Transduction is the process by which foreign DNA is introduced into a cell by a virus or viral vector.

Viral vectors are tools commonly used by molecular biologists to deliver genetic material into cells.

Viruses have evolved?

specialized molecular mechanisms

to efficiently

transport their genomes

inside the cells they infect.

Delivery of genes, or other genetic material, by a vector is termed transduction and the infected cells are described as transduced.

A transducer is a device that converts energy from one form to another. Usually a transducer converts a signal in one form of energy to a signal in another.

What reaching the peak means for the NHS: We're increasingly confident we have hit *a* peak and hopefully *the* peak of the second wave of coronavirus infections. Hospital admissions lag behind and will carry on rising for another week or so, but this is still a key moment… 1/10

I have talked before about how and why the healthcare the NHS provides right now is simply not as good as usual. We have protected emergency care but routine care for cancer, cardiac disease and so many other illnesses has been badly affected. Especially surgical treatments. 2/10

The surge in COVID patient admissions has a huge impact on other parts of the NHS. We see this pattern often in the winter flu season but it is far worse right now. The shortage of normal hospital beds and ICU beds makes in-patient work very difficult. 3/10

But the key issue is planning. The NHS was not designed to handle huge fluctuations in patient numbers over short periods. We need spare capacity to admit patients into. When the hospital is full, patients must wait to come in, creating serious problems in Emergency Depts. 4/10

Creating spare hospital capacity for a workload we cant predict is difficult. Solutions for small/medium/large patient numbers are all different. If we under-prepare, we cannot admit every COVID patient. If we over-prepare, we ring-fence beds we could use for other patients. 5/10

@MSF was allowed to enter #Mekelle on 16 Dec & here is their account 👇

"no basic supplies. The local hospital was running at 30 to 40 %, with very little medication"

This is why one of the reason why we demand unfetters #HumanitarianCorridor
#TigrayGenocide

#Adigrat "The situation was very tense & its hospital was in a terrible condition. Most of the health staff had left, there were hardly any medicines &there was no food, no water and no money"
#StopWarOnTigray
#TigrayGenocide
#HumanitarianCorridor
#EritreaOutOfTigray

After 1 month since @AbiyAhmedAli declared victory

"#Adwa & #Axum. There we found a similar situation: no electricity & no water. All the medicines had been stolen from #Adwa general hospital & the hospital furniture & equipment were broken"

#StopWarOnTigray
#TigrayGenocide

"Beyond the hospitals, around 80 or 90 per cent of the health centres that we visited between Mekele and Axum were not functional, either due to a lack of staff or because they had suffered robberies"

#StopWarOnTigray
#TigrayGenocide
#EritreaOutOfTigray
@UN @POTUS @StateDept

"1 woman had been in labour for 7 days without being able to give birth. Her life was saved because we were able to transport her to #Mekele"

It is really heartbreaking to imagine how many of our mothers & sister have lost their lives.

#StopWarOnTigray
#TigrayGenocide
@UN

Here is a tweetorial from our latest publication in @Annals_Oncology about longitudinal tracking of esophageal adenocarcinoma. #OesophagealCancer #EsophagealCancer https://t.co/QWvrzBXmK7 1/8

We sequenced 245 plasma samples from 97 patients with oesophageal adenocarcinoma using a 77 gene pan-cancer ctDNA panel. 2/8

Variants derived from previously characterised driver oesophageal adenocarcinoma genes had a significantly higher VAF than variants from other genes, indicating selection. 3/8

Peripheral blood cell samples were also sequenced for 78/97 patients. CHIP mutations were identified in 23% of cases, longitudinal tracking of CHIP variants suggested these variants were dynamic over time. 4/8

We found patients that were ctDNA positive post-surgery had a significantly poorer survival than ctDNA negative patients, and the elimination of CHIP variants improved the positive predictive value. 5/8

Exactly 5 years ago today, Dafna Meir, a 38 year old nurse, wife, and mother of 4, was brutally murdered at her home in front of 2 of her children, by a 15 year old Palestinian.

Two days later, the murderer was arrested by Israeli security forces.

Here is his testimony >>

“She struggled”, the 15 year old murderer told the investigators.
“I stabbed her until I couldn’t pull the knife out of her body” >>

“Why did you kill her?”
he was asked by the investigators.

“Israel is killing our youths. That’s why. I decided to do the same as other young Palestinians do...I realized I might get hurt but I had faith in god” >>

“I was hiding and watching a settler lady with two small kids. She had that Jewish head scarf. She was speaking on her cellphone...I waited until she stepped outside so I can murder her” >>

“She stepped outside, I ran 5 meters towards her and stabbed her in the stomach...she began screaming...her children saw me stabbing her and began screaming”

Lord Sumption to a lady with stage 4 cancer:

'I didn't say your life was not valuable, I said it was less valuable.'

Let's really break this down and realise just how awful a statement it is and the repercussions it may

Firstly, it's more than worth saying it was an abhorrent and thoughtless comment devoid of empathy. No matter what utilitarian argument you may field, it cannot be made on a 1:1 basis, or on the inherent value of life. That is beyond any of us.

The secondary issue here, the primary being how this person now feels and will feel, is the impact it will have on those in similar positions and how the public may perceive this overall and in groups. This may be complicated.

A large public outcry built of empathy is inevitable, and I am doing the same here. It is callous and cruel. But the complexity of balancing resources is one where decisions made on population levels will inevitably leave deserving people left behind. I hate that.

Balancing a pandemic with urgent services was always going to be tricky. Both are urgent, both require resources, and the NHS has adapted as it can. The most urgent of non-covid cases are being dealt with as rapidly as possible, but we cannot say that everything will be caught.