RAS Specialist Discussion Meeting report

Report on the RAS Specialist Discussion Meeting ‘System-scale observations and modelling of solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere-thermosphere (SW-M-I-T) coupling’.

Melioidosis in Africa: Time to Raise Awareness and Build Capacity for Its Detection, Diagnosis, and Treatment

Melioidosis is a tropical infectious disease caused by the soil-dwelling bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei with a mortality of up to 50% in low resource settings. Only a few cases have been reported from African countries. However, studies on the global burden of melioidosis showed that Africa holds a significant unrecognized disease burden, with Nigeria being at the top of the list. The first World Health Organization African Melioidosis Workshop was organized in Lagos, Nigeria, with representatives of health authorities, microbiology laboratories, and clinical centers from across the continent. Dedicated hands-on training was given on laboratory diagnostics of B. pseudomallei. This meeting report summarizes the objectives discussed, such as raising awareness on melioidosis and building capacity for the detection, diagnosis, biosafety, treatment, and prevention of this dreadful neglected disease across Africa by bringing together regional and international experts to share best practices. It is important to join forces with the African Centers for Disease Control, WHO, African Sepsis Alliance, and Antimicrobial Resistance action plans.

Meeting report – the ever-fascinating world of septins

ABSTRACT Septins are GTP-binding proteins that assemble into hetero-oligomers. They can interact with each other end-to-end to form filaments, making them the fourth element of the cytoskeleton. To update the current knowledge on the ever-increasing implications of these fascinating proteins in cellular functions, a hundred expert scientists from across the globe gathered from 12 to 15 October 2021 in Berlin for the first hybrid-format (on site and virtual) EMBO workshop Molecular and Cell Biology of Septins.

Survivorship for Individuals Living with Advanced and Metastatic Cancers: National Cancer Institute Meeting Report

An important and often overlooked subpopulation of cancer survivors is individuals who are diagnosed with or progress to advanced or metastatic cancer. Living longer with advanced or metastatic cancer often comes with a cost of burdensome physical and psychosocial symptoms and complex care needs, however research is limited on this population. Thus, in May 2021, the National Cancer Institute convened subject matter experts, researchers, clinicians, survivors, and advocates a for a 2-day virtual meeting. The purpose of this report is to provide a summary of the evidence gaps identified by subject matter experts and attendees and key opportunities identified by NCI in five research areas: epidemiology and surveillance, symptom management, psychosocial research, healthcare delivery, and health behaviors. Identified gaps and opportunities include the need to develop new strategies to estimate the number of individuals living with advanced and metastatic cancers, understand and address emerging symptom trajectories, improve prognostic understanding and communication between providers, patients, and caregivers, develop and test models of comprehensive survivorship care tailored to these populations, and assess patient and provider preferences for health behavior discussions throughout the survivorship trajectory. To best address the needs of individuals living with advanced and metastatic cancer and to deliver comprehensive evidence-based quality care, research is urgently needed to fill evidence gaps, and it is essential to incorporate the survivor perspective. Developing such an evidence base is critical to inform policy and practice.

Development of Biomarkers for Radiation Biodosimetry and Medical Countermeasures Research: Current Status, Utility, and Regulatory Pathways

Biomarkers are important indicators of biological processes in health or disease. For this reason, they play a critical role in advanced development of radiation biodosimetry tools and medical countermeasures (MCMs). They can aid in the assessment of radiation exposure level, extent of radiation-induced injury, and/or efficacy of an MCM. This meeting report summarizes the presentations and discussions from the 2020 workshop titled, “Biomarkers in Radiation Biodosimetry and Medical Countermeasures,” sponsored by the Radiation and Nuclear Countermeasures Program (RNCP) at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). The main goals of this meeting were to: 1. Provide an overview on biomarkers and to focus on the state of science with regards to biomarkers specific to radiation biodosimetry and MCMs; 2. Understand developmental challenges unique to the role of biomarkers in the fields of radiation biodosimetry and MCM development; and 3. Identify existing gaps and needs for translational application.