The clash between practitioners of traditional medicines and allopathy continues leaving the common man confused about the efficacy of remedies to boost immunity, treat common cold and other minor ailments to treatment for recovery after a fracture to even rehabilitation after a stroke. Dr Apurve Mehra, founder of Biogetica, which holds a patent for a faster and effective treatment of herpes, in an interview tells Outlook's Lola Nayar that the whole debate is pointless as each school of medicine has something to offer in developing more effective medicines.

There are many skeptics of alternate medicines particularly among allopathic doctors. How do you and your group of doctors tackle this? Is there any ongoing effort to authenticate the efficacy of your medications and treatment?

The term alternate medicine needs to be eradicated. We should instead call it the original medicine as history will vouch for the fact that for thousands of years, human beings have relied on nature for medicines. It is only in the last hundred years that pharmaceuticals have taken over medicines. Anyone who believes that pharmaceuticals are the only medicine is welcome to prove their point by living off pharmaceutical medicines and vitamins in place of natural food for a month.

While we use natural products, pharmaceuticals produce molecules to mimic natural products. For instance, marijuana, which is considered a medicine in the US, is not used in its original form but instead pharmaceuticals have created Marinol, a synthetic derivative approved by the FDA. Similarly, many malaria, blood pressure and anxiety medications are derived from nature. It's not that the natural molecule did not work, or is not supported by science. It is just that nature cannot be patented and, hence, no one wishes to prove it to the authorities.

At Biogetica, our experiments have proven that nature can support pharmaceuticals and even outperform them. The original live molecule in all the perfection of nature is better for you in the long run.

Can you cite any instances to support the claim that traditional medicines can support and even outperform allopathic medicines?

The last two studies we have published on herpes (a virus causing contagious sores, most often around the mouth or on the genitals) and trigeminal neuralgia (a nerve responsible for sensation in the face and motor functions such as biting and chewing). In the case of herpes, an episode normally lasts for about four weeks. A very popular anti-viral helps to reduce the episode to 10 days and sometimes to two weeks. We have produced a combination therapy which is 100 per cent natural that helps to reduce the herpes episode to just three days. We have a patent for our product both in India and in the US and our groundbreaking study on herpes has been published and peer reviewed.

In the case of trigeminal neuralgia, often called the suicide disease, an estimated one in five people who get this disease tend to commit suicide, being the most painful condition known to man, much worse than any headache, backpain or even a broken bone. While gamma knife surgery treatment for the disease was helping 44 per cent of the patients, our treatment protocol has been known to help 68 per cent of the patients to become pain free. There is a cost advantage too as a surgery can cost about R .5 lakh, our treatment using natural products costs around Rs 5000.

Though as in the case of herpes, the episode may get over within days, we advise ayurvedic treatment for 160 days to be able to eliminate the root cause of the disease. Unlike in allopathy, we dont just focus on symptoms. While pharmaceuticals make trillions every year, we dont make even a billion dollars every year. But what makes it worth it are the letters we get from different parts of the globe thanking us for the products that have made a difference in their lives.

We often hear criticism that many of the ayurvedic medicines contain harmful hormones and steroids and some also contain high levels of metals. How true is this charge?

The hormones and steroids dont come from Ayurveda, but is due to adulteration of these medicines. Hormones and steroids are native to allopathy and prescribed openly. We ensure our medicines are adulteration free. They are in fact organic in nature.

In terms of health and nutrition, how well do your medicines serve?

Our medicines work on three levels in the body. One is molecular level, which are like raw material required by the body to produce something. This concept comes from Western medicine. The second layer comes from what we have learnt from Ayurveda and Chinese and Tibetan medicines about how to balance the five elements of the body. The third layer comes from the Vedic saying amritasya putraha or children of immortality. So, our effort is to help you align your body to negentropic soul archetypes to heal the body. We have learnt from Western medicine what are the nutrients required to help a diabetic patients body produce insulin to metabolise sugar, while from Ayurveda we know the balance of five elements that has to be created in the body to make it conducive to produce insulin.

Similarly, homeopathy offers sarcodes of insulin, which serves like a mirror for the body. Where we differ from other practitioners of different medicines is that we strive to put together the best of various options to offer best treatment.

Are you coming out with any study to address fears of non-believers in traditional medicines?

We have already come out with many such studies but unfortunately people will believe what they want to believe in. The fact is that every system of medicine has strengths. But this strength becomes a weakness when the practitioner says my way or the highway.

Every medical practice has a time and place. It is important to make the right choice. For instance, in the case of a bone fracture it is important to go in for surgical care but after that one can choose from among traditional medicines and allopathy to strengthen the reset bone right from intake of calcium to other alternatives. Unfortunately, nobody is positioning themselves to serve patient needs, and instead opt to stick to what they have learnt in their medical studies and harbor skepticism for any other system of medicine. Over time and especially now during this pandemic, it is obvious that the time has come for doctors to come together and learn from each other.

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We Should Call Traditional Medicine The Original Medicine: Dr Apurve Mehra - Outlook India

While numerous summerinternships in the United States and abroad were cancelled this year due to the pandemic, Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) has kept many internship programs running both virtually and in-person. This summer, more than 300 interns from around the world were enrolled in MSK internship programs and many more students were involved in frequent online seminars and lectures provided by MSK.

Education is one of the core pillars of MSKs mission to lead in the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and cure of cancer and associated diseases. MSK is dedicated to training the next generation of scientists and healthcare professionals, so when it became apparent in early March that hosting summer interns in-person was going to be uniquely challenging, MSK leaders quickly shifted to modify many of our student summer programs rather than cancel them outright.

At MSK, we are acting on our deep commitment to continue educating studentsduring the pandemic, said Laura Liberman, MD, FACR, Director of the Office of Faculty Development (OFD). Now, more than ever, we see why its vital to train the next generationof scientists and healthcare professionals and to teach them how to communicate clearly and accurately about science and health.

Some programs were modified to make them available to even more students. The Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program (HOPP) Summer Student Program, designed for high school students who are interested in pursuing careers in the biomedical sciences, shifted to a virtual seminar series open to everyone by registering here. This series, which ends August 28, includes one-hour lectures held up to three times a week from leading doctors and scientists at MSK and other institutions.

A new program was created to focus on COVID-19 specifically. The MSK CARES (Coronavirus Academic Research Experience Summer) Program engaged past interns from the Summer Clinical Oncology Research Experience (SCORE) in literature review and analysis during the pandemic. These 14 SCORE alumni volunteered to join this brand new research program where they explored many aspects of COVID-19, including fatality rates, testing, vaccine development, telehealth, disparities among patient populations, and more. Check out their final presentations here and here.

Throughout the year, MSK hosts more than 25 different student programs that give high school students, college students and recent graduates the opportunity to work alongside our world-renowned staff in a variety of different areas. Some examples of student programs include the Clinical Assistance Program (CAP) for nursing students, Summer Support Internship/Employment Program for students interested in healthcare/hospital administration, Chemical Biology Summer Program (ChBSP) for chemistry, biochemistry, and chemical biology undergraduate students, Summer Exposure Program (SEP) designed to expose underserved high school students to clinical and research opportunities in oncology, and many more programs found here. There are internship opportunities in clinical research, molecular biology, chemical biology, computational biology and medicine, nursing, information technology, healthcare administration, office management, and more.

Get to know a few of our students who joined us this summer:

Anthony Martinez Benitez is a senior at Hunter College, majoring in human biology and minoring in chemistry. When he was seven years old, he and his family moved from El Salvador to Hempstead, NY, where they still reside. He first became interested in pre-med in high school after attending a summer pipeline program at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra University. However, Anthonys specific passion for research started after he participated in our Clinical Oncology Open Learning (COOL) Scholars Program. After learning about the many types of physiological and psychological effects on cancer patients through this program, he was inspired to seek out research laboratories that focus on studying the advancement of cancer. This brought Anthony to apply to the SCORE Program this summer. He has been working virtually from home, and presented his final project on the STAG2 gene, which is found to be commonly mutated in bladder cancer (and several other types of cancer). In his free time, Anthony volunteers at a local hospital. After he graduates, he hopes to join one of MSKs research labs to continue to gain research experience and someday become a physician-scientist.

Rachelle Monteau is a pre-med student at CUNY in the highly competitive Sophie Davis Biomedical Education Program, a seven-year BS/MD program that specifically recruits students from underrepresented populations into medicine. Rachelles parents are originally from Haiti, but they now live in Queens, where she has been conducting her internship virtually this summer. Inspired by her father who is a physician assistant, she hopes to bring her medical training to underrepresented communities in the United States and abroad when she graduates. Rachelle was also accepted to our SCORE Program this summer, where she worked with her mentor, Fumiko Chino, MD, on her final project focused on racial trends in liver cancer mortality.

Kathleen Navasis a senior at UC Berkeley, double majoring in data science andMCB (Molecular and Cell Biology) with a focus on immunology. Shes spent her whole life living in the Bay Area, but in late June she travelled to New York City for the first time to work inThe Quaid Morris Lab. Out of a cohort of thirteen inourComputational Biology Summer Program (CBSP), she is one of three interns working on-site. Kathleen is focusing on multiple projects, including investigating how new onset autoimmunity can inform cancer outcome predictions. While she admits that its a strange time to live in New York City (but a great time to jog across town and sightsee unusually empty locations, including Times Square!), she will be staying through the fall to continue working on her research.

Amelia Tran lives in Vietnam and has been conducting herinternship from there this summer working opposite hours on East Coast time! She is a senior at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts majoring in statistics. This summer, she was an intern in the Quantitative Sciences Undergraduate Research Experience (QSURE) program, where she learned about the role of statistics in biomedical settings. She is grateful that her internship was not cancelled, and found that the program was still well organized and professional, even though it was all virtual. She and her fellow QSURE interns still keep in touch over WhatsApp.

For more information about internships and student and new-grad careers at MSK, please visit: https://careers.mskcc.org/students-new-grads/.

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Commitment to Education and Mentoring: How Memorial Sloan Kettering Continued Summer Internships During the Pandemic - On Cancer - Memorial Sloan...

"All the different parts of the Mason research ecosystem are bringing their expertise together for this worthy purpose."

FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. George Mason scientists and researchers are on the front lines of creating a saliva test that will help detect antibodies to COVID-19 and could begin screening student, faculty and staff volunteers as early as this summer, according to the university.

"All the different parts of the Mason research ecosystem are bringing their expertise together for this worthy purpose, said Lance Liotta, the lead researcher and the co-director and co-founder of Masons Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine (CAPMM). The goal is to evaluate if saliva can be used instead of blood for ease of screening for COVID-19 antibodies.

Researchers across the United States have found that one of the most versatile options for COVID-19 testing is the saliva-based paper-strip test, because it only requires a paper strip and a test tube. Studies have found that these types of tests could easily be used at home, reducing the risk of community spread.

Scientists have learned that even moderately accurate screening tests still reduce transmission.

Emanuel Petricoin, co-director of CAPMM, said Mason infectious disease, clinical care, clinical diagnostics and molecular microbiology researchers are working together to develop and assess the test for COVID-19 exposure.

This could have far-reaching impact for the local community, Virginia, the United States, and the entire world if an accurate method can be achieved and rigorously validated, Petricoin said.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued the approval notice Saturday, for the test which was developed by Yale University, and has been partially funded by the National Basketball Association (NBA) and its player's association.

In mid-July as 3M partnered with MIT to develop a paper-based coronavirus test. The goal was to provide millions of their COVID-19 diagnostic tests after the summer.

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George Mason scientists help with saliva test that could be a game-changer for tracking COVID-19 in US - 13newsnow.com WVEC

Bioinformatics Marketis expected to reach USD 26.33 billion by 2026 from USD 7.76 billion in 2018, at a CAGR of 16.5% in the forecast period 2019 to 2026. The new market report contains data for historic years 2017, the base year of calculation is 2018 and the forecast period is 2019 to 2026.

Few of the major competitors currently working in the bioinformatics market are Thermo Fisher Scientific (US), Illumina Inc. (US), Agilent Technologies, Inc. (US), QIAGEN (Netherlands), BGI (China), Wuxi NextCODE (China), Eurofins Scientific (Luxembourg), Waters Corporation (US), Sophia Genetics (Switzerland), Partek (US), DNASTAR (US), Dassault Systmes (France), DNAnexus, Inc. (US), Genebio (Switzerland), ASEBIO (Spain), PerkinElmer Inc. (US), abm Inc.(Canada) a few among others.

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Products of the report

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Global Bioinformatics Market Explosive Growth And Key Trends Analysis | Eminent Players Are Agilent Technologies, Inc. (US), QIAGEN (Netherlands), BGI...

On August 20, Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg, President and CEO of CIUSSS West- Central Montreal, announced the appointment of Dr. Stephen Robbins as Director of the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research (LDI) at the Jewish General Hospital (JGH) in January 2021. Dr. Robbins also becomes a Professor in McGill Universitys Gerald Bronfman Department of Oncology, as well as an Associate Member in McGills Department of Medicine. He will also hold the Glaxo Smith Kline Chair in Pharmacology at McGill.

Dr. Robbins is a proven strategic leader and a renowned scientist with an established national and international reputation, and we are confident that he will enhance the LDIs already strong position as a leading Canadian biomedical research centre, said Dr. Rosenberg, who chaired the search committee.

His career has spanned several interests, including immunology, genetics and cancer, which is particularly relevant, given that the LDI is home to more than 200 diverse scientists operating under four axes: cancer, epidemiology, molecular and regenerative medicine, and psychosocial aspects of disease.

Since 2013, Dr. Robbins has served as the Scientific Director of the Institute of Cancer Research at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. He has been at the University of Calgary since 1996, where he is Professor in the Departments of Oncology and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the Cummings School of Medicine. He currently leads a research program that focuses on pre-clinical testing for brain tumours, inflammation and metastasis.

I look forward to joining the great research community at the Lady Davis Institute, said Dr. Robbins. I am very honoured and humbled by the opportunity to lead this internationally recognized research institute with its strong history of research accomplishments, accolades and contributions to improving the health and well-being of people across Canada and beyond.

Dr. Robbins earned his Bachelors degree in biology at York University in Toronto (1985) and his Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from the University of British Columbia (1991). He pursued his post-doctoral work at the University of California at San Francisco (1991-1996) under Nobel laureate Dr. J. Michael Bishop. His previous leadership roles include Vice-Director (2007-2008) and Director (2009-2013) of the Southern Alberta Cancer Research Institute, and Associate Director, Research, of Alberta Health Services Cancer Care (2010-2013).

We are so pleased that Dr. Robbins is joining our faculty, said Dr. David Eidelman, Vice-Principal (Health Affairs) and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at McGill. His research will flourish at McGill, and he is a welcome addition to our strong roster of oncology specialists.

Dr. Roderick McInnes, who has served with distinction as Director of the LDI since 2009, will continue in that role until the end of the year.

Dr. McInnes has done an exceptional job over the past decade in reinvigorating scientific output at the LDI, recruiting a corps of dynamic young investigators, and streamlining the focus of the Institutes intellectual interests, said Dr. Rosenberg. We are very grateful for his contributions, upon which we will continue to build for many years to come.

Since its founding in 1969, the LDI has been an integral part of the Jewish General Hospital, with strong academic links to McGill University. Its scientists are highly regarded for their cutting-edge work in basic, translational and clinical research, with a focus on bringing discoveries from the lab bench to the bedside for the benefit of patients.

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Dr. Stephen Robbins appointed Director of the Lady Davis Institute at the Jewish General Hospital - McGill Reporter

History of Medicine Club president hopes to engage discussion about vaccines, increase membership

LAUREN PETTIT

Thinh Tran reached out to his roommates, friends and professors to create the History of Medicine Club, which he started in fall 2019.

Thinh Tran grew up in a family centered around business, but he decided to go a different route.

Tran, senior molecular biology major, saw his family practitioner when he was younger and realized that was the path he wanted to take. Now as a senior, Tran leads the History of Medicine Club, which he started in fall 2019.

Sian Ritchie, scholarly associate professor and club adviser, said a documentary about the purification of heroin from opium in the 1800s inspired her to teach an honors course about the history of medicine.

Ritchie previously advised the pre-optometry club, but the club has since been inactive. She also jumped around from being a researcher at a research lab to being a stay-at-home mom to teaching at WSU.

One of Trans friends took the class and told him about it, which sparked his interest in providing a club for others to learn more about the subject, Tran said.

[Tran] showed up at my door one day and said he wanted to start this club so Im like, Okay, cool, Ritchie said.

Tran noticed as an undergraduate on the pre-med track that professors usually do not teach about the history of medicine, but focus on the basics instead.

He then reached out to his roommate, friends and professors to get the club on its feet. He said one of the challenging parts was sparking interest for other students to join the group.

I feel like any students who are interested in any kind of healthcare would really benefit from learning the history behind certain medications and certain kinds of attitudes towards things like opium, Ritchie said.

Tran said as of now, the club hosts meetings to prompt discussions about the current medical field and how history has impacted medical society today. There are plans in the works to complete volunteer work.

Thats another really important box to check if youre interested in a health profession is getting those volunteer hours, Ritchie said.

She said with COVID-19 at the forefront of everything, it is important to learn how immunizations came to be. Ritchie said Edward Jenner was the first to find a vaccination against smallpox, which killed millions of people over centuries.

Jenner derived a vaccine for smallpox using a disease found in cows called cowpox. Ritchie said cartoons were published about the discovery claiming that the vaccination would turn them into a cow.

Its a classic kind of misunderstanding of science in the popular press. Its not new, Ritchie said. Its always been around.

After taking a gap year, Tran said he wants to attend medical school so he can practice family medicine. He has a passion for talking to people and finding solutions to improve their health.

Tran said with the semester being online, he anticipates all club meetings to be over Zoom, and students of all majors are welcome.

One of the things that Ive learned throughout this whole thing is Im going to need to be patient, Tran said.

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Students connect medical history to today's practice The Daily Evergreen - The Daily Evergreen

We continue our Hope Behind the Headlines series by exploring the most recent and most hopeful findings in the field of COVID-19 research.

Hopefully, the COVID-19 pandemic will not last forever. Every 2 weeks, we round up the recently published evidence that reminds us of this.

In our last installment, we reported on a vaccine candidate that showed promise in monkeys and a new trial that tested an existing drug, among other innovations.

In this feature, we discover another existing drug that could treat the infection. We also learn about T cells and how a new blood test could speed up vaccine development and mass screening.

Furthermore, we zoom in on a class of immune-modifying drugs that may be the most effective treatment for severe forms of the disease.

Stay informed with live updates on the current COVID-19 outbreak and visit our coronavirus hub for more advice on prevention and treatment.

Researchers have found that a drug that doctors currently use for treating conditions as varied as bipolar disorder and hearing loss also has antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. These properties make it a good candidate for treating COVID-19.

The drug is called Ebselen, and the fact that it is already in use indicates its safety. Furthermore, previous evidence has shown that Ebselen can block enzymes that the new coronavirus needs for replicating within healthy host cells.

This enzyme is called Mpro, and researchers have described this protease as indispensable for the replication of SARS-CoV-2. As a result, Mpro is an excellent drug candidate.

In the new study, Prof. Juan de Pablo, from the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago, IL, and his colleagues set out to test whether Ebselen can indeed inhibit the Mpro protease.

To find out, they created computer models of both the drug and Mpro to see how they interact. They found that the drugs action is two-pronged:

In addition to binding at the catalytic site of the enzyme, Ebselen also binds strongly to a distant site, which interferes with the enzymes catalytic function by relying on a mechanism in which information is carried from one region of a large molecule to another region far away from it through subtle structural reorganizations.

These findings highlight the promise of Ebselen as a repurposed drug against SARS-CoV-2.

The study authors

In an exclusive interview for Medical News Today, James Hindley, Ph.D., explained how he and his collaborator Martin Scurr, Ph.D. a research associate at Cardiff Universitys School of Medicine in the United Kingdom are working on a new test that measures a key component of the immune system: T cells.

Hindley, who is the Executive Director at Indoor Biotechnologies in Cardiff, told MNT that most of the existing tests focus on assessing antibodies to determine immunity to SARS-CoV-2.

However, another critical component of our immune response to viruses is the T cell. These also provide memory immune responses and may even be more sensitive than antibodies, said Hindley.

T cells are a type of lymphocyte, or white blood cell, that the bone marrow produces. Before neutralizing antibodies even come into play, different types of T cells have to collaborate to lead to antibody production.

The test we have developed can provide quantitative results measuring the magnitude of an individuals T-cell response to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. We can also run in parallel the same test for other human coronaviruses and viruses, such as influenza. This allows us to establish a persons immune status.

James Hindley, Ph.D.

The researcher went on to explain that the test will be useful for vaccine development; to determine whether a T-cell response to the vaccine has been generated and whether that is adequate to be protective from infection.

We also believe this test will enable public health bodies to perform much wider screenings of the population. [T]his would be carried out by laboratories in conjunction with antibody testing to determine what constitutes protective immunity.

Finally, the researcher also explained how this test is more effective than others.

Where we were innovative was looking at the minimum requirements to perform this test, to get the necessary data to answer the question of whether a person has specific T-cell responses.

By providing just these elements without the added complexity, we made this test much easier to perform in almost any lab.

New research spearheaded by Marcus Buggert, an immunologist at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, also has T cells at its heart.

Buggert and his team found that 30 out of 31 people who recovered from a mild SARS-CoV-2 infection had memory T-cell responses to the new virus.

Out of the same sample, 27 had antibodies against the coronavirus. Such findings add to the newly emerging direction in research that uses T cells as an alternative path to COVID-19 immunity.

In the new study, T cell responses were still visible months after a mild infection, sometimes even in the absence of antibodies.

In the absence of a protective vaccine, says Buggert, it is critical to determine if exposed or infected people, especially those with asymptomatic or very mild forms of the disease who likely act inadvertently as the major transmitters, develop robust adaptive immune responses against SARS-CoV-2.

Our findings suggest that the reliance on antibody responses may underestimate the extent of population-level immunity against SARS-CoV-2. The obvious next step is to determine whether robust memory T-cell responses in the absence of detectable antibodies can protect against COVID-19 in the long term.

Marcus Buggert

Finally, an observational study found a class of drugs called interleukin-6 (IL-6) receptor inhibitors to be the most effective for treating severe forms of COVID-19.

In fact, the new study found that these drugs are even more effective than remdesivir or dexamethasone the other two treatments widely heralded as beneficial, based on clinical trial results.

Healthcare professionals typically prescribe IL-6 receptor inhibitors for conditions with an autoimmune component, such as rheumatoid arthritis, to dampen the immune systems excessive response.

IL-6 receptor inhibitors as their name suggests block the receptors of IL-6, which is an immune signaling molecule, or cytokine.

In COVID-19, this action helps calm down the phenomenon known as the cytokine storm, which can lead to potentially fatal outcomes in people with the disease.

In the new paper, for which Dr. Pranay Sinha from the Section of Infectious Diseases at Boston University School of Medicine, MA, was the first author, the researchers explain that the participants who received the 1L-6 inhibitors had considerably higher supplementary oxygen requirements, indicating more advanced disease, than patients in the remdesivir and dexamethasone trials and would have been expected to have a higher mortality rate.

However, the IL-6 inhibitor recipients had a lower mortality rate than patients in the intervention and control groups of those trials.

Furthermore, the mortality rate for the participants who required ICU care was 22.9%. This rate was considerably lower than the published 4550% mortality in other ICU cohorts.

The majority of patients (85.5%) were also discharged alive, which is higher than the reported rate with standard of care (3666%) over a similar time of follow-up. Overall, the authors conclude:

[IL-6 inihitor] use was associated with decreased mortality, decreased rate of intubation, higher likelihood of being discharged alive, and shorter length of stay.

For live updates on the latest developments regarding the novel coronavirus and COVID-19, click here.

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Treating COVID-19: Bipolar drug shows promise and other hopeful findings - Medical News Today

Piezoceramic materials are used in actuation and sensing applications across a variety of markets, and are key to some of the leading-edge technologies now used in the medical sector. From molecular diagnostics and microdosing to ultrasonic tartar removal from teeth, medical technologies require components that are fast and reliable, with low energy consumption. Piezoceramics combine all these characteristics, giving much higher accuracy and precision and requiring less power compared to traditional mechanical actuators and sensors. They are also friction free, so are less susceptible to wear and tear, keeping ongoing costs to a minimum.

The direct piezoelectric effect is based on the generation of charges through the application of force by a crystal, and this piezo technology is used in a range of everyday objects. The most widely recognised application of the piezoelectric effect is probably to provide the spark for electronic cigarette or gas grill lighters, but it is just as frequently used in reverse applying a voltage to a piezo crystal to cause it to change shape. This ability to convert electrical signal into motion is, if anything, even more commonly used in consumer goods particularly for the speakers often used in cell phones and other compact devices and the rise of advanced piezoceramic materials has further expanded their use. With no mechanical parts, piezoceramic actuators offer exceptional precision and speed combined with excellent reliability and low power consumption. They do not create, and are not affected by, magnetic fields, and work reliably under extreme conditions, for example at cryogenic temperatures and in vacuums, making them easily adaptable to different environments.

In vitro diagnostics (IVD) offer numerous possibilities to diagnose and detect diseases and other conditions at an early stage from samples of blood, saliva, urine or tissue. IVD is increasingly important in the fight against virus pandemics, such as COVID-19, where fast, easy and widely accessible testing methods open up the possibility to adapt therapeutic interventions for a personalised medicine approach to help cure, treat, and prevent diseases. Laboratory-based and portable point-of-care IVD testing devices require nano- and picolitre-level liquid handling, as well as high precision, shock-free dosing, fast mixing or separation of fluids and particles, and the generation of perfect droplets, taking into account the viscosity and surface tension of the media and the dosing speed. Often, contactless execution is also necessary to avoid sample contamination.

Piezoelectric components and actuators are ideal for several of these challenging IVD applications, and many clinical instruments take advantage of the incredible speed and accuracy that these technologies offer down to the nanometre level. In a lab setting, devices are getting more compact as we try to cram more capabilities into the same space, while the density of sampling is getting higher, creating a need for very small and fast drivers for the pipetting process. At the same time, these mechanisms must produce enough force to move the pipettes vertically, but with the accuracy to aspirate or dispense the right amounts of fluid. Small footprint piezomotors are perfect for this application, operating as a direct linear drive that can generate high forces. A ceramic that oscillates at ultrasonic frequencies generates a controllable forward motion with uniform speed and unparalleled accuracy.

Highly reliable PICMA stack multilayer piezo actuators are available in numerous designs with different displacement modes.

Piezo elements are also commonly used in micropumps to reliably and precisely move extremely small volumes of liquid or gas, ranging from a few hundred millilitres to a few nanolitres. Different types of pumps, such as membrane or peristaltic pumps, are actuated by different drive principles. The piezo elements can be adapted perfectly to each specific application and environment, from miniaturised lab-on-a-chip solutions for mobile analytical instruments, to microdiaphragm pumps that create continuous and variable flow rates down to the picolitre range. Essentially, any application that needs reliable metering of minute amounts of liquids and gases from medical uses and biotechnology to chemical analytics and process engineering can benefit from powerful and versatile piezo technology, and the more it is applied to this sector, the more device manufacturers will realise its potential.

Another use of piezo motors is in conventional chip-on-the-tip video endoscopes. These instruments typically use fixed focus optics to provide imaging for a certain depth of field, but integration of a miniature piezo motor enables variable focusing, ensuring that an object can always be displayed optimally in sharp focus. Selection of the most appropriate drive technology for the specific task and boundary conditions will enhance the image quality and depth of focus without compromising reliability.

Piezo drives also offer benefits compared to traditional mechanical drives for ultrasound applications. By avoiding the need for mechanical components such as clutches or gearheads they offer lower weight, reduced costs and greater reliability. Oscillations of a piezoceramic actuator at ultrasonic frequencies are converted into linear motion along a moving rod, giving a uniform motion of theoretically unlimited travel range.

Miniaturised piezo elements can be used for many minimally invasive treatment procedures, such as ablation, intravascular lithotripsy, or even the controlled release of medication. For example, a non-contact ablation procedure using piezoceramics has recently been developed for the treatment of atrial fibrillation. The transcatheter technology uses tiny piezo elements to generate ultrasonic waves, and the mechanical energy that the target tissue area absorbs leads to heating, causing coagulation. Treatment can be monitored in real-time, allowing lesions to be created as seamless lines, an important criterion that is the basis for the success of the therapy. This technology, generated by ultrasound only, reduces the risk of injury during treatment, and solves the greatest limitations of current catheter ablation technologies.

As stated above, piezo elements are also used in intravascular lithotripsy, for minimally invasive reduction of atherosclerotic plaques in blood vessels or heart valves, as well as life-threatening stenoses. Here, ultrasound waves increase the permeability of the blood vessel wall through sonoporation, enabling better penetration of the medication used to induce plaque dissolution.

As medical technology continues to develop at a rapid pace, the versatility of piezoceramics is becoming increasingly useful in providing solutions for more efficient instrumentation. The potential uses for piezoceramics is vast from minimally invasive treatment for atrial fibrillation to IVD testing platforms. The flexibility of piezoceramic materials mean that they can be adapted for multiple different applications, offering reliability and precision, and continuing to support instrumentation development as technology advances even further.

Written byAnnemarie Oesterle - Segment Marketing Manager Medical Technologies, PI Ceramic Marketing Manager.

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Piezoceramics Bring Precision and Reliability to Medical Technologies - Novus Light Technologies Today

These awards demonstrate the Boards appreciation for exceptional educators at each of the 14 UT institutions, Board of Regents Chairman Kevin P. Eltife said. Their dedication to teaching excellence and student success is instrumental to achieving our education, research and healthcare missions.

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler(UTHSCT) Associate Professor Dr. Torry A. Tucker has been selected to receivethe 2020 Regents Outstanding Teaching Award from The University of TexasSystem Board of Regents to recognize extraordinary classroom performance andinnovation.

The honor reflects the great respect students, peers andpresidents have for a recipients teaching abilities and contributions.

This award is so well deserved, and we are so proud of Dr.Tucker, said UTHSCT President Dr. Kirk A. Calhoun. Great faculty, like him,will lead and educate a new generation of scientists and healthcareprofessionals. We appreciate what Dr. Tucker does for our university every day,and I look forward to when we can have an in-person and safe celebration of hisaward.

Dr. Tucker is an associate professor of cellular andmolecular biology. He also serves as the associate dean for faculty andeducation initiatives. Dr. Tucker was trained as a cell biologist at theUniversity of Alabama at Birmingham with a focus on diseases of the lung,specifically cystic fibrosis. He came to The University of Texas Health ScienceCenter at Tyler as a postdoctoral fellow in 2007 and joined the faculty in2009. His current research investigates the causes of pleural scarring andsubsequent fibrosis. He also studies pathways involved in the development and progressionof idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Dr. Tucker receives a certificate, medallion and $25,000 inrecognition of his impact on students and the institution. Tucker was one of 27faculty members representing 14 UT academic and health institutions to receivethe 2020 Regents Outstanding Teaching Award.

These awards demonstrate the Boards appreciation forexceptional educators at each of the 14 UT institutions, Board of RegentsChairman Kevin P. Eltife said. Their dedication to teaching excellence andstudent success is instrumental to achieving our education, research andhealthcare missions.

Great teachers inspire, motivate and challenge theirstudents, UT System Chancellor James B. Milliken said. We honor theseoutstanding educators for their service to Texas and Texans.

The University of Texas System Board of Regents establishedthe annual awards program in 2008 to honor exemplary classroom performance andinnovation. Since then, the Board has presented more than $20 million to over750 outstanding UT educators.

Nominees undergo a series of rigorous evaluations bystudents, peer faculty and external reviewers. The review panels consider arange of activities and criteria in their evaluations of a candidates teachingperformance, including classroom expertise, curricula quality, innovativecourse development and student learning outcomes.

As part of the world-renowned University of Texas System,The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler (UTHSCT) is a graduateschool providing programs for those seeking careers in the medical field.UTHSCT offers Master of Science in Biotechnology, Master of Public Health andMaster of Health Administration degrees, as well as residency programs formedical school graduates in family medicine, general surgery, internalmedicine, occupational medicine, rural family medicine, general psychiatry andrural psychiatry. Psychology internships and fellowships are also available.

Graduate students, medical residents and other medicalprofessionals-in-training develop marketable skills and qualifications to excelin the medical field as they learn alongside innovative scientists, physiciansand other healthcare experts at UTHSCT and UT Health East Texas, a 10-hospitalhealth system throughout East Texas. Led by Kirk A. Calhoun, MD, FACP, theuniversity will soon become the home to the first medical school in East Texas,pending regulatory and accreditation approval. For more information visitwww.uthct.edu.

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Dr. Torry Tucker Receives Outstanding Teaching Award - East Texas Review

In 2020, the rate of companion diagnostic approvals is keeping pace with that of targeted therapies, rapidly expanding the arsenal of novel tools available to identify actionable molecular markers across histologies.

Since January 2020, the FDA has approved 10 new single-agent and combination regimens for use with a specific companion diagnostic (Table).1,2

The agency also has given the go-ahead for the Ventana HER2 Dual ISH DNA Probe Cocktail assay, a new, faster method for detecting HER2 gene amplification status for trastuzumab (Herceptin) therapy.2

Additionally, on August 7, 2020, the agency approved Guardant360 CDx assay, a next-generation sequencing (NGS) test that utilizes circulating cell-free DNA from peripheral whole blood plasma, as a companion diagnostic to detect EGFR mutations in patients with non-small cell lung cancer who are candidates for osimertinib (Tagrisso) therapy. The test is the first liquid biopsy assay that also uses NGS technology, the FDA said.3

As precision medicine evolves in oncology, companion diagnostics are broadly and increasingly being adopted to guide treatment decisions, enabling clinicians to better and more precisely direct patients to therapies that best suit their unique genomic profiles. Specifically, companion diagnostics can be used to select the patients who are likely to respond to a given therapeutic intervention, as well as those who should not receive a specific treatment because of a high risk of adverse events. This latter insight is critical, considering that many oncology drugs are toxic and have a positive effect in only a fraction of patients with a particular malignancy.4

The profusion of targeted therapies approved with associated companion diagnostics in 2020 duly reflects oncologys growing emphasis on personalized methodologies of treatment selection and the fields continuous investigative efforts to advance precision medicine, according to Shridar Ganesan, MD, PhD, associate director for Translational Science and section chief of Molecular Oncology at the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey in New Brunswick. What we are seeing is the result of a lot of investment in targeted therapeutics and approaches over the past decade now coming to fruition, Ganesan said.

CROSS-THERAPY INDICATIONS

The FDA has approved 43 in vitro and imaging-based diagnostic devices, including the Guardant360 CDx assay.2,3

This record of FDA-accepted companion diagnostics dates back to 1998, when Dako Denmarks immunohistochemical assay, HercepTest, developed to detect the HER2 protein in breast cancer tissue, was concurrently approved with trastuzumab (Herceptin).

The simultaneous approval represented the first step toward oncologys current practice of codeveloping drugs and corresponding diagnostics.5

In contrast to 1998, this model of companion diagnostic-guided therapeutics is now dominant in oncology, with several devices holding indications for multiple therapies across tumor types. For example, Foundation Medicines NGSbased in vitro diagnostic device, FoundationOne CDx, which detects substitutions, insertion and deletion alterations, and copy number alterations in 324 genes, is approved as a companion diagnostic test for 23 therapies. The assay uses DNA isolated from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tumor tissue specimens.

On April 17, 2020, Foundation Medicine announced that the comprehensive genomic profiling test received FDA clearance to aid the identification of candidates for pemigatinib (Pemazyre) monotherapy, which received an accelerated approval for adults with treatment-nave, unresectable, locally advanced, or metastatic cholangiocarcinoma with an FGFR2 fusion or rearrangement.6

FoundationOne CDxs indication further expanded on May 6, 2020, when the FDA granted capmatinib (Tabrecta) an accelerated approval for adults with metastatic MET exon14 skippingmutated nonsmall cell lung cancer and designated the device as the agents corresponding companion diagnostic.7

The approval of FoundationOne CDx for multiple tumor types exemplifies Ganesans observation that companion diagnostic development does not always entail new technology and will not necessarily require frequent innovation as the usage and utility of these devices expands in oncology. Often, we are building on a platform diagnostic that is already FDA approved. In some cases, new diagnostic tools are not being invented; rather, existing assays are being validated for a new purpose, Ganesan said.

On May 19, 2020, FoundationOne CDx was approved to support the identification of patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious germline or somatic homologous recombination repair gene-mutated metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Patients with the biomarker who progress after prior treatment with enzalutamide (Xtandi) or abiraterone acetate (Zytiga) are eligible to receive olaparib (Lynparza).8

This decision expanded FoundationOne CDxs olaparib-specific indication: the diagnostic was previously approved to select patients with BRCA-mutant advanced ovarian cancer who would benefit from frontline maintenance olaparib monotherapy, on July 1, 2019.9

FoundationOne CDxs 2019 approval followed a 2016 announcement issued by AstraZeneca, olaparibs developer, and Foundation Medicine indicating that the companies had entered into a definitive agreement to develop a novel companion diagnostic assay for olaparib to support the global development of the PARP inhibitor.10

The cross-therapy companion diagnostic approvals that FoundationOne CDx received in the 4 years that followed AstraZeneca and FoundationOnes forging of this strategic partnership evidence the multiyear nature of the research efforts required to advance diagnostic-guided precision care. Ganesan emphasized that moving the needle in personalized medicine can be a slow process fraught with questions, even if the recent succession of 2020 companion diagnostic approvals makes it appear otherwise.

For example, it took us over 20 years to go from identifying HER2 amplification in a subset of breast cancer, to developing and validating HER2targeted theraputics, and f inally, development of combination treatment strategies that have changed the natural history of early and late-stage HER2amplified breast cancers, Ganesan said.

Nevertheless, the series of 2020 companion diagnostic indications that the FDA has issued in synchronization with targeted therapy approvals represents a very important series of developments that points to the importance of upfront molecular profiling for many cancers, both as part of their biologic classification and to guide optimal therapy, Ganesan added.

References

1. Hematology/oncology (cancer) approvals & safety notifications. FDA. Updated August 6, 2020. Accessed August 10, 2020. bit.ly/3a9NHuO

2. List of cleared or approved companion diagnostic devices (in vitro and imaging tools). FDA. Updated August 3, 2020. Accessed August 10, 2020. bit.ly/2PbJj4M

3. FDA approves first liquid biopsy next-generation sequencing companion diagnostic test. FDA. August 7, 2020. Accessed August 10, 2020. https://bit.ly/31AAEi0

4. Becker Jr R, Mansfield E. Companion diagnostics. Clin Adv Hematol Oncol. 2010;8(7):478-479.

5. Jan Trst Jrgensen, ed. Companion and Complementary Diagnostics: From Biomarker Discovery to Clinical Implementation. Academic Press; 2019.

6. Foundation Medicine receives FDA approval for FoundationOne CDx as the companion diagnostic for Pemazyre (pemigatinib), the first FDA-approved targeted therapy for adults with previously treated locally advanced or metastatic cholangiocarcinoma. News release. Foundation Medicine, Inc; April 17, 2020. Accessed July 13, 2020. bit.ly/3jXzpSk

7. Foundation Medicine receives FDA approval for FoundationOne CDx as the companion diagnostic for Tabrecta (capmatinib), the only FDA-approved MET inhibitor for patients with metastatic nonsmall cell lung cancer with METex14. News release. Foundation Medicine, Inc; May 6, 2020. Accessed July 13, 2020. bit.ly/30dFyC3

8. Foundation Medicine receives FDA approval for FoundationOne CDx as the companion diagnostic for Lynparza to identify patients with HRR-mutated metastatic castrationresistant prostate cancer. News release. Foundation Medicine, Inc; May 20, 2020. Accessed July 13, 2020. bit.ly/3hPy4ez

9. Foundation Medicine expands indication for FoundationOne CDx as a companion diagnostic for Lynparza (Olaparib). News release. Foundation Medicine, Inc; July 1, 2019. Accessed July 13, 2020. bit.ly/338uyb6

10. AstraZeneca and Foundation Medicine enter strategic collaboration for Lynparza companion diagnostic assay. News release. AstraZeneca; June 4, 2016. Accessed July 13, 2020. bit.ly/3165Oh5

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Companion Diagnostic, Targeted Therapy Approvals Rise in Tandem - OncLive

SAN FRANCISCO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / August 24, 2020 / Tribe Public announced today that Dietrich Stephan, Chief Executive Officer of NeuBase Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:NBSE), a biotechnology company developing next-generation antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) therapies using its scalable PATrOL platform to address genetic diseases, will present at Tribe Public's Presentation and Q&A Webinar Event at 8 am pacific/11 am eastern on Wednesday, August 26th, 2020. During this complimentary, 30-minute event, Dr. Stephan will introduce the NeuBase's next-generation gene silencing technology and discuss the company's progress with treatment candidates in Huntington's Disease (HD) and Myotonic Dystrophy (DM1). A question and answer session will follow the presentation. To register to join the complimentary event, please visit the Tribe Public LLC website: http://www.tribepublic.com, or send a message to Tribe's management at research@tribepublic.com to request your seat for this limited capacity Zoom-based event.

Dietrich A. Stephan, Ph.D. is an industry veteran who is considered one of the fathers of the field of precision medicine, having trained with the leadership of the Human Genome Project at the NIH and then going on to lead discovery research at the Translational Genomics Research Institute and serve as professor and chairman of the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Stephan has identified the molecular basis of dozens of genetic diseases and published extensively in journals such as Science, the New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Genetics, PNAS, and Cell. In parallel, Dr. Stephan has founded or co-founded more than ten biotechnology companies and has advised numerous other companies. These companies are backed by top-tier investors such as Sequoia Capital, KPCB, Thiel Capital, and Khosla Ventures as well as corporate partners such as Life Technologies, Pfizer, and Mayo Clinic. Notably, Dr. Stephan founded NeuBase Therapeutics in August 2018, took it public in 2019, and has since grown the company to market capitalization to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. Dr. Stephan received his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh and his B.S. from Carnegie Mellon University.

ABOUT TRIBE PUBLIC LLCTribe Public LLC is a San Francisco, CA-based organization that hosts complimentary worldwide webinar & meeting events in the U.S. Tribe's events focus on issues that the Tribe members care about with an emphasis on hosting management teams from publicly traded companies from all sectors & financial organizations that are seeking to increase awareness of their products, progress, and plans. Tribe members primarily include Institutions, Family Offices, Portfolio Managers, Registered Investment Advisors, & Accredited Investors. Website: http://www.tribepublic.com.

ABOUT NEUBASE THERAPEUTICSNeuBase Therapeutics, Inc. is developing the next generation of gene silencing therapies with its flexible, highly specific synthetic antisense oligonucleotides. The proprietary NeuBase peptide-nucleic acid (PNA) antisense oligonucleotide (PATrOL) platform allows for the rapid development of targeted drugs, increasing the treatment opportunities for the hundreds of millions of people affected by rare genetic diseases, including those that can only be treated through accessing of secondary RNA structures. Using PATrOL technology, NeuBase aims to first tackle rare, genetic neurological disorders. NeuBase is continuing its progress towards developing treatment candidates in Huntington's Disease (HD) and Myotonic Dystrophy (DM1.)

CONTACT:

Tribe Public, LLC.John F. Heerdink, Jr.Managing Partnerjohn@tribepublic.com

SOURCE: NeuBase Therapeutics, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/603092/NeuBase-Therapeutics-CEO-Dietrich-A-Stephan-PhD-to-Present-at-Tribe-Publics-Presentation-and-QA-Webinar-Event-on-August-26-2020

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NeuBase Therapeutic's CEO, Dietrich A. Stephan, Ph.D., to Present at Tribe Public's Presentation and Q&A Webinar Event on August 26, 2020 - BioSpace