Daily Business Report: Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022
Why Alzheimer’s Drugs Fail
New screening methods offers answers
By analyzing disease mechanisms in human neurons, researchers led by the University of California San Diego developed a new method to screen drugs for treating Alzheimer’s disease. Their work sheds light on why Alzheimer’s drugs so far have been ineffective at curing or reversing the disease and identifies new targets for drug development.
The findings, reported in a paper published Jan. 27 in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, could help pave the way for radically new therapeutic approaches to treating Alzheimer’s.
Drug development for Alzheimer’s has long been driven by the hypothesis that amyloid plaques—formed by the buildup of amyloid-beta proteins in the brain—are what kill neurons and cause Alzheimer’s. As a result, many research efforts have focused on designing drugs that clear out these plaques.
“But this approach has not led to a cure or improved dementia in patients. Sometimes it has made the disease worse,” said senior author Shankar Subramaniam, a professor of bioengineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering.
To understand why, Subramaniam and his collaborators developed a drug screening method that looks at what disease mechanisms, or endotypes, change in patients’ neurons as a result of treatment. The most widely studied Alzheimer’s endotype is amyloid plaque formation. But there are other endotypes—reported for the first time by Subramaniam and colleagues in a previous study — that also warrant attention. These include de-differentiation of neurons to an earlier “non-neuron” cell state; suppression of neuronal genes; and loss of synaptic connections
“This is a new test for measuring whether an Alzheimer’s drug works,” said Subramaniam.
Environmental justice advocates blast Newsom
administration over PG&E safety certificate
CalMatters
A “license to burn.”
That’s what environmental justice advocates are calling the safety certificate Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration issued to PG&E late Monday, allowing the utility to “recover catastrophic wildfire costs from its ratepayers” or from a $21 billion state insurance fund partly funded by surchargeson customers’ power bills for the next 20 years.
At the end of Reclaim Our Power Utility Justice Campaign’s Monday press conference urging the governor to reject the safety certificate, organizers found out the Newsom administration had granted it hours earlier — even though the campaign said it was scheduled to meet with his office on Feb. 7 to discuss the decision ahead of a Feb. 10 deadline.
“It’s no coincidence that hours before we were going public with our demands, days before meeting with the people who have been terrorized by PG&E, the Newsom administration quietly handed a license to burn back to the most murderous corporation in history,” said campaign coordinator Mari Rose Taruc.
Newsom’s Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety, which issued the certificate, did not respond to a request for comment.
Scripps Health predicts COVID-19
hospitalizations winding down
Predictive modeling by Scripps Health shows that the current surge of COVID-19 hospitalizations should wind down by early March, with a slow decrease in patient volumes driven by the Omicron variant of the virus over the coming weeks, the San Diego health system said. Health system officials said staffing demands at Scripps facilities will remain high as hospitals stay busy with cases unrelated to COVID and as other patients reschedule procedures that were deferred during the ongoing pandemic surge.
“We are finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel for the Omicron surge, but this pandemic likely isn’t ending,” said Scripps President and CEO Chris Van Gorder.
“COVID vaccination continues to play an important role in reducing the severity of surges and offsetting the potential effects of new coronavirus variants that might spread through the population in the future.”
Daily COVID volumes at Scripps’ five hospital campuses peaked two weeks ago with 356 admissions, including 62 patients in ICUs. That compared to a pre-holiday volume in mid-November of 78 patients, with 31 in ICUs.
San Diego’s TuSimple to automate
nation’s first trucking lane in Arizona
TuSimple a San Diego autonomous driving technology company, announced that Union Pacific Railroad, the largest Class I railroad in the U.S., will become the first customer to move freight on TuSimple’s fully-automated trucking route between the Tucson and Phoenix, Ariz. metro areas.
Union Pacific is leveraging Loup Logistics, a wholly-owned subsidiary, to coordinate the freight shipment and support seamless movement between rail and the critical first and last mile. Starting this spring, TuSimple plans to carry Driver Out freight for Union Pacific, utilizing groundbreaking AV (autonomous vehicle) technology to deliver goods to their destination faster and more cost-effectively.
“Partnering with TuSimple allows us to extend our operations beyond our rail hubs and serve our customers faster and more efficiently,” said Kenny Rocker, executive vice president, marketing and sales for Union Pacific. “This groundbreaking autonomous driving technology and our partnership provide us a significant opportunity to scale the technology in our network, proactively reducing global supply chain congestion.”
Mary Lydon joins HomeAid
San Diego as executive director
HomeAid San Diego, a nonprofit organization working to provide services to mitigate the housing crisis in San Diego County, announces that Mary Lydon has joined the organization as its executive director.
Lydon has 25 years of experience in land use planning, real estate markets, community and stakeholder participation, affordable housing policy and economic development strategies. She has worked with private-sector developers, public-sector agencies and nonprofit organizations, holding key leadership roles within the Housing You Matters Coalition, Urban Land Institute, Downtown San Diego Partnership and many nonprofit boards over the course of her career.
She is a former City of San Diego planning commissioner, appointed by former Mayor Jerry Sanders, as well as a Stadium Advisory Group member, appointed by former Mayor Kevin Faulconer.
Lydon is a LEAD San Diego graduate, completed an Executive Leadership Program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
La Valencia Hotel named one of Top 25
historic hotels for a romantic proposal
La Valencia hotel, which opened in 1926, has made Historic Hotel’s list of the Top 25 Historic Hotels of America for a Romantic Proposal, i.e., romantic getaways, ideal place to propose, place for a perfect wedding, place foe a memorable honeymoon, location to celebrate a special anniversary.
The hotel was inducted into Historic Hotels of America in 1986. According to the citation, “One of the most romantic settings for a proposal is the ocean-view garden space overlooking the Pacific Ocean and pool deck. Surrounded by roses, palms and pink Mediterranean architecture, the garden is a special spot to say, “yes!” The garden also features the unique 1928 tile portrait of the original “Pink Lady,” an alluring antique piece by Ernest Batcheler that depicts a young Spanish woman.
Commander Bryan Hart takes command
of USS Stethem at Naval Base San Diego
Commander Bryan Hart of San Diego replaced Commander John Kajmowicz as commanding officer of the USS Stethem in a change-of-command ceremony Jan. 25 at Naval Base San Diego.
Hart graduated from the United Sates Naval Academy in 2003 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Economics. He most recently served as the executive officer in USS Stethem from May 2020 to October 2021.
Kajmowicz served as Stethem’s commanding officer since September 2020.
His follow-on assignment is as reactor officer in USS Theodore Roosevelt, currently homeported in Bremerton, Wash.
Under Kajmowicz’s command, USS Stethem successfully completed a two-year Extended Docking Selected Restricted Availability (EDSRA). He successfully returned Stethem back to sea by completing Contractor and Type Commander Sea Trials and leading her into Basic Phase training.
USS Stethem is named after Steelworker 2nd Class Petty Officer Robert Dean Stethem, and was commissioned on Oct/ 21, 1995, in Port Hueneme, Calif., as the 13th Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer.
Credit agencies cite Water Authority
diversification, reliability for strong ratings
The ratings reports were issued Jan. 27 in anticipation of Water Authority plans to sell $170 million of bonds the week of Feb. 7. Proceeds will be used to finance a portion of the design, acquisition, and construction of various capital projects.
All three rating agencies highlighted the strength of the Water Authority’s significant investments in supply diversification, which allow the agency to meet demands in its service area despite ongoing drought conditions. The Water Authority’s credit quality is deemed strong, in part because the agency adopted its Long-Range Financing Plan in 2021. S&P said, “the LRFP reflects strong management of the authority’s financial and capital needs balanced with long-term affordability for its member agencies.”
San Diego Rescue Mission to develop
Navigation Center in National City
The San Diego Rescue Mission closed escrow on Feb. 2 on a property in National City to develop a Navigation Center at a vacant school, formerly used by South Bay Community Church in National City. The National City Navigation Center deal follows a Dec. 7 vote by National City Council and Mayo Alejandra Sotelo-Solis to approve a conditional use permit for the San Diego Rescue Mission.
The property, which is located at 2400 Euclid Ave., will call for converting two buildings, one about 19,000 square feet and the other about 3,300 square feet, to provide services and shelter for 160 people —men, women, and families who are without housing.
The Navigation Center will provide temporary housing while triaging people experiencing homelessness to help them identify their next step forward. Housing will be a short-term stay of 30 days and operate 24/7.
Cal State San Marcos ranks high in new
Economic Mobility Index
Cal State San Marcos ranks among the top 50 universities in the nation according to a new index that measures academic institutions on student outcomes and economic mobility rather than historical prestige and selectivity. CSUSM ranks No. 39 nationally in the Economic Mobility Index (EMI), which is described as trying to answer the question, “If the primary purpose of postsecondary education is supposed to be to catalyze an increase in economic mobility, which schools are succeeding in that goal?”
The EMI is the product of Third Way, a Washington, D.C.-based public policy think tank founded in 2005 that develops and advocates for policies that it says represent “modern center-left ideas.” CSUSM stands first in the EMI among San Diego County schools and 14th in the 23-campus California State University system.
Teradata announces global partnership with Microsoft
Teradata announced a global partnership with Microsoft to integrate the Teradata Vantage data platform with Microsoft Azure. With this announcement, businesses seeking to modernize their data analytics workloads with security, reliability, and elasticity – even on a massive scale – can leverage the technology of both companies.
“For decades, Microsoft and Teradata have proven that they are two of the most trusted companies that large enterprises rely on to manage their mission-critical data initiatives,” said Todd Cione, chief revenue officer at Teradata. “This expansion of our partnership reflects the deep commitment both companies have to working together for our customers to successfully execute their cloud strategies and solve the world’s toughest data analytics challenges together.”
