Biology Digest

  There's a potential weak spot on the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Help us craft small molecules to shut it down 0:00 - intro 0:27 - SARS-CoV-2 puzzles 3:45 - Design of the Month 8:18 - outro You don't have to be a scientist to do science. Download and play Foldit and you can help researchers discover new drugs for cancer, antivirals, and more. The most promising solutions are being manufactured and tested at the University of Washington Institute for Protein Design in Seattle. Foldit is FREE and not-for-profit: https://fold.it/​​ This video features Foldit scientist Brian Koepnick, PhD. It was produced by Ian Haydon. Note: Foldit is an interactive computer game and not a distributed computing project. If you would like to donate spare CPU cycles to science, please check out the Rosetta@Home project on BOINC at https://boinc.bakerlab.org/

Oct 12 (Reuters) - Merck & Co Inc  (MRK.N)  opted to jointly develop and potentially sell a personalized mRNA vaccine with Moderna Inc  (MRNA.O)  for a $250 million upfront payment on Wednesday, sending the vaccine maker's shares up over 8%. Moderna's experimental vaccine is being tested in combination with Merck's blockbuster cancer immunotherapy, Keytruda, in a mid-stage trial to treat patients with melanoma. Data on the vaccine, mRNA-4157, is expected in the fourth quarter of this year. In 2016, Merck and Moderna entered a strategic partnership to develop a personalized vaccine for treatment of various types of cancer. Merck in 2020 sold its equity investment in Moderna, benefiting from a surge in the vaccine-maker's stock price that year. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/merck-opts-jointly-develop-cancer-vaccine-with-moderna-2022-10-12/