Malaysian made Covid-19 test kit gets nod from Indian regulators
Reading Time: 3 minutesKUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian BioNexus Status company, ADT Biotech Sdn Bhd (ADT), has gained approval from Indian regulatory authorities for its Covid-19 test kit after successful validation. ADT’s LyteStar 2019-nCoV RT-PCR Kit was validated by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) under Directorate General of Health Services […]
Sarawak yields app that remotely monitors temperature of Covid-19 PUIs
Reading Time: 3 minutesAT a time when social distancing is the order of the day, especially in clinical settings such as medical wards and emergency rooms – and where personnel protection equipment is hard to come by – the Borneo state of Sarawak rises to the occasion with a remote temperature monitoring gadgetry. [ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2,3,5″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ] […]
Just what the doctor ordered – Tech by two US Indian students detects Covid-19 in a jiffy
Reading Time: 3 minutesSOFTWARE developed by a University of Dayton Research Institute scientist to quickly diagnose COVID-19 has been exclusively licensed by Greenville, South Carolina, software development company Blue Eye Soft. The technology, which detected the presence of the COVID-19 disease on a dataset of chest X-rays in seconds with 98 percent accuracy, was adapted from existing medical diagnostic software […]
Covid-19 – We had it coming says virologist
Reading Time: 3 minutesVIROLOGISTS around the world are not surprised about the Covid-19 catching up on us. We had it coming, says a Malaysian virologist Prof Sunil Kumar Lal from Monash University Malaysia. In a skype interview with The Petri Dish recently he says there are about 320 000 different known virus isolates that are yet to be […]
Researchers in Spain use biotech to produce SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in plants
Reading Time: < 1 minuteRESEARCHERS María Coca and Juan José López-Moya from the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) at the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG) are using their expertise in plant biotechnology and virology to produce SARS-CoV-2 antigens to be used in vaccine development. The researchers will experiment with different expression systems from plants and have formed a team including an […]
The plot thickens as ‘accomplices’ of SARS-CoV-2 circle the globe
Reading Time: 2 minutesMICROBIOLOGISTS and related scientists in UK and Germany are having their hands full. As they continue their detective work on SARS-CoV-2 – the plot thickens on their hands! SARS-CoV-2 is spreading around the planet, keeping billions of people under lockdown, another billion hospitalised and it has snuffed out the lives of over a 100,000 – […]
Don: Lifestyle likely cause of higher Covid-19 deaths among men
Reading Time: 3 minutesACCORDING to global statistics, men are more likely to be infected by the Covid-19 infections and suffer critical complications of the disease compared to the female gender. Based on the four main countries [ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2,3,5″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ] affected by Covid-19 such as China, France, Italy and South Korea, the mortality rates of men were more […]
Mitigating impacts of COVID-19 on food trade and markets
Reading Time: 2 minutesROME/GENEVA: Millions of people around the world depend on international trade for their food security and livelihoods. As countries move to enact measures aiming to halt the accelerating COVID-19 pandemic, care must be taken to minimise potential impacts on the food supply or unintended consequences on global trade and food security. When acting to protect […]
Trial drug can significantly block early stages of COVID-19 in engineered human tissues
Reading Time: 2 minutesAN INTERNATIONAL TEAM led by University of British Columbia researcher Dr. Josef Penninger has found a trial drug that effectively blocks the cellular door SARS-CoV-2 uses to infect its hosts. The findings, published in Cell, hold promise as a treatment capable of stopping early infection of the novel coronavirus that, as of April 2, has affected […]
Malayan Pangolins: The mixing bowl for SARS-CoV-2?
Reading Time: 3 minutesTHE bat is the known “villain” in the current Covid-19 episode. Of course, not to mention the ultimate villain, that is homo sapiens (human beings) and their appetite for exotic meat. While everyone now knows that bats are the reservoir of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that is wreaking havoc globally, the virus seemed to have made […]