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We develop simple models for the global spread of infectious diseases, emphasizing human mobility via air travel and the variation of public health infrastructure from region to region. We derive formulas relating the total and peak number of infections in two countries to the rate of travel between them and their respective epidemiological parameters.

Protein-Unfolding Factor may Help Tackle BSE.

Researchers Uncover Links between Fatty Acids and Suicide.

Singapore Scentists Use Viruses to Treat Neuronal Diseases.

Surprising Discovery on Biodiversity and Biogeography May Lead to Discovery of Viruses

Scientists in Singapore Shed Light on the Molecular Alliance between Key Proteins that Play a Role in Sustaining the Embryonic Stem Cell State

Infant Brain Injury can be Caused by Chikungunya Virus if Mother Acquires Infection Near Time of Delivery

SINGAPORE – A*STAR Scientists Reveal How Stem Cells Defend Against Viruses: New Insights to the Mechanisms bring Broad Implications to Stem Cell Therapy and Disease Diagnosis

SINGAPORE – Singtel - Singapore Cancer Society Race against Cancer 2015

SINGAPORE – NCCS and IMCB to Collaborate on Research for New Treatments to Benefit Cancer Patients

SINGAPORE – MerLion’s Finafloxacin Shown to be More Efficacious than Ciprofloxacin in the Treatment of Complicated Urinary Tract Infections

TAIWAN AND UNITED STATES – Professor Yuk-ling Yung Receives Gerard P. Kuiper Prize

SWEDEN – New Data Confirm Tresiba^® U200 Delivers Significantly Lower Rates of Confirmed Hypoglycaemia versus Insulin Glargine U100

UNITED KINGDOM – Using Ultrasound to Clean Medical Instruments

THE NETHERLANDS & UNITED STATES – Philips and Dutch Radboud University Medical Centre Introduce First Diabetes Prototype App with Integrated Online Community to Empower Patients and Enhance Continuity of Care

UNITED STATES – New Clinical Architecture Content Cloud Establishes Reliable Single Source for Terminology Updates, Makes It Easier to Keep Healthcare Systems Up-to-Date

UNITED STATES – Genomic Analysis for All Cancer Patients

UNITED STATES – Birds That Eat at Feeders Are More Likely to Get Sick, Spread Disease, International Research Team Says

SCIENCE CHINA Life Sciences English Edition Publishes Domestic Type 2 Diabetes Research Findings.

Omega-3 Therapy May Help Reverse Type 1 Diabetes.

New Plastic-Eating Fungus May Solve Garbage Problem.

Chinese Researchers Reveal How Cells Prevent Viral Invasion.

Scientists Unlock TCM Drug’s Role in Weight Loss.

Medical Reforms in Beijing.

East China’s Anhui Province Innovates Advanced Technology.

DeltaHealth and Harvard Global Health Institute Hold Symposium.

HONG KONG News – HKSTP Welcomes Maz World to Hong Kong’s Vibrant Ecosystem to Commercialise Revolutionary Ostrich Antibody Technology from Japan

NUS Researchers Create Palm-Size Device for Quick, Effective Treatment of Common Hearing Disorder.

World Asthma Day: Managing and Living with Asthma.

DARZALEX^® (daratumumab) Available in Singapore, Following Accelerated Approval by the Health Sciences Authority.

Managing Liver Cancer as a Global Health Problem.

Bayer and NUS Enterprise Announce Winners of Grants4Apps^® Singapore Open Innovation Challenge.

Exclusive Interviews with the Grants4Apps^® winners: I. EyeDEA, Singapore, II. GlycoLeap by Holmusk, Singapore and III. PillPocket, Thailand.

Palm-Sized PCR Device for Rapid Real-Time Detection of Viruses.

Scientists Uncover New Mechanism for Diabetic Neuropathy.

Chi Med Initiates a Phase I/II Clinical Trial of Novel FGFR Inhibitor HMPL 453 in China.

Database Boosts Shanghai’s Technology Aim.

Experts Emphasize Scientific and Technological Innovations in Agriculture.

China Enlists AI to Diagnose Breast Cancer.

Study Offers Clue to Memory Formation in the Brain.

China Signed Science Cooperation Agreement with Bolivia.

Biotechnology in China Hits 4 Trillion RMB in 2016.

A Novel Pathway: Adult Hippocampal Neurogenesis Linked to Depression Caused by Inflammation.

BGI Genomics Announces Pricing of Initial Public Offering.

The future of pharma: Digital, personalized, and dynamic.

Using real world evidence in the development of new medicine.

Hunting for new drugs to treat mental illness.

Clean cow starts now.

Archaea, bacteria and eukaryotes represent the main kingdoms of life. Is there any trend for amino acid compositions of proteins found in full genomes of species of different kingdoms? What is the percentage of totally unstructured proteins in various proteomes? We obtained amino acid frequencies for different taxa using 195 known proteomes and all annotated sequences from the Swiss–Prot data base. Investigation of the two data bases (proteomes and Swiss–Prot) shows that the amino acid compositions of proteins differ substantially for different kingdoms of life, and this difference is larger between different proteomes than between different kingdoms of life. Our data demonstrate that there is a surprisingly small selection for the amino acid composition of proteins for higher organisms (eukaryotes) and their viruses in comparison with the "random" frequency following from a uniform usage of codons of the universal genetic code. On the contrary, lower organisms (bacteria and especially archaea) demonstrate an enhanced selection of amino acids. Moreover, according to our estimates, 12%, 3% and 2% of the proteins in eukaryotic, bacterial and archaean proteomes are totally disordered, and long (> 41 residues) disordered segments are found to occur in 16% of arhaean, 20% of eubacterial and 43% of eukaryotic proteins for 19 archaean, 159 bacterial and 17 eukaryotic proteomes, respectively. A correlation between amino acid compositions of proteins of various taxa, show that the highest correlation is observed between eukaryotes and their viruses (the correlation coefficient is 0.98), and bacteria and their viruses (the correlation coefficient is 0.96), while correlation between eukaryotes and archaea is 0.85 only.

Nanomedicine or nanotechnology exhibits outstanding features to challenge severe health issues including pathogenic viral infections, the most culpable invaders in the present situation. The perpetual mutational pattern in viruses topped with raising resistance to drug epitomizes the current situation as a trigger to explore nanotech platforms in antiviral therapies. Referring to novel physicochemical features of nanomaterials associated with effective drug delivery, it is viewed as an ideal strategy for treatment of viral infections. The coronavirus induced pathogenesis, including MERS, SARS and SARS-CoV-2 infections, has triggered alarming and highly dangerous precedents against existence of humans. Applications of nanotechnology can serve a new direction for disinfection or treatment of viruses. Presently, various types of nanomaterials, such as nanogels, nanospheres, nanocapsules, liposomes, nanoparticles and many others, that have been investigated in vivo and in vitro for successful drug delivery, vaccination, diagnostic assay and device development with anticipation to be translated in advanced clinical practices, need a collective relook. This paper intents to contribute insightful critique of current studies on the efficacy of nanoplatforms as drug transporter, diagnostic tool and vaccine candidate against pathogenic viruses counting the highly pathogenic and incurable “coronaviruses”.

The interaction between neutrophils and viruses is complex, and the clinical significance is not well established. It is known that neutrophils can inhibit or kill viruses by various mechanisms, including production of oxygen intermediates and phagocytosis in the laboratory. Viruses may activate neutrophils by binding to the surface and by the production of cytokines which occurs in upper respiratory tract infections. Neutrophils may be inhibited viruses such as CMV by direct interaction by suppression of the bone marrow. These interactions between neutrophils and viruses will be discussed in this chapter.

Conventional methods of genetic engineering and more recent genome editing techniques focus on identifying genetic target sequences for manipulation. This is a result of historical concept of the gene which was also the main assumption of the ENCODE project designed to identify all functional elements in the human genome sequence. However, the theoretical core concept changed dramatically. The old concept of genetic sequences which can be assembled and manipulated like molecular bricks has problems in explaining the natural genome-editing competences of viruses and RNA consortia that are able to insert or delete, combine and recombine genetic sequences more precisely than random-like into cellular host organisms according to adaptational needs or even generate sequences de novo. Increasing knowledge about natural genome editing questions the traditional narrative of mutations (error replications) as essential for generating genetic diversity and genetic content arrangements in biological systems. This may have far-reaching consequences for our understanding of artificial genome editing.

There are over 100 different types of pathogens that can be found in contaminated water. Contaminated drinking water due to inadequate and unsanitary disposal of sewage and excreta continue to pose a threat to the health in many communities in developing countries. Groundwaters, surface waters, and distribution systems are at risk. Waterborne disease outbreaks are rising due to increasing vulnerable populations, political upheaval, and high numbers of refugees in developing countries. Natural disasters such as flooding and droughts due to climatic changes may also be affecting global water quality. As we move into the next century, it will be important to arm drinking water utility personnel with current and comprehensive information regarding waterborne pathogens and the importance of maintaining vigilance in their control.

We discuss the origin and evolution of Homo sapiens in a cosmic context, and in relation to the Hoyle–Wickramasinghe theory of panspermia for which there is now overwhelming evidence. It is argued that the first bacteria (archea) incident on the Earth via the agency of comets 3.8–4 billion years ago continued at later times to be augmented by viral genes (DNA, RNA) from space that eventually led to the evolutionary patterns we see in present-day biology. We argue that the current evolutionary status of Homo sapiens as well as its future trajectory is circumscribed by evolutionary processes that were pre-determined on a cosmic scale — over vast distances and enormous spans of cosmic time. Based on this teleological hypothesis we postulate that two distinct classes of cosmic viruses (cosmic viral genes) are involved in accounting for the facts relating to the evolution of life.

The theory of cometary panspermia, developed by the late Sir Fred Hoyle and the present author argues that life originated cosmically as a unique event in one of a great multitude of comets or planetary bodies in the Universe. Life on Earth did not originate here but was introduced by impacting comets, and its further evolution was driven by the subsequent acquisition of cosmically derived genes. Explicit predictions of this theory published in 1979–1981, stating how the acquisition of new genes drives evolution, are compared with recent developments in relation to horizontal gene transfer, and the role of retroviruses in evolution. Precisely-stated predictions of the theory of cometary panspermia are shown to have been verified.

With the many major advances in medical and biological sciences that have taken place in recent years it would seem remarkable that we are still unable to come to grips with the problem of influenza. In spite of our ability to produce detail sequences of bacterial and viral genomes, the emergence of new epidemic or pandemic strains of the influenza virus is still shrouded in mystery. To resolve this mystery we may need to turn to space.