New UCF-developed battery could prevent post-hurricane electric vehicle fires

The technology replaces the volatile and highly flammable organic solvents found in electric vehicle lithium-ion batteries with saltwater to create a safer and more efficient battery

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA

ORLANDO, Jan. 10, 2023 – A University of Central Florida researcher has developed technology that could prevent electric vehicle fires, like those caused by saltwater flooding from Hurricane Ian.

The technology, an aqueous battery, replaces the volatile and highly flammable organic solvents found in electric vehicle lithium-ion batteries with saltwater to create a battery that is safer, faster charging, just as powerful and won’t short circuit during flooding.

The work is detailed in a new study in Nature Communications.

“During Hurricane Ian, a lot of electric cars caught fire after they were soaked in floodwater,” says Yang Yang, an associate professor in UCF’s NanoScience Technology Center who led the research. “That is because the saltwater corrodes the battery and causes a short circuit, which ignites the flammable solvents and other components. Our battery uses saltwater as an electrolyte, eliminating the highly volatile solvents.”

Also key to the battery’s design is its novel, nano-engineering that allows the battery to overcome limitations of previous aqueous batteries, such as slow charging times and poor stability.

The UCF-designed battery is fast charging, reaching full charge in three minutes, compared to the hours it takes lithium-ion batteries.

Yang is an expert in developing materials for renewable energy devices such as batteries with improved safety.

Saltwater Electrical Vehicle Fires

The issue of electric vehicle fires after saltwater flooding surfaced during Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and Hurricane Isaias in 2020.

As a result, the U.S. Fire Administration and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have issued special guidance for responding to electric vehicle fires caused by saltwater flooding.

The fires require copious amounts of water to douse, with the International Association of Fire Chiefs recommending firefighters secure a continuous and sustainable water supply of 3,000 to 8,000 gallons.

At least 12 electric vehicle fires were reported in Collier and Lee counties in Florida after Hurricane Ian, where many cars were submerged at least partially in saltwater, according to the US. Fire Administration.

Designing the Battery

Previous aqueous battery designs have suffered from low energy output, instability, the growth of harmful metallic structures called dendrites on the negative electrode and corrosion.

By using saltwater as the battery’s liquid electrolyte, the UCF researchers were able to use naturally occurring metal ions found in the saltwater, such as sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium, to create a dual-cation battery that stores more energy. This implementation allowed them to overcome the sluggishness of previous single-cation aqueous battery designs.

To solve problems with instability, dendrite growth and corrosion, the researchers engineered a forest-like 3D zinc-copper anode containing a thin zinc-oxide protective layer on top.

The novel, nano-engineered surface, which looks like a birds-eye-view of a forest, allows the researchers to precisely control electrochemical reactions, thereby increasing the battery’s stability and quick charging ability.

Furthermore, the zinc-oxide layer prevented dendritic growth of zinc, which was confirmed using optical microscopy.

“These batteries using the novel materials developed in my lab will remain safe even if they are used improperly or are flooded in saltwater,” Yang says. “Our work can help improve electric vehicle technology and continue to advance it as reliable and safe form of travel.”

Licensing and Acknowledgements

The patent-pending technology is available for licensing through UCF’s Office of Technology Transfer.

The research was supported with funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation and American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund.

Yang holds joint appointments in UCF’s NanoScience Technology Center and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, which is part of the university’s College of Engineering and Computer Science. He is a member of UCF’s Renewable Energy and Chemical Transformation (REACT) Cluster. He also holds a secondary joint-appointment in UCF’s Department of Chemistry and The Stephen W. Hawking Center for Microgravity Research and Education. Before joining UCF in 2015, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Rice University and an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany. He received his doctorate in materials science from Tsinghua University in China.

Study title: Three-dimensional Zn-based Alloys for Dendrite-free Aqueous Zn Battery in Dual-cation Electrolytes

CONTACT: Robert H. Wells, Office of Research, robert.wells@ucf.edu

 

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JOURNAL

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-022-35618-2 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35618-2

Vaccine and prior SARS-CoV-2 infection confer long-lasting protection against omicron BA.5

Study in the population living in Portugal shows that immunity conferred by infection of people vaccinated against COVID-19 confers up to 8 months of protection against omicron BA.5

Peer-Reviewed Publication

INSTITUTO DE MEDICINA MOLECULAR

 

IMAGE: ILLUSTRATION OF SARS-COV-2. view more 

CREDIT: HELENA PINHEIRO, IMM

Vaccine and prior SARS-CoV-2 infection confer long-lasting protection against omicron BA.5

Study in the population living in Portugal shows that immunity conferred by infection of people vaccinated against COVID-19 confers up to 8 months of protection against omicron BA.5 

A new study led by Luís Graça, group leader at the Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes (iMM, Lisbon) and full professor at the Medical School of the University of Lisbon, and Manuel Carmo Gomes, associate professor with aggregation at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (Ciências ULisboa), both members of the Direção Geral de Saúde (DGS) Technical Committee for Vaccination against COVID-19 (CTVC), and published today in the scientific journal Lancet Infectious Diseases*, shows that the protection conferred by hybrid immunity against the SARS-CoV-2 subvariant omicron BA.5, obtained by the infection of vaccinated people, lasts for at least eight months after the first infection.

This study follows the results published in September by the same researchers in the New England Journal of Medicine** where they showed, by studying the widely vaccinated Portuguese population, that infection by the first omicron subvariants of SARS-CoV-2, circulating in January and February 2022, conferred considerable protection against the omicron BA.5 subvariant circulating in Portugal since June and which remains the predominant variant in many countries. However, the stability of the protection conferred by the so-called hybrid immunity, the immunity conferred by the combination of vaccination and infection, was not yet known. 

"In September, we had observed that infection by the first omicron subvariants conferred protection for the BA.5 subvariant about four times higher than vaccinated people who were not infected on any occasion, showing the importance of hybrid immunity for protection against new infections. Now, we show that this protection conferred by vaccination together with previous infections is stable and maintained until at least eight months after the first infection", explains Luís Graça, co-leader of the study. 

As in the previous study, the researchers used the national COVID-19 case registry until September 2022, which is especially comprehensive due to the legal requirement to register all cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection at the time to gain access to sick leave during mandatory isolation days. "We used the national COVID-19 case registry to obtain the information of all cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections in the population over 12 years old residing in Portugal. These data from the Portuguese population allows us to conclude about hybrid immunity because vaccination had already covered 98% of this population by the end of 2021. The virus variant of each infection was determined considering the date of infection and the dominant variant at that time", explains Manuel Carmo Gomes, co-leader of the study. 

About the calculations performed with these data, João Malato, first author of the study, explains: "With these data, we calculated the relative risk of reinfection over time in people vaccinated with previous infections by the first omicron subvariants of SARS-CoV-2, allowing us to conclude on the level of protection against reinfection. We found that protection remains high 8 months after contact with the virus." 

"The protection afforded by hybrid immunity is initially about 90%, reducing after 5 months to about 70%, and showing a tendency to stabilize at a value of around 65% after 8 months, compared to the protection in vaccinated persons that were never infected by the virus. These results show that hybrid immunity conferred by infection with previous subvariants of SARS-CoV-2 in vaccinated people is quite stable", adds Luís Graça about the protection conferred by hybrid immunity.

This study shows that infection by previous subvariants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, has the ability to confer additional protection compared to the protection conferred by vaccination alone, and that this protection is stable.

 

This work was developed at the Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes (iMM, Lisboa) and the Direção Geral de Saúde, in colaboration with researchers from the Centro de Estatística e Aplicações da Universidade de Lisboa, the Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa and Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA). This work was funded by the Horizon 2020 research and innovationfrom the European Union, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal) and the National Institute of Health.

 

* João Malato, Ruy M Ribeiro, Eugénia Fernandes, Pedro P Leite, Pedro Casaca, Carlos Antunes, Válter R Fonseca, Manuel Carmo Gomes, Luís Graça. (2022) Stability of hybrid vs. vaccine immunity against BA.5 infection over 8 months. Lancet Infectious Diseases. 

** João Malato, Ruy M Ribeiro, Pedro P Leite, Pedro Casaca, Eugénia Fernandes, Carlos Antunes, Válter R Fonseca, Manuel C Gomes, Luís Graça. (2022) Risk of BA.5 Infection among Persons Exposed to Previous SARS-CoV-2 Variants. New England Journal of Medicine.387(10):953-954. Doi: 10.1056/NEJMc2209479. 

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JOURNAL

The Lancet Infectious Diseases

DOI

10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00833-7 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Stability of hybrid versus vaccine immunity against BA.5 infection over 8 months

Mathematical model predicts long-term effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccine booster doses in different patient populations

Model also simulates how well vaccines would fare against potential future viral variants.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL

Key Takeaways

• Scientists have designed a mathematical model that can predict COVID-19 vaccines’ effectiveness over the long term in healthy individuals and those who have cancer or suppressed immune responses
• The model also considers the potential of the vaccines—including new bivalent vaccines—for protecting against hypothetical future viral variants

BOSTON – Researchers have designed a mathematical model that can predict the course of vaccine-induced immunity against COVID-19 in different patient populations—including otherwise healthy individuals and those who have cancer or suppressed immune responses—over the long term.

The model, which was developed by a team led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, in collaboration with scientists at the University of Cyprus, also makes predictions under potential future scenarios (such as the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants with greater immune evasion) and reveals the benefits of the new bivalent vaccines.

The model builds on the investigators’ previously developed mathematical framework that they used to understand why treatment responses vary widely among people with COVID-19 and to identify biological markers related to these different responses, published in PNAS in 2021.

In this latest work, which is also published in PNAS, the scientists addressed the need for predictions of vaccine effectiveness over time.

“We used this model to simulate how differences in viral, patient, and vaccine characteristics may affect COVID-19 outcomes,” says senior author Rakesh K. Jain, PhD, director of the E.L. Steele Laboratories for Tumor Biology at MGH and the Andrew Werk Cook Professor of Radiation Oncology at Harvard Medical School.

For example, the model incorporates different variants of SARS-CoV-2 (including hypothetical ones), original and bivalent forms of the vaccine, and different considerations for certain patients—such as interactions between the virus, immune cells, and tumor cells in individuals with cancer.

The model predicted that a booster dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna mRNA vaccines can induce robustly enhanced antibody- and immune cell–based responses against SARS-CoV-2 to provide sufficient protection for more than 1 year in healthy individuals.

However, the model suggested that for people with suppressed immune responses or those with cancer receiving immunosuppressive treatments, the booster effect may wane fairly quickly. These patients should therefore be given booster vaccines on a more frequent basis.

For people receiving the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen vector vaccine, additional booster doses should be considered for everyone. The analysis also revealed that the optimal schedule for vaccine booster doses is not the same for all SARS-CoV-2 variants.

“Our results could help inform the timing of booster vaccinations in individuals with different characteristics and comorbidities, as well as for novel viral variants,” says Jain.

“As we approach an endemic phase of SARS-CoV-2, a rational approach to vaccine booster utilization may help ensure equitable access to vaccines and help prevent further outbreaks and development of new variants.”

Co-corresponding authors are Lance L. Munn, MGH, and Triantafyllos Stylianopoulos, University of Cyprus. Other MGH authors are Chrysovalantis Voutouri, C. Corey Hardin, Vivek Naranbhai, Mohammad R. Nikmaneshi, Melin J. Khandekar, and Justin F. Gainor.

Jain’s research is supported by grants from National Institutes of Health, the National Foundation for Cancer Research, Jane’s Trust Foundation, Niles Albright Research Foundation and Harvard Ludwig Cancer Center. Munn’s research is supported by a National Institutes of Health grant. Stylianopoulos’s research is supported by the European Research Council and Cyprus Research and Innovation Foundation.

About the Massachusetts General Hospital

Massachusetts General Hospital, founded in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The Mass General Research Institute conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the nation, with annual research operations of more than $1 billion and comprises more than 9,500 researchers working across more than 30 institutes, centers and departments. In July 2022, Mass General was named #8 in the U.S. News & World Report list of "America’s Best Hospitals." MGH is a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system.

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JOURNAL

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2211132120 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Mechanistic model for booster doses effectiveness in healthy, cancer and 3 immunosuppressed patients infected with SARS-CoV-2

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

9-Jan-2023

Advancing health and health equity across the globe

Prof. Beate Kampmann takes over Charité’s Institute of International Health as a newly appointed Einstein Professor

Business Announcement

CHARITÉ - UNIVERSITÄTSMEDIZIN BERLIN

 

IMAGE: PROF. BEATE KAMPMANN © CHARITÉ L ARTUR KRUTSCH view more 

CREDIT: © CHARITÉ L ARTUR KRUTSCH

Joint press release by Charité and the Einstein Foundation Berlin

A new platform for global health is being created within Berlin’s university medicine landscape in the form of the Charité Center for Global Health (CCGH). At its center is the Institute of International Health of Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, formerly known as the Institute of Tropical Medicine and International Health, which has been headed since the beginning of this year by Einstein Professor for Global Health, Prof. Beate Kampmann. The renowned expert in international child health will lead the CCGH with Prof. Christian Drosten, who heads Charité’s Institute of Virology, with both of them working together to sharpen its scientific focus and leverage the enormous potential in Berlin and beyond. The CCGH will be supported by the Global Engagement unit, which will serve as a focal point for global health activities at Charité and, in cooperation with the World Health Summit (WHS) and national and international partners, will pioneer and advance strategic global health initiatives. The Einstein Strategic Professorship program enables Berlin universities to recruit top international scientists. It is made possible by the Einstein Foundation Berlin through a generous donation by the Damp Stiftung.

Health must increasingly be understood in global terms – especially given that infectious agents do not stop at national borders. Be it pandemics, epidemics, wars, or the consequences of climate change, new and current challenges to the health of large segments of the population can only be met through international cooperation, new ideas, and global health research. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, many actors in Germany had begun to get more involved in global health issues. The Berlin University Alliance (BUA), for example, identified global health as a key global challenge, naming it one of its “Grand Challenges.” In addition, Charité’s more than one hundred departments and institutes have a wide range of experience in global health research and practice. International forums for networking and the exchange of knowledge have emerged at the suggestion of Charité or in its ecosystem, including the World Health Summit (WHS), the German Alliance for Global Health Research (GLOHRA), and the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence.

It is time to bring together Berlin’s numerous initiatives and individual disciplines, says Prof. Kampmann, who has been teaching and researching at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) as Professor of Pediatric Infection & Immunity for the past four and a half years. The international health expert also served as Director of The Vaccine Center at LSHTM, which develops new vaccines and evaluates their safety and efficacy. The clinician-scientist is now returning to Germany to reposition Charité’s Institute of International Health (formerly the Institute of Tropical Medicine and International Health) as well as the field of global health in Berlin in general, while also aiming to use the German metropolis as a base for advancing global collaboration. “There are already strong research programs, international clinical partnerships, and many good approaches here – we want to bring together and intensify these efforts. Going forward, we will provide an umbrella at Charité for all those working on global health issues. Affiliated researchers and associated institutions as well as the Berlin University Alliance’s members and non-university institutions can also get involved,” says Prof. Kampmann. “Alongside networking and structural development measures, we will primarily focus on activities such as monitoring and combating infectious diseases around the world, including the role played by vaccines in these efforts as well as the field of pandemic preparedness – topics that we will address in a multidisciplinary manner and beyond the boundaries of the institute.” In addition to her work at Charité, Prof. Kampmann will remain affiliated with LSHTM. She will continue to direct research projects in Africa and the UK and will set up a partnership between Charité and LSHTM, one of the most influential institutions in the field of public health and infectious diseases. Clinical services provided by Charité’s Institute of International Health, such as travel medicine and the outpatient clinic for travelers returning home, will be continue to be managed by the same proven team under her new leadership.

Prof. Kampmann is one of the world’s leading researchers into childhood tuberculosis (TB) and vaccines to improve global health. She has demonstrated that Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), a live anti-TB vaccine, not only protects against TB disease but also infection. For over twelve years, she has served as the Theme Leader for Vaccines & Immunity research at the Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia (MRC Unit The Gambia; part of LSHTM since 2018), overseeing all research activities in infant immunology, childhood TB, and molecular diagnostics. In addition to basic research into innate and acquired immune responses to infection and vaccination in pregnant women and infants, the clinician-scientist has in recent years conducted numerous clinical trials of novel vaccines, adjuvants, and administration modalities. The impact of her research and international advocacy has been far reaching. Her work, for example, has resulted in a 50 percent increase in the detection of childhood TB in The Gambia. The vaccination expert has also established a platform for immunization during pregnancy in the West African country as a tool to decrease neonatal morbidity and mortality. This is just one example of how vaccines – one of the most effective medical tools available – can help improve global health.

“In Prof. Kampmann, Charité is gaining an outstanding expert in international health who has extensive experience in translational research, in teaching and training, and in interdisciplinary work and intercultural exchange,” says Prof. Axel Radlach Pries, President of the WHS and Dean of Charité until December 31, 2022. “The newly created Charité Center for Global Health will strengthen and increase the visibility of Charité’s role and activities in this important field. Under the scientific leadership of Prof. Kampmann and Prof. Drosten, Charité will work with partner institutions across the globe to launch new initiatives and set new emphases. The goal is to assume greater responsibility, to forge strong partnerships in the field of global health, and to advance collaboration and cooperation among science and policymakers as well as all other stakeholders.” Prof. Kampmann adds that it is essential is to engage in partnerships on equal footing, especially when working with colleagues from the Global South.

Going forward, Prof. Kampmann will continue her research at the MRC Unit The Gambia. She plans to incorporate the cooperation with the sub-Saharan partner site into her work at Charité and to facilitate the formation of new study partnerships. Over 80 scientists and support staff are currently part of her global research program that addresses immunization issues, such as through the conduct of clinical trials or by applying cutting-edge systems vaccinology tools. What immunization is appropriate at what time? What is the level of acceptance among the population? What can we learn about the developing immune system from vaccination studies? How does vaccination affect pregnancy? Pursuing answers to these questions is important to the researcher in order to enable the provision of evidence-based care to children across the globe. In addition, the internationally recognized expert has a strong track record of training young, primarily African, clinician-scientists, including mentoring them in their own clinical and scientific careers. To facilitate the international exchange of staff, PhD students, and research ideas, she has established an “open lab” approach in The Gambia, which she will also incorporate into her teaching and research at Charité. Facilitating bilateral exchange and international cooperation is an issue that is close to Prof. Kampmann’s heart: “In Germany the available programs for those seeking to build partnerships mostly rely on small-scale funding, and to date there are only a few partner sites outside the country – a structural weakness that we aim to address in incremental steps so as to become more competitive internationally in global health research.”

The appointment of Prof. Kampmann opens up a special opportunity at Charité and throughout Berlin: the chance to re-establish global health as an academic discipline at this scientific and research location. This is a discipline that is more necessary than ever in our current time characterized by international mobility, but which for historical reasons has barely developed in Germany. The Institute of International Health in the new Charité Center for Global Health now wants to be an “open house,” and this principle must be put into practice, according to Prof. Kampmann, who says: “I feel the dynamics are right. There is currently a new focus in this country and also within Europe, as evident in the global health strategies of Germany and the European Union. Equal partnerships and the cultivation of young talent in international health care have clearly moved to center stage.” Prof. Martin Rennert, Chair of the Executive Board of the Einstein Foundation Berlin, adds: “We are delighted that Charité, through the support of the Einstein Foundation, has succeeded in attracting one of the most renowned scientists in the field of global health to Berlin in order to further establish this important discipline in Germany and in Berlin.” By working closely with national and international actors – with institutions such as the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), with various government ministries, with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the WHS, with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and with the early career scientists’ association GLOHRA as well as the worldwide network of research funders GloPID-R – Berlin’s university medicine should be able to succeed in making a new start in the pursuit of global health. Sustainable collaboration in global health research, such as between clinical research, basic research, and systems biology, but also with non-medical disciplines such as the social sciences in Berlin, will help pave the way.

Short biography of Prof. Beate Kampmann
Beate Kampmann studied medicine in Cologne. She specialized in the field of infectious diseases and completed advanced training in pediatric and infectious disease medicine at the Royal College of Physicians in London in the early 1990s. This was followed by research stays in the United States, France, and South Africa, which eventually led her to Imperial College London. The clinician-scientist was named a Wellcome Trust Training Fellow in Clinical Tropical Medicine and later became a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellow. In 2000, she obtained her postgraduate lecturing qualification with a PhD thesis on the human immune response to the TB pathogen. In mid-2010, Prof. Kampmann was appointed as Theme Leader for Vaccines & Immunity research at the MRC Unit The Gambia. As part of this role, she directs a comprehensive research program on pediatric infection and immunity in both the UK and Africa. In 2015, she was awarded the President’s Medal for Excellence in Research Supervision at Imperial College London. In 2018, after more than 25 years of service, Prof. Kampmann moved from Imperial College to the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), where she became Professor in Pediatric Infection & Immunity and Director of The Vaccine Center. In 2020, she was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, the British equivalent of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, and was inducted as a Fellow of the West African College of Physicians. She remained an active member of the Imperial College’s pediatric consultant team during this time. She has led numerous projects funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UK Research and Innovation, the European Union, the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership, and the Wellcome Trust. Prof. Kampmann’s main areas of research are childhood TB, HIV co-infection, and vaccinology. She and her team conduct laboratory and clinical studies to understand age-related immune responses to infection and vaccination. Over the last few years, she has led a number of studies in both UK and West Africa investigating the scientific and implementation challenges of maternal immunization. She is the Director of IMPRINT– the IMmunizing PRegnant women and INfants network, one of the 5 MRC-funded networks for vaccines – and is one of the organizers of the International Neonatal and Maternal Immunization Symposium (INMIS). On January 1, 2023, Prof. Kampmann took up a tenured W3 Professorship for Global Health at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and will head Charité’s Institute of International Health. She will also assume the scientific leadership of the newly created Charité Center for Global Health together with Prof. Christian Drosten, who heads Charité’s Institute of Virology.

About the Einstein Foundation Berlin
The Einstein Foundation Berlin is an independent, non-profit, science-led organization established as a foundation under civil law in 2009. It promotes international cutting-edge science and research across disciplines and institutions in and for Berlin. It has so far funded some 200 researchers — including three Nobel laureates — more than 70 projects, and seven Einstein Centers. The Einstein Foundation Berlin receives public funding from the State of Berlin, as well as support from private donors such as the Damp Stiftung. The Damp Stiftung was established by Dr. Walter Wübben, the former majority owner of the Klinikgruppe Damp, to fund medical research and teaching as well as social projects.

TB

More than two billion are infected with this disease; Vitamin D can help

A rare patient has made it possible for researchers to prove that vitamin D – the “sun vitamin” – helps the body fight tuberculosis

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN - THE FACULTY OF HEALTH AND MEDICAL SCIENCES

Sarcomas are cancer tumours found in e.g. the bones, muscles or fatty tissue. It is a rare type of cancer seen in only one per cent of cancer patients. It is complex and difficult to treat.

However, a new study may have found a new treatment that can help the sickest sarcoma patients.

“We have learned that sarcoma patients whose cancer cells have a high expression of the cep135 protein are worse off. But inhibiting a gene called plk1 also inhibits growth of the sarcoma cells, and this suggests that we can target the treatment of the sickest sarcoma patients,” says Associate Professor Morten Scheibye-Knudsen from the Center for Healthy Aging at the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, who is responsible for the new study.

Methods for identifying sarcoma patients’ prognoses are already available, as are different forms of treatment. But the new study has identified a new method.

“This is a new way of stratifying and possibly a new and better way of treating sarcoma. And the introduction of yet another method is always good news to patients. Because no two cancers are alike. Ideally, treatment should always be tailored to the individual patient,” Morten Scheibye-Knudsen stresses.

He hopes other researchers with access to the necessary test facilities will study his results in more detail and eventually design a new treatment. If the method turns out to work, he believes a new treatment may be available to patients in five to 10 years.

Grey hair, wrinkles and loss of fatty tissue at an early age

Morten Scheibye-Knudsen and his colleagues started out by studying patients suffering from the rare neurological disorders Werner’s syndrome, Nijmegen breakage syndrome and Ataxia-telangiectasia syndrome.

These patients experience symptoms of early ageing such as grey hair, wrinkles and loss of fatty tissue – and they have a high risk of developing cancer at an early age.

“Age-associated diseases such as cancer is one of my main areas of interest as a researcher at the Center for Healthy Aging. As we grow older, a lot of things happen to the body, and determining causality can be difficult. But in people suffering from e.g. Werner’s syndrome it is easier to see which genes are responsible for which processes. This gives us a molecular handle, so to speak,” says Morten Scheibye-Knudsen.

In order to establish why these patients develop cancer at an early age, the researchers compared gene expressions across the three disorders. Here they worked together with the company Insilico Medicine, whose large Pandaomics platform made it possible to identify gene mutations in thousands of different disorders. It turned out that cep135 is a common denominator for the cancer genes of the three disorders.

“This made us study the gene expressions of various cancers, and we learned that cep135 is associated with high mortality in i.a. sarcoma, but also in bladder cancer. Sarcoma was particularly interesting, as many Werner’s syndrome patients develop sarcoma,” explains Morten Scheibye-Knudsen.

Finally, the researchers sought to find ways to inhibit the sarcoma. Cep135 is not a useful target, as it is a so-called structural protein, which are difficult to target. Instead, the researchers learned that by inhibiting the plk1 gene they were able to target the sarcoma.

"The study indicates that we can use genetic diseases that exhibit accelerated aging to identify new treatment targets. In this study, we investigated cancer, but the method can in principle be used for all age-related diseases such as dementia, cardiovascular diseases and others," says Morten Scheibye-Knudsen.

Read the entire study, ”High-confidence cancer patient stratification through multiomics investigation of DNA repair disorders”, in CDDpress.

What are sarcomas?   Sarcomas are cancer tumours found in i.a. the bones, muscles or fatty tissue. There are two main types: bone sarcoma and soft tissue sarcoma (muscles, fatty tissue, connective tissue, blood vessels and neurilemma).   Sarcoma affects one per cent of cancer patients. In Denmark, around 45 people are diagnosed with bone sarcoma each year and 220 with soft tissue sarcoma. Adults diagnosed with bone sarcoma have a 60-per cent five-year survival rate, while adults diagnosed with bone sarcoma have a 50-70-per cent five-year survival rate.

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JOURNAL

Frontiers in Immunology

DOI

10.3389/fimmu.2022.1038960 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Case study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Reduced vitamin D-induced cathelicidin production and killing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in macrophages from a patient with a non-functional vitamin D receptor: A case report

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

Fathoming the hidden heatwaves that threaten coral reefs

Peer-Reviewed Publication

HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

 

VIDEO: AN ANIMATION OF THE SEA-SURFACE TEMPERATURES AROUND MOOREA COMPARED DURING THE 2016 AND 2019 MARINE HEATWAVES view more 

CREDIT: HKUST

    In April to May 2019, the coral reefs near the French Polynesian island of Moorea in the central South Pacific Ocean suffered severe and prolonged thermal bleaching. The catastrophe occurred despite the absence of El Niño conditions that year, intriguing ocean scientists around the world.

    An international research team led by Prof. Alex WYATT of the Department of Ocean Science at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, has investigated this surprising and paradoxical coral bleaching episode. The unexpected event was related to the passage of anti-cyclonic eddies that elevated sea levels and concentrated hot water over the reef, leading to an underwater marine heatwave that was largely hidden from view at the surface. The findings have recently been published in Nature Communications.  

    Most studies of coral bleaching patterns rely on sea-surface measures of water temperatures, which cannot capture the full picture of threats from ocean heating to marine ecosystems, including tropical coral reefs. These surface measurements conducted over broad areas with satellites are valuable, yet are unable to detect heating below the surface that influences communities living in waters deeper that the shallowest few metres of the ocean.

    Prof. Wyatt and colleagues analyzed data collected at Moorea over 15 years from 2005 to 2019, taking advantage of a rare combination of remotely sensed sea-surface temperatures and high-resolution, long-term in-situ temperatures and sea level anomalies. Results showed that the passage of anti-cyclonic eddies in the open ocean past the island raised sea levels and pushed internal waves down into deeper water. Internal waves travel along the interface between the warm surface layer of the ocean and cooler layers below, and, in a previous study also led by Prof. Wyatt, have been shown to provide frequent cooling of coral reef habitats. The present research shows that, as a result of the anti-cyclones, internal wave cooling was shut down in early 2019, as well as during some earlier heatwaves.  This led to unexpected heating over the reef, which in turn caused large-scale coral bleaching and subsequent mortality. Unfortunately for local reef biodiversity, the extensive coral death in 2019 has offset the recovery of coral communities that had been occurring around Moorea for the last decade.

    A notable observation, in contrast to the 2019 heatwave, was that the reefs in Moorea did not undergo significant bleaching mortality in 2016, despite the prevailing super El Niño that brought warm conditions and decimated many shallow reefs worldwide. The new research demonstrates the importance of collecting temperature data across the range of depths that coral reefs occupy because the capacity to predict coral bleaching can be lost with a focus only on surface conditions. Sea-surface temperature data would predict moderate bleaching in both 2016 and 2019 at Moorea. However, direct observations showed that there was only ecologically insignificant bleaching in 2016, with heating that was short in duration and restricted to shallow depths. The severe and prolonged marine heatwave in 2019 would have been overlooked if researchers only had access to sea-surface temperature data, and the resulting catastrophic coral bleaching may have been incorrectly ascribed to causes other than heating.

    “The present study highlights the need to consider environmental dynamics across depths relevant to threatened ecosystems, including those due to the passage of underwater ocean weather events.  This kind of analysis depends on long-term, in situ data measured across ocean depths, but such data is generally lacking,” Prof. Wyatt said.  

    “Our paper provides a valuable mechanistic example for assessing the future of coastal ecosystems in the context of changing ocean dynamics and climates.”

    This HKUST-led research was conducted in collaboration with a team of scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego, the University of California Santa Barbara, California State University, Northbridge, and Florida State University. The data underlying this study were made possible by coupled long-term physical and ecological observations conducted at the Moorea Coral Reef Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site. The long-term analyses conducted here, and the concurrent monitoring of physical conditions and biological dynamics across the full range of depths of island and coastal marine communities, is a model for future research that aims to protect vulnerable living resources in the ocean. 

An animation of the sea levels [VIDEO] | EurekAlert! Science News Releases

 

Extensive coral bleaching occurred across depths on the north shore of Moorea during the 2019 marine heatwave

CREDIT

Peter J. Edmunds

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JOURNAL

Nature Communications

ARTICLE TITLE

Hidden heatwaves and severe coral bleaching linked to mesoscale eddies and thermocline dynamics

Scars mended using transplanted hair follicles in Imperial College London study

Peer-Reviewed Publication

IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON

In a new study involving three volunteers, skin scars began to behave more like uninjured skin after they were treated with hair follicle transplants. The scarred skin harboured new cells and blood vessels, remodelled collagen to restore healthy patterns, and even expressed genes found in healthy unscarred skin.  

The findings could lead to better treatments for scarring both on the skin and inside the body, leading to hope for patients with extensive scarring, which can impair organ function and cause disability.  

Lead author Dr Claire Higgins, of Imperial’s Department of Bioengineering, said: “After scarring, the skin never truly regains its pre-wound functions, and until now all efforts to remodel scars have yielded poor results. Our findings lay the foundation for exciting new therapies that can rejuvenate even mature scars and restore the function of healthy skin.” 

The research is published today in Nature Regenerative Medicine. 

Hope in hair 

Scar tissue in the skin lacks hair, sweat glands, blood vessels and nerves, which are vital for regulating body temperature and detecting pain and other sensations. Scarring can also impair movement as well as potentially causing discomfort and emotional distress. 

Compared to scar tissue, healthy skin undergoes constant remodelling by the hair follicle. Hairy skin heals faster and scars less than non-hairy skin– and hair transplants had previously been shown to aid wound healing. Inspired by this, the researchers hypothesised that transplanting growing hair follicles into scar tissue might induce scars to remodel themselves. 

To test their hypothesis, Imperial researchers worked with Dr Francisco Jiménez, lead hair transplant surgeon at the Mediteknia Clinic and Associate Research Professor at University Fernando Pessoa Canarias, in Gran Canaria, Spain. They transplanted hair follicles into the mature scars on the scalp of three participants in 2017. The researchers selected the most common type of scar, called normotrophic scars, which usually form after surgery. 

They took and microscope imaged 3mm-thick biopsies of the scars just before transplantation, and then again at two, four, and six months afterwards. 

The researchers found that the follicles inspired profound architectural and genetic shifts in the scars towards a profile of healthy, uninjured skin. 

Dr Jiménez said: “Around 100 million people per year acquire scars in high-income countries alone, primarily as a result of surgeries. The global incidence of scars is much higher and includes extensive scarring formed after burn and traumatic injuries. Our work opens new avenues for treating scars and could even change our approach to preventing them.” 

Architects of skin 

After transplantation, the follicles continued to produce hair and induced restoration across skin layers. 

Scarring causes the outermost layer of skin – the epidermis – to thin out, leaving it vulnerable to tears. At six months post-transplant, the epidermis had doubled in thickness alongside increased cell growth, bringing it to around the same thickness as uninjured skin.  

The next skin layer down, the dermis, is populated with connective tissue, blood vessels, sweat glands, nerves, and hair follicles. Scar maturation leaves the dermis with fewer cells and blood vessels, but after transplantation the number of cells had doubled at six months, and the number of vessels had reached nearly healthy-skin levels by four months. This demonstrated that the follicles inspired the growth of new cells and blood vessels in the scars, which are unable to do this unaided. 

Scarring also increases the density of collagen fibres - a major structural protein in skin – which causes them to align such that scar tissue is stiffer than healthy tissue. The hair transplants reduced the density of the fibres, which allowed them to form a healthier, ‘basket weave’ pattern, which reduced stiffness – a key factor in tears and discomfort. 

The authors also found that after transplantation, the scars expressed 719 genes differently to before. Genes that promote cell and blood vessel growth were expressed more, while genes that promote scar-forming processes were expressed less. 

Multi-pronged approach 

The researchers are unsure precisely how the transplants facilitated such a change. In their study, the presence of a hair follicle in the scar was cosmetically acceptable as the scars were on the scalp. They are now working to uncover the underlying mechanisms so they can develop therapies that remodel scar tissue towards healthy skin, without requiring transplantation of a hair follicle and growth of a hair fibre. They can then test their findings on non-hairy skin, or on organs like the heart, which can suffer scarring after heart attacks, and the liver, which can suffer scarring through fatty liver disease and cirrhosis. 

Dr Higgins said: "This work has obvious applications in restoring people’s confidence, but our approach goes beyond the cosmetic as scar tissue can cause problems in all our organs. 

“While current treatments for scars like growth factors focus on single contributors to scarring, our new approach tackles multiple aspects, as the hair follicle likely delivers multiple growth factors all at once that remodel scar tissue. This lends further support to the use of treatments like hair transplantation that alter the very architecture and genetic expression of scars to restore function.” 

This work was funded by the Medical Research Council and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (part of UKRI). 

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JOURNAL

npj Regenerative Medicine

DOI

10.1038/s41536-022-00270-3 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

Older knee replacements as good as newer models, study shows

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA

Older knee replacement designs are just as effective as newer models – according to new research from the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and University of East Anglia.

A new study published today in the journal BMJ Open compares the effectiveness of two established knee replacements.

Eighty osteoarthritis patients, who received total knee replacements in 2018 and 2019, took part the CAPAbility study - a blinded randomised controlled trial run by researchers at NNUH and UEA.

The study found no difference in outcomes between the Genesis II and Journey II BCS knee implants six months after surgery.

Iain Mcnamara, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at NNUH and an honorary professor at UEA, led the research.

He said: “The lack of difference between implant designs is important for patients, surgeons, healthcare providers and implant companies. 

“For the patient and surgeons, reassurance can be gained that older designs, with proven track record of function and survivorship, can provide the same patient reported and functional outcome as more modern designs."

The study is the largest published total knee replacement comparison to date and patients will be reviewed three and five years after surgery.

Prof Mcnamara said: “For healthcare providers, older implants are often less expensive and, in the absence of clinical benefit with and demonstrable longevity, the additional expenditure on more modern designs could be avoided.

“The future of design and innovation may come in the form of more modern surgical techniques such as robotic-assisted implantation to assist in placing the knee in a more kinematically sympathetic position which in turn may allow the newer design philosophies to positively influence outcome.”

The team are planning future research looking at the effectiveness of robotic technology in knee replacement surgery. 

‘Comparison of the Journey II bicruciate stabilised (JII-BCS) and GENESIS II total knee arthroplasty for functional ability and motor impairment: the CAPAbility, blinded, randomised controlled trial’ is published in the journal BMJ Open on Friday, January 6, 2023.

 

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JOURNAL

BMJ Open

DOI

10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061648 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Randomized controlled/clinical trial

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

‘Comparison of the Journey II bicruciate stabilised (JII-BCS) and GENESIS II total knee arthroplasty for functional ability and motor impairment: the CAPAbility, blinded, randomised controlled trial’