Thiago Carvalho @cyrilpedia@qoto.org

Eight storytelling tips from one of my favorite writers. Here's #1:

"Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted."
#KurtVonnegut

https://www.themarginalian.org/2012/04/03/kurt-vonnegut-on-writing-stories/

"Despite more than 40 years of responding to HIV and important breakthroughs in primary and secondary prevention, the rate of new infections is stuck at 35,000 per year, and racial disparities are worsening. Similar failures were apparent in the response to mpox last summer, with the most vulnerable communities once again bearing the brunt of a new viral threat. It is not too late to reverse course, but doing so will take political will and commitment. A new approach to accessing HIV preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) could provide a blueprint for responding to other public health emergencies."
#publichealth
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2216100?query=featured_home

It represents an incredible advance, but the reality of cancer immunotherapy continues to be that for most patients and tumor types it will not provide the hoped-for response. Identifying predictive biomarkers is one key to improving outcomes.

"This study reveals dynamic cellular changes occurring during effective ICT and the role of a set of biomarkers connected to the cytotoxic potential of CD8+ T cells, which are instrumental in tumor immunity and could be used to assess the level of immunotherapy efficiency."

#immunotherapy #immunology

https://www.cell.com/cell-reports-medicine/fulltext/S2666-3791(23)00031-9

@failedLyndonLaRouchite And it can be used to generate hypotheses that can then form the basis of a study with controls, placebos, blinding etc

@failedLyndonLaRouchite As a biologist, I think of these as the equivalent of an old fashioned descriptive natural history study in botany or zoology. They are a very important part of the literature of the field, so long as you understand their limitations.

@failedLyndonLaRouchite It's a bit like case reports, which are a very important part of the medical literature, they are descriptive by nature (there is no control in these studies either)

@failedLyndonLaRouchite I think observational studies in medicine are valuable, as long as you understand their limitations. This is not interventional, so having a placebo (to refer to your other toot) does not really apply, as they are not testing any procedure or drug.

A throwback piece on the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia page about a small workshop that Miguel Soares & I organised on resistance and tolerance in 2010. This was back when most immunologists hearing "tolerance" would think only of T and B cell selection (and the occasional regulatory T cells). I'm a big fan of the small workshop, where everyone discusses unpublished work and feels free to speculate. We need more of these meetings.

https://gulbenkian.pt/ciencia/news/scientists-retreat-gave-away-new-era-fight-against-infections/

“Nós fizemos uma greve de quatro dias no sentido de que alguém nos oiça e até agora não tem havido qualquer reacção por parte do ministro das Infraestruturas [João Galamba] e das Finanças [Fernando Medina]. Não houve até à data e vamos no quarto dia de greve. Não se percebe como é que não há um pequeno esforço das tutelas para chegar a um acordo”, disse.'

https://www.publico.pt/2023/03/02/economia/noticia/greve-cp-sindicato-inacreditavel-falta-reaccao-galamba-medina-2040861

"To engineer durable vaccines, we must first define the rules and features of durable protection. These rules may differ for each virus, platform and between prime and boost responses."

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-022-01359-z

'By investigating acid-sensing ion channel gene expression in each of the three major bilaterian lineages, we see that ASICs are principally found: centrally, in the brain; and/or peripherally, in the digestive system, peripheral nerve rings, and/or scattered peripheral cells.'

https://elifesciences.org/articles/81613