Wisconsin virologists have outlined in atomic detail the intricate RNA replication machines that coronaviruses create inside infected cells, giving rise to potential new strategies to fight disease.
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) released an image of scientists taking a swab from a straw-colored fruit bat (Eidolon helvum) to test it for zoonotic diseases such as the Ebola virus.
The federally funded COVID-19 Prevention Network was instrumental in the rapid development of safe, effective and lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines during earlier phases of the pandemic. This vital work to expedite Phase 3 clinical trials also resulted in a 'treasure trove' of data, thanks to a highly collaborative and harmonized approach that can serve as a national and even international model for major research initiatives while also guiding responses to future public health emergencies.
Sepsis can cause dangerously low blood pressure, which is typically treated with intravenous (IV) fluids and/or a vasopressor, a drug that causes constriction of the blood vessels. Whether treatment of sepsis-induced low pressure should primarily be treated with IV fluids or vasopressors has been debated for decades with no clear answer.
Researchers at University of California San Diego and UC Riverside have further elucidated the molecular pathway used by the SARS-CoV-2 virus to infect human lung cells, identifying a key host-cell player that may prove a new and enduring therapeutic target for treating COVID-19.
Using prenatal magnetic resonance imaging, a group of MedUni Vienna researchers examined the placentas and foetuses of women who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 during pregnancy.
amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, has awarded Luis J. Montaner, D.V.M., D.Phil., in collaboration with Mohamed Abdel-Mohsen, Ph.D., a Target Grant for $397,663 over two years.
MedStar Washington Hospital Center has opened a new state-of-the-art Biocontainment Unit (BCU) to care for patients who contract highly infectious diseases. Located near the Emergency Room, the new multi-purpose 15-bed unit will be used primarily for observation and flexed for respiratory isolation and further flexed to care for patients with highly contagious conditions, such as Ebola.
Seeking to better understand more about the origins and movement of bubonic plague, in ancient and contemporary times, researchers at McMaster University, University of Sydney and the University of Melbourne, have completed a painstaking granular examination of hundreds of modern and ancient genome sequences, creating the largest analysis of its kind.
Internationally recognized epidemiologist Saad B. Omer, M.B.B.S, Ph.D., who currently directs the Yale Institute for Global Health, has been appointed the inaugural Dean of the Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Health at UT Southwestern Medical Center.
James Collins III, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Pharmacology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, will receive the 2023 Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award in Biological Sciences from The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas (TAMEST) for broadening understanding of schistosomiasis.
New UCLA-led research suggests that antiretroviral drugs called TAF and TDF directly reduce energy production by mitochondria, structures inside cells that generate the power that cells use to function. Both drugs led to reduced cellular oxygen consumption rates, a measure of the ability of the mitochondria to produce energy, compared with controls.
In this study of 1,832 U.S. adults, the risk of reporting symptoms for 28 or more days after COVID-19 onset was significantly higher in participants who were unvaccinated at the time of infection and those who reported moderate or severe acute illness symptoms.
If pharmaceutical companies shared their intellectual property rights to vaccines with the global community, millions of lives could be saved in future pandemics, according to a new paper co-authored by faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York.
The global network led by the Oxford Maternal and Perinatal Health Institute (OMPHI) at the University of Oxford has published in the journal Lancet the results of the ‘2022 INTERCOVID Study’ conducted in 41 hospitals across 18 countries, including Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.
Just as a highly transmissible variant prompts officials to extend COVID-19 emergency status, one of the largest surveys ever conducted shows people are more willing to get vaccinated when health workers reveal how many others are doing so.
A new study led by scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) shows how ideal antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 hit their marks. Now scientists are looking at how we might harness their power in new antibody therapeutics and even more effective COVID-19 vaccines.
The researchers screened a library of drugs using a mouse endothelial cell line to identify pathways that are involved in the regulation of Robo4 and found that two competitive SMAD signaling pathways appear to regulate Robo4 expression. When the researchers treated LPS-injected mice with a drug that inhibits ALK1-SMAD signaling, they observed increased Robo4 expression, decreased vascular permeability, and reduced mortality.
High levels of mucosal IgA antibodies in the airways protect against SARS-CoV-2 infection for at least eight months. Omicron infection generates durable mucosal antibodies, reducing the risk of re-infection.
Nonpharmaceutical interventions slowed the spread of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases but now, as NPIs are lifted, countries are seeing a resurgence in several respiratory diseases. In Chaos, scientists, using data from Hong Kong to develop their model, describe a threshold control method that can be used to predict the best time to lift NPIs without overwhelming the hospital systems when these other respiratory diseases inevitably surge back. They found that reintroducing NPI measures when a threshold of 600 severe cases is reached could ensure that the hospital system in Hong Kong is not overwhelmed by severely infected patients.
NEW YORK, NY – Jan. 17, 2023 – The American Thoracic Society is starting the new year poised to improve vaccination rates with three health system partners: University of Arizona/ Banner Health; West Virginia University Hospitals, Inc.; and San Francisco Health Network/ University of California.
A new test that ‘fishes’ for multiple respiratory viruses at once using single strands of DNA as ‘bait’, and gives highly accurate results in under an hour, has been developed by Cambridge researchers.
Results of the 18-month study, published in Lancet Regional Health - Americas and led by Amit Bahl, M.D., M.P.H., emergency medicine with Corewell Health East, formerly Beaumont Health, showed that while omicron cases had the highest hospital admission rates among children ages 0 to 17, serious, even deadly, cases of illness were less likely during omicron than during the delta and alpha variants. In fact, the odds of severe disease were 65% lower during omicron compared to alpha.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine say their new studies suggest that the first pandemic-accelerating mutation in the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, evolved as a way to correct vulnerabilities caused by the mutation that started the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
While COVID-19 boosters have been found to protect against infection, hospitalization, and severe illness, the waning of their protection has led to uncertainty about when it is most appropriate to get an additional booster shot.
Listening to music in daily life was significantly associated with lower levels of stress during the COVID-19 lockdown period in this study of 711 adults.
A new analysis by Cedars-Sinai investigators is furthering the scientific community’s understanding of COVID-19 immunity by showing that similar levels of COVID-19 antibodies are reached over an extended period of time in different population groups.
UBC researchers have identified three compounds that prevent COVID-19 infection in human cells, derived from natural sources including a B.C. sea sponge.
Global willingness to accept a COVID-19 vaccine increased from 75.2% in 2021 to 79.1% in 2022, according to a new survey of 23 countries that represent more than 60% of the world’s population, published today in Nature Medicine.
Smallpox was once one of humanity’s most devastating diseases, but its origin is shrouded in mystery. For years, scientific estimates of when the smallpox virus first emerged have been at odds with historical records.
Christian Bréchot, MD, PhD, President of the Global Virus Network (GVN), Associate Vice President for International Partnerships and Innovation at the University of South Florida and Professor of the Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Internal Medicine at USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, the GVN Southeast U.S. Regional Headquarters today issued a statement on the surge of SARS-CoV-2.
Below are summaries of recent Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center research findings and other news. Interested in news you may have missed in 2022 from Fred Hutch?
Sarcomas are cancer tumours found in e.g. the bones, muscles or fatty tissue. It is a rare type of cancer seen in only one per cent of cancer patients. It is complex and difficult to treat.
Simulations that help determine how a large-scale pandemic will spread can take weeks or even months to run. A recent study in PLOS Computational Biology offers a new approach to epidemic modeling that could drastically speed up the process.
Researchers at Hokkaido University have revealed the effects of high pathogenicity avian influenza virus infection on an Ezo red fox and a Japanese raccoon dog, linking their infection to a recorded die-off of crows.
NIH, in collaboration with the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response at HHS, has launched the Home Test to Treat program, an entirely virtual community health intervention that will provide free COVID-19 health services—at-home rapid tests, telehealth sessions and at-home treatments—in selected communities.
There are so many unknowns about long COVID. Why is the range of symptoms so vast? How do pre-existing conditions play a role? Scientists have developed a machine learning tool to accelerate discoveries using actual patient data.
The long-term effects of infection on the immune system have long intrigued John Tsang, a Yale immunobiologist. After the body has faced down a pathogen, does the immune system return to the previous baseline? Or does a single infection change it in ways that alter how it will respond not only to a familiar virus but also to the next new viral or bacterial threat it faces?
Breaking research demonstrates the efficacy of two data analytics-based strategies that clinical labs employed to meet COVID-19 testing demands during the height of the pandemic. These findings, published in the Data Science Issue of AACC’s The Journal of Applied Laboratory Medicine, give labs a blueprint for using data analytics to ensure patient access to testing during future infectious disease outbreaks.
A three-dose regimen of a whole-parasite vaccine against malaria – called Plasmodium falciparum sporozoite (PfSPZ) vaccine – demonstrated safety and efficacy when tested in adults living in Burkina Faso, West Africa, which has endemic malaria.
Salmonella are food-borne pathogens that infect millions of people a year. To do so, these bacteria depend on a complex network of genes and gene products that allow them to sense environmental conditions.
In this study of study of 385 patients ages 5 or older with a history of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), no serious adverse events were reported after COVID-19 vaccination.
Ubydul Haque, a geospatial epidemiologist who designs data- and technology-driven solutions for confronting global public health problems, has joined Rutgers Global Health Institute.