It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Friday, April 21, 2023
USA
Association Between Material Hardship in Families With Young Children and Federal Relief Program Participation by Race and Ethnicity and Maternal Nativity
QuestionWhat was the association between participation in federal COVID-19 relief programs and mitigation of food and housing hardships and disparities among families with young children?
FindingsIn this cohort study using interviews before and during the COVID-19 crisis of 1396 caregivers with children 48 months or younger, receipt of benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and/or Economic Impact Payments was associated with reduced prevalence of household food insecurity and being behind on rent. However, there were disparities in receipt of benefits as well as food insecurity and being behind on rent by maternal nativity and caregiver race and ethnicity.
MeaningThe findings of this study suggest that equity-driven policy design is needed to ensure that benefits reach all families, especially among historically marginalized groups.
Abstract
ImportanceEven brief periods of hardship during early childhood may have lifelong consequences. Prior cross-sectional research limited to respondents with English proficiency and internet access during the COVID-19 crisis documented families with young children that struggled to afford basic needs like food and rent. Few studies have examined experiences of families with young children by race and ethnicity and maternal nativity.
ObjectiveTo examine the association of COVID-19 relief programs with the mitigation of household food insecurity among families with young children, as well as being behind on rent and disparities in program receipt.
Design, Setting, and ParticipantsThis cohort study used data from the ongoing repeat cross-sectional Children’s HealthWatch study comprising families surveyed at baseline (January 1, 2018, to March 20, 2020) and during the COVID-19 crisis (September 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021). Baseline questionnaires were administered face to face to caregivers of children aged 48 months or younger in English or Spanish in emergency departments or primary care clinics in 5 US cities. The follow-up questionnaires were administered via telephone.
ExposuresSupplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation or receipt of at least 1 Economic Impact Payment (EIP; ie, stimulus check) during the COVID-19 crisis.
Main Outcomes and MeasuresThe primary outcomes were household food insecurity (assessed via the US Household Food Security Survey Module: Six-Item Short Form) and being behind on rent. Logistic and binomial regression models were used to calculate adjusted odds ratios (aORs) and unadjusted and adjusted prevalence ratios (PRs).
ResultsOf 1396 caregiver-child dyads (20.3% response rate), race and ethnicity data were available for 1357 caregivers: 514 (37.9%) were Black, non-Latino; 558 (41.1%) were Latino; 230 (16.9%) were White, non-Latino; and 55 (4.1%) were of other non-Latino race or ethnicity. Among 1390 responses with nonmissing data, 417 children (30.0%) had an immigrant mother, and among 1388 responses, 1238 (33.5%) were publicly insured. During the crisis, 467 of 1395 respondents (33.5%) reported household food insecurity, and 567 of 1391 respondents (40.8%) reported being behind on rent. Families with immigrant mothers had lower odds of EIP and SNAP participation than families with US-born mothers (eg, aOR, 0.07 [95% CI, 0.05-0.12] for both EIP and SNAP vs neither), despite being more likely to report household food insecurity (adjusted PR [aPR], 1.48 [95% CI, 1.28-1.71]) and being behind on rent (aPR, 1.14 [95% CI, 1.00-1.30]). Families with Black (unadjusted PR [uPR], 1.40 [95% CI, 1.08-1.82]) or Latino (uPR, 1.54 [95% CI, 1.19-1.98]) caregivers or caregivers of other race and ethnicity (uPR, 1.67 [1.12-2.49]) were also more likely than families with White, non-Latino caregivers to experience household food insecurity or being behind on rent (families with Black caregivers: uPR, 2.02 [95% CI, 1.58-2.58]; families with Latino caregivers: 1.68 [95% CI, 1.30-2.16]; families with caregivers of other race or ethnicity: uPR, 1.94 [95% CI, 1.34-2.80]). Adjustment for covariates and differential participation in relief programs did not entirely account for these disparities.
Conclusions and RelevanceThe results of this cohort study suggest that the COVID-19 crisis exacerbated preexisting inequities in food insecurity and difficulty paying rent according to race and ethnicity and maternal nativity and that equity-focused policy changes are needed to ensure that all children and their families in the US can afford basic needs for optimal health.
With temperatures rising worldwide, more and more people globally consider air-conditioning an essential element of living with climate change. However, air-conditioning units are also rather power-hungry and are likely to increase energy consumption in areas where they are used often. To limit the impact of air-conditioners on our energy grids and our climate, we need data to better understand where they're sold globally. That's quite a struggle in regions where that data is not available. However, through social media advertising data, we get a first glimpse of what drives and motivates people to buy air-conditioners worldwide, new research led by Sibel Eker from Radboud University shows. The research is published in One Earth today.
Though it seems obvious that many people will invest in air-conditioning (AC) units as a way to reduce the heat in their home, there is no concrete way of knowing exactly how many people will invest in them in the future. ‘We have some data on how many households own an AC unit in Western countries, and what types of people buy them. But we don't know have a good view on what's happening around the world in regions such as Asia and Africa,’ explains Sibel Eker, assistant professor of system dynamics at Radboud University ‘That's an issue, as the lack of these units implies a high heat vulnerability, and as these units often increase carbon emissions and lead to higher energy consumption in certain areas. As such, we decided to look at data from social media to see if that provides some indication of interest and purchasing levels in those areas.’
’The data we looked at shows that, on a global level, middle aged, highly educated, married, or cohabiting males, as well as parents of small children, tend to express more online interest in AC units,’ explains Sibel. ‘Regions such as the Balkans and Middle East, regions that are increasingly vulnerable to rising temperatures and heatwaves, show the highest online interest in AC. In those countries, population groups that have been known to be reluctant to adopt to AC, such as the elderly, show a relatively high online interest in AC. That indicates that their attitude might be changing, and we might see a higher adoption of AC units in those regions than we have in the past.’
Worldwide data from social media
The researchers used data from Facebook and Instagram across 113 countries. ‘This data tells us which types of people are shown advertisements related to purchasing air conditioning, and how many of them actually decided to install one or more units. We looked at data on age, relationship status and parenthood to get an idea of what types of people are more likely or less likely to purchase an AC,’ explains Eker.
‘Conventional data sources such as household surveys are accurate, yet costly and context-dependent, for instance limited to a few countries. By using social media data, we were able to complement conventional data sources in improving our understanding of the extent and drivers of AC adoption at a global level. This provides valuable data to researchers and other organisations worldwide, in understanding how climate change might be increasing the adoption of AC units in new regions and amongst different groups of people.’
JOURNAL
One Earth
METHOD OF RESEARCH
Data/statistical analysis
ARTICLE TITLE
Social media data sheds light on air-conditioning interest of heat-vulnerable regions and socio-demographic groups
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
21-Apr-2023
A backpack full of multiple sclerosis therapy
A cell therapy using myeloid cells bound to drug delivery microparticles reduces disease burden in a preclinical multiple sclerosis model.
WYSS INSTITUTE FOR BIOLOGICALLY INSPIRED ENGINEERING AT HARVARD
IMAGE: SHOWN ON THE LEFT, IS AN IMMUNOFLUORESCENCE IMAGE OF A MONOCYTE WITH ITS OUTER CELL MEMBRANE STAINED IN GREEN AND NUCLEUS STAINED IN BLUE, AND TO WHICH THE TEAM HAS ATTACHED BACKPACKS LOADED WITH ANTI-INFLAMMATORY DRUGS STAINED IN RED. THE ILLUSTRATION ON THE RIGHT SHOWS HOW DRUG-LOADED BACKPACKS CAN BE EASILY ATTACHED TO PRIMARY MONOCYTES ISOLATED FROM PERIPHERAL BLOOD, USING AN ANTIBODY FRAGMENT BINDING A SPECIFIC SURFACE PROTEIN.view more
CREDIT: WYSS INSTITUTE AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY
A backpack full of multiple sclerosis therapy
A cell therapy using myeloid cells bound to drug delivery microparticles reduces disease burden in a preclinical multiple sclerosis model.
By Benjamin Boettner
(BOSTON) — Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a devastating autoimmune disease that destroys the protective myelin covering around nerves, disrupting communication between the brain and body, and causing patients’ ability to move and function to progressively decline. The MS atlas reported in 2020 that someone is diagnosed with MS every five minutes around the world, adding to about 2.8 million individuals that currently have to live with the disease. Alarmingly, since 2013, the world-wide prevalence of MS has risen by 30%.
A key driver of MS is the sudden inflammation of nerves caused by so-called myeloid cells of the “innate” immune system in vulnerable regions of the brain and spinal cord, which together form the central nervous system (CNS). These “acute inflammatory lesions” then attract other myeloid cells, as well as self-reactive T and B cells that belong to the immune system’s second arm, known as the “adaptive immune system” and directly attack the myelin covering. While no cure is available for MS, existing disease-modifying therapies in the form of small molecule and protein drugs either directly target the self-reactive immune cells or broadly dampen inflammation. However, many of those therapies cause severe side effects in different parts of the body, including the immune system itself, and thus carry significant health risks.
To transform potentially inflammatory myeloid cells into therapeutic cells, they isolated and cultured monocytes (a type of myeloid cell) from the bone marrow of donor mice and stably attached tiny microparticles, termed “backpacks,” to the cells’ surfaces. These backpacks are loaded with anti-inflammatory molecules that direct the carrier cells’ differentiation into anti-inflammatory cells in vivo. When infused back into a mouse model of MS, the backpack-laden monocytes were able to affect MS-specific immune responses, and partially reverse hind limb paralysis and improve motor functions. The results are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
“Current MS therapies do not specifically target myeloid cells. These are very plastic cells that can toggle between different states and are thus hard to control. Our biomaterial-based backpack approach is a highly effective way to keep them locked into their anti-inflammatory state,” said senior author Samir Mitragotri, Ph.D., who is a Core Faculty member at the Wyss Institute. “In many ways simpler than other cell therapies, myeloid cells can be easily obtained from patients’ peripheral blood, modified with backpacks in a short culture step, and reinfused back into the original donor, where they find their way to inflammatory lesions and affect the MS-specific immune response not only locally, but more broadly.” Mitragotri is also the Hiller Professor of Bioengineering and Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering at SEAS.
Many cell therapies, such as the famed CAR-T cell therapies, require the mobilization of immune cells from specific tissue compartments in the body with drugs, genetic modification, and then amplification over weeks outside of the body. Myeloid cells can be directly retrieved using established methods and modified with backpacks within hours, making the therapy more easily translatable. In addition, some myeloid cell types possess the ability to traverse the blood-brain barrier, which makes them particularly suitable for treating CNS diseases.
New spin for cellular backpacks
Mitragotri’s group had previously found that when they attached small disc-shaped backpacks to cells of the myeloid lineage, they remained stably exposed on the cells’ surface, whereas many other cells would readily internalize and inactivate them. Adding certain molecules to the backpacks allowed the team sustained control over the cells’ behavior. They made use of this finding in a tumor-fighting cell therapy consisting of backpack-laden macrophages, which is a specific type of myeloid cell. In their new study, they focused on monocytes, which also belong to the myeloid differentiation lineage and are a precursor to macrophages. Monocytes can effectively infiltrate the brain and then differentiate into macrophages, which are one of the predominant inflammatory cell types in active MS lesions.
“Because of their ability to invade the CNS, infiltrate inflammatory lesions, and differentiate into macrophages, a backpack strategy allowing control over monocyte differentiation made extreme sense,” said first author Neha Kapate, a graduate student working with Mitragotri. “We decided on backpacks that contained interleukin-4 [IL-4] and dexamethasone, two molecules that we later found to provide a synergistic anti-inflammatory effect.”
The team fabricated their micrometer-size backpacks via a process known as serial “spin coating,” in which thin films made up of a PLGA polymer and other biocompatible substances, and containing the anti-inflammatory molecules are layered on top of each other like layers of an onion. As a final step, the outer surface of the backpack was furnished with an antibody fragment to allow it to stick to monocytes.
Cellular backpacks get legs
To test the backpack-laden monocytes for their therapeutic efficacy, the researchers isolated monocytes from healthy donor mice and, in a short cell culture step, attached the backpacks to them. They then infused the modified cells into a mouse model of MS, known among researchers as experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) model. “When we infused backpack-carrying monocytes and, in parallel, unaltered control monocytes into EAE mice with ongoing nerve inflammation, backpack-carrying monocytes more effectively infiltrated into inflamed CNS lesions. They also reduced inflammation inside the lesions and shifted the local and systemic MS-associated immune response towards a therapeutic outcome,” said Kapate. “The resulting anti-inflammatory monocytes also elicited cross-talk effects with other immune cell populations, such as specific T helper cells that are linked to the self-directed adaptive auto-immune response.”
The disease symptoms in EAE mice treated with backpack-laden monocytes were significantly improved and, by the end of the study, the animals merely exhibited a limp tail, compared to complete a paralysis in the control animals’ hind limbs. The treatment also extended the animals’ survival – all mice receiving backpack-carrying monocytes survived to the end of the study, whereas a significant number of the control mice had died. Importantly, the magnitude of therapeutic benefit the team observed is on par with reported therapeutic treatments that had been tested in other studies using the same model. Since the EAE model mainly mimics the progressive form of MS and not the more prevalent “relapsing-remitting” form, with which the disease begins in about 85% of MS patients, and which at later stages can also become progressive, the team plans to also investigate their approach in models of relapsing-remitting MS. Being able to suppress inflammation early on could have enormous benefits for patients.
“The ability of this team to convert a potentially pathogenic type of immune cell into a therapeutic one for MS, which is extremely hard or impossible to treat, could open an entirely new path to treat patients with a variety of neurological diseases,” said Wyss Founding Director Donald Ingber, M.D., Ph.D., who is also the Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital, and the Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Bioinspired Engineering at SEAS.
Other authors on the study are Michael Dunne, Ninad Kumbhojkar, Supriya Prakash, Lily Li-Wen Wang, Amanda Graveline, Kyung Soo Park, Vineeth Chandran Suja, Juhee Goyal, and John Clegg. The study was supported by the Wyss Institute at Harvard University, SEAS, National Science Foundation (under award# ECCS-2025158 and 1122374).
PRESS CONTACTS
Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University Benjamin Boettner, benjamin.boettner@wyss.harvard.edu, +1 617-432-8232
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The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University (www.wyss.harvard.edu) is a research and development engine for disruptive innovation powered by biologically-inspired engineering with visionary people at its heart. Our mission is to transform healthcare and the environment by developing ground-breaking technologies that emulate the way Nature builds and accelerate their translation into commercial products through formation of startups and corporate partnerships to bring about positive near-term impact in the world. We accomplish this by breaking down the traditional silos of academia and barriers with industry, enabling our world-leading faculty to collaborate creatively across our focus areas of diagnostics, therapeutics, medtech, and sustainability. Our consortium partners encompass the leading academic institutions and hospitals in the Boston area and throughout the world, including Harvard’s Schools of Medicine, Engineering, Arts & Sciences and Design, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston Children’s Hospital, Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Boston University, Tufts University, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, University of Zürich, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (http://seas.harvard.edu) serves as the connector and integrator of Harvard’s teaching and research efforts in engineering, applied sciences, and technology. Through collaboration with researchers from all parts of Harvard, other universities, and corporate and foundational partners, we bring discovery and innovation directly to bear on improving human life and society.
NIH/NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES
IMAGE: THIS ENGORGED TICK, COLLECTED IN ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND IS LIKELY A FEMALE ADULT DEER TICK, OR IXODES SCAPULARIS. DEER TICKS ARE ALSO CALLED BLACKLEGGED TICKS AND CAN TRANSMIT THE PATHOGENS THAT CAUSE TICKBORNE DISEASES SUCH AS BABESIOSIS AND LYME DISEASE.view more
CREDIT: NIAID
WHAT: A majority of parents of children diagnosed with Lyme disease reported that their kids recovered within six months of completing antibiotic treatment, according to a new joint study from Children’s National Research Institute and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, published in Pediatric Research. The findings, based on Lyme disease treatment outcome data from 102 children in the United States, also revealed that a notably small percentage of children took longer than six months to recover and experienced a significant impact on their daily functioning.
Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne disease in the United States, with most cases caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi transmitted through the bites of infected blacklegged or deer ticks. Children between the ages 5 and 9 years account for a large proportion of the approximately 476,000 Lyme disease cases diagnosed and treated annually in the United States. Common symptoms of Lyme disease include: fever; headache; fatigue; and a distinct skin rash called erythema migrans. Without treatment, the infection can spread to joints, the heart and the nervous system. Antibiotic treatment resulting in full recovery is successful in most Lyme cases. For some, however, symptoms of pain, fatigue, or difficulty thinking persist or return after antibiotic treatment. Symptoms that substantially reduce levels of activity and impact quality of life for more than six months after treatment are classified as post-treatment Lyme disease (PTLD) syndrome.
This research studied the long-term outcomes of children with Lyme disease through a cross-sectional evaluation using validated surveys. The study collected survey responses from the parents of 102 children ages 5 to 18 years who had been diagnosed with Lyme disease between six months and 10 years before enrollment. Adolescents ages 10 to 18 years old were also invited to complete adolescent-specific questionnaires. According to these parent survey responses, 75% of children fully recovered within six months of completing treatment: 31% of all children recovered within one month; 30% recovered in one-to-three months; and 14% recovered in four-to-six months. Approximately 22% of children in the study experienced at least one symptom that persisted six or more months after completing treatment; of those, 9% had symptoms classified as PTLD syndrome. Six percent of the children were not fully recovered at the time of the survey, with 1% experiencing symptoms significant enough to impair daily functioning, the authors noted.
According to the authors, this study supports previous data showing an excellent overall prognosis for children with Lyme disease, which should help alleviate understandable parental stress associated with lingering non-specific symptoms among infected children. They note that the findings of this study can help clinicians manage families’ expectations about the varying post-treatment recovery times of pediatric Lyme disease patients. The researchers suggest this new data could help reduce the potential for families seeking dangerous alternative therapies for children who experience prolonged recovery times. PTLD syndrome remains poorly understood in children and adults, and more research is needed to better understand these prolonged symptoms and identify treatment targets, according to the authors.
This study was supported through a partnership between NIAID and the Children’s National Research Institute (CNRI). Researchers at the Center for Translational Research at CNRI and the NIAID Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology conducted the study.
ARTICLE: M Monaghan et al. Pediatric Lyme disease: systematic assessment of post-treatment symptoms and quality of life. Pediatric Research DOI:10.1038/s41390-023-02577-3 (2023).
WHO: Adriana Marques, M.D., Chief, Lyme Disease Studies Unit at NIAID, is available to discuss this research.
NIAID conducts and supports research—at NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwide—to study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID website.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov/.
Urban disasters bring uncertainties to society, urban transportation systems, and businesses. In a new study, researchers examined urban emergencies such as terrorist attacks and subway shutdowns to compare how a traditional taxi system and a ridesharing platform performed afterwards. The study found that the ridesharing platform significantly outperformed the taxi system in coping with emergencies, largely due to the benefits of technology.
The study, by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and Peking University, appears in Information Systems Research.
“Our study offers important insights into the design of platform strategies, especially for stimulating labor supply and providing incentives for urban transportation systems to adopt and use technology in response to urban emergencies,” says Beibei Li, associate professor of IT and management at CMU’s Heinz College, who coauthored to the study.
Emergencies in urban settings can result in significant human and economic loss if they are not handled properly. While research has focused on developing and evaluating technology for emergency management, the field lacks solid evidence about how technology-initiated digital systems perform under such stressors.
Since urban transportation systems are a crucial part of cities’ emergency preparedness, in this study, researchers sought to understand how technology-equipped transportation services (i.e., ridesharing platforms such as Uber) cope with uncertainty and help facilitate emergency relief. Researchers collected taxi and for-hire vehicle records in New York City from January 2015 to December 2017. They considered how the services performed in multiple types of urban disasters, including terrorist attacks, subway shutdowns, and car crashes, measuring platform-level use based on the hourly number of trips.
Ridesharing platforms outperformed taxi companies after urban emergencies. For example, while both taxis and ridesharing services saw a decline in the use of their services after the September 17, 2016 bombing and the October 31, 2017 truck attack in New York City, the ridesharing platforms experienced a smaller decline. Several possibilities explain the better performance of ridesharing platforms, chief among them the effect of technology used in rideshare platforms and the elasticity of supply of rideshare vehicles and drivers.
The study also found that locations with higher densities of people were less affected by urban emergencies than those with lower densities. And the decrease in individuals’ use of taxis at such times was smaller during rush hours and evenings than at midnight and during the daytime. In contrast to this fluctuation in taxi use, daily use of ridesharing platforms was relatively stable.
“Disasters are critical threats to the stability of urban transportation systems,” suggests Yingjie Zhang, assistant professor of marketing at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management, who led the study. “Our work sheds light on how technology supports emergency management, as well as how the public reacts to the adoption of technology during an urban crisis.”
Among the limitations of the study, the authors point out that the data they used allowed them to examine only successfully fulfilled trips. In addition, they were unable to consider confounding factors, such as traffic that had been reallocated after an emergency or the redistribution of drivers away from an attack.
“In light of our findings, service providers and city planners should reevaluate and improve their mobility platform, particularly under emergencies, disasters and hazards,” urges Sean Qian, professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Heinz College at CMU, who coauthored the study. “Also, passengers with an urgent need to get someplace during emergencies may want to consider a ridesharing or ridehailing service first, provided that they have relatively stable supply and technological support.”
DENVER/April 21, 2023 – A new study is testing whether the addition of CBD can improve pain management in dogs following orthopedic surgery. The study, funded by Morris Animal Foundation, will be conducted by a veterinary research team at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada.
CBD use in pets has gained in popularity in the last decade, but there are few controlled studies closely examining its efficacy as a pain management tool. This study hopes to help partially close this knowledge gap.
The research team, led by Dr. Alan Chicoine, Assistant Professor, Department of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences, will study the effect of CBD on pain relief in dogs undergoing tibial plateau leveling osteotomy (TPLO), a procedure used to treat cranial cruciate ligament tears. TPLO surgery is a common procedure in dogs and can be associated with significant discomfort.
The team will assess the effect of adding CBD oil to the standard protocol used to manage postoperative pain in these patients. Dogs will be randomly assigned to either receive a placebo or CBD in addition to the standard pain control regime. Owners and their veterinarians will be blinded to their treatment group. Surveys and physical examinations will be used to assess pain, and the results will be compared between the two groups.
“We need evidence to either support or refute the use of CBD in veterinary patients,” said Chicoine. “This study hopes to objectively answer whether, in this situation, CBD provides some benefit. If it does, we want to get that information out to the veterinary community. Then dog owners, in consultation with their family veterinarian, can decide if CBD is right for them.”
Enrollment is in progress, and the group hopes to complete the study in late 2024.
“Finding ways to better manage pain in companion animals has been a top research focus for the Foundation,” said Dr. Kathy Tietje, Morris Animal Foundation Chief Program Officer. “This project has the potential to provide important guidance to veterinarians and dog owners on a crucial topic in pain management.”
AboutMorrisAnimal Foundation Morris Animal Foundation’s mission is to bridge science and resources to advance the health of animals. Founded in 1948 and headquartered in Denver, it is one of the largest nonprofit animal health research organizations in the world, funding more than $149 million in nearly 3,000 critical studies across a broad range of species. Learn more at morrisanimalfoundation.org.
Insignum AgTech and Beck’s collaborate to help corn ‘talk’
Plant genetic innovation indicates if crops have been exposed to disease, insect pests or fertility loss
IMAGE: INSIGNUM AGTECH DEVELOPS PLANT GENETIC TRAITS THAT GIVE FARMERS AN EARLY INDICATION OF YIELD-LIMITING FACTORS LIKE DISEASE, INSECT PESTS OR FERTILITY LOSS. INSIGNUM AGTECH AND BECK’S HAVE SIGNED AN AGREEMENT TO TEST INSIGNUM’S INNOVATIVE CORN TRAITS IN BECK’S ELITE VARIETIES.view more
CREDIT: INSIGNUM AGTECH PHOTO
ATLANTA, Ind. – Insignum AgTech® and Beck’s have signed an agreement to test Insignum’s innovative corn traits in Beck’s elite varieties. The companies will collaborate to cross the trait into proprietary Beck’s genetics for field-testing in 2023 to evaluate commercial viability of the traits.
Insignum AgTech develops plant genetic traits that enable plants to “talk” and signal to farmers when specific plant stresses begin.
“With this trait, a corn plant generates purple pigment, indicating that a fungal infection has started but is not yet apparent. Additional traits will utilize other natural pigments, such as red or blue, that give an early indication of yield-limiting factors such as insect pests or fertility loss,” said Insignum Ag Tech CEO Kyle Mohler, a Purdue University alumnus. “Farmers will gain the ability to sustainably and precisely treat when and where needed, ultimately increasing yields without arbitrarily increasing costly inputs.”
As Insignum AgTech transitions from research to a commercial development phase, Mohler is pleased to collaborate with Beck’s, the largest family-owned retail seed company and the third-largest seed brand in the U.S.
“Beck’s values technology that helps farmers succeed,” said Tom Koch, research manager at Beck’s. “Insignum’s genetic traits are well aligned with that mission. Farmers can see what their plants need and then respond to improve crop health and yields. We were encouraged by Insignum’s results we saw in field trials last year, and we’re hopeful about this collaboration.”
Initial results of the trials will be available to select stakeholders at Insignum’s Field Demonstration Days in central Indiana in the fall.
In January 2022, Insignum AgTech received a $100,000 investment from the Purdue Ag-Celerator, an agriculture innovation fund. Ag-Celerator provides critical startup support for Purdue innovators who bring Purdue-patented intellectual property or Purdue “know-how” technologies to market. It is operated by the Purdue Foundry, with assistance from the Purdue College of Agriculture, the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization and the agricultural industry.
Mohler earned his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Purdue in 2007. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the university from 2015-18 before he founded Insignum AgTech in 2019.
About Insignum AgTech
Insignum AgTech creates biotechnology that enables plants to use their pigments to warn growers about plant stresses, such as disease, insect pests or low fertility. For more information, see insignum.ag.
About Beck’s
Beck's - Farmers At Heart® - revolutionized the customer seed buying experience by remaining true to a foundation built on faith, family, and farming. Founded in 1937, Beck's appreciates the farmers who have helped them become the largest family-owned retail seed company and the third-largest seed brand in the United States. The Beck family is now in its fifth generation of family members who work in the business to honor God and help farmers succeed. The Beck family and team of employees help farmers achieve success from generation to generation through authentic customer experiences, product diversity, seed quality, and performance. With a home office located in Atlanta, Ind., Beck's serves farmers throughout the Midwest and Mid-South. For more information about Beck's, visit http://www.beckshybrids.com/. Follow Beck’s on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.
About Purdue Startup Foundry
Purdue Startup Foundry helps startups prepare for venture investment. The team works with early-stage startups looking for their first money in and prepares them to raise their first seed round. This is done by offering early-stage funding, entrepreneur-in-residence support, enhanced pitch coaching, graphic design services and an emphasis on increasing traction. The Startup Foundry supports two pitch competitions: the Black & Gold Awards, which invest $30,000 (Black Award) and $100,000 (Gold Award) in Purdue-affiliated startups. Ag-Celerator invests up to $100,000 into Purdue-affiliated startups with connections to the agriculture industry. Investments are awarded each semester. Purdue Startup Foundry also works closely with Purdue Ventures to support its portfolio companies and ensure coaching and advice mirrors what the investor network needs.
Students from 26 peer schools met to track environmental concerns and potential solutions at an annual conference hosted this year at Texas McCombs.
Global business innovation took center stage when nearly 300 MBA students from around the world convened at The University of Texas at Austin in February to talk through the risks and opportunities of climate change.
MBA students from the McCombs School of Business hosted this year’s ClimateCAP, the annual Global MBA Summit on Climate, Capital, and Business, after winning a competitive bid among MBA programs nationwide.
The fifth annual event drew MBA students from 26 schools and sold out in less than two hours, with a waitlist more than 200 students long.
These future leaders are recognizing that sustainability needs to be part of any business strategy, said Alexis Greco, a second-year MBA student and ClimateCAP co-chair.
“Every single MBA will have to be aware of it,” she said. “It’s not just the ideological thing to do. It’s the right business move.”
Event speakers concurred: “This is, hands down, the most exciting time in our industry and the most rapid pace of change,” said Rebecca Kujawa, president and CEO of NextEra Energy Resources, who spoke on stage with Michael Webber, deputy director of UT’s Energy Institute, about massive shifts in the utilities game and her own journey into renewables.
Having passion for the work fuels progress, Kujawa added. “When things don’t go well, perseverance makes a huge difference in whether or not you excel. In our industry there’s lots of turns and twists, and so passion and perseverance are critically important.”
For solving the complex problems of the climate crisis, keynote speaker Ron Gonen advised students to take the long view.
“Progress is a journey. It doesn’t happen overnight,” said Gonen, founder and CEO of Closed Loop Partners, an investment firm focused on the “circular economy” — the movement to redesign products to be more durable, reusable, repairable, and recyclable. “You’ve got to commit and have a sense of urgency while also being patient.”
Other keynote speakers included McCombs alumni Paul Knopp, MBA ’83, CEO of KPMG U.S. Advisory Services; Ray Cameron, BBA ’88, BlackRock Inc.’s managing director and head of corporate client strategy for the Americas; and Jane Ewing, senior vice president for sustainability at Walmart.
Nineteen of the 50 speakers were UT alumni, and nine were Texas McCombs graduates — evidence of the school’s legacy role in the sustainability space, said summit co-chair Patrick McPadden.
“McCombs has always bred innovators, and environmental challenges have given students and alumni another channel for these skills,” he said.
The conference aims to prepare MBA students to build or lead climate-resilient businesses, and for many of the students who attended, it was a first look at the business implications of climate. The effects are sweeping, and they affect every area of a company, from finance to marketing.
Sessions explored agriculture and food systems, powering business and transformation, the circular economy, innovation for the built environment, financing, net-zero goals and ESG reporting, scaling breakthrough technology, and hard-to-decarbonize industries.
“This conference is a way to speak to the people who don’t see themselves as climate evangelists but know this will impact their career,” said co-chair Samantha Hea, who oversaw programming. “Very selfishly from an MBA student perspective, it’s a way to be well-prepared for our own careers.”
Texas McCombs’ Global Sustainability Leadership Institute was a founding partner of the ClimateCAP consortium of schools and has sent students to the conference every year.
After winning the opportunity to host, Texas McCombs students worked with the institute to raise nearly $300,000 — two-thirds of it in cash — and spent many hours inviting nearly 50 speakers, building the program, mapping logistics, and attracting sponsors.
“This student-directed initiative was a natural fit for us, and we were thrilled to help students organize this year’s event,” said Meeta Kothare, managing director for the institute. “The speakers and panelists gave MBA students an in-depth look at sustainability challenges they’ll face when they step into business leadership roles. But the takeaway message was one of hope: that thoughtful, innovative organizations will be part of the solution.”
Attendance at the summit has grown every year since its inception in 2018 at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, even as the urgency of climate change is creating business opportunities never seen before, McPadden said.
He said many people with MBAs see sustainability as a way to marry executive ambitions with purpose. “If people can leave ClimateCAP thinking, ‘I can have a cool career, and it can be mission-driven work that feels really relevant to me,’ I think it’s a huge accomplishment.”
Texas McCombs Dean Lillian Mills, who gave opening remarks, applauded the impact of this student-run event. “This worthwhile effort is further proof of our students’ trail-blazing spirit, and it was exciting to see MBAs across the globe imagine a future together,” she said. “Their passion makes me proud to know that we have a generation rising to confront the challenges of the 21st century.”
