By Heather Hobbs
BRINGING YOU THE LATEST NEWS & EVENTS FROM THE SCIENCE INDUSTRY ITAR Quest to increase Global Access to Cancer Treatments
The efforts of international experts in accelerator design, medical physics and oncology, alongside IT experts and health system researchers, will be used to design and develop a new type of radiotherapy machine that is affordable and robust enough to be used in more challenging environments reliably and particularly to meet the needs of African hospitals, where the shortage of radiotherapy treatment is acute.
By 2040, it is predicted there will be 27.5 million new cancer cases worldwide each year, leading to more than 13 million deaths. Up to 70% of these will occur in low and middle- income countries (LMICs).
STFC’s Dr Deepa Angal-Kalinin will lead the accelerator design
Developing new radiotherapy technologies to give more cancer patients in Sub-Saharan Africa access to treatment is the aim behind a new project supported by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).
Phase 1 of the project, being led by the Universities of Lancaster and Oxford, will define the persistent shortfalls in basic infrastructure, equipment and specialist workforce, that are preventing effective radiotherapy delivery in Sub- Saharan Africa and develop new solutions leading to a detailed specification and conceptual design. The project, known as ITAR (Innovative Technologies towards building Affordable and equitable global Radiotherapy capacity), will then progress to a prototype development phase of a medical linear accelerator for radiotherapy, at STFC’s Daresbury Laboratory.
The University of Lancaster’s Professor Graeme Burt, also of the Cockcroft Institute, is leading the first phase: “Current radiotherapy machines are optimised for use in western countries. The ITAR project aims to design specifically for use in Africa making it far more tolerant to the local environment, which will greatly increase the capacity for more lives to be saved.”
STFC’s Professor Deepa Angal-Kalinin, also of the Cockcroft Institute and University of Manchester, will lead the accelerator design. She said: “I am keen to apply the knowledge and expertise at Daresbury Laboratory to develop a novel medical linear accelerator design in this phase of the project which will prepare us to build a prototype to test our new ideas.”
The ITAR project is a critical part of a larger international project that includes the International Cancer Expert Corps (ICEC), CERN, STFC (Daresbury Laboratory), led by Lancaster and Oxford Universities and involving other international research partners and hospitals.
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Antivirals Project receives IMI Cash Injection
Funding for ongoing research on diagnostics, medicines and vaccines against the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 have been recently boosted by the EU-financed Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI). One of eight projects provisionally selected was submitted by coordinator Ali Mirazimi, researcher at Karolinska Institutet and Sweden’s National Veterinary Institute (SVA).
His research project ‘Modern approaches for developing antivirals’ has been allocated a total of €6.4 million (SEK 68 million) for a period of four years and involves nine participating organisations and companies in six countries, including two based in Sweden.
The aim is to develop new medicines to fight SARS-CoV-2. The researchers will use advanced three-dimensional mini organs and stem cells in their research, and the project will be run from both SVA and Karolinska Institutet.
“I’m proud and happy that IMI has chosen to finance our project,” said Ali Mirazimi, Adjunct Professor in clinical virology at the Department of Laboratory Medicine at Karolinska Institutet. “This is a big success for our coronavirus research. We can now increase the pace of our efforts in developing antiviral drugs against SARS-CoV-2.”
In a highly competitive call, only 6% of the 144 applications Ali Mirazimi credit: Göran Ekeberg/AddLight
were selected by IMI to receive funding. IMI is a partnership between the European Union and the European pharmaceutical industry, represented by the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA). In total, the eight projects are expected to receive €117 million.
52466pr@reply-direct.com ARABLAB+ Postponed to March 2021
The ARABLAB Group has decided to postpone ARABLAB+, originally scheduled to take place earlier this year in March. This is due to the overwhelming concerns of exhibitors, visitors, principals and agents over their ability to travel to the show, as well as the health and welfare of their staff, on account of the increasing spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).
Whilst the international Science and Chemical sectors has considerably suffered due to temporary closures of global business facilities, organisers want to ensure the re-scheduled dates for ARABLAB+ will provide a highly successful event for the quality visitors and exhibitors who normally attend from over 100+ countries.
After contacting all exhibitors and visitor groups advising of possible alternative dates in September 2020, organisers found the majority considered that to hold the event at that time was not viable owing to the continuing uncertainties surrounding COVID-19.
Organisers have also been carefully monitoring the effects of the global shut down within the manufacturing sector, and the uncertainty of travel restrictions in the upcoming months, relating to the countries from which the exhibitors and visitors originate.
In consideration of all the above factors, and the continuing uncertainties, the most important priority should be for the safety of all exhibitors and visitors.
As a result, organisers can confirm that the show will not be proceeding with the possible September dates for the show this year.
The confirmed re-scheduled dates for ARABLAB+ are 22 - 24 March 2021.
More information online:
www.arablab.com
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Natural Antibiotic Shows Promise as New Class of Drug
Scientists from the University of Liverpool and the University of Utrecht are working together to develop a viable drug based on a new class of potent natural antibiotic capable of killing superdrugs.
Teixobactin was hailed as a ‘game changer’ when it was discovered in 2015 due to its ability to kill multi-drug resistant bacterial pathogens such as MRSA without developing resistance. If made suitable for humans, it would mark the first new class of antibiotic drug for 30 years.
Dr Ishwar Singh, an expert in Antimicrobial Drug Discovery and Development and Medicinal Chemistry at Liverpool’s Centre of Excellence in Infectious Diseases Research, has led pioneering research over the past six years to develop teixobactin-based viable drugs. His research team was the first in the world to successfully create simplified synthetic forms of teixobactins which are effective in treating bacterial infections in mice.
Dr Singh explained: “We know that the therapeutic potential of simplified synthetic teixobactins is immense and our ultimate goal is to have a number of viable drugs from our synthetic teixobactin platform which can be used as a last line of defence against superbugs to save lives.”
In collaboration with NMR expert Professor Markus Weingarth at the University of Utrecht, the team used high resolution solid state NMR and microscopy to show, for the first time, how synthetic teixobactins bind to lipid II (an essential component of the bacterial membrane) and kill the bacteria.
Dr Singh said: “It had been assumed that teixobactins kill the bacteria by binding to bacterial cell wall bricks such as lipid II, but this has never been shown until now. Our work also suggests that teixobactins kill the bacteria by capturing lipid II in massive clusters, a new killing mechanism, which we were excited to discover. A significant amount of work remains in the development of teixobactins as a therapeutic antibiotic for human use. Our study is a real step in right direction and opens the door for improving teixobactins and moving these toward clinic.
Dr Singh’s work received funding support from the Department of Health and Social Care, UK and Rosetrees Trust.
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