Mark Poznansky, Director of VIC and Michael Callahan, Director of Clinical Translation at VIC, discuss three independent pillars the government should consider to stop fighting the last virus and develop a new strategy to counter new waves of Omicron-like variants.
A piece on Crohn’s written by Student intern at VIC, Eric Chen.
“I began to feel ill the night of my eighth birthday. Less than a month later, I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. Having just barely finished second grade, I didn’t know what this disease meant or its severity — let alone what the condition had in store for me. Since my diagnosis nearly a decade ago, I have luckily required relatively minimal treatment and experienced no subsequent flare-ups. Now, living through the COVID-19 pandemic as a high-school senior, the potential implications of the virus have caused newfound worry for me and my loved ones…”
Mark Poznansky interviewed for a report on Axios.com by Alison Snyder and Sam Baker
Congratulations to David Alagpulinsa, PhD, Research Fellow at VIC, for the 2020 Physician/Scientist Development Award, sponsored by the MGH Executive Committee on Research.
David will be using the award to further his research into type 1 diabetes – “Harnessing CXCL12 signaling for immunoprotection, survival and regeneration of pancreatic islets in type 1 diabetes”.
“The MGH Center for Diversity and Inclusion has honored five MGHers with their annual faculty development awards. Katia Canenguez, PhD, EdM, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, received the 2020 Clinician-Teacher Development Award, sponsored by the MGPO. David Alagpulinsa, PhD, Infectious Disease Unit fellow; Ibiayi Dagogo-Jack, MD, Cancer Center physician; Christian Lino Cardenas, PharmD, MSc, PhD, Cardiovascular Research Center fellow; and Nneka Ufere, MD, Gastroenterology fellow, received 2020 Physician/Scientist Development Awards, sponsored by the MGH Executive Committee on Research.”
The Scientific American article makes for very interesting reading – written by William A. Haseltine a mentor of Mark Poznansky, when he was doing research in the HIV field.
“In the event of any infectious disease outbreak, our minds turn to vaccines—and they do so for good reason. They’re safe, relatively expensive and have worked well for diseases including smallpox, polio, yellow fever, and, most recently, Ebola.
Will a vaccine come as easily for the novel coronavirus? The answer is maybe yes, maybe not. The “maybe yes” comes from the observation that in animal studies, coronaviruses stimulate strong immune responses, which seem capable of knocking out the virus. Recovery from COVID-19 may be in large part due to effective immune response. The “maybe not” comes from evidence just as strong, at least with earlier SARS and MERS viruses, that natural immunity to these viruses is short-lived. In fact, some animals can be reinfected with the very same strain that caused infection in the first place…”
“Right now, the overwhelming emphasis to combat the COVID-19 pandemic is appropriately placed on testing for the virus, protecting those who are most susceptible, treating the sick, and flattening the pandemic peak. Tremendous leadership, innovation, and dedication to containing the disease across each of these areas continues to evolve.”