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Labs Re-tooling for the War on COVID-19

Two technicians work on a production line on May 13, 2011 at the new vaccine manufacturing plant of the Pasteur Sanofi group, in Neuville-sur-Saône, southeastern France. AFP PHOTO / PHILIPPE DESMAZES --PHILIPPE DESMAZES/AFP via Getty Images

Researchers seek to re-purpose an existing manufacturing platform to produce a COVID-19 vaccine

Alan Rudolph, Colorado State University and Raymond P. Goodrich, Colorado State University

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.

The big idea

We are both biotechnology researchers and are currently seeking to repurpose an existing medical manufacturing platform to quickly develop a vaccine candidate for COVID-19.

This process is used for the treatment of blood products such as plasma, platelets and whole blood to prevent disease transmission when people receive transfused blood. It utilizes a common food ingredient, vitamin B2, or riboflavin, which is a light-sensitive chemical. When used in combination with ultraviolet light of specific wavelengths, B2 can alter genetic material, whether RNA or DNA, of infectious pathogens in the blood, making them unable to transmit disease.

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Why we need to get back to Venus

Visible-wavelength light is unable to penetrate the thick cloud layer on Venus. Instead, radar is required to view the surface from space. This is a global radar image mosaic of the planet, compiled with data returned by the Magellan mission. SSV/MIPL/MAGELLAN TEAM/NASA

Why we need to get back to Venus

Paul K. Byrne, North Carolina State University

Just next door, cosmologically speaking, is a planet almost exactly like Earth. It’s about the same size, is made of about the same stuff and formed around the same star.

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Why so many epidemics originate in Asia and Africa

On Feb. 18, 2020, in Seoul, South Korea, people wearing face masks pass an electric screen warning about COVID-19.
AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon

Why so many epidemics originate in Asia and Africa – and why we can expect more

Suresh V. Kuchipudi, Pennsylvania State University
The coronavirus disease, known as COVID-19, is a frightening reminder of the imminent global threat posed by emerging infectious diseases. Although epidemics have arisen during all of human history, they now seem to be on the rise. In just the past 20 years, coronaviruses alone have caused three major outbreaks worldwide. Even more troubling, the duration between these three pandemics has gotten shorter.
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On the Trail of a Killer

A person who has recovered from COVID-19 donates plasma in Shandong, China. STR/AFP via Getty Images

Antibodies in the blood of COVID-19 survivors know how to beat coronavirus – and researchers are already testing new treatments that harness them.

A person who has recovered from COVID-19 donates plasma in Shandong, China.
STR/AFP via Getty Images

Ann Sheehy, College of the Holy Cross

Amid the chaos of an epidemic, those who survive a disease like COVID-19 carry within their bodies the secrets of an effective immune response. Virologists like me look to survivors for molecular clues that can provide a blueprint for the design of future treatments or even a vaccine.

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Dwindling Medical Supplies Expressed in Number of Days Left

Paper bags hold N95 masks that staff in the Eskenazi Hospital COVID-19 ICU need to save for reuse. W. Graham Carlos/Indiana University, Author provided

A dispatch from the front lines: ‘We don’t talk in terms of supply numbers, we talk in terms of days’

W. Graham Carlos, Indiana University School of Medicine

Brown paper bags line the windowsill of the COVID-19 intensive care unit at Eskenazi Hospital in downtown Indianapolis. The bags are filled with the N95 masks we’re reusing, labeled with the handwritten names of my staff: Patrick, Angela, Brittany. They are mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters.

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A new type of vaccine using RNA could help defeat COVID-19

This scanning electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2 (round blue objects) emerging from the surface of cells cultured in the lab. NIAID-RML

Sanjay Mishra, Vanderbilt University and Robert Carnahan, Vanderbilt University

A century ago, on July 26, 1916, a viral disease swept through New York. Within 24 hours, new cases of polio increased by more than 68%. The outbreak killed more than 2,000 people in New York City alone. Across the United States, polio took the lives of about 6,000 people in 1916, leaving thousands more paralyzed.

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Loss of your sense of smell and taste an early sign of COVID-19

Getty Images

Is the loss of your sense of smell and taste an early sign of COVID-19?

Steven D. Munger, University of Florida and Jeb M. Justice, University of Florida

Doctors from around the world are reporting cases of COVID-19 patients who have lost their sense of smell, known as anosmia, or taste, known as ageusia. The director of the University of Florida’s Center for Smell and Taste and the co-director of the UF Health Smell Disorders Program answer questions about this emerging trend.

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Preventing COVID-19 from decimating nursing home residents

Getty Images / Karen Ducey

Protecting nursing home residents will require spending money and improving infection control

Kathryn Hyer, University of South Florida; David Dosa, Brown University, and Lindsay J. Peterson, University of South Florida

At least 11 people have died from COVID-19 in New Orleans nursing homes in the past week, just after the deaths at a Seattle nursing home weeks ago showed the extreme danger of the virus in nursing home settings.

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The silent threat of the coronavirus: America’s dependence on Chinese pharmaceuticals

Photo of pills in single dose packaging
Image by Pexels from Pixabay

The silent threat of the coronavirus: America’s dependence on Chinese pharmaceuticals

Christine Crudo Blackburn, Texas A&M University ; Andrew Natsios, Texas A&M University ; Gerald W Parker, Texas A&M University , and Leslie Ruyle, Texas A&M University

As the new coronavirus, called 2019-nCoV, spreads rapidly around the globe, the international community is scrambling to keep up. Scientists rush to develop a vaccine, policymakers debate the most effective containment methods, and health care systems strain to accommodate the growing number of sick and dying. Though it may sound like a scene from the 2011 movie “Contagion,” it is actually an unfolding reality.

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Winter and February 2020 end as second warmest on record

Image by Dimitris Vetsikas from Pixabay

Republished from article on Climate.gov
Author: Tom Di Liberto
March 16, 2020

February 2020 marked the warm end to one of the most unusually warm months and winters on record for the globe. Both the month and the winter season finished second to 2016. This was among the many highlights of the February 2020 global climate summary released by the National Centers for Environmental Information last week.

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