Biology Digest

  WASHINGTON, Sept 29 (Reuters) - YouTube will block all anti-vaccine content, moving beyond its ban on false information about the COVID vaccines to include content that contains misinformation about other approved vaccines, it said in a blog post on Wednesday. Examples of content that won't be allowed on YouTube include claims that the flu vaccine causes infertility and that the MMR shot, which protects against measles, mumps, and rubella, can cause autism, according to YouTube's policies. The online video company owned by Alphabet Inc  (GOOGL.O)  is also banning channels associated with several prominent anti-vaccine activists including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Joseph Mercola, a YouTube spokesperson said. A press email for Mercola's website said in a statement: "We are united across the world, we will not live in fear, we will stand together and restore our freedoms." Kennedy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.  The moves come as YouTube and o

 

  ARLINGTON, Texas (CBSDFW.COM)   – The City of Arlington revealed Monday, Sept. 27, a young girl died on Sept. 11 of a rare and often fatal infection caused by the Naegleria fowleri ameba after visiting the Don Misenhimer Park splash pad on Sept. 5. A Tarrant County Public Health investigation determined two possible sources for the child’s exposure to water containing N. fowleri: the family’s home in Tarrant County or the Don Misenhimer Park splash pad in Arlington. On Sept. 24, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the presence of active N. fowleri ameba at the splash pad from water samples and determined the Arlington site was the likely source of the child’s exposure. Don Misenhimer Park splash pad (Chopper 11) Tarrant County Public Health and the City of Arlington said they were notified Sept. 5, that a child was hospitalized at Cook Children’s Medical Center with primary amebic meningoencephalitis. The risk of N. fowleri infection is very low, with only 34 rep

  NORTH CAROLINA —  A child is dead after contracting a type of bacteria while swimming in a pond at a home in Central North Carolina. The NC Department of Health and Human Services say the child was infected by an amoeba that's usually present in the hot, summer months in freshwater environments. The child started with an infection, experiencing a fever, nausea and headaches, until eventual death. While DHHS says this a rare event, they say you should still do what you can to avoid this brain-eating organism. The child was swimming at a private lake somewhere in the center of the state, but due to privacy concerns, health officials won't tell us where. The incident happened earlier this month and the child died just this week. "When you are swimming in a lake or stream or any kind of fresh body of water, it's a lot more dangerous, a lot more hazardous than a swimming pool," said Josh Tucker, park supervisor for High Point City Lake Park. Tucker says always be awa

  The Ministry of Health Malaysia (MOH) reported Sunday an additional 13,104 new COVID-19 cases Sunday, with Sarawak state reporting the most (2,943) followed by Selangor (1,558) and Johor (1,455). This brings the cumulative total to 2,198,235 cases. More than 25,000 COVID-19 related deaths have also been reported. Malaysia has seen more than a half million cases in just the past month. Malaysia has fully vaccinated 58.7% of its 32 million population and gave at least one dose to 68.8%. Malaysia is one of several countries in Southeast Asia that are looking at abandoning their former restrictive, Zero-COVID policies including nationwide lockdowns. Langkawi was recently reopened to domestic tourism and several states have also begun relaxing restrictions for vaccinated people, including dining in at restaurants and interstate travel. http://outbreaknewstoday.com/malaysia-13k-new-covid-19-cases-reported-sunday-59-fully-vaccinated-34037/

  In a   follow-up on the Nipah virus case and death   in Kerala state, India earlier this month, the World Health Organization published a   Disease Outbreak News   Friday that provides some additional information: On 4 September 2021, the Kerala State Health department reported an isolated case of Nipah virus disease in Kozhikode district, Kerala state, India. Nipah has a relatively high case fatality ratio, and is an emerging zoonotic disease of public health importance in the South East Asia and Western Pacific WHO Regions. This is the fifth outbreak of the disease in India (Siliguri town in 2001, followed by a second outbreak in Nadia district in 2007, both in West Bengal state. In 2018, an outbreak was reported in Kozhikode district, and in 2019, another outbreak in Kochi district, both in Kerala state). On 29 August, a 12 year-old boy developed low grade fever, and the family sought care at a local health care facility. On 31 August, he was transferred to several hospitals as hi

  County health officials in Butte County, California report investigating a case of wound botulism in a Butte County resident who injected drugs, including black tar heroin. Image/CDC Laboratory test results to confirm the diagnosis are pending. The source of the heroin is unknown at this time. Black tar heroin has been linked to other wound botulism cases and outbreaks in injection drug users, so there is concern that locally available black tar heroin may be contaminated. California has the highest rate of wound botulism  in the United States. This is the third case reported in Butte County this year. Since 2016, there have been 22 to 59 cases of wound botulism annually in California. Wound botulism occurs when a wound becomes infected with Clostridium botulinum (the cause of foodborne botulism) or a closely related Clostridium bacterium. The bacteria multiply in the wound and create a toxin that acts on the nerves. Most, but not all, people with wound botulism will have a visibly i

  Sprint 10 aims to help optimize the P1 pocket substituent to work around metabolism issues with our current best lead compounds. We’ve been quiet lately, but that’s because we’ve been working nonstop to help the COVID Moonshot team continue their rapid cycles of iteration toward a potent and safe oral antiviral that will complement vaccines and antibody therapeutics to bring the COVID-19 pandemic to a close. We’ve been making great progress—more details on that in a bit—but are still sprinting toward the finish line to produce preclinical drug candidates that will go all the way through preclinical studies that will enable them to enter human clinical trials. You may have noticed our  compound activity data leaderboard  is full of highly potent compounds. We’ve made and tested nearly 1500 compounds, and solved hundreds more structures. Today, we launched  COVID Moonshot Sprint 10 , aiming to help identify compounds that will extend the half-life of compounds in blood after oral dosin

  Seattle-based   Cyrus Biotechnology   is entering a protein engineering collaboration with Boston-based   Selecta Biosciences   that could pull in up to $1.5 billion for the University of Washington spinout. The partnership will support the development of new agents for immune-related conditions,   the companies announced   this week. The partnership includes an undisclosed up-front payment and is worth up to $1.5 billion for Cyrus — if the deal hits certain drug discovery, development and sales milestones. The partnership’s lead program will combine an immune modulating agent developed by Selecta with a protein called IL-2, being engineered by Cyrus. Cyrus CEO Lucas Nivon. (Cyrus Photo) Cyrus is enhancing IL-2 through its protein engineering software and through testing at the laboratory bench. Cyrus can engineer therapeutic proteins with properties such as greater stability in the body, using its software tools originating from the UW’s Institute for Protein Design. The new partner

World Community Grid is becoming part of  Krembil Research Institute , a leading scientific research institution in Toronto, Canada. Krembil Research Institute is part of the  University Health Network , which is North America's largest hospital research network, and affiliated with University of Toronto, one of the world's top public universities. And just as importantly, it's the professional home of  Dr. Igor Jurisica , Senior Scientist at Krembil, Professor at University of Toronto, and longtime World Community Grid collaborator. Dr. Jurisica will lead World Community Grid as it moves to its next chapter. IBM created World Community Grid in 2004 as a proof-of-concept for distributed (or grid) computing. During its years with IBM, the program built a global volunteer base and became a significant source of computing power for humanitarian scientific research. And now, Krembil Research Institute will continue expanding the program.   Current research projects will continu