As we head into the Northern Hemisphere fall with covid-19 still raging in the US and a number of other parts of the world, two data points provide cause for extra concern.

One is that the seasonal flu—a respiratory viral infection like covid-19—is much more active in the winter. Last year in the US, there were 40 times as many flu cases in the fall and winter months as in the previous spring and summer. Historically, those cooler months see tens of times as many seasonal flu infections in temperate regions. (In tropical regions, the flu tends to peak during the rainy season, though not as strongly.)

Image: Clerks in New York City wore masks during the 1918 flu pandemic. NATIONAL ARCHIVES

The second day of the BIO Alabama Conference covered a range of topics from biotech investors to grant opportunities and scientific research positioning Alabama as a bioscience leader.

BIO Alabama Board Chairman Blair King, HudsonAlpha‘s Amy Sturdivant and BIO Alabama Executive Director Sonia Robinson provided a recap of key takeaways from Day Two panels and speakers:

Image: BIO Alabama Executive Director Sonia Robinson is among those participating in the virtual annual conference. (contributed) - https://www.alabamanewscenter.com

Antibody drugs that are in testing and were administered to President Trump could significantly reduce the death rate from Covid-19 once they are approved by regulators and more widely available, billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates said Tuesday.

The drugs, in a class of medicines known as monoclonal antibodies, have shown promise in early-stage patients with Covid-19. “That’s actually pretty exciting,” Mr. Gates told The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit. “The reduction in death rate there could be pretty high, and those will be out in volume by the end of the year, at least in the rich countries.”

Jessica Su got her first taste of how challenging it can be to teach online when Covid-19 hit in the spring. The sociologist videotaped lectures for her first-year seminar on welfare, and hoped a discussion board could replicate the lively conversations she and her students had held in the classroom.

Instead, what she saw felt more transactional. Students responded to her writing prompts. But she couldn’t figure out how to get a conversation going in the discussion forum. Even the comments that students wrote about each other’s posts felt dutiful more than engaging, says Su, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “They were interacting, but not in a meaningful way.”

Catalio's portfolio includes many notable local biotech companies, including Personal Genome Diagnostics Inc. and Thrive Earlier Detection Corp.

Image: George Petrocheilos (right) and R. Jacob Vogelstein are the managing partners of venture investment fund Catalio Capital Management LP. MARK DENNIS

When Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan visited Novavax recently, President and CEO Stanley C. Erck shared some welcome news for the governor publicly: Novavax had more than doubled its workforce so far this year, adding 116 people to the 100 that it employed at the start of 2020.

Image: Kelly M. Schulz, Maryland Secretary of Commerce

COVID-19’s disruptions helped the world see systems change in a new light. Industries once thought slow to change have rapidly applied new solutions. Change-makers in the digital arena are forging new collaborations with new partners. We have been forced to adopt an innovation mindset and with it, found a range of special opportunities for tackling tough challenges such as reducing the strain on natural resources and keeping more goods in use through circular economy thinking.

Image: One week's worth of plastic waste collected by just one family. Many say they reuse and recycle as much as possible but need more solutions to ensure they can be truly effective. Image: REUTERS/Paul Hanna - RC163CC264B0

SALT LAKE CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--President Ruth V. Watkins is pleased to announce that the University of Utah has formed the Partners for Innovation, Ventures, Outreach & Technology (PIVOT) Center, a centralized office that will drive the U’s expanding efforts for economic engagement for the greater Utah community. The new office builds on the work by the Center for Technology & Venture Commercialization (TVC), to serve as a hub to foster partnerships between industry, university and government entities. This effort formalizes the U’s commitment to increase its impact on Utah’s economy by catalyzing innovation.

WILMINGTON, Del.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Delaware Innovation Space, a multi-dimensional, non-profit incubator and accelerator for science-based start-up companies, announced today that it has invested a total of $265,000 in three companies, including Gaskiya Diagnostics, Layer Metrics and Revolve Biotechnologies.

The potential to create value sometimes entails creating a completely new industry, one in which companies that have never interacted before come together. Of course, a new market that brings them together can sometimes do the job. But a market is unlikely to be effective in promoting the kinds of knowledge exchange and co-learning required to build a new industry, especially when its future is shrouded in uncertainty.

In the early days of managing the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 dashboard, experts at the university and those at Esri, the company providing the mapping software for the real-time pandemic tracker, had a friendly rivalry.

"They would tell us, 'Oh, your COVID map is big, but not as big as our Pokémon Go map,' which was their most in demand," says Reina Murray, an application administrator at JHU's Sheridan Libraries.

Image: https://hub.jhu.edu

I still know some entrepreneurs who boast of simply following their gut instincts, rather than listen to anyone or any data, to make strategic decisions. We’ve all worked with autocratic leaders in large companies who seem to thrive in this mode. They all forget or ignore the high-profile failures that have resulted from some single-handed business decisions.

As a business owner or entrepreneur, you are your business's best and most impactful marketing tool. Your ability to draw in others to engage them in your message — whether it's about your business or otherwise — can make the difference between active or disinterested listeners.

Regardless of whether you are pitching to investors, presenting to a prospective client, or giving the annual state of the business report, how well you start your presentation will garner interest or incite boredom.  

The world anxiously awaits a vaccine for COVID-19—a one-size-fits-all solution to stop the pandemic now sweeping the globe. But also on the horizon is a supremely customized approach to healthcare that promises to transform how we diagnose and treat disease: precision medicine. Many think this is the future of healthcare and that it is fast approaching. Precision medicine aims to deliver the most effective treatment tailored to a specific patient at the most opportune time to achieve the best possible result. This medical model depends on marrying a deep understanding of each person with comprehensive knowledge of all treatment options that might work for that individual, including at the genetic, molecular or cellular level.  

The vast Greenland ice sheet is melting at some of its fastest rates in the past 12,000 years. And it could quadruple over the next 80 years if greenhouse gas emissions don’t decline dramatically in the coming decades.

Research published yesterday in the journal Nature warns that the ice sheet’s future losses depend heavily on how quickly humans cut carbon emissions today.

The world of technology is evolving faster than ever. With so many new tech trends emerging, it can feel impossible to keep up with them all. Despite the difficulty, identifying and investing in the right ones can give your business a competitive advantage and set you up for success.

That’s why we asked members of the Young Entrepreneur Council what tech trends more entrepreneurs should prepare for and what concrete actions they can take to move in the right direction. Their best answers are below.

Image: Top row, from left: Jack Tai, Steven Ridzyowski, Kelly Richardson, Blair Williams, Jacob Tanur. Middle row, from left: Syed Balkhi, Solomon Thimothy, Jared Atchison, Amine Rahal, Andy Karuza. Bottom row, from left: Thomas Griffin, Daisy Jing, Andrew Schrage, Stephanie Wells. - https://builtin.com

American Gene Technologies International Inc. (AGT) CEO and Founder, Jeff Galvin returns to update us of their Phase 1 Clinical Trial of their lead #HIV Program, their expansion in a new facility, and what's next!

Listen now on Apple https://apple.co/2Gi2GIF, Google https://bit.ly/2GizVvu, Spotify https://spoti.fi/2GxROGd, and TuneIn https://bit.ly/3l9HK56.

Join fellow biotech leaders and is presented by the Association of University Research Parks, AstraZeneca, BioHealth Innovation, Children’s National Health System, Emergent BioSolutions, George Mason University, J.P. Morgan, Johns Hopkins University, Maryland Department of Commerce, Virginia Bio, and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, P.C.

Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC set the bar high for biotech innovation. So please join us for our 6th Annual BioHealth Capital Region Forum that will highlight the accomplishments of today and chart our successes of tomorrow.

We are excited to bring you an exceptional line up of speakers to this virtual event!

It has become quite evident that we will not return the “old” normal and we may not return to any “normal”. Also, the changes can no longer be categorised as “good” or “bad”, as it is incumbent on us to make them “good”.

In the early days of the pandemic, a group of genetic scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, swung into action and converted their lab into a COVID-19 test processing centre. Putting their regular research work on hold, the biologists conducted thousands of tests per day by leveraging automated robotic technology that enabled them to process the swab results of patients in a record 12-24 hours.

In a survey conducted by the US Census Bureau during the first part of the Covid-19 pandemic, 24 percent of respondents reported symptoms of major depressive disorder and 30% reported symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder – in some cases double those of a previous survey in 2014.

Image: The Joy Ventures team. CEO Miri Polachek is in the green blouse. - https://www.israel21c.org