The Dose: Llamas and Vision Loss
Covid vaccine updates, llamas & vision loss, & nanoparticle injectibles
Welcome to The Dose! We’re delivering bi-weekly health and science updates right to your inbox, and we’re including some humor, art, and fun along the way.
On September 11, 2023, the FDA approved Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech 2023-2024 XBB.1.5 COVID-19 vaccines. On September 12, 2023, the CDC signed off on their recommendation of an an updated vaccine for everyone 6 months and older. Read more here.
Have you been following our milk series? Part 3 discusses animal welfare in the dairy industry. We’ll be discussing the environmental impact of the dairy industry next, so make sure you’re caught up on dairy health implications and dairy for children.
Llamas and vision loss- an interesting and unexpected relationship. A condition called Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) causes loss of central, night, and color vision. A study supported by the National Eye Institute, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the National Science Foundation found that an antibody (called nanobody) derived from llamas can target rhodopsin, which causes RP. Read more about this fascinating study here.
HIV, diabetes, and macular degeneration are just a few of the illnesses/conditions that have treatment in the form of an injection. Traditionally, injectable treatments have a low adherence rate. When’s the last time you met a person who didn’t/wouldn’t mind giving themselves multiple daily injections? A lab at Rice University, led by Kevin McHugh, has been working on a breakthrough injection that uses microparticles containing drugs on a time delayed release, spanning days or weeks. While the microparticle injection won’t be on the market anytime soon (it’s still in the early testing phase), this is an exciting development for the future of injections. Read more about their process and discovery here.
Photo Credit: Brandon Martin, Rice University
In our last issue, we explored some vintage scientific inventions, and asked a question to our readers. Here are the results of that poll:
Which of these modern tech inventions would be impossible to live without?
Smart Phone 17%
Television 4%
Computer 40%
Air Conditioning 36%
Dishwasher 4%
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