D. Cohen, M.D., vice president of Medical Affairs for Urology at Myriad Genetics. This study by Dr. Tward and his team is another strong validation of the prognostic power of the Prolaris test and our ongoing commitment to providing healthcare professionals with the tools needed to determine the most effective treatments and monitoring strategies for each patient.

In March 2020, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network updated its professional guidelines to include biomarker testing for unfavorable intermediate and high-risk patients with prostate cancer. With the updated guidelines, Prolaris was one of only two prognostic tests to be considered for those expanded indications. Approximately 60% of men with prostate cancer currently have insurance or Medicare access to Prolaris, and Myriad continues to work toward expanding access so that every man who is facing difficult treatment decisions will be able to utilize the full benefits of the test.

About ProlarisProlaris is a genetic test developed by Myriad Genetics that directly measures tumor cell growth. The Prolaris test paired with other clinical and pathologic variables provides the level of aggressiveness of a patients individual prostate cancer and assesses risk of death or the development of metastatic disease from prostate cancer. For more information visit: http://www.prolaris.com.

About Myriad GeneticsMyriad Genetics Inc., is a leading genetic testing and precision medicine company dedicated to transforming patient lives worldwide. Myriad discovers and commercializes genetic tests that determine the risk of developing disease, accurately diagnose disease, assess the risk of disease progression, and guide treatment decisions across medical specialties where critical genetic insights can significantly improve patient care and lower healthcare costs. For more information, visit the Company's website:www.myriad.com.

Myriad, the Myriad logo, BART, BRACAnalysis, Colaris, Colaris AP, myPath, myRisk, Myriad myRisk, myRisk Hereditary Cancer, myChoice, myPlan, BRACAnalysis CDx, Tumor BRACAnalysis CDx, myChoice CDx, Vectra, Prequel, Foresight, GeneSight, riskScore and Prolaris are trademarks or registered trademarks of Myriad Genetics, Inc. or its wholly owned subsidiaries in the United States and foreign countries. MYGN-F, MYGN-G.

Safe Harbor StatementThis press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements related to the validation study presented during at ASCO-GU by Jonathan Tward M.D., Ph.D; expanding access so that every man who is facing difficult treatment decisions will be able to utilize the full benefits of the Prolaris test; and the Companys strategic directives under the caption "About Myriad Genetics." These "forward-looking statements" are based on management's current expectations of future events and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those set forth in or implied by forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: uncertainties associated with COVID-19, including its possible effects on our operations and the demand for our products and services; our ability to efficiently and flexibly manage our business amid uncertainties related to COVID-19; the risk that sales and profit margins of our molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services may decline; risks related to our ability to transition from our existing product portfolio to our new tests, including unexpected costs and delays; risks related to decisions or changes in governmental or private insurers reimbursement levels for our tests or our ability to obtain reimbursement for our new tests at comparable levels to our existing tests; risks related to increased competition and the development of new competing tests and services; the risk that we may be unable to develop or achieve commercial success for additional molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services in a timely manner, or at all; the risk that we may not successfully develop new markets for our molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services, including our ability to successfully generate revenue outside the United States; the risk that licenses to the technology underlying our molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services and any future tests and services are terminated or cannot be maintained on satisfactory terms; risks related to delays or other problems with operating our laboratory testing facilities and our healthcare clinic; risks related to public concern over genetic testing in general or our tests in particular; risks related to regulatory requirements or enforcement in the United States and foreign countries and changes in the structure of the healthcare system or healthcare payment systems; risks related to our ability to obtain new corporate collaborations or licenses and acquire new technologies or businesses on satisfactory terms, if at all; risks related to our ability to successfully integrate and derive benefits from any technologies or businesses that we license or acquire; risks related to our projections about our business, results of operations and financial condition; risks related to the potential market opportunity for our products and services; the risk that we or our licensors may be unable to protect or that third parties will infringe the proprietary technologies underlying our tests; the risk of patent-infringement claims or challenges to the validity of our patents or other intellectual property; risks related to changes in intellectual property laws covering our molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services and patents or enforcement in the United States and foreign countries, such as the Supreme Court decisions in Mayo Collab. Servs. v. Prometheus Labs., Inc., 566 U.S. 66 (2012), Assn for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., 569 U.S. 576 (2013), and Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank Intl, 573 U.S. 208 (2014); risks of new, changing and competitive technologies and regulations in the United States and internationally; the risk that we may be unable to comply with financial operating covenants under our credit or lending agreements; the risk that we will be unable to pay, when due, amounts due under our credit or lending agreements; and other factors discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" contained in Item 1A of our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2020, which has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as any updates to those risk factors filed from time to time in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q or Current Reports on Form 8-K. All information in this press release is as of the date of the release, and Myriad undertakes no duty to update this information unless required by law.

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New Study from Leading University of Utah Radiation Oncologist Validates Ability of Myriad Genetics' Prolaris test to Guide Treatment for Prostate...

Dublin, Feb. 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Biobanking Market by Specimen Type, Type of Biobank, Ownership, and Application: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global biobanking market was valued at $37. 93 billion in 2019, and is estimated to reach $57. 67 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 4. 6% from 2020 to 2027.

Biobank is a biorepository meant to collect and preserve biological materials that are used for diagnosis, biodiversity studies, and research. In addition, it is used to support the research of most common types of genetic disorders to develop personalized medicines and to maintain and update database of diseases related to age.

The rise in funding by private & government organizations for biobanking and increase in application areas of bio banked samples are the major factors that drive the growth of the global biobanking market. Moreover, upsurge in incidence of diseases such as cancer significantly contributes toward the market growth, owing to the fact that biobanked specimens are used in the treatment of several chronic diseases. However, ethical issues related to biobanking and lack of awareness about it are expected to impede the market growth. On the contrary, advancements in stem cell research and unmet medical needs in emerging nations are anticipated to provide lucrative opportunity for the market expansion.

The rise in genomic research activities acts as a key driving force of the global market. Furthermore, government is taking multiple initiatives to support regenerative medicine research, which is expected to boost the market growth. Moreover, increase in demand for cost-effective drug delivery & development accelerates the market growth. Furthermore, usage of human biospecimens is increasing in cohort studies. Number of registered clinical studies with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) increased from 181,305 in 2014 to 262,445 in 2017. A substantial number of large ongoing cohort studies related to precision medicine have fomented the establishment of population-based banks.

The global biobanking market is segmented into specimen type, type of biobank, ownership, application, and region. Depending on specimen type, the market is categorized into blood products, solid tissue, cell lines, nucleic acid, and others. On the basis of ownership, it is divided into national/regional agencies, nonprofit organization, universities, and private organization. The applications covered in the study include therapeutic and research. By type of biobank, the market is bifurcated into population-based biobank and disease-oriented biobank. Region wise, it is analyzed across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and LAMEA.

Some of the major companies that operate in the global market for biobanks are BioIVT & Elevating Science, Geneticist Inc, Firalis S. A., AMS biotechnology Ltd. (AMSBIO LLC), and US Biolab Corporation, Inc., ProteoGenex, Inc., Cureline, Inc., Bay Biosciences LLC, CTI Biotech, and Boca Biolistics.

Key Benefits

Key Topics Covered:

Chapter 1: Introduction1.1. Report Description1.2. Key Benefits for Stakeholders1.3. Key Market Segments1.1. Research Methodology1.1.1. Secondary Research1.1.2. Primary Research1.1.3. Analyst Tools and Models

Chapter 2: Executive Summary2.1. Key Findings of the Study2.2. Cxo Perspective

Chapter 3: Market Overview3.1. Market Definition and Scope3.2. Key Findings3.2.1. Top Investment Pockets3.2.2. Top Player Positioning3.3. Porter'S Five Forces Analysis3.4. Market Dynamics3.4.1. Drivers, Restraints, and Opportunity3.4.2. Drivers3.4.2.1. The Rise in Funds for Biobanks3.4.2.2. Increase in R&D Activities for Application of Biobank Specimens3.4.2.3. Surge in Prevalence of Fatal Chronic Diseases3.4.3. Restraints3.4.3.1. Legal and Ethical Issues of Biobanking3.4.3.2. Lack of Awareness Toward Biobanking3.4.4. Opportunity3.4.4.1. High Growth Potential in Developing Countries3.5. Impact of Covid-19 on Biobanking Market3.5.1. Overview3.5.2. Impact Analysis3.5.3. List of 10 Largest Biobanks Across the Globe

Chapter 4: Biobanking Market, by Specimen Type4.1. Overview4.1.1. Market Size and Forecast4.2. Blood Products4.2.1. Key Market Trends and Opportunities4.2.2. Market Size and Forecast, by Region4.2.3. Market Analysis, by Country4.3. Solid Tissues4.3.1. Key Market Trends and Opportunities4.3.2. Market Size and Forecast, by Region4.3.3. Market Analysis, by Country4.4. Cell Lines4.4.1. Key Market Trends and Opportunities4.4.2. Market Size and Forecast, by Region4.4.3. Market Analysis, by Country4.5. Nucleic Acid4.5.1. Key Market Trends and Opportunities4.5.2. Market Size and Forecast, by Region4.5.3. Market Analysis, by Country4.6. Others4.6.1. Key Market Trends and Opportunities4.6.2. Market Size and Forecast, by Region4.6.3. Market Analysis, by Country

Chapter 5: Biobanking Market, by Type of Biobank5.1. Overview5.1.1. Market Size and Forecast5.2. Population-Based Biobanks5.2.1. Key Market Trends and Opportunities5.2.2. Market Size and Forecast, by Region5.2.3. Market Analysis, by Country5.3. Disease-Oriented Biobanks5.3.1. Key Market Trends and Opportunities5.3.2. Market Size and Forecast, by Region5.3.3. Market Analysis, by Country

Chapter 6: Biobanking Market, by Ownership6.1. Overview6.1.1. Market Size and Forecast6.2. National/Regional Agencies6.2.1. Key Market Trends and Opportunities6.2.2. Market Size and Forecast, by Region6.2.3. Market Analysis, by Country6.3. Nonprofit Organization6.3.1. Key Market Trends and Opportunities6.3.2. Market Size and Forecast, by Region6.3.3. Market Analysis, by Country6.4. Universities6.4.1. Key Market Trends and Opportunities6.4.2. Market Size and Forecast, by Region6.4.3. Market Analysis, by Country6.5. Private Organization6.5.1. Key Market Trends and Opportunities6.5.2. Market Size and Forecast, by Region6.5.3. Market Analysis, by Country

Chapter 7: Biobanking Market, by Application7.1. Overview7.1.1. Market Size and Forecast7.2. Therapeutic7.2.1. Key Market Trends and Opportunities7.2.2. Market Size and Forecast, by Region7.2.3. Market Analysis, by Country7.3. Research7.3.1. Key Market Trends and Opportunities7.3.2. Market Size and Forecast, by Region7.3.3. Market Analysis, by Country

Chapter 8: Biobanking Market, by Region8.1. Overview8.2. North America8.3. Europe8.4. Asia-Pacific8.5. LAMEA

Chapter 9: Company Profiles9.1. Ams Biotechnology Ltd. (Amsbio LLC)9.1.1. Company Overview9.1.2. Company Snapshot9.1.3. Operating Business Segments9.1.4. Product Portfolio9.2. Bay Biosciences LLC9.2.1. Company Overview9.2.2. Company Snapshot9.2.3. Operating Business Segments9.2.4. Product Portfolio9.3. Bioivt & Elevating Science9.3.1. Company Overview9.3.2. Company Snapshot9.3.3. Operating Business Segments9.3.4. Product Portfolio9.3.5. Key Strategic Moves and Developments9.4. Boca Biolistics9.4.1. Company Overview9.4.2. Company Snapshot9.4.3. Operating Business Segments9.4.4. Product Portfolio9.5. Cti Biotech9.5.1. Company Overview9.5.2. Company Snapshot9.5.3. Product Portfolio9.6. Cureline, Inc.9.6.1. Company Overview9.6.2. Company Snapshot9.6.3. Operating Business Segments9.6.4. Product Portfolio9.7. Firalis S. A.9.7.1. Company Overview9.7.2. Company Snapshot9.7.3. Operating Business Segments9.7.4. Product Portfolio9.8. Geneticist Inc.9.8.1. Company Overview9.8.2. Company Snapshot9.8.3. Operating Business Segments9.8.4. Product Portfolio9.9. Proteogenex, Inc.9.9.1. Company Overview9.9.2. Company Snapshot9.9.3. Operating Business Segments9.9.4. Product Portfolio9.10. Us Biolab Corporation, Inc.9.10.1. Company Overview9.10.2. Company Snapshot9.10.3. Operating Business Segments9.10.4. Product Portfolio

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/5gm10t

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Outlook on the Biobanking Global Market to 2027 - Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecasts - GlobeNewswire

Chinese pharmaceutical and 3D printing technology firm Triastek has received Investigational New Drug (IND) approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its first 3D printed drug product, T19.

T19 has been developed in-house and is designed to treat rheumatoid arthritis, which is an autoimmune disease where the bodys immune system attacks the cells that line joints by mistake, making them stiff and swollen.

Triastek 3D printed the drug product using its Melt Extrusion Deposition (MED) technology platform and has global intellectual property (IP) rights to its 3D printed formulation.

Triastek is committed to improving the efficiency of formulation development, enhancing the effects of drug products, and ensuring the quality of drug delivered to patients by using the 3D printing technology platform, said Dr. Senping Cheng, Co-founder and CEO of Triastek. The FDA IND clearance of T19 is an important milestone in the development and application of MED 3D printing technology.

MED 3D printing platform

Triasteks MED 3D printing technology platform uses digital pharmaceutical dosage form design and automated intelligent manufacturing to enable the construction of tablets with sophisticated shapes and internal geometric structures. These structures allow the onset time, duration, and mode of drug delivery to be closely controlled and adjusted, which in turn provides more predictable and reproducible drug delivery results.

By enabling greater customization of the printed drugs, the MED system can help to enhance the therapeutic effects of medicines, while lowering side effects and improving compliance with patients. Triasteks novel pharmaceutical product development method, 3D formulation by Design (3DFbD) can be used in tandem with MED 3D printing technology to reduce the need for trial and error often required during traditional formulation development processes. 3DFbD is designed to improve both the efficiency and success rate of Triasteks drug product development in order to accelerate development time and lower costs.

The firm has also integrated real-time Process Analytical Technology (PAT) into the MED system that can continually monitor the 3D printing process to ensure product quality and make regulatory monitoring more convenient.

In April last year, the MED platform was accepted into the FDAs Emerging Technology Program (ETP) which recognized the 3D printing technology as a fully automated process for the manufacture of modified release solid oral dosage forms.

We believe that the MED 3D printing technology will be the enabler for digital pharmaceutical product development and intelligent drug manufacturing, said Dr. Xiaoling Li, Triasteks Co-founder and CSO. Triastek will work with any interested parties to take advantage of the platform technology for developing pharmaceutical products with better clinical value and higher product quality.

A chronotherapeutic drug delivery system

According to Triastek, deploying 3D printing for T19s novel design permits it to function as a chronotherapeutic drug delivery system. Chronotherapy treatment is based on the idea that administering medicine at different times of the circadian cycle the bodys natural internal process that regulates sleep over a 24 hour period will maximize a drugs therapeutic impact while minimizing side effects.

The T19 tablet is 3D printed on Triasteks MED system in a specific shape and with a precise internal geometric structure that facilitates the precise control of the drugs release to achieve the desired uptake by the patient. Taken at bedtime, T19s design means the drug will be released in a delayed manner so that blood concentration peaks when symptoms of pain and joint stiffness are most acute, such as in the early hours of the morning.

Having received IND clearance from the FDA for T19, Triastek is planning to apply for the same approval in China later this year, followed by applications in Japan and Europe. The firm expects to file a New Drug Application (NDA) for T19 to the FDA in 2023, and announced it has also developed a 505(b)(2) product portfolio using MED 3D printing technology to improve the outcomes of drug therapy.

3D printing and drug delivery

Personalized medication for individual patients is a fast-growing area of interest within the 3D printed pharmaceutical field. 3D printing enables the size and geometries of tablets and drug delivery devices to be modified to control their release and dosages depending on clinical need.

In 2015, Aprecia Pharmaceuticalsreceived FDA approvalfor its 3D printed Spiritam medication, making it the first 3D printed pharmaceutical to be approved by the FDA. The medication is designed to treat seizures in people with epilepsy and was approved for commercial manufacturing operations later that year. Aprecia recently announced a long-term collaboration with R&D firm Battelle to expand its capabilities within 3D printed pharmaceuticals and advance its 3D printing equipment from clinical supply to commercial scale. The firm has also previously partnered with Cambridge-basedCycle Pharmaceuticalsto produce orphan drugs for thetreatment of rare medical conditionsusing its ZipDose 3D printing process.

3D printed pharmaceuticals firm FabRx has also been active on the printed drug development front, having produced personalized medicine for children with the rare metabolic disorder maple syrup urine disease (MSUD), and printed its chewable Printlet tablets with Braille and Moon patterns on the surface to aid medicine taking for patients with visual impairment. The company launched its M3DIMAKER 3D printer in April 2020, designed specifically for the manufacture of personalized drug delivery devices.

Elsewhere, global pharmaceutical firm Merck has announced plans to work with EOS Group company ACMC to produce 3D printed tablets first for clinical trials, then later for commercial manufacturing. Meanwhile, in the research realm 3D printing has been used to optimize the controllable dosage of antibiotic tablets, and semi-solid extrusion 3D printing has been explored as a coating technology for customizing the release rate of patient-specific drugs.

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Featured image showsTriastek has gained IND clearance from the FDA for its T19 drug for rheumatoid arthritis. Image via Triastek.

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Triastek receives FDA IND clearance for 3D printed drug to treat rheumatoid arthritis - 3D Printing Industry

Newswise George Mason UniversitysCollege of Scienceannounced an exciting $1.33 million collaboration withRutgers Cancer Institute of New Jerseyand Masons Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine (CAPMM) which taps cancer research diagnostics and treatment strengths within the medical facilities and CAP/CLIA laboratory respectively of the two regional powerhouses.

The effort will use a new way to measure biomarkers of the HER2 protein, which is expressed on breast cancer cells. Women who have this protein get specific therapies, now part of the standard of care in both early stage and metastatic settings of breast cancer.

The projects overall goal is clinical validation, in two independent patient cohorts from the Rutgers Cancer Institute, of a new way for measuring HER2 based on its activation (phosphorylation) and predicting, using only the patients diagnostic biopsy, whether or not that patient will respond favorably to the treatment.

The Mason-developed test uses a new Fluidigm laser capture microdissection (LCM), which enables researchers to capture cellular regions of interest from frozen and FFPE tissue sections for downstream analysis using DNA and RNA sequencing, real-time PCR or mass spectrometry analysis. The test is designed for patients with HER2 positive breast tumors to predict if each patient will achieve a complete remission of the tumor so that the tumor is completely absent and cannot even be found on pathologic tissue examination.

We aim to emerge from this short-term, high-impact effort with established cut-points, reagents, and CLIA/CAP SOPs developed and validated for our assay that would be published for general use, saidLance Liotta, MD, PhD, study PI, and CAPMM co-founder and co-director.

During the first year of the partnership, researchers will measure HER2 activation retrospectively on previously collected cancer specimens and cross reference it with treatment outcomes. During the second year, those findings will help inform the design of prospective trials enabling real-time decision making influencing the selection of future therapy options offered to patients at Rutgers Cancer Institute and RWJBarnabas Health.

We believe the test can have great benefit for individualizing therapies, added, Dr. Emanuel Petricoin, PhD, Co-PI of the study and also co-founder and co-director of Mason CAPMM. Clinical studies have supported the recent approval of two escalation strategies, unfortunately, these escalations are associated with considerable increased costs and additional risks of toxicity, Petricoin explained.

Therefore, careful and accurate patient risk stratification up-front, to identify which patients will benefit most from treatment, is essential to minimize risk and maximize benefit, said Rutgers Cancer Institutes principal investigator,Shridar Ganesan, MD, PhD, chief of molecular oncology, associate director for translational research, and Omar Boraie Chair in Genomic Science.

If validated, this predictor may help lead to development for modified or, de-escalated regimens for patients who score at low risk for recurrence or high chance of complete pathologic response Similarly, patients who score at high risk of recurrence or low chance of complete pathologic response from current standard therapy may benefit from trials exploring other treatment approaches.

The tests will be conducted on the pretreatment biopsy tissue we have collected and directly evaluate the molecular target of the major classes of HER2 neoadjuvant therapies, said Ganesan, a professor of medicine and pharmacology at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School who had previously collaborated with Liotta while he was at the NIH.

This partnership allows us to continue to provide the most advanced treatment options possible for our patients, Ganesan added.

The teams plan also includes a rapid deployment of the testing if it proves conclusive.

Weve partnered with Theralink Diagnostics, Inc. who will be responsible for the assay commercialization and expanded clinical assessment to provide an accelerated adoption and clinical use by medical oncologists, saidEmanuel Petricoin, CAPMM co-director, and a scientific advisor to the Company. We have set up the infrastructure to quickly deploy the information and technology; if this holds true, we have a commercial partner ready to take it to the bedside as part of a patient clinical care plan and treatment decision support tool, Petricoin explained.

This is a smart, strategic partnershipboth Rutgers and Mason each bring invaluable expertise and infrastructure to minimize time to market and maximize research impact, said Mason College of Science dean, Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm. Mason scientists created the protein measurement test and offer CAP/CLIA facilities that dovetail well with the existing biobank of tissue samples and preeminent therapeutic cancer treatments options offered to patients at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Miralles-Wilhelm added.

The College of Science at George Mason University

Mason's College of Science is a leader in scientific discovery and a creator of innovative solutions for the rapidly-changing needs of today's world. The college prides itself in being home to a diverse population of students and researchers serving as a magnet for all scientific minds. With new discoveries, our scientists continue to grow Mason's portfolio of patents, licenses, partnerships, and spin off companies.

The college blends traditional science education with sought-after programs at all levels to challenge and engage in disciplines including personalized medicine, infectious diseases, drug discovery, climate dynamics, environmental justice and conservation, materials science, astronomy, forensic science, computational science, and applied mathematics. Mason's College of Science offers enhanced undergraduate and graduate academic and research opportunities, including innovative minors, certificates, and graduate degrees, that allow professionals to upskill or change careers. Learn more atscience.gmu.edu

About George Mason University

George Mason University is Virginia's largest public research university. Located near Washington, D.C., Mason enrolls more than 39,000 students from 130 countries and all 50 states. Mason has grown rapidly over the last half-century and is recognized for its innovation and entrepreneurship, remarkable diversity, and commitment to accessibility. Visithttp://www.gmu.edu

About Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey

As New Jersey's only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, Rutgers Cancer Institute, together with RWJBarnabas Health, offers the most advanced cancer treatment options including bone marrow transplantation, proton therapy, CAR T-cell therapy and complex surgical procedures. Along with clinical trials and novel therapeutics such as precision medicine and immunotherapy - many of which are not widely available - patients have access to these cutting-edge therapies at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey in New Brunswick, Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey at University Hospital in Newark, as well as through RWJBarnabas Health facilities. Learn more atcinj.org

The rest is here:
Mason Scientists and Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey Collaboration Receives U.S. Armys Breakthrough Award to Better Inform HER2 Breast Cancer...