Biotechnology for Tomorrow's World:Scenarios to Guide Directions for Future Innovation

Depending on how the future will unfold, today's progress in biotechnology research has greater or lesser potential to be the basis of subsequent innovation. Tracking progress against indicators for different future scenarios will help to focus, emphasize, or de-emphasize discovery research in a timely manner and to maximize the chance for successful innovation. In this paper, we show how learning scenarios with a 2050 time horizon help to recognize the implications of political and societal developments on the innovation potential of ongoing biotechnological research. We also propose a model to further increase open innovation between academia and the biotechnology value chain to help fundamental research explore discovery fields that have a greater chance to be valuable for applied research

SARS-CoV-2-specific nasal IgA wanes 9 months after hospitalisation with COVID-19 and is not induced by subsequent vaccination

BACKGROUND: Most studies of immunity to SARS-CoV-2 focus on circulating antibody, giving limited insights into mucosal defences that prevent viral replication and onward transmission. We studied nasal and plasma antibody responses one year after hospitalisation for COVID-19, including a period when SARS-CoV-2 vaccination was introduced. METHODS: In this follow up study, plasma and nasosorption samples were prospectively collected from 446 adults hospitalised for COVID-19 between February 2020 and March 2021 via the ISARIC4C and PHOSP-COVID consortia. IgA and IgG responses to NP and S of ancestral SARS-CoV-2, Delta and Omicron (BA.1) variants were measured by electrochemiluminescence and compared with plasma neutralisation data. FINDINGS: Strong and consistent nasal anti-NP and anti-S IgA responses were demonstrated, which remained elevated for nine months (p < 0.0001). Nasal and plasma anti-S IgG remained elevated for at least 12 months (p < 0.0001) with plasma neutralising titres that were raised against all variants compared to controls (p < 0.0001). Of 323 with complete data, 307 were vaccinated between 6 and 12 months; coinciding with rises in nasal and plasma IgA and IgG anti-S titres for all SARS-CoV-2 variants, although the change in nasal IgA was minimal (1.46-fold change after 10 months, p = 0.011) and the median remained below the positive threshold determined by pre-pandemic controls. Samples 12 months after admission showed no association between nasal IgA and plasma IgG anti-S responses (R = 0.05, p = 0.18), indicating that nasal IgA responses are distinct from those in plasma and minimally boosted by vaccination. INTERPRETATION: The decline in nasal IgA responses 9 months after infection and minimal impact of subsequent vaccination may explain the lack of long-lasting nasal defence against reinfection and the limited effects of vaccination on transmission. These findings highlight the need to develop vaccines that enhance nasal immunity. FUNDING: This study has been supported by ISARIC4C and PHOSP-COVID consortia. ISARIC4C is supported by grants from the National Institute for Health and Care Research and the Medical Research Council. Liverpool Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre provided infrastructure support for this research. The PHOSP-COVD study is jointly funded by UK Research and Innovation and National Institute of Health and Care Research. The funders were not involved in the study design, interpretation of data or the writing of this manuscript

Large-scale phenotyping of patients with long COVID post-hospitalization reveals mechanistic subtypes of disease

One in ten severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infections result in prolonged symptoms termed long coronavirus disease (COVID), yet disease phenotypes and mechanisms are poorly understood1. Here we profiled 368 plasma proteins in 657 participants ≥3 months following hospitalization. Of these, 426 had at least one long COVID symptom and 233 had fully recovered. Elevated markers of myeloid inflammation and complement activation were associated with long COVID. IL-1R2, MATN2 and COLEC12 were associated with cardiorespiratory symptoms, fatigue and anxiety/depression; MATN2, CSF3 and C1QA were elevated in gastrointestinal symptoms and C1QA was elevated in cognitive impairment. Additional markers of alterations in nerve tissue repair (SPON-1 and NFASC) were elevated in those with cognitive impairment and SCG3, suggestive of brain–gut axis disturbance, was elevated in gastrointestinal symptoms. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2-specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) was persistently elevated in some individuals with long COVID, but virus was not detected in sputum. Analysis of inflammatory markers in nasal fluids showed no association with symptoms. Our study aimed to understand inflammatory processes that underlie long COVID and was not designed for biomarker discovery. Our findings suggest that specific inflammatory pathways related to tissue damage are implicated in subtypes of long COVID, which might be targeted in future therapeutic trials

Understanding perception of active noise control system through multichannel EEG analysis

In this Letter, a method is proposed to investigate the effect of noise with and without active noise control (ANC) on multichannel electroencephalogram (EEG) signal. The multichannel EEG signal is recorded during different listening conditions such as silent, music, noise, ANC with background noise and ANC with both background noise and music. The multiscale analysis of EEG signal of each channel is performed using the discrete wavelet transform. The multivariate multiscale matrices are formulated based on the sub-band signals of each EEG channel. The singular value decomposition is applied to the multivariate matrices of multichannel EEG at significant scales. The singular value features at significant scales and the extreme learning machine classifier with three different activation functions are used for classification of multichannel EEG signal. The experimental results demonstrate that, for ANC with noise and ANC with noise and music classes, the proposed method has sensitivity values of 75.831% ([inline-formula]) and 99.31% ([inline-formula]), respectively. The method has an accuracy value of 83.22% for the classification of EEG signal with music and ANC with music as stimuli. The important finding of this study is that by the introduction of ANC, music can be better perceived by the human brain

Pectoralis Major Flap In 77 Head And Neck Reconstructions

77 patients with head and neck excisional defect are treated by use of Pectoralis major myo cu-taneous, myocutaneous with skin paddle, and composite, incorporating rib. Results are presented

Not Available

Not AvailableNot AvailableNot Availabl

Experience with 40 cases of congenital pouch colon

Aim : The aim of this study was to analyze the clinical and management aspect of congenital pouch colon. Materials and Methods : This retrospective study was carried out on 40 cases of congenital pouch colon managed in the department of paediatric surgery from 01, January 2000 to 31, December 2005. Results : The incidence of congenital pouch colon (CPC) in the present study was 11.290 % (40 of 354) of all anorectal malformations (ARM) and 19.60% (40 of 204) of high ARM. Of these 40 cases of CPC included in the study, 82.5% were male and 17.5% were female. The average age of presentation to hospital was 3.36 days with a range of 1-11 days; of these 25% patients were admitted with poor general condition. Preoperative diagnosis of CPC was possible in 75% of cases in our study. 60% ( n =24) of cases had incomplete pouch colon (Type III and IV) while 40% ( n =16) had complete pouch colon (Type I and II). Right transverse colostomy was done in 16 patients and colostomy at descending colon just proximal to pouch in two patients for incomplete (Type III and IV) CPC as a primary initial procedure. Ileostomy was done in 14 patients and window colostomy in three patients for complete (Type I and II) CPC. As definitive procedures, pouch excision and abdomino-perineal pull-through of colon was done in 17 patients, coloplasty and abdomino-perineal pull-through of coloplasty colon was done in four patients and pouch excision and abdomino-perineal pull-through of terminal ileum in four patients in our series. None of our patients underwent primary single stage procedure. Conclusion: (1) CPC comprises 11.290 % of all ARM and 19.60% of high ARM. (2) Right transverse colostomy was opted for incomplete pouch colon, while Ileostomy and window colostomy were opted for complete pouch colon as initial surgical procedures. (3) Staged surgical procedures for management of CPC were well tolerated in our series

Control over the charge transfer in dye-nanoparticle decorated graphene

Charge transfer interaction between silver decorated graphene and three differently charged dyes, cationic (rhodamine 6G), neutral (rhodamine B) and anionic (fluorescein 27) has been studied. The ground state association constants have been evaluated and changes in the fluorescence intensity and lifetimes have been obtained in two solvents. Strength of complex-formation has been found to be higher with the cationic molecule in water. In a higher viscosity solvent, the ground state complex formation is restricted. Local field of localized surface plasmons of nanoparticles adsorbed on the graphene sheets leads to enhanced absorption and fluorescence of fluorescein 27.</p