Monthly Archives: June 2020

New Preclinical Data Demonstrates Immune-Enhancing Effects of Triple I/O Combination Therapy with BeyondSpring’s Plinabulin – BioSpace

Posted: June 23, 2020 at 5:51 pm

Research Presented at 2020 AACR Virtual Annual Meeting

The Triple I/O Combination of Plinabulin, Anti-PD-1 and Radiation Achieved a 100 Percent Complete Response in Anti-PD-1 Non-responsive Animal Model

Triple I/O Combination to Be Administered to Patients Who Failed I/O in Second Half of 2020

NEW YORK, June 23, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BeyondSpring Inc. (the Company or BeyondSpring) (NASDAQ: BYSI), a global biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of innovative immuno-oncology (I/O) therapies, today announced new preclinical research findings that indicate BeyondSprings lead asset, Plinabulin, enhances immuno-radiotherapy for cancer patients. The results of this preclinical study was highlighted in a poster presentation titled, Plinabulin, a microtubule destabilizing agent, improves tumor control by enhancing dendritic cell maturation and CD8 T cell infiltration in combination with immunoradiotherapy, at this years American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Virtual Annual Meeting on June 22, 2020.

Based on these preclinical findings, including a 100% complete response of the triple I/O combination of Plinabulin, anti-PD-1, and radiation in a PD-1 antibody non-responsive model, the compound is being advanced toward a Phase 1 clinical trial in patients who failed or progressed on PD-1 / PD-L1 antibody treatments. Principal investigator Steven H. Lin,M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of radiation oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, presented the research data.

The experiments from my lab demonstrated that Plinabulin treatment in murine cancer models leads to activation of antigen-presenting dendritic cells, said Dr. Lin. The combination therapy with Plinabulin, anti-PD-1 therapy and radiation therapy further activated the immune system, resulting in increased T-cell activation, which is associated with increased tumor regressions.

Additional data highlights include:

The above data presentation is available on the Posters page of the BeyondSprings website at: https://www.beyondspringpharma.com/conferences/list.aspx?lcid=3.

Peer-reviewed 2019 publications in Chem and Cell Reports demonstrated that Plinabulin is differentiated from all other tubulin-targeted agents through its binding site and kinetics and is among the most potent agents that induce dendritic cell maturation. Dendritic cells are key immune cell types in the activation of the immune system against cancer cells, but currently approved immuno-oncology agents, such as antibodies to PD-1, only take the brakes off of T-cells without activating antigen-presenting cells that stimulate T-cells to attack foreign proteins expressed by cancer cells.

We believe that the activation of dendritic cells is a key to unlocking the next boost to the efficacy of immuno-oncology agents, said Dr. James Tonra, BeyondSprings Chief Scientific Officer. Activated dendritic cells present foreign tumor antigens to T-cells to induce cancer-directed immune attacks. Thus, adding this critical step of dendritic cell activation in the immune cascade to the established effects of immune checkpoint inhibition therapies is expected to increase overall anti-cancer efficacy in the clinic. Our anti-cancer strategy was to activate dendritic cells and T-cells, in combination with checkpoint inhibition and to add onto the benefits of neoantigen generation and immune activation from radiotherapy, as Plinabulin serves as the key to reverse the tumor non-response to PD-1/PD-L1 antibodies. The data strongly indicates that this triple combination has enough potential to move into clinical testing to help patients who failed or had progressed on anti-PD-1/PD-L1 targeted therapy, a severely unmet medical need.

About BeyondSpringBeyondSpring is a global, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of innovative immuno-oncology cancer therapies. BeyondSprings lead asset, first-in-class agent Plinabulin as an immune and stem cell modulator, is in a Phase 3 global clinical trial as a direct anticancer agent in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and two Phase 3 clinical programs in the prevention of chemotherapy-induced neutropenia (CIN). BeyondSpring has strong R&D capabilities with a robust pipeline in addition to Plinabulin, including three immuno-oncology assets and a drug discovery platform using the ubiquitination degradation pathway. The Company also has a seasoned management team with many years of experience bringing drugs to the global market.

About PlinabulinPlinabulin, BeyondSprings lead asset, is a differentiated immune and stem cell modulator. Plinabulin is currently in late-stage clinical development to increase overall survival in cancer patients, as well as to alleviate chemotherapy-induced neutropenia (CIN). The durable anticancer benefits of Plinabulin have been associated with its effect as a potent antigen-presenting cell (APC) inducer (through dendritic cell maturation) and T-cell activation (Chem and Cell Reports, 2019). Plinabulins CIN data highlights the ability to boost the number of hematopoietic stem / progenitor cells (HSPCs), or lineage-/cKit+/Sca1+ (LSK) cells in mice. Effects on HSPCs could explain the ability of Plinabulin to not only treat CIN but also to reduce chemotherapy-induced thrombocytopenia and increase circulating CD34+ cells in patients.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release includes forward-looking statements that are not historical facts. Words such as "will," "expect," "anticipate," "plan," "believe," "design," "may," "future," "estimate," "predict," "objective," "goal," or variations thereof and variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on BeyondSpring's current knowledge and its present beliefs and expectations regarding possible future events and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Actual results and the timing of events could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of several factors including, but not limited to, difficulties raising the anticipated amount needed to finance the Company's future operations on terms acceptable to the Company, if at all, unexpected results of clinical trials, delays or denial in regulatory approval process, results that do not meet our expectations regarding the potential safety, the ultimate efficacy or clinical utility of our product candidates, increased competition in the market, and other risks described in BeyondSprings most recent Form 20-F on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements made herein speak only as of the date of this release and BeyondSpring undertakes no obligation to update publicly such forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances, except as otherwise required by law.

Media ContactsCaitlin Kasunich / Raquel ConaKCSA Strategic Communications212.896.1241 / 212.896.1276ckasunich@kcsa.com / rcona@kcsa.com

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Tau: Why Alzheimer’s Worsens Fast in Some, Slowly in Others – Alzforum

Posted: June 23, 2020 at 5:51 pm

22 Jun 2020

Why do some people with AD slide rapidly into severe dementia, while others decline gradually over more than a decade? Part of the answer could come down to which biochemical forms of tau inhabit a persons brain, suggests a study published June 22 in Nature Medicine. Among postmortem brain samples from people with advanced AD, Bradley Hyman at Massachusetts General Hospital in Charlestown and colleagues found a striking variability in taus ability to seed aggregation. The scientists tied aggregation-prone forms of tau in the postmortem brain to a more rapid course of disease during life. They pegged large, soluble tau oligomersphosphorylated on specific residuesas the most hazardous species. Antibodies trained against these types of tau stopped its aggregation. The findings cast taus behavior as a major prognostic determinant for AD, and support the concept of targeting these troublesome forms of the protein with therapeutics.

This is a well-designed study underlining once more the importance of the soluble tau oligomeric assemblies over long tau filaments in Alzheimers disease, as well as heterogeneity in tau oligomers, commented Rakez Kayed of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

The study clearly highlights the complexity and heterogeneity of tau proteins in people with AD, noted Hilal Lashuel of cole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne in Switzerland. The complexity calls for cautious interpretation of the findings, Lashuel added, noting that enigmatic tau oligomers are in dynamic equilibrium that can be influenced by disease stage and all manner of other factors. It would be very difficult to identify a specific oligomer species that consistently correlates with tau propagation or disease progression, he said.

Throughout the course of AD, neurofibrillary tangles of tau overtake the brain in a stereotypical sequence (Braak and Braak, 1991). Fueled at least in part by a templated misfolding mechanism, the propagation of tau tangles throughout the brain is tied closely to clinical progression of the disease (Jan 2020 news; May 2019 news;Jun 2019 news).

But even among people with the typical, amnestic form of AD, how aggressively their clinical disease gets worse varies strikingly from one person to the next (Komarova et al., 2011). This not only creates uncertainty for patients and their families, but also poses a risk for clinical trials, whose success depends on being able to measure a treatment effect within a set time, typically six months for Phase 2. Too many slow progressors in a trial cohort can sink a study even if the drug did what it was intended to do. Might molecular variations in tau speciesparticularly those that influence its propagationexplain this clinical heterogeneity?

Diversity of Decline. CDR-SOB scores worsened (increased) at vastly different rates in people who ultimately died with advanced AD. Some never reached the maximum score before they died. [Courtesy of Dujardin et al., Nature Medicine, 2020.]

First author Simon Dujardin and colleagues addressed this question by probing myriad aspects of tau taken from the postmortem brains of 32 people who had died in the advanced stages of AD. At the time of death, each had extensive tau tangles in the brain, at Braak stage V/VI. However, their clinical trajectories had been remarkably variable. Their age at onset ranged from 45 to 81, and the time between symptom onset and when they died ranged from five to 19 years. Their rates of cognitive decline, as gauged by serial tests on the clinical dementia rating scale sum of boxes (CDR-SOB), also varied widely.

The researchers started by measuring the capacity of tau to seed aggregation in biosensor cell lines. Equipped with a tau fragment tagged with fluorescent donor and acceptor molecules, these cells light up when potent seeds spark aggregation (Oct 2014 news). Although the researchers normalized the amount of tau used from each brain, they found wide variation in seeding activity. It ranged by an order of magnitude across samples. Notably, the three samples with the highest seeding activity came from people who carried two copies of ApoE4, suggesting the risk factor influences tau propagation.

Seed Span. When added to biosensor cell lines (left), soluble tau proteins extracted from the brains of people with AD were strikingly heterogeneous in a seeding assay. [Courtesy of Dujardin et al., Nature Medicine, 2020.]

The physiological relevance of this cell-based biosensor assay has been challenged recently (May 2020 news). So as not to rely entirely on this assay as a proxy for taus propagation potential, the researchers also conducted a series of alternative seeding experiments with a subset of the samples deemed low, intermediate, or high seeders based on the biosensor assay. Whether treating primary neuron cultures with these extracts or injecting the extracts directly into the brains of mice expressing P301S tau, the researchers observed similar relative trends in seeding activity among the samples. This suggested that the cell-based biosensor assay provided a meaningful gauge of the relative potency of tau seeds in each sample.

Planting the Seed. Tau extracted from human brain samples with low, moderate, or high seeding activity on biosensor assays triggered similar trends of tau aggregation when injected into the P301S mouse brain. [Courtesy of Dujardin et al., Nature Medicine, 2020.]

To figure out what about tau determines its seeding potency, the researchers subjected tau in the brain extracts to a barrage of biochemical assays and cross-referenced the results with the seeding activity gleaned from biosensor assays. They report that seeding activity correlated not with a persons amount of total tau, but with levels of oligomeric, hyperphosphorylated tau in each sample. Compared with intermediate or low "seeders," high seeders had an abundance of soluble, high-molecular-weight tau oligomers.

Using mass spectrometry, the researchers mapped the phosphorylation landscape of tau across samples, noting that tau doubly phosphorylated on Thr231 and Ser235, or singly phosphorylated on Ser262, correlated with seeding activity. Curiously, neither ptau-181 nor ptau-217the species that rise in the cerebrospinal fluid in the preclinical stages of ADwere significantly tied to seeding activity (Mar 2020 news; Apr 2020 conference news).

Does tau seeding activity, or any of its biochemical correlates, relate to a patients clinical progression? Indeed, the researchers found that the higher the tau seeding activity, the steeper the persons rate of decline on the CDR-SOB, and the younger his or her age at symptom onset. The abundance of oligomeric, hyperphosphorylated species of tau also correlated with disease progression, as did levels of the same phospho-tau species that associated with seeding activity.

Collectively, tau seeding activity accounted for about 25 percent of the clinical heterogeneity among people with typical AD, the researchers reported. This suggests that tau antibodies that block tau seeding might also stem clinical progression of the disease. To identify antibodies that might do the trick, the researchers used a panel of seven antibodies trained against different parts of the tau protein, or against specific phospho-residues, to deplete tau from the brain extracts, then tested the remaining seeding activity. They found that some antibodies quashed seeding more effectively than others, and that there was significant variability between samples. Overall, antibodies such as AT8 and PHF1, which bind to pathological forms of tau, inhibited seeding most consistently across samples.

At first glance, the heterogeneity in taus seeding capacity and biochemical forms across AD brains may seem at odds with cryo-electron microscopy studies, which identified two predominant conformations of tau fibrils in people with AD (Jul 2017 news). Thats not the case, Dujardin noted. Soluble tau oligomersnot fibrilsare the source of taus biochemical variability in this postmortem study. He said it would be fascinating to examine tau oligomers via cryo-EM.

Lashuel noted that the researchers did not analyze insoluble fractions of tau in their assays, biasing them to zero in on soluble species. He suggested that attention be paid to understanding the near-total lack of seeding activity in the "low seeders," who still ultimately developed AD. Perhaps more answers would be found in insoluble fractions, he said.

Why is one persons tau not like anothers? Dujardin suspects genetic differences that influence cellular processes such as degradation and autophagy, which may selectively degrade certain forms of tau. Though microglial function theoretically influences these pathways, Dujardin noted that inflammatory markers in the 32 brains did not correlate with seeding activity, at least at this end stage of disease. Individual differences in kinase activity could also influence which phosphorylations tau accumulates over a persons lifetime.

How might researchers leverage the findings to inform a persons prognosis? Dujardin noted several possibilities. A handful of studies have managed to detect seeding activity in tau derived from CSF, though Dujardin noted that these assays need to become more sensitive (Takeda et al., 2016). In lieu of directly measuring seeding activity, perhaps quantification of tau oligomers, and/or specific phospho-tau species associated with seeding activity, could serve the same purpose.Jessica Shugart

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Scholarly Perspectives on COVID-19, Part 1: This Was Only a Matter of Time – Southern Newsroom

Posted: June 23, 2020 at 5:51 pm

In retrospect, December 2019 seems like an altogether different era now. For most of the U.S. population, at least, those were the halcyon days when students were doggedly completing final exams and papers, teachers were grading and looking forward to winter break, shoppers were checking off gift lists online and in stores, the faithful were making pilgrimages to holy sites, families were crisscrossing states and oceans to visit loved ones, football fans were celebrating the NFL playoffs, tourists were crowding into theaters on and off Broadway, crafters were selling their wares at holiday bazaars, farmers were repairing their equipment, and friends were meeting up for peppermint and eggnog latts.

On New Years Eve, meanwhile, the China Country Office of the World Health Organization (WHO) received reports that a cluster of pneumonia cases had presented in the city of Wuhan, in Hubei Provinceplace names that have since become ominously familiar but were then still unknown to many Americans. Six days later, the cause of the illness was still obscure, but by January 7, 2020, scientists in China had already isolated the pathogen and shared its full genetic sequence with the global scientific community. They identified it as a novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).

Combining visual metaphor and perhaps not a little irony, coronaviruses are named for their crown- or halo-like appearance when peered at through an electron microscope; corona in Latin denotes an honorific garland worn on the head or else a halo encircling a celestial body, such as the sun. The pathogens, of which there are currently four main types known to affect humans, were first characterized in 1965 and are the source of mild to serious upper respiratory syndromes; some coronaviruses, for example, are known to cause the common cold (as do more than 200 other viruses, such as rhinoviruses). This newest coronavirus, however, had within a week caused 44 patients to seek in-hospital care, with 11 reported as severely ill.

Back in Georgetown, Texas, microbiologist Martn Gonzalez was just one Southwestern scientist who was carefully following updates on the epidemic as news emerged each day in the popular media and within the scholarly community. A novel virus is always cause for keen interest among researchers and healthcare practitioners alike, certainly, but its not necessarily a source of surprise. After all, in reflecting on the long history of human disease, researchers started predicting a pandemic like COVID-19 decades ago and more recently in articles such as The Next Plague Is Coming; Is America Ready? by science journalist Ed Yong and in the 2020 Netflix documentary series Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak (whose first episode, Gonzalez says, is the one to watch if you want an accessible explanation of how a global disease affects communities, how researchers and healthcare providers approach them, and how difficult it is to develop vaccines).

With all the past epidemics and pandemics that weve seen, this was only a matter of time, Gonzalez says. I think most people in the sciences realized this was the case.

Gonzalez was teaching microbiology in January. On the first day of class, he posed the same question he asks at the beginning of every lecture: Has anybody heard anything going on in science? That day, he received a lot of blank stares; his students, like most people across the nation, had not yet started paying attention to the 2019-nCoV coverage, blissfully unaware of how the virus and the disease it causes would soon take center stage during classroom discussions and, of course, disrupt their very lives. But Gonzalez knew that the virus was one to watch: the first case of a 2019-nCoV infection in the U.S. was confirmed on January 20, in Snohomish County, Washington; by the end of the same month, the infected were numbering nearly 10,000 in at least 21 countries, and the WHO had declared a public health emergency of international concern. So he asked his students to start sharing the latest information at the top of each class meeting.

It didnt take long, he says, for students to start realizing that this was going to be much bigger than we originally thought.

Transmission electron microscopic image of an isolate from the first U.S. case of COVID-19. The spherical viral particles, colorized blue, contain a cross-section through the viral genome, seen as black dots. Credit: CDC Image Library, ID# 23354.

On February 11, 2020, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) announced that, given the genetic relationship between the novel coronavirus and the coronavirus responsible for the 2003 outbreak of SARS, the new pathogen would be named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2. The same day, the WHO christened the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus disease 2019, or COVID-19.

Meanwhile, Gonzalez and his students discussed how viruses, the smallest of all microbes, consist of DNA or RNA surrounded by a protein coat called a capsid and sometimes, as with SARS-CoV-2, by a lipid envelope that can be dissolved with soap, thereby destroying the entire particle (TL;DR? wash those hands!). They knew how viruses attach to the plasma membranes of living host cells and hack the cells mechanisms to replicate before detaching and invading other cells, usually destroying those cells, damaging tissues, and sickening or even killing the host organism. They discussed how viruses spread through the human population in many ways. For example, some can be passed on by skin-to-skin contact. Others can be transmitted via contaminated surfaces (disinfect those countertops!). They can spread through exposure to others bodily fluids and secretions, such as through sharing needles, sexual contact, or coughing and sneezing (again, wash those hands! but also wear masks to keep from infecting others!). And viruses can be carried by vectors, or disease-bearing organisms, such as mosquitoes, fleas, or bats, the last of which may have served as a reservoir for SARS-CoV-2 before it jumped to an intermediate host and then eventually infected humanswho are also possible vectors.

It was a great learning experience, Gonzalez reflects.

But he noticed that as the days went by, his students began expressing frustration about the governmental and public responses to the outbreak. By late February, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 had topped approximately 84,000 in at least 56 countries, and the death toll had climbed to 3,900, but many nations, including the U.S., were slow to react and failed to implement a unified, strategic approach to testing and prevention based on classic epidemiological models.

Gonzalezs students wanted to know why. And I told them, We can talk about politics, but I have no idea why were approaching this the way we are, he remembers.

They also wondered aloud whether the novel coronavirus was something to be worried about considering comparisons that were being drawn between COVID-19 and seasonal influenza. Gonzalezs response was to remind them of the flus grave statistics: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), for example, estimates that in the U.S. in 20162017 alone, 29 million people contracted symptoms of the seasonal flu, with 14 million seeking medical care, 500,000 requiring hospitalization, and 38,000 dying. Moreover, many people worldwide have developed immunity to seasonal flu strains, and flu vaccines exist to combat infection. By contrast, although mortality rates are impossible to confirm while an epidemic or pandemic is ongoing, the risk of death from COVID-19 appears to be higher than that from the flu. In addition, it remains unclear even now whether those who have survived COVID-19 have developed immunity, how long that immunity lasts, when a safe vaccine will be available, and when a large enough swathe of the global population will be inoculated to develop herd immunity.

Gonzalez says that his students became more educated in all this. They became aware of the power of knowledge. And they became aware of the stress of knowledge.

Given the store of knowledge scientists have developed based on previous epidemics, including the more recent outbreaks of coronavirus-caused diseases such as SARS (in 2003) and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome, in 2012), you would think that we would have been more prepared and known how to respond more quickly. And countries such as Taiwan, New Zealand, Costa Rica, Iceland, Norway, and Denmark have been highly successful in limiting both infection and mortality because they relied on science, prioritized public health, coordinated responses among institutions, acted swiftly, and garnered the trust and cooperation of its citizens.

But elsewhere, as in the U.S., Gonzalez says, its been clear we havent learned the lessons of past outbreaks. A significant etiology of the chaotic and ineffective response has been misinformation, and he believes that platforms such as Nextdoor, Facebook, Twitter are just some of the vectors to blame for the spread of false or misleading information. One of the things that concerns me is were very much a social-media society now, he explains. Social media can be an incredible tool to get your message out, but if your message is filled with misinformation, its devastating to the cause . Lives are at stake here.

Social media can be an incredible tool to get your message out, but if your message is filled with misinformation, its devastating to the cause . Lives are at stake here.

Ironically, one flagrant inaccuracy Gonzalez saw floating about was a comment about vaccines in which the poster opined that scientists were lying. Understandably, Gonzalez had to refrain from responding, and he now limits his media diet to reporting by the CDC and the BBC, the British news channel. I havent checked it recently, but I can imagine my blood pressure is up a little bit, he laughs.

In the absence of accurate and clear communicationnot to mention the lack of other standard epidemiological strategies, including widespread reliable testing, quick diagnosis and quarantine, and contact tracing and isolationthe U.S. federal response to the disaster has been, well, disastrous. The most glaring symptom of this failure is that the countrys tally of infections and deaths far surpasses that of any other country: on May 24, the U.S. exceeded 1.6 million confirmed cases and 100,000 deaths, and at the time of this publication, a day shy of one month later, that death toll has risen to 120,225, with well more than 2.29 million confirmed cases. Another complication of the U.S.s messy response has been a host of avoidable draconian interventions with wide-ranging impacts on human behavior and the economy, such as social distancing, stay-at-home mandates, and school and business closuressacrifices that became necessary to flatten the curve (i.e., reduce the number of infections to prevent overburdening the healthcare system) but would also lead to upheaval in the lives and learning of Southwesterns own staff, faculty, and students.

But one other adverse effect of the lack of a coordinated national response has been a shortage of life-saving medical supplies. States, for example, were left to compete for ventilators, and healthcare providers were forced to reuse or go without personal protective equipment (PPE), jeopardizing the lives of the very people who can actually treat the disease. I think what is most frustrating is were putting people on the frontlines of this pandemic in danger, Gonzalez shares. He felt so strongly about the supply crisis, in fact, that he broached to his colleagues in the Biology Department a way they could help. I said, We have all these gloves were not going to be using because were not having labs or classes, and we have a good stock, so we can donate them! he recalls. The biology faculty consulted with Southwesterns administration, and their colleagues in the Chemistry Department volunteered to donate their equipment as well. Its one of those things where youre saying, I shouldnt have to be doing this, but were doing it, Gonzalez adds.

Despite his and his students deep concerns about the way the COVID-19 pandemic has been handled, Gonzalez saw some glimmers of positivity and hope when stay-at-home orders were in effectfrom the community wanting to support local restaurants by ordering takeout and neighbors offering to pick up items from the grocery store to help protect those who are greater risk of developing serious illness, such as those 65 years and older or those with underlying medical conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease, or compromised immunity. From that standpoint, its been very uplifting for me, he says. Some of the community is wanting to make a difference and looking to help.

He also celebrates the many breakthroughs of his STEM colleagues around the world, who have worked tirelessly in the past few months to advance knowledge of COVID-19 and over the years and decades to improve our learning about infectious diseases more broadly. He loves seeing publications such as Nature encouraging scientists to share their latest findings to expand our understanding and build this knowledge base. And he looks forward to discoveries that might be just around the corner, such as a universal vaccine that provides long-term immunization against all influenza types or a platform vaccine, long advocated by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, which would enable researchers to begin the first phase of clinical trials for new vaccines within months rather than years. You have no idea how much pride I had when it was less than two weeks after [the COVID-19 pandemic] started rolling that the global scientific community came out with a genetic sequence for [SARS-CoV-2], he says excitedly. Thats why I fell in love with science: its truly a community. When we publish papers, we police each other by doing peer review, and people will try to reproduce some of your results. Weve been doing this for a long time, and its worked. Ive been really happy with that.

You have no idea how much pride I had when it was less than two weeks after [the COVID-19 pandemic] started rolling that the global scientific community came out with a genetic sequence for [SARS-CoV-2].

Gonzalez says that we still have much to learn about SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, but even after the current pandemic ends, we cannot be complacent going forward; instead, we must apply the lessons of yesterday and today. We can look at some of the earliest Old World infectious diseasesthings like dengue fever, yellow fever, and malaria. It took something like 300 years for those three diseases to be found on most places on this planet, he explains. And then you look at the global society we are now and look at some of these new emerging infectious diseases, such as West Nile virus, Zika virus, and Chinkungunya virus. Its taken them less than 16 years to be found pretty much on a very large percentage of this Earth.

Moreover, Gonzalez adds, we have yet to fully comprehend the many twists and turns of infectious disease. For example, how might climate change accelerate or exacerbate the spread of such illnesses? When will the next single mutation in a known virus enable the sudden transmission of the pathogen from animals to humans, as was the case of SARS-Co-V-2? We were fortunate that the coronavirus that causes MERS, a disease with a 35% casefatality rate, did not easily transfer between human beings, but what if a more robust MERS-CoV-2 were to emerge? And what if Ebolaa fast-spreading disease with quickly manifesting symptoms and a shocking mortality rate as high as 90% in some WHO estimateswere suddenly contagious when carriers were asymptomatic (i.e., not exhibiting symptoms)?

We need to be prepared for this, he asserts. This is not something where we can sit there and say, As soon as this starts happening, well jump. We need to be working at this right now.

However, scientific discovery and innovation require opportunity and resourcesincluding both money and time. The medias pursuit of big stories and eye-catching headlines might suggest that scientific progress happens by leaps and bounds within days or weeks; the anxious public may be impatient for answers about a public-health crisis that is shaping individual lives. Nevertheless, good science requires time: time for research and development, time for experimentation and failure, time for correcting errors and replicating results, and time for collaboration and peer review. Yes, [scientists] can figure it out, but it takes time, Gonzalez says. Science is not do one experiment and have a result. It just didnt work that way. I wish it did! he laughs.

And with the COVID-19 pandemic, that scientific progress is actually happening fairly quickly, regardless of what naysayers might think or say. But because of the relatively rapid pace of research on SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, scientific findings and recommendations shared with the public can change, sometimes in the course of just weeks. After all, scientists are constantly expanding on previous work, discovering new phenomena, and drawing conclusions from the latest evidence. Their work can also be misinterpreted and misreportedaccidentally or intentionallyby journalists, pundits, and social-media frequenters. And in a heightened atmosphere characterized by fear of the unknown and suspicion of the very science we should be relying on, Gonzalez knows moving forward will require a lot of education.

As Ive always said, trust the science, he says. The science will police itself and will let you know if theres something you shouldnt be listening to.

Gonzalez will continue urging his students to use the communication skills theyve gained at Southwestern to share their scientific knowledge with their families, friends, and communities.

In the meantime, Gonzalez will continue urging his students to use the communication skills theyve gained at Southwestern to share their scientific knowledge with their families, friends, and communities. Its a practice that he hopes will prevent his students from caving to fear, will keep their circle of connections informed, and will ensure the health and safety of their loved ones. Says Gonzalez, Thats the one thing Ive really told my students: Whether this [pandemic] was going on or not, youre going to be part of a community, and there are times when a community requires a voice of reason. Your job is to go out there, use what youve learned, and bring that voice. I hope they do it; I really do.

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Online game looks to stoke interest in regenerative medicine – The Union Leader

Posted: June 23, 2020 at 5:50 pm

An online game that lets students learn about stem cells and tissue engineering also offered them information about high school and college internship programs to further spur their interest in regenerative medicine.

Through the game, aimed mainly at seventh graders through high school seniors, students competed in daily challenges to win swag and the chance to meet inventor Dean Kamen (virtually in this pandemic age).

The vision is to help inform young people about all the really cool things that are happening in this space, said Alexander Titus, the freshly minted chief strategy officer at the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute in Manchesters Millyard.

The game helps to inspire students as they choose their classes, their elective classes in high school and particularly majors in college, Titus said last week.

Nearly 100 students took part in the game, which ended Friday. The content about regenerative medicine will remain online through June.

ARMI, which is working to manufacture human tissue commercially, is working on recruiting tomorrows workforce one cool video at a time.

I think the timing of this couldnt be any better, said Julie Demers, executive director of the New Hampshire Tech Alliance. The pandemic has limited in-person, work-based learning opportunities and interactions with industry professionals. Interactive opportunities to get students interested in and thinking about career opportunities are critical.

Titus said a chief goal is to build a pipeline of future workers.

Its all tied together in attracting students while theyre young to understand the process of what to study along the way to get to college and a job when theyre done, said Titus, who earned a Ph.D. in quantitative biomedical sciences at Dartmouth.

Titus said he expects the game to help ARMI officials learn what draws the interest of students so they can develop other programming they know will garner student interest, he said.

The ARMI challenge, called TEMPtation, featured profiles of businesses from more than a dozen states as well as universities and colleges interested in regenerative medicine.

Arizona State University holds summer camps for middle and high school students that are interested in learning more about science and mathematics, read one profile.

From Georgia Tech in Atlanta: Georgia Tech has a Center for Career Discovery & Development, which offers internships, co-ops, and career services that give students the resources they need to support their search for employment following their graduation.

Formerly employed at the U.S. Department of Defense, Titus returned to New Hampshire to join ARMI.

The mission, he said, is marrying science and manufacturing.

Bring the science to the stage where we can automate it and market the new technologies we couldnt make before, said Titus, previously assistant director for biotechnology within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research & Engineering.

ARMI features more than 150 partners and more than $300 million in government and private investment committed.

If we want to be able to produce a replacement heart for people who have heart disease, what are the components that go into that? Titus said.

He hopes ARMI can attract startups in the Manchester area, allowing for ARMI to mentor them until they are viable companies.

The idea is for companies to move into New Hampshire and move into our ecosystem if you will, Titus said.

I think especially given now, where were seeing so many people in the cities during COVID have a hard time social distancing, I expect well see some shifting of people out of the cities, said Titus, who speculated some could settle in New Hampshire.

Whats Working, a series exploring solutions for New Hampshires workforce needs, is sponsored by the New Hampshire Solutions Journalism Lab at the Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications and is funded by Eversource, the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, the New Hampshire College & University Council, Northeast Delta Dental and the New Hampshire Coalition for Business and Education. Contact reporter Michael Cousineau at mcousineau@unionleader.com. To read stories in the series, visit unionleader.com/whatsworking.

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Maryland University of Integrative Health Announces Educational Partnership with the Maryland Naturopathic Doctors Association – Reported Times

Posted: June 23, 2020 at 12:51 am

Jun 22, 2020 1:00 PM ET

iCrowd Newswire Jun 22, 2020

Laurel, Md. Maryland University of Integrative Health (MUIH) has entered a new educational partnership with the Maryland Naturopathic Doctors Association (MNDA). MUIH and MNDA share the joint goal of promoting the use of holistic and natural approaches to promote well-being for our clients. This partnership expands MUIHs role in supporting the health and wellness of Marylands residents through naturopathic medicine.

MUIHs Professional and Continuing Education (PCE) program is proud to welcome MNDA as a new partner to spotlight the field of integrative health through mission-driven collaborations. Through our evidence-based, continuing education opportunities, PCE aims to support naturopathic doctors in their professional development goals, empowering them to add to their knowledge and credentials to further support their clients and patients health and wellbeing with a whole-person approach, said Beth Romanski, director of professional and continuing education at MUIH.

In its continued effort to provide educational resources to our members, the MNDA is happy to announce a new partnership with MUIH. We will now offer MUIH PCE courses at discounts to our members so that they may continue to advance and update their knowledge in the areas of nutrition, botanical medicine, stress resilience, and general well-being, said Dr. Cristine Ehly, ND, Past President, Maryland Naturopathic Doctors Association.

Naturopathic doctors have been licensed in Maryland since 2016. MUIH is pleased to count naturopathic doctors among its faculty and to offer naturopathic medicine services in its Natural Care Center, which is open to the public. For more information about MUIH Professional and Continuing Education offerings, visit http://www.muih.edu/ce.

About Maryland University of Integrative Health (MUIH)

Maryland University of Integrative Health (MUIH) is a leading academic institution focused on the study and practice of integrative health and wellness and one of the few universities in the U.S. dedicated solely to such practices. Deeply rooted in a holistic philosophy, its model for integrative health and wellness is grounded in whole-person, relationship-centered, evidence-informed care.

Since 1974, MUIH has been a values-driven community educating practitioners and professionals to become future health and wellness leaders through transformative programs grounded in traditional wisdom and contemporary science. MUIH has more than 20 progressive graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines, offered on-campus and online. For more information visit http://www.muih.edu.

About Maryland Naturopathic Doctors Association (MNDA)

The Maryland Naturopathic Doctors Association (MNDA) is the professional organization of Naturopathic Doctors and the voice of Naturopathic medicine in Maryland. The MNDA is a leader in 21st-century healthcare and believes that the ability to heal resides in all of us and that conventional medicine and complementary care do not exist in opposition. The MNDA is committed to creating a greater state of health in Maryland, working with the state government to promote access to high-quality Naturopathic healthcare for all Marylanders. It is also an advocate for naturopathic doctors; offering continuing education, professional development opportunities, and professional community and support.

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Kionne S. Johnson Communications Manager [emailprotected]

Keywords:Health, Wellness, Naturopathic Medicine, Doctors, Maryland, Medicine

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District Center for Integrative Medicine Center Announces Restarting of In-Person Appointments – Spin Digit

Posted: June 23, 2020 at 12:51 am

As local epidemiological trends have improved, and in consultation with experts and authorities, District Center for Integrative Medicine is excited to welcome patients back to the offices.

(Spin Digit Editorial):- Washington, D.C, Jun 17, 2020 (Issuewire.com)The District Center for Integrative Medicine (DCIM) mission has always prioritized the health and safety of our patients and staff. It is one of the few things the current situation has not changed. DCIM has designed a careful re-start strategy for in-person appointments based on that constant mission and after in-depth consultations with local and national experts and authorities, as well as a careful assessment of epidemiological trends and other data.

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People might be addressing an autoimmune condition like Hashimotos Hypothyroidism that has not responded well to typical managed care, have digestive complaints that require a highly-individualized approach, or maybe they arent sure whats wrong. Whatever health issue people are dealing with, our comprehensive approach is key to putting individuals on track to a better self.

DCIM is following all governmental guidelines and taking preventative measures to keep patients and staff safe. Listed below are some of the precautions that DCIM will be taking upon restarting in-person integrative and functional medicine appointments.

We are so excited to be able to see our patients and I am eager to work with patients in person once again, said Dr. Anjali Dsouza. In the meantime, Im still available via telemedicine for any patient that prefers it, and am excited to support their healing in any way that may be.

DCIM approaches healthcare differently. By freeing itself of the traditionally managed care constraints, including the 15-minute industry average patient appointments, DCIM sees the patient holistically. Practitioners at DCIM use the initial 90-minute appointment, for example, to understand the patients entire medical history, as well as her familys. DCIM offers advanced diagnostic testing to uncover persistent-but-often-overlooked conditions. The doctors at DCIM delve into environmental and lifestyle issues and develop individually tailored, detailed health plans. The resulting deep dive is a highly personalized analysis of the patients health.

In addition to their traditional, western medical training, the doctors at DCIM are also trained in Integrative and Functional Medicine. These disciplines treat the whole person rather than a specific disease. Because of their holistic approach, these disciplines prioritize the physician-patient relationship.

Interested in becoming a patient? Please request an appointment at https://dcimedicine.com/request-an-initial-appointment/

More about District Center for Integrative Medicine

The District Center for Integrative Medicine (DCIM), founded and directed by Dr. Anjali Dsouza, heals patients through a deeply individualized and holistic approach to health. We treat individuals with chronic complaints and conditions that persist despite the conventional managed-care model, as well as those looking to achieve the highest level of wellness. By prioritizing the patient-physician relationship, we take the time and resources to understand every aspect of your medical history, as well as nutritional and environmental factors that affect your well-being. Our role is to acknowledge your bodys innate capacity to heal and to cultivate it.

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MD Parents: Trying to Keep the Kids Busy and Safe During COVID-19 – Medscape

Posted: June 23, 2020 at 12:51 am

David Rosen, MD, a critical care pulmonologist based in Bergen County, NJ, arrived home from a 3-day stint in the ICU. As usual, he changed his clothes in the garage, put them in a plastic laundry bag, and, clad only in underwear, he headed straight for the guest room shower.

Earlier that day, Rose had seen five patients very sick with COVID-19, in a hospital with only four ventilators. He was devastated by the agonizing situation that had ensued. How could he force a smile and pretend everything was okay when he greeted his young children? On the other hand, he didn't want to burden or frighten them.

Rosen's 6-year-old daughter could tell something was wrong. Rosen carefully explained that Daddy was sad because there were a lot of sick people in the hospital and he couldn't help all of them.

"There's a constant balancing act between being there for patients, acknowledging my own feelings about their suffering and the horrors I've been seeing, and being there for my own family and their day-to-day emotional needs," Rosen said.

While this balancing act is part and parcel of being a physician, it has been especially wrenching during the pandemic, when the needs of family seem to be pitted against the calling to be a doctor.

Fear of infecting children has motivated some to stay in hotels, send their children to live with grandparents, self-quarantine in a separate area of the house, or avoid physical contact with the children, according to Sara "Sally" Goza, MD, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

"These are hard, anguishing choices, which contribute to stress and burnout," she said, emphasizing that it is a very personal decision, based on individual and family considerations, and no single solution will fit everyone.

Rosen said that staying at a hotel was not an option for him because he has a newborn baby, a 3-year-old, and a 6-year-old. "It would have been an unfair expectation for my wife to shoulder all those parenting duties without any help from me."

He added, "Of course, I'm always concerned about potential contagion and I take every precaution through rigorous decontamination procedures, but I remind myself that it's right for our family for me to be as present as possible at this time."

Ilana Friedman, MD, a pediatric ophthalmologist, starts her workday well before she leaves for the Bronx, New York-based hospital where she is the associate director of a residency program.

"I've been setting the kids up for school in the mornings, making sure they have the food they need for the day, that they're organized and ready to begin their online classes, and that their schoolwork is done," she said.

"They also text me during the day if something comes up, and I check in with them to make sure they're on task with their work," reported Friedman, whose children are 10, 11, and 13 years old.

"When I'm at work, I'm thinking about the kids at home; but when I'm at home, I think about my patients, so I never feel fully present in either place," she said.

Even when you're home, you may not have emotional or physical energy to be present for children, according to Katherine Gold, MD, MSW, associate professor of family medicine and obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

At the end of an intensive period in the labor/delivery unit, "I can't do anything but crawl into bed, so sometimes my kids fall behind on homework and chores because I'm the person in the family who tends to make sure these things happen," Gold recounted.

Conducting telemedicine visits from home often with young children underfoot has its own challenges. Although some practices are reinstating in-person patient visits, reopening amid COVID-19 often necessitates at least a partial work-from-home schedule.

"There's no question that it's disruptive to care for small children while trying to take care of patients," said Damon Korb, MD, a developmental pediatrician based in Los Gatos, California. How to navigate this depends largely on the age of your children.

It may not be realistic to have much telemedicine time when you're the caregiver to infants or toddlers; but for preschoolers, Korb recommended "stations in different parts of the room, such as specific areas for mushy stuff, balls, books, blocks, dress-up, and eating" and "rotating the child from station to station."

He also suggested "parallel play if possible, bring your computer next to them so they can be involved with their 'work' while you're involved with yours." For the sake of patient privacy, he suggested using a headset so the patient's words remain confidential.

Although child-related interruptions during a telehealth visit may be distracting, "it might be comforting for patients to recognize that their doctors also have challenges with children at home and that we're not doing everything perfectly which they may be experiencing in their own lives," Gold said.

By the time a child is 4 or 5 years old, you can set a timer and say that when the bell rings, you'll play with them for a few minutes or reward them for their cooperation, suggested Korb, who is the director of the Center for Developing Minds and the author of Raising an Organized Child.

Maiysha Clairborne MD, an integrative medicine physician who coaches other physicians in business and entrepreneurship, said her 5-year-old son has been home from school since the end of March. His preschool held classes 3 to 4 hours per day, and "that's been a big help in keeping him occupied and up with his schoolwork." She has organized for him to be "autonomous in class" while she conducts virtual sessions and coaches colleagues.

"I check up on him between patients and clients and have lunch with him as often as I can, make sure he has virtual play dates and activities such as arts and crafts, and I try to go on walks with him around the neighborhood," reported Clairborne, who is the founder of Stress Free Mom MDand the Next Level Physicians Entrepreneur's Institute.

When your children are in front of the screen, make sure they're doing so safely, Gold cautioned, noting that there has been an increase in online sexual predators since the beginning of the pandemic. "Regularly talk to your children, including teenagers, in an age-appropriate way, tell them not trust strangers online, and monitor their activities."

Gold suggested asking an older sibling, relative, or friend toengage with the youth on social media andbe the "eyes and ears"to ensure safety online.

Summer is usually associated with camp, sports, travel, and hanging out with friends. But how many of these activities can take place this year?

Some activities will be available, according to the CDC. For example, camps are allowed to open, with specific guidelines and protocols to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Experts recommend doing your "due diligence" to find out which group activities, if any, might be appropriate for your child, taking into account your own needs as well as those of your children.

But many physicians may prefer to keep children at home rather than risk sending them into group settings.

Korb encourages parents with children of all ages to maintain a daily structure. "Get up, get dressed, don't lounge around in pajamas all day, exercise each day, and do something social and creative."

He suggested making sure that kids have "outlets," like going for walks or hikes with the family, virtual play dates, or get-togethers with friends while keeping social distancing in mind or trying a new experience, such as guitar, cooking, gardening, or learning sign language.

Talking to children about social distancing and sanitizing requirements is especially critical as they begin getting together with friends in person.

"Even very young children can understand that 'germs' cause sickness and if you get too close to other people or touch things that they touch, you can catch the sickness," AAP's Goza said.

She recounted the story of a 5-year-old patient who proudly went to the sink in her office and began washing her hands "to make sure the germs don't get to us."

Rosen's 6-year-old daughter understands the importance of not getting close to people outside the family, and even his 3-year-old understands not to touch something lying on the ground.

"It empowers kids to know that they can help themselves and others stay healthy and safe," Goza said.

Even with the most creative alternative summer plans, children of all ages are facing disappointments about missed activities, missed milestones, and uncertainty about the future.

Korb's daughter, a high school senior, missed out on her prom, graduation, and visiting the colleges she had been accepted to. She still has not made a decision about college and does not know if colleges will even be open in the fall.

"This situation is difficult for all children, but especially for adolescents, whose identity is based on the friends they hang out with and what they do with them, and many are grieving the loss of their normal lives," Korb noted.

"When people are grieving, they have to grieve," he continued. "As physicians and parents, our job is to listen, not tell them what to do, not belittle what they're saying, but support them while they find their way through the situation."

Delaney Ruston, MD, documentary filmmaker of Screenagers and Screenagers Next Chapter, which focus on solutions for healthy screen use and adolescent stress, anxiety, and depression in the digital age, agreed. "Validation is the number one skill parents should master because teens want to be understood as much as they want anything."

"Most adolescents don't have a long-term perspective on what's going on in life, so it's important to provide reassurance and place things in perspective after validating their concerns and distress," Korb advised.

Taking a "big picture" view is also helpful. "I remember my high school and college graduations, but neither have played a huge role in my life in the long run, which I have shared with my daughter," Korb said. "I'm proud that she has handled the disappointment wonderfully."

It's unknown whether schools will fully or partially reopen, and physicians may still face challenges in helping children with homework in the fall.

Korb suggested that home schooling might be different from what it was during the beginning of the pandemic. "The need for online school caught most schools off-guard, but schools will be more prepared for online teaching this time around."

He suggested turning to teachers for additional help if you're unable to provide your child with sufficient support. Additionally, "there is an entire network of online tutors popping up in response to the pandemic," he said.

Asking family friends and relatives, such as grandparents, to pitch in with helping your child with schoolwork can also go a long way toward relieving the burden that has fallen primarily on parents and it might also make schoolwork more enjoyable for the children.

Like Friedman, Michigan family medicine professor Gold feels "pulled in all directions," but has concluded that she needs to adjust her expectations.

"It's simply not feasible to be a parent, educator, emotional support system, disciplinarian, entertainer, and therapist all at once, especially during a pandemic," Gold pointed out.

"As physicians, we have high expectations of ourselves. But the most important message I can share is that none of us can possibly be as good a parent as we would like right now, so we need to recognize we're doing the best we can and give ourselves permission to fall flat sometimes," stated Gold, whose younger children are teenagers.

"At the beginning [of the pandemic] I think my kids felt they were missing out because I wasn't home while their friends' parents were," New York ophthalmologist Friedman said. "But since then, they've become proud of me. I overheard one of them say to a friend, 'My mom's a healthcare hero.' "

She added, "It's not that I feel like some kind of 'hero,' but it was validating to know that my children understand what I'm doing and why, and this helps somewhat to alleviate my guilt at being away from them so much."

For more news, follow Medscape on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, andYouTube.

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If You Want to Change, Start from the Ground Up – SFGate

Posted: June 23, 2020 at 12:51 am

By Deepak Chopra, MD and Anoop Kumar, MD

When people seek personal change in their lives, they often dont get very far. Even in this day when online advice is bewilderingly abundant and self-improvement books are at our fingertips, change eludes us. One way to remedy this is to start from the ground up. Normally, we feel compelled to start where we are right now, and thats a tremendous problem.

No matter how different people are, each of us woke up this morning to the same situation. We are constantly involved in thinking, feeling, and doing. No one starts this activity afresh. Instead, we are heavily invested in habits, beliefs, opinions, hopes, dreams, and fears collected from the past. So our thinking, feeling, and doing is entangled with the past even when we want something new, better, fresh, and different.

You cant always use will power or desire to cut the ties that bind you to the past, but you can do something that will lessen the influence of the past: You can start to see yourself clearly. With that one intention, you are starting from the ground up, because seeing yourself clearly happens here and now. You detach yourself from your story, which is the accumulation of your past. You take a fresh look at what is generating all this thinking, feeling, and doing. The process has to have an origin, a source, a wellspring that sets the active mind going every minute of the day.

Normally, if we try to see ourselves clearly, we are actually looking through a lens. We filter and arrange our experiences. Some experiences we reject, ignore, judge against, or censor. Other experiences we encourage, value, appreciate, and allow to enter our minds. The lens you choose is critical, yet people often dont realize they have a choice. It doesnt strike them in the first place that they see themselvesand everything around themthrough a lens.

The lens you see through can also be called your mindset, worldview, or simply your state of awareness. Your perspective, on life, family, relationships, work stem from it. Things become confusing because we are caught up in the conflicting stories, explanations, and belief systems that everyone gets exposed to. This confusion can be sorted out once you start to see yourself clearly. Cutting through all the clutter, you discover that you actually know whats going on. Deep inside, you are fully aware already.

There are three lenses you can view life through, configured as Mind 1, 2, or 3 at this moment.

Mind 1: You view life as a separate individual. The leading indicator of Mind 1 is the sense of localization within the body. As a result of being limited by the body, Mind 1 can only detect a world of localized things. As we see ourselves, so we see the world. You localize yourself in your body, and as a result you see a world of separate things. Other people live inside their own bodies, which gives them their own sense of separation. In Mind 1 you provide fertile ground for the ego. I, me, and mine become all-important. This makes perfect sense, because your agenda as a separate person is all about the experiences of pleasure and pain that emanate from the body. Even a mental state like anxiety is rooted in the body, because what you fear comes down to a painful feeling in here. In every respect Mind 1 is dominated by yes and no to the experiences that come your way. To achieve peace, you must successfully compete in the arena of separate people and things, experiences and events.

Mind 1 seems totally right and natural in the modern secular world. Mind 1 is reflected in sciences total focus on physical things, from microbes and subatomic particles, from the Big Bang to the multiverse. A bestselling book from 1970, Our Bodies, Ourselves, applies to all of us in Mind 1.

Mind 2: Mind 2 is centered in the unity of mind and body. It isnt necessary to see yourself confined to the physical package of a body. In fact, this mindset can be turned on its head. In place of isolation there is connection; in place of things there is process; in place of hard facts, there is an easy continuous flow. You relax into the flow of experience rather than slicing life into bits that must be judged, analyzed, accepted or rejected. Mind 2 lets you see yourself more clearly, because in reality the mind-body connection is a single continuity. Every thought and feeling creates an effect in every cell. You can consciously create change in the whole system through a switch in awareness. Mind 2 is subtler than Mind 1you have moved deeper inside who you really are, and those aspects and abilities that were filtered out by Mind 1 begin to come into view. You are the one who experiences, observes, and knows.

For most people Mind 2 begins to dawn when they meditate or do Yoga, finding access to the quiet mind that lies beneath the surface of the restless active mind. With this discovery comes a way to see beyond the separate egos fruitless search for perfect pleasure, power, or success. As a deeper vision of self and life soaks through all experience, Mind 2 is established.

Mind 3: Mind 3 expands awareness beyond all particulars. It is a radical redefining of what we mean when we use the indicator I. It places you in an infinite field of pure awareness, where all things exist as possibilities. This is not only a clear view, it is clarity itself, because there is no thing or process to obstruct your vision. Boundaries dont exist. There is no past or future. Even the idea of a present vanishes. the clearest view you can possibly have, because there are no boundaries to limit your vision. You are awake, you see things without any filter, your past no longer holds you captive, and therefore you are free, which is why Mind 3 has been known for centuries as liberation. There are no more mind-forged manacles, as the poet William Blake memorably called our self-imposed limitations.

Mind 3 is open to everyone, but there is a large obstacle that must be overcome, which is this: We are convinced by the lens we see things through already. Each mindset feels real and complete. You identify with physical things in Mind 1, the most important thing being your body. In Mind 2 you identify with your field of awareness as it brings experiences and sensations that rise and fall. Because it takes an inner journey to reach, Mind 2 isnt where the mass of humankind is, yet without a doubt anyone can go there. Mind 2 is a more natural fit than Mind 1, in fact, because if you see yourself clearly, you cannot doubt that thinking, feeling, and doing is constantly on the move, ever-changing, ever renewing itself.

But Mind 2 has its own peculiar limitation. I lingers and holds its own by experiencing my thinking, feeling, and doing. There is no need for this. Everyone alive, with the fewest exceptions, has been indoctrinated into Mind 1. In Mind 2 you escape this crude, second-hand, socially approved indoctrination. But there is a subtle indoctrination that replaces it, which sees the spiritual life as higher, better, and more valuable than ordinary life. This leads to a subtle clinging, a desire to keep the spiritual goodies coming your way and a self-image superior to those people who have not yet seen the light.

The subtle tendency to possess any idea, however fine that idea is, keeps the ego going. Letting it go entirely feels threatening. Who will I be if there is no I anymore? But if you stand back, this fearful worry only exists because the ego is asking it. Of course I will never agree to its own demotion. I is about self-preservation. The shift into Mind 3 occurs when you see that there are countless moments when you did without your ego.

Every experience of joy, love, compassion, beauty, peace, and service sets the ego aside. You go beyond I in a simple, natural glimpse of who you really are. You are the field of awareness itself, unbounded and free. Every possible experience originates here, before the whole interference of ego, society, family, school, and painful memories even begins.

Thats why Mind 3 has been dubbed the first and last freedom. It is the freedom you attain when you realize that you had it all along. Clear away the clutter, and it is simply there. Mind 1 and Mind 2 are creations, while Mind 3 is uncreated. It is the womb of creation, and when we arrive there, the inevitable feeling is that weve returned home at last. NOTE: For a visual journey through these Three Minds, visit anoopkumar.com/mind.

DEEPAK CHOPRA MD, FACP, founder of The Chopra Foundation, a non-profit entity for research on well-being and humanitarianism, and Chopra Global, a modern-day health company at the intersection of science and spirituality, is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation. Chopra is a Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego and serves as a senior scientist with Gallup Organization. He is the author of over 89 books translated into over forty-three languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. His 90th book, Metahuman: Unleashing Your Infinite Potential, unlocks the secrets to moving beyond our present limitations to access a field of infinite possibilities. TIME magazine has described Dr. Chopra as one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century.

Anoop Kumar, MD, MMgt is a Mind-Body Strategist who is Board-Certified in Emergency Medicine and holds a Masters degree in Management with a focus in Health Leadership. He is a keynote speaker and author who enjoys bringing clarity to the intersection of consciousness and everything else. Anoop is the author of numerous articles as well as two booksMichelangelo's Medicine and Is This a Dream? In addition to speaking and writing services, he offers consultations with individuals, teams, and organizations interested in deepening their understanding and experience of human potential, mind-body systems, and consciousness. Visit Anoop at anoopkumar.com and @dranoopkumar.

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OSU helping to drive National Institutes of Health effort to harness analytics in COVID-19 fight – The News Guard

Posted: June 23, 2020 at 12:51 am

Oregon State University is helping the National Institutes of Health to harness the power of big data in the fight against COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.

The NIHs National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences is creating a centralized, secure digital enclave for collecting medical record data from COVID-19 patients throughout the United States. The enclave is part of an effort called the National COVID Cohort Collaborative, or N3C, designed to help scientists expedite their understanding of the disease and to develop treatments.

For example, can we predict who might have severe outcomes if they have COVID-19? What drugs are most likely to exacerbate or be protective against COVID-19?

Vast amounts of clinical data are being generated that can be used to push research forward, but the datasets are hard to meld in meaningful ways, said Melissa Haendel, director of OSUs Translational and Integrative Sciences Laboratory.

In the United States, there hasnt been a standardized way to collect, harmonize, securely share and reproducibly analyze all the COVID-19 data being generated, she said. N3C is overcoming these varied challenges in order to rapidly transform clinical data into useful knowledge that can improve clinical care and understand the long-term impact of COVID-19.

Haendel stressed that multiple security measures will safeguard patient privacy throughout the data collection process and that the data will not include information such as names or addresses.

The cohort collaborative is funded by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences and is a partnership among NCATS-supported Clinical and Translational Science Awards Program hubs and the National Center for Data to Health, or CD2H.

The N3C platform will enable machine learning approaches and rigorous statistical analyses that require large amounts of data to reveal patterns.

The N3C pulls in extensive capabilities, and by leveraging our collective data resources, unparalleled analytics expertise and medical insights from expert clinicians, we can catalyze discoveries that address this pandemic that none of us could enable alone, said Haendel, who directs the CD2H program at the Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine.

In addition to OSU and OHSU, CD2H consists of the University of Washington, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Sage Bionetworks, the Scripps Research Institute, Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Iowa, Northwestern University and the Jackson Laboratory.

The CD2H was created in 2017 by a five-year, $25 million grant from NCATS.

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From warning on dexamethasone to HCQ: Latest on Covid-19 treatment, vaccines – Hindustan Times

Posted: June 23, 2020 at 12:51 am

More than 8.4 million people have contracted the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and 453,290 have died across the world in nearly six months after it was first reported from Chinas Wuhan late last year.

Around 10 potential vaccines are now undergoing trials in humans, in the hope that a shot to prevent infection can become available in coming months. And even before any vaccines have been proven to work, several countries have already begun making deals with pharmaceutical companies to order doses.

The World Health Organization (WHO) hopes hundreds of millions of doses of coronavirus vaccine can be produced this year and 2 billion doses by the end of 2021, chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said on Thursday.

The WHO is drawing up plans to help decide who should get the first doses once a vaccine is approved, she said.

Priority would be given to frontline workers such as medics, those who are vulnerable because of age or other illness, and those who work or live in high-transmission settings such as prisons and care homes.

Here are all the latest updates you need to know about Covid-19 vaccines:

Caution on dexamethasone

Dexamethasone, a cheap steroid that can help save the lives of patients with severe Covid-19, should be reserved for serious cases in which it has been shown to provide benefits, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.

Mike Ryan, the head of the WHOs emergencies programme, said the drug should only be used in those serious cases where it has been shown to help.

It is exceptionally important in this case, that the drug is reserved for use in severely ill and critical patients who can benefit from this drug clearly, Ryan said during a briefing.

Trial results announced on Tuesday by researchers in Britain showed dexamethasone, a generic drug used since the 1960s to reduce inflammation in diseases such as arthritis, cut death rates by around a third among the most severely ill coronavirus patients admitted to hospital.

The research body involved in the trial was the same one which found evidence that HCQ (Hydroxychloroquine) was not extremely effective on all Covid-19 patients.

That makes it the first drug proved to save lives in fighting the disease. However, some doctors were cautious, citing possible side-effects and asking to see more data.

Volunteers lining up to be infected

Thousands are signing up to take part in a high-stakes experiment willing to deliberately expose themselves to the coronavirus to test a potential vaccine, should researchers decide to proceed.

Known as human-challenge studies, these tests can hasten research by placing volunteers in the path of the virus, rather than waiting for accidental exposure.

Pascal Soriot, chief executive officer of drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc, said the controversial approach may become necessary at some point as the disease ebbs in some cities, making it harder to evaluate shots in the more conventional way.

The company is working with the University of Oxford on one of the most advanced vaccines against the virus.

The initiative is organized by 1DaySooner, a group that advocates on behalf of people who want to join challenge studies. The organisation has held discussions with potential partners and vaccine manufacturers in a bid to start production of the virus, said Josh Morrison, one of its founders.

More than a quarter of the volunteers are in Brazil, where the coronavirus is spreading fast.

Morrison said 1DaySooner has contacted vaccine developers planning final-stage studies there to suggest they consider people on its list for conventional studies, too.

Proponents note that the approach was used safely for diseases such as malaria, typhoid, cholera as well as the flu. Some experts are calling for a cautious approach.

Caution towards polio vaccine for Covid-19

Indian scientists have responded cautiously to a suggestion by global researchers that the oral polio vaccine be tested for Covid-19 treatment, saying it is a testable idea based on a sound scientific concept but may offer only limited protection against the infection.

With a vaccine for Covid-19 at least a year away, scientists say repurposing already safe and effective vaccines is the way to go for immediate relief against Covid-19.

The repurposed vaccines could include the oral polio vaccine (OPV) and the Bacillus CalmetteGuerin (BCG) used against tuberculosis, both part of the immunisation given to Indian children.

It is worth conducting a clinical trial, said Ram Vishwakarma, director of the CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (CSIR-IIIM) in Jammu.

A study was published last week by an international team of researchers in the journal Science. The researchers, including Shyamasundaran Kottili and Robert Gallo from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in the US, said the OPV should be tested to see if it might protect people from the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

They noted that the vaccine used to prevent poliomyelitis infections has been around since the 1950s, and is found to provide some protection against other viral infections.

Hydroxychloroquine wont stop coronavirus deaths

WHOs top scientist has said its now been definitively proven that the cheap malaria drug hydroxychloroquine the drug favoured by President Donald Trump doesnt work in stopping deaths among people hospitalised with the new coronavirus.

But Dr Soumya Swaminathan said there could still be a role for the drug in preventing people from catching Covid-19 in the first place and noted that clinical trials testing hydroxychloroquines role in this are ongoing.

Swaminathan said in a press briefing on Thursday that there is still a gap in determining whether hydroxychloroquine has a role at all in the prevention or minimising the severity of the illness in early infection or even in preventing it.

The UN health agency announced this week that it is suspending the hydroxychloroquine arm of its own trial testing various experimental therapies for Covid-19, referring to previous results from a large UK trial and a separate analysis of the evidence on the drug.

The other drugs being tested by WHO, including treatments used in the past for Ebola and AIDS, are still being pursued.

(With agency inputs)

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From warning on dexamethasone to HCQ: Latest on Covid-19 treatment, vaccines - Hindustan Times

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