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Vaxart was gearing up for a 10,400-participant COVID-19 pill trial

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation as Secretary of Health and Human Services is already leading to layoffs in the Bay Area’s biotech industry.

Vaxart, a small South San Francisco company that focuses on oral vaccine research, announced Thursday that it had to lay off 10% of its workers after the U.S. government issued a stop work order on its major COVID-19 vaccine trial. Vaxart had 105 workers at the end of 2024, per a filing, so the cuts are likely to hit around 10 staff members; local biotechs have been shedding staff left and right this year.

The stop work order is a major blow for a company that had already seen its stock price dwindle. Vaxart got a positive reception to the vaccine study’s initial data from a safety board, and was planning to begin a larger trial after the FDA provided input. Instead, the study and company have been thrown into limbo — Vaxart will learn within 90 days whether the trial and its massive contract are canceled for good.

Thousands of California educators and support staff are expected to lose their jobs before the start of the 2025-2026 academic year, with more than 2,300 school employees having received pink slips last week. State law requires districts to send pink slips for the coming academic year by March 15, with final layoff notices given by May 15.

https://web.archive.org/web/20250318132357/https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2025-03-18/doge-two-dozen-environmental-offices-closure-california

President Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency plans to terminate lease contracts at nearly two dozen California offices relating to science, agriculture and the environment, according to its federal database.

The planned closures include facilities occupied by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, National Park Service, Forest Service and Geological Survey. The terminations follow massive layoffs at NOAA and significant cuts to scientific research funding across federal agencies in recent weeks.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/34084346

California's top insurance regulator says he will approve an emergency request from State Farm to raise home insurance rates for roughly a million customers if the company can justify the hike at a public hearing

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/34194024

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/33064194

More than a thousand people have been evacuated near forest of Ofunato in northern region of Iwate

Archived version: https://archive.is/newest/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/01/japan-battles-largest-wildfire-in-decades

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/33064194

More than a thousand people have been evacuated near forest of Ofunato in northern region of Iwate

Archived version: https://archive.is/newest/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/01/japan-battles-largest-wildfire-in-decades

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

In response to increasingly dangerous wildfires in the Western United States, Washington State's Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has pioneered an "all hands, all lands" wildfire prevention strategy. Launched in 2017, the 20-year forest health strategic plan focuses on restoring forests, fostering community fire resilience, and bolstering firefighting resources. By using forest science and fire risk modeling, the DNR assesses and treats high-risk areas through thinning and prescribed burns, and creates fire breaks. This program is funded by a 2021 state bill that earmarked $125 million per biennium for wildfire mitigation.

The strategy involves extensive collaboration with private landowners, tribes, and the federal government. Since 2017, almost 900,000 acres of forest have been treated, yielding positive results, such as during the 2021 Schneider Springs fire where treated areas survived. The DNR also emphasizes community resilience by creating fire breaks and supporting home hardening efforts. The state has increased its full-time firefighters and air firefighting resources and uses technologies like drones and predictive fire risk modeling. Revenue from forest treatments supports the restoration work, benefiting local economies. While acknowledging the ongoing threat of wildfires, Commissioner Upthegrove stresses the need for continued commitment to saving lives and homes through proactive strategies.

In response to increasingly dangerous wildfires in the Western United States, Washington State's Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has pioneered an "all hands, all lands" wildfire prevention strategy. Launched in 2017, the 20-year forest health strategic plan focuses on restoring forests, fostering community fire resilience, and bolstering firefighting resources. By using forest science and fire risk modeling, the DNR assesses and treats high-risk areas through thinning and prescribed burns, and creates fire breaks. This program is funded by a 2021 state bill that earmarked $125 million per biennium for wildfire mitigation.

The strategy involves extensive collaboration with private landowners, tribes, and the federal government. Since 2017, almost 900,000 acres of forest have been treated, yielding positive results, such as during the 2021 Schneider Springs fire where treated areas survived. The DNR also emphasizes community resilience by creating fire breaks and supporting home hardening efforts. The state has increased its full-time firefighters and air firefighting resources and uses technologies like drones and predictive fire risk modeling. Revenue from forest treatments supports the restoration work, benefiting local economies. While acknowledging the ongoing threat of wildfires, Commissioner Upthegrove stresses the need for continued commitment to saving lives and homes through proactive strategies.

Abstract: Evolution in profound darkness often leads to predictable, convergent traits, such as the loss of vision. Yet, the consequences of such repeated evolutionary experiments remain obscure, especially regarding fundamental regulatory behaviors like circadian rhythms. We studied circadian clocks of blind cave spiders and their sighted relatives. In the field, cave spiders exhibit low per expression and maintain constant activity levels. Curiously, their clocks are not permanently lost; exposure to monochromatic blue light restores both circadian gene expression and behavioral rhythms. Conversely, blocking blue light in sighted relatives induces an arrhythmic “cave phenotype.” Our RNA interference experiments suggest that clock genes regulate the rhythmicity of the huddle response, establishing a link between circadian gene networks and this behavioral rhythm. We demonstrate that circadian regulation is readily toggled and may play a latent role, even in constant darkness. Overall, our study expands understanding of circadian clock variations and paves the way for future research on the maintenance of silent phenotypes.

Abstract: Evolution in profound darkness often leads to predictable, convergent traits, such as the loss of vision. Yet, the consequences of such repeated evolutionary experiments remain obscure, especially regarding fundamental regulatory behaviors like circadian rhythms. We studied circadian clocks of blind cave spiders and their sighted relatives. In the field, cave spiders exhibit low per expression and maintain constant activity levels. Curiously, their clocks are not permanently lost; exposure to monochromatic blue light restores both circadian gene expression and behavioral rhythms. Conversely, blocking blue light in sighted relatives induces an arrhythmic “cave phenotype.” Our RNA interference experiments suggest that clock genes regulate the rhythmicity of the huddle response, establishing a link between circadian gene networks and this behavioral rhythm. We demonstrate that circadian regulation is readily toggled and may play a latent role, even in constant darkness. Overall, our study expands understanding of circadian clock variations and paves the way for future research on the maintenance of silent phenotypes.

Abstract: Evolution in profound darkness often leads to predictable, convergent traits, such as the loss of vision. Yet, the consequences of such repeated evolutionary experiments remain obscure, especially regarding fundamental regulatory behaviors like circadian rhythms. We studied circadian clocks of blind cave spiders and their sighted relatives. In the field, cave spiders exhibit low per expression and maintain constant activity levels. Curiously, their clocks are not permanently lost; exposure to monochromatic blue light restores both circadian gene expression and behavioral rhythms. Conversely, blocking blue light in sighted relatives induces an arrhythmic “cave phenotype.” Our RNA interference experiments suggest that clock genes regulate the rhythmicity of the huddle response, establishing a link between circadian gene networks and this behavioral rhythm. We demonstrate that circadian regulation is readily toggled and may play a latent role, even in constant darkness. Overall, our study expands understanding of circadian clock variations and paves the way for future research on the maintenance of silent phenotypes.

Abstract: Individuals with diabetes mellitus frequently develop severe skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) that are recalcitrant to antibiotic treatment. We examined how diabetes affects the emergence of antibiotic resistance in a Staphylococcus aureus SSTI. We determined that S. aureus evolves antibiotic resistance rapidly in diabetic mice, while resistance did not occur in nondiabetic mice over the course of infection. Diabetes-associated immune cell dysfunction plays a minor role in the emergence of resistance, while hyperglycemia plays a dominant role facilitating the expansion and takeover of resistant mutants in diabetic infections. Furthermore, vancomycin intermediate resistant isolates display a pronounced fitness defect in nondiabetic mice but not in diabetic mice. Together, these data suggest that the diabetic infection environment represents an ideal reservoir for the emergence and proliferation of antibiotic resistance. Controlling the blood sugar of diabetic mice with insulin resulted in significantly decreased incidence of antibiotic-resistant S. aureus.