“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom...” — Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities Dedication: This final Insight of 2020 is dedicated to all those who work in the life sciences. Without your passion for the work you do, 2020 could have been far worse. 2020 When we look back on 2020, how will we... Read More
COVID-19 modeling in mice has been limited by species differences in the ACE2 protein between mice and humans. The SARS-CoV-2 virus uses the ACE2 protein to facilitate entry into cells. The mouse ACE2 receptor is not permissive for viral binding, and thus initial reports indicate that wild type mice cannot be infected with SARS-CoV-2 1,2. One approach to overcoming this challenge is the use of transgenic mice... Read More
There is an urgent need to find mouse models to support the development of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and therapeutics and combat the COVID-19 pandemic. A recent study from Peking Union Medical College has demonstrated the promising application of humanized angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) transgenic mice for SARS-CoV-2 research1. Mouse models are widely used to develop and test the safety and efficacy of vaccines and antiviral drugs, as... Read More
Author note: at the publication date for this Insight, mouse-adapted SARS-CoV-2 viral strains were not available. However, two papers published after this Insight have demonstrated two different approaches for developing these mouse-adapted viral strains. Taconic has published a new Insight discussing this research. COVID-19, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, is rapidly spreading over the globe. On March 11th, 2020, the WHO declared this outbreak a pandemic, and... Read More
The recent emergence of the novel, pathogenic SARS-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19), and its rapid international spread pose a global health emergency. The SARS-CoV-2 virus belongs to the family of coronaviridae viruses, which are enveloped, positive-sense, single-stranded RNA viruses. Entry into human (mammalian) cells depends on binding of the viral spike (S) proteins to human cellular receptors and on S protein priming by host cell proteases. Patients with... Read More
COVID-19 is rapidly spreading around the globe and constitutes a global health crisis. This disease is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, a coronavirus related to the SARS-CoV virus which caused the global SARS outbreak in 20031,2. Preclinical research on SARS may provide insight into useful animal models for COVID-19 research, and much of the information presented below is based on studies of SARS. While there is little... Read More
Nonprofit Wins FDA Approval for Tuberculosis Drug At the end of the summer, the TB Alliance announced the approval of a new drug to treat some of the most drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis (TB). This is the first time the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a TB drug developed by a not-for-profit entity. The TB Alliance is dedicated to the discovery, development, and delivery... Read More
On Wednesday, July 17th, 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DCR) to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. This outbreak was originally declared on August 1, 2018 in Mangina, one of the most populous locations in the country. Since then, the outbreak has been classified as a level 3 emergency, which is the highest-level... Read More
HIV is a rare, incurable virus that attacks the human immune system. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 36.9 million people are living with HIV or AIDS, and close to 1 million deaths per year are caused by the disease. Currently, there is no vaccine or cure. The standard treatment involves daily, lifelong therapy with multiple antiviral drugs that suppress the virus if taken regularly. Because... Read More
Multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacterial infections have been on the rise for decades, forcing researchers to investigate alternatives to antibiotic treatments. Phage therapy, a century-old technique that utilizes viruses to attack bacteria, has therefore gained interest in the last few years as a potential alternative treatment for MDR infections. Advancements in next-generation sequencing and bioengineering have enabled the development of this type of precision anti-bacterial therapy that can... Read More
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