Utilizing Light and Autonomous Nanoparticles in the War Against Cancer

Chemotherapy that does not harm the body, but effectively fights cancer cells: that is the goal of chemist Sylvestre Bonnet and his team. During his Ph.D. research, chemist Xuequan Zhou brought that goal a little closer. He developed molecules that, upon injection into the bloodstream, self-assemble into nanoparticles that accumulate in the tumor. Targeted irradiation with visible light then attacks the tumor. The research has now been published in Nature Chemistry.

"Conventional anti-cancer drugs often do not differentiate enough between good and bad cells," Bonnet explains. "They kill them both." The researchers have come up with a solution to this problem: nanoparticles that target the tumor and only become active under the influence of visible light. "This anticancer phototherapy allows doctors to treat a specific part of the body without damaging the rest. It is already in use in several hospitals."

Molecules that form nanoparticles by themselves

Until now, chemists had to first attach the chemotherapy drugs to nanoparticles in the lab. Doctors then administered them by injection into the patient's bloodstream. Conjugation to the nanoparticles helped the chemotherapy find the tumor. Zhou's drug works slightly differently. "The lab work is no longer necessary," he says. "You can administer the molecules directly. Once in the blood, nanoparticles then form all by themselves."

And that has several advantages, says Zhou. "First, it saves a lot of work and preparation time. But in addition, it is also safer and more effective." Making nanoparticles in the lab is complicated: it always creates a mix of particles with varied sizes and therefore different properties. It is difficult to precisely determine the composition of that mix. So you are never 100% sure how these particles are going to behave in your body.

Zhou says, "With a molecule, this is more straightforward: when you make molecules, chemical analysis allows you to determine whether they are pure." Bonnet adds, "If you then inject these molecules into the blood, the resulting nanoparticles are all really similar. That is because the body processes those molecules all in the same way."

Xuequan's molecule is a so-called palladium complex—a molecule with a metallic core made of palladium. Normally, the palladium atom is connected to four nitrogen atoms, but Zhou replaced two of those nitrogen atoms with carbon atoms. When irradiated with green light, the palladium complex gains extra energy. That extra energy causes the complex to transfer electrons to the oxygen molecules (O2) already present in the irradiated cells. This mechanism creates a reactive oxygen species that kills cancer cells.

In 2020, Zhou also made a cancer drug with self-assembling properties. "However, this new molecule is one step further," he says. "By binding not one but two carbon atoms to the metal, the drug is now activated under green light, instead of blue." Green light allows better penetration into body tissue and is therefore much more useful for therapy in mice. "Our ultimate goal is a drug that works under infrared light," says Bonnet. "That light would allow even deeper penetration. It would allow us to fight larger tumors deep inside the body of human patients."

This new study followed a better, clinically more relevant approach. In the first study, Zhou and his colleagues injected the drug directly into the tumor. "This time we went a step further and looked in mouse models where the drug was injected into the bloodstream," he says. "After all, this is also how it would be done in hospitals. We wanted to know whether the drug nanoparticles would survive the conditions in the body. And fortunately, that was the case."

Zhou's molecule proved to be very effective. "Ten percent of the administered drug reaches the tumor," says Bonnet. "Out of every 100 molecules we administer, ten arrive at the destination. For many nanomedicines, that percentage is much lower. A study a few years ago showed that the average is only 0.7%."

How exactly is this possible? Molecules that form nanoparticles by themselves? "We don't exactly know that ourselves either," Bonnet admits. "We know palladium is critical, and Xuequan discovered that proteins in the blood probably play a role as well. If those proteins are missing, the nanoparticles keep growing and become so big that they eventually no longer stay in solution. It hence seems that the proteins limit the growth of the nanoparticles, but we cannot yet precisely tell how. We know it is effective. That's the most important thing. But why it does work so well? That's what further research will have to show."

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Silver Nanoparticles Propel Major Advancements in Thermoelectric Power Production

Several high-performance thermoelectric materials have been discovered over the past two decades, but without efficient devices to convert the energy they produce into emission-free power, their promise has been unfulfilled. Now an international team of scientists led by a University of Houston physicist and several of his former students has reported a new approach to constructing the thermoelectric modules, using silver nanoparticles to connect the modules' electrode and metallization layers.

The work, described in a paper published May 1 in Nature Energy, should accelerate the development of advanced modules for power generation and other uses. The use of silver nanoparticles was tested for stability in modules built of three different state-of-the-art thermoelectric materials, designed to operate across a wide range of temperatures.

Thermoelectric materials have drawn increasing interest because of their potential as a source of clean energy, produced when the material converts heat—such as waste heat generated by power plants or other industrial processes—into electricity by exploiting the flow of heat current from a warmer area to a cooler area. But taking advantage of that ability requires finding a material that can connect the hot and cool sides of the material both electrically and thermally, without interfering with the material's performance.

The connective material, or solder, is melted to create an interface between the two sides. That means the solder must have a higher melting point than the operating temperature of the device in order to remain stable while the device is working, said Zhifeng Ren, director of the Texas Center for Superconductivity at UH and a corresponding author on the paper. If the thermoelectric material operates at hotter temperatures, the connective layer will re-melt.

But it can also be a problem if the connective material has too high a melting point, because high temperatures can affect the stability and performance of the thermoelectric materials during the connection process. The ideal connective material, then, would both have a relatively low melting point for assembling the module, so as not to destabilize the thermoelectric materials, but then be able to withstand high operating temperatures without re-melting.

Silver has valuable properties for such a connective material, with high thermal conductivity and high electrical conductivity. But it also has a relatively high melting point, at 962 degrees Centigrade, which can affect the stability of many thermoelectric materials. For this work, the researchers took advantage of the fact that silver nanoparticles have a much lower melting point than bulk silver. The nanoparticles returned to a bulk state after the module was assembled, regaining the higher melting point for operations.

"If you make silver into nanoparticles, the melting point could be as low as 400 degrees or 500 degrees C, depending on the particle size. That means you can use the device at 600 C or 700 C with no problem, as long as the operating temperature remains below the melting point of bulk silver, or 962 C," said Ren, who is also M.D. Anderson Professor of Physics at UH.

He worked on the project with five former students and post-doctoral researchers from the Ren research group; they are now at the Harbin Institute of Technology in Shenzhen, China, and the Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.

The researchers tested the silver nanoparticles with three well-known thermoelectric materials, each of which operates at a different temperature.

A lead tellurium-based module, which works at a low temperature of about 573 Kelvin up to about 823 K (300 C to 550 C) produced a heat-to-electricity conversion efficiency of about 11% and remained stable after 50 thermal cycles, according to the researchers.

They also used the silver nanoparticles as the connective material in modules using low-temperature bismuth telluride and a half-Heusler high-temperature material, indicating the concept would work for a variety of thermoelectric materials and purposes.

Different materials are used depending on the intended heat source, Ren said, to ensure the materials can withstand the applied heat. "But this paper proves that whatever the material, we can use the same silver nanoparticles for the solder as long as the applied heat does not go above 960 degrees C," in order to remain below the melting point of bulk silver, he said.

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Anti-viral drugs can be final solution as WHO warns against lowering our guard to COVID-19

Suggestions that COVID-19 is on the wane have been strongly contradicted by the World Health Organization’s senior pandemics scientist, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove.

And her criticism of virus complacency has fuelled calls for research and development of anti-viral drugs to stop all coronaviruses at source, in addition to ongoing vaccines and testing for COVID-19 variants.

Dr Van Kerkhove, a highly regarded infectious disease epidemiologist and World Health Organization (WHO) Head of the Emerging Diseases and Zoonoses Unit, delivered her wake-up call in a BBC TV interview where she insisted that COVID-19 was still evolving and the world must evolve with it:

“It will not end with this latest wave (Omicron) and it will not be the last variant you will hear us (WHO) speaking about – unfortunately,” she told BBC interviewer Sophie Raworth.

Countries with high immunity and vaccination levels were starting to think the pandemic is over, she added, but despite 10 billion vaccine doses delivered globally, more than three billion people were yet to receive one dose, leaving the world highly susceptible to further COVID mutations - a global problem for which a global solution was needed.

She also challenged assumptions that the COVID Omicron variant was mild: “It is still putting people in hospital…and it will not be the last (variant). There is no guarantee that the next one will be less severe. We must keep the pressure up – we cannot give it a free ride.”

WNF Chairman Paul Stannard said: “We welcome Dr Van Kerkhove’s timely intervention. Too many people think we can sit back with COVID now, forgetting lessons learned the hard way.

“Such as there’s always another variant just around the corner, and testing and vaccines are not the complete answer.

“Even if Omicron seems milder than its predecessors – though this may be due to vaccinations and growing herd immunity – who can say that a more fatal COVID mutation will not follow, or an all-new virus is waiting to strike.

“Many other pathogens have entered humans in last 15 years including SARS, Ebola, Zika virus and Indian Flu variants, so permanent pandemic protection investment is vital to restoring confidence in our way of life and the global markets.

“An even older lesson is Spanish Flu (1918-20): the death toll was relatively contained initially, lulling people already fatigued by WW1 devastation into thinking the worst was over.

“But that virus then mutated into its most deadly strain, killing 50 million people when Earth’s population numbered less than two billion. All of which suggests we must maintain or redouble our efforts against COVID-19 and other potential threats.

“We have already benefitted from greater healthcare investment and research due to the pandemic: experts say the first six months of the emergency delivered sector progress equivalent to the previous 10 years.

“This helped unusually rapid deployment of new and better testing and vaccines that have driven down infection, hospitalization and deaths, but we hope that the WHO view will now foster a new and potentially more effective development against COVID and other threats – anti-viral drugs.

“Instead of attacking the virus like a vaccine, anti-viral drugs aim to stop it functioning in the human body. Merck and Pfizer say they have re-purposed existing drugs to do just that.

“But a better option is gathering momentum using nanomedicine, AI and advanced computational technology to develop all-new drugs more quickly and effectively, potentially delivering breakthroughs against many serious killers, including viruses, cancers and heart disease.

“WNF believes these can disrupt the traditional pharmaceutical industry as Tesla has done in the auto industry, or SpaceX and Blue Origin have done in space.”

California-based Verseon has developed an AI and computational drug development platform and has six drug candidates, including an anti-viral drug to potentially block all coronaviruses and some flu variants, potentially transforming pandemic protection.

This could be on the market within 18 months after securing a final $60 million investment, a small amount compared to the $1 billion pharma industry norm for a single new drug (source: Biospace), and weighed against 5.6 million COVID deaths globally and an estimated $3 trillion in economic output (source: Statista) lost since the start of the pandemic.

Verseon Head of Discovery Biology Anirban Datta said: “Vaccines and the current anti-viral drugs are retrospective solutions that don’t treat newly emergent strains. We need a different strategy to avoid always being one step behind viral mutations.

“So, we switched target from the virus to the human host. If we stop SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) entering our cells which, unlike viruses, don’t mutate then we have a long-term solution.

“Even better, the strategy should work against other coronaviruses and influenza strains that use the same mechanism as SARS-CoV-2 to infect cells – a key point, since it surely won’t be the last pandemic to affect humanity.”

Technology can cure healthcare’s inflation sickness

Digitisation and new technologies must be used to counter the spiralling and unsustainable cost of healthcare, say experts.

Medical care budgets around the world soared 6.8% in 2020 against a global inflation rate of just 2.4%, according to insurance brokerage and advisory company Willis Towers Watson.

This highlights a longstanding problem for many first world countries. For instance, the UK’s average annual healthcare expenditure increase since 1958/59 has been 3.9%, consistently higher than its own national and the global inflation average over those years.

Technology can cure healthcare’s inflation sickness

And the Office for National statistics estimates £269 billion was spent on UK healthcare in 2020 – 20% more than 2019.

The World Nano Foundation (WNF), a not-for-profit organisation that supports commercialising nanoscale technology including nanomedicines, says the issue must be addressed:

"Current operation of global healthcare is simply not sustainable,” said WNF co-founder Paul Sheedy. “Our centralised model uses hospitals to treat almost every ailment or condition, but patients should only come to hospital when they cannot be treated and monitored at home. This is what has fuelled this above-inflation high-cost system and incidentally, also exacerbated the COVID-19 infection rate.

"And developing countries are trying to copy these costly and inefficient systems too, leading to poorer quality of care and disease infection risk.”

Instead, he called for a decentralised and sustainable model, utilising digitisation and technology:

"Last year's pandemic showed that we already had the technology to diagnose and treat patients at home through telemedicine, while cost-effective remote health monitoring devices for multiple diseases and health issues are also arriving and improving constantly.

"Meanwhile, other technology and treatments are also being developed to enable hospitals and health centres to treat patients more quickly and effectively, and avoid  being overloaded.”

Paul Stannard, chairman and general partner at the Vector Innovation Fund (VIF), which specialises in investment towards healthcare technology and pandemic protection, also voiced support:

"COVID-19 has shown us that global healthcare must evolve into a more efficient, cost-effective system, and I’m hugely encouraged to see how healthcare tech investment soared 47% in 2020 to a new sector high of $51 billion, with healthcare tech investment deal sizes rising to record levels during 2021 so far.

"Investors are continuing to back the sector to thrive, after seeing that healthtech is on the verge of some ground-breaking innovations."

Gordon Brown warns G7 that vaccination must be fair and global to defeat COVID-19

Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown believes at least $30 billion is needed annually for an effective global vaccination plan.

And Brown wants this high on the agenda for next week's G7 Summit in Cornwall, England, an intergovernmental organization of leading economies comprising the UK, US, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and Canada.

Apart from needing to democratise jab access, Brown made it clear in April that he fears disparity will have repercussions down the line for both rich and developing countries yet vaccines are still being prioritised for the Western and European world.

Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown calls for major investment in order to ensure an ongoing effective global vaccination plan.

Our World in Data reported on June 3rd that more than 26.1m British, 136m American, 16.3m German and 11.5m French citizens are fully vaccinated, yet the Africa Centres of Disease Control and Prevention confirmed on June 2nd  that only 0.51% of Africans were fully vaccinated; the continent has a population of 1.2 billion.

In a Guardian newspaper exclusive, Brown said: "Immunising the West but only a fraction of the developing world is already fuelling allegations of 'vaccine apartheid' and will leave COVID-19 spreading, mutating and threatening the lives and livelihoods of us all for years to come.

"We need to spend now to save lives, and we need to spend tomorrow to carry on vaccinating each year until the disease no longer claims lives. And this will require at least $30 billion a year, a bill no one so far seems willing to fully underwrite."

Yearly mass global vaccination support would also protect G7 nations financially in the long run, according to political risk consultancy Eurasia, which reported how G7 economies would be $500 billion better off by 2025 if such a plan took place this summer.

Despite G7 inaction, the private sector stepped up in 2020; funding from large companies, investment funds, and non-traditional investors reached record highs, while also providing healthtech companies with essential innovation support that some experts say advanced the sector ten years in just six months.

Investment monitoring platform Pitchbook reported that healthtech investment soared 47% in 2020 to a new high of $51 billion, with the sector already attracting £3.79 billion in further funding this year. 

Venture Capital (VC) biotech and pharma deal activity also notched a record $28.5 billion of capital across 1,073 deals, while IPOs by VC-backed biotech companies raised $11.5 billion in capital across 73 biotech public listings, with a record total exit value of $37.3 billion.

Paul Stannard, general partner and co-founder of the Vector Innovation Fund (VIF), said:

"Governments must continually invest in global vaccine deployment and democratising jab access, but healthtech investment overall must also be maintained or further increased for the foreseeable future.

"The current investment levels are astonishing. However, to speed development of tech advances needed to eliminate COVID-19, prevent future pandemics, and realise a more accessible, decentralised global healthcare system that benefits all, investment levels must continue."

VIF recently launched a sub-fund raising an initial $300m for pandemic protection and future healthcare, focusing on precision medicine, advanced point of care, and AI technologies that support sustainable healthcare, the global economy, and human longevity.

Surging nanomedicine investments improve global healthcare and pandemic protection

COVID-19’s outbreak has coincided with investments flooding into nanomedicine healthcare companies, according to the latest data.

Nano Magazine have highlighted a report by marketdataforecast.com that the global nanomedicine market worth $141.34 billion in 2020, will rise to $258.11bn by 2025.

The report also highlights a huge upsurge of investment support from governments and funds to develop nano therapies for vaccines, diagnostic imaging, regenerative medicine, and drug delivery following the impact of COVID-19.

Furthermore, nanomedicines offer huge advantages for wider healthcare also impacted by the pandemic and Long-COVID after-effects upon cardiovascular, respiratory, neurological, immunological-related diseases.

This aligns with investment monitoring platform Pitchbook’s forecast that health tech investment overall will top $10 trillion by 2022 and that nanomedicine investment has grown the sector by 250% in the last five years.

Median nanotech healthcare deal sizes have also doubled since 2019, from £1 million to £2m in 2021, while the number of deals in 2020 was greater than ever, overtaking 100 deals in a single year for the first time.

Nanomedicine is transforming healthcare innovation and delivering early intervention and targeted drug delivery and testing

Investment is already aiding innovation as nanotech researchers and scientists work to improve biomedical devices such as prosthetics, provide new cancer treatments, and develop bone healing therapies, along with more innovations that could transform global healthcare.

Nanotech researchers have found nanobodies that block the COVID-19 and, potentially, other coronaviruses from entering cells and developed mask designs at nanoscale making them both cheaper and more effective.

The fast global response to the pandemic was also enabled by nanotechnology, being pivotal in Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccine development and Innova Medical Group’s 30-minute lateral flow COVID tests.

World Nano Foundation co-founder Paul Stannard said COVID-19 highlighted weaknesses in healthcare systems across the developed world, proving that long-term, innovative solutions are needed to enable change and prevent future pandemics, with nanomedicine playing an ever greater role in this transformation of global healthcare.

And while impressed by rising investments in and recognition for the nanotech sector, he warned against any let-up in this trend:

“Nanotechnology is not only crucial to our current healthcare systems, but researchers and scientists in this field are on the cusp of therapies, devices, and innovation that will revolutionise how we move forward.”

“To ensure pandemic preparedness, high-quality healthcare, and longevity, we must invest in nano healthtech and care innovations.”

His message was echoed by Kojo Annan (son of late and former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan) who is a general partner in the Luxembourg-based Vector Innovation Fund, which recently launched a sub-fund raising an initial $300m for pandemic protection and preparedness.

Annan said: “A virtuous circle is developing between investment and healthtech.

“Lately, we have seen the development of multiple vaccines, acceleration of technologies linked to decoding the genome, the rise of nanomedicine and the use of artificial intelligence to monitor infectious diseases and new pathogens.

“More investment in sustainable healthtech funding can only accelerate this trend, bringing fairer and global distribution of healthcare, greater affordability, and preventive and early intervention healthcare, all ultimately improving the longevity of life.

“The pandemic has also transformed telemedicine investment and demonstrated that nanoscience and innovation could deliver more resilient societies and ecosystems for healthcare.”

Tech investing is the key to Biden’s ‘Race to Zero’ to avoid climate crisis

President Biden’s ‘Race to Zero’ to reduce carbon emissions is underway, and go-ahead companies are jockeying to deliver emerging tech solutions to win it.

Leading nations including the USA (2nd biggest carbon emitter globally*), UK (17th), France (19th), Denmark, New Zealand, Japan(5th), and South Korea (8th) have committed to reaching net-zero by 2050. The world’s No1 emitter, China, has committed to net-zero by 2060. However, the International Energy Agency forecasts 2021 carbon emissions will be the second-highest ever recorded annually.

"It's easy to see the financial and environmental benefits of using advanced technology to accelerate the launch of ‘Race to Zero’, pushing back against urban pollution, health risk and Climate Change and a future multi-trillion-dollar cost in economic and environmental damage," said Vector Innovation Fund Co-Founder & The World Nano Foundation’s Paul Stannard.

Cities cover just 3% of the Earth but contribute 70% of global carbon emissions. Advanced technologies can provide the essential interconnectivity to drive this down.

Yet many tech companies say the tools for reaching net-zero already exist. One sector, in particular, is forging ahead in the battle to reduce carbon emissions in our cities using AI Digital Twin technology.

One Digital Twin market pioneer involved is Cityzenith’s whose SmartWorldOS™ software platform can create virtual replicas of buildings and urban areas to track, manage and optimize carbon emissions to minimize environmental damage.

The US company’s tech is currently deployed in multiple international megaprojects, including a substantial ground-breaking de-carbonization energy scheme for US cities.

Cityzenith’s CEO Michael Jansen said, “Cities are the key battleground, and that’s why we made our ‘Clean Cities – Clean Future’ pledge to donate our SmartWorldOS™ software platform to key cities one by one to drive down their carbon emission”.

Swiss-based company Climeworks has focused on carbon capture rather than emission management. Its Orca facility is designed to suck some 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the air each year.

Climeworks Christoph Beuttler believes carbon capture facilities like Orca must go mainstream if we are to reach net-zero:

"In order to stay within the 1.5-degree goal (to avoid Climate Change), we have 8-10 years left of current emissions, and we will not make that so, globally, we will have to remove CO2 from the atmosphere permanently."

Fortunately, technology now attracts significant investment. Cityzenith has added over 5000 investors as part of its $15m Regulation A+ crowdfunding raise since the end of 2020.  Climate-focused investment funds such as US-based Congruent Ventures and the European fund, 2150, have recently supported start-ups and companies developing essential climate solutions. This form of investment is forecasted to run into trillions of dollars in the next 5 to 10 years.

But Cityzenith's Jansen added: " We must invest immediately, to act now and more effectively to protect our planet. "

Jansen's upcoming FREE investment webinar, 'Join The Race to Zero – Investing in Technology For Sustainable Cities,' will take place virtually on Tuesday 11 May at 08:00 CT and 13:00 CT. To learn more about using emerging tech to combat Climate Change, please sign up here.

Nanotechnologies are poised to have a huge impact on agriculture

Science is about big ideas that change the world. But sometimes, big impacts come from the tiniest of objects.

Nanotechnology might sound like science fiction, but it represents technologies that have been developed for decades. Nanotechnological approaches have found real-world applications in a wide range of areas, from composite materials in textiles to agriculture.

Agriculture is one of the oldest human inventions, but nanotech provides modern innovations that could dramatically improve the efficiency of our food supply and reduce the environmental impact of its production.

Agriculture comes with costs that farmers are only too familiar with: Crops require substantial amounts of water, land and fuel to produce. Fertilizers and pesticides are needed to achieve the necessary high crop yields, but their use comes with environmental side effects, even as many farmers explore how new technologies can reduce their impact.

The tiniest of objects

Nanotechnology is the science of objects that are a few nanometres—billionths of a meter—across. At this size, objects acquire unique properties. For example, the surface area of a swarm of nanoscale particles is enormous compared to the same mass collected into single large-scale clump.

Varying the size and other properties of nanoscale objects gives us an unprecedented ability to create precision surfaces with highly customized properties.

Employing particles

Traditionally, applying chemicals involves first mixing the active ingredients in water and then spraying the mixture on crops. But the ingredients do not mix easily, making this an inefficient process that requires large quantities of water.

To improve efficiency and reduce environmental impact, farmers need their fertilizers and pesticides to reach their crops and be absorbed into the plant exactly where they're needed—into the roots or the leaves, for example. Ideally, they could use just enough of the chemical to enhance the crop's yield or protect it from attack or infection, which would prevent excess from being wasted.

Custom-made nanoscale systems can use precision chemistry to achieve high-efficiency delivery of fertilizers or pesticides. These active ingredients can be encapsulated in a fashion similar to what happens in targeted drug delivery. The encapsulation technique can also be used to increase the amount dissolved in water, reducing the need for large amounts.

Current applications

Starpharma, a pharmaceutical company, got into this game a few years ago, when it set up a division to apply its nanotechnological innovations to the agriculture sector. The company has since sold its agrochemical business.

Psigryph is another innovative nanotech company in agriculture. Its technology uses biodegradable nanostructures derived from Montmonercy sour cherries extract to deliver bioactive molecules across cell membranes in plants, animals and humans.

My lab has spent years working in nanoscience, and I am proud to see our fundamental understanding of manipulating polymer encapsulation at the nanoscale make its way to applications in agriculture. A former student, Darren Anderson, is the CEO of Vive Crop Protection, named one of Canada's top growing firms: they take chemical and biological pesticides and suspend them in "nanopackets"—which act as incredibly small polymer shuttles—to make them easily reach their target. The ingredients can be controlled and precisely directed when applied on crops.

Existing infrastructure

One bonus of these nanotech developments is that they don't actually require any new equipment whatsoever, which is a tremendous advantage in the financially challenging agricultural industry. Farmers simply mix these products using less water and fuel to make efficiency gains.

Other agricultural uses for nanotech include animal health products, food packaging materials and nanobiosensors for detecting pathogens, toxins and heavy metals in soil. It wouldn't be a surprise to see the widespread use of these new applications in the near future.

As nanotechnologies take flight, this kind of productivity gain will be critical for farmers and a big deal for the rest of us, as the Earth's population continues to grow and the effects of climate change become increasingly obvious. Farmers will need to do more with less.

Fortunately, a few billionths of a meter is the very definition of less. With the help of tiny nanotech, global agriculture is on the verge of some very big things.

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Image: Shutterstock - Vadym Zaitsev

Lessons of COVID-19 trigger radical 10-year Government plan to level up healthcare

·       Health plan will target smoking, obesity, food, clean air, and child health

·       Priority given to levelling up ‘postcode inequalities’ in healthcare

·       Technology-led investment will drive better diagnostics, early intervention and more de-centralised health system

A year of COVID-19 has exposed decades of travelling the tragically wrong path in UK healthcare according to a Government-backed ‘Levelling Up Health’ (LUH) presentation and report today.

Specialists drawn from healthcare, academia and industry heard how the pandemic may have caused 40,000 needless UK deaths, highlighted postcode-driven inequalities in healthcare, and confirmed the UK literally as ‘the sick man of Europe’.

It will now drive a radical shake-up with Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for England, Prof Chris Whitty, as a ‘health supremo’ overseeing all issues feeding into the nation’s well-being and longevity and reporting direct to the Prime Minister and his Cabinet.

A 10-year Health Improvement Plan will target smoking, obesity, food, clean air, and child health and Prof Whitty said the NHS would also be re-shaped, within a 10-year plan for unified action across all functions including Whitehall: 

“No-one owns the whole problem and therefore we aim to bring these different government departments together in terms of resources and budgets.” 

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the LUH report had had been widely praised ahead of publication, and had prompted a re-focussing on the nation’s health and a goal to add five years to people’s longevity by 2035:

“80% of our budget goes on acute care, in other words patching people up, and we have to change this in one of the most important healthcare reforms for a generation.” 

Mr Hancock highlighted two main themes to this: Prof Whitty’s new remit and how “the NHS will benefit from this through reversing the silos that exist currently.”

He said Whitehall had to change too, as things like transport and air quality both impact on health, but relevant budgets are split between different government departments – Prof Whitty’s new role was to help bring these together.

Mr Hancock said: “This is a unique opportunity and there has never been a better time to do this following the huge learning from managing COVID-19, where we have broken these silos to create real impact and change and this has never been better illustrated than through the vaccine programme.”

He added that investment in technology and a healthcare model based on prevention, early detection and early intervention is key to the Government’s 10-year plan.

Mr Hancock also highlighted the importance of the Government’s data strategy, as identifying people’s genome is massively helping with diagnostics, and enabling much better health outcomes through use of AI and other early intervention measures.

The LUH report said its ‘Ten-Year Health Improvement Plan’, along with targeted funding for areas with poor health, would complement the Government’s post-COVID ‘Building Back Better’ blueprint for economic growth, improved health resilience, and reduced health inequalities:

“A healthier nation would be a great asset and a great investment. There would be public support for launching such an ambition,” said the report, underpinning this through stark facts and comment:

·       90% of those who died with COVID had significant prior poor health.

·       The most deprived places had much higher COVID deaths; 345 per 100,00 in Blackburn and Darwen - five times more than South Cambridgeshire (68 per 100,000) – and suggesting that 40,000 fewer people would have died if the whole nation’s healthcare had been ‘levelled up’.

·       The UK has the unhealthiest population in Europe: a significant drag on economic growth that also increases our exposure to future pandemics.

·       Health is the principal reason for 1.2 million people aged 50-64 being out of work, and people living in the most deprived places in England get significant long-term poor health conditions 19 years earlier than those in the least deprived ones, and they stop work earlier and die earlier.

·       Health inequality between the North and South costs £13 billion a year in lost productivity and 30% of the productivity gap between the North and the rest of England is due to ill-health.

·       Premature poor health increases demand on the NHS, for social care and welfare support; becoming healthier is fundamental to growth, resilience, and NHS sustainability.

Paul Stannard, co-founder of the not-for-profit World Nano Foundation attended the meeting and said: “I was pleased to hear Mr Hancock talk about early diagnosis and prevention being key, as many of the waiting lists are not for treatments but caused by delays in testing and diagnostics. It was also good to hear the Government’s commitment to diagnostic hubs and genomic sequencing.

“COVID-19 has been devastating but this is just the response needed to re-shape our healthcare system to be protected and prepared for the world’s next major health threat, while also transitioning to a more de-centralised, point-of-care, early intervention model benefitting from the latest healthcare technology.

“Rapid deployment of new vaccines and rapid mass testing devices show what can be achieved when the will and investment are fully behind healthcare.

“That’s why we have partnered with the Vector Innovation Fund to launch an initial $300 million international healthtech sub-fund for pandemic protection and preparedness that will have a wider impact on future healthcare provision.

“Investment in nanotechnology diagnostics, therapies, novel treatments, genome sequencing, and precision medicines is already helping the cause with record amounts of funding enabling healthtech advances in less than a year, which would have taken 10 years previously, along with delivering wearable health sensors, telemedicine, highly-targeted drugs and treatments, as well as breakthroughs in testing.”

‘COVID decade’ creates $10 trillion impact upon healthcare innovation investment

Healthcare technology investment in 2020 soared 47% to a new high of $51 billion and figures show it will rocket to even greater heights.

Overall healthcare investment is tipped to pass $10 trillion by 2022 on a 10-year upward trajectory, already being called the ‘COVID decade’ for investment into disruptive innovation supporting pandemic protection and preparedness.

The spin-off from this research is also creating opportunities to democratise and decentralise healthcare through early detection diagnostics and early intervention therapies, and precision medicine, all set to transform global health and human longevity.

A further sign of where new investment is going came with the recent launch of a $300 million Pandemic Protection Sub-fund by the Luxembourg-based Vector Innovation Fund (VIF) focusing on this ‘new age’ healthtech, and preparation for the next global healthcare challenge.

The new fund forms part of $17 billion (source: Pitchbook) in venture funding for healthcare innovation in recent years related to infectious diseases.

Scottish Health Innovations reports how accelerating investment has advanced the healthcare sector 10 years in just six months, through new data-driven technologies and digitisation, while vaccines have developed at unprecedented speed; the research and rollout for the Pfizer and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines were the fastest in history.

Testing has improved too; lateral flow tests (LFTs) from the world’s largest manufacturer, Innova Medical, are now 99.9% accurate yet take just 30 minutes to show results and help identify new variants and isolate asymptomatic carriers.

Using cutting edge nanotechnology these LFTs have been adopted by a world class UK testing and vaccine regime, now including a new national health agency UKHSA to protect against future health threats.

But far more is needed to avoid repetition of COVID-19’s devastation: 2.74m deaths to date, $5.6 trillion in global GDP lost, plus severe financial, health, and social impacts - mental health problems, unemployment, and poverty have all soared, while many people with life-threatening diseases have gone undiagnosed.

And the world is still alarmingly unprepared for another pandemic. COVID-19 was transmitted from animals, and scientists now know that two new ‘zoonotic’ viruses have done this every year for the last century, yet the Royal Society of Chemistry claims only 10 of 220 viruses known to infect humans have antiviral drugs available to combat them.

Against such odds, says the Executive Chair of Scottish Health Innovations, Graham Watson, healthcare innovation, rapid development, and early adoption must become routine in what he calls an “optimal investment ecosystem”.

This had been lacking according to leading medical journal, The Lancet, which reported that a pre-COVID assessment exposed a need for faster medical manufacturing and distribution during a possible pandemic, and commented: "A true, end-to-end R&D ecosystem must deliver needed products to people as rapidly as possible, and at scale in a globally fair and equitable fashion.”

Paul Sheedy, co-founder of the not-for-profit World Nano Foundation, argued strongly against any easing of investment into nanomedicines, and nano diagnostics towards better healthcare and pandemic protection:

"Nanomedicine investment alone grew 250% in the last five years, according to Pitchbook, while equity funding to digital health companies hit an all-time high last year, reaching $26.5 billion, but it has to be maintained if we are to avoid the human and economic devastation of another COVID.”

Five Steps to Defeat the Next Pandemic

World Nano Foundation Co-Founder Paul Sheedy recently featured in The American, discussing five key steps to defeat the next pandemic to come along.

Pathogen surveillance

Humans now live ever-closer to animals, increasing the risk of new and unknown infections crossing from species such as bats and pangolins – the suspected ‘bridges’ for the COVID-19 infection – into humans, while global travel enables the rapid spread of any outbreak. Peter Daszak, an expert virus hunter at the EcoHealth Alliance research group, suggests governments should track and intervene against emerging viruses as they would terrorists, before they wreak havoc, but it is a big task. Daszak estimates there are some 1.7 million unknown mammal viruses that could spread to humans and proposes a $1 billion programme to identify at least two-thirds of these, so resources can be tailored to track and reduce pandemic risk. Others call for consensus on the right actions for the start of an outbreak to avoid the inconsistent response to COVID’s arrival; the jury is still out on which countries made the right calls on social distancing and lockdowns.

A tougher ‘World Health Organisation’

COVID-19 has highlighted the need for a cohesive global pandemic surveillance and response partnership. The World Health Organization should be that body but has been criticised for deference to China and for being slow to declare COVID as a global emergency. The WHO’s response was that it must stay diplomatic and cannot force member states to reply to its requests. But experts argue that if the world is to get better at spotting and then acting against the next pandemic, then individual nations must not hide local outbreaks until they erupt into global issues, as happened with COVID in China and Ebola in West Africa. Instead, it needs to be a more coordinated approach under a beefed up WHO-style body – one label being used is “a biological NATO” with rapid response powers. This ‘super-WHO’ might also use combined financial muscle to: fund elimination of ‘wet markets’ where wild and live animals are sold for food; discourage jungle deforestation - which pushes animals and the viruses closer to humans - and train more local field workers in remote regions to augment the current ad hoc system where the WHO, charities, universities and volunteers combine against emerging threats, but risk being too slow.

Genetic sequencing

Virus ‘Tracking and Tracing’ has enjoyed a mixed press during the COVID-19 pandemic and many scientists think it should give way to gene sequencing, made possible by a huge increase in the number of such machines, making it possible to sequence a virus genome for as little as $50. This would allow tracking and data on the virus to be assessed quickly and acted upon while also gathering intelligence on possible mutations and their resistance to current vaccines. The UK has become a leader here and used sequencing to identify what has become known as the ‘UK variant’ of COVID-19.

Faster vaccine development

One area where governments responded well against COVID-19 is in quickly developing several effective vaccines against the virus, but experts warn that we up the pace: better preparation could have made current vaccines available even earlier, while new ones need to be evolved or developed now against COVID variants and other threats as yet unknown. Some say the goal must be investment in vaccines and drugs that protect against multiple viruses.

Ironing out distribution and logistics

In a world of Amazon deliveries and supermarket shelves groaning with produce from far-flung places, it might be thought that moving medicines should be equally simple and well-organised, but COVID-19 has shown the opposite. The sometimes chaotic acquisition and transporting of Personal Protection Equipment as well as movement and distribution of vaccines – some with sensitive shipping and storage needs – plus the ad hoc vaccination infrastructures, all show that more needs to be done in this area. Incoming US President Joe Biden moved quickly to sets up an American network of mobile community vaccination centres.

Soaring healthtech investment is more than just a shot in the arm

Healthcare technology investment soared 47% last year, to a new high of $51bn in 2020.

Venture capital (VC) fundraising was particularly strong across the sector with $17bn available in new venture funds focused on healthcare.

Nanomedicine investment alone grew by x2.5 in the last five years, according to Pitchbook. The investment monitoring platform also reported that 2020's global funding for digital health and telemedicine rose 45% over the previous year, while equity funding to digital health companies hit an all-time high last year, reaching $26.5 billion.

Rather than a COVID-19 driven 'shot in the arm', such growth supports a long-term healthcare industry projection that it will be worth over $10 trillion by 2022.

Since Jan 2021 £3.79bn has been invested into tech companies delivering disruptive innovations specifically related to pandemic protection and preparedness, but also having wider applications and impact for global health – a trend set to continue for the next 10 years, now being called the 'COVID decade'.

And whilst the world needs this major boost to avoid being caught out by future pandemics, it is also creating new opportunities to democratise and decentralise healthcare through early detection diagnostics, precision medicine and early intervention therapies that will transform global health.

This will create a more sustainable point of care-based healthcare ecosystem that is more affordable and available to everyone, say, health experts.

The message is already being picked up. A recent report by tech market analysis specialists CB Insights stated that healthcare start-ups attracted a record $80.6 billion in equity funding in 2020, and general investment in the sector grew in the three consecutive quarters after the outbreak, helping to drive intense innovation.

Some experts suggest the sector has advanced 10 years in just six months, with new data-driven technologies and digitisation practices being used more, while vaccines have developed at unprecedented speed; the research and rollout for the Pfizer and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines were the fastest in history.

Testing has improved, too; the largest manufacturer of lateral flow tests, Innova medical group, has produced LFTs that is at least 99.99% specific while taking just 30 minutes to show results. These simple tests use colloidal gold nanoparticles and are now being manufactured and supplied to countries around the world, particularly by the UK, which has built a world-class testing and vaccine programme.

Harvard professor Dr. Michael Mina has been a major advocate of frequent mass testing using LFTs in the community and workplace to stop the spread of virus transmission and said:

"An over-the-counter rapid test is a tremendous advance. It means that some people will have ready access to a much-needed test to help know their status, without having to go through a physician."

A world-first new national health agency is also launching in the UK in April 2021, focusing on prevention of and response to external health threats such as infectious diseases.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) will protect against future health threats and take over the COVID-19 pandemic response from Public Health England (PHE) and NHS Test and Trace. This includes harnessing the data analytics and genomic surveillance capabilities of both organisations, along with scale testing and contract tracing capability.

But far more is needed to avoid repetition of COVID-19's devastation, which has caused 2.74m deaths to date, plus severe financial, health, and social impacts.

An estimated $5.6 trillion in global GDP has been lost, and the World Bank states the global recession is the deepest since WW2 and twice the depth of the 2008 financial crash; and mental health problems, unemployment, and poverty have all increased, while many people with underlying, life-threatening diseases have gone undiagnosed.

And the world is still alarmingly unprepared for another outbreak. It's been reported that two new viruses have spilled over to human hosts every year for the last century, while the Royal Society of Chemistry claims only 10 of 220 viruses known to infect humans have clinically approved antiviral drugs available to combat them.

We now know that the current Coronavirus was transmitted into humans through bats and other animals, according to the latest World Health Organisation report. This will continue to happen, so investment into technologies that analyse these trends is essential.

Avoidance of future pandemics also needs fast support for innovation, according to Executive Chair of Scottish Health Innovations Ltd, Graham Watson, who forecasts a future where healthcare innovation, rapid development, and early adoption become routine:

"If modern healthcare innovation is to continue to grow at pace post-pandemic, then having an 'optimal investment ecosystem' is vital to encouraging its advancement."

Despite rising investment and innovation, processes must also evolve to keep pace with healthcare. Leading medical journal The Lancet showed how a 2020 assessment from the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board found gaps in the pre-COVID R&D preparedness ecosystem.

The report exposed a need for capabilities to ensure rapid manufacturing and distribution during a pandemic. Waiting time also needed to be cut so that innovators and scientists could develop new products quickly, an approach proving highly attractive to investment funds.

The Lancet stated: "A true, end-to-end R&D ecosystem must deliver needed products to people as rapidly as possible, and at scale in a globally fair and equitable fashion."

Healthcare investments may not be the only way to get ahead of the next outbreak. Ending deforestation and the wildlife trade would protect us from animal diseases transferring to humans. Investing to prevent these acts could stop outbreaks in the first place.

Paul Sheedy, co-founder of the not-for-profit World Nano Foundation, advocates continued investment into nanotechnology towards better healthcare and pandemic protection:

"Healthcare innovation is more exciting than ever, with new technologies and techniques being developed and improving constantly. Increased investment into healthcare during COVID-19 has been outstanding but must be maintained.

"2.74m people to date have lost their lives during this pandemic, global economies have entered recession, unemployment and poverty have risen substantially, suicides and mental health cases are increasing, and there are fears many people have gone undiagnosed with life-threatening diseases because of COVID protocol.

"Continued, efficient investment where innovators can access critical capital at a faster rate is crucial to developing healthcare innovations that can prevent and combat future pandemics."

A new healthtech fund was launched in March by the Vector Innovation Fund, raising an initial $300m for its sub-fund for pandemic protection and future healthcare, focusing on precision medicine, advanced point of care, and AI technologies that support sustainable healthcare, the global economy and human longevity.

Nanotech-powered £1 a day testing strategy can accelerate global recovery from pandemic

The rapid mass testing strategy costing just £1 a day per child can get children back to school and economies up and running, according to experts.

That is the small price of the rapid mass testing across schools in the UK, which is also hard on the heels of one of the world’s swiftest and most successful vaccination programmes.

A double whammy of rapid testing and vaccine deployment applied internationally could lead to a reduction of the human and economic hardship caused by much-criticised lockdown strategies, as well as the continued failure of ‘Track and Trace,’ which has swallowed up £32 billion in the UK.

The UK Government’s investment in vaccines started early, but its equally far-sighted adoption of inexpensive lateral flow test (LFT) kits is less well known.

The economical LFT utilizes nanoparticles to detect virus fragments in a test sample, identifying whether a subject is SARS-CoV-2 asymptomatic within 30 minutes. An individual can immediately isolate after a positive test, preventing transmission of COVID-19 at a rapid pace.

Some early scepticism about the devices has since been overwhelmed by new data and a robust rebuttal from Dr Susan Hopkins, COVID-19 Strategic Response Director to Public Health England, who said:

“Up to one in three people who have coronavirus never show any symptoms (asymptomatic) but that does not mean they are not infectious. Using LFTs enables us to rapidly identify people in the population who are asymptomatic, with results produced in 30 minutes.

“Lateral flow devices are effective at finding people with high viral loads who are most infectious and most likely to transmit the virus to others.”

And she added that the latest data suggested LFTs “are at least 99.9% specific which means that the risk of false positives is extremely low – less than one in a thousand.”

UK Government-sponsored LFT use in workplaces is already widespread, with nearly 50,000 UK businesses already registered for free kits, so that employees can be tested at least twice a week with fast results, enabling them to return to work and their children to get back into the classroom.

Each pupil must take two tests (£3.50 each) a week to show whether they need to be taken out of class to avoid infecting others and the same approach will be used for parents in the workplace.

“That’s remarkable value-for-money. £1 a day for an ‘insurance policy’ to enable schools to open, mums and dads to properly return to work, and the country to accelerate out of lockdown with the re-opening of hospitality and major venues no longer a distant prospect,” said Paul Sheedy, Co-founder of the not-for-profit World Nano Foundation (WNF) that promotes healthcare innovation and believes mass testing kits using nanotechnology are central to future pandemic protection.

Sheedy himself has co-developed Test2Suppress™ modelling to highlight how an LFT ‘Test to Suppress’ campaign allows early detection and immediate isolation, reducing the need for lockdowns.

He added: “The Government is rightly cautious about ending lockdown too early, so its medical advisors will pore over the data to check that the return to school and all workplaces maintain the falling infection rate.”

The next major battle will be the full re-opening of hospitality and major sporting and entertainment venues.

Britain’s Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has announced plans for 20,000 fans to watch the FA Cup Final on May 15 and for a dozen other events, including the World Snooker Championships starting on April 17, to go ahead providing spectators return a negative LFT and can be tested again afterwards. This means they will not need to comply with social distancing at the event.

This level of social interaction will finalise ‘Operation Moonshot’ – the Johnson Government’s use of targeted mass testing to halt and drive back COVID-19.

Daniel Elliott, CEO of Innova Medical Group – the world's biggest supplier of COVID-19 LFT kits – confirmed that the UK government was his biggest customer, with a billionth kit about to be delivered and the company looking to open a UK production site to meet demand.

Innova is also in discussions with UK pharmacy chains to sell direct to consumers and Elliott added: "A mass testing strategy is most protective in businesses like personal care, pubs, clubs and a lot of events, where close contact in enclosed spaces can't be avoided."

Bill Gates predicted the pandemic and now warns of future dangers

Bill Gates believes we are living with imminent and much more dangerous pandemic outbreaks while also fighting Climate Change.

The Microsoft founder and philanthropist previously warned of a COVID-19 style global pandemic in a 2015 Ted Talk and made his latest predictions in a Veritasium YouTube interview about his new book.

Asked ‘what will be the next global disaster?’ he responded by suggesting a more sinister pandemic deliberately caused by humans, plus the ongoing spectre of Climate Change:

“Also related to pandemics is something people don’t like to talk about much, which is bioterrorism; that somebody who wants to cause damage could engineer a virus and so that means the cost of running into this is more than just the naturally caused pandemics like this current one.”

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has already donated billions of dollars towards innovations and technology to prevent and protect against pandemics: in 2010 the foundation pledged $10bn to vaccine development over ten years and then gave an extra $250m in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The potential need and growth in this sector is also attracting investment, as highlighted by the recent launch of the Luxembourg-based Vector Innovation Fund, with its $300m Pandemic Protection sub-fund based around investment in technology for future healthcare in preparation for the ‘next COVID’, and unlocking potential growth, value and prosperity from innovative and disruptive technologies.

This sub-fund is helping ignite the new tech driven investment era in global healthcare, a sector tipped to soar by 50% extra each year towards a market worth $1.333 trillion by 2027 (source: Precedence Research 2020).

In a recent Forbes interview, Bill Gates suggested that we must prepare for future pandemics as if they were a threat of war, and the Gates’ foundation’s annual letter for 2020 called on wealthy nations to invest tens of billions of dollars to be ready for the next pandemic after Covid-19.

Gates’ heavyweight support was welcomed by The World Nano Foundation (WNF) the not-for-profit organisation that advances innovation and commercialisation of nanoscale technologies.

WNF Co-founder Paul Sheedy said: “Not only is Bill Gates pledging huge amounts from his own foundation, but also calling for government and private investment in global issues like pandemic protection and Climate Change where nanotechnologies can play a vital part.” 

Nanotechnology had helped speed development and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, investment to develop a universal mRNA vaccine and other measures that will be crucial to global protection from another virus outbreak, and Sheedy concluded:

“Nanomedicines and nano-based diagnostics and other nanotechnology breakthroughs have been vital to the on-going COVID-19 battle, highlighting the need to back the science and technology with investment that can benefit us all while delivering value and extending human longevity.”

Image: Frederic Legrand/Shutterstock

World Nano Foundation backs key steps for pandemic protection and preparedness

When the inquest opens on millions of deaths caused by COVID-19, the questions should be: “How did it catch us out?”, “what did we learn” and “what do we do in future?”

The unpalatable answer to the first question “how did it catch us out?” is: “It shouldn’t have.”

“What did we learn?” along with “what do we do in future?” according to the World Nano Foundation (WNF) the not-for-profit organisation that advances innovation and commercialisation of nanoscale technologies.

WNF Co-founder Paul Sheedy said: “With the human and economic costs of COVID still rising, all nations surely know they must invest in technology and innovation against ongoing pandemic threats, especially after ignoring previous warning signs.

“We had had successive COVID-like outbreaks like SARS and MERS, the shocking 2014-16 Ebola outbreak in Africa which killed more than 11,000 and now threatens to erupt again in Liberia, plus historic devastation from events like Spanish Flu (1918-20) which killed up to 50 million people globally, and ongoing killers like Cholera.

“Some Asia-Pacific nations, notably Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia heeded recent warnings and put early intervention measures in place that moderated COVID’s impact, but most of the rest of the world failed to prepare early enough to act using data and technology within diagnostics, tele-medicine, universal vaccines, nanomedicines and early intervention treatments.

He quoted a recent Bloomberg report suggesting that the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) received a detailed plan from pharma firm GlaxoSmithKline in 2017 suggesting vaccine technologies to pursue, plus an organisational chart for a 180-strong task force of scientists, doctors, and others to execute the scheme at a cost of $595 million over 10 years.

Sheedy added: “Amazingly, an operation like this was well within the brief envisaged by Washington when it created BARDA in 2006, effectively to develop or procure drugs and vaccines, and promote action against bioterrorism plus pandemic and infectious threats.”

The Bloomberg report highlighted how Glaxo even offered an under-utilized lab and production plant in Rockville, Maryland and experts there who might work alongside government agencies and non-profit organisations on vaccines, but nothing came of the company’s initiative.

Sheedy added: “It looks like a major lost opportunity, compounded by a US government decision to disband the dedicated pandemic response unit at the National Security Council in May 2018, at a time when nanotechnology initiatives could have made great strides to protect against the current disaster.

“It’s not as though COVID hit us like a tsunami; not only had we witnessed those earlier and similar infectious diseases, but many experts were warning in late 2019 about what to expect, and now we all do – at a cost far higher than if governments had acted on those earlier pandemics,

“The good news is the whole world knows it is now time to invest in advanced technologies to save lives and our economies in relation to the long-term effects of long COVID on healthcare and before another pandemic hits, and this kind of investment will also have a positive impact on healthcare provision generally.”

This awareness is reflected by the recent launch of the Luxembourg-based Vector Innovation Fund, with its $300m Pandemic Protection sub-fund based around better protection and preparedness from infectious diseases using technologies that enhance future global healthcare and to unlock potential growth and prosperity from innovative and disruptive technologies such as nanoscale innovations.

This sub-fund will target the long-term effects of COVID-19 on healthcare and future pandemics and ignite a new tech-driven era in global healthcare, a sector tipped to soar by 50% extra each year towards a market worth $1.333 trillion by 2027 (source: Precedence Research 2020)

Paul Sheedy also endorsed a five-point pandemic ‘insurance’ plan in the Bloomberg report: “Five steps towards victory against the next pandemic threat – whatever that may be.”

The five steps for pandemic protection:

Pathogen surveillance

Humans now live ever-closer to animals, increasing the risk of new and unknown infections crossing from species such as bats and pangolins – the suspected ‘bridges’ for the COVID-19 infection – into humans, while global travel enables the rapid spread of any outbreak.

Peter Daszak, an expert virus hunter at the EcoHealth Alliance research group, suggests governments should track and intervene against emerging viruses as they would terrorists, before they wreak havoc, but it is a big task.

Daszak estimates there are some 1.7 million unknown mammal viruses that could spread to humans and proposes a $1 billion programme to identify at least two-thirds of these, so resources can be tailored to track and reduce pandemic risk.

Others call for consensus on the right actions for the start of an outbreak to avoid the inconsistent response to COVID’s arrival; the jury is still out on which countries made the right calls on social distancing and lockdowns.

A tougher ‘World Health Organisation’

COVID-19 has highlighted the need for a cohesive global pandemic surveillance and response partnership.

The World Health Organization should be that body but has been criticised for deference to China and for being slow to declare COVID as a global emergency. The WHO’s response was that it must stay diplomatic and cannot force member states to reply to its requests.

But experts argue that if the world is to get better at spotting and then acting against the next pandemic, then individual nations must not hide local outbreaks until they erupt into global issues, as happened with COVID in China and Ebola in West Africa.

Instead, it needs to be a more co-ordinated approach under a beefed up WHO-style body – one label being used is “a biological NATO” with rapid response powers.

This ‘super-WHO’ might also use combined financial muscle to: fund elimination of ‘wet markets’ where wild and live animals are sold for food; discourage jungle deforestation - which pushes animals and the viruses closer to humans -; and train more local field workers in remote regions to augment the current ad hoc system where the WHO, charities, universities and volunteers combine against emerging threats, but risk being too slow.

Genetic sequencing

Virus ‘Tracking and Tracing’ has enjoyed a mixed press during the COVID-19 pandemic and many scientists think it should give way to gene sequencing, made possible by a huge increase in the number of such machines, making it possible to sequence a virus genome for as little at $50.

This would allow tracking and data on the virus to be assessed quickly and acted upon while also gathering intelligence on possible mutations and their resistance to current vaccines.

The UK has become a leader here and used sequencing to identify what has become known as the ‘UK variant’ of COVID-19.

Faster vaccine development

One area where governments responded well against COVID-19 is in quickly developing several effective vaccines against the virus, but experts warn that we up the pace: better preparation could have made current vaccines available even earlier, while new ones need to be evolved or developed now against COVID variants and other threats as yet unknown.

Some say the goal must be investment in vaccines and drugs that protect against multiple viruses.

Ironing out distribution and logistics

In a world of Amazon deliveries and supermarket shelves groaning with produce from far flung places, it might be thought that moving medicines should be equally simple and well-organised, but COVID-19 has shown the opposite.

The sometimes chaotic acquisition and transporting of Personal Protection Equipment as well as movement and distribution of vaccines – some with sensitive shipping and storage needs – plus the ad hoc vaccination infrastructures, all show that more needs to be done in this area.

Incoming US President Joe Biden moved quickly to sets up an American network of mobile community vaccination centres.

UK GOVERNMENT AND SCIENTIFIC EXPERTS GET BEHIND COMMUNITY RAPID MASS TESTING

Following on from UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s quoted £7bn mass testing “Moonshot” programme where the government are deploying over £1.2bn’s worth of rapid lateral flow antigen tests to identify asymptomatic cases in communities and workplaces.

 In what many believe was a game changer in preventing lockdowns across the world, in the UK, community and workplace lateral flow rapid test kits (LFTs) have been mobilised now for door-to-door delivery – the UK government has secured more than 400 million of these kits – for its “Test to Suppress” strategy as well as to address fears that the South African variant had broken out in areas of the country.

The World Nano Foundation and scientific leaders say regular use of inexpensive mass lateral flow rapid antigen test kits is the way to beat COVID-19, its variants, and future viruses. Governments and politicians are now reducing the spread of the virus and ensuring a quicker return to normality for their electorate and themselves by adopting a mass testing approach to pinpoint hotspots, thus targeting areas, and preventing wide scale restrictions.

 As vaccination quickens for vulnerable members of society, the next prize is to get the world’s economies moving, with mass frequent testing as the key, using the mantra ‘test to suppress’, and as an early warning system to protect against new strains and future outbreaks. By using mass rapid testing, it can be identified where there are infectious cases and ensure that the virus is not passed on, breaking chains of transmission and allowing non-infected communities to continue without disruption.

These simple-to-manufacture rapid tests have shown a thousand-fold increase in the effectiveness and accuracy of testing with this technology. The kits can produce a positive result even when there are fewer antigens to the virus in the sample – vital for finding asymptomatic individuals and ‘super-spreaders’.

Many other countries and industries are now adopting this technology.

This week, The Biden administration announced the investment of $230 million in at-home coronavirus testing kits, to identify cases of the virus across the country to break chains of transmission and prevent new strains from disrupting communities and workplaces.

 Innova Medical – the world's largest manufacturer of rapid lateral flow antigen tests is ramping up to 50 million a day by the spring  – has also confirmed that its COVID-19 product is effective in detecting variant strains such as the British (Kent), South African, and Brazilian variants, which appear more contagious than the earlier strains.

 "As these dangerous strains show signs of increased transmissibility across communities, the global effort to eliminate COVID-19 requires frequent, comprehensive and equitable testing that can detect these emerging strains," said Daniel Elliott, President and CEO of Innova Medical Group.

 Elliot added that numerous studies have shown that rapid antigen tests are an important tool for identifying infectious people quickly and equitably, even when they may not have COVID-19 symptoms, in ways not possible with slower, more expensive, centralised lab-based tests.

He said the virus continues to morph its genetic ribonucleic acid (RNA) to generate new and potentially more contagious variants, but Innova's antigen test is effective because it looks for multiple proteins in the virus.

 Workplace and community rapid mass testing is already starting to take place to keep economies moving and the entertainment and sports industries are said to be looking at a ‘day pass’ testing approach using LFT kits, in the same way that temperature checks were made on people using restaurants and pubs between lockdowns.

 A trial is already under way in France using a music theatre to give day pass security so that people can start attending mass events again.

 World Health Organisation Special Envoy on COVID-19, David Nabarro, had already suggested this approach:

 "We’ve seen it (rapid mass testing) used in many different locations, for example in trying to keep aircraft free of people who’ve got COVID or looking after major events.”

 A UK Government initiative offering LFTs in workplaces - healthcare, education, and local authorities, with private companies such as Royal Mail, the DVLA and Tate & Lyle Sugars also adopting frequent rapid testing.

 Globally renowned British doctors’ journal, The Lancet, backed this approach after publishing an exhaustive study of quarantine and testing measures, and leading UK scientists and clinical experts have added their weight.

 Oxford University researchers found the UK Government's most sensitive LFTs detected 83-90% of all infectious cases of COVID-19 and, with the UK investing more than £1.5bn in these test kits so far.

 Oxford’s Regius Professor of Medicine, Sir John Bell underlined the benefit of these tests removing infectious people from high-risk environments: “They’ve found 25,000 cases just in healthcare, which may have prevented tens of thousands of cases of the disease.”

 Tim Peto, Professor of Medicine, Infectious Disease, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, Oxford University addressed the contrasts between PCR (polymerase chain reaction) swab testing and lateral flow kits:

 “PCR is very good at telling you’ve had the virus or got the virus, but it doesn’t tell you whether you are infectious or not and the other problem about the swab test is that it takes a day or two…to get the answer back. The LFT has the enormous advantage of giving you an answer in about 30 minutes.”

 He said this allows immediate self-isolation and individuals can also quickly advise their contacts so, “within a few hours, a local outbreak can be detected. This can’t be done with the swab (PCR) tests” adding that LFTs “detect people with high viral loads…the very people who are infectious.”

 The World Nano Foundation (WNF) promotes healthcare technology and predicts that mass testing is central to future pandemic protection.

 The not-for-profit organisation’s Co-founder Paul Sheedy said: “Our research shows how healthcare diagnostics technology will shift dramatically to a more decentralised community early intervention model, against potential epidemics and pandemics.

“The Test2Suppress™ campaign shows that intensive front-line initiatives using rapid test kits available to the individual will allow early detection and immediate isolation, reducing the need for lockdowns.

 “And our simulation maps how consecutive daily tests for three days can rapidly identify and isolate infectious people. Weekly testing can then sustain a low infection rate even in a large population.

 “A key point previously missed by some experts is that high quality rapid lateral flow tests are not for people who already think they have COVID-19; it’s about everyone else testing frequently to check they are not infectious.

 “Used alongside vaccines and other preventative methods, these simple tests have been developed from colloidal gold nanoparticle research and are a vital component in the battle to defeat the virus and it’s future variants.

 “Rapid community testing is simpler, faster, cheaper, more effective and mobilises everyone to help themselves, their relatives, friends, and colleagues, to keep everyone safe.

 “With the work that we do, we know that there are even more exciting technologies on the way that will be central to the world’s fight for pandemic protection and future healthcare.

 “We have already seen the danger from not being on our guard against renewed viral threats. Spanish Flu struck in 1918, killing up to 50 million people in four waves, the last two being most deadly because public health warnings were not adhered to.”

 This means that there will be a revolution in healthcare in the coming years. Healthcare investment is forecast to grow at a rate of nearly 50% a year towards a market set to be worth $1.333 trillion by 2027*. The acceleration highlights wide recognition that the world cannot afford the human and economic cost of another pandemic.

 One international investment platform is a Pandemic Protection alternative investment fund operated by Vector Innovation Fund in Luxembourg focused on limiting the effect of long form Covid-19, insulating the world against the impact of future pandemics, whilst minimising any impact on the global economy and healthcare provision and preparedness.

 The Vector Innovation Fund is a Reserved Alternative Investment Fund (RAIF) specialising in support for technology companies able to transform global markets, notably in global healthcare, sustainability and longevity. These transformational technologies come from the nanotechnology, biotech, AI and machine learning, medical devices, therapies and digital health sectors.

Nanotech powered mass testing now the key to unlocking Covid-19 lockdowns

The World Nano Foundation and pandemic experts say regular mass use of inexpensive lateral flow rapid antigen test kits is now the way to beat back against COVID-19, its variants and future virus threats.

As vaccination gathers pace for vulnerable members of the population, the next prize is to re-open societies and get the world’s economies moving, with mass frequent testing as the key, using the mantra ‘test to suppress’, and as an early warning system to protect against new strains and future outbreaks.

These simple-to-manufacture rapid tests employ the nano colloidal gold testing method already used in diagnostics prior to the pandemic. Results have shown a thousand-fold increase in the effectiveness and accuracy of testing with this technology. The kits can produce a positive result even when there is a lower level of antigens of the virus in the sample – vital for finding asymptomatic individuals and potential ‘super-spreaders’.

In what many believe was the trial for nationwide testing to end the lockdown, the UK’s anti-COVID-19 resources were mobilised for a door-to-door delivery of lateral flow test (LFT) kits – the UK government has secured more than 400 million of these – for its test to suppress strategy as well as to address fears that the South African variant had broken out in areas of the country.

Other countries and industry groups are now adopting this technology.

Innova Medical – the world's largest manufacturer of rapid antigen test kits – has also confirmed that its COVID-19 product is effective in detecting variant strains such as the UK (Kent), South Africa, and Brazil variants, which appear more contagious than the original.

"As these dangerous strains show signs of increased transmissibility across communities, the global effort to eliminate COVID-19 requires frequent, comprehensive and equitable testing that can detect these emerging strains," said Daniel Elliott, President and CEO of Innova Medical Group. 

Elliot added that numerous scientific studies have shown that rapid antigen tests are an important tool for identifying infectious people quickly and equitably, even when they may not have COVID-19 symptoms, in ways not possible with slower, more expensive, centralised lab-based tests. 

He said the virus continues to morph its genetic ribonucleic acid (RNA) to generate new and potentially more contagious variants, but Innova's antigen test is effective because it looks for multiple proteins in the virus.

Innova produces more than 10 million test kits daily but aims to ramp this up to 50 million by spring and rivals are expected to follow suit.

Workplace and community rapid mass testing is already starting to take place to keep economies moving and the entertainment and sports industries are said to be looking at a ‘day pass’ testing approach using LFT kits, in the same way that temperature checks were made on people using restaurants and pubs between lockdowns. 

A trial is already under way in France using a music theatre to give day pass security so that people can start attending mass events again.

World Health Organisation Special Envoy on COVID-19, David Nabarro, had already suggested this approach:

"We’ve seen it (rapid mass testing) used in many different locations, particularly for example in trying to keep aircraft free of people who’ve got COVID or looking after major events.”

Using LFTs will keep economies open, health systems safe and allow audiences to attend entertainment and sporting events, he added.

A UK Government initiative offering LFTs in workplaces started with essential health workers, the education sector, and local authorities in the UK. Private companies have also been given the option – early adopters included the Royal Mail, DVLA and Tate & Lyle Sugars.

Britain’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock said around one in three infected people do not show symptoms, so testing was vital to break the chains of transmission; workplace testing offers peace of mind to those unable to work from home during lockdown.

He added: “LFTs have already been hugely successful in finding positive cases we would not otherwise find, and I encourage employers and workers to take up this offer to help protect essential services and businesses.”

Globally renowned British doctors’ journal, The Lancet, backed this approach after publishing an exhaustive study of quarantine and testing measures, and leading UK scientists and clinical experts have added their weight.

Oxford University researchers found the UK Government's most sensitive LFTs detected 83-90% of all infectious cases of COVID-19 and, with the UK investing more than £1.5bn in these test kits so far, Oxford’s Regius Professor of Medicine Sir John Bell underlined the benefit of these removing infectious people from high-risk environments: “They’ve found 25,000 cases just in healthcare, which may have prevented tens of thousands of cases of the disease.” 

Tim Peto, Professor of Medicine, Infectious Disease, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, Oxford University addressed the contrasts between PCR (polymerase chain reaction) swab testing and lateral flow kits:

“PCR is very good at telling you’ve had the virus or got the virus, but it doesn’t tell you whether you are infectious or not and the other problem about the swab test is that it takes a day or two…to get the answer back. The LFT has the enormous advantage of giving you an answer in about 30 minutes.”

He said this allows immediate self-isolation and individuals can also quickly advise their contacts so, “within a few hours, a local outbreak can be detected. This can’t be done with the swab (PCR) tests” adding that LFTs “detect people with high viral loads…the very people who are infectious.”

The World Nano Foundation (WNF) promotes healthcare technology and predicts that mass testing is central to future pandemic protection.

The not-for-profit organisation’s Co-founder Paul Sheedy said: “Our research shows how healthcare diagnostics technology will shift dramatically to a more decentralised community early intervention model, against potential epidemics and pandemics.

“The Test2Suppress™ campaign shows that intensive front-line initiatives using rapid test kits available to the individual will allow early detection and immediate isolation, reducing the need for lockdowns.

“And our simulation maps how consecutive daily tests for three days can rapidly identify and isolate infectious people. Weekly testing can then sustain a low infection rate even in a large population. 

“A key point previously missed by some experts is that high quality rapid lateral flow tests are not for people who already think they have COVID-19; it’s about everyone else testing frequently to check they are not infectious.

“Used alongside vaccines, hand-cleansing, and social distancing, these simple tests have been developed from colloidal gold nanoparticle research and are a vital component in the battle to defeat COVID-19, future variants or other viruses.

“Rapid community testing is simpler, faster, cheaper, ultimately more effective and mobilises everyone to help themselves and their relatives, friends, and colleagues – we can all play a part in keeping everyone safe.

“As West Africa reeled under the impact of Ebola (2014-16) the world watched with bated breath to see if the ‘beast’ would go global, but frequent mass rapid testing was deployed at community level multiple times over a few weeks stopping that terrible disease in its tracks.

“With the work that we do, we know that there are even more exciting technologies on the way that will be central to the world’s fight for pandemic protection and future healthcare. 

“We have already seen the danger from not being on our guard against renewed viral threats. Spanish Flu struck in 1918 and ultimately killed up to 50 million people in four successive waves, the last two being most deadly because public health warnings were not adhered to.

“The UK Government’s foresight in being first to secure large stocks of rapid lateral flow antigen test supplies by Innova Medical (USA) and SureScreen Diagnostics (UK) may prove to have been a human and economic lifesaver.”

Other innovations include using similar nano technology developed by UC San Diego that turns a face mask a different colour when it detects the presence of COVID-19 in the air that you breathe, allowing everyone to self-monitor easily and simply. 

This means that there will be a revolution in the healthcare industry over the next 12 months. Healthcare investment is expected to grow at a rate of nearly 50% a year towards a market set to be worth $1.333 trillion by 2027*. The acceleration highlights wide recognition that the world cannot afford the human and economic cost of another pandemic.

One international investment platform is a Pandemic Protection alternative investment fund operated by Vector Innovation Fund in Luxembourg focused on limiting the effect of long form Covid-19, insulating the world against the impact of future pandemics, whilst minimising any impact on the global economy and healthcare provision and preparedness. As well as this, the fund is committed to enhancing the development and prevalence of nanotechnology in healthcare.

The Vector Innovation Fund is a Reserved Alternative Investment Fund (RAIF) specialising in support for technology companies able to transform global markets, notably in global healthcare, sustainability and longevity. These transformational technologies come from the nanotechnology, biotech, AI and machine learning, medical devices, therapies and digital health sectors.

Image: Shutterstock - Mark Duransky