Engineering seeds to resist drought

A new seed-coating process could facilitate agriculture on marginal arid lands by enabling the seeds to retain any available water

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Research News

As the world continues to warm, many arid regions that already have marginal conditions for agriculture will be increasingly under stress, potentially leading to severe food shortages. Now, researchers at MIT have come up with a promising process for protecting seeds from the stress of water shortage during their crucial germination phase, and even providing the plants with extra nutrition at the same time.

The process, undergoing continued tests in collaboration with researchers in Morocco, is simple and inexpensive, and could be widely deployed in arid regions, the researchers say. The findings are reported this week in the journal Nature Food, in a paper by MIT professor of civil and environmental engineering Benedetto Marelli, MIT doctoral student Augustine Zvinavashe '16, and eight others at MIT and at the King Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Morocco.

The two-layer coating the team developed is a direct outgrowth of years of research by Marelli and his collaborators in developing seed coatings to confer various benefits. A previous version enabled seeds to resist high salinity in the soil, but the new version is aimed at tackling water shortages.

"We wanted to make a coating that is specific to tackling drought," Marelli explains. "Because there is clear evidence that climate change is going to impact the basin of the Mediterranean area," he says, "we need to develop new technologies that can help to mitigate these changes in the climate patterns that are going to make less water available to agriculture."

The new coating, taking inspiration from natural coatings that occur on some seeds such as chia and basil, is engineered to protect the seeds from drying out. It provides a gel-like coating that tenaciously holds onto any moisture that comes along, and envelops the seed with it.

A second, inner layer of the coating contains preserved microorganisms called rhizobacteria, and some nutrients to help them grow. When exposed to soil and water, the microbes will fix nitrogen into the soil, providing the growing seedling with nutritious fertilizer to help it along.

"Our idea was to provide multiple functions to the seed coating," Marelli says, "not only targeting this water jacket, but also targeting the rhizobacteria. This is the real added value to our seed coating, because these are self-replicating microorganisms that can fix nitrogen for the plants, so they can decrease the amount of nitrogen-based fertilizers that are provided, and enrich the soil."

Early tests using soil from Moroccan test farms have shown encouraging results, the researchers say, and now field tests of the seeds are underway.

Ultimately, if the coatings prove their value through further tests, the coatings are simple enough that they could be applied at a local level, even in remote locations in the developing world. "It can be done locally," Zvinavashe says. "That's one of the things we were thinking about while we were designing this. The first layer you could dip coat, and then the second layer, you can spray it on. These are very simple processes that farmers could do on their own." In general, though, Zvinavashe says it would be more economical to do the coatings centrally, in facilities that can more easily preserve and stabilize the nitrogen-fixing bacteria.

The materials needed for the coatings are readily available and often used in the food industry already, Marelli says. The materials are also fully biodegradable, and some of the compounds themselves can actually be derived from food waste, enabling the eventual possibility of closed-loop systems that continuously recycle their own waste.

Although the process would add a small amount to the cost of the seeds themselves, Marelli says, it may also produce savings by reducing the need for water and fertilizer. The net balance of costs and benefits remains to be determined through further research.

Although initial tests using common beans have shown promising results by a variety of measures, including root mass, stem height, chlorophyll content, and other metrics, the team has not yet cultivated a full crop from seeds with the new coating all the way through to harvest, which will be the ultimate test of its value. Assuming that it does improve harvest yields under arid conditions, the next step will be to extend the research to a variety of other important crop seeds, the researchers say.

"The system is so simple that it can be applied to any seed," Marelli says. "And we can design the seed coating to respond to different climate patterns." It might even be possible to tailor coatings to the predicted rainfall of a particular growing season, he says.

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The team included Julie Laurent, Salma Mouhib, Hui Sun, Henri Manu Effa Fouda, Doyoon Kim, Manal Mhada, and Lamfeddal Kouisni at MIT and at King Mohammad VI Polytechnic University in Ben-Guerir, Morocco. The work was partly supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, the National Science Foundation, and the MIT Paul M. Cook Career Development Professorship.

Written by David L. Chandler, MIT News Office

 

First genetic evidence from medieval plague victims suggests Black Death reached Southern Italy

EUROPEAN SOCIETY OF CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES

Research News

Graves containing the remains of two men (aged between 30 and 45 years) are the first evidence of Yersinia pestis infection, the bacteria responsible for plague, in 14th-century Southern Italy, according to new research being presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID).

"The retrieval of plague ancient DNA from the teeth of two adults buried at the Abbey of San Leonardo in Siponto is a discovery of national importance, as it is the first related to the second plague pandemic (Black Death) in Southern Italy", says Dr Donato Raele from the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale of Puglia and Basilicata in Foggia, who led the research.

"We were very suspicious when we unearthed 14th-century coins from the clothing of one victim and more hidden in a bag tied around the waist of the other, which suggests that the bodies were not inspected to confirm cause of death."

In the mid-14th century Europe was devastated by the Black Death, a major plague pandemic that wiped out up to 60% of the population. The plague reached the shores of Sicily in 1347, and ravaged large cities and towns in northern and central Italy. When the first wave of Black death had been concluded in the winter of 1348, more than a third of Italy's population had died. Although cases of Black Death are reported in several historical documents no burial sites have undergone DNA analysis in the South of Italy.

The Abbey of San Leonardo in Siponto (Apulia, Southern Italy) was an important religious and medical centre during the Middle Ages where traders and travellers stopped to rest and recuperate. It was a crossroads for pilgrims heading along the Via Francigena to the Sanctuary of Monte Sant'Angelo, and for merchants passing through the harbour of Manfredonia.

The two single graves were discovered during an excavation of a section of the Abbey's cemetery that was used for burial at the end of the 13th beginning of the 14th century.

The first victim was a male (30-35 years old). He wore a belt with a rectangular iron buckle with a shaft, found flattened on his right femur. Most likely tied to this belt was a small bag which contained 12 denarii (Roman silver coins) found still stacked under his leg.

The second victim was an adult male (45 years old). He was buried fully clothed and had some personal items on him including iron and bronze rings, one with pitting, and the end of a lace; and numerous grains of dark vitreous material in his left hand that could be a rosary.

The man guarded 99 alloy Deniers tournois coins from Frankish Greece (last decades of the 13th century - the first quarter of the 14th century) and one silver Gigliato issued in name of Robert of Anjou (1309-1343), found in piles, probably inside bags hidden in various parts of his clothes.

Given that the dating of the burial and coins fits the arrival of the Second Pandemic in Europe, the experts suspected that the adults might have died during the Black Death or from other infectious diseases that were prevalent at the time, such as malaria, tuberculosis, or epidemic typhus and Malta fever (brucellosis).

To provide more evidence, three teeth from each individual were sent to the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Puglia e della Basilicata for DNA analysis, along with two additional unrelated human teeth (negative controls).

Four teeth of the adults in the graves tested positive for Y. pestis, and were highly similar to previously investigated plague victims from other parts of Italy and had identical strains of Y. pestis.

"The Abbey of San Leonardo was a key point along a system of pathways that formed part of The Via Francigena, a major medieval pilgrimage route to Rome from the north, and was an ideal site from which plague could be spread", says Raele.

"We haven't yet fully figured out the extent of pandemic waves during the Black Death in the south of Italy. In fact, the DNA of Y. pestis is about 300 years older than the previous one linked to a mass grave dating back to the late 1600s and reported by our researchers in Foggia. Consequently, our results contains precious details to better understand the magnitude of plague throughout Italy."

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Antibiotic resistance -- How many more final warnings before it's too late?

EUROPEAN SOCIETY OF CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES

Research News

A special WHO-sanctioned session at this year's European Congress on Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) will ask how many more warnings the world needs before it is too late to address the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), increasing in all areas of medicine.

A panel that includes the former Chief Medical Officer for England, Professor Dame Sally Davies (now the UK Special Envoy on AMR) will look at the scant progress made in recent years despite the multiple calls to action and warnings of an antibiotic apocalypse threatening all of the modern medicine we depend on for daily life.

"Time and again, the alarm bells have sounded for the broken antibiotic market. Compared to $8billion of profit for cancer drugs, the $100million loss for antimicrobials means that our medicine cabinets are becoming emptier - because of bankruptcies, not lack of scientific brainpower," explains Dame Sally. "As it stands, the weak market and lack of access leaves patients paying. And future generations will suffer even more."

This trend is, she says, not sustainable, especially when COVID-19 shows how much patients globally depend on scientific innovation. "I have been saying that 'there is no time to wait', but for many it is already too late - they have died. Unless we act now, the alarm bells will soon turn into the death knell for modern medicine," says Dame Sally.

With more innovation, experts believe AMR is containable. Last month, the G7 nations committed to strengthen research and development for new antibiotics. In the US, The PASTEUR Act (which is pending a vote by the US Government House of Representatives and Congress) represents a game-changing mechanism to 'pull' through new antibiotics so that they reach the patients who need them most.

The hope that the PASTEUR Act offers is plain to see - under this legislation, the US Federal Government would provide market incentives to develop lifesaving antimicrobial drugs. Pharmaceutical companies/developers would be paid contractually agreed amounts annually, for an agreed period between five years up to the antimicrobial's patent life. These contracts would promote the development of new antimicrobials.

Specifically, such contracts would promote the development of antimicrobials against the 'superbugs' considered the most threatening by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) including Candida auris, a fungus, and bacteria such as Clostridioides difficile and carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter. The PASTEUR-based contracts would also act as an incentive to develop new classes of antimicrobials with completely new mechanisms of action to turn the tide against these drug-resistant infections.

The UK, meanwhile, has launched a world-first 'Netflix-style' payment model, that will pay pharmaceutical companies a fixed amount by subscription for access to their innovative antibiotic products, rather than fees based on how much product is used. In December 2020 the UK Government selected two antimicrobials - Shionogi's Fetcroja (Cefiderocol) and Pfizer's Zavicefta (ceftazidime with avibactam) (Zavicefta), to be purchased via the Netflix-style subscription payment model. The European Union's Pharmaceutical Strategy published in 2020 also commits to implementing a new 'pull' model to further boost the ailing new antimicrobial pipeline.

Dame Sally concludes: "It is our collective responsibility to ensure that our research and policy-making reflects this. From early-stage research, to clinical trials, to patient access, inclusivity must define our innovation. Globally, we need to we move forward together, working in partnership across sectors and countries."

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Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the ac

 

Partnering with Black faith leaders and pharmacists increases COVID-19 vaccine uptake among Black communities, California study suggests

EUROPEAN SOCIETY OF CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES

Research News

New research being presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) held online this year, suggests that partnering with Black churches and medical professionals in delivering COVID-19 education and vaccination could be an effective way of increasing vaccine uptake in Black communities.

The researchers hope this more proactive, community-based approach can help others implement effective COVID-19 initiatives and other pressing health concerns among vulnerable populations.

"Black churches have long been more than places of worship to their communities," says Dr Jacinda Abdul-Mutakabbir from Loma Linda University School of Pharmacy, California, USA, who led the research. "They serve as strongholds for disseminating trusted information and have been integral in our initiative to help achieve racial equity in the COVID-19 vaccine rollout."

Black communities have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, with Black Americans dying of COVID-19 at a rate three times than White Americans.

While it was hoped that the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines could help reduce existing disparities, various barriers to vaccination that disproportionately affect Black communities, such as limited access to computers and the internet, and a lack of transportation, have left them at a disadvantage. Consequently, less than 15% of Black Americans have received the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

To address this, Loma Linda University (LLU) School of Pharmacy researchers began collaborating with Black churches and health agencies to promote vaccination and improve access to the Black community of San Bernardino County in California. In 2020, the University was the county's largest vaccination centre, and like other vaccination sites across the country, is located in the suburbs, with an online appointment system, and vaccines available free of charge.

Although almost 8% of San Bernardino County residents are Black, vaccination rates were especially low among Black individuals at the start of 2020. Between January 5 and February 5, 2020, LLU clinics vaccinated 14,157 residents with their first COVID-19 vaccine dose--of whom just 451 (3.2%) were Black.

In the study, researchers developed a three-tier approach to set up mobile vaccination clinics. First they engaged with a group of 20 churches, sharing COVID-19 information and building Black Faith leaders support for the vaccine. Then, they involved a Black pharmacist to deliver COVID-19 education webinars that were advertised and coordinated by pastors, who also managed appointment lists for vaccination clinics to ensure internet access was not a barrier. Finally, they used a place of worship as a vaccination site to bring the vaccine closer to the people.

The mobile vaccination clinic, held on church grounds in February 6, 2021, vaccinated 420 individuals, 351 (84%) of whom were Black. Importantly, the study also found an increase in Black attendance at LLU mass vaccinations sites in the week following the mobile clinic initiative--of 9,373 first-dose vaccines delivered to residents, 399 (4.3%) were received by Black individuals. The authors say that this might be potentially attributed to the information provided about the mass clinics, during the mobile vaccination effort.

"In religious communities of colour, where access to vaccination centres is limited and vaccine hesitancy is often rooted in mistrust of heath care systems, seeing faith leaders put their trust in COVID-19 vaccines is a key motivator for them to do the same", says Abdul-Mutakabbir. "We have vaccinated 1,542 Black individuals in San Bernardino County to date and have expanded our efforts to provide comprehensive information to Latino/LatinX communities, who have also been underrepresented in traditional vaccination efforts. We hope to have our results available within the coming months."

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Depression, suicidal thoughts plague ailing coal miners, study finds

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA HEALTH SYSTEM

Research News

 

IMAGE:  "THIS STUDY HIGHLIGHTS THE UNRECOGNIZED CRISIS OF MENTAL ILLNESS IN MINERS THAT WARRANTS URGENT ATTENTION, RESOURCES AND EXPANDED CARE, " SAID RESEARCHER DREW HARRIS, MD, A PULMONARY MEDICINE EXPERT AT UVA... view more 

CREDIT: UVA HEALTH

More than a third of coal miners and former coal miners suffering from black lung disease struggle with depression, and more than one in 10 has recently considered suicide, a new study finds.

The study is believed to be the first to examine mental-health issues in a large population of coal miners in the United States. Based on the troubling results, the researchers are calling for more mental health resources and treatment for current and former miners. They also are urging further study of potential contributors to the problem, including social determinants of health, substance use and workplace safety.

"Although coal mining is on the decline, the rates of black lung in Southwest Virginia continue to increase. Coal miners in Central Appalachia face disparities in health related to a range of complex social, economic, occupational and behavioral factors," said researcher Drew Harris, MD, a pulmonary medicine expert at UVA Health. "This study highlights the unrecognized crisis of mental illness in miners that warrants urgent attention, resources and expanded care."

Miners' Mental Health

Harris serves as the medical director of the Black Lung Clinic at Southwest Virginia's Stone Mountain Health Services, the only federally funded black lung clinic in Virginia. Black lung is a progressive lung illness caused by inhaling toxic coal and rock dust within coal mines. The dust literally blackens the insides of the lungs and leaves patients struggling to breathe. This devastating disease has few treatment options and is increasingly being diagnosed in Central Appalachian coal miners: Out of more than 1,400 coal miners X-rayed in the last year at Stone Mountain, more than 15% had progressive massive fibrosis, the most severe form of black lung.

To gauge the mental wellbeing of black-lung patients, Harris and his colleagues reviewed data collected at the clinic since 2018 assessing patients for anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

More than 2,800 miners voluntarily completed a mental-health survey. The average age was 66; 99.6% were white; and 99.7% were male.

Of the participants:

• 883 patients, or 37.4%, reported symptoms consistent with major depressive disorder.
• 1,005 patients, or 38.9% had clinically significant anxiety.
• 639 patients, or 26.2%, had symptoms of PTSD.
• 295 patients, or 11.4%, had considered suicide in the last year. (For comparison, this figure is only 2.9% among Virginia men overall.)

"These rates of mental illness far exceeded those documented in coal mining populations internationally," the researchers write in a new scientific paper outlining their findings.

Rates skewed highest among sicker patients who required supplemental oxygen to help them breathe. Among that group, 47.7% reported anxiety; 48.5% reported depression; and 15.9% reported considering suicide.

The researchers note that depression and other mental-health issues not only affect patients' quality of life but can reduce the likelihood they will stick with their medications.

"The rates of mental illness identified in this large population of U.S. coal miners is shocking," Harris said. "Improved screening and treatment of mental illness in this population is an urgent, unmet need that warrants urgent action."

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Findings Published

The researchers have published their findings in JAMA Network Open. The research team consisted of Harris, Timothy McMurry, Amanda Caughron, Jody Willis, Justin C. Blackburn, Chad Brizendine and Margaret Tomann, McMurry disclosed that he serves as a statistical consultant for the National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety.

To keep up with the latest medical research news from UVA, subscribe to the Making of Medicine blog at http://makingofmedicine.virginia.edu.

 

Of the same stripe: Turing patterns link tropical fish and bismuth crystal growth

Scientists prove Turing patterns, usually studied in living organisms and chemical systems, also manifest at the nanoscale in monoatomic bismuth layers

CACTUS COMMUNICATIONS

Research News

IMAGE: THE STRIPED PATTERN FOUND IN A MONOATOMIC LAYER OF BISMUTH IS THE SAME AS THAT FOUND IN THE PIGMENTATION OF CERTAIN TROPICAL FISH. BOTH ARE EXAMPLES OF A TURING PATTERN,... view more 

CREDIT: YUKI FUSEYA FROM UNIVERSITY OF ELECTRO-COMMUNICATIONS

One of the things the human brain naturally excels at is recognizing all sorts of patterns, such as stripes on zebras, shells of turtles, and even the structure of crystals. Thanks to our progress in math and the natural sciences, we are not limited to just seeing the patterns; we can also understand how they readily originate out of pure randomness.

A notable example of different natural patterns with a single mathematical explanation are Turing patterns. Conceived in 1952 by the renowned mathematician Alan Turing, these patterns arise as the solutions to a set of differential equations that describe the diffusion and reaction of chemicals satisfying a few conditions. Going well beyond pure chemistry, Turing demonstrated that such equations explain, to a remarkably precise degree, how spots, stripes, and other types of macroscopic patterns appear spontaneously in nature. Turing patterns also play a role in morphogenesis--the process by which living organisms develop their shape. Surprisingly, the underlying mechanisms behind Turing patterns are preserved across vastly different scales, from centimeters in animal pigmentation to micrometers in purely chemical systems. Does this mean that Turing patterns could be found at the nanometer scale, in the positions of individual atoms?

Associate Professor Yuki Fuseya from the University of Electro-Communications, Japan, has recently found that the answer is a resounding yes! A specialist on bismuth (Bi) and its applications in condensed-matter physics, Dr. Fuseya never imagined working with Turing patterns, which are mostly studied in mathematical biology. However, on noticing some mysterious periodic stripes he had seen in Bi monoatomic layers, Dr. Fuseya got the wild idea they might actually be Turing patterns. And after three years of trial and error, he finally found success!

In a study published in Nature Physics, Dr. Fuseya led a research team (which included Hiroyasu Katsuno from Hokkaido University, Japan, Kamran Behnia from PSL Research University, France, and Aharon Kapitulnik, Stanford University, USA) that found concrete evidence that Turing patterns can appear at much smaller scales than previously thought.

The finding of the mysterious Bi stripes was serendipitous; the researchers originally intended to produce a Bi monolayer on a niobium diselenide substrate for studying two-dimensional physical phenomena. What they saw was a pattern of stripes with a period of five atoms, or about 1.7 nm, with Y-shaped junctions. These stripes bore a striking resemblance to those found in some species of tropical fish, which naturally arise as one of Turing patterns. Inspired by this observation, Dr. Fuseya's team studied the Bi monolayer problem in more detail from a theoretical standpoint.

The team developed a mathematical model explaining the underlying physical forces in a way that is consistent with the dynamic diffusion-reaction equations that produce Turing patterns. In this model, the interactions between Bi-Bi pairs, Bi and selenium (Se) pairs, and bond angles in Bi-Bi-Bi triplets were considered. The researchers carried out numerical simulations and verified that the generated patterns accurately resembled the previous experimental findings.

These unprecedented findings pave the way towards a new research direction in nanoscale physics that can consider, and even exploit, Turing patterns. "Based on our findings, we may remove undesirable patterns and make perfectly flat thin films, which are crucial for nanoelectronics. On the other hand, we could use Turing patterns as building blocks for new devices to study unexplored areas of physics," highlights Dr. Fuseya. Another attractive aspect of Turing patterns is that they are not static, despite their appearance. Instead, they are in a state of dynamic equilibrium, which means they can "repair" themselves if they are damaged. "We found that Bi, an inorganic solid, is capable of wound healing just like living creatures. This property could lead to new techniques for producing nanoscale devices by combining diffusion and reaction phenomena," remarks Dr. Fuseya.

It is fascinating to think that order can emerge from randomness in the exact same way at scales that are multiple orders of magnitude apart. This study makes it evident how connections are formed in nature at every scale, from the pigmentation of tropical fish to nanoscale crystal growth!

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Reference

Authors: Yuki Fuseya (1), Hiroyasu Katsuno (2), Kamran Behnia (3), and Aharon Kapitulnik (4,5)

Title of original paper: Nanoscale Turing patterns in a bismuth monolayer

Journal: Nature Physics

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-021-01288-y

Affiliations:

(1) Department of Engineering Science, University of Electro-Communications

(2) Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University

(3) Laboratoire Physique et Etude de Matériaux, ESPCI Paris, PSL Research University

(4) Department of Applied Physics, Stanford University

(5) Department of Physics, Stanford University

About Associate Professor Yuki Fuseya

Yuki Fuseya obtained a PhD in science from Osaka University, Japan, in 2004, before joining the University of Electro-Communications as an Associate Professor. He specializes in condensed matter physics, especially the physics of Dirac electrons in solids, spin-orbit interactions, the spin-Hall effect, diamagnetism, and bismuth. Dr. Fuseya has published over 60 peer-reviewed paper and received multiple awards throughout his career, including the Young Scientist's Prize given by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Technology in Japan.

 

Biomaterial vaccines ward off broad range of bacterial infections and septic shock

A new vaccine technology combining capture of bacterial pathogens with effective immune-reprogramming biomaterials could be applied to a broad spectrum of infectious diseases

WYSS INSTITUTE FOR BIOLOGICALLY INSPIRED ENGINEERING AT HARVARD

Research News

IMAGE: THIS ILLUSTRATION SHOWS HOW A CIVAX INFECTION VACCINE AGAINST A PATHOGENIC E. COLI STRAIN IS PRODUCED AND APPLIED. FIRST, CARBOHYDRATE-CONTAINING SURFACE MOLECULES (PAMPS) OF KILLED BACTERIA ARE CAPTURED WITH MAGNETIC... view more 

CREDIT: WYSS INSTITUTE AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY.

(BOSTON) -- Current clinical interventions for infectious diseases are facing increasing challenges due to the ever-rising number of drug-resistant microbial infections, epidemic outbreaks of pathogenic bacteria, and the continued possibility of new biothreats that might emerge in the future. Effective vaccines could act as a bulwark to prevent many bacterial infections and some of their most severe consequences, including sepsis. According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (DCD), "each year, at least 1.7 million adults in America develop sepsis. Nearly 270,000 Americans die as a result of sepsis [and] 1 in 3 patients who dies in a hospital has sepsis." However, for the most common bacterial pathogens that cause sepsis and many other diseases, still no vaccines are available.

Now, as reported in Nature Biomedical Engineering, a multi-disciplinary team of researchers at Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and John A. Paulson School for Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) developed a biomaterial-based infection vaccine (ciVAX) approach as a solution that could be broadly applied to this pervasive problem. ciVAX vaccines combine two technologies that are currently in clinical development for other applications, and that together enable the capture of immunogenic antigens from a broad spectrum of pathogens and their incorporation into immune cell-recruiting biomaterial scaffolds. Injected or implanted under the skin, ciVAX vaccines then reprogram the immune system to take action against pathogens.

"The protective powers of the vaccines that we have designed and tested so far and the immune responses they stimulated are extremely encouraging, and open up a wide range of potential vaccine applications ranging from sepsis prophylaxis to rapid measures against future pandemic threats and biothreats, as well as new solutions to some of the challenges in veterinary medicine," said corresponding author David Mooney, Ph.D, who is a Founding Core Faculty member at the Wyss Institute and leads the Institute's Immuno-Materials Platform. He also the Robert P. Pinkas Family Professor of Bioengineering at SEAS.

In their study, the researchers successfully tested ciVAX technology as a protective measure against the most common causes of sepsis, including Gram-positive S. aureus and Gram-negative E. coli strains. Highlighting the technology's potential, they found that a prophylactic ciVAX vaccine, protected all vaccinated mice against a lethal attack with an antibiotic-resistant E. coli strain, while only 9% of unvaccinated control animals survived. In a pig model of septic shock induced by a different human E. coli isolate, a ciVAX vaccine prevented the development of sepsis in all four animals, while four unvaccinated animals developed severe and sudden sepsis within 12 hours. Finally, using an approach that mimicked a ring vaccination protocol in human or animal populations, a CiVax vaccine, when loaded with pathogen-derived material isolated from animals infected with one lethal E.coli strain, was able to cross-protect animals against a different lethal E. coli strain.

"Our method captures the majority of glycoprotein (and glycolipid) antigens from the pathogens, and presents these in their native form to the immune system, giving us access to a much larger spectrum of potential antigens than vaccines consisting of single or mixtures of recombinant antigens," said co-first author and Wyss Lead Senior Staff Scientist Michael Super, Ph.D. "ciVAX vaccines against known pathogens can be fabricated and stored, but additionally, all components except the bacterial antigens can be pre-assembled from shelf-stable cGMP products. The complete vaccines can then be assembled in less than an hour once the antigens are available, which gives this technology unique advantages over other vaccine approaches when rapid responses are called for." Super conceived the ciVAX concept with co-first author Edward Doherty, who as a former Lead Senior Staff Scientist worked with Mooney on the Wyss' Immuno-Material platform on biomaterials-based vaccines for cancer applications.

Super and Wyss Founding Director Donald Ingber, M.D., Ph.D., who also authored the study, previously developed the pathogen capture technology used in ciVAX, which is based on a native human pathogen-binding opsonin - Mannose Binding Lectin (MBL) - that they fused to the Fc portion of an Immunoglobulin to generate FcMBL. Recombinant FcMBL binds to more than 120 different pathogen species and toxins, including bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites. In earlier efforts, the team applied FcMBL to multiple diagnostic problems, and the technology is currently being tested in a clinical trial by the Wyss startup BOA Biomedical as part of a new sepsis treatment.

The second technology component of ciVAX component, the biomaterials-based vaccine technology, was developed as a conceptually new type of cancer immunotherapy by Mooney and his group at the Wyss Institute and SEAS, together with clinical collaborators at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Validated in a clinical trial in human cancer patients, a specifically designed cancer vaccine stimulated significant anti-tumor immune responses. Novartis is currently working to commercialize the vaccine technology for certain cancer applications, and a related biomaterials-based vaccine approach is being pursued by the Wyss startup Attivare Therapeutics, with Doherty and former Wyss researchers Benjamin Seiler and Fernanda Langellotto, Ph.D., who also co-authored this study, as founding members.

To assemble ciVAX vaccines, the team used FcMBL on magnetic beads to capture inactivated bacterial carbohydrate-containing molecules, known as Pathogen Associated Molecular Patterns (PAMPs), from the pathogen of choice, and then simply mixed the complexes with particles of mesoporous silica (MPS) and immune cell-recruiting and activating factors. Under the skin, MPS forms a permeable, biodegradable scaffold that recruits dendritic cells (DCs) of the immune system, reprograms them to present fragments of the captured PAMPs, and releases them again. The DCs then migrate to nearby draining lymph nodes where they orchestrate a broad immune response against the bacterial pathogen. The team found that ciVAX vaccines rapidly enhanced the accumulation and activation of DCs at injection sites and the numbers of DCs, antibody-producing B cells, and different T cell types in draining lymph nodes, and thereby engineered effective pathogen-directed immune responses.

"Beyond the potential of reducing the risk for sepsis in and out of hospitals, our ciVAX vaccine technology has the potential to save the lives of many individuals threatened by a multitude of pathogens, in addition to potentially preventing the spread of infections in animal populations or livestock before they reach humans. It is a terrific example how Wyss researchers from different disciplines and experiences self-assemble around medical problems that urgently need to be solved to create powerful new approaches," said Ingber who is also the Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology at HMS and Boston Children's Hospital, and Professor of Bioengineering at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

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Additional authors on the study were Mark Cartwright, Ph.D., Nikolaos Dimitrakakis, Des White, Alexander Stafford, Mohan Karkada, Amanda Graveline, D.V.M., Caitlin Horgan, Kayla Lightbown, Frank Urena, Chyenne Yeager, Sami Rifai, Maxence Dellacherie, Aileen Li, Ph.D., Collin Leese-Thompson, Hamza Ijaz, Amanda Jiang, Vasanth Chandrasekhar, Justin Scott, and Shanda Lightbown. The study was funded by the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) under grant# W911NF-16-C-0050, and the National Institutes of Health under grant# 1 RO1 CA223255.

The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University uses Nature's design principles to develop bioinspired materials and devices that will transform medicine and create a more sustainable world. Wyss researchers are developing innovative new engineering solutions for healthcare, energy, architecture, robotics, and manufacturing that are translated into commercial products and therapies through collaborations with clinical investigators, corporate alliances, and formation of new startups. The Wyss Institute creates transformative technological breakthroughs by engaging in high risk research, and crosses disciplinary and institutional barriers, working as an alliance that includes Harvard's Schools of Medicine, Engineering, Arts & Sciences and Design, and in partnership with 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 Zurich and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences 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.

 

Ancient ostrich eggshell reveals new evidence of extreme climate change thousands of years ago

UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

Research News

IMAGE: MANDIBLE OF SMALL ANTELOPE IN CALCRETE view more 

CREDIT: PHILIP KIBERD

Evidence from an ancient eggshell has revealed important new information about the extreme climate change faced by human early ancestors.

The research shows parts of the interior of South Africa that today are dry and sparsely populated, were once wetland and grassland 250,000 to 350,000 years ago, at a key time in human evolution.

Philip Kiberd and Dr Alex Pryor, from the University of Exeter, studied isotopes and the amino acid from ostrich eggshell fragments excavated at the early middle Stone Age site of Bundu Farm, in the upper Karoo region of the Northern Cape. It is one of very few archaeological sites dated to 250,000 to 350,000 in southern Africa, a time period associated with the earliest appearance of communities with the genetic signatures of Homo sapiens.

This new research supports other evidence, from fossil animal bones, that past communities in the region lived among grazing herds of wildebeest, zebra, small antelope, hippos, baboons and extinct species of Megalotragus priscus and Equus capensis, and hunted these alongside other carnivores, hyena and lions.

After this period of equitable climate and environment the eggshell evidence - and previous finds from the site - suggests after 200,000 years ago cooler and wetter climates gave way to increasing aridity. A process of changing wet and dry climates recognised as driving the turnover and evolution of species, including Homo sapiens.

The study, published in the South African Archaeological Bulletin, shows that extracting isotopic data from ostrich eggshells, which are commonly found on archaeological sites in southern Africa, is a viable option for open-air sites greater than 200,000 years old. The technique which involves grinding a small part of the eggshell, to a powder allows experts to analyse and date the shell, which in turn gives a fix on the climate and environment in the past.

Using eggshell to investigate past climates is possible as ostriches eat the freshest leaves of shrubs and grasses available in their environment, meaning eggshell composition reflects their diet. As eggs are laid in the breeding season across a short window, the information found in ostrich eggshell provides a picture of the prevailing environment and climate for a precise period in time.

Bundu Farm, where the eggshell was recovered is a remote farm 50km from the nearest small town, sitting within a dry semi-desert environment, which supports a small flock of sheep. The site was first excavated in the late 1990's the site with material stored at the McGregor Museum, Kimberley (MMK). The study helps fill a gap in our knowledge for this part of South Africa and firmly puts the Bundu Farm site on the map.

Philip Kiberd, who led the study, said: "This part of South Africa is now extremely arid, but thousands of years ago it would have been Eden-like landscape with lakes and rivers and abundant species of flora and fauna. Our analysis of the ostrich eggshell helps us to better understand the environments in which our ancestors were evolving and provides an important context in which to interpret the behaviours and adaptations of people in the past and how this ultimately led to the evolution of our species'.

Images available at https://we.tl/t-3R36RhmMdS

CAPTION

ostrich eggshell in calcrete

CREDIT

Philip Kiberd

CAPTION

partial skull of small antelope

CREDIT

Philip Kiberd

 

Collective battery storage beneficial for decarbonized world

UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO

Research News

Batteries are potentially a game-changing technology as we decarbonize our economy, and their benefits are even greater when shared across communities, a University of Otago-led study has found.

Co-author Associate Professor Michael Jack, Director of the Energy Programme in the Department of Physics, says reducing costs are seeing rapid deployment of batteries for household use, mainly for storing solar and wind power for later use, but they could have a variety of uses in a future electricity grid.

"For example, they could be used to feed energy back into the grid when there is a shortfall in renewable supply. Or they could allow a house to reduce its demand on the grid during times of constraint, thus reducing the need for expensive new lines.

"As we move towards more renewable energy, and increase our use of electric vehicles, these services would be beneficial to a local community and the national grid, not just the individual house with the battery," he says.

The study, published in journal Energy & Buildings, focused on finding the capacity a battery would need to have to keep the peak demand below a certain value for both individual houses and a group of houses.

The researchers considered both load smoothing around the average, and peak shaving, where the battery ensures grid power demand does not exceed a set threshold.

"Our key result is that the size of the battery required for this purpose is much smaller - up to 90 per cent smaller - if the houses are treated collectively rather than individually. For instance, if peak shaving occurred for demand above 3 kW per house, deploying batteries individually for 20 houses would require 120 kWh of storage, whereas deploying them collectively would only require 7 kWh. Sharing batteries or having one battery per 20 houses will be a much cheaper approach to providing these services.

"Another important finding was that as peaks are mainly in winter, the battery would still be largely available for storing energy from solar cells in summer, so this would be an additional service and not competing with the main use of the battery," Associate Professor Jack says.

While electricity markets are not currently set up to harness this potential, the situation is rapidly changing.

"There is currently a trial lead by Aurora Energy and SolarZero to use batteries in the way we have described in our paper to solve issues with constrained lines in upper Clutha. Once proven, this model has the potential to become much more widespread," he says.

In the future, many households may have batteries and be using these, or batteries within their electric vehicles, to provide services to the grid. These batteries and other appliances in homes and businesses will have smart controllers that enable them to reduce demand or feed electricity back into the grid to accommodate the fluctuations of variable renewable supply and minimize the need for grid infrastructure. People responding in this way would be paid for their services to the wider grid.

"This could enable a much lower cost, collective, route to decarbonizing New Zealand's energy system."

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Publication details:

Sizing domestic batteries for load smoothing and peak shaving based on real-world demand data

Jason Mair, Kiti Suomalainen, David M. Eyers and Michael W. Jack

Energy & Buildings

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378778821003935?via%3Dihub

3% OF WHITE POP OWNS 99% OF GUNS

US saw surge in firearm purchases and violence during first months of COVID-19 pandemic

Researchers found an association between an increase in gun purchases and domestic violence, but not other firearm violence

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - DAVIS HEALTH

Research News

IMAGE: STATES WITH THE MOST EXCESS FIREARM PURCHASES PER 100,000 POPULATION ARE IN DARKER PURPLE. view more 

CREDIT: UC REGENTS

Firearm purchases and firearm violence surged dramatically during the first five months of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study from the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program (VPRP), published in Injury Epidemiology.

From March through July 2020, an estimated 4.3 million more background checks for firearm purchases occurred nationwide than would have ordinarily -- an 85 percent increase. The total number of firearm purchases during this period was 9.3 million.

From April through July 2020, there was a 27% increase in interpersonal firearm injuries, which includes firearm homicides or nonfatal firearm assault injuries. This is approximately 4,075 more injuries than would be expected for that period.

Firearm violence is a significant public health problem in the United States. It is among America's leading causes of death and disability and has profound adverse social, psychological and economic effects.

"Early in the pandemic, there were news reports about an increase in firearm purchasing. Given what we know about the risks of firearm violence associated with firearm access in general, and firearm purchasing surges specifically, we expected to see a relationship between these two during the pandemic," said Julia Schleimer, lead author for the study and a research data analyst at VPRP.

States with the most excess firearm purchases per 100,000 population (March-July 2020)

1. Mississippi 2804.8
2. Wyoming 2632.7
3. Alabama 2506.8
4. Idaho 2386.2
5. Michigan 2385.7

Firearm purchases and domestic violence

An earlier study from VPRP had found an association between firearm purchases and violence through May 2020. The present study extended the analysis through July 2020 and examined firearm injuries from domestic violence separately from non-domestic violence.

"We know that access to firearms is a risk factor for intimate partner homicide. Last year, the increase in firearm purchasing combined with stay-at-home orders and multiple other stressors like job loss raised concern about increases in domestic violence," Schleimer said.

As expected, the authors found states where firearm purchases went up the most showed the largest increases in firearm injuries from domestic violence. This was particularly true during April and May when social distancing was at its peak. However, they note results should be interpreted with caution since additional analyses showed that other, unmeasured variables might explain the association.   

States with highest average rate of firearm injuries from domestic violence per 100,000 population (March-July 2020)

1. Mississippi 0.23
2. Wyoming 0.17
3. West Virginia 0.16
4. Alabama 0.14
5. Louisiana 0.14

Firearm purchases and non-domestic violence

Surprisingly, the researchers did not find a similar correlation between excess firearm purchases and non-domestic violence at the state level. States with the largest increases in purchases from March through July 2020 did not experience the largest increases in non-domestic firearm violence.

"This was unexpected given prior studies. If we look at the country as a whole, we saw that purchasing and violence both went up on average. But when we looked state-by-state at the places in which firearm purchases increased the most, those weren't the places where the violence increased the most," Schleimer said.

To make these comparisons, the researchers tracked monthly firearm purchases per 100,000 population by state (using background checks as a proxy), along with monthly firearm injuries, fatal and nonfatal, per 100,000 people.

The data include the District of Columbia but not Alaska or Hawaii due to incomplete reporting. The study focuses on intentional, interpersonal firearm violence and does not include suicide or unintentional firearm injuries.

States and districts that had the highest rates of non-domestic firearm violence were the District of Columbia, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri and Delaware.

States and districts with highest average rate of non-domestic firearm violence per 100,000 population (March-July 2020)

1. District of Columbia 10.2
2. Illinois 3.7
3. Louisiana 3.2
4. Missouri 2.6
5. Delaware 2.3

The results of the study suggest that pre-pandemic firearm access and other factors -- major disruptions to routines, grief from the pandemic, economic strain and unemployment, and civic unrest -- might have been important contributing factors to the pandemic-related increase firearm violence observed through July 2020.

"The increase in purchasing has continued unabated through the first half of 2021, and crime rates have increased as well. We, and others, will continue to examine the relationship between firearm availability and violence," said Garen Wintemute, director of the UC Davis VPRP and professor of emergency medicine at UC Davis Health.

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Additional authors on the study include Christopher D. McCort, Aaron B. Shev, Veronica A. Pear, Elizabeth Tomsich, Alaina De Biasi, Shani Buggs, and Hannah S. Laqueur from the VPRP team.

Support for this research was provided by the Joyce Foundation (grant no. 42400), the Heising-Simons Foundation (grant no. 2019-1728), and the University of California Firearm Violence Research Center.

The UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program (VPRP) is a multi-disciplinary program of research and policy development focused on the causes, consequences and prevention of violence. Studies assess firearm violence, the social conditions that underlie violence, and the connections between violence, substance abuse and mental illness. VPRP is home to the University of California Firearm Violence Research Center, which launched in 2017 with a $5 million appropriation from the state of California to conduct leading-edge research on firearm violence and its prevention. For more information, visit health.ucdavis.edu/vprp/.