Massive earth rupture seen on camera for 1st time during Myanmar quake
Earthquake scientists are in awe of security camera footage that captured the moment the earth ruptured and jolted forward during a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Myanmar on March 28. Earthquake geologist Wendy Bohon explains her "shock and awe" at seeing the footage and how it can help us understand the power of quakes like this.
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CTV News
9 hours ago
- CTV News
One of the world's most notorious pathogens has survived for centuries. Scientists say they now know why
Researchers have announced that they've discovered what allowed the bacterium Yersinia pestis, the cause of the Black Death, to keep its hosts alive longer. (BSIP/Universalvia CNN Newsource) One of the bleakest periods in medieval Europe was the plague pandemic known as the Black Death, which killed at least 25 million people in just five years. But the disease didn't stop there. The plague adapted to keep its hosts alive longer, so it could spread farther and keep infecting people for centuries, and researchers now say they've discovered how. The disease is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which has been circulating among human populations for at least 5,000 years. The pathogen has fueled three major plague pandemics since the first century AD, and though its deadliest years appear to be behind us, plague hasn't disappeared. Cases still occur a few times a year in Asia, South America and the United States and more commonly in parts of Africa, according to the Cleveland Clinic, and can be treated with antibiotics. Scientists are still searching for answers about how Y. pestis evolved and dispersed, but recent analysis of ancient and modern Y. pestis samples revealed how plague managed to persist among humans for hundreds of years after pandemic waves petered out. After an initial period of high infection rates and rapid mortality — killing infected people within three days — changes to just one gene in the bacterium produced new strains that were less deadly and more transmissible, according to research published Thursday in the journal Science. Those weakened strains eventually went extinct; the dominant lineage of today's Y. pestis is the deadlier variety, the study authors reported. However, these findings about historic instances of Y. pestis adaptation could provide important clues to help scientists and physicians manage modern plague outbreaks. Trio of outbreaks Plague's most common form is bubonic plague, which causes painful swelling in lymph nodes and spreads among people through bites from fleas hitchhiking on infected rats. An outbreak of bubonic plague from 1347 to 1352 in Europe famously killed about 30% to 50% of the continent's population. But the earliest known bubonic plague outbreak — the Plague of Justinian — took hold in the Mediterranean Basin and lasted from AD 541 to AD 544. Another plague outbreak emerged in China in the 1850s and sparked a major epidemic in 1894. Scientists view modern plague cases as part of this third pandemic. For the new study, scientists collected ancient samples of Y. pestis from human remains dating back to about 100 years after the appearance of the first and second plague pandemics, sampling remains from Denmark, Europe and Russia. After reconstructing the genomes of these plague strains, they compared them with older, ancient strains that dated back to the start of plague pandemics. The researchers also examined more than 2,700 genomes of modern plague samples from Asia, Africa, and North and South America. One of the study coauthors, Jennifer Klunk, is a product scientist at Daciel Arbor Biosciences, a biotechnology company in Michigan that provided synthetically created molecules for the experiments, but there was no financial gain associated with the research. The researchers found that their newly reconstructed genomes from 100 years into the first two plague pandemics had fewer copies of a gene called pla, which has been recognized for decades as one of the factors that made plague so deadly, according to the study's co-lead author Ravneet Sidhu, a doctoral student in the McMaster Ancient DNA Centre at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont. Pla encodes an enzyme that interacts with host proteins, 'and one of the functions that it carries out is in breaking down blood clots,' Sidhu told CNN. This ability helps Y. pestis spread into the host's lymph nodes, where it replicates before attacking the rest of the body. 'Not every function of this gene is fully known,' Sidhu added. However, prior studies by other researchers linked pla to severity of illness caused by both bubonic and pneumonic plague — an airborne form of the disease that affects the lungs, she said. While the reconstructed strains showed fewer copies of the pla gene, the scientists were still uncertain whether that would directly affect how deadly the disease could be. So they tested strains of reduced-pla bubonic plague on mice, and found that survival rates for this type of plague were 10 to 20 percent higher in those experiment subjects than in mice infected with Y. pestis that had a normal amount of the pla gene. It also took the reconstructed bubonic strain about two days longer to kill its hosts. 'The paper presents a strong argument that depletion, but not total loss, of Pla (the enzyme produced by the pla gene) is part of the evolution of the plague pathogen and may help explain the decline of plague in the second pandemic commonly known as the Black Death,' said Dr. Deborah Anderson, a professor of veterinary pathobiology at the University of Missouri's College of Veterinary Medicine. Anderson, who was not involved in the new research, investigates the virulence of plague, and these findings could shed light on transmission patterns in modern cases, she told CNN in an email. 'Our laboratory studies the flea-rodent cycle and we have collaborators who conduct field research in areas that experience annual or occasional plague outbreaks in the wild,' Anderson said. 'There are nearly 300 rodent species that can transmit Yersinia pestis, and today, burrowing rodents such as prairie dogs or ground squirrels are considered key animal hosts that experience outbreaks of disease,' she added. 'After reading this paper, we will pay closer attention to Pla in the future to see if there continues to be a role for its expression in driving the explosive outbreaks of plague in the animal populations.' Yersinia pestis study Co-lead study author Ravneet Sidhu examines a human tooth at McMaster University's Ancient DNA Centre in Hamilton, Ont. (McMaster University via CNN Newsource) 'Epidemic burnout' Mathematical models suggested how this might have played out in human populations centuries ago, leading to an 'epidemic burnout' about 100 years after a bubonic plague outbreak. In a pandemic's early stages, infections were swift, and death came quickly for both rats and humans. Over time, as dense rat populations thinned out, selective pressures favored the emergence of a less deadly strain of Y. pestis, with fewer copies of the pla gene. Rat hosts infected with this new strain would have a little more time to carry the disease, potentially enabling them to infect more rats — and more people. 'They suggest a model that can be readily pursued in the laboratory that may help explain the spread of plague today in the wild,' Anderson said. These weaker strains of the disease eventually sputtered out and went extinct. In the modern samples, the researchers found just three examples of strains with reduced pla genes, from Vietnam: one from a human subject and two from black rats (Rattus rattus). 'We've been able to do this really cool interdisciplinary study between the modern and ancient data and marry these things that have been happening throughout (the plague's) long evolutionary history,' Sidhu said. 'It could be interesting to see how future researchers continue to try and bridge that gap between the modern third pandemic and those first and second ancient pandemics, to see other similarities. Because there aren't a lot of ancient pathogens that we have as much data on, as we do for Yersinia pestis.' One of the unusual features of plague pandemics is their persistence, and understanding how Y. pestis changed its infection patterns and survived over time could shed light on the adaptive patterns of modern pandemics such as Covid-19, she added. 'Even if we aren't experiencing it to the amount that we were in 2020 or 2021, the pathogen is in the background — still evolving and persisting.' By Mindy Weisberger, CNN
National Post
2 days ago
- National Post
ImmunAbs Announces FDA Phase 2 IND Approval of IM-101, a Novel Complement C5 Inhibitor, for Treatment of Myasthenia Gravis
Article content SEOUL, South Korea — ImmunAbs Inc., a clinical-stage biotech specializing in developing antibody therapeutics, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared its Investigational New Drug (IND) application to initiate a Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of IM-101, a novel complement C5 inhibitor, for the treatment of Myasthenia Gravis. Article content Article content The forthcoming multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study will enroll up to 90 patients to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of monthly IM-101 dosing in relieving complement-induced symptoms in MG. Article content 'This IND approval is pivotal for us as it brings us one step closer to delivering a transformative therapy for patients with autoimmune disorders', said Dr. Dongjo Kim, the CEO of ImmunAbs, 'we believe IM-101 has the potential to deliver deeper therapeutic responses and more durable remissions in patients who have failed to achieve sustained remission with current approved treatment.' Article content About Myasthenia Gravis Article content Myasthenia Gravis (MG) is a rare neurological disorder that severely impairs muscle movement and can lead to life-threatening complications. While existing C5 inhibitors have contributed to improved remission rates, many patients still experience residual disease activity due to incomplete complement inhibition. In addition to autoantibody-mediated activation of the classical complement pathway, MG pathogenesis is also significantly influenced by activation of the alternative pathway. ImmunAbs believes that comprehensive inhibition of both the classical and alternative pathways is essential for minimizing residual complement activity and enabling revolutionary treatments for MG. Article content About IM-101 Article content IM-101 is a humanized monoclonal antibody targeting complement C5 with high affinity. In the recently concluded Phase 1 clinical trial, IM-101 demonstrated an excellent safety profile and was well tolerated at all tested doses, with no dose-limiting toxicity or severe adverse events observed. The clinical results showcasing IM-101's outstanding ability to reduce serum free C5 concentrations in healthy volunteers provide strong evidence of its superior efficacy in complement inhibition. Article content ImmunAbs is a clinical-stage biotechnology company established in 2017. Committed to delivering transformative treatments globally, the company aims to develop novel antibody therapeutics, particularly concentrating its efforts on the lead program targeting severe autoimmune diseases. Supported by equity funding and national grants from KDDF, which covered development from non-clinical through Phase 1 clinical studies, ImmunAbs is now seeking global partnerships to accelerate the advancement of IM-101 towards market availability. Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content
Globe and Mail
2 days ago
- Globe and Mail
Atua AI Expands Multichain Intelligence with Modular Infrastructure Innovations
Next-Gen Architecture Enables Scalable AI Deployment Across Blockchain Ecosystems Singapore, Singapore--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2025) - Atua AI (TUA), the decentralized AI-powered productivity platform, has expanded its multichain capabilities through the launch of modular infrastructure innovations designed to optimize performance, adaptability, and intelligence across decentralized networks. The update provides Web3 developers and enterprises with enhanced tools for deploying flexible, AI-driven solutions across multiple blockchains. Scalable multichain intelligence powered by modular AI infrastructure To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: With this modular infrastructure upgrade, Atua AI introduces a more granular system architecture that allows its core AI modules-such as Chat, Writer, and Classifier-to operate independently, synchronize across chains, and dynamically scale based on workload. Each module can now be deployed in isolation or in combination, allowing users to tailor automation workflows for specific tasks, chains, or governance structures. This advancement empowers builders to harness real-time intelligence across Ethereum, BNB Chain, XRP Ledger, and other major blockchains while maintaining low latency, cost-efficiency, and operational control. It supports diverse use cases from decentralized finance to NFT content generation, offering enterprises the flexibility to scale operations securely and efficiently. Atua AI's commitment to modular design ensures a future-ready infrastructure capable of meeting the evolving needs of decentralized applications. This innovation strengthens its position as a leading provider of AI-powered tools built to scale with the multichain internet. About Atua AI Atua AI offers AI-powered productivity and creativity tools in the Web3 space. Its features include Chat, Writer, Imagine, Voiceover, and Classifier-all designed to empower users with intelligent, decentralized solutions for content creation, coding, analysis, and more. Media Contact Dorothy Marley KaJ Labs +1 707-622-6168 media@ Social Media Twitter Instagram
