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Articles by Mark Esser
Acute infection as a driver of chronic diseases and the unsung benefits of vaccination
Acute infections can leave durable biological imprints that alter host physiology, chronic disease susceptibility, long-term health and even biological ageing, well after pathogen clearance. Vaccines should therefore be evaluated not only on their ability to prevent acute illness, but also on their efficacy in preventing or mitigating these long-lasting biological imprints and infection-associated chronic conditions.
It's Virginia’s moment to accelerate momentum in biomedical R&D | Guest column
Colin wears a Star Wars cap as he plays soccer in his yard, his wide smile showing the familiar mix of baby and adult teeth that mark childhood milestones. But Colin’s story is anything but ordinary. At eight years old, he survived childhood leukemia thanks to an emerging treatment — Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy.
Mixed strain pathogen populations accelerate the evolution of antibiotic resistance in patients - Nature Communications
Abstract Antibiotic resistance poses a global health threat, but the within-host drivers of resistance remain poorly understood. Pathogen populations are often assumed to be clonal within hosts, and resistance is thought to emerge due to selection for de novo variants. Here we show that mixed strain populations are common in the opportunistic pathogen P. aeruginosa. Crucially, resistance evolves rapidly in patients colonized by multiple strains through selection for pre-existing resistant strains.
Gut to lung translocation and antibiotic mediated selection shape the dynamics of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in an ICU patient - Nature Communications
Abstract Bacteria have the potential to translocate between sites in the human body, but the dynamics and consequences of within-host bacterial migration remain poorly understood. Here we investigate the link between gut and lung Pseudomonas aeruginosa populations in an intensively sampled ICU patient using a combination of genomics, isolate phenotyping, host immunity profiling, and clinical data. Crucially, we show that lung colonization in the ICU was driven by the translocation of P.
Resilience of S309 and AZD7442 monoclonal antibody treatments against infection by SARS-CoV-2 Omicron lineage strains - Nature Communications
Abstract Omicron variant strains encode large numbers of changes in the spike protein compared to historical SARS-CoV-2 isolates. Although in vitro studies have suggested that several monoclonal antibody therapies lose neutralizing activity against Omicron variants, the effects in vivo remain largely unknown.
From 1901 to 2021: Measurements Then and Now
Credit: NIST A NIST Josephson voltage chip next to a penny. A lot has changed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the past 120 years. For one thing, we were known as the National Bureau of Standards for the first 87 years of our existence. Then, in 1988, we became the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), to reflect our agency’s expanding mission and a renewed emphasis on boosting the competitiveness of American industry.
Keeping Time at NIST
Credit: von Dauster/NIST NIST physicist Elizabeth Donley with a compact atomic clock design that could help improve precision in ultraportable clocks. About 1 million cold rubidium atoms are held in a vacuum chamber in the lower left of the photo. On the screen is a close-up of the atom trapping region of the apparatus. Einstein is reported to have once said that time is what a clock measures.
Plotting a scientific path to counter COVID-19
In a global online forum Tuesday night, scientific leaders from companies developing vaccines, therapies and diagnostics to address the COVID-19 outbreak discussed opportunities for collaboration, highlighted challenges, and called for sustained global initiatives to create medical countermeasures to emerging infections. Participants in the forum, which was sponsored by WuXi Apptec Co. Ltd.
Top 7 NIST Visuals of 2019
Credit: N. Hanacek/NIST Science, while important, is often thought of as, well, kind of dry in the ocular department. The visuals commonly associated with scientific endeavors are charts and graphs, which are great if you're a scientist, but for the rest of us, they're as inscrutable as a professional poker player's face. But the truth is, science does produce some great images, especially here at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
National Inventor’s Month: You Can Make It If You Try
Depending on whom you ask, May (or August or April—it would be great if someone were to standardize this, but we’re going with May) is National Inventor’s Month. Lots of people have dreams of being a famous inventor. Even I’ve had “ideas” for inventions before.
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