Imaging technologies | Pinpointing pain | Antibodies, data & Delta

"When burned on a CD, the human genome is smaller than Microsoft Office." — Stephen T. Jurvetson, an American businessman and venture capitalist 

Today’s itinerary:

• Early detection of diabetic retinopathy
• Next-gen imaging technologies
• Experimental eczema med from Eli Lilly
• Using a body map to pinpoint pain
• Vaccination antibodies and the Delta variant
  
• COVID and white blood cell clones  
• Antibodies & Data

August 25, 2021

PUDDLE HOPS: HEALTH TECH

Image by ESB Professional for Shutterstock

• BLOOMINGTON, IN—Researchers at Indiana University have identified new biomarkers that may advance the early detection of diabetic retinopathy, the most common diabetic eye disease and a leading cause of blindness in U.S. adults.

• ST. LOUIS, MO—An assistant professor at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis will be leading a three-year research initiative to accelerate the development of the next generation of imaging technologies. Ulugbek Kamilov has already designed algorithms to shave time off of MRI scans and worked on software aimed at tailoring unwieldy amounts of data into manageable datasets.

• INDIANAPOLIS, IN—An experimental eczema medicine from Eli Lilly called lebrikizumab has succeeded in two late-stage clinical trials. The drug was developed by Dermira, a company Lilly acquired in 2019 for just over $1 billion.
  
  
• PITTSBURGH, PA—The University of Pittsburgh has paved the way for more personalized medicine by using a body map to pinpoint pain distribution. Researchers found that how a patient reports the bodily distribution of their chronic pain affects nearly all aspects of the pain experience.

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PANDEMIC INNOVATION

Vaccination antibodies and the Delta variant

ST. LOUIS, MO—Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that the Delta variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 is largely unable to evade antibodies elicited by vaccination. The researchers analyzed a panel of antibodies generated by people in response to the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine and found that Delta was unable to evade all but one of the antibodies they tested.

COVID and white blood cell clones

NASHVILLE, TN—Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have found that people recovering from COVID-19 and those vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 produce clones, or groups, of antibody-producing white blood cells. The findings could help scientists design more effective vaccines and antibody therapies against a broader range of variants.

Antibodies & Data

LOUISVILLE, KY—The Co-Immunity Project at the University of Louisville has tested and studied the COVID-19 antibodies of almost 13,000 people to gain a better idea of how the virus has spread in Louisville. So far, the research appears to show natural antibodies taper off in roughly three months while vaccinated antibodies appear to hold stronger.

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