Archives: 2020-04-13

PIER MARIA FORNASARI
2020-04-13

‘It’s a humanitarian effort’: Led by Takeda and CSL Behring, a plasma coalition forms to fight COVID-19

A new, worldwide coalition of plasma companies seeking to develop and deliver a hyperimmune immunoglobulin therapy for fighting COVID-19 takes the view that many hands make light work. Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. and CSL Behring LLC created the group, with Germany’s Biotest AG, the U.K.’s Bio Products Laboratory, France’s LFB SA and Switzerland’s Octapharma AG joining the alliance to immediately begin developing a

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PIER MARIA FORNASARI
2020-04-13

How to support online learning during COVID-19 pandemic

A new report offers guidance to school districts straining to adjust A new report offers guidance to K-12 teachers, principals and superintendents, as well as schools of education, on how to handle the increasing stress of adapting education systems to the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Evidence from the Great Recession suggests the lasting damage that society-disrupting

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PIER MARIA FORNASARI
2020-04-13

What is required to prevent a second major outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 upon lifting the quarantine of Wuhan city, China

This paper aims to determine to what level of the two commonly used control measures, social distancing and facial mask usage, are necessary to prevent a resurgence of the epidemic due to eitherresidual active cases in Wuhan or imported cases after lifting the quarantine, examining in a model six proposed dates for quarantine lifting. The

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PIER MARIA FORNASARI
2020-04-12

New clinical trial launches to test efficacy of cell therapy for severe COVID-19 cases

After a lightening round of proposals and reviews, an international team of scientists led by Dr. Camillo Ricordi was granted immediate FDA authorization for a 24-patient clinical trial to test the safety and exploratory efficacy of umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (UC-MSCs) to block the life-threatening lung inflammation that accompanies severe cases of COVID-19. We are very

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PIER MARIA FORNASARI
2020-04-10

Time to encourage people to wear face masks as a precaution against Covid-19, say experts

It’s time to encourage people to wear face masks as a precautionary measure on the grounds that we have little to lose and potentially something to gain, say experts in The BMJ today. Source The BMJ Professor Trisha Greenhalgh at the University of Oxford and colleagues say despite limited evidence, masks “could have a substantial impact on

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PIER MARIA FORNASARI
2020-04-10

Structural and Functional Basis of SARS-CoV-2 Entry by Using Human ACE2. A just published paper on Cell Press

The crystal structure of the C-terminal domain of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in complex with human ACE2 reveals insights into the mechanisms of binding of this virus and its differences from SARS. SARS-CoV-2 interacts with hACE2 via S protein CTD A 2.5-A˚ structure of SARS-CoV-2-CTD in complex with hACE2 is resolvedSARS-CoV-2-CTD displays stronger affinity for

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PIER MARIA FORNASARI
2020-04-10

Covid-19 curve flattening. Ifo Institut Expert Group Advocates a Step-by-step Plan for after the Shutdown

An interdisciplinary group of renowned scientists is now calling for the current restrictions in society and the economy to be gradually eased, while ensuring medical care for the entire population. In their position paper, the researchers led by ifo President Clemens Fuest and Martin Lohse, president of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Physicians

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