Daily Business Report-Jan. 26, 2021
Alaska Airlines’ first delivery of a 737–9 MAX departs Seattle’s Boeing Field on Sunday. (Photo courtesy of Alaska Airlines)
Alaska Airlines takes delivery
of its first Boeing 737-9 MAX aircraft
Alaska Airlines has accepted delivery of its first Boeing 737-9 MAX airplane, marking a new phase of modernizing the airline’s fleet in the coming years. Alaska pilots flew the aircraft on a short flight Sunday from the Boeing Delivery Center at Boeing Field in Seattle to the company’s hangar at Sea-Tac International Airport with a small group of Alaska’s top leadership on board.
Alaska’s first 737-9 is scheduled to enter passenger service on March 1 with daily roundtrip flights between Seattle and San Diego, and Seattle and Los Angeles. The airline’s second 737-9 is expected to enter service later in March.
Teams from across various divisions at Alaska will now follow a strict readiness timeline that guides the actions that must be taken before the start of passenger flights, according to officials. The process – involving rigorous rounds of test flying, verifying and specific preparations — will take five weeks.
Alaska announced a restructured order agreement with Boeing in December 2020 to receive a total of 68 737-9 MAX aircraft in the next four years, with options for an additional 52 planes. The airline is scheduled to receive 13 planes this year; 30 in 2022; 13 in 2023; and 12 in 2024. The agreement incorporates Alaska’s announcement last November to lease 13 737-9 aircraft as part of a separate transaction.
_________________________________________________________
Making masks smarter
and safer against COVID-19
By Liezel Labios | UC San Diego
A new tool for monitoring COVID-19 may one day be right under your nose. Researchers at the University of California San Diego are developing a color-changing test strip that can be stuck on a mask and used to detect SARS-CoV-2 in a user’s breath or saliva.
The project, which received $1.3 million from the National Institutes of Health, is aimed at providing simple, affordable and reliable surveillance for COVID-19 infections that can be done daily and easily implemented in resource-poor settings. It is part of the NIH’s Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics Radical (RADx-rad) program for COVID-19.
“In many ways, masks are the perfect ‘wearable’ sensor for our current world,” said Jesse Jokerst, professor of nanoengineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering and lead principal investigator of the project. “We’re taking what many people are already wearing and repurposing them, so we can quickly and easily identify new infections and protect vulnerable communities.”
The team will create test strips, or stickers, that can be put on any mask (N95, surgical or cloth). They will be designed to detect the presence of protein-cleaving molecules, called proteases, that are produced from infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
_________________________________________________________
Ze’ev Ronai named director of
Sanford Burnham Prebys’ Cancer Center
Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute has named renowned cancer researcher Ze’ev Ronai, Ph.D., director of its National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Cancer Center.
Established in 1976, the Cancer Center is one of only seven NCI-designated Basic Laboratory Cancer Centers in the nation — a distinction that conveys scientific leadership, resources, and depth and breadth of basic science research.
Ronai is an internationally recognized scientist with extensive discoveries and innovations in cancer research. His research in cancer biology has focused on the rewiring of signal transduction pathways, which has led to novel scientific paradigms and formed the basis for clinical trials to treat malignancies. He is well known for his insightful work on the development and progression of melanoma, including how tumors escape the immune system and resist therapy.
Ronai, the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Melanoma Research and a current holder of the NCI’s prestigious Outstanding Investigator Award, previously served as interim director of the Cancer Center.
As director, Ronai will set the vision, priorities and strategies for the Cancer Center. He will play a central role in coordinating basic science across the research programs to translate scientific findings into new approaches for cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment.
Nonprofits lost 50,000 jobs in December
Nonprofits shed an estimated 50,760 jobs in December, a “striking reversal” of what had been months of slow-but-steady job growth among nonprofits, according to a new report from Johns Hopkins University. As a result, nonprofits employed nearly 930,000 fewer workers in December than they did in February, before the pandemic, a 7.4 percent decline.
Nonprofit employment generally gained ground through the summer and fall. However, with the setback documented in the latest report from Johns Hopkins, it could take nearly 18 months for nonprofits to exceed pre-pandemic employment levels given the overall trend in the past six months. Even that forecast could worsen because of still-surging Covid numbers across the country that could result in more economic disruptions, the report notes.
Analysis: At least 1 in 3 people infected
with COVID-19 never develop symptoms
A new data analysis including more than 1.8 million people confirms that asymptomatic infections of the SARS-CoV-2 virus are a major portion of COVID-19’s global footprint, representing at least a third of cases.
The findings, published in Annals of Internal Medicine, build on the authors’ prior review of more limited data sets in June 2020, which also found that a significant proportion of SARS-CoV-2 infections did not produce symptoms.
In the new report, Scripps Research’s Eric Topol, M.D., and Daniel Oran once again dig into the data, this time reviewing a much larger set of 61 studies and reports from around the world—including two massive serosurveys in England and Spain that tested the presence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in hundreds of thousands of people. In both of those studies, about one-third of the individuals were shown to have had the virus but never experienced symptoms.
Protective immunity against SARS-CoV-2
could last 8 months or more
New data suggest that nearly all COVID-19 survivors have the immune cells necessary to fight re-infection.
The findings, based on analyses of blood samples from 188 COVID-19 patients, suggest that responses to the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, from all major players in the “adaptive” immune system, which learns to fight specific pathogens, can last for at least eight months after the onset of symptoms from the initial infection.
“Our data suggest that the immune response is there—and it stays,” LJI Professor Alessandro Sette, Dr. Biol. Sci., who co-led the study with LJI Professor Shane Crotty, Ph.D., and LJI Research Assistant Professor Daniela Weiskopf, Ph.D.
“We measured antibodies, memory B cells, helper T cells and killer T cells all at the same time,” says Crotty. “As far as we know, this is the largest study ever, for any acute infection, that has measured all four of those components of immune memory.”
The findings, published in the January 6, 2021, online edition of Science, could mean that COVID-19 survivors have protective immunity against serious disease from the SARS-CoV-2 virus for months, perhaps years after infection.
CannabizTeam launches CT Board
Placement for cannabis companies
CannabizTeam, a cannabis-focused executive search and staffing firm, has launched a new service line for cannabis companies: CT Board Placement. CT Board Placement assists cannabis industry clients in identifying and recruiting candidates for board of director positions who have a diverse blend of skills and experience that match the strategic direction of each client.
“Appointing the right non-executive directors is a critically important decision for all cannabis companies in today’s competitive marketplace,” said Liesl Bernard, CEO of CannabizTeam. “Recruiting directors in the cannabis space is a more complex process due to the relative youth of the industry and the lingering legacy legal nuances. Our goal with CT Board Placement is to help our clients find a diverse blend of candidates with relevant experience, strong character and reputation, proven judgment and leadership skills that will set them up for future success.”
CT Board Placement will also offer a Cannabis Director Development Program to help first-time directors learn the culture and nuances of the company they will serve as well as the broader cannabis industry. The Cannabis Director Development Program includes a detailed curriculum exploring the most relevant governance issues in North America, with a special focus on issues facing boards in the U.S., Canadian and Mexican cannabis markets.
TechFlow’s EMI Services wins $129 million contract
San Diego-based TechFlow, a logistics and digital services solutions company, announced that its EMI Services received a $129 million contract to support the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command. Under terms of this contract, EMI Services will provide base operations support services at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland.
TechFlow is an employee-owned company. Mark Carter is president and chief operating officer of the company.
Carnival Cruise Line cancels planned
seasonal service from San Diego
Carnival Cruise Line announced that its Carnival Miracle’s planned seasonal service from San Diego has been suspended until further notice, and sailings out of San Diego that were available for sale through April 2023 have been cancelled, with the exception of seven voyages to Hawaii, which will move to Long Beach.
Carnival released those plans as it continues to refine its phased in approach to a return to guest operations for 2021, resulting in some cruise cancellations and movements.
Brad Tedder named CEO of Environmental Lights
San Diego-based Environmental Lights, a LED light company, has named Brad Tedder as CEO.
Founded in 2006, Environmental Lights was built with a focus on engineering quality solutions and providing excellent customer service. Brad Tedder brings extensive experience in both areas and will lead Environmental Lights into its next phase of growth.
Environmental Lights plans to expand into new markets as well as extend its footprint with strategic product offerings that complement its current solutions. It will start the year with the launch of the REVI downlighting product family and the expansion of the China supply chain capabilities.
“Environmental lights is an excellent company with great people. I am excited about the new product and market expansion initiatives that we will be launching early this year. I look forward to working with our team, suppliers and customers,” said Tedder.
