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Recent COVID-19 outbreaks, as well as the 2014-15 Ebola outbreaks, have provided us with invaluable experience and knowledge in disease response. Following the 2015 outbreak, we have developed our Athena mobile laboratories, which can be deployed all throughout the world.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the face of available diagnostic tools. It has enabled the rapid introduction of at-home testing with relatively easy "rapid" assays that can help determine if you have COVID-19. It has also enabled telemedicine in a way that was slow to emerge until COVID-19.

Getting tests in the hands of patients, and then enabling contact with a healthcare professional that can help manage your case, will improve healthcare worldwide, even in emerging countries with limited infrastructure.

We are currently working on at-home diagnostic assays that can test for a variety of viruses, including COVID. This may have a profound impact on health management for people with other comorbidities like diabetes and other autoimmune disorders.

There are so many more examples, like vaccines and therapeutics and the public response to them across the world.

Thank you for the reply

Is there anything the general US population can do to support the mitigation of outbreaks? Or are we effectively “leaving it to the professionals”?

What is the “order of operations” when an outbreak starts? Who is effectively in charge of managing an outbreak and calling in mobile labs, additional support, etc.?

Ebola may cause hemorrhagic fever in patients, which can look like bleeding in the late stages of disease, but not always. Not every person responds the same to the Ebola virus; this is a rare symptom. Because this symptom is so dramatic, it is more often associated with the disease than it is likely to occur. Like many viruses, there are a wide variety of outcomes that may occur, including being asymptomatic.

Clinical signs of Ebola virus may be similar to cold and flu early on. This makes diagnostics essential in responding to and treating these cases. More developed areas of the world have better access to diagnostic tools that are unfortunately unavailable in other places. This is why assay development and distribution is a focal point of our efforts.

If all goes well (and we all know research never always goes well, so take this with a grain of salt!), what kind of timeframe are you looking at to publish? If published, what problem/condition do you plan to implement ideas on first?

What a fascinating area of research! I wish you the best on your studies!

Edit: grammar

Early detection and contact tracing are key. Patient and contact management are also essential in guiding mitigation efforts.

Further down the line, countermeasures like vaccines and therapeutics and being able to effectively distribute them is important to disease management. Currently, we don't have any approved countermeasures available for Ebola Sudan (the current outbreak).

Monkeypox is a similar example where we initially helped develop assays that were not developed further due to lack of funding and support.

We are fortunate to be a part of the teams developing these crucial assays when resources and funding are available, like in the case of COVID-19.

In the past, before the 2014-15 outbreak, poverty was associated with higher transmission. Since that has occurred, there have been a number of studies done on the correlation and have since found that there is an equal risk of infection between poor and wealthy populations. There could be other factors at play outside of socioeconomic status, such as level of isolation of a community.

In today's cases, local anthropologists are looking further into these questions. What is exciting is local communities are doing these studies within their own culture; this is a big change from the past. A western researcher may not understand the nuances involved in a response or know what questions to ask.

An important consideration is that this point of view is relative to our own socioeconomic status and mitigation efforts depend on everybody's ability to understand their own risk factors among their lifestyle and community.

We’ve contacted Fangtasia as a potential business partner :)

The typical shelf life for donated RBCs is up to 42 days. We are currently working on answering this question, but we would expect it to have a longer shelf life as it a pure population of young and pure population of red blood cells.

Thanks for you question! I (Sandhya) am a biotechnologist (so expert in bioreactors) and stem cell engineer. I (David) very much have a background in biology – I did my undergrad in Applied Biology and a Masters in Stem Cells and Regeneration. I chose this project because I was keen to work with stem cells and bioreactors, and because I wanted to contribute to a project that could make a real different to people’s lives and wellbeing. I (Chan) am a (bio)chemical engineer (Chan) and although I had taken a few biochemical modules on how to produce biomass, cells, and proteins in a bioreactor, I had to learn the cell biology of RBCs and the biological process behind it. I have chosen this project because as a biochemical engineer, I enjoy optimisation and the production process, but I always enjoyed medical science, which triggered my interest in this project.

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Sounds very interesting. Is this a directed differentiation approach and do you have any issues with off target differentiation?

What hurdles do you need to overcome if you do manage to produce on a scale to introduce this as a therapeutic option (e.g. regulatory)? Is the risk of mycoplasma contamination a concern in culturing this for use?

Thank you for the question, if blood transfusion is the current mode of treatment, then yes our researach will definitely be of help. In addition, for people requiring regular transfusions, the cells we manufacture would theoretically be better in terms of blood type matching and risk of immune rejected (also known as alloimmunization)

Our scientists are currently on standby to assist with the incidents taking place, like in the case of Uganda. We must wait to receive request from the efforts in the affected countries before entering the situation.

In the event that we are asked to respond, we have mobile containment laboratories ready to deploy. This assistance is always available to countries in need.

In the past, in addition to providing mobile laboratories and point-of-care diagnostic assays, we have also deployed our own teams to support the local efforts.

Thank you for the great question! It would definitely be cool to make extra efficient red blood cells that work way better than the naturally occuring ones! It would be a whole new area of research for blood biologists. However, as engineers, we are currently working with the cells that the biologists have developed and given to us, so the naturally occuring red blood progenitor cells and we are aiming to grow and mature them in red blood cells that would deform in the same manner (essential to allow them to navigate through blood vessels) and they bind and release oxygen in the same manner to naturally occuring ones in our bodies.

What else will/are you doing with the red blood cells?

Thanks for the question! We currently work with red blood progenitor cells that will give rise to the universal blood type RBCs.

How often does Ebola actually cause bleeding from every orifice of the patients body? This is what we always hear what happens with Ebola, curious if thats actually the case.

Thank you for your question! Bioreactor technologies are being developed for a variety of cell types and this is an area of active research. There are many challenges with growing any cell type outside the body including red blood cells (RBCs). We aim to manufacture RBCs to address the growing shortage of donated blood globally. Within the different cell types in blood, we are focussed on RBCs since they are the oxygen-carying component of blood and hence, if we can replenish them for a patient who has suffered major blood loss, we can save the patient's life and their body is then able to replenish the other cell types in the blood tissue.

We can manufacture RBCs using existing bioreactor technologies, but these technologies are not yet fully optimized for cost-effective manufacture. Our research focuses on optimizing these technologies (that were developed for other cell types) specifically for cost-effect mass RBC manufacture. Current cost of donated blood is ~£125/unit (it is >£500/unit for rarer blood types) while that for bioreactor-produced RBCs is >£5,000/unit. Our research aims to design better bioreactors to bring down costs closer to that of donated blood.

Are there any examples of outbreaks that have been managed well and what were key factors in those cities or locations?

So, True Blood then?

What is the transmission rate of Ebola in the Midwest versus higher populated regions of the US?

After you grow human red blood cells in the lab, how long before they expire?