Dr Annalisa Jenkins on healthcare and biotech investments for family offices – Campden FB

The coronavirus pandemic has triggered a race for disruptive innovation in diagnostics, new therapies and novel vaccines, but the global life sciences industry was already expected to reach more than $2 trillion in gross value by 2023, up from $1.6 trillion before the crisis.

The pharmaceutical sector has long been attractive for family office investors, either directly or as part of their diversified portfolio. More than a quarter (27%) of families surveyed by Campden Wealth with UBS for The Global Family Office Report 2019 said they directly invested in health care and social assistance. It was the fourth most popular sector for families behind technology (49%), real estate and rental/leasing (42%) and finance and insurance (30%).

Dr Annalisa Jenkins MBBS, MRCP is a life sciences thought leader with more than 25 years of biopharmaceutical industry experience. The former surgeon lieutenant commander in the British Royal Navy during the Gulf Warsaid new entrepreneurial healthcare and biotech investment opportunities were opening for family investors from the disruptive revolutions in technology, stem cell therapy and mental health.

In an interview held before the coronavirus outbreak, the Chair of the Court of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine at the University of London, and chair or board member of Cellmedica, Vium and Cocoon Biotech, among others, tells CampdenFB which areas of investment she is personally interested in, the innovative trends she is seeing and what family investors need to know before entering the sector.

What is your outlook for investments in 2020?

Im hugely optimistic moving into the next decade. Whilst I think that one can always recognise that the geopolitical environment that we now operate in has markedly evolved in the last few years, whether that be the notion of risk, uncertainty, unpredictability, theres no doubt that has significantly evolved. Some of the driving factors behind that include global leadership, the climate evolution were living through, but ultimately the world of investment and the opportunities continue to be exciting.

When one looks across the field of health and innovation, were living in the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution, and there is probably no sector that exemplarises that more than the health tech and life science sector. Today I would say the innovation coming out of our academic universities is as broad and as advanced as I have seen in the last 30 years of my career. I think the ability to access capital is just remarkable on a global basis, there are trillions of dollars that are out there in different parts of the economy, looking for innovation and looking for leaders to invest in. And, of course, we have a technology revolution that is ongoing, particularly driven by our ability to generate, curate and process data and deliver insights which are going to transform how we access and deliver healthcare and think about keeping people on a global basis well and healthy for longer and deliver improved therapeutics to reduce suffering.

I dont think I could be really more optimistic entering this new decade when it comes to thinking about the combination of equity with innovation and disruption and the evolution of the world I operate in.

What are the headwinds for investments in healthcare and life science?

The biggest concerns are around the well-publicised debates on pricing of technologies, particularly in the US, and how to ensure every individual can get equal access to health. Those two areas will continue to be debated and drive short-term cyclical uncertainty. There is no doubt global leadership, and that includes the US, recognise that for stable societies, access to universal healthcare and the ability of populations to be happy, healthy and flourishing lies as the centre of their political ambition.

Which healthcare investments are you excited about?

The cross-cutting themes that I am particularly excited about when it comes to technology are the ability for machine-learning and AI [artificial intelligence] to generate algorithms and therefore products that can be placed into the hands of individuals for them to manage, track and improve their health.

For example, there are products coming along in the area of mental health and wellness where individuals increasingly in the future will be able to access through their mobiles programmes and support services which will help them track their mood and maintain their wellness. We know that many diseases, for example, of the gastrointestinal system like irritable bowel syndrome, are markedly impacted by mental health and wellbeing. Interventions such as digital therapeutics, such as apps that are regulated and provided as therapeutics, are set to transform the way these diseases are managed. I am consistently looking for technologies that can be placed into the hands of individuals for self-directed and personalised prevention and care management.

Secondly, the ability of technology to improve the way we plan and conduct research and development on a global basis truly again going to be disrupted in the future by our ability to get large datasets in an ethical way to translate that into pre-clinical discoveries of new therapeutics. And then in the clinical setting to conduct novel clinical trials and to really change the way we bring new therapies to market, like new therapeutics, medical devices, diagnostics, biochemical markers across the board, so I am very interested in companies that are pursuing that.

Thirdly, the area of how do we optimise healthcare utilisation, the efficiency and the effectiveness, whether that be here in the UK in the NHS [National Health Service] or globally. Its absolutely clear that if we want to ensure affordable access to the top quality healthcare and outcomes for populations, were going to need embrace digital innovations, so companies that operate in that space are very attractive.

Those are the cross-cutting themes. If I look at the verticals, I would say to you, of course, there are very good investments to be made in the area of cancer and oncology. However, there is a marked amount of money in that space, its a little bit overpopulated. So for family offices and alternate sources of capital I would not be placing my money there at this point. I would be looking at counter cyclical trends, so areas that are perhaps now emerging. Areas such as womens health, otherwise known as Femtech, clearly now emerging as an area for investment and has been systematically underinvested in over the last 10-15 years. Cardiovascular disease continues to be the biggest killer and cause of illness on a global basis and yet it really hasnt received a lot of attention in investment. Were now seeing a wave of innovations and were starting to see more about the biology of heart disease, stroke and diabetes so again I would see that as an area of interest [as is] stem cells in therapeutics across a whole spectrum of diseases. Im particularly interested in Type 1 diabetes and the ability to generate beta cells for the production of insulin in patients with Type 1 diabetes. We are starting to see companies emerging and exploring that space so really stem cells and the cell therapy space, along with gene therapy is very interesting.

For family offices, the whole area of mental health and wellness is enormous and growing. The reason is its now becoming apparent people are talking about mental health and wellness in a way thats reducing stigma and then allowing money to flow into this space. How we deal with the human brain and preserving the health and wellness of the brain, both from an emotional and physical point of view, whether that be the prevention of degenerative brain disorders like dementia or the management of anxiety and all the related diseases known as depression, is a very interesting space for investment and its where I am investing in a lot.

How can family offices enter and succeed in the healthcare and biotech investment market?

Its extremely difficult as a family office to make an initial move into the sector, largely because its extremely complicated and it really rather depends on what the investment goals are and the returns that are desired. The sector is highly fragmented and family offices have traditionally and largely invested in the more sustainable, long-term world of pharma as part of a general equity portfolio. Were talking about a very different sector which is largely based on entrepreneurship, a lot of risk and deep science, so I think the first thing to say is that family offices, before moving into or when in this space, should ensure they have the access to the right expertise around the table. They can gain that either through their own networks of advisers or by participating through investments in a fund.

Often the best way to get started is to find a fund that meets the investment criteria of a family office and to start to invest through that. Not through a traditional VC fund, there are number of funds coming together with the sole purpose of accessing family offices, sovereign wealth funds, alternate sources of capital and then investing through that because its really important in the risky healthcare and life science sector to have a portfolio view that is very strategically put together. You have to be prepared to fail and to be prepared to be a long-term patient investor thats willing to along five-to-seven years for the ride.

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Dr Annalisa Jenkins on healthcare and biotech investments for family offices - Campden FB

Researcher says stem cell activation could lie at root of health effects of many natural products – NutraIngredients-usa.com

Gitte Jensen, PhD, is the principal of NIS Labs, a contract research organization based in Klamath Falls, OR. For several decades, starting with a postdoc stint at the Cross Cancer Institute at the University of Alberta, then running her own lab at McGill University in Montreal and at NIS Labs, which she founded in 1999, Jensen has studied how the human body activates and employs stem cells. These initially undifferentiated cells are the foundation of the bodys repair machinery and also play a key role in a healthy immune system response.

Jensen has done research which has explored the effects of compounds found in microalgae. As it turns out, Upper Klamath Lake, which abuts the city of Klamath Falls, plays host every year to abundant blooms of a particular strain of blue green algae long touted for its health benefits. Jensens expertise in algae research has also been employed in the study of astaxanthin-rich Haematococcus pluvialis.

Recently Jensens attention has been focused on compounds found in sea buckthorn berries. Sea buckthorn is a thorny, perennial shrub native to many parts of Asia as well as Northwestern Europe. The best berries with the most bioactives are harvested in various high altitude locations in the Himalayan region.

The plant has long been revered for its medicinal properties. Legend has it that during his push into Asia Alexander the Great released horses injured in battle to fare as they might in an area with many of the shrubs. The horses not only survived but prospered and when the Greeks next looked in on them they found a herd notable for their shiny coats, an outward sign of health. Thus the name of the plant: Hippophae, which combines the Greek words for horse and shiny.

Similar legends hold that Genghis Khan instructed his troops to carry the berries to speed recovery from war wounds. Jensen said the berries of the plant have been an ingredient in Chinese, Tibetan and Mongolian herbal medicine traditions for more than a thousand years.

Jensen conducted a small scale, randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study to look into how the proanthocyanidins found in the berry affected stem cell activation. The study was published last year in the journal Clinical Interventions in Aging. The study recruited 12 subjects, eight women and four men, who ranged in age an in body composition from slender to borderline obese. The subjects consumed 500 mg of a proanthocyanidin-rich sea buckthorn extract or a placebo at two separate visits to the testing facility. Subjects remained calm and at rest for three hours during the administration of the test material (or the placebo). Blood was drawn at one hour for a baseline measurement, and then one hour and two hours after ingestion of the test material. Participants were also screened for confounding factors such as a high state of anxiety or being short on sleep, which could have skewed the results, in which case visits were rescheduled.

Jensen and her co authors found that the sea buckthorn extract significantly increased the level of some specific endothelial stem cells, but not others. The CD45dim CD34+ CD309- cells, CD45dim CD34+ CD309+ cells, and the CD45- CD31+ CD309+ endothelial stem cells showed significant mobilization above placebo within 2 hours, they wrote.

Regardless of the stem cell type, just having more has been shown to be important, Jensen and her coauthors stated. While pluripotential stems cells are the most important type, there are indications that other kinds of stem cellsendothelial, mesenchymal, and hematopoieticcan revert to the pluripotential state and be available for additional repair processes.

When the number of circulating endothelial progenitor cells was quantified in the blood of 509 individuals at risk for cardiovascular disease and the incidence of cardiovascular events in these individuals was monitored for 1 year, a significantly greater number of events took place in the individuals having fewer circulating stem cells, they said.

By documenting the ability of SBB-PE (sea buckthorn berries proanthycyanidin-rich extract) to support stem cell mobilization and to increase the number of circulating stem cells, we have uncovered a new mechanism of action behind many of the health benefits that have been historically associated with SBB, they concluded.

Jensen said looking more closely at stem cell activation could change how researchers design their studies and help bring forth more trials that show significant results because there is a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of action.

When we look at plants that have health properties, we look at whether an underlying protective mechanism might be at work. Every time you take a concentrated dose of sea buckthorn extract you make a concerted effortto boost the number of stem cells in your circulation. You kick them into action to go in search of things that need repair, Jensen said.

Jensen said future avenues of research could delver deeper into how this rapid mobilization of stem cells takes place. She said its quite likely that the gut/brain connection is involved, as stem cell levels start to rise before significant amounts of the contents of the berry extract could be digested and cross the blood/gut barrier.

If you are consuming a natural product that works fast it is likely due ot a signal from the gut to the brain likely because of the vagus nerve or other pathways, she said.

Im advocating for a deeper understandingin our industryhow the many natural products we are working with are tapping into and supportingnatural physiological processes, Jensen said.

Source: Clinical Interventions in AgingDOI: 10.2147/CIA.S186893Rapid and Selective Mobilization of Specific Stem Cell Types After Consumption of a Polyphenol-Rich Extract From Sea Buckthorn Berries ( Hippophae) in Healthy Human SubjectsAuthors: Drapeau C, Benson KF, Jensen GS

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Researcher says stem cell activation could lie at root of health effects of many natural products - NutraIngredients-usa.com

Scientists explore using CAR-T and other engineered immune cells to target COVID-19 – FierceBiotech

CAR-T and TCR-T therapies that involve engineering a patients own immune cells with antigen-specific receptors have revolutionized blood cancer treatment. Nowscientists at Duke-NUS Medical School are exploring the possibility of turning the approach against COVID-19.

The idea of using CAR/TCR-T cell therapy has already been proposed for treating chronic viral infections such as HIV and hepatitis B. Based on previous research, Antonio Bertoletti from Duke-NUS emerging infectious diseases research program suggest these immunotherapies might also be useful in treating SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing the current pandemic.

We demonstrated that T cells can be redirected to target the coronavirus responsible for SARS. Our team has now begun exploring the potential of CAR/TCR T cell immunotherapy for controlling the COVID-19-causing virus, SARS-CoV-2, and protecting patients from its symptomatic effects, Bertoletti said in a statement.

Virtual Clinical Trials Online

This virtual event will bring together industry experts to discuss the increasing pace of pharmaceutical innovation, the need to maintain data quality and integrity as new technologies are implemented and understand regulatory challenges to ensure compliance.

These types of therapies involve modifying patients' own T cells with either a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) or a T-cell receptor (TCR) that can recognize specific antigens associated with cancer,and then guiding the immune cells to eradicate the targets when infused back into the patients.

In a 2011 article published in the Journal of Virology, Bertoletti led a team that generated TCR-T cells that can go after SARS, another coronavirus that caused a deadly outbreak in China and other countries in late 2002 and early 2003.

The team showed that those TCR-redirected T cells displayed a functional profile similar to that of SARS-specific memory CD8 T cells from people who recovered from SARS-CoV infection. Based on the findings, the researchers suggested that TCR-T cells represent a promising prophylactic or therapeutic treatment for SARS.

RELATED:How 'duoCAR-T' cells could clear HIV and prevent resurgence of virus reservoirs

CAR-T cells have been explored in other viruses. A research team from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the University of Pittsburgh, for example,designed duoCAR-T cells that target three sites on the HIV envelope glycoprotein. In the lab, the cell therapy eliminated up to 99% of immune cells infected with different strains of HIV.

Despite thepromise of T-cell therapies, however, Bertoletti and colleague Anthony Tanoto Tan cautioned about potential safety concerns of using them to treat viral infections affecting vital organs. For one thing, CAR-T treatments havebeen linked to the dangerous side effect called cytokine release syndrome, in which overreactive immune cells launch an inflammatory response that can destroy organs, they said in a recent Journal of Experimental Medicine commentary. Similar cytokine storm effects have been reported in somesevere COVID-19 patients, leading to potentially life-threatening lung inflammations.

[T]he infusion ofT cells stably expressingpathogen-specific CAR/TCR poses therisk that these T cells might proliferate and wipe out all the infected cells that might be the majority of the infected organ, Bertoletti and Tanoto Tan wrote in their article.

To addressthat problem, Bertoletti and colleagues are using mRNA electroporation to engineer CAR/TCR T cells, which they say can limit their inflammatory capability and shorten the functional activity. That may offer a safer way to use engineered immune cells to treat viral diseases.

Several organizations are also working on cell therapies for COVID-19. AlloVir and Baylor College of Medicine have teamed up to develop an off-the-shelf therapy that entails exposing donor T cells to cytokines combined with viral fragments so the new cells can target the novel coronavirus. Celgene spinoff Celularity just started clinical trial of its cancer treatment CYNK-001 for COVID-19. The drugturns placental stem cells into one-size-fits-all natural killer cells.

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Scientists explore using CAR-T and other engineered immune cells to target COVID-19 - FierceBiotech

Researchers use cell therapy to recover damaged brain areas in mice that suffered – Mirage News

Dispositiu per a realitzar registres electrofisiolgics amb les llums LED incorporades per lus doptogentica.

Equip investigador.

Researchers from Lund University (Sweeden) and the Institute of Neurosciences of the University of Barcelona (UBNeuro) have recovered, through cell therapy, the mobility and sensibility of mice that suffered a cardiovascular accident. The results of this study were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Researchers used an ischemic model of ictus in mice to which they transferred stem cells obtained from the skin of a healthy human donor. The cells were reprogramed to become neuronal progenitors of the damaged area of the brain, specifically the brain cortex. Six months after the transplant, researchers could observe how the new cells had repaired the damage that was caused by the cerebrovascular injury. In addition, the sensor and motor problems resulting from the stroke had been reversed as well.

We observed that the fibers of the cells that were put in the cortical area grew and created connections in brain areas that are far from the transplant area, notes Daniel Tornero, researcher in the Laboratory of Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine in UBNeuro. To identify the transplanted cells, researches used different techniques that enable the monitoring so as to prove the connection in damaged circuits is right. Although there is a lot of work to do -the researcher adds-, the study sheds light on the possibility of replacing the damaged cells for new healthy cells in patients with ictus.

This is the last study of a series of three articles in which the researchers used cell therapy to work on brain healing. Previous studies showed it is possible to transplant nervous cells derived from human stem cells or reprogrammed cells in the brain of mice affected by cardiovascular injuries. However, researchers did not know whether the transformed cells could create new connections in the mice brains and restore the movement and feelings of touch.

The next step is to understand how the transplant affects intellectual functions such as memory, and the potential adverse effects, concludes Tornero.

Article reference:

S. Palma-Tortosa, D. l Tornero, M. Grnning Hansen, E. Monni, M. Hajy, S. Kartsivadze, S. Aktay, O. Tsupykov, M. Parmar, K. Deisseroth, G. Skibo, O. Lindvall, y Z. Kokaia. Activity in grafted human iPS cellderived corticalneurons integrated in stroke-injured rat brain regulatesmotor behavior. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Doi: doi: 10.1073/pnas.2000690117

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Researchers use cell therapy to recover damaged brain areas in mice that suffered - Mirage News

Lessons for medical profession during management of covid-19 pandemic: Is there a silver lining? – Elets

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Covid 19 pandemic caused by corona virus has become a sort of global showstopper with apparently huge negative impact on human life as well as economy worldwide. It has, undeniably, emerged as a daunting challenge for medical profession in 21st century. Despite its glorious victories over the past pandemics of plague, cholera, polio and smallpox, medical profession is bracing itself to take on Covid 19 juggernaut. Currently, every person, layman or medical, is dismayed by ferocity of its spread and rapidity of its killing, particularly among high-risk persons. In various hotspots of this pandemic, healthcare systems are severely overwhelmed by clinical load of patients requiring hospitalization as well as intensive care. This is first time that medical professionals have a dual responsibility- to treat the patient as well as to prevent themselves from succumbing to same illness. While healthcare professionals all over the world are showing exemplary fortitude and gusto in dealing with this uphill task, it is time to decipher few lessons which can be usher in new era of healthcare following covid pandemic.Advantages of recent rationing of routine specialized medical services

Undeniably the patient load at various hospitals (both public as well as private) over last few weeks has hit the rock bottom due to peoples reluctance and doctors hesitance in engaging with medical care. Even suggesting going to hospital is sending shivers down the spine of a person with simple fever or cough. This sudden aversion to hospital visits clearly echoes the scenario 150 years back when hospitals were first established in western world. The hospitals in early America were primarily used as alms-houses for homeless poor and getting hospitalized was a stigma for the society (Health, Illness, and Society: An Introduction to Medical Sociology By Steven E. Barkan). Same stigma has resurfaced now during covid 19 pandemic, though in a different social and medical context.

Elective procedures are almost at standstill for following two reasons: First, as an austerity measure to preserve potential resources for covid patients and second, to protect the vulnerable from exposure to virus. Even, emergency facilities are also witnessing load shedding with recent reports of 40-70% decrease in STEMI (ST Elevated Myocardial Infarction) patients all over the world (https: //www. tctmd. com/ news/ mystery-missing-stemis-during-covid-19-pandemic). In a study published in Spain (by Rodrguez-Leor O et al), interventional cardiology is almost in a state of lockdown and surprisingly corresponding increase in medical management of heart disease patients is still slight. Published reports of activation of cardiac catheterization labs for STEMI patients also showed a decline of 38% (Garcia S, et al. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2020; Accepted Date: 7 April 2020). This should not be alone attributed to serious patients failing to reach hospitals due to fear of corona virus. Literature search easily reveals that false activation rate of catheterization labs ranges from 12.5-40% (by Degheim G et al JRSM Cardiovascular Disease 2019, Vol 8;1-5). Therefore, recent decline of 38% during Covid pandemic is concordance with previously reported false activation rate and thereby reflects avoidable or unnecessary therapeutic demand.

One potential upside of this recent drop in healthcare utilization is the reduction in too much medicine- a term gaining prominence in recent medical lexicon. This is wide ranging concept which encompasses processes like over-detection (diagnosing harmless, static or incidental conditions which will either resolve spontaneously or do not progress), over-definition (where thresholds for diagnosing illnesses are gradually lowered leading to quasi-indications for treatment) and over-selling (by alarming patients with insidious symptoms mirroring serious pathology, carpet testing for some vague symptoms till patient is medically labelled)(BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine February 2018 | volume 23 | number 1). These terms assume importance when we look at the previously published data for out-of-pocket medical expenditure by patients with medical care. A recent study revealed that healthcare spending pushes 3.5 to 6.2% of Indian population below poverty line every year (BMC Public Health19, 1020; 2019). In another study using National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) data, odds of falling below poverty line were 38% higher for persons hospitalized with cardiovascular disease as compared to communicable disease (Engelgau MM, Karan A, Mahal A. The Economic impact of Noncommunicable Diseases on households in India. Global Health 2012; 8: 9). Importantly, spread of covid 19 is already forcing every hospital or healthcare institute for rationing of medical care and many hospital-based practices including tests and procedures routinely performed before covid 19 catastrophe have suddenly become redundant and avoidable( by Wang X & Bhatt DL in J of Invasive Cardiology 2020; 32 (4): E81-E84).

Since most hospitals are not currently teaming up with non covid patients, the burden of pervasive hospital acquired antibiotic resistance pathogens is also likely to ebb. Past data had shown that 7% of patients from developed countries and 10% from developing countries suffer from hospital acquired nosocomial infections at any given time totaling hundreds of millions worldwide every year (https://www.who.int/gpsc/country_ work/gpsc_ccisc_fact_sheet_en.pdf). This unintended break in continuum of hospital care is a valuable opportunity to sanitize all those hospitals which are not involved in active patient care of covid patients. In addition, medical research (mostly repetitive or redundant) in tertiary institutes has also come to standstill which will save patients from avoidable investigations and additional visits just for the sake of data collection. Finally, it is a rare medical touch point where patients are not being reprimanded by medical healthcare providers for delayed health care seeking and mutually participative healthcare actively guided by doctors on phones has become a new buzzword.

Advantages of emerging public health practices

With widespread practice of hand washing which has now emerged as a globally cherished pastime of human race, it can play a protective role against surge of bacterial infections during ongoing summer season. Also, if this forced ritual becomes a habit (very likely due to so many weeks of rigorous daily practice), the trend for community acquired bacterial infections is likely to be further blunted for longer duration. Food borne illnesses like typhoid, shigellosis and bacterial infections like staphylococcus are going to see notable fall in coming peak season. Worm infestations of children where dirty hands are the key culprit are also likely to recess as well. Recent emphasis on use of warm/hot water for repeated drinking as a guard against covid 19 will certainly play key role in stonewalling common waterborne illness like cholera and hepatitis A or E. Stringent guidelines for not coughing or sneezing in public with widespread use of masks will further stymie the spread of viral infections like measles, mumps, rubella as well as other flu viruses including H1N1.

Advantages of accompanying lockdown

Orthopaedic, neurosurgery and trauma wards are no more brimming with injured patients. It is quite apparent that trauma due to road traffic accidents and criminal acts is almost negligible during the lockdown.

With the rapidly accumulating evidence of fall in pollution levels of air, most medical professionals are going to see far a smaller number of acute exacerbations of asthma in children as well as adults. The impact of improving air quality on the incidence of other respiratory illnesses, cardiovascular disorders as well as lung cancer will be very interesting to monitor in near future.

Earlier most of the urban population was spending time indoors in the air-conditioned offices, cabs, metros or even homes. This lifestyle had morphed almost whole human race into vitamin D endemic species. Fortunately, with strictly imposed lockdown, people are forced to spend good amount of their daytime in the lawns, rooftops, balconies or corridors. Though there may be many who still are not fortunate to have enough sunlight exposure, yet overall lockdown has come as a blessing in disguise for the health of urban population. Availability of ample opportunities for exposure to sun will replenish the chronically depleted vitamin D stores, again a known immune booster which may be crucial during this time of crisis. Most mothers, wives as well as daughters are rediscovering the time tested and traditional recipes with rich repertoire of macro as well as micro nutrients which will further uplift and fortify the nutritional milieu of families. The typical middle-class penchant for enjoying fried, oily and refined sugar laced foods is also likely to be subdued due to limited availability of raw materials at homes during ongoing lockdown. This will further safeguard their health from risk of obesity and its subsequent health consequences. Renewed interest in intake of seasonal and local fruits available easily is another take-away of lockdown.

Party culture with access to unhealthy food as well as substances of abuse is certainly a nonstarter now. College students compelled to be at home are enjoying freshly prepared healthy home food. Most hostel messes providing nutritionally sub optimal meals are closed.

What will be the fate of NCDs-noncommunicable diseases due to lockdown following covid 19 pandemic? The patients with poor control of diabetes and hypertension are at risk of higher covid 19 morbidity as well as mortality. On the positive side, the fear of contagion itself may provide these high-risk patients further incentive to optimize their compliance with the treatment as well as other lifestyle measures like diet and exercise. Lockdown restrictions will certainly block the easy access of diabetic and hypertensive patients to less healthy outdoor food served at popular restaurants or eating joints- usually a rite of passage for urban population. Moreover, limited accessibility to cold drinks, snacks like chips, burgers, pizzas either directly in the market or through online food delivery services will further play a protective role in controlling the needless intake of sugar and salt in such patients. Additional risk factor increasing the human vulnerability to NCDs is trans fats (mainly embedded in food items available from market). Trans fats are the major offender for worsening metabolic as well as vascular health and during lockdown, they are likely to be replaced by healthy polyunsaturated fats and oils routinely available in the kitchens of most homes.

Substance abuse is one more niche area which is likely to see substantial change in coming weeks. Accessibility to regular supply of substances of abuse especially recreational drugs as well as alcohol are in serious jeopardy due to lockdown. Reports of addicts reporting major withdrawal symptoms are already getting media attention. High risk sexual behaviours as well as free access to red light areas have been restrained to large extent, hence expecting fall in STIs as well as HIV incidence.

Hospital driven care for various psycho social needs have also plummeted considerably. Except for major psychiatric illnesses, patients with common mental or psycho social health issues are clearly opting for either self-management or various alternative modes of care to safeguard their mental or psycho social health. Occupational injuries including those due to noise and light pollution have declined due to industrial shutdown and on long term, hazards of occupational exposure to toxins or poisonous substances will show beneficial trend. In addition, palpable decline in crime rate all over the world will have indirect impacts on the health of people in those high-risk localities, especially the children and women.

Emergence of cost-effective models of healthcare with participatory patient doctor relationship

Role of mobile or e-healthcare has skyrocketed in last few weeks as a surrogate for actual care at hospitals or clinics. The need for digitized medical care cannot be overemphasized in the backdrop of the fact that hospitals and their medical staff are emerging as hotspots of covid infection and are likely to act as super-spreaders. Hence, hospitals or medical care centres are no longer the safest niche for persons with routine sickness and people are, instead, voluntarily opting for tele care through their mobile phones. Also, family doctors as well as local health volunteers are efficiently filling the recent void in medical care. Frankly speaking, the covid pandemic lockdown has catalysed the redux of long-forgotten art of medical practice through either family doctors or local health volunteers in the present heavily institutionalized medical ecosystem. The current phase of covid turmoil is, indeed, a salvageable touch point for public health. Covid 19 has clearly proven that more than 80% of our population just needs a sound public health advice (hand washing, cough hygiene and social distancing), another 10-15% of population needs minimal medical support (like paracetamol) while remaining 5-10% population is salvageable with basic medical support (with oxygen, IV fluids and antibiotics/antimalarials). Importantly, none of them require massive public or private health institutes and well-trained health workers or volunteers are competent enough to deal with it. It is only 1% extreme outlier or even lower percentage of population who will be eligible for intensive healthcare with significant chunk of them unlikely to be salvageable. This model of pyramidal approach where only top 1% will require technically advanced medical care is uniformly applicable to rest of the diseases as well. Given the hierarchical needs of healthcare, a highly cost-effective framework of public health needs to be urgently prioritized over overbearingly technocratic medical science, both among lay public as well as policy makers.

The covid 19 pandemic is probably first instance where doctors are clearly finding themselves as or even more susceptible than their patients whom they treat. Reflecting thoughtfully, covid 19 is showing medical fraternity a mirror to judge their much-vaunted prowess as demigods. Never ever a situation has arrived in modern medicine where doctors find themselves at receiving end in treating patients as currently happening with covid pandemic. There is almost a role reversal where instead of patients fearing their doctor, doctors are fearing their patients. Honestly, this is the greatest humbling moment in the history of modern medicine. Have you ever seen doctors repeatedly and pleadingly begging each and every person for such mundane household chores of washing their hands and keeping social distancing? In the era of robotic surgeries, organ transplantations, stem cell therapies and genomic medicine, isnt it an antithesis to the currently hyped medical armamentarium capable of potentially decimating any disease present in the world? On the other hand, almost every grandmother or nanny has been offering this time-tested household wisdom of regular hand washing (the current front line strategy to prevent covid spread) to the kids since time immemorial.

Surely once the crisis settles, there will be serious contemplation about the heavily distorted medical care pyramid which stands exposed by covid like threats looming over the whole humanity. The heavily institutionalized framework of healthcare has proven to be a limitation both for treating increasing burden of covid patients as well as preventing the further spread of infection. The weakened public health foundation of healthcare landscape is a serious caveat which needs urgent makeover. Importantly, people have this rare opportunity to reboot their demagogy of overarching importance of hospital driven medical realm. Most of our health issues are self-limiting, benign or non-threatening or stress precipitated. Let us reclaim the control of such problems from the hands of medical professionals and set up our own roadmap with active participation of public health institutions. Over-reliance on medicines and treatments is self-defeating and preventive measures need to take centre stage in our daily lives. Luckily, there is a golden opportunity for people to allow natural healing of their bodies as well as minds unconfounded by medical care. Analysis of such data will motivate people to rediscover their self confidence in natural healing of body as well as other alternative sciences of healthcare.

Natures Experiment with Covid Intervention

Looking from natures perspective, it seems that a prospective controlled trial has been implemented in the world? It is not a multi-centric or multi-country, but it is a multi-continental research trial. And the intervention being tested is primum non nocere a Hippocratic oath first, do no harm. The data are being sequentially collected from precovid world (baseline or control phase) and covid affected world (study intervention phase). The precovid world which had been heavily dependent upon modernized medical care for last many decades will provide data for control or baseline phase. For the intervention phase, fresh data are being generated from all major hospitals where non-covid medical care has almost completely halted (a constrained form of primum non nocere). The data of baseline phase are already widely available in literature. The results have shown that nearly one in every 10 patients in developed countries is harmed due to hospital care, 50% of which is preventable (www.who.int features fact files patient_safety). The baseline scenario is more alarming in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where hazardous hospital care causes 134 million adverse events leading to 2.6 million deaths every year. Now with a global lockdown due to corona virus pandemic, routine hospital care has almost ceased. Only limited cases are being treated and all resources are diverted towards management of patients with Covid 19 illness. In this scenario, it would be quite revealing to know the magnitude of harm inflicted every year due to medical care. If such data are collated from all over the world throughout the covid pandemic, it would provide a unique and valuable comparative insight about the magnitude of harm posed simply by failure of Hippocratic principle of first do no harm.

Actionable Metrics for future roadmap

Few statistical indicators will certainly offer deep insight into the real need of medical care in our modern society. The sales of medicines, the hospital admission as well as readmission rates, number of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures as well as surgeries performed, healthcare spending, baseline rates of commonly reported hospital illness before and during covid 19 pandemic and final mortality data (both non covid as well as covid related deaths) stratified by age, gender, socioeconomic strata as well as severity of underlying illness will be immensely discerning metrics for policy makers and planners. Interestingly, experts with institutionalized mindset of health care model are attributing recent decline in healthcare demands for non covid illnesses as lull before storm. So far, the post covid Wuhan scenario seems to contradict the lull before storm theory of missing non covid illnesses and there are no alarming media reports that non covid mortality has spiked due to shutdown of most hospitals or clinic based medical centres. However, if things do not show the expected resurgence as fore casted by many experts, then it is high time to reboot the mindset of policy makers as well as public for better, safer, cheaper and simpler healthcare paradigms as well as models of care.

Take home message

It is high time that our highly institutionalized medical profession must cross the Rubicon and commit to Home Based Medical Care (HBMC) and Self-Monitoring (SM) as new paradigms of healthcare. Hopefully, the post covid zeitgeist is going to be marked with patient centric as well as patient driven care aided actively by public health institutions over hospital driven management protocols.

(Disclaimer: The author is Dr Sahul Bharti, MD Pediatrics (PGI, Chandigarh), PDCC Pediatric Endocrinology (SGPGI, Lucknow), Dip Statistics (PU, Chandigarh). He is Sat Pal Mittal National Award winner & founder of research based NGO-Build Healthy India Movement (BHIM). Views expressed are a personal opinion.)

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Lessons for medical profession during management of covid-19 pandemic: Is there a silver lining? - Elets

Scientists from IKBFU, Moscow and Kiev conducted research on treating obesity – Science Codex

In the 21st century, the search for methods of treating noncommunicable diseases, such as obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes are among the top priorities. Prevention and treatment of these diseases include changing and controlling lifestyle, diet, and the use of pharmaceuticals.

Despite the progress in medicine and pharmacology (developing new solutions for correcting metabolism) and biotechnologies, new effective approaches are still on demand in treating obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes.

Researchers note that adipose tissue is one of the key players in the development of obesity and diabetes. Adipose tissue is classified both by anatomical location and by function (white and brown fat). So, the main functions of white adipose tissue are to save energy in the form of lipids, and it also has an endocrine function - the secretion of hormones, growth factors, cytokines, chemokines, etc.

The function of brown adipose tissue is to generate heat during adaptive thermogenesis (the process of generating heat in response to cold stimulation). In humans, unlike rodents (laboratory animals most widely used in medical experiments, including modeling of obesity, metabolic syndrome and diabetes), brown adipose tissue is present in significant numbers only in newborns and infants. Recently, the existence of active thermogenic adipose tissue in adults has been shown, but this adipose tissue differs from classical brown adipose tissue in several aspects (development, morphology, gene expression, adipokine production, etc.). This adipose tissue is called "brown".

All types of adipocytes (cells that make up adipose tissue mainly) arise from adipose stem cells during differentiation. Currently, the question of the origin of brown adipocytes (from the same stem cell as white adipocytes, or from the same stem cell as brown adipocytes, or from its own stem cell), as well as the ability of white adipose tissue to differentiate into brown adipose tissue.

The ability to control the formation of new adipose tissue, turn white adipose tissue into brown one, or determine the direction of adipocyte stem cell differentiation into a specific subtype is an attractive goal for the development of new pharmacological substances for the treatment of obesity, metabolic syndrome and diabetes.

In addition to the search for new pharmacological substances designed to control the functions of adipose tissue or various other biochemical aspects of energy homeostasis, it is also important to study the role of water in human health, metabolism and the pathogenesis of various diseases. Water is the most abundant chemical substance on Earth and makes up the largest mass fraction in living organisms as a percentage. Water is also a universal solvent in which the basic biochemical processes of living organisms occur.

An important component of a healthy diet is drinking water instead of sugar and soda. So, the modulation of the biological and physico-chemical properties of water is also a promising opportunity to increase the effectiveness of the treatment of said diseases.

Dr. Larisa Litvinova, Ph.D. in Medicine, Head of the Immunology and Cell Biotechnologies Laboratory^

"One of the focuses of modern medicine is the development of deuterium-containing drugs. Another direction relates to the role of the D/H ratio of isotopology and its change in water, which will be used as

an adjuvant in the treatment of cancer. A different D/H ratio manifests itself in the form of a kinetic isotope effect, which is characterized by a change in the rates of biotransformation and excretion of drugs. Moreover, methodological approaches to the quality control of medicines based on isotopology of water could reduce the toxic load on the body".

IKBFU Scientists Larisa Litvinova and Maria Wulf were conducting the research in cooperation with colleagues from Moscow and Kiev and the goal of the research was to find out whether deuterium is engaged in differentiation of adipose tissue stem cells regulation. Adipogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells was chosen as an in vitro model, where the efficiency of the formation of mature fat cells from precursor cells in media with different deuterium contents was evaluated.

The data on the effect of various concentrations of deuterium on the efficiency and direction (formation of brown/beige or white adipocytes) of differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells in an in vitro model system were obtained in the study. Naturally for the possible practical application of these results, additional studies are needed that would allow a more detailed description of the molecular mechanisms of the influence of various concentrations of deuterium at the cellular level, as well as studies at the body level.

The results of the study are published in the article "The influence of deuterium on the effectiveness and type of adipogenic differentiation of stem cells of human adipose tissue in vitro" in the Scientific Reports journal.

The results can serve as the basis for the development of new approaches in the treatment of obesity, metabolic syndrome and diabetes, by regulating the differentiation of fat stem cells and adipocyte functions.

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Scientists from IKBFU, Moscow and Kiev conducted research on treating obesity - Science Codex

Outlook on the Worldwide Amniotic Membrane Industry to 2027 – Strategic Recommendations for New Entrants – Yahoo Finance

Dublin, April 24, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Amniotic Membrane - Global Market Outlook (2018-2027)" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Global Amniotic Membrane market accounted for $979.07 million in 2018 and is expected to reach $2650.28 million by 2027 growing at a CAGR of 11.7% during the forecast period. Rise in the geriatric population, increase in technological advancements and surge in awareness to reduce healthcare costs are the major factors propelling the market growth. However, factors such as dearth of skilled professionals are hampering the market growth.

Amniotic membrane is a combination of tissues and cells which helps in wound healing by being as a foundation for re-development of soft tissues. These are most widely used in eye surgery as a biological bandage to heal or replace damaged eye tissue.

Based on the end user, the hospitals segment is going to have a lucrative growth during the forecast period due to common visits by patients and its ability to cater to a varied range of surgical interventions. By geography, North America is going to have a lucrative growth during the forecast period owing to increasing the number of ophthalmic surgeries in the United States due to the geriatric population and presence of well-established healthcare infrastructure.

Some of the key players profiled in the Amniotic Membrane Market include Tissue-Tech Inc. (Amniox Medical Inc.), Skye Biologics Inc., MiMedx Group Inc., Katena Products, Inc. (IOP Ophthalmics), Integra Lifesciences Holdings Corporation (Derma Sciences Inc.), Human Regenerative Technologies, LLC, FzioMed Inc., Applied Biologics LLC, Amnio Technology, LLC and AlliquaBioMedical Inc.

What the report offers:

Key Topics Covered:

1 Executive Summary

2 Preface2.1 Abstract2.2 Stake Holders2.3 Research Scope2.4 Research Methodology2.5 Research Sources

3 Market Trend Analysis3.1 Introduction3.2 Drivers3.3 Restraints3.4 Opportunities3.5 Threats3.6 Product Analysis3.7 Application Analysis3.8 End User Analysis3.9 Emerging Markets3.10 Impact of Covid-19

4 Porters Five Force Analysis4.1 Bargaining power of suppliers4.2 Bargaining power of buyers4.3 Threat of substitutes4.4 Threat of new entrants4.5 Competitive rivalry

5 Global Amniotic Membrane Market, By Product5.1 Introduction5.2 Cryopreserved Amniotic Membrane5.3 Lyophilization Amniotic Membrane5.4 Dehydrated Amniotic Membrane

6 Global Amniotic Membrane Market, By Age Group6.1 Introduction6.2 Children6.3 Adults

7 Global Amniotic Membrane Market, By Application7.1 Introduction7.2 Surgical Wounds7.3 Stem Cell Biology7.4 Regenerative Medicine7.5 Prenatal Diagnosis7.6 Ophthalmology

8 Global Amniotic Membrane Market, By End User8.1 Introduction8.2 Specialized Clinics8.3 Hospitals8.4 Ambulatory Surgical Centers8.5 Academic Research Centers & Laboratory

9 Global Amniotic Membrane Market, By Geography9.1 Introduction9.2 North America9.2.1 US9.2.2 Canada9.2.3 Mexico9.3 Europe9.3.1 Germany9.3.2 UK9.3.3 Italy9.3.4 France9.3.5 Spain9.3.6 Rest of Europe9.4 Asia Pacific9.4.1 Japan9.4.2 China9.4.3 India9.4.4 Australia9.4.5 New Zealand9.4.6 South Korea9.4.7 Rest of Asia Pacific9.5 South America9.5.1 Argentina9.5.2 Brazil9.5.3 Chile9.5.4 Rest of South America9.6 Middle East & Africa9.6.1 Saudi Arabia9.6.2 UAE9.6.3 Qatar9.6.4 South Africa9.6.5 Rest of Middle East & Africa

10 Key Developments10.1 Agreements, Partnerships, Collaborations and Joint Ventures10.2 Acquisitions & Mergers10.3 New Product Launch10.4 Expansions10.5 Other Key Strategies

11 Company Profiling11.1 Tissue-Tech Inc (Amniox Medical Inc)11.2 Skye Biologics Inc11.3 MiMedx Group Inc11.4 Katena Products Inc (IOP Ophthalmics)11.5 Integra Lifesciences Holdings Corporation (Derma Sciences Inc)11.6 Human Regenerative Technologies LLC11.7 FzioMed Inc11.8 Applied Biologics LLC11.9 Amnio Technology LLC11.10 Alliqua BioMedical Inc

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Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

CONTACT: ResearchAndMarkets.comLaura Wood, Senior Press Managerpress@researchandmarkets.comFor E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

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Outlook on the Worldwide Amniotic Membrane Industry to 2027 - Strategic Recommendations for New Entrants - Yahoo Finance

Regenerative Medicine Market With Economic Growth And Five Forces Analysis By 2024 – Kentucky Journal 24

Overview: Regenerative medicine is an interdisciplinary field that applies life science and engineering principles for the regeneration or repair of injured/diseased tissues or organs resulting from various causes including, disease, defects, trauma and aging. The field includes the generation and use of tissue engineering, therapeutic stem cells and the production of artificial organs. It also allows scientists to grow organs or tissues in the lab and implant them in the body safely when the body fails to heal itself. Notably, it has great potential to solve the problem of organ shortage. According to the estimation of World Health Organization, there is an increasing prevalence of diabetes among adults over the age of 18 years, that has increased to 8.5% in 2014 compared to 4.5% in 1980 across the globe. As per the estimation of Arthritis Foundation, the number of people expected to be diagnosed from arthritis will be more than 78 million, by 2040.

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The market for regenerative medicine is driven by increasing prevalence of neuronal disease, cancer and genetic disease, emerging application of regenerative medicine, and advancement in technology. Huge number of ongoing clinical trails and strong product pipeline are providing market growth oppurtunity. High cost of the treatment, regulatory issues and ethical issuesare hampering the market growth.

Market Analysis: The Global Regenerative Medicine market is estimated to witness a CAGR of 16.6% during the forecast period 20182024. The global market is analyzed based on three segments Therapy, Application and regions.

Regional Analysis: The regions covered in the report are the North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World (ROW). North America is the major shareholder in the global regenerative medicine market, followed by Europe. Asia-Pacific region is expected to have the fastest growth rate with the market growth centered at Japan, China and India. This is mainly due to increasing funding in healthcare research, rising research activities, growing patient pool, flexible regulatory environment for clinical trials, and rising healthcare expenditure.

Therapy Analysis: Immunotherapy occupied major market share of global regenerative medicine market in 2017, and is expected to remain same during the forecasted period. Increasing product approvals, emerging technological advancements in cell and gene therapy, flexible regulatory for stem cell based research, and growing awareness regarding the benefits of stem cell therapies.

Application Analysis: The market by application is segmented into cancer, central nervous system, orthopedic and musculoskeletal, diabetes, dermatology, cardiovascular and others. Among various application, dermatology occupied the largest share in 2017 and cancer segment is expected to grow at fastest rate during the forecasted period. Growing aging population, changing lifestyle, increasing disease prevalence makes cancer, the fastest growing application segment during the forecasted period.

Key Players: Allergan plc, Integra lifesciences, Mimedx Group, Inc., Medtronic plc, Organogenesis Inc., Zimmer Biomet, Acelity L.P. Inc., Nuvasive, Inc., Stryker Corporation, Japan Tissue Engineering Co., Ltd. (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation subsidiary), Osiris Therapeutics, Inc., Vericel Corporation and other predominate and niche players.

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Competitive Analysis: Currently dermatology segment dominates the global regenerative medicine segment. A lot of researches are going on cancer, CNS, cardiovascular, orthopedic & musculoskeletal applications. The increasing importance of regenerative medicine has resulted in the launch of new products and also increased acquisition, approvals, funding to develop new product. For instance, in August 2017, Tissue Regenix Group plc completed the acquisition of acquisition of CellRight Technologies, an US based specialist in regenerative osteoinductive bone scaffolds. In April 2018, Roche acquired a program named Inception 5, focused on regenerative therapies for multiple sclerosis. In May 2018, Novartis received second FDA approval for Kymriah, CAR-T cell therapy for B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

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Benefits: The report provides complete details about the usage and adoption rate of regenerative medicine in various therapeutic verticals and regions. With that, key stakeholders can know about the major trends, drivers, investments, and vertical players initiatives. Moreover, the report provides details about the major challenges that are going to impact on the market growth. Additionally, the report gives the complete details about the key business opportunities to key stakeholders to expand their business and capture the revenue in the specific verticals to analyze before investing or expanding the business in this market.

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Regenerative Medicine Market With Economic Growth And Five Forces Analysis By 2024 - Kentucky Journal 24

Northwestern Scientists Awarded Top Honors for Achievement in Clinical Research – Northwestern University NewsCenter

Northwestern University scientists received top honors from the Clinical Research Forum as part of its 2020 Top Ten Clinical Research Achievement Awards program, taking home the associations highest honor and capturing more finalist nominations than any other institution.

The remarkable success of these brilliant and dedicated investigators shows the strength and breadth of Northwesterns clinical research program and demonstrates our shared commitment as an institution to groundbreaking science that transforms human health, said Eric G. Neilson, MD, vice president for medical affairs and Lewis Landsberg Dean, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

John Rogers, PhD, the Louis Simpson and Kimberly Querrey Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Neurological Surgery, was awarded the prestigious Herbert Pardes Clinical Research Excellence Award for the research study that best shows a high degree of innovation and creativity, advances science and has an impact upon human disease.

Richard Burt, MD, chief of Immunotherapy and Autoimmune Diseases in the Department of Medicine, was chosen to receive the Distinguished Clinical Research Award. Norrina Allen, PhD, associate professor of Preventive Medicine in the Division of Epidemiology, and Daniela Matei, MD, the Diana, Princess of Wales Professor of Cancer Research and a professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology, were also named to the list of top 20 finalists.

Rogers and Burt are members of the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences (NUCATS) Institute. The Clinical Research Forum, an organization dedicated to supporting the clinical translational research enterprise and promoting understanding and support for clinical research and its impact on health and healthcare, celebrates outstanding research accomplishments that exemplify innovation and impact on human disease.

Northwestern studies honored by the Clinical Research Forum are:

Skin-like Devices for Wireless Monitoring of Vital Signs in Neonatal Intensive Care (John Rogers, PhD), published in Science. Reporting on the development and validation of a pair of soft, flexible wireless sensors that replace the tangle of wire-based sensors that currently monitor babies in hospitals neonatal intensive care units. The study concluded that that the wireless sensors provided data as precise and accurate as that from traditional monitoring systems, and were gentler on a newborns fragile skin and allow for more skin-to-skin contact with the parent, which has been shown to improve the health of infants and promote emotional bonding.

Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation for Frequently Relapsing Multiple Sclerosis (Richard Burt, MD), published in JAMA. Reporting the success of a process called hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, which temporarily shuts down and reboots patients immune systems with the application of a patients own stem cells, this study demonstrated significant improvement over the current therapies. The study found benefits for patients which no drug had been able to accomplish before.

Associations of Dietary Cholesterol or Egg Consumption with Incident Cardiovascular Disease and Mortality (Norrina Allen, PhD), published in JAMA.

The results of this large study found that adults who ate more eggs and dietary cholesterol had a significantly higher risk of cardiovascular disease and death from any cause.

The study suggested that current U.S. dietary guideline recommendations for dietary cholesterol and eggs, one of the richest sources of dietary cholesterol among all commonly consumed foods, may need to be re-evaluated.

Adjuvant Chemotherapy plus Radiation for Locally Advanced Endometrial Cancer (Daniela Matei, MD), published in New England Journal of Medicine.

This study found that radiation combined with chemotherapy did not increase recurrence-free survival in women with stage III/IVA endometrial cancer, normally the standard of care in these cases.

Endometrial cancer, which begins in the uterus, is the most common gynecologic cancer with most cases occurring in women after age 55, and both occurrence of and mortality from the disease are rising.

Nominees and Top Ten Awardees were announced at the end of January, and the Herbert Pardes Clinical Research Excellence Award and the Distinguished Clinical Research Achievement Awards were announced virtually on April 15.

Learn more about Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine at https://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/.

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Northwestern Scientists Awarded Top Honors for Achievement in Clinical Research - Northwestern University NewsCenter

Campus labs produce sample-preserving fluid for COVID-19 test kits – University of California

Widespread testing, even of those not showing symptoms, is one of the most effective ways to track the prevalence of coronavirus infections in communities.

The broad-based assays currently being ramped up by many hospitals and health systems around the country require a steady stream of single-use supplies. In addition to the familiar nasal/laryngeal swabs needed to collect samples, the much-sought-after test kits include vials of a liquid called viral transport medium that fixes and preserves those samples for later analysis in a lab.

UC Irvine Health has recently experienced increased demand for VTM, as medical staff recently have been conducting about 300 COVID-19 tests per day. Each test kit vial contains 2 milliliters of the fluid, so the systems current daily requirement is approximately 600 milliliters.

Logistics officials at UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange realized that they had only two weeks before exhausting their inventory, so they asked UC Irvines Emergency Operations Center which has been integrally involved in many aspects of the campuss response to the coronavirus crisis about a solution.

Randall Styner, emergency management director and EOC coordinator, shared the request recently on one of his groups regularly scheduled video conferences, and participants sprang into action. A follow-up call was scheduled between the UC Irvine Office of Research and medical center staff to ascertain whether VTM could be synthesized in campus labs and, if so, which labs could be utilized; if the necessary chemicals and reagents were on hand; and how much of the liquid was required.

Right then and there, we determined that it would be possible to do this, Styner says. VTM is basically a preservative made of materials that are common in lab settings, and its used all over campus.

Our people are wildly enthusiastic about doing something to help those in need.Aileen Anderson

He reached out to Bruce Morgan, associate vice chancellor for research administration, to see if his organization would approve of making VTM in UC Irvine labs and for help in soliciting faculty expertise. The request went up to Pramod Khargonekar, vice chancellor for research, who quickly gave the green light.

All indicators were pointing to this thing shooting down the rails like a rocket, Styner says. As soon as the word got out, people started getting a plan together.

Among the first to be contacted was the Department of Chemistry, since its faculty have unrivaled experience in mixing chemicals. Gregory Weiss, a professor in the department, sent a message asking colleagues in the School of Physical Sciences, the School of Biological Sciences and the School of Medicine to locate materials. They did so within hours.

The request from the vice chancellor for research was pretty extraordinary, and everybody dropped everything to respond, Weiss says.

The VTM synthesis project ultimately moved to the School of Medicine because its faculty have extensive expertise in required cell culture procedures.

We set up a mini-task force of related medical investigators and faculty from various schools, says Aileen Anderson, professor of physical medicine & rehabilitation and director of the Sue & Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center. We sourced all the reagents needed for the media and set up a system to manage production in Gross Hall with social distancing measures in place to protect our staff.

Styner says that many of the components of VTM are readily available at UC Irvine and that teams here will create it under Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. The fluid is a mixture of saline, disinfectant, and such exotic ingredients as fetal bovine serum and sheep blood agar. Other necessary reagents were obtained from a supplier in Orange County.

Labs on campus should be able to generate more than enough VTM for COVID-19 testing through UC Irvine Health, Styner says, and UC Irvine will make the solution available to other healthcare providers in the region who need it. Anderson says UC Irvine will produce enough VTM for 16,000 test kits over the next four to six weeks, with the first of it reaching the medical center by April 10.

Were happy to lend our support in any way we can, she says. Our people are wildly enthusiastic about doing something to help those in need.

Khargonekar says the project is a great example of what the campus research community can do to help the medical center in this crisis, adding, Im very inspired by the tremendous energy and speed with which people are rising to the challenges.

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Campus labs produce sample-preserving fluid for COVID-19 test kits - University of California