Epidemiology

As reported by Heather McKenzie from BioSpace, when our backs were against the wall, the biotech/biopharma community came together to create not one, but two COVID-19 vaccines currently approved for emergency use in the U.S. The lessons learned from the global pandemic are expected to translate to existing and emerging therapeutic areas – particularly, oncology; more efficient regulatory-industry relationships; mRNA is a word we will continue to hear a lot about; and home health care is here to stay. These are just a few of the insights Ms. McKenzie discovered when she recently spoke with 12 executives from the biotech/biopharma space.

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The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation announced $1.7 million in new research funding to drive progress on its Path to a Cure. The awards, to seven academic institutions and two companies, will support focused research into key scientific challenges associated with developing therapies to address the underlying cause of disease for all people with CF, regardless of their underlying mutation.

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A treatment that may improve the 10-year survival rate for ovarian cancer patients should be a consideration, according to a recent study led by McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Faina Linkov, PhD, MPH, chair of Duquesne University’s Health Administration and Public Health program in the Rangos School of Health Sciences.

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Students from the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering and the School of Pharmacy designed and prepared experiments that will be conducted aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

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In a recent issue of the Annals of Surgery, epidemiologists from the University of Pittsburgh published an analysis that could help guide clinicians and policymakers in counseling bariatric surgery patients to improve their quality of life for many years to come.  McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Steven Belle, PhD, MScHyg, professor in the Department of Epidemiology and a co-director in the Epidemiology Data Center in the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh, is a co-author on the study.

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UPMC and University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine physician-scientists—including McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Derek Angus, MD, MPH, UPMC chief healthcare innovation officer, chair of the UPP Department of Critical Care Medicine and physician director of the UPMC ICU Service Center, University of Pittsburgh’s inaugural associate vice chancellor for health care innovation, and Distinguished Professor and the Mitchell P. Fink Endowed Chair in Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine—contributed to a national study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reporting findings that “do not support” the use of hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of adult patients hospitalized with COVID-19.

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A recent study has validated a new patient-reported outcome measure that assesses fatigue in patients receiving long-term dialysis treatments. The results appear in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN).  McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Mary Amanda Dew, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry, Psychology, Epidemiology, Nursing, and Biostatistics at the University of Pittsburgh and also a Professor at the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, is a co-author on this study.

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In a tremendous demonstration of global collaboration, an international team led by clinician-scientists at UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have pooled data from 121 hospitals in eight countries to find that inexpensive, widely available steroids improve the odds that very sick COVID-19 patients will survive the illness.

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Especially in settings where personal protective equipment, or PPE, is in short supply, intubation — inserting a breathing tube down a patient’s throat — poses a major risk of SARS-CoV-2 exposure for doctors and nurses as viral particles are released into the air.

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The Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) at the University of Pittsburgh has awarded $900,000 to 17 research projects to address different aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic.  McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty members Alan Wells, MD, DMSc, and Louis Falo, MD, PhD, will serve as co-principal investigators on two of the funded projects.  Their projects and funding are:

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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has awarded the Hillman Center for Pediatric Transplantation at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh with one of the first six grants from the COVID-19 Telehealth Program Fund — and the first to a children’s hospital.

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Launched recently at UPMC is a novel clinical trial developed by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine to address one of the most important debates during the COVID-19 pandemic: How should doctors decide between quickly adopting new therapies, such as the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, and waiting until they are tested in longer clinical trials?

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University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine scientists announced a potential vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus causing the COVID-19 pandemic. When tested in mice, the vaccine, delivered through a fingertip-sized patch, produces antibodies specific to SARS-CoV-2 at quantities thought to be sufficient for neutralizing the virus.

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As reported by David Templeton for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, UPMC researchers are close to completing a blood test to determine immunity against the virus that causes COVID-19.  Such a test could certify little or no risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and identify the so-called “super” people who could serve in the health-care battle against COIVD-19 with little risk to themselves.

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Pairing chemotherapy nanodrugs with a nutritional supplement can lessen devastating side-effects while reducing the amount of the expensive drugs needed to treat cancer according to a study from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and Taiwan’s National Health Research Institutes (NHRI). In addition, pretreatment with the supplement promotes the production of tumor-killing macrophages, making it a promising complement and supplement to existing chemotherapies.

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Auto-brewery syndrome is a rare medical condition in which intoxicating quantities of ethanol are produced by specific types of yeast or bacteria through endogenous fermentation in the digestive system.  McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Kenichi Tamama, MD, PhD, FCAP, Associate Professor of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Director of the Toxicology Laboratory, and colleagues have reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine the first known case of a woman who urinates alcohol after a never-before-seen condition effectively turned her bladder into a microbrewery.

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Although 1 in 7 adults smoke cigarettes the year prior to undergoing weight-loss surgery, nearly all successfully quit at least a month before their operation. However, smoking prevalence steadily climbs to pre-surgery levels within seven years, according to new research led by the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.  McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Steven Belle, PhD, MScHyg, Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and a Co-Director in the Epidemiology Data Center, Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh, is a co-author on this work.

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Mucus is a protective, slimy secretion produced by goblet cells and which lines organs of the respiratory, digestive, and reproductive systems. Slime production is essential to health, and an imbalance can be life-threatening. Patients with diseases such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and ulcerative colitis produce too much mucus, often after growing too many goblet cells. Loss of goblet cells can be equally devastating – for instance during cancer, after infection, or injury. The balance of slime creation, amount, and transport is critical, so doctors and medical researchers have long sought the origins of goblet cells and have been eager to control processes that regenerate them and maintain balanced populations.

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Sometimes, in order to understand the big picture, you need to start by assessing the smallest of details. It’s a truth that engineers know well — selecting the right materials can mean the success or failure of a given application.

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Overweight and obese vitamin D-deficient children who took a relatively high dose of vitamin D every day for six months had lower blood pressure and improved insulin sensitivity than their peers who took a lower dose, according to the results of a UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh clinical trial reported in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.  McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Abbe de Vallejo, PhD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Immunology in the School of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, is a co-author on the study.

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Twice as many people as previously believed are dying of sepsis worldwide, according to an analysis published in The Lancet and announced at the Critical Care Reviews annual meeting in Belfast. Among them are a disproportionately high number of children in poor areas.

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As a healthy heart ages, it becomes more susceptible to cardiovascular diseases. Though researchers have discovered that relaxin, an insulin-like hormone, suppresses atrial fibrillation (AF), inflammation, and fibrosis in aged rats, the underlying mechanisms of these benefits are still unknown. In a recent Scientific Reports paper, a University of Pittsburgh research team discusses how relaxin interacts with the body’s signaling processes to produce a fundamental mechanism that may have great therapeutic potential.

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Artur Dubrawski, PhD, is not a critical care physician, but his best friend is. Dr. Dubrawski, a research professor in Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute, loves talking about disease symptoms with McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Michael Pinsky, MD, a professor of critical care medicine, cardiovascular disease, bioengineering and more at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. They also love talking about data and, more important, what the data means.

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Cardiol Therapeutics Inc., a leader in the production of pharmaceutical cannabidiol (CBD) products and in the development of innovative cannabidiol medicines for heart disease, announced the formation of the Clinical Steering Committee (CSC) for a Phase 2 international trial in acute myocarditis using its CardiolRx™100 cannabidiol formulation.

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The University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine is the first in the nation to establish opioid-free pain management guidelines for the vast majority of procedures performed in all of its clinics.

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Magee-Womens Research Institute (MWRI) has received $112,500 in funding from A Glimmer of Hope Foundation (GOH) to further research of metastatic breast cancer (MBC) and to enhance patient support services at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital.

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Surgery can mend congenital heart defects shortly after birth, but those babies will carry a higher risk of heart failure throughout the rest of their lives. Yet, according to a Science Translational Medicine study published by UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh researchers, β-blockers could supplement surgery to regenerate infant heart muscle and mitigate the lasting effects of congenital heart disease.

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Jenny Blair, writer for PittMed, reports in her article that in April 2019, Pitt began enrolling patients in one of the world’s first trials that combines the electronic health record with a new, efficient, safety-focused randomization process. The system is powered by software created by the Texas-based Berry Consultants. The approach, called REMAP (randomized, embedded, multi-factorial, adaptive platform), may transform the way doctors learn from patients—and how they care for them.

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Primary investigators Gwendolyn Sowa, MD, PhD, of Pitt’s Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and the UPMC Rehabilitation Institute, and McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Nam Vo, PhD, of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, were awarded $21.5 million to establish the Low Back Pain: Biological, Biomechanical, Behavioral Phenotypes Mechanistic Research Center (LB3P MRC), a multidisciplinary research center dedicated to categorizing patients into chronic low back pain subgroups with the goal of targeting treatments specific to individual patients’ pain and reducing the use of opioids.

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Oncorus, Inc., an oncolytic virus company focused on driving innovation to transform outcomes for cancer patients, announced recently the completion of an oversubscribed $79.5 million Series B financing.  Oncorus is a University of Pittsburgh spin-out company based on the pioneering research of McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Joseph Glorioso III, PhD, Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine with a secondary appointment in the Department of Human Genetics, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.  Dr. Glorioso is a co-founder of Oncorus and heads its Scientific Advisory Board.

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More than 30 million Americans suffer from diabetes and must inject themselves with insulin two to four times daily. Researchers have been looking for ways to administer the drug orally, and researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) have now shown such a feat is possible.

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Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Hillman Cancer Center—including McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Simon Watkins, PhD, founder and director of the Center for Biologic Imaging at the University of Pittsburgh, a member of the Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, and a distinguished professor and vice chairman within the Department of Cell Biology—provide the first concrete evidence for the long-held belief that sick mitochondria pollute the cells they’re supposed to be supplying with power.

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McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member David Vorp, PhD, associate dean for research at Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering and the John A. Swanson Professor of Bioengineering, and his team are using Amazon Web Services (AWS) resources to improve the diagnosis and treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms, the 13th-leading cause of death in western countries. New machine learning technologies and advances in computing power, like those offered by Amazon SageMaker and Amazon EC2, are making it possible to rapidly translate insights discovered in the lab into treatments and services that could dramatically improve human health.

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One out of four sepsis patients who survive their hospital stay have elevated levels of inflammation a year after discharge, and they are at higher risk for major health problems and death, according to a study led by physician-scientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the Veterans Affairs Pittsburgh Healthcare System.  McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty members who are authors on this study include:

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Death rates from sepsis fell faster in New York than expected—and faster than in peer states—following the introduction of the nation’s first state-mandated sepsis regulation, according to an analysis led by University of Pittsburgh researchers and published in JAMA. The policy requires all New York hospitals to quickly implement certain protocols when the deadly condition is suspected.

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McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Mangesh Kulkarni, PhD, assistant professor of bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, was awarded $17,793 in funding from the Central Research Development Fund (CRDF) to support research for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

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The McGowan Institute has formed an alliance with the International Space Station (ISS) U.S. National Laboratory to develop and demonstrate how microgravity can improve regenerative medicine-based therapies. The ISS provides a unique platform to conduct studies in a microgravity environment.

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Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine—including McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty members Alejandro Soto-Gutierrez, MD, PhD, associate professor of pathology at Pitt’s School of Medicine and faculty member of the Pittsburgh Liver Research Center, and Ira Fox, MD, professor of surgery and pediatric transplantation at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh—are the first to grow genetically modified miniature human livers in the laboratory, to emulate human liver disease progression and test therapeutics.

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With Alex Trebek’s recent announcement that his pancreatic cancer is in remission, many people have wondered if this difficult cancer is now easier to treat. Pancreatic cancer remains a major cancer killer, but advances are happening.

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A team of specialists at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital and UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh have performed UPMC’s first in-utero surgery to close an open neural tube defect in a baby months before her birth.  McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Stephen Emery, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, & Reproductive Sciences, Maternal Fetal Medicine, and the Director of the Center for Innovative Fetal Intervention at Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC, was a member of the surgical team.

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