Recent News
Oxford University breakthrough on global COVID-19 vaccine
The University of Oxford, in collaboration with AstraZeneca plc, today announces interim trial data from its Phase III trials that show its candidate vaccine, ChAdOx1 nCoV-2019, is effective at preventing [...]
Altered ‘Coat’ Disguises Fatal Brain Virus From Neutralizing Antibodies
A genetic modification in the ‘coat’ of a brain infection-causing virus may allow it to escape antibodies, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers. They say testing people for [...]
A DNA-based nanogel for targeted chemotherapy
Current chemotherapy regimens slow cancer progression and save lives, but these powerful drugs affect both healthy and cancerous cells. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Nano Letters have designed DNA-based nanogels [...]
Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines could be programmed to fight cancer, heart disease and more
The new technology behind Pfizer's and Moderna's coronavirus vaccines could be used to prevent everything from heart disease to cancer, experts say. The breakthrough vaccine 'platform' they use transforms the [...]
New technology allows more precise view of the smallest nanoparticles
Current state-of-the-art techniques have clear limitations when it comes to imaging the smallest nanoparticles, making it difficult for researchers to study viruses and other structures at the molecular level. Scientists [...]
The top emerging health technologies to end this pandemic and avert the next one
Virtual patients, vaccines, medicine-making biomachines and microneedles are examples of tech innovation that is meeting the moment to address the global health crisis. Health has been a strong [...]
Vancouver-based biotech company central in development of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine
A Vancouver company is central to the news Monday morning that Pfizer is close to developing an effective vaccine against the coronavirus. Pfizer said Monday that an early peek [...]
Is social media ready for a Covid-19 vaccine?
On Monday, Pfizer and BioNTech announced in a press release that their vaccine candidate was more than 90 percent effective at preventing Covid-19 infection, based on initial results from their [...]
Covid vaccine: First ‘milestone’ vaccine offers 90 per cent protection
The first coronavirus vaccine can prevent more than 90% of people from getting Covid-19, a preliminary analysis shows. The developers - Pfizer and BioNTech - described it as a "great [...]
New Nanomedicine Approach Could Improve Effectiveness of COVID-19 Vaccine
Researchers led by the University at Buffalo (UB) have devised a new method that could enhance the effectiveness of vaccines against the novel coronavirus, the virus that is responsible for causing COVID-19. [...]
The strange ways that coronavirus can affect the brain
On March 17 this year, a man was taken to hospital in Israel suffering from a dry cough and a loss of sense of smell. He developed a fever and [...]
Oxford Covid vaccine works in all ages, trials suggest
One of the world’s leading Covid-19 experimental vaccines produces an immune response in older adults as well as the young, its developers say, raising hopes of protection for those most [...]
Researchers pin hopes on Nobel Prize-winning CRISPR-technology tests to detect coronavirus
Coronavirus tests performed in labs are the gold standard for accuracy and antigen tests are a fast and inexpensive alternative. But backers of a third type of test, developed [...]
New SBMT Paper Released: COVID-19 Review of a 21st Century Pandemic
COVID-19 is a severe infectious disease that has claimed >150,000 lives and infected millions in the United States thus far, especially the elderly population. Emerging evidence has shown the virus [...]
Intensive care capacity close to overload, warns top Swiss Covid-19 advisor
Switzerland’s Covid-19 scientific taskforce chief says hospitals across the Alpine country could be swamped with new coronavirus cases in the next two or three weeks unless the situation improves. “We [...]
Hunt on for future Covid mutations that cause treatments to lose potency
Scientists are to increase surveillance for new coronavirus mutations amid concerns that future strains of the virus could develop at least partial resistance to antibody treatments and Covid-19 vaccines. There [...]
COVID-19 causing virus can survive 28 days on surfaces
From the moment you turn off your morning alarm, to the time you hit the pillow, your life is full of surfaces. Swiping through your phone, opening doors, putting in [...]
‘Brain Fog’ Following COVID-19 Recovery May Indicate PTSD
A new report suggests that lingering “brain fog” and other neurological symptoms after COVID -19 recovery may be due to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an effect observed in past human [...]
Pain Relief Caused by SARS-CoV-2 May Help Explain Coronavirus Spread
ClSARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can relieve pain, according to a new study by University of Arizona Health Sciences researchers. The finding may explain why nearly half [...]
‘Totally Under Control’ – Alex Gibney Uncovers Trump’s Coronavirus Failings in New Doco
Contrary to president Donald Trump’s repeated declarations, the coronavirus pandemic was not — and still isn’t — totally under control. That lie is central [...]
COVID-19 May Deplete Testosterone
Summary: A new study suggests COVID-19 may deplete testosterone levels in males. Findings reveal as testosterone decreased, the severity of coronavirus increased. Men who died from coronavirus infection had significantly [...]
UK scientists begin study of how long Covid can survive in the air
It is the question scientists around the world are trying to answer: how long can the coronavirus survive in the tiny aerosol particles we exhale? In a high-security lab near [...]
Glycans in the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein play active role in infection
As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, researchers are working overtime to develop vaccines and therapies to thwart SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the disease Many efforts focus on the coronavirus [...]
Coronavirus: found to be heat tolerant, self-healing and very resilient in lab tests
A research team in Hungary pinched the coronavirus with a fine needle to measure how much force it could take before popping like a balloon. It did not. The native [...]
Headaches and delirium: coronavirus can invade brain, study says
Headaches, confusion and delirium experienced by some Covid-19 patients could be the result of the coronavirus directly invading the brain, according to a study published Wednesday. The research is still [...]
Coronavirus Pandemic: Guidance for Better Mental Health
By Boris M | Published in Coronavirus During the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be a lot of information about the virus and its effects on mental health. That’s because coronavirus and [...]
The coronavirus is mutating — does it matter?
When COVID-19 spread around the globe this year, David Montefiori wondered how the deadly virus behind the pandemic might be changing as it passed from person to person. Montefiori is [...]
Expert: Bad reaction to Oxford COVID-19 vaccine likely ‘life-threatening’
A serious illness suffered by an Oxford University coronavirus vaccine trial participant was most likely “life-threatening”, a bioethics researcher says. But that doesn’t mean the clinical trials will be [...]
COVID-19: Who should get a vaccine first?
There are currently a number of potential coronavirus vaccines being researched. But once a successful one has been developed, it is likely to be in short supply. So how do we [...]
Two types of steroid found to save lives of some Covid-19 patients
Analysis of seven trials finds dexamethasone and hydrocortisone should be given in severe cases. Studies around the world have confirmed that steroids can save lives in the Covid-19 pandemic, [...]
Covid vaccine rush could make pandemic worse, say scientists
Experts say strong evidence of efficacy needed to avoid approval of inferior vaccines. The rush to immunise populations against Covid-19 could lead to the rollout of a vaccine that [...]
COVID-19 Messaging Less Effective When Tied to Trump
The COVID-19 pandemic has dominated the news cycle for the better part of 2020. As guidelines are continually updated to reflect changes in our understanding of how the virus [...]
Coronavirus reinfection – what it actually means, and why you shouldn’t panic
Scientists in Hong Kong have reported the first confirmed case of reinfection with the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, reportedly backed up by genetic sequences of the two episodes of the 33-year-old [...]
Breathalyzer from Israel: A gamechanger for Covid testing?
Could uncomfortable nasal swabs be swapped for a contactless two-second breathalyzer puff to check for Covid-19 infection? Prof. Hossam Haick thinks so. Haick, a professor of chemical engineering and [...]
Video: COVID-19 Update 101: T Cell Immunity vs. Antibodies & Prior Exposure to Other Coronaviruses
The relationship between antibodies for the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and immunity, vaccine efficacy, and spread of COVID-19 has received significant attention. Dr. Seheult is back to illustrate why [...]
Rogue planets could outnumber the stars
An upcoming NASA mission could find that there are more rogue planets – planets that float in space without orbiting a sun – than there are stars in the [...]
Impact of COVID-19 on the lungs of three patients versus healthy lungs
Images Description Three individuals were admitted to the hospital (ages 46–56; to men and one woman) with a multiday history of symptoms associated with the severe acute respiratory syndrome [...]
Nose ‘smell zone’ may be major entry point for COVID-19
Study of nose and throat reveals why people with COVID-19 may lose their sense of smell Researchers studying tissue removed from patients' noses during surgery believe they may have [...]
Download: Draft landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines
These landscape documents have been prepared by the World Health Organization (WHO) for information purposes only concerning the 2019-2020 global of the novel coronavirus. Inclusion of any particular product [...]
Covid vaccine tracker: when will we have a coronavirus vaccine?
Researchers around the world are racing to develop a vaccine against Covid-19, with more than 170 candidate vaccines now tracked by the World Health Organization (WHO). Vaccines normally require years of [...]
‘They’ve jumped the gun’: scientists worry about Russia’s Covid-19 vaccine
Rising chorus of concern over Sputnik V vaccine stems from opaque development and lack of mass-testing. In 1977 Scott Halstead, a virologist at the University of Hawaii, was studying [...]
Fauci: The important limitations about any future coronavirus vaccine
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for the last three decades and an expert on pandemics for the last four decades, has been [...]
US records 5 million COVID-19 cases as almost 20 million infected worldwide
he United States has recorded 5 million confirmed coronavirus cases, while almost 20 million people are infected worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University. Outside of the US, Brazil recorded [...]
90 per cent of recovered COVID-19 patients in Wuhan suffering from lung damage
According to the first phase results, 90 per cent of the patients'lungs are still in a damaged state, which means their lungs ventilation and gas exchange functions have not [...]
MIT’s machine learning designed a COVID-19 vaccine that could cover a lot more people
There are currently 25 vaccines to fight COVID-19 in clinical evaluation, another 139 vaccines in a pre-clinical stage, and many more being researched. But many of those vaccines, if they [...]
Gold nanosensor spots difference between Dengue, Zika
A new class of nanosensor developed in Brazil could more accurately identify dengue and Zika infections, a task that is complicated by their genetic similarities and which can result [...]
We Are Mutating Coronavirus, but It Is Evolving Back
Scientists investigating the evolution of the virus that causes Covid19 say that its mutation seems to be directed by human proteins that degrade it, but natural selection of the [...]
Novel Drug Delivery Particles Use Neurotransmitters as a ‘Passport’ Into the Brain
Biomedical engineers at the Tufts University School of Engineering have developed tiny lipid-based nanoparticles that incorporate neurotranmitters to help carry drugs, large molecules, and even gene editing proteins across [...]
Artificial Intelligence Allows Rapid COVID-19 Lung Imaging Analysis
UC San Diego recently announced that its health radiologists and other physicians are now leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to augment lung-imaging analysis in a clinical research study aimed at COVID-19 lung [...]
Second Coronavirus Strain May Be More Infectious—but Some Scientists Are Skeptical
The hubbub around mutations in the virus that causes COVID-19—and how they might make it more infectious—has been around since the early phase of the pandemic. A preprint study [...]
Oxford vaccine: Early trials suggest “double protection” from coronavirus
Human trials of a potential coronavirus vaccine being developed by scientists in Oxford are reported to have shown promising results. The researchers believe they have made a breakthrough after discovering the [...]
COVID: Engineers design a reusable, silicone rubber face mask
Researchers at MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have designed a new face mask that they believe could stop viral particles as effectively as N95 masks. Unlike N95 masks, [...]
Warning of serious brain disorders in people with mild coronavirus symptoms
Doctors may be missing signs of serious and potentially fatal brain disorders triggered by coronavirus, as they emerge in mildly affected or recovering patients, scientists have warned. Neurologists are [...]
Nanoparticles Offer a Promising Way for Treating Cancer, Liver Disorders
University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have developed a safer and more efficient way to deliver a promising new method for treating cancer and liver disorders and for vaccination -- including [...]
Covid-19 vaccines may be stifled by pre-existing antibodies
Despite its advantages over other vaccine technologies for Covid-19, adenovirus vector vaccines are likely to be tripped up by pre-existing antibodies to the vectors used and the need for [...]
This coronavirus mutation has taken over the world. Scientists are trying to understand why.
When the first coronavirus cases in Chicago appeared in January, they bore the same genetic signatures as a germ that emerged in China weeks before. But as Egon Ozer, an infectious-disease [...]
Online Special Edition “NanoScientific Symposium on Nano Applications”
Park Systems presents “NanoScientific Symposium on Nano Applications for a Changing World” sponsored by Physics World and Nanotechnology World Association. Park Systems launched this online event for researchers and [...]
Medical nanotechnology research for COVID-19
Notwithstanding the wishful thinking of certain irresponsible and incompetent public figures, the only options to control and deal with the spread of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Virus 2 [...]
COVID ‐19: A new paper on the global threat to the nervous system
From the Annals of Neurology: In less than 6 months, the severe acute respiratory syndrome‐coronavirus type 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) has spread worldwide infecting nearly 6 million people and killing over 350,000. [...]
Steroid found to help prevent deaths of sickest coronavirus patients
A cheap steroid has become the first life-saving treatment in the Covid-19 pandemic, described by scientists as a major breakthrough and raising hopes for the survival of thousands of [...]
Imperial to begin first human trials of new COVID-19 vaccine
Clinical researchers are this week set to begin human trials of a new coronavirus vaccine developed by researchers at Imperial College London. The study will be the first time the vaccine [...]
Study: Dominant form of virus ‘10 times’ more infectious than original strain
A form of the novel coronavirus which has become the dominant type in much of the world may have done so thanks to a mutation that allows it to [...]
Widely available indigestion drug may curb COVID-19 symptoms in mild to moderate disease
A widely available and inexpensive drug that is used to ease the symptoms of indigestion may prove a worthy contender for treating COVID-19 infection in those whose disease doesn’t [...]
Ohio State researchers testing breathalyzer to detect COVID-19
One of the most common COVID-19 tests involves a long swab pressed deep into the nasal cavities – and while the test can be administered quickly, it has been [...]
Coronavirus research updates: Positive coronavirus test is no guarantee of infectiousness
Nature wades through the literature on the new coronavirus — and summarizes key papers as they appear: 1 June — Positive coronavirus test is no guarantee of infectiousness People [...]
Coronavirus May Be a Blood Vessel Disease, Which Explains Everything
In April, blood clots emerged as one of the many mysterious symptoms attributed to Covid-19, a disease that had initially been thought to largely affect the lungs in the form [...]
Researchers develop experimental rapid COVID-19 test using nanoparticle technique
Scientists from the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) developed an experimental diagnostic test for COVID-19 that can visually detect the presence of the virus in 10 minutes. [...]
Researchers flag similarities between COVID-19 deaths and severe rheumatic illnesses
Rheumatologists at the University of Alberta are flagging similarities between the deaths of some COVID-19 patients and those with rheumatic illnesses, and are testing proven rheumatic treatments to [...]
Next-gen nano technologies to tackle infection and diagnose disease
Next-gen nano technologies that can prevent infection and diagnose disease are set to transform the medical industry as this important UniSA research is awarded more than $2 million dollars [...]
DeepMind’s Protein Folding AI Is Going After Coronavirus
In late December last year, Dr. Li Wenliang began warning officials about a novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China, but was silenced by the police before tragically succumbing to the [...]
Biologist Emma Hodcroft: The ‘virus hunter’
Tracking mutations of the coronavirus as it spreads across the world, biologist Emma Hodcroft has become one of Switzerland’s most-followed researchers on Twitter. Her name has appeared in Wired, the Boston [...]
COVID-19 is like three different diseases, says New York doctor
Almost 10 weeks into the pandemic, COVID-19 is continuing to surprise and baffle health experts. In fact, experts' picture of exactly how COVID-19 might play out in the body [...]
Designing vaccines from artificial proteins
EPFL scientists have developed a new computational approach to create artificial proteins, which showed promising results in vivo as functional vaccines. This approach opens the possibility to engineer safer [...]
Tiny RNA that should attack coronavirus diminish with age and disease
A group of tiny RNA that should attack the virus causing COVID-19 when it tries to infect the body are diminished with age and chronic health problems, a decrease [...]
COVID-19 Coronavirus blood-clot mystery intensifies
Purple rashes, swollen legs, clogged catheters and sudden death — blood clots, large and small, are a frequent complication of COVID-19, and researchers are just beginning to untangle why. [...]
Coronavirus vaccine trials are underway around the world. China’s hoping it can be first for ‘redemption’
In a medical centre in the eastern city of Xuzhou, a few dozen healthy adults have become some of the first to trial a vaccine candidate for the coronavirus. [...]
Epitopes.world taps AI to predict COVID-19 vaccine success
A team of researchers hailing from Harvard and Université de Montréal today launched Epitopes.world, an AI-powered, interactive platform designed to facilitate COVID-19 vaccine development. It’s built atop an algorithm — CAMAP — [...]
Publication of our paper “Human Brain/Cloud Interface” in Frontiers Neuroscience Ebook
The "Human Brain/Cloud Interface" paper had more views that 99% of Frontiers articles. It has now been added to Frontier's "Nanotechnologies in Neuroscience and Neuroengineering" ebook which is available [...]
The scientific advances we need to stop COVID-19 by Bill Gates
This is the full-length version of this post. You can read the condensed version, which appeared as an opinion article in the Washington Post, here. The coronavirus pandemic pits all of [...]
New nanophotonic saliva/nasal swab test to instantly detect coronavirus with lasers
European photonics scientists are developing an ultrasensitive laser sensor that detects coronavirus at the earliest point of infection from a saliva or nasal swab in minutes. Responding to the [...]
Why COVID-19 may attack the body differently than we think
Understanding how COVID-19 attacks the human body is essential to developing an effective treatment or vaccine to stop the global pandemic — but there's still so much we don't know about how [...]
Early peek at data on Gilead coronavirus drug suggests patients are responding to treatment
Chicago hospital treating severe Covid-19 patients with Gilead Sciences’ antiviral medicine remdesivir in a closely watched clinical trial is seeing rapid recoveries in fever and respiratory symptoms, with nearly all patients [...]
Coronavirus mutation could threaten the race to develop vaccine
A coronavirus strain isolated in India carried a mutation that could upend vaccine development around the globe, according to researchers from Australia and Taiwan. The non-peer reviewed study said [...]
COVID-19: Anti-parasitic drug Ivermectin eliminates SARS-CoV-2 in cells in 48 hours
Ivermectin shows promise as potential COVID-19 therapy. Summary: An FDA-approved anti-parasitic drug called Ivermectin appears to inhibit and eliminate SARS-CoV-2 in lab-grown cell cultures within 48 hours. Ivermectin shows [...]
Severe Covid-19 illness in young possibly down to genes or ‘viral load’, scientists say
Coronavirus hits the old and those with other health problems hardest, but fit, youthful people are dying too, and experts are trying to understand why: It remains one of [...]
The race to find a coronavirus treatment has one major obstacle: Big Pharma
he past few weeks have revealed the worst and the best in human responses to the coronavirus crisis – from the supermarket hoarders clearing the shelves to the neighbourhood [...]
Oxford firm to screen 15,000 drugs in search for coronavirus cure
An Oxford-based firm that uses artificial intelligence to develop new medicines has teamed up with a UK national science facility to screen more than 15,000 drugs for their effectiveness [...]
New study sheds light on coronavirus infection mechanism
New research has shed light on a crucial biological mechanism that may have helped the coronavirus to infect humans and spread rapidly around the world. A detailed analysis of [...]
Comparing the coronavirus pandemic to past pathogenic threats: HIV, anthrax and Ebola
How does the COVID-19 pandemic compare to other infamous viral infections that have plagued us in modern times? It’s a question that’s been asked repeatedly in social media circles [...]
Nanoparticles could help us get closer to a treatment for COVID-19
There is no vaccine or specific treatment for COVID-19, the disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2. Since the outbreak began in late 2019, [...]
Corona Virus (COVID 19) Interview with Michael Osterholm an expert in infectious disease epidemiology.
Michael Osterholm is an internationally recognized expert in infectious disease epidemiology. He is Regents Professor, McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair in Public Health, the director of the Center for [...]
Experts envision two scenarios if the new coronavirus isn’t contained
With the new coronavirus spreading from person to person (possibly including from people without symptoms), reaching four continents, and traveling faster than SARS, driving it out of existence is [...]
Neural cells speed up function in 3D bioprinted skeletal muscle constructs
Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) scientists have improved upon the 3D bioprinting technique they developed to engineer skeletal muscle as a potential therapy for replacing diseased or [...]
Scientists Use a “Synaptor” to Link a Rat Neuron and a Silicon Neuron
An international team of scientists from the University of Southampton, the University of Padova, and the University of Zurich has connected a silicon neuron to a neuron from the [...]
The Ins & Outs of Gene Therapy Drug Development: an interview with NMIN’s Scientific Director
In an insightful 42-minute interview, NMIN’s Scientific Director Dr. Pieter Cullis, a pioneer in liposomal gene and drug delivery, discusses his scientific career with a focus on his [...]
Powerful antibiotic discovered using machine learning for first time
A powerful antibiotic that kills some of the most dangerous drug-resistant bacteria in the world has been discovered using artificial intelligence. The drug works in a different way to [...]
“Bigger than DNA” — how AI is transforming the pharma industry
Artificial intelligence hit a big milestone in January — the first drug designed entirely using artificial intelligence entered human clinical trials. The compound, created by Oxford-based biotech company Exscientia, [...]
Achilles’ heel of ALL viruses? Scientists discover holy grail which could lead to UNIVERSAL vaccine
Researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in the US have uncovered the ‘Achilles’ heel’ of most viruses which plague mankind, and could soon develop a universal vaccine. Vaccine [...]
Small world: atom-scale materials are the next tech frontier
Every age in the history of human civilisation has a signature material, from the Stone Age, to the Bronze and Iron Ages. We might even call today’s information-driven society [...]
Human textiles to repair blood vessels
What if we could replace a patient's damaged blood vessels with brand new ones produced in a laboratory? This is the challenge set by Inserm researcher Nicolas L'Heureux, who [...]
