Preprint

• IonQ (NYSE: IONQ), a leader in the quantum computing industry, today announced early results from its work with Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) – a German-based research center for fundamental science – to run combinatorial optimization problems on IonQ Aria .
• IonQ collaborated with researchers from DESY to explore how to better match inbound and outbound flights at airport gates.
• IonQ expects to run future algorithms on IonQ Forte and IonQ Tempo, processing equations sufficient enough to cover the optimization needs of a local European airport.
• These research results mark the latest effort by IonQ to support the development of quantum applications for the airline industry.

• BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, March 06, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIOXYTRAN, INC. ( BIXT ), (the “Company”), a clinical stage biotechnology company developing oral and intravenous drugs to treat viral diseases, announced today the preprint in ResearchGate entitled “Association of Rapid Shingles Lesion Clearance and Regression of Herpes Zoster Neuralgia in Case Study Using Topical Galectin-3 Antagonism” showed a time lapsed clearance of the shingles lesions using a topical Galectin-3 antagonist.
• Vaccines have been developed to prevent shingles, but there are few effective antiviral therapies capable of treating the outbreak while reducing the pain associated with the condition.
• The case study demonstrated a rapid response in the reduction of pain the size of the lesion area, due to a galectin antagonist.
• “This case study constitutes a proof of concept of the benefit of using a galectin antagonist in human shingles infection.

• BURLINGAME, Calif., Feb. 12, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Corvus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: CRVS), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, today announced that preclinical data for soquelitinib, the Company’s lead ITK inhibitor program, was presented in a poster session at the Keystone Symposia on Systemic Autoimmune and Autoinflammatory Diseases, which took place February 8-11, 2024.
• These preclinical product candidates exhibit specific biologic properties that are anticipated to enable more precise inhibition of Th1, Th2 and/or Th17 cell function.
• Atopic dermatitis (also called eczema) and asthma are thought to be mediated primarily by Th2 lymphocytes.
• The soquelitinib preclinical data and information on the Company’s next-generation ITK inhibitor candidates was presented by Rahul Pawar, Ph.D., Senior Scientist at Corvus, in poster session #2 (poster #2008) at the Keystone Symposia.

• These microscopic entities, which were recently discovered by a team at Stanford University, are circular bits of genetic material that contain one or two genes and self-organise into a rod-like shape.
• In biology, as in physics, things can get weirder and the rules fuzzier as we move through smaller and smaller scales.
• Viroids can self-cleave (chop up) and re-ligate (stick back together) their genome as part of the replication cycle.

Between a virus and a viroid – perhaps

• The newly discovered biological entity falls somewhere between viruses and viroids.
• All obelisks so far described encode a single major protein known as obulin, and many encode a second, smaller obulin.
• Obulins bear no evolutionary resemblance, or “homology”, to any other protein found, and there are few clues as to their function.
• These elements were detected in around 7% of microbiome datasets from the human gut and 50% of datasets from the mouth.

Friend or foe?

• This is critical, as nothing is known about the broader evolutionary and ecological significance of obelisks.
• Hosts may have evolved elaborate defence mechanisms against obelisks, or else actively recruit them to gain some unsuspected advantage.

Ed Feil does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.