US-led panel exploring Cuba's solo development and deployment of COVID-19 vaccines calls for lowering barriers blocking global access to the country’s biotech innovations

First high-level delegation in five years to visit Cuba; groundbreaking Havana dialogue seeks greater role for Cuba to confront “shocking inequities” in global access to medical advances

Reports and Proceedings

BURNESS

For more information, contact:

Preeti Singh at psingh@burness.com

On behalf of the delegation 

US-led Panel Exploring Cuba’s Solo Development and Deployment of COVID-19 Vaccines Calls for Lowering Barriers Blocking Global Access to the Country’s Biotech Innovations 

First high-level delegation in five years to visit Cuba; groundbreaking Havana dialogue seeks greater role for Cuba to confront “shocking inequities” in global access to medical advances

Exchange also focuses on Cuba’s exceptional COVID vaccine coverage for adults and children—far greater and achieved far earlier than wealthy countries

SEATTLE (October 31, 2022) — The first U.S.-led scientific delegation to visit Cuba in five years released a consensus report today concluding that this small country’s ability to develop and rapidly immunize more than 90 percent of its citizens with safe and effective homegrown COVID-19 vaccines should serve as a model for confronting global public health emergencies in low-resource settings and the developing world.

The call for greater engagement with Cuba’s biotech sector was among the key conclusions of Cuba’s COVID-19 Vaccine Enterprise: Report from a High-Level Fact-Finding Delegation to Cuba, released today at the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH).

“What we learned about Cuba’s extraordinary COVID-19 vaccine work made it clear that it can be an important player for increasing global access to life-saving advances. And while the politics are complex, we must confront the barriers preventing its impressive brain trust of scientists and public health experts from doing so,” said Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

Osterholm served as co-leader of the delegation alongside Cristina Rabadán-Diehl, PharmD, PhD, MPH, a scientist who spent 25 years leading international work at the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services before becoming Associate Director of Clinical Trials for Westat. The delegation (see delegation members below) was organized by MEDICC (Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba), a U.S.-based non-profit that promotes health-related dialogue and collaboration. The delegation also had members from Africa and the Caribbean and collectively brought expertise in public health systems, infectious diseases, biotechnology, and vaccine development.

The engagement was supported, in part, by a grant from the Open Society Foundations.

“The pandemic we are still fighting today has been greatly prolonged — at the cost of millions of lives and billions of dollars — by shocking inequities in access to vaccines and treatments,” Rabadán-Diehl said. “Cuba alone cannot close this gap, but it could make a much greater contribution. While there are internal challenges in areas like manufacturing capacities and publishing peer-reviewed studies, current external economic barriers on biotech and pharmaceutical products and investments are a significant limitation. They should be removed for the health of people in low- and middle-income countries in the Americas and beyond.”

The delegation’s report found that despite existing restrictions, over the last few decades Cuba has slowly developed a global network of biotech partnerships. They include a recent agreement with the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York, to conduct clinical trials in the US on a Cuban biotech treatment for lung cancer. Delegation members cited these collaborations as a framework for wider engagement, alongside Cuba’s existing partnerships with the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization. The delegation also called for greater Cuban involvement in the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and the World Bank’s new Financial Intermediary Fund for Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response.

Lessons from Cuba’s Decision to Fly Solo on COVID-19 Vaccines

The impetus for the delegation mission was to meet directly with Cuban scientists and public health experts to learn more about an unusual moment in the COVID-19 pandemic. In mid-2020, concerned that it would not be able to procure vaccines from global suppliers, Cuba made the risky decision to go it alone and pursue a completely independent COVID-19 vaccine development program. The country’s biotech sector ended up taking two vaccine regimens through phase 3 trials and emergency use authorization. They were then distributed via Cuba’s health system to achieve one of the highest COVID-19 vaccination rates in the world — including 97 percent coverage of Cubans aged 2-18 years old, the highest pediatric coverage reported globally.

The vaccines utilize well-known technologies that allow them to be stored with conventional refrigeration, compared to the ultra-cold temperatures required for mRNA vaccines. They have received emergency use authorizations from several countries, including Mexico, Iran, Viet Nam, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Belarus and Venezuela. Efforts are underway to secure an Emergency Use Listing from WHO.

Delegation members were especially interested in whether Cuba’s unprecedented pediatric coverage could point to a potential pathway for reducing disease transmission across all age groups. They observed that children often serve as significant vectors for accelerating the spread of infectious diseases to populations more at risk, such as the elderly. (And childhood immunization with other types of vaccines—notably pneumococcal vaccines—have been credited with significantly reducing infections for all.) The report called for an international collaboration with Cuban scientists and public health officials to assess the impact of high pediatric vaccination coverage with COVID-19 vaccines.

Delegation members also were intrigued by recent studies initiated by Cuban scientists to assess the potential of one of their COVID-19 vaccines, known as SOBERANA Plus, to be used globally as a “universal booster.” Cuban scientists are investigating whether it can effectively boost protection regardless of the initial vaccine series and also boost protection provided by prior infection — even in the unvaccinated.

The delegation report called for Cuban scientists to move more quickly to secure peer-reviewed publication of their clinical trial results. The group found that, while they understood Cuban scientists were working in challenging circumstances, a lag in publishing phase 3 results likely “delayed global access to Cuba’s COVID-19 vaccines.”

Meanwhile, delegation members noted that Cuban health professionals expressed a willingness to collaborate with other health systems to share strategies for rapidly achieving high vaccine coverage during public health emergencies — and especially in low-resource settings. The report went on to note that Cuba’s biotech capabilities could help address the growing disparity in access to health innovations to fight the rising burden of noncommunicable diseases in low- and middle-income countries.

The report explained that members were “not functioning as a regulatory review or certification body,” nor did they “seek independent verification of the data presented” on vaccine efficacy or coverage. But they cited Cuba’s previous record for developing safe, effective vaccines.

Overall, they said their goal was to engage with peers who “share a commitment to promoting scientific collaborations that seek to address the global gap in access to high-impact health innovations and interventions, a long-term disparity magnified by the pandemic.” They noted that “our delegation and our Cuban colleagues benefited from open, transparent scientific engagement, a prerequisite for the bilateral and multilateral collaboration urgently needed today to effectively prevent and address global health emergencies.”

# # #

DELEGATION MEMBERS ISSUING THIS REPORT

Co-Leaders:

• Michael T. Osterholm PhD is Regents Professor, McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair in Public Health, and director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP).
• Cristina Rabadán-Diehl PharmD PhD MPH spent more than two decades at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and also the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), where she was Director of the Office of the Americas. She is now Associate Director for Clinical Trials at Westat.

Members:

• Joshua Anzinger PhD is a Senior Lecturer at the University of the West Indies Department of Microbiology and Consultant Virologist at the University Hospital of the West Indies, both in Kingston, Jamaica.
• Maria Elena Bottazzi PhD is Associate Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and Co-director of Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. She is co-creator of the patent-free technology behind the Corbevax COVID-19 vaccine.
• Celia Christie-Samuels MBBS DM Peds MPH FAAP FIDSA FRCP(Edin) is Professor of Paediatrics at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, Jamaica and former director of their Vaccines Infectious Diseases Centre and Jamaica’s Perinatal, Paediatric and Adolescent HIV/AIDS Programme.
• Ngozi Erondu PhD MPH is an infectious disease epidemiologist who serves as Technical Director of the Global Institute for Disease Elimination (GLIDE) and provides technical support for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization and governments in sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.
• Jeanne Marrazzo MD MPH FACP FIDSA holds the C. Glenn Cobbs Endowed Chair and is Professor of Medicine and Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Heersink School of Medicine.
• Sandra Milan Phd Bio is a Vice President, Project Team Leadership, Molecular Oncology at Genentech. She has more than 20 years of industry experience, including two years of vaccine development work and 18 years of developing oncology therapeutics.
• Peter Kojo Quashie PhD is a Senior Research Fellow at the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP), University of Ghana, where his focus areas include molecular virology, antiviral therapeutics and antimicrobial drug mechanisms and resistance.
• Thomas Schwaab MD is an immunologist at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center where he serves as Chief of Strategy, Business Development and Outreach, and CEO of Global Biotechnology and Cancer Therapeutics (CBGT).
• David Williams MA MPH MDiv PhD is the Norman Professor and Chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health . He is also Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University.

Experts pave the way for safer surgery to address global elective waiting lists

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

 

VIDEO: MR. ANEEL BHANGU TALKS ABOUT TWO STUDIES THAT WILL HELP TO PROVIDE SAFER SURGERY FOR THOUSANDS OF PATIENTS AROUND THE WORLD – PARTICULARLY IN LOW- AND MIDDLE-INCOME COUNTRIES. view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

Surgical care experts have today unveiled two studies in The Lancet that will help to provide safer surgery for thousands of patients around the world – particularly in Low- and Middle-income Countries (LMIC).

Researchers found that routinely changing gloves and instruments just before closing wounds could significantly reduce Surgical Site Infection (SSI) – the world’s most common post-operative complication. Secondly, they tested a new toolkit that can make hospitals better prepared for pandemics, heatwaves, winter pressures and natural disasters that could reduce cancellations of planned procedures around the world.

Surgical infections

Patients in LMICs are disproportionately affected by wound infections, but following a trial of the procedure in Benin, Ghana, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Rwanda and South Africa, researchers found that a routine switch of gloves and instruments during abdominal wound closures could prevent as many as 1 in 8 cases of SSI.

The ChEETAh trial was funded by the UK’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). Publishing their findings today in The Lancet, researchers are calling for the practice to be widely implemented – particularly in LMICs.

Co-author Mr Aneel Bhangu, from the University of Birmingham, commented: “Surgical site infection is the world’s most common postoperative complication - a major burden for both patients and health systems. Our work demonstrates that routine change of gloves and instruments is not only deliverable around the world, but also reduced infections in a range of surgical settings. Taking this simple step could reduce SSIs by 13% - simply and cost-effectively.”

Patients who develop SSI experience pain, disability, poor healing with risk of wound breakdown, prolonged recovery times and psychological challenges. In health systems where patients have to pay for treatment this can be a disaster and increases the risk of patients being plunged into poverty after their treatment. The simple and low-cost practice of changing your gloves and instruments just before closing the wound is something which can be done by surgeons in any hospital around, meaning a huge potential impact.

Surgical Preparedness Index

Experts from the NIHR Global Research Health Unit on Global Surgery also unveiled their ‘Surgical Preparedness Index’ (SPI) today in The Lancet – a key study assessing the extent to which hospitals around the world were able to continue elective surgery during COVID-19.

Researchers identified different features of hospitals that made them more or less ‘prepared’ for times of increased pressure. They used COVID-19 as an important example, but highlighted that health systems are put under stress for all sorts of reasons each year – from seasonal pressures to natural disasters, and warfare. A team of clinicians from 32 countries designed the SPI which scores hospitals based on their infrastructure, equipment, staff, and processes used to provide elective surgery. The higher the resulting SPI score, the more prepared a hospital is for disruptions.

After creating the SPI tool, the experts asked 4,714 clinicians in 1,632 hospitals across 119 countries to assess the preparedness of their local surgical department. Overall most hospitals around the world were poorly prepared, and suffered a big drop in the number of procedures they were able to provide during COVID-19. The team found that a 10-point increase in the SPI score corresponded to four more patients that had surgery per 100 patients on the waitlist.

Lead author Mr. James Glasbey, from the University of Birmingham, commented: “Our new tool will help hospitals internationally improve their preparation for external stresses ranging from pandemics to heatwaves, winter pressures and natural disasters. We believe it help hospitals to get through their waiting lists more quickly, and prevent further delays for patients. The tool can be completed easily by healthcare workers and managers working in any hospital worldwide - if used regularly, it could protect hospitals and patients against future disruptions.”

Professor Dion Morton, Barling Chair of Surgery at the University of Birmingham and Director of Clinical Research at the Royal College of Surgeons of England commented: “Although not all postoperative deaths are avoidable, many can be prevented by increasing investment in research, staff training, equipment, and better hospital facilities. We must invest in improving the quality of surgery around the world.”

Dr Sarah Puddicombe, Assistant Director for Global Health at NIHR Coordinating Centre, said: "This important study helps pave the way to make surgery significantly safer for thousands of patients around the world. It is just one of many exciting findings that are beginning to emerge from NIHR-funded Global Health Research Units, Groups and projects working with partners around the world. We are committed to research that contributes to the health and wealth of the nation and benefits people and communities globally."

ENDS

For more information, embargoed copies of the papers or interviews, please contact:

• Tony Moran, International Communications Manager, University of Birmingham on +44 (0) 121 414 8254 or +44 (0)782 783 2312 or t.moran@bham.ac.uk. For out-of-hours enquiries, please call +44 (0) 7789 921 165.

Notes for editors

• The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world’s top 100 institutions, its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers and teachers and more than 8,000 international students from over 150 countries.
• The following two papers will be published in The Lancet:

‘Routine sterile glove and instrument change at the time of abdominal wound closure to prevent surgical site infection: pragmatic, cluster randomised trial in seven low and middle income countries (ChEETAh)’ - NIHR Global Research Health Unit on Global Surgery. Journalists may wish to use this post-embargo link in their pieces: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)01884-0/fulltext

‘Elective surgery system strengthening: development, measurement, and validation of the Surgical Preparedness Index (SPI) across 1,632 hospitals in 119 countries’ - NIHR Global Health Unit on Global Surgery, COVIDSurg Collaborative. Journalists may wish to use this post-embargo link in their pieces: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)01846-3/fulltext   

• The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is the nation's largest funder of health and care research. The NIHR:

• Funds, supports and delivers high quality research that benefits the NHS, public health and social care
• Engages and involves patients, carers and the public in order to improve the reach, quality and impact of research
• Attracts, trains and supports the best researchers to tackle the complex health and care challenges of the future
• Invests in world-class infrastructure and a skilled delivery workforce to translate discoveries into improved treatments and services
• Partners with other public funders, charities and industry to maximise the value of research to patients and the economy

• The NIHR was established in 2006 to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research and is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care. In addition to its national role, the NIHR commissions applied health research to benefit the poorest people in low- and middle-income countries, using Official Development Assistance funding.
• NIHR funder the NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Global Surgery built capacity and sustainable surgical research infrastructures in partner LMICs. The Unit working closely together with its UK and LMIC partners to deliver research studies and disseminate the findings.

---

JOURNAL

The Lancet

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Randomized controlled/clinical trial

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Routine sterile glove and instrument change at the time of abdominal wound closure to prevent surgical site infection: pragmatic, cluster randomised trial in seven low and middle income countries (ChEETAh)/

Violent supershear earthquakes are more common than previously thought

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - LOS ANGELES

Powerful supershear earthquakes, once considered rare, are much more common than previously thought, according to a study led by UCLA geophysicists and published today in Nature Geoscience.

The scientists analyzed all 6.7-or-greater magnitude strike-slip earthquakes worldwide since 2000 — there were 87 in all — and identified 12 of the supershear type, or about 14%. (Four of those earthquakes were previously unreported.)

That percentage is more than double what scientists expected; until now less than 6% of strike-slip earthquakes had been identified as supershear.

Strike-slip earthquakes occur when the edges of two tectonic plates rub sideways against each other. Supershear quakes are a subtype of that group that are caused when faults beneath the surface rupture faster than shear waves — the seismic waves that shake the ground back and forth — can move through rock. The effect corrals energy that is then released violently; the effect can be compared to a sonic boom.

As a result, supershear earthquakes tend to cause more shaking, and are potentially more destructive, than other earthquakes that have the same magnitude.

“When an airplane flies faster than sound can travel through air, a cone of pent-up sound waves forms in front of the plane and when it catches up, we hear it all at once,” said Lingsen Meng, UCLA’s Leon and Joanne V.C. Knopoff Professor of Physics and Geophysics, and the paper’s corresponding author. “Supershear earthquakes are potentially more destructive than other kinds of earthquakes because they are more effective at generating seismic waves, with more shaking, which could cause more damage.”

The research also found that supershear earthquakes occur as commonly beneath the oceans as they do on land, and that they are most likely to occur along strike-slip faults, such as California’s San Andreas Fault.

The findings suggest that disaster planning efforts should take into consideration whether nearby faults are capable of producing supershear earthquakes and, if so, take measures to prepare for a higher level of shaking and potential damage than could be caused by non-supershear earthquakes.

Meng said the reason relatively few supershear earthquakes have been found is that researchers mainly study earthquakes on land.

The paper’s co-authors are UCLA doctoral students Han Bao and Liuwei Xu of UCLA and Jean-Paul Ampuero, a senior researcher at Université Côte d’Azur in Nice, France.

The scientists used a method called backprojection to determine the direction in which seismic waves arrived to infer how fast an earthquake moves along the fault. The technique applies an algorithm to analyze brief time delays between seismic waves as they’re detected by a group of sensors. The method is similar to how one can locate a person by tracking the signals their smartphone sends to cell towers.

The data revealed supershear earthquakes tend to occur on mature strike-slip faults, in which the edges of two continental plates rub laterally against each other. In a mature fault, that action has been happening for long enough to create a zone of damaged rocks that act like a dam around the fault, slowing or blocking seismic wave propagation and concentrating their energy.

Ampuero said the findings could help scientists better understand what it takes for a fault to produce the kinds of ruptures that lead to supershear earthquakes.

In the past century, at least one large supershear earthquake has occurred in California: In 1979, a 6.5-magnitude quake in Southern California’s Imperial Valley region injured people as far away as Mexico and caused extensive damage to irrigation systems. And, although it predated scientific monitoring, the 1906 earthquake that caused extensive damage in San Francisco likely also fell into the supershear category.

Not all supershear earthquakes are that disastrous. The shape of the fault, the rocks around it, and other factors can affect the propagation of seismic waves and limit the accumulation of energy. Faults that curve tend to slow, deflect or absorb seismic waves, while straight faults let them flow freely.

In a previous study, Meng’s research group identified the catastrophic 7.5 magnitude earthquake that hit the Indonesian island of Sulawesi in 2018 as a supershear event. The temblor and ensuing tsunami killed at least 4,000 people. Despite the curve in the Indonesian earthquake fault, the horrific damage occurred because the fault moved faster than any previously recorded and energy from earlier temblors likely were stored up in the rocks, awaiting a moment to burst, Meng said.

Fortunately, Meng said supershear earthquakes in the ocean are less likely than earthquakes that cause the sea floor to move vertically to produce tsunamis.

The San Andreas Fault, on the other hand, is mostly straight and could experience an even more explosive rupture than the Sulawesi quake.

---

JOURNAL

Nature Geoscience

BRITISH BOBBIES NOT ARMED

Improving police responses to domestic abuse

A new book co-authored by a City, University of London academic aims to improve the practice of policing domestic abuse

Book Announcement

CITY UNIVERSITY LONDON

 

IMAGE: POLICING DOMESTIC ABUSE: RISK, POLICY, AND PRACTICE, CO-AUTHORED BY CITY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON'S DR RUTH WEIR view more 

CREDIT: ROUTLEDGE

A new book co-authored by a City, University of London academic aims to improve the practice of policing domestic abuse.

Dr Ruth Weir, a Senior Research Fellow in City’s Violence and Society Centre, has collaborated on Policing Domestic Abuse: Risk, Policy, and Practice with a view to informing those working in policing about the dynamics of how domestic abuse occurs, how best to respond to and investigate it, and, in the longer term, how to prevent it.

Dr Weir specialises in using police data to understand predictors and risk factors of domestic abuse.  She is currently working in the UKPRP Violence, Health and Society consortium (VISION) aimed at reducing the violence that harms health by improving the measurement and analysis of data on violence. Prior to working in academia, she held several research and policy positions in local government and the Home Office.

A launch event to mark the publication of the book will be held at City, University of London on 15 November 2022 from 6-8pm in The Pavilion (more details below), followed by a drinks reception.

Dr Weir said:

“This book is a unique collaboration of real-life policing experience blended with the latest academic research and best practice. 

“We hope that it becomes a core part of training for those working with victims and perpetrators of domestic abuse.”

Divided into thematic areas, the book uses recent research findings to update some of the theoretical analysis and to highlight areas of good practice: what works and why.

An effective investigation and the prosecution of offenders are considered, as well as an evaluation of the success of current treatment options.

Policing domestic abuse can only be dealt with through an effective partnership response. The book outlines the responsibilities of each agency and the statutory processes in place when policy is not adhered to.

Core content includes:

• A critique of definitions and theoretical approaches to domestic abuse, including coverage of the myths surrounding domestic abuse and their impact on policing.
• An exploration on the challenges of collecting data on domestic abuse, looking at police data and the role of health and victim support services.
• A critical review of different forms of abuse, different perpetrators and victims, and risk assessment tools used by the police.
• A critical examination of the law relating to domestic abuse; how police resources are deployed to respond to and manage it; and best practice in investigation, gathering evidence, and prosecution
• Key perspectives on preventing domestic abuse, protecting victims, and reducing harm.

Written with the student and budding practitioner in mind, the book is filled with case studies, current research, reports, and media examples, as well as a variety of reflective questions and a glossary of key terms, to help shed light on the challenges of policing domestic violence and the links between academic research and best practice.

Dr Weir said:

“Eighteen per cent of crimes recorded by the police are domestic abuse related, but we know that this is just the tip of the iceberg with only one fifth of those experiencing abuse reporting their abuse to the police.

“We know that domestic abuse training is currently patchy and that the experiences that the general public have are variable. The book is therefore aimed at new and existing officers, and we hope that it will become a core part of police officer training.

“Next year one third of police officers will be new recruits, so this is a critical time to introduce the book into the policing curriculum.”

The authors hope that the book will achieve the following outcomes:

•           Better trained police officers who are more competent to respond to domestic abuse and therefore increase public perception and confidence in the police

•           Officers more confident to hold perpetrators accountable and to recognise, understand and support victims

•           Officers reflect on previous failings to avoid similar experiences

•           Officers work with other agencies to give coordinated solutions

•           Public have increased confidence in reporting

•           Recognition that domestic abuse is experienced by those within policing organisations too

•           A more consistent and higher quality response for victims

•           Earlier detection and reduced harm from domestic abuse.

Dr Weir has written the book alongside three co-authors:

Katy Barrow-Grint is a Chief Superintendent in Thames Valley Police with over 20 years of police experience. She has an academic interest in domestic abuse, completing her master’s at Warwick Business School, and has written on domestic abuse attrition rates in the criminal justice system.

Jacqueline Sebire is an Assistant Chief Constable with Bedfordshire Police. She has 30 years of police service specialising as a detective in homicide and safeguarding and public protection. She has a PhD in Psychology from the University of Leicester researching the risk factors associated with domestic abuse homicide.

Professor Jackie Turton is an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Sociology at University of Essex. She joined the university after a career in the health service and has taught sociology and criminology since 1996. Family violence is a key focus of her research work.

ENDS

---

DOI

10.4324/9781003137412 

Ancient genomes reveal hidden history of human adaptation

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE

The use of ancient DNA, including samples of human remains around 45,000 years old, has shed light on a previously unknown aspect of human evolution.

Dr Yassine Souilmi, Group Leader at the University of Adelaide’s Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, co-led the new study published in Nature Ecology and Evolution.

“It was widely believed the genetics of our human ancestors didn’t change due to environmental pressures as much as other animals, due to our enhanced communication skills and ability to make and use tools,” Dr Souilmi said.

“However, by comparing modern genomes with ancient DNA, we discovered more than 50 cases of an initially rare beneficial genetic variant becoming prevalent across all members of ancient human groups.

“In contrast to many other species, evidence for this type of adaptive genetic change has been inconsistent in humans. This discovery consequently challenges the prevailing view of human adaptation, and gives us a new and exciting insight into how humans have adapted to the novel environmental pressures they encountered as we spread across the planet.”

Co-lead author Dr Ray Tobler - an Adjunct Fellow at the University of Adelaide and a DECRA fellow at the Australian National University – said examining ancient DNA has been critical in unlocking the secrets of human evolution.

“We believed historical mixing events between human groups might have hidden signs of genetic changes in modern human genomes,” Dr Tobler said.

“We examined DNA from more than 1,000 ancient genomes, the oldest which was around 45,000 years old, to see if certain types of genetic adaptation had been more common in our history than studies of modern genomes had suggested.”

Professor Christian Huber, a senior author of the research paper, is an Adjunct Fellow at the University of Adelaide and an Assistant Professor at Penn State University.

“The use of ancient genomes was crucial because they preceded major historical mixing events that have radically reshaped modern European genetic ancestry,” Professor Huber said.

“This allowed the recovery of historical signs of adaptation that are invisible to standard analysis of modern genomes.”

Established in 2005, the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA is a world leader in the research and development of advanced ancient DNA approaches for evolutionary, environmental and conservation applications.

Researchers based at the Mayo Clinic, the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany, the University of New South Wales, and Massey University in New Zealand also contributed to the research paper.

---

JOURNAL

Nature Ecology & Evolution

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Cells

Geothermal could become workhorse of the energy transition

Climate tech panelists discuss field’s huge potential and challenges

Reports and Proceedings

SCIENCE COMMUNICATIONS

 

IMAGE: PARTICIPANTS IN "IS THIS GEOTHERMAL'S MOMENT," A PANEL DISCUSSION AT THE SOSV CLIMATE TECH SUMMIT 2022. view more 

CREDIT: SOSV

CAMBRIDGE, MA--Geothermal energy—the heat deep below our feet—has the potential to become the workhorse of the energy transition as it grows from supplying just 0.4 percent of the world’s energy today to upward of 20, 30, and even 50 percent by 2050. That’s according to the co-founder and CEO of a company working to tap the mother lode of that energy who presented at the SOSV Climate Tech Summit 2022 held October 25-26. SOSV is a global venture capital firm.

 

Carlos Araque of Quaise Energy made those remarks during a panel discussion titled, “Is this geothermal’s moment?” Quaise is developing a unique drilling technique to reach the hot rock some two to 12 miles beneath the Earth’s surface. Araque was joined by Kathy Hannun, co-founder and president of Dandelion Energy, a firm working on a different “flavor” of geothermal, or using it to heat and cool residential homes today. The Dandelion process uses established technology that doesn’t require such deep drilling.

 

“I didn’t know much about geothermal until I started diving into [it] for this panel,” said Moderator Candice Ammori, founder of The Climate Vine, which advises climate tech startups. “I’m excited to say now that I’m a believer in geothermal. I think there’s a fair amount of hype…but I actually think that there probably should be more hype.”

 

Araque and Hannun went on to not only describe the biggest barriers to scaling up their businesses for the world, but also what other geothermal problems they are “itching for people to solve,” according to Ammori.

 

First, however, the two described why geothermal could be so important. In addition to being clean and global, geothermal provides a baseload energy source that’s available 24/7, even if it’s cloudy out or there’s no wind. It’s also “the most powerful and abundant renewable on Earth,” said Araque, “much more so than wind, solar, nuclear, and all fossil fuels combined.”

 

In addition, Araque said, it’s important to weigh an energy source by its impact on externalities like the environment, land use, and mineral use. “When you look at the [problem] from this lens—how much land use per unit of energy you produce, the amount of materials necessary per unit of energy, and how much carbon dioxide you produce per unit of energy—you start realizing that geothermal comes out way, way ahead of anything else.”

 

Barriers and Solutions

 

To fully tap the resource, however, will be very capital intensive and time intensive. “It’s very hard to achieve anything in our space with a million dollars or even $10 million,” Araque said. “You have to start playing at the $100 million level or even $1 billion level. This is what it costs to get [deep geothermal] developed and deployed at portfolio levels.”

 

Further, the Quaise technology involved in deep drilling has been demonstrated in the lab, but not yet in the field. And that will take time.

 

However, Araque said that by the end of the decade Quaise aims to create power from a coal- or gas-fired power plant that has been converted to geothermal. “You feed in geothermal steam instead of steam from a fossil-fuel boiler. That in a brushstroke decarbonizes the power plant, and you can repeat that 10,000 times over with other plants.”

 

The key to making deep geothermal a reality? “You leverage the oil and gas industry,” said Araque, who himself comes from that industry. “I think of them as a ready-made workforce, supply chain, and regulatory framework that can push this into the world at the scale that’s required.”

 

Hannun noted that for Dandelion, simplifying complexity will be key to bringing down the costs associated with using geothermal for heating and cooling of residential homes. “It’s hard to advance our building stock and change all of the buildings that already exist [to geothermal because] they’re all slightly different and there’s a lot of complexity to manage. So a lot of our focus is on making geothermal [heat pumps] as simple to get into homes as it is to install a furnace or air conditioner.”

 

Room for Entrepreneurs!

 

Ammori ended the session by asking Hannun and Araque about remaining geothermal challenges that other entrepreneurs could tackle. Both agreed that better imaging systems to see underground are important. For deep geothermal, Araque said that there’s a need for electronics that can withstand the high temperatures associated with the resource. Hannun noted that anything related to weatherizing homes will help the geothermal heating and cooling industry.

 

She also stressed that for both her and Araque’s industries, “I would encourage entrepreneurs not to just look at the central core technology, but also the enabling technologies, products, or businesses around permitting, licensing, and transmission. There are [many] things in the ecosystem that need to happen to enable scale.”

 

Araque concluded by noting that the energy transition itself is an unsolved problem. “Don’t for a second think that it’s just a matter of scaling what we have. There’s plenty of space for innovation. This is the greatest challenge of many generations, not just ours, and we need all human capital on the problem.”

 

Watch “Is this geothermal’s moment?” | SOSV Climate Tech Summit 2022

Efficiency and stability best-practices proposed for solar water-splitting to make hydrogen

NREL, Berkeley Lab offer ideal methods to provide confidence in comparing measurements

Peer-Reviewed Publication

DOE/NATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGY LABORATORY

Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) are providing researchers with a guide to how to best measure the efficiency of producing hydrogen directly from solar power.

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water-splitting, which relies on sunlight to split water into its component elements—oxygen and hydrogen—stands out as potentially one of the most sustainable routes to clean energy. Measurements of how efficient the PEC process is on an identical system can vary wildly from different laboratories, however, from a lack of standardized methods. The newly developed best-practices guide published in Frontiers in Energy Research is intended to provide confidence in comparing results obtained at different sites and by different groups.

The publication provides a road map for the PEC community as researchers continue to refine the technology. These best practices were verified by both laboratories via round-robin testing using the same testing hardware, PEC photoelectrodes, and measurement procedures. Research into photovoltaics has allowed a certification of cell efficiencies, but PEC water-splitting efficiency measurements do not yet have a widely accepted protocol.

“It’s really difficult to compare reported PEC water-splitting efficiency results between labs, because people tend to make measurements under different conditions,” said Todd Deutsch, a senior scientist at NREL and co-author of the new journal article, “Best practices in PEC: How to reliably measure solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of photocathodes.” “The Department of Energy recognized this a while ago, so there have been quite a few efforts to establish standards that we’ve been involved in—multi-lab collaborative efforts and also NREL-specific efforts.”

Other authors from NREL are Keenan Wyatt, Myles Steiner, and James Young.

"The motivation for this protocol paper was both to serve as a guide for researchers just entering the field as well as describing subtle technique tips for more experienced scientists,” said Francesca Toma, a materials staff scientist at Berkeley Lab and a co-author of the journal article. “We leveraged the unique strengths of two national labs that together span the basic to applied science realms.”

Other co-authors from Berkeley Lab are Olivia Alley, Guiji Liu, Tobias Kistler, David Larson, and Jason Cooper.

The article spells out the path so that all laboratories can follow a uniformity of experimental practices, beginning with the materials needed for the fabrication of photoelectrodes. The authors go on to detail the fabrication procedure, the experimental setup, and the process to measure the solar-to-hydrogen (STH) efficiency. Direct measurement of the amount of hydrogen generated by PEC water-splitting is required for an accurate characterization of STH efficiency, the researchers noted.

PEC water-splitting was first noted in scientific publications in 1972. Research since then has continued to refine and improve the process, but so far, no standardized STH measurement procedures have been established. NREL set the first record for STH efficiency exceeding 10% (12.4% STH) in 1998, but in 2016 revised that figure downward in a publication that described common pitfalls to avoid in making efficiency measurements, after realizing the original experiment had been over-illuminated. In 2017, the team used bandgap engineering to design light absorbers more optimized to utilize the solar spectrum, which resulted in a higher STH of 16.2%, a new world record at the time.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office has set 25% as the ultimate target for STH through PEC water-splitting, although preliminary cost analysis suggests that competitively costed hydrogen could be achieved with lower efficiencies. Photoelectrodes have demonstrated efficiencies from 10% to 20%.

PEC researchers also continue to work on improvements to durability. The semiconductor used to capture sunlight is immersed in an aqueous (water-based) electrolyte. But with electrolyte pH ranging from acidic to alkaline, the electrolyte corrodes the semiconductor and shortens its lifespan.

“Durability still is pretty much a showstopper for this technology,” Deutsch said. “There’s been some progress, but not nearly as much as there has been recently in improving efficiency.”

Deutsch co-authored a new paper, also in Frontiers in Energy Research, on “Long-Term Stability Metrics of Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting” that describes achieving the simultaneous highly efficient and stable unassisted PEC water-splitting as the “Holy Grail” in clean and renewable fuel generation. That paper provides a framework for conducting long-term stability experiments with the hopes of achieving ultrahigh stability (lasting more than 10,000 hours) and efficiency greater than 15%.

HydroGEN Advanced Water Splitting Materials Consortium, established as part of the Energy Materials Network under the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office, funded the research.

NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for the Energy Department by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.

---

JOURNAL

Frontiers in Energy Research

DOI

10.3389/fenrg.2022.884364 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

ARTICLE TITLE

Best Practices in PEC Water Splitting: How to Reliably Measure Solar-to-Hydrogen Efficiency of Photoelectrodes

Pitt mathematicians explain how some fireflies flash in sync

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

Stake out in Pennsylvania’s Cook State Forest at the right time of year and you can see one of nature’s great light shows: swarms of fireflies that synchronize their flashes like strings of Christmas lights in the dark.

A new study by Pitt mathematicians shows that math borrowed from neuroscience can describe how swarms of these unique insects coordinate their light show, capturing key details about how they behave in the wild.

“This firefly has a quick sequence of flashes, and then a big pause before the next burst,” said Jonathan Rubin, professor and chair of the Department of Mathematics in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. “We knew a good framework for modeling this that could capture a lot of the features, and we were curious how far we could push it.”

Male fireflies produce a glow from their abdomens to call out to potential mates, sending out blinking patterns in the dark to woo females of their own species. Synchronous fireflies of the species Photinus carolinus take it a step further, coordinating their blinking throughout entire swarms. It’s a rare trait — there are only a handful of such species in North America — and the striking lights they produce draw crowds to locations where the insects are known to gather.

They’ve also attracted the interest of mathematicians seeking to understand how they synchronize their blinks. It’s just one example of how synchronization can evolve from randomness, a process that has intrigued mathematicians for centuries. One famous example from the 1600s showed that pendulum clocks hung next to one another synchronize through vibrations that travel through the wall, and the same branch of math can be used to describe everything from the action of intestines to audience members clapping.

“Synchrony is important for a lot of things, good and bad,” said co-author Bard Ermentrout, distinguished professor of mathematics in the Dietrich School. “Physicists, mathematicians, we’re all interested in synchronization.”

To crack the fireflies’ light show, the Pitt team used a more complex model called an “elliptic burster” that’s used to describe the behavior of brain cells. The duo, along with then-undergrad Madeline McCrea (A&S ’22) published details of their model Oct. 26 in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.  

The first step was to simulate the blinks of a single firefly, then expand to a pair to see how they matched their flashing rates to one another. Next, the team moved to a bigger swarm of simulated insects to see how number, distance and flying speed affect the resulting blinks.

Varying the distances each firefly could “see” each other and respond to one another changed the insects’ light show, they found: By tweaking the parameters, they could produce patterns of blinks that looked like either ripples or spirals.

The results line up with several recently published observations about real-life synchronous fireflies — for instance, that individual fireflies are inconsistent while groups flash more regularly, and that when new fireflies join the swarm, they’re already perfectly in time.

“It captured a lot of the finer details that they saw in the biology, which was cool,” said Ermentrout. “We didn't expect that.”

The math also makes some predictions that could inform firefly research — for instance, light pollution and the time of day both may alter the patterns produced by fireflies by changing how well they can see one another’s blinks.

McCrea worked on the research as an undergraduate supported by the department’s Painter Fellowship, which gave her funding to work on the project through the summer. “She was awesome working on this project, and really persistent,” said Rubin.

The team is the first to use this particular brain-cell framework to model fireflies, which several different research teams are trying to understand using different types of math. “It’s more of a wild west research topic,” said Ermentrout. “It’s early days, and who knows where things are going to go from here?”

Ermentrout and Rubin also hopeful that the math will capture the imagination of those inspired by the glow of fireflies. In the midst of this project, Rubin himself decided to head up to Cook State Forest to see if he could spot his research subjects firsthand.   

“I convinced my wife to go on a trip for a couple of days right in the peak of the season,” he said. “It’s not clear we ever saw synchronized activity, but there were all sorts of fireflies around us. It was amazing.”

---

JOURNAL

Journal of The Royal Society Interface

DOI

10.1098/rsif.2022.0439 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

A model for the collective synchronization of flashing in Photinus carolinus