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Pfizer Vaccine Authorized in the UK | The State of Science

For too long, the coronavirus has been allowed to ravage human society. However, now, we have begun deploying our own weapon to fight back against this deadly pestilence- a vaccine. Today, the UK has approved of Pfizer and BioNtech’s coronavirus vaccine.

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‘Wonderful news to wake up to’: U.K. greenlights Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine

MHRA will only become fully independent on 1 January 2021, following Brexit, but U.K. regulations allow it to grant authorizations on an emergency basis. The United Kingdom has bought 40 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine—enough for 20 million people—and health secretary Matt Hancock today announced the first 800,000 doses will be available next week. The rollout will prioritize health workers as well as the elderly and other vulnerable populations, but the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has yet to offer its final guidance on the exact priorities.

Russia on 11 August allowed its COVID-19 vaccine, developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, to be used on certain groups of people, and China has granted emergency use authorizations (EUAs) for several vaccines and has already vaccinated hundreds of thousands of people with them. A few other countries, including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, have issued an EUA for one of the Chinese vaccines, produced by Sinopharm.

The Pfizer vaccine, whose key ingredient is messenger RNA that encodes the spike protein of the pandemic coronavirus, was found to have 95% efficacy, a clinical trial measurement of effectiveness, in a phase III trial in 43,000 people. But it presents logistical challenges for a widescale and rapid rollout, as it requires storage at −70°C. The lesser demands of other vaccines—including a candidate developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca—mean they will likely still play an important role in providing vaccinations for the whole U.K. population—and for global coverage, according to Michael Head, a global health researcher at the University of Southampton, “but, for now, this is wonderful news to wake up to.”

Postdocs need urgent financial support amid COVID conditions

Earlier in the year, many funders agreed to extend deadlines for research projects halted or delayed by the pandemic — but fewer offered extra funding to cover this period. Worryingly, most of the funders we approached still have no concrete plans to provide such additional financial support to postdocs. Many postdocs are not eligible for the government salary subsidies, or furlough schemes, that have been made available to many workers during the pandemic. Expanding access to such schemes is arguably the one intervention that could do the most to ease pressures at this time.


Most funders have no plans to provide postdoctoral researchers with additional pandemic funding. Society will pay a high price if this neglect continues.

COVID-19 Research: Study Shows That High-Density Lipoproteins (HDL) Or ‘Good’ Cholesterol Facilitates SARS-CoV-2 Cell Entry

COVID-19 Research: Chinese researchers from the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology, Academy of Military Medical Sciences (AMMS)-China led by Professor Dr Wei Congwen, have found the role of an HDL (high-density lipoprotein) receptor in the facilitation of entry of the SARS CoV-2 into human host cells.

The SARS-CoV-2 infects host cells through binding of the viral spike protein (SARS-2-S) to the cell-surface receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2).

Simulations open a new way to reverse cell aging

Simulations that model molecular interactions have identified an enzyme that could be targeted to reverse a called cellular senescence. The findings were validated with laboratory experiments on and equivalent tissues, and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

“Our research opens the door for a new generation that perceives aging as a reversible biological phenomenon,” says Professor Kwang-Hyun Cho of the Department of Bio and Brain engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), who led the research with colleagues from KAIST and Amorepacific Corporation in Korea.

Cells respond to a variety of factors, such as oxidative stress, DNA damage, and shortening of the telomeres capping the ends of chromosomes, by entering a stable and persistent exit from the . This process, called cellular senescence, is important, as it prevents damaged from proliferating and turning into . But it is also a natural process that contributes to aging and . Recent research has shown that cellular senescence can be reversed. But the laboratory approaches used thus far also impair tissue regeneration or have the potential to trigger malignant transformations.

Innate immune system: Natural killer cells and cancer

https://www.BetaGlucanShop.com — Natural killer cells (NK cells) are the most aggressive cells of your immune system and kills through apoptosis, also known as programmed cell death. These innate immune cells are key players against viral infections and cancer growth.

Natural killer cells help prevent metastasis by killing abnormal cells and tumour cells. Metastasis is the spread of cancer from one part of the body to another. Beta glucans are used in immunotherapy as they may help (depending on type) the immune system distinguish between healthy and abnormal cells like cancer cells, and thus direct the immune cells to engage cancer cells.

Research shows us that beta 1,3/1,6 glucans can trigger groups of immune cells including macrophages, neutrophils, monocytes, natural killer cells and dendritic cells for activity. Clinical human studies demonstrate that Wellmune Beta Glucan significantly increases the percent of active immune cells available to defend your body. Wellmune increases mobilization of innate immune cells to the site of a challenge, enabling faster recognition and neutralization of foreign intruders and killing (phagocytosis) of foreign challenges, resulting in a more complete immune response.

Studies on Wellmune Beta Glucan shows that this proprietary strain of patented yeast beta 1,3/1,6 glucan primes macrophages, neutrophils and natural killer cells to defend your body against a broad range of infections, other foreign challenges, and assist in the removal of damaged cells.

RSNA 2020: AI highlights from an all-virtual annual meeting

The annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America highlighted how artificial intelligence is being used to augment medical imaging.


RSNA 2020, the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, showcases the latest research advances and product developments in all areas of radiology. Here’s a selection of studies presented at this year’s all-virtual event, all of which demonstrate the increasingly prevalent role played by artificial intelligence (AI) techniques in diagnostic imaging applications.

Deep-learning model helps detect TB

Early diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) is crucial to enable effective treatments, but this can prove challenging for resource-poor countries with a shortage of radiologists. To address this obstacle, Po-Chih Kuo, from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and colleagues have developed a deep-learning-based TB detection model. The model, called TBShoNet, analyses photographs of chest X-rays taken by a phone camera.