New vision for the blind
Körber European Science Prize 2020 goes to Botond Roska
Hamburg, 23 June 2020: The Körber Prize for European Science 2020, which is endowed with one million euros, is being awarded to the Hungarian physician Botond Roska. Roska has revolutionised ophthalmology with his work and is one of the world's leading experts in the study of vision and the retina. He has set himself the goal of restoring sight to the blind.
Most eye diseases are caused by hereditary or age-related defects in the retina. Roska and his colleagues have carried out pioneering work to identify the approximately one hundred different cell types in the retina and their complex interplay in signal processing. They have been able to attribute numerous retinal diseases to genetic defects in individual cells. The scientist is now working on making these fundamental insights beneficial for patients and using gene therapies to alleviate or cure their diseases. Roska achieved a genuine breakthrough when he reprogrammed a cell type in the eye, enabling it to take over the function of defective light receptor cells. He was thus able to make blind retinas light-sensitive again – and clinical trials with blind people have already begun.
‘Alarming’ use of critical human antibiotics on crops
Farmers in parts of Asia are spraying antibiotics deemed “critical” for humanmedicineon rice crops, raising fears they may be fuelling antibiotic resistance, say researchers.
A 32-country survey of agricultural advisers found that many are prescribing the common human antibiotics streptomycin and tetracycline for insect infestations, fungal diseases and as general protection, as well as for bacterial infections. In some years, nearly ten per cent of the management recommendations for rice in one region contained an antibiotic, found the study, published today in the newly-launched journal CABI Agriculture and Bioscience.
The usage is “alarmingly high” according to Phil Taylor, co-author of the research and training manager for the global plant clinic network,Plantwise. “They use it like a general tonic almost,” he says. “These data appear to indicate that the use of antibiotics in crop production is more extensive than most of the literature would suggest,” Taylor and co-author, Rob Reeder, write.
Streptomycin is deemed “critically important” for human medicine by the World Health Organization (WHO); while tetracyclines are “highly important”.
Il gioco d’azzardo al tempo del COVID-19
Lo studio GAPS#iorestoacasa condotto dall’Istituto di fisiologia clinica del Cnr di Pisa rileva il cambiamento dei comportamenti di gioco nel periodo di lockdown. È stata registrata una generale diminuzione del gioco fisico, con più del 35% dei giocatori che ha ridotto le puntate e quasi il 23% che ha smesso, mentre un intervistato su tre dichiara di aver aumentato le giocate online. Tra gli habitué del gioco fisico il 12% ha continuato anche durante l’isolamento e circa il 10% ha puntato sul web
Le stime epidemiologiche sul gioco d’azzardo in Italia indicano che gioca per soldi metà della popolazione adulta, mentre le quote di gioco problematico hanno visto un aumento negli ultimi anni nella popolazione 15-74 anni e in particolare tra i giovani adulti. Ma cosa è cambiato durante il lockdown, con la chiusura dei luoghi fisici di gioco e la sospensione di estrazioni e scommesse? L’Agenzia dei Monopoli evidenzia una forte contrazione della raccolta derivante dal comparto, come in tutti i periodi di crisi economica quali il 2008, d’altronde è lecito ipotizzare che la perdita di lavoro e di riferimenti spinga parte della cittadinanza a cercare fortuna proprio nell'azzardo.
