The front-runners in the vaccine race seem to be working far better than anyone expected: Pfizer and BioNTech announced this week that their vaccine had an efficacy rate of 95 percent. Moderna put the figure for its vaccine at 94.5 percent. In Russia, the makers of the Sputnik vaccine claimed their efficacy rate was over…
In some of the most remote and impoverished corners of the world, where respiratory illnesses abound and trained medical professionals fear to tread, diagnosis is increasingly powered by artificial intelligence and the internet. In less than a minute, a new app on a phone or a computer can scan an X-ray for signs of tuberculosis,…
The family of one epidemiologist plans to celebrate Thanksgiving in a garage, with tables 10 feet apart and the doors rolled up. Another epidemiologist’s family is forgoing a traditional meal for an outdoor hot cider toast with neighbors. A third is dining in an outdoor tent, with a heater, humidifier and air purifier running. And,…
Deep into his 60s, my father’s biceps threatened to rip his shirt sleeves when he reached to scratch his head. For decades, he supported my mother, brother and me by killing cattle with a mallet in one of the slaughterhouses that gave Manhattan’s now-fashionable meatpacking district its name. For my ninth birthday in 1938, he…
The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) is establishing ten new Research Training Groups (RTGs) to further support early career researchers. This was decided by the relevant Grants Committee, which met by video conference due to the coronavirus pandemic. The new RTGs will receive a total of approximately €48 million over a period of four…
The genetic code of the SARS-CoV2 virus is exactly 29,902 characters long, strung through a long RNA molecule. It contains the information for the production of 27 proteins. This is not much compared to the possible 40,000 kinds of protein that a human cell can produce. Viruses, however, use the metabolic processes of their host…
Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, in collaboration with Rady Children’s Institute for Genomic Medicine, have been awarded a five-year, $8.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to further illuminate the causes of spina bifida, the most common…
For COVID-19 Surveillance, Test Frequency and Turnaround Time Are Paramount, Modeling Suggests Speed of test results and frequency of testing are paramount for effective COVID-19 surveillance, suggests a new study that modeled trade-offs in test sensitivity, test frequency, and sample-to-answer reporting time, in select scenarios. Test sensitivity is secondary to these factors in the…
Philadelphia, November 20, 2020–Researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have resolved a severe lymphatic disorder in a girl with Noonan Syndrome that had led to upper gastrointestinal bleeding, fluid collection around the lungs, and numerous surgeries that had been unable to resolve her symptoms. By identifying a genetic mutation along a pathway related to…
Simon Fraser University professors Paul Tupper and Caroline Colijn have found that physical distancing is universally effective at reducing the spread of COVID-19, while social bubbles and masks are more situation-dependent. The researchers developed a model to test the effectiveness of measures such as physical distancing, masks or social bubbles when used in various settings.…