COVID antibody therapy | Predicting hospitalization risk

Insight on COVID antibody therapy

MADISON, WI—Although current anti-COVID-19 pills are very effective against the omicron variant, lab tests have found that the available antibody therapies are substantially less effective. According to a study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, some antibodies have entirely lost the ability to neutralize the omicron variant at realistic dosages.

Bariatric surgery can cut COVID risk

CLEVELAND, OH—Recent research from the Cleveland Clinic shows that patients who’ve lost a good amount of weight from bariatric surgery were able to cut their risk of complications from COVID-19. They cut their risk of going to the hospital in half and had a 60% lower risk of developing severe COVID-19.

EmitBio’s biotech platform eliminates Omicron variant

DURHAM, NC—Biotech company EmitBio announced the results from a series of in vitro experiments targeting Omicron and other SARS-CoV-2 variants: their blue light biotechnology platform eliminated 99.99% of the Omicron variant in the laboratory setting. Results from this work are available in preprint on bioRxiv and have been submitted for peer review.

Predicting hospitalization risk with AI

INDIANA—AI machine learning models trained using health factor data can predict a patient’s risk of being hospitalized with COVID-19. A study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research used data from the COVID-19 Research Data Commons (a statewide health information exchange from 23 health systems and 93 hospitals in Indiana) to train machine learning models to identify patient-level need for healthcare.