Does biobanking hold the key to achieving universal health?
Oct 1, 2021 · The data generated through biosamples is a key resource for the digital transformation of health systems, he suggested. World revenue for biobanking will surpass $53 billion in 2027, according to Zatloukal, who underlined one of the key challenges facing biobanking: the drug industry is required to provide funding, yet patients remain reluctant to make their samples available to drug companies.
‘Undetectable’ HIV patients could hold key to treatments
Sep 26, 2024 · [JOHANNESBURG] A rare group of HIV-positive people who maintain undetectable levels of the virus in their blood without medication could hold the key to new therapies for others living with the disease, says a leading genome expert.. Unlike the vast majority of those infected, these so-called “elite controllers” can suppress the virus without the need for antiretroviral therapy (ART ...
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Too soon to tap Namibia’s groundwater find, experts say
Sep 26, 2012 · [WINDHOEK] The extraction of the much needed water from a large underground aquifer in northern Namibia may need to wait for further studies, officials have warned at a water investment conference.. The aquifer, discovered in July, may contain enough water to sustain about one million people living in the area for 400 years at the current consumption rate, as well as boost development through ...
Traditional medicine for modern times: Facts and figures
Jun 26, 2015 · Box 1: Artemisinin: traditional medicine’s blockbluster drug Artemisinin, which is extracted from Artemisia annua (Chinese sweet wormwood), is the basis for the most effective malaria drugs in the world.. Long-used in China, the medicine was first noticed by Western researchers in the 1980s. But its worldwide use wasn’t endorsed by the WHO until 2004, largely because of scepticism ...
Philippine struggle to make the grade in STEM education
Dec 5, 2022 · Asia Pacific countries need to work harder to make STEM education attractive, say experts. [MANILA] The Philippines, despite numerous attempts to improve its educational outcomes, has instead become an educational laggard, taking the ignominious distinction of getting low rankings in three different global evaluations that scored students’ performance in science, technology, engineering and ...
Focusing on women and youth to transform agriculture
Aug 20, 2018 · Across Sub-Saharan Africa, only 15 per cent of landholders are women. Moreover, lack of collateral is at the root of many of their constraints such as poorer access to education, finance and advisory services and the like. Closing this ‘gender gap’ could increase yields on women-owned farms by 20 to 30 per cent, which could reduce the ...
‘Innovation leads economies out of crises’ - Asia & Pacific
Oct 26, 2021 · Innovation is leading countries across regions to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic and other crises. To underline the importance of creative ideas towards economic expansion, governments and enterprises across the globe sustained activities in innovation last year despite the crippling effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.. The newly released Global Innovation Index 2021, which ranks 132 nations ...
Japan’s high-tech approach to tsunami detection - scidev.net
Dec 29, 2004 · Japan spends US$20 million a year on a system of 300 earthquake sensors relaying real-time information by satellite to centres that coordinate evacuation warnings and other responses to imminent tsunamis. Japanese technology developed in the past 12 months allows the size, speed, and direction of a tsunami to be calculated and transmitted in ...
Eating insects ‘could cut greenhouse gas emissions’
Jan 17, 2011 · Compared to cattle, weight for weight, insects emitted 80 times less methane — a gas with 25 times more impact on global temperature levels than carbon dioxide. And crickets produced 8–12 times less ammonia than pigs. According to the study’s lead author, Dennis Oonincx, an entomologist from Wageningen University in the Netherlands, 80 ...