FibroGen – Late-Breaking Roxadustat Safety Results at Kidney Week 2020

Dr. Lynda Szczech, VP of Clinical Development and Medical Affairs at FibroGen discusses new data presented at the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) Kidney Week 2020 Reimagined on roxadustat, the company’s investigational first-in-class oral treatment for anemia in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD).  These data will build upon roxadustat’s well-defined efficacy and safety profile.  If approved in December 2020, roxadustat will be the first new anemia treatment option for CKD patients in about 30 years. Its oral formulation could make anemia management more convenient for patients and limit time spent in transfusion facilities, an especially important consideration during flu season and the COVID-19 pandemic. 

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Merck and Sanofi Pasteur Data on Attitudes Toward Early-Childhood Combination Vaccinations

Dr. Michelle Goveia, MD, Executive Director, Global Medical and Scientific Affairs at Merck Vaccines and Dr. Monica Mercer, MD, Senior Director, Scientific and Medical Affairs at Sanofi Pasteur, discuss new data presented at the IDWeek 2020 virtual meeting on physician and parental attitudes about the use of early-childhood combination vaccines and the potential implications for timely completion of the CDC recommended Child and Adolescent immunization schedule.

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Blue Water Vaccines – Universal Influenza Vaccine

Joseph Hernandez, Founder and CEO of Blue Water Vaccines discusses the company’s development of a universal influenza vaccine.  Current research and development of this vaccine show that two doses are needed to focus the immune response on the regions of limited variability, which could provide life-long protection against influenza strains for most patients in comparison to the current yearly vaccine that’s administered, which only help about 50% of those who get it.

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Step One Foods – Cholesterol Management and Diet

Dr. Elizabeth Klodas, MD., Founder and Chief Medical Officer of Step One Foods™ discusses a new survey that shows cardiologists may be too quick to prescribe statin drugs to their patients rather than first addressing natural ways to control their cholesterol, such as changing their diet.  Without discussing diet, clinicians often over-prescribe medications to patients who would be better suited for nutritional interventions or a combination of both.  She also talks about why she decided to start her own business as a cardiologist.

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GeneSight – Seniors and Depression

A new nationwide survey finds that nearly two-thirds (61%) of Americans over age 65 who have concerns about having depression say they won’t seek treatment – with a third thinking they can just “snap out of it” on their own.  Dr. Mark Pollack, past president of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America and now Chief Medical Officer of Myriad Neuroscience discusses a way to provide timely and effective treatment with the GeneSight test that uses a patient’s DNA to help their doctor make more informed recommendations. 

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Games to Play When You’re Bored

Boredom isn’t fun, and a single minute can turn into a whole hour and an hour, which becomes difficult to quantify for most people. The spare time in one head full of inactivity can cause an individual to transition from one mood to another in seconds. People anticipate what is to come next, and if by chance the activity is no longer underway or cancelled, the results are anxiety, stress and depression. 

Games to Play When You're Bored

However, all these issues can be solved with a few clicks of your mobile, a trip to your nearest store offering games and simple access to online platforms where you can play different games or read a True Blue casino review. You can pick a match from the available selection to play alone when bored or invite friends and family over for “Game Night.” Here are some of the best game selections to eliminate boredom. 

  • Rummikub
  • Stardew Valley 
  • Cities: Skylines
  • Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza
  • Trivia Crack
  • Tetris 

Rummikub

Rummikub is a game that brings people together whenever they feel bored. It is perfect for individuals organizing a game night. It is a chance to evaluate your choices critically, enjoy laughing and teasing the participants. Also, any person can play the game from young kids, adults and older people with a clear sense of numbers. The game rules and game strategy are pretty simple. You have to move the tiles and add your numbers to reach thirty (30). 

There is no way to prepare for the game and no specific skills you can attribute to winning. Every individual has equal chances, and your tiles can do you more favour than anything else. What is more interesting is that once the game commences, every individual attention gravitates to the game whether or not they are participating. However, each experience is different from the original, and you can make new memories with Rummikub apart from alleviating your boredom. 

Stardew Valley 

Stardew Valley is an online role-playing or simulation game you can play alone and for as long as possible. The game involves building up a farm with essential elements unique to you on your mobile device or personal computer. You add a barn and fill it with animals, including chicken, goats, or a cow. However, if you have skill in the game, you can even design a whole ranch while playing. If you find that your gaming skills are not in actual farming, you can leave the farm and take on a quest in the mines. You can use your quest to get upgrades and more beautiful materials. 

The game has no limitations in its gameplay, and individuals can play for the whole day is up to it. The designs you come up with for your farm are individualistic and can offer relief from stressful situations. The upgrades you get from completing a quest are much more rewarding, which eliminates any chance of boredom. The no-completion period makes the game the right choice for quarantined individuals or spending the whole day at home with nothing to do!

Cities: Skylines

The Cities: Skylines is not only challenging, fun, and adrenaline-inducing. It is also highly educative, skill-enhancing, and above all, entertaining when bored. The challenge at hand is to build a city with the entire essential within it or a train station offering transport services to the inhabitants. The more tasking elements ensure that your social amenities, including the water system, are separate and in no way connected to the sewer as the city degrades. Keeping the city running is the task in Cities: Skylines. 

The game offers you a chance to relax, think outside the box and develop a virtual town where everything goes smoothly. The game has no timelines to create, demolish and repeat actions to enhance your cities capabilities. Playing the game sharpens your mind with your critical thinking skills, makes you more observant and makes it easy to solve problems, especially when boredom strikes. 

Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza

There is nothing more exhilarating than playing word games with your family, no matter how lame others might think of it. The Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza is more of a family game that you can use to keep the kids busy while at home or during the weekends. You can watch them laugh while making a fool of yourself, trying to say the words in the game in the correct order. The random names on the game cards and the specialty cards make it more challenging to keep up with the words making the game more fun and interesting. 

Imagine having to Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza continuously or in reverse without missing a beat! If you get the word you are saying to match the one in your card, you have to scramble to slap the card pile. What can be more interesting for the kids? Can you imagine how it feels like to watch them laugh at the silliness of the game, “mind-blowing or fun?”

Trivia Crack

You are trying to sharpen your mind when the going becomes too predictable? Trivia Crack is the best game to play when bored and alone or with your family. The mobile game capitalizes on an individual’s knowledge of various subjects. You can choose the category you consider yourself knowledgeable in and begin the game. Trivia Crack is a game for lone players and group players like in opposing teams. The aim is to get as many of the questions in the trivia right. You get more points than your opponents. 

The game is perfect for training your mind to remember items. Even as you go about your daily activities, you retain a sharp eye for details on your favourite subjects and everything else. The game can be fun, depending on the answers you come up with for the trivia questions from the app. If the answers given are ridiculous, funny, or wrong when playing the game with friends, it becomes more dramatic. 

Tetris 

Tetris is one of the most coveted games of all time. The game is popular amongst the young and the old, and anyone can play this simple yet alluring game. You could only play the game with the right console in the past, but today, the game is easily accessible via mobile phones or personal computers. Also, the design and gameplay remain the same, but the technology behind the game has advanced over the years. You can play Tetris any time of the day, and each level you pass, the game gains in speed and the challenge and pressure to create an entire block intensifies. Each complete level is more satisfying and a better way to spend your time. 

Summary 

Games to play when you are bored range from the card and board games, both physical and online. You can purchase card games, including puzzles, or download a game to install into your computer, stream one life or play online. The available options are quite diverse, and all you need to get rid of your boredom is to pick one of these popular games!

 

StemBioSys – Cartox – CELLvo Matrix Plus

Bob Hutchens, CEO of StemBioSys, Inc., developers of advanced stem cell technologies discusses research, which was recently published in peer-reviewed journal “Nature Scientific Reports” (Nov 2020), that demonstrates that CELLvo™ Matrix Plus, a jointly developed platform with Cartox, Inc., enables the widescale testing of experimental drugs via human induced pluripotent stem cell derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) and enables maturation in seven days compared to the current partial hiPSC-CM maturation within 30 to 100 days. Matrix Plus offers the potential to significantly reduce (and one day eliminate) the need to sacrifice animals for preclinical safety studies.

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180 Life Sciences – Clinical Programs

Dr. James (Jim) Woody, CEO of 180 Life Sciences Corp., a newly formed clinical-stage biotech company focused on novel drugs for unmet needs in inflammatory diseases, fibrosis, and pain, discusses three clinical programs using anti-TNF, with the lead program in Phase 2b/3 for Dupuytren’s contracture, a fibrotic disease of the hand.  He previously led the team responsible for developing Remicade, the first of the TNF inhibitor biologics. 

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Aravive, Inc. – Platinum Resistant Ovarian Cancer

Dr. Gail McIntyre, CEO of Aravive, Inc., discusses the urgent need for improved therapeutic approaches to treat patients with ovarian cancer who are resistant to standard of care therapy and have limited treatment options.  She explains the challenges with current treatment therapies and talks about Aravive’s lead product candidate, AVB-500, a unique and promising treatment approach for platinum resistant ovarian cancer.The company expects to initiate a pivotal trial during the first quarter of 2021.

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