Moderna offers NIH co-ownership of COVID vaccine patent



Alexander Tin
Mon, November 15, 2021

The National Institutes of Health said Monday it has engaged Moderna in "good faith discussions" to resolve a monthslong dispute over the company's patent application that advocates say could impact global production of the shots.

Moderna is offering to share ownership of its COVID-19 vaccine patent with the U.S. government to resolve the dispute, the vaccine maker said, and would allow the Biden administration to "license the patents as they see fit."

An NIH spokesperson declined Monday to comment directly on Moderna's offer, citing "ongoing discussions."

The company claims it had no choice under the "strict rules" of American patent law to list only its own scientists "as the inventors on these claims."

But the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases disagrees.

A spokesperson for the government research arm - housed within the NIH - said that "its own thorough review" had determined that scientists Kizzmekia Corbett, Barney Graham, and John Mascola also deserved to be named as inventors.

"Moderna has made a serious mistake here in not providing the kind of co-inventorship credit to people who played a major role in the development of the vaccine that they are now making a fair amount of money off of," NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins told Reuters last week.

"Omitting NIH inventors from the principal patent application deprives NIH of a co-ownership interest in that application and the patent that will eventually issue from it," said an NIAID spokesperson.

Public Citizen, a government watchdog group, penned a letter this month to the NIH urging the agency "to publicly reclaim the foundational role" it played in developing the shots, criticizing a July patent filing by Moderna claiming it had "reached the good-faith determination" that the NIH's scientists "did not co-invent the mRNAs" in their application.

The New York Times first reported on Public Citizen's discovery.

"The U.S. government has done so much for Moderna and yet asked for so little in return, consistently. There is an urgent need for the U.S. government to reassert more control over how this vaccine is priced and produced," said Zain Rizvi, Public Citizen's research director.

The Government Accountability Office recently estimated that the NIH has earned $2 billion in royalties since 1991 over licensing patents for FDA-approved drugs.

Moderna announced this month it had earned $10.7 billion from COVID-19 vaccine sales in 2021 through September. Under the Trump administration early in the pandemic, Operation Warp Speed, the accelerated government effort to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, pledged to cover up to $483 million of costs to accelerate development and manufacturing of the vaccine.

Beyond the money the federal government could earn from the patent, Rizvi said the Biden administration could leverage a license with co-inventorship to allow developing countries to ramp up production of the shots and prepare for future pandemics without strings attached.

"Moderna says it offered to allow that NIH to be a co-owner on some of the patent applications. But it did not say what it demanded from the NIH, if anything, in return. Was this a unilateral offer?" said Rizvi.

Who invented Moderna's vaccine?

Early in 2020, the NIAID's Vaccine Research Center helmed by Graham was already working on vaccines for other diseases with Moderna when the agency says its scientists pivoted to ramping up research into a new virus that had been raising alarm overseas.

Having long worked with scientists in a lab led by Jason McLellan at the University of Texas at Austin on research into similar kinds of viruses, the university says the NIH's scientists were able to accelerate their development of genetic sequences that could be delivered in mRNA vaccines, which train the body to spot and fend off a signature spike protein on SARS-CoV-2.

"The work of Dr. Barney Graham and Kizzmekia Corbett and others stabilized the pre-fusion spike protein which is used in virtually all, with few exceptions, of the vaccines that are now successful," NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci told a House of Representatives hearing in April.

Corbett, Graham, and McLellan are among the scientists listed on a patent first filed on February 11, 2020 for a COVID-19 vaccine stemming from that work. An NIAID spokesperson said Moderna uses its "stabilized spike protein technology in its vaccine."

Both Moderna and NIH scientists are also listed together on another patent filing from May of 2020, regarding "methods of use" for mRNA vaccines to address COVID. The NIAID spokesperson described it as a "minor patent application."

"Virtually everything that comes out of the government's research labs is a non-exclusive licensing agreement, so that it doesn't get blocked by any particular company," Graham told The Financial Times in April, saying the government could "use the leverage of the public funding to solve public health issues."

Early press releases by Moderna acknowledged the work with Graham's team, describing their mRNA-1273 vaccine as using a spike protein "designed by Moderna in collaboration with NIAID."

But Moderna has also sought to separate the development of its vaccine from the NIH's research, saying that the mRNA sequence in the company's vaccine "was selected exclusively by Moderna scientists using Moderna's technology, and without input of NIAID scientists."

The company says the NIH's scientists were "not even aware of the mRNA sequence" used in its vaccines until after Moderna had filed its patent request, which dates to as early as late January.

The February filing by the NIH's scientists was further evidence that "the same thing cannot be claimed to be invented twice by the same people working with two different collaborators," Moderna said.

"The Moderna team worked in Boston while the NIH team worked outside of D.C. and we then compared notes," Moderna's CEO Stéphane Bancel told the "I Am Bio" podcast last year, saying it was "encouraging" that the two groups of scientists "independently came to exactly the same antigen" for the vaccine.

Graham and McLellan both declined to comment for this article.

In an interview published Wednesday by The Grio, Corbett said she had "decided that it is not my place to really say anything."

"Patent disputes and all of those things, I like to say, I leave it to the institutions and the attorneys to really figure that out. I sleep at night knowing that lives have been saved and knowing that the science that I put blood, sweat, and tons of tears into is saving those lives," added Corbett.

Orbite’s plans for space training complex get a boost from famed French designer Philippe Starck

Alan Boyle
Wed, November 17, 2021

Orbite customers and instructors take a zero-G airplane flight during spaceflight training. (Orbite Photo)

The French designer who created the look for Virgin Galactic, Spaceport America and Axiom Space’s orbital habitat has taken on yet another space-centric project: the space training complex planned by a Seattle-based venture called Orbite.

Orbite says Philippe Starck will design its Astronaut Training and Spaceflight Gateway Complex, which is expected to consist of multiple buildings and go into operation at a U.S. location in late 2023 or 2024.

For now, that’s about all that can be said about the project. Further details, including the site selected for the complex and the specifics of Starck’s vision for the facility, will be announced in the months ahead.

“We will have to wait a little more during the winter,” Orbite co-founder Nicolas Gaume told GeekWire. “We thought it was great to announce that such an amazing designer, who shares so much of our vision for astronaut orientation, preparation and training, could be disclosed.”

The 72-year-old Starck has designed projects ranging from hotels and yachts (including a yacht for the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs) to bathroom accessories. But he’s best-known for his space-related projects, including the Virgin Galactic logo that incorporates a close-up of billionaire founder Richard Branson’s iris.

Embed from Getty Images

“Space is the future,” Starck said today in a news release. “With the Astronaut Training and Spaceflight Gateway Complex, I am honored to be able to give individuals rare educational opportunities to step into astronauts’ shoes and prepare for thrilling orbits in space.”

Starck said the Orbite project is “inspiring and groundbreaking.”

“I am delighted to be collaborating with Orbite on this one-of-a-kind project that is advancing the opportunities for civilization to encounter the wonders of space and celebrate the uniqueness of Earth,” he said.

Gaume and the privately funded venture’s other co-founder, veteran space entrepreneur Jason Andrews, aren’t merely waiting for Starck to come up with a set of drawings. Orbite (pronounced “Or-beet,” French-style) already conducted an initial “space camp for grownups” in France in August, and the next training session is due to take place in Florida early next month.

The sessions are more expensive than your typical teenage space camp: August’s five-day, four-night program carried a price tag of $29,500, and the prices for December’s three-day, two-night session start at $15,000.

But Gaume, whose family runs a boutique hotel in France that was renovated under Starck’s guidance, knows how to blend luxury and space experiences to create value for an upscale clientele. August’s program, for example, featured a space-food tasting session as well as zero-G and high-G airplane flights.

Trainees also donned virtual-reality headsets to get a feel for four kinds of space tourism experiences, including the suborbital flights offered by Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, an orbital trip on a SpaceX Crew Dragon, and a round-the-moon excursion on SpaceX’s yet-to-be-built Starship.

Andrews, who presided over Seattle-based Spaceflight Industries before joining up with Gaume, says Orbite is carving out a special niche in the nascent market for spaceflight training.

“We’ve positioned ourselves as this neutral third party,” he said. “We have this ‘try before you buy’ opportunity, to say, ‘You’re about to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not tens of millions of dollars. Maybe you should understand what you’re getting yourself into and what type of adventure you want.'”

Eight customers took part in August’s inaugural training program, and Gaume guessed that about a third of them will be taking an honest-to-goodness spaceflight in the years to come.

Andrews said the August session was something of an experiment.

“We designed our entire facility around class sizes of 10, so it was an opportunity to test that hypothesis,” he said. “Is that the right size? Is it too big? Is it too small? The way we thing about that is, most of these people, if they go [on a spaceflight], it’s only going to be four participants at a time, or five or six. So you take two capsules’ worth of five people and put them together.”

The experience “really validated the class size, and what we want to do going forward,” Andrews said.

2021 is the year when space tourism finally took off, largely due to Branson’s Virgin Galactic voyage; the Blue Origin trips taken by Jeff Bezos and William Shatner, and Inspiration4’s orbital mission in a SpaceX Crew Dragon. Andrews hopes all those flights — plus Axiom Space’s first mission to the International Space Station, which is set for early next year — will get more people thinking about training with Orbite.

“You saw William Shatner when he got off the Blue Origin flight — he was just overcome by the grandness of it,” Andrews said. “And that’s really what Orbite does. It prepares people for those opportunities.”

More from GeekWire:

Former Spaceflight CEO and French entrepreneur join forces to launch astronaut training startup


Try before you fly: Orbite sets schedule for luxurious astronaut orientation sessions


Japanese firms finish acquisition of Spaceflight, with BlackSky satellite venture going its own way


Astronauts arrive in Florida to set new NASA traditions for crewed spaceflight

Scientists mystified, wary, as Africa avoids COVID disaster

People are seen at a busy market in a poor township on the outskirts of the capital Harare, Monday, Nov, 15, 2021. When the coronavirus first emerged last year, health officials feared the pandemic would sweep across Africa, killing millions and destroying the continent’s fragile health systems. Although it’s still unclear what COVID-19’s ultimate toll will be, that catastrophic scenario has yet to materialize in Zimbabwe or much of Africa. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)More

MARIA CHENG and FARAI MUTSAKA
Fri, November 19, 2021

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — At a busy market in a poor township outside Harare this week, Nyasha Ndou kept his mask in his pocket, as hundreds of other people, mostly unmasked, jostled to buy and sell fruit and vegetables displayed on wooden tables and plastic sheets. As in much of Zimbabwe, here the coronavirus is quickly being relegated to the past, as political rallies, concerts and home gatherings have returned.

“COVID-19 is gone, when did you last hear of anyone who has died of COVID-19?” Ndou said. “The mask is to protect my pocket,” he said. “The police demand bribes so I lose money if I don’t move around with a mask.” Earlier this week, Zimbabwe recorded just 33 new COVID-19 cases and zero deaths, in line with a recent fall in the disease across the continent, where World Health Organization data show that infections have been dropping since July.

When the coronavirus first emerged last year, health officials feared the pandemic would sweep across Africa, killing millions. Although it’s still unclear what COVID-19’s ultimate toll will be, that catastrophic scenario has yet to materialize in Zimbabwe or much of the continent.

Scientists emphasize that obtaining accurate COVID-19 data, particularly in African countries with patchy surveillance, is extremely difficult, and warn that declining coronavirus trends could easily be reversed.

But there is something “mysterious” going on in Africa that is puzzling scientists, said Wafaa El-Sadr, chair of global health at Columbia University. “Africa doesn’t have the vaccines and the resources to fight COVID-19 that they have in Europe and the U.S., but somehow they seem to be doing better,” she said.

Fewer than 6% of people in Africa are vaccinated. For months, the WHO has described Africa as “one of the least affected regions in the world” in its weekly pandemic reports.

Some researchers say the continent’s younger population -- the average age is 20 versus about 43 in Western Europe — in addition to their lower rates of urbanization and tendency to spend time outdoors, may have spared it the more lethal effects of the virus so far. Several studies are probing whether there might be other explanations, including genetic reasons or past infection with parasitic diseases.

On Friday, researchers working in Uganda said they found COVID-19 patients with high rates of exposure to malaria were less likely to suffer severe disease or death than people with little history of the disease.

“We went into this project thinking we would see a higher rate of negative outcomes in people with a history of malaria infections because that’s what was seen in patients co-infected with malaria and Ebola,” said Jane Achan, a senior research advisor at the Malaria Consortium and a co-author of the study. “We were actually quite surprised to see the opposite — that malaria may have a protective effect.”

Achan said this may suggest that past infection with malaria could “blunt” the tendency of people’s immune systems to go into overdrive when they are infected with COVID-19. The research was presented Friday at a meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

Christian Happi, director of the African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases at Redeemer’s University in Nigeria, said authorities are used to curbing outbreaks even without vaccines and credited the extensive networks of community health workers.

“It’s not always about how much money you have or how sophisticated your hospitals are,” he said.

Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh, said African leaders haven’t gotten the credit they deserve for acting quickly, citing Mali’s decision to close its borders before COVID-19 even arrived.

“I think there’s a different cultural approach in Africa, where these countries have approached COVID with a sense of humility because they’ve experienced things like Ebola, polio and malaria,” Sridhar said.

In past months, the coronavirus has pummeled South Africa and is estimated to have killed more than 89,000 people there, by far the most deaths on the continent. But for now, African authorities, while acknowledging that there could be gaps, are not reporting huge numbers of unexpected fatalities that might be COVID-related. WHO data show that deaths in Africa make up just 3% of the global total. In comparison, deaths in the Americas and Europe account for 46% and 29%.

In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, the government has recorded nearly 3,000 deaths so far among its 200 million population. The U.S. records that many deaths every two or three days.

The low numbers have Nigerians like Opemipo Are, a 23-year-old in Abuja, feeling relieved. “They said there will be dead bodies on the streets and all that, but nothing like that happened,” she said.

On Friday, Nigerian authorities began a campaign to significantly expand the West African nation’s coronavirus immunization. Officials are aiming to inoculate half the population before February, a target they think will help them achieve herd immunity.

Oyewale Tomori, a Nigerian virologist who sits on several WHO advisory groups, suggested Africa might not even need as many vaccines as the West. It’s an idea that, while controversial, he says is being seriously discussed among African scientists — and is reminiscent of the proposal British officials made last March to let COVID-19 freely infect the population to build up immunity.

That doesn’t mean, however, that vaccines aren’t needed in Africa.

“We need to be vaccinating all out to prepare for the next wave,” said Salim Abdool Karim, an epidemiologist at South Africa’s University of KwaZulu-Natal, who previously advised the South African government on COVID-19. “Looking at what’s happening in Europe, the likelihood of more cases spilling over here is very high.”

The impact of the coronavirus has also been relatively muted beyond Africa in poor countries like Afghanistan, where experts predicted outbreaks amid ongoing conflict would prove disastrous.

Hashmat Arifi, a 23-year-old student in Kabul, said he hadn’t seen anyone wearing a mask in months, including at a recent wedding he attended alongside hundreds of guests. In his university classes, more than 20 students routinely sit unmasked in close quarters.

“I haven’t seen any cases of corona lately,” Arifi said. So far, Afghanistan has recorded about 7,200 deaths among its 39 million people, although little testing was done amid the conflict and the actual numbers of cases and deaths are unknown.

Back in Zimbabwe, doctors were grateful for the respite from COVID-19 — but feared it was only temporary.

“People should remain very vigilant,” warned Dr. Johannes Marisa, president of the Medical and Dental Private Practitioners of Zimbabwe Association. He fears that another coronavirus wave would hit Zimbabwe next month. “Complacency is what is going to destroy us because we may be caught unaware.”

___

Cheng reported from London. Rahim Faiez in Islamabad, Pakistan, and Chinedu Asadu in Lagos contributed to this report.

Aside from vaccination, mask-wearing seems the most effective tool for combating COVID-19, a major study suggests


Dr. Catherine Schuster-Bruce
Fri, November 19, 2021

Mask-wearing reduced COVID-19 incidence by 53%, a large study found.

CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images

Mask-wearing seems the best public health measure for fighting COVID-19, according to a large analysis.


Hand-washing and social distancing could also reduce the number of new COVID-19 cases, the study authors said.


The researchers bemoaned a lack of quality data on quarantine, lockdowns, and school closures.

Mask-wearing seems to be the most effective public health measure for combating the coronavirus, according to a large global analysis that found it reduced COVID-19 incidence by 53%.

Hand-washing and physical distancingcould also reduce the number of new COVID-19 cases, according to the analysis published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) Thursday.

The scientists, from the UK, Australia, and China, analyzed more than 70 published studies from across the world that examined non-pharmaceutical public health interventions. Vaccines are proven to be highly effective at stopping people catching COVID-19 but the effects of other public health measures is less clear.

The scientists said they were unable to draw firm conclusions about the effectiveness of quarantine and isolation, universal lockdowns, and closures of borders, schools, and workplaces, because the studies were so diverse.

Paul Glasziou, director of the Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare at Australia's Bond University, said in a BMJ editorial that "uncertainties and controversies" around the effects of public health measures and "lack of investment" — at just 4% of global COVID-19 research funding — was "puzzling" given their "central importance" in controlling the pandemic.

Glasziou said the "most striking" finding was that the study authors identified only one randomized controlled trial for mask-wearing — the type of trial considered to provide the best evidence. Meanwhile, hundreds of trials have been completed for COVID-19 drug treatments, he said.

Dr. Baptiste Leurent, assistant professor in medical statistics at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said in a statement to the Science Media Centre that the researched published Thursday was probably the best available regarding the effects of public health measures on COVID-19 transmission.

However, the accuracy of the findings from this type of research relies on the quality of studies it analyzes.

Laurent cautioned that "nearly all" the evidence in the review was based on a type of study that shows a link between an intervention and outcome, without necessarily proving causation. "Caution is needed when trying to put a single number to their effectiveness," he said.

The authors of the study said that controlling COVID-19 "depends not only on high vaccination coverage and its effectiveness but also on ongoing adherence to effective and sustainable public health measures."

Once enough people are vaccinated, new research will be needed to discover how well public health measures work, they said.

New research offers glimpse into early human development


Research released Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021 in the journal Nature provides a rare glimpse of an early stage of human development. This image from Oxford University shows a human embryo 16-19 days after fertilization. The embryo is undergoing a process called gastrulation, when different cell types are generated and distributed to specific places in the embryo. (University of Oxford via AP)

LAURA UNGAR
Wed, November 17, 2021

Scientists have been able to get a rare glimpse into a crucial, early stage of human development by analyzing an embryo in its third week after fertilization — a moment in time that has been difficult to study because of both practical and ethical considerations.

European researchers looked at a single embryo that was 16 to 19 days old, donated by a woman who ended her pregnancy. Until now, experts said, researchers have lacked a full understanding of this stage of development because human embryos at this stage are difficult to obtain. Most women don’t yet know they’re pregnant by this point and decades-old global guidelines have until recently prohibited growing human embryos in a lab beyond 14 days.

The study, published online Wednesday in the journal Nature, looked at “gastrulation,” which begins about 14 days after fertilization, when the embryo is still about the size of a poppy seed, and lasts a little more than a week.

It’s “a process by which you have this kind of explosion of cell diversity,” said lead investigator Shankar Srinivas, an expert in developmental biology at the University of Oxford, who worked with colleagues in the United Kingdom and Germany on the research. “It’s during gastrulation that the different cells emerge, but they also start to be positioned in different places in forming the body so that they can carry out their functions and form the correct organs.”

For decades, the so-called “14-day rule" on growing embryos in the lab has guided researchers, with some places, including the United Kingdom, writing it into law. Others, including the United States, have accepted it as a standard guiding scientists and regulators.

Earlier this year, the International Society for Stem Cell Research recommended relaxing the rule and allowing researchers to grow embryos past two weeks under limited circumstances and after a tough review process. But the rule remains law in the UK.

This research was not subject to the law because the embryo wasn't grown in a lab. But it is an example of the types of things scientists expect to learn more about if rules are relaxed. Researchers found various types of cells, including red blood cells and “primordial germ cells” that give rise to egg or sperm cells. But they didn’t see neurons, Srinivas said, meaning embryos aren’t equipped at this stage to sense their environment.

Oxford University officials said this stage of development has never been fully mapped out in humans before.

The authors said they hope their work not only sheds light on this stage of development but also helps scientists learn from nature about how to make stem cells into particular types of cells that can be used to help heal damage or disease.

Robin Lovell-Badge, a stem cell expert at London’s Francis Crick Institute who chaired the group behind the guidelines, said being able to culture human embryos beyond 14 days “would be incredibly important to understand not just how we develop normally but how things go wrong.”

It’s very common for embryos to fail during gastrulation or shortly afterwards, he said. “If things go even slightly wrong, you end up with congenital abnormalities, or the embryo miscarries.”

Dr. Daniel Sulmasy, director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University, said “those of us who are morally conservative” always thought the 14-day rule was somewhat arbitrary, “but at least it was some recognition of the humanness of the embryo.”

With the new recommendation, there will be more research on older embryos, he said. “Part of what science does is to always try to go forward and learn things that are new. And that continues to be a pressure. But the mere fact that we can do something is not sufficient to say that we ought to do it.”

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Lungfish cocoon found to be living antimicrobial tissue

by Bob Yirka , Phys.org

Graphic drawing showing a proposed model for cocoon formation in African lungfish.

Free-swimming lungfish skin is characterized by a columnar mucosal epithelium. 

(A) Large numbers of multipotent stem cells with alkaline phosphatase activity (fig. S1)

 can be observed at the interphase between the epidermis and the dermis.

 Granulocyte deposits in the tissue reservoirs of free-swimming lungfish become mobilized

 to the skin via peripheral circulation when lungfish begin to sense lack of food and water. 

(B) Skin remodeling begins, with increasing numbers of granulocytes infiltrating the dermal

 and epidermal layers resulting in loosening of the basal membrane and inflammation. 

(C) The cocoon then starts to form by detachment and shedding of the inflamed 

epidermis. Many granulocytes are part of the cocoon, and they produce ETs in response to 

the high microbial load. Epithelial cells, goblet cells, and antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) 

are also present in the cocoon. The pool of stem cells starts to regenerate the epidermis,

 while granulocytes continue to arrive from reservoirs maintaining an inflammatory state. 

(D) In the next stages of estivation (end of the induction phase), the lungfish skin shows 

complete flattening of the epidermis and goblet cell exhaustion. The cocoon has several

 layers derived from multiple rounds of epidermal shedding and regeneration, and stem 

cell numbers are severely reduced. Granulocytes in the cocoon continue to undergo

 ETosis and are still elevated in the epidermis and dermis compared to free-swimming 

controls. It is unknown whether the cocoon continues to thicken beyond 2 weeks after 

terrestrialization. This illustration was created in BioRender. eDNA, extracellular DNA. 

Credit: DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abj0829

A team of researchers from the University of New Mexico, the University of California and the University of Murcia has found that the cocoon created by lungfish living in dry lakebeds in Africa is made of living antimicrobial tissue. They've published the results of their study in the journal Science Advances.

Lungfish live in parts of Africa in small lakes that tend to go dry when it does not rain for a long time. When this happens, the lungfish create a cocoon around themselves using mucus. The purpose of the cocoon is to protect the lungfish from drying out as it waits for wetter conditions to return. In this new effort, the researchers have found that there is more to the cocoon than previously thought.

Until now, researchers believed the cocoon was simply a shell casing of sorts, with no purpose other than to prevent moisture from escaping under the hot African sun. Now, it appears the cocoon is not only alive, but is made of antimicrobial tissue.

To learn more about the lungfish and its cocoon, the researchers began an analysis of its makeup in 2018. They found granulocyte (white blood cell) markers that migrated during the time when the lungfish was waiting for water to return. More recently, the team has taken a closer look and found that the cocoon was chock full of granulocytes. They also found that they migrated from the skin into the cocoon on a slow, continual basis—a finding that showed the cocoon was much more than just dry mucus; it was a living part of the lungfish.

Imaging showed the granulocytes create traps that immobilize bacteria. When the researchers removed such traps from several specimens, they found the lungfish became susceptible to skin infections and circulating bacteria that are known to lead to septicemia. They also found that some of the infections led to hemorrhage. The researchers suggest that the cocoon protects the lungfish from more than just heat and sun—it also protects them from infections.

Fossil expands ancient fish family tree

More information: Ryan Darby Heimroth et al, The lungfish cocoon is a living tissue with antimicrobial functions, Science Advances (2021). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abj0829

Journal information: Science Advances 

© 2021 Science X Network

Moonshot: Japan recruits first new astronauts in 13 years

Successful applicants will be trained as astronauts by JAXA.

It's one small step for Japan, but one giant opportunity for would-be space cadets: the country is recruiting new astronauts for the first time in over a decade and applicants no longer have to hold a science degree.

Women are strongly encouraged to put themselves forward for the job, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said, as all seven of the nation's current astronauts are men.

Successful applicants, who must be Japanese, will be trained and sent on missions—potentially to the Moon, the Lunar Gateway or the International Space Station.

"We want to establish a (recruiting) system that matches the current time," JAXA's Kazuyoshi Kawasaki said at a media briefing.

"Previously we limited candidates to those with a natural science degree, but many of us agreed to make it not a requirement."

However, written exams will include university-level questions on science, technology, engineering and maths, with the applicants' English ability also tested.

JAXA said it will accept applications between December 20 and March 4—the first time it has offered positions for rookie astronauts in 13 years.

This time around, they are looking to recruit "a few" astronauts with at least three years of workplace experience.

There is no age requirement or gender quotas and the agency has lowered its height requirement to 149.5 centimetres (4.9 feet).

One of Japan's current crew is Akihiko Hoshide, 52, who returned to Earth from the International Space Station earlier this month in a SpaceX craft.SpaceX launches 53 Starlink satellites into orbit

---

© 2021 AFP

Storyboards for doomed ‘Dune’ film up for auction
AFP
-November 20, 2021 6:25 PM

Surreal: Dali, Jagger and Pink Floyd were lined up for Jodorowsky’s failed 1970s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s space-opera classic. (AFP pic)

PARIS: It has entered film folklore as one of the great missed opportunities: the doomed 1970s adaptation of “Dune” that was supposed to bring together Salvador Dali, Mick Jagger and Pink Floyd.

The project famously collapsed after four years of work by cult Franco-Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky, but now his storyboards are going up for auction in Paris on Monday.

With a new version of “Dune” starring Timothee Chalamet packing cinemas around the world in recent weeks, interest in Jodorowsky’s version has been reignited and Christie’s is valuing the drawings at 25,000 to 35,000 euros ($28,000 to $40,000).

They are collected in one large notebook, and were made by celebrated French graphic novelist Moebius (alias Jean Giraud, who died in 2012) and Swiss illustrator Giger, who went on to design “Alien” in 1979 and died in 2014.

The tumultuous project was due to include surrealist Dali, Rolling Stones frontman Jagger, actor-director Orson Welles and silver screen legend Gloria Swanson in the cast, with Pink Floyd among the bands approached for the soundtrack.


It collapsed for lack of funding – a story retold in the 2013 documentary “Jodorowsky’s Dune”.

The brainchild of author Frank Herbert, “Dune” was first published in 1965 and became a six-volume space opera of massive influence, not least on “Star Wars”.

Following the latter’s blockbuster success, Hollywood took renewed interest in “Dune” in the early 1980s.

That led to David Lynch’s version, released in 1984 with a cast including British musician Sting and Patrick Stewart of “Star Trek: Next Generation”, which had its own troubles and became one of the decade’s biggest flops.

Jodorowsky’s storyboards have taken on mythical overtones among sci-fi fans – said to have influenced later genre hits including “Blade Runner”.

“We know of several other copies: one was offered for auction several years ago, another is in Jodorowsky’s possession… A third has been partially reproduced online,” said Christie’s.

It said around 10 to 20 copies were produced, though it was hard to be certain.

Hundreds protest in Sudan ahead of planned mass anti-coup demos




Hundreds protest in Sudan ahead of planned mass anti-coup demosSudanese security forces have cracked down on protesters, as seen in this photograph from November 13 in Khartoum, where they fired teargas 

Sat, November 20, 2021

Hundreds of Sudanese anti-coup demonstrators rallied Saturday to denounce a deadly crackdown which medics say has left 40 people dead since last month's military takeover, a day before planned mass protests.

The United States and African Union condemned the deadly crackdown on protesters and called on Sudan's leaders to refrain from the "excessive use of force".

Sudan's top general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on October 25 declared a state of emergency, ousted the government and detained the civilian leadership.


The military takeover upended a two-year transition to civilian rule, drew international condemnation and punitive measures, and provoked large protests.

Demonstrations on Wednesday were the deadliest so far, with a toll of 16 killed after a teenager who had been shot died, medics said.

The independent Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors said the 16-year-old had been shot "by live rounds to the head and the leg".

Hundreds of protesters rallied against the military in North Khartoum, putting up barricades and setting tyres on fire, an AFP correspondent said. Other protesters took to the streets in east and south Khartoum, according to witnesses.

They chanted "no, no to military rule" and called for "civilian rule".

During the unrest in North Khartoum, a police station was set on fire, the correspondent said.

Pro-democracy activists made online calls for mass anti-coup protests with a "million-strong march" to take place on Sunday.

- 'Treachery and betrayal' -

Security forces and protesters traded blame for the torching of the police station.

Police spokesman Idris Soliman accused an unidentified "group of people" of setting it on fire.

But North Khartoum's resistance committee claimed the police was responsible.

"Police forces withdrew from the station... and after members of the police carried out acts of sabotage," it said in a statement.

"We accuse clearly and explicitly the military establishment for causing this chaos," added the committee, part of informal groups which emerged during 2018-2019 protests that ousted president Omar al-Bashir in April 2019.

Most of those killed on Wednesday were in North Khartoum, which lies across the Nile river from the capital, medics said.

On Saturday, Sudanese authorities said an investigation into the killings would be launched.

Dozens of protesters also rallied Saturday to mourn the latest deaths, demanding "retribution" and a transition to civilian rule.

Protesters also took to the streets of Khartoum's twin-city Omdurman to denounce the killings, chanting "down with the (ruling) council of treachery and betrayal".

Police officials deny using any live ammunition and insist they have used "minimum force" to disperse the protests. They have recorded only one death, among demonstrators in North Khartoum.

On Friday, police forces sporadically fired tear gas until late at night to disperse demonstrators who had rallied in North Khartoum, witnesses said.

The Sudanese Professionals Association, an umbrella of unions which were instrumental in the months-long demonstrations that led to Bashir's ouster, said security forces has also "stormed homes and mosques".

An AFP correspondent said police forces also frisked passers-by and carried out identification checks.

- 'Abuses and violations' -

The US and African Union denounced the deadly crackdown.

"We call for those responsible for human rights abuses and violations, including the excessive use of force against peaceful protesters, to be held accountable," US State Department spokesman Ned Price said.

"In advance of upcoming protests, we call on Sudanese authorities to use restraint and allow peaceful demonstrations."

The African Union, which suspended Sudan after the coup, condemned "in the strongest terms" Wednesday's violence.

AU Commission chair Moussa Faki Mahamat called on Sudan's authorities "to restore constitutional order and the democratic transition" in line with a 2019 power-sharing deal between the military and the now-deposed civilian figures.

The Committee to Protect Journalists called for the release of reporters detained while covering anti-coup protests including Ali Farsab who it said was beaten, shot, and detained by security forces on Wednesday.

"Sudanese security forces' shooting and beating of journalist Ali Farsab make a mockery of the coup government's alleged commitment to a democratic transitional phase in the country," said the CPJ's Sherif Mansour.

Sudan has a long history of military coups, enjoying only rare interludes of democratic rule since independence in 1956.

Burhan insists the military's move "was not a coup" but a step "to rectify the transition" as factional infighting and splits deepened between civilians and the military under the now-deposed government.

He has since announced a new ruling council in which he kept his position as head, along with a powerful paramilitary commander, three senior military figures, three ex-rebel leaders and one civilian.

But the other four civilian members were replaced with lesser known figures.

bur/hkb

AFP

Ethiopia hails return of looted artefacts

a "great injustice" that has been a thorn in relations with Britain.

In Summary

•Ethiopia, one of the world's oldest countries with a rich and ancient cultural and religious heritage, has said it considers the ransacking of Magdala a "great injustice" that has been a thorn in relations with Britain.

•Most of the items were plundered by the British army after it defeated Emperor Tewodros II in the Battle of Magdala in 1868 in what was then Abyssinia.

Ethiopia's Minister of Tourism Nasise Challi speaks during a handover ceremony of the collection of Ethiopian precious artefacts looted by British soldiers more than 150 years ago, at the National Museum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on November 20, 2021.

Image: Amanuel Sileshi / AFP


Ethiopia on Saturday hailed the return of precious artefacts looted by British soldiers more than 150 years ago, after a long campaign for their restitution.

The collection -- recovered from Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands -- includes a ceremonial crown, an imperial shield, a set of silver-embossed horn drinking cups, a handwritten prayer book, crosses and a necklace.

Most of the items were plundered by the British army after it defeated Emperor Tewodros II in the Battle of Magdala in 1868 in what was then Abyssinia.

The treasures were unwrapped before the media at Ethiopia's national museum on Saturday, more than two months after they were formally handed over at a ceremony in London in September.

Ethiopia said it was the largest such repatriation of artefects to the country, with its ambassador to Britain, Teferi Melesse, describing it as of "huge significance".

Calls have long been mounting in Africa for Western countries to return their colonial spoils, with many prized national treasures held abroad in museums or sometimes private collections.

Earlier this month, the West African state of Benin welcomed back nearly 30 royal treasures seized during France's rule more than 130 years ago.

- 'Great injustice' -The Ethiopian government is still fighting for Britain to return other stolen artefacts including sacred wooden and stone tabots or tablets, which represent the Ark of the Covenant.

The tabots are housed in the British Museum in London -- which has a vast trove of foreign treasures -- but have never been put on public display.

Staff carry boxes containing recovered items to be on display at the National Museum as Ethiopia hailed the return of precious artefacts looted by British soldiers more than 150 years ago in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on November 20, 2021.
Image: Amanuel Sileshi /AFP

Ethiopia is also seeking the remains of Tewodros' son Prince Alemayehu who was taken to Britain after the emperor committed suicide following his battlefield defeat.

"A variety of artefacts which are a legacy of our culture and values were looted during the battle and taken out of the country illegally," said Tourism Minister Nasise Challi.

"Countless of our artefacts are found in various museums, research centres and in the hands of private individuals," she said at Saturday's event, appealing for their return.

Ethiopia, one of the world's oldest countries with a rich and ancient cultural and religious heritage, has said it considers the ransacking of Magdala a "great injustice" that has been a thorn in relations with Britain.

Several of the returned items were due to be auctioned but were bought by the non-profit Scheherazade Foundation with the aim of repatriation. Others were acquired from private dealers or investors.

Among them was a set of mediaeval manuscripts dating back to before the 18th century, which had been due to be auctioned in the Hague.

Ethiopia is also negotiating for the return of a bible and cross that were set for the auction block in the United States.

"These restitutions are taking place in a global context where the role of museums in portraying colonial histories and the legitimacy of displaying looted artefacts is being questioned," Ethiopia's National Heritage Restitution Committee said in a statement in September.