Pharma R&D Today
Ideas and Insight supporting all stages of Drug Discovery & Development
New Coronavirus Advisory Team Announced
Posted on November 16th, 2020 by Xuanyan Xu in COVID-19
Wasting no time to start enacting his forthcoming administration’s plan for tackling COVID-19, new president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden, has unveiled his coronavirus advisory team. “Dealing with the coronavirus pandemic is one of the most important battles our administration will face, and I will be informed by science and by experts,” he stated.
(more…)BCG – COVID-19 Hackathon Challenge Now Extended Through End of Year
Posted on October 23rd, 2020 by Ani Marrs in COVID-19
A renewed interest in whether the BCG vaccine (for tuberculosis) could also have an application for COVID-19 has been on the rise, as evidenced by this recent Cell publication, the University of Exeter’s involvement in the BRACE Trial and ongoing general press coverage. Furthermore, the list of clinical trials focusing on this area is continuing to grow (and is available here).
(more…)BCG-COVID 19 Hackathon: Task 1 winners announced, Task 2 – data scientists – we need you!
Posted on September 10th, 2020 by Tim Miller in COVID-19
We’ve seen the scientific community come together time and again throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and we’re thrilled to have been part of a hackathon bringing together data scientists, epidemiologists and partner organizations focusing on analysing the hypothesis of whether the tuberculosis (TB) vaccine – BCG – could reduce COVID-19 mortality.
(more…)Modeling Coronavirus – Cytokine Storm
Posted on September 4th, 2020 by Chris Cheadle PhD in COVID-19
Adapted from Sidiqi, H.K. and M.R. Mehra, COVID-19 Illness in Native and Immunosuppressed States: A Clinical-Therapeutic Staging Proposal. J Heart Lung Transplant, 2020. [1]
(This piece was co-authored by Prof. Gordon Broderick, Clinical Systems Biology at Rochester General Hospital.)
The thing that kills you with coronavirus is not necessarily the infection itself but rather your own body’s response to the infection. Failure to clear the virus with an appropriate immune response can lead to pulmonary symptoms of increasing severity and which can even be fatal in a minority of cases (Figure 1). This late stage of a COVID-19 infection is characterized by a state of hyperinflammation or, as it is more commonly known, a “cytokine storm”.
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