CLIC News Round up – November 3, 2020

Wisconsin CTSA Site Launches Neighborhood Health Partnerships Program

To address the lack of consistent neighborhood-level data, the Collaborative Center for Health Equity (CCHE) partnered with the Health Innovation Program (HIP) and the Population Health Institute to launch the UW ICTR Neighborhood Health Partnerships Program (NHP). NHP reports will provide information on a variety of health outcome and care measures at the ZIP code level in Wisconsin. Such sub-county data has the potential to offer essential insights into patterns of health inequities and help identify local factors that can promote health and well-being.

An artistic rendering—based on cryo-EM maps and computer simulations—shows how glycans create a shield that helps HIV hide from the immune system. (Image courtesy of Zachary Berndsen, Ward lab at Scripps Research.)

New imaging method reveals HIV’s sugary shield in unprecedented detail

Scientists from Scripps Research and Los Alamos National Laboratory have devised a method for mapping in unprecedented detail the thickets of slippery sugar molecules that help shield HIV from the immune system.

Mapping these shields will give researchers a more complete understanding of why antibodies react to some spots on the virus but not others, and may shape the design of new vaccines that target the most vulnerable and accessible sites on HIV and other viruses.

The Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University, led by Leonidas Platanias, MD, PhD, has altered policies and plans to minimize the risk of exposure to COVID-19 for patients, physicians and staff members, while continuing clinical trials, research and care. Photo credit: Andre LaCour.

How COVID-19 Impacts Cancer Care and Research

As the pandemic rolled into summer, more was learned about how exactly COVID-19 impacts cancer patients. A recent Northwestern Medicine study found that some patients treated for cancer and other underlying health conditions are among the most vulnerable patient populations for developing COVID-19 and complications from the disease due to a weakened immune syste

Credit: NPR – Benjamin Arthur

Brain Cells ‘Geotag’ Memories To Cache What Happened — And Where

An international team of scientists that figured out how the brain’s geotagging system works by studying seven epileptic patients in Germany. The patients were awaiting surgery and had wires in their brains that allowed the researchers to measure the activity of individual brain cells can improve healthcare.