All articles by Amit Thadani
Amit Thadani
Monkeying around
It’s always been a cliché that bad things happen in pairs – and the arrival of monkeypox just as the Covid pandemic began to recede has done little to disprove the theory. But beyond the superficial similarities between the two illnesses, and some of the more dramatic media attention it’s enjoyed, how much do monkeypox and Covid really have in common? Andrea Valentino talks to Professor Wafaa El-Sadr of Columbia University, and Professor David Heymann of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, to learn more.
Pressure point
Pressure ulcers are among the most serious dangers to bedbound hospital and care home patients, which makes sense if you understand how they form. Developing from the pressure caused by lying on vulnerable areas, or else from friction between body and bed, millions of people suffer from the condition each year. That’s doubly frustrating given how preventable many pressure ulcers actually are – in an ideal medical world anyway. Andrea Valentino talks to Dr Marissa Carter, founder at Strategic Solutions, to learn more.
The positives of a negative margin
Surgical resection of cancerous tissue tends to include a “safety margin” of healthy tissue as a precaution against recurrence. This is due to the possibility for small cancer cells to break away from the primary cancer site and replicate among nearby healthy tissue. But surgeons must balance the need to resect healthy tissue against the potential harm of removing too much, which means a method to differentiate tissue during resection is a necessity. Monica Karpinski speaks to Dr Anees Chagpar, professor of Oncological Surgery at Yale School of Medicine and Dr Sarah Blair, surgical oncologist and professor of Surgery at the University of California San Diego, to learn how methods to identify cancerous tissue and cut away the optimal amount of healthy tissue have developed.
The aftershock
Septic shock is the most severe result of sepsis – an overreaction from the immune system to bacterial, fungal or viral infection. As with other acute conditions, time is of the essence when it comes to treatment. But if a patient goes into septic shock, their chances of survival are slashed dramatically. It’s for this reason researchers still seek novel treatment options to improve mortality. Kim Thomas speaks to Neill Adhikari, an intensivist at Sunnybrook Sciences Centre at the University of Toronto, and Anders Perner, senior staff specialist and professor in intensive care at Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen, to explore some of the latest potential treatments and discover how septic shock is currently managed.
The positive test
The Covid-19 pandemic provided the impetus for unprecedented speed in the development of testing methods, as the industry collaborated, and regulators worldwide supported their efforts with emergency approval pathways. But now we’ve seen what’s possible under the right circumstances, is there any going back to the way things were before? Abi Millar speaks to Karen Taylor, director of the UK Centre for Health Solutions at Deloitte, and Matthew Binnicker, director of clinical virology at the Mayo Clinic, to find out what the future of diagnostic testing for infectious diseases could look like.
The next phage
While bacteria are responsible for a laundry list of diseases, they have their own enemy in the form of bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria). In turn, bacteriophages might be used to detect their host bacteria and aid in diagnosing disease. Abi Millar speaks to Dr Thomas Edwards, a post-doctoral research assistant at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and Dr Cath Rees, professor of microbiology at the University of Nottingham, to discover how research teams are using phages as a diagnostic tool.
The paradigm shift
Checkpoint inhibitors have revolutionised cancer care. Stimulating the immune system is now as much of a focus in oncology as killing or surgically removing cancers. It’s a more holistic approach, but its side-effects can be just as harrowing. Isabel Ellis asks K Dane Wittrup, Carbon P. Dubbs professor in Chemical Engineering and Biological Engineering at MIT, and David A Scheinberg, head of Experimental Therapeutics at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre, how new targeting strategies can make immunotherapy easier to bear.
Thermo Fisher Scientific to Acquire The Binding Site Group
Expands Specialty Diagnostics Segment with Industry Leader in Oncology Testing for Detection and Monitoring of Multiple Myeloma
Complements Existing Specialty Diagnostics Offering with Established Technologies Delivering Strong Clinical Value for Patients in a Rapidly Growing Diagnostics Segment
ProBioGen Co-Develops New Freedom™ ExpiCHO-S™ Cell Line Development Kit
BERLIN, Germany — Following the success of the Gibco™ Freedom™ CHO-S Cell Line Development Kit, ProBioGen and Thermo Fisher Scientific have teamed up again to develop an even better platform: the Gibco™ Freedom™ ExpiCHO-S™ Cell Line Development Kit. It allows users to generate cell lines suitable for clinical development without their own starter cells, vectors or prior experience in the field. Applying its strong expertise in cell line and process development, ProBioGen has substantially contributed to the performance of the Freedom ExpiCHO-S Kit.
Début of the MEDICA SPORTS HUB – Learning by competing with free coaching by successful Olympic athletes
Federal Minister of Health Lauterbach opens 45th German Hospital Day – many celebrities in the MEDICA accompanying programme