Next-Generation Antivirals to Tackle Norovirus with James Sapirstein CoCrystal Pharma

Dr. Carl Rothschild, CEO and Founder, and Eddie Brown, COO of Trifecta Light Technologies, discuss the therapeutic applications of red light and near-infrared therapy by bathing the entire body with these specific light wavelengths. The technology has FDA clearance for fat reduction and healing and clinical research indicates efficacy in neurological disorders and musculoskeletal conditions. The devices are user-friendly and have also been shown to support athletes in recovery and the beauty industry for skin health. Dr. Carl explains, "And so what has since subsequently been learned is that this light of both red, and we also use near infrared, which is even more powerful and more healing; what it does is it affects every cell that we can get to in your body. And the more cells we can get to, the better. That's why you want deep-penetrating, medical-grade beds that can penetrate as much as possible to affect as many cells." Eddie elaborates, "With any kind of red light item, usually the bed, the lights, they're FDA registered, which means basically it's an infrared heat source. What we did with our bed, nobody else was able to do this. Not to say that in the future they're not going to, but right now we're kind of ahead of the curve, the only ones who have it. We've had FDA clearance for ours."   #TrifectaLight #RedLightTherapy #Photobiomodulation #MitochondrialHealth #MetabolicHealth #ChronicCare #SportsMedicine #RegenerativeMedicine Trifectalight.com Listen to the podcast here  

Dr. Carl Rothschild, CEO and Founder, and Eddie Brown, COO of Trifecta Light Technologies, discuss the therapeutic applications of red light and near-infrared therapy by bathing the entire body with these specific light wavelengths. The technology has FDA clearance for fat reduction and healing and clinical research indicates efficacy in neurological disorders and musculoskeletal conditions. The devices are user-friendly and have also been shown to support athletes in recovery and the beauty industry for skin health. Dr. Carl explains, "And so what has since subsequently been learned is that this light of both red, and we also use near infrared, which is even more powerful and more healing; what it does is it affects every cell that we can get to in your body. And the more cells we can get to, the better. That's why you want deep-penetrating, medical-grade beds that can penetrate as much as possible to affect as many cells." Eddie elaborates, "With any kind of red light item, usually the bed, the lights, they're FDA registered, which means basically it's an infrared heat source. What we did with our bed, nobody else was able to do this. Not to say that in the future they're not going to, but right now we're kind of ahead of the curve, the only ones who have it. We've had FDA clearance for ours."  #TrifectaLight #RedLightTherapy #Photobiomodulation #MitochondrialHealth #MetabolicHealth #ChronicCare #SportsMedicine #RegenerativeMedicine Trifectalight.com Download the transcript here  

James Sapirstein, CEO of CoCrystal Pharma, is developing a platform of antiviral therapies to treat norovirus, influenza and other viruses.  Norovirus, commonly transmitted on cruise ships and in dormitories, currently lacks effective vaccines or treatments. CoCrystal's oral small-molecule approach aims to treat active infections by reducing viral shedding duration and provide prophylactic prevention using a novel mechanism that targets viral entry points to prevent replication. James explains, "At CoCrystal Pharma, we have a platform of antiviral programs. The first program is for norovirus, and we have another program for influenza A. And then we also have a platform for rhinovirus, which is also many times referred to as the common cold. There's really not much out there."   "Norovirus is commonly known on cruise ships and in dormitories, college dormitories, and really it spreads by touch. That's why, when cruise ships have an outbreak of norovirus, if people haven't washed their hands or they touch an area where someone has touched that area before with active norovirus, they can get infected. And because people touch their faces over a thousand times, literally in a couple of hours, it's easy to transmit the virus."   "But there's also chronic norovirus, which people don't really talk about much because it's mostly in the nursing homes and assisted living areas, where some of these patients really suffer, and they're septic for a very long period of time. And they're not tested to see if they have norovirus because they have so many other health issues that people just aren't tested correctly." "Most antivirals, for the most part, work on the RNA. They cleave off the RNA, or they cleave off the cell membrane so that it doesn't replicate and the virus dies off. For us, it's much more specific. We like to call it a pocket where the virus enters the cell. We design a drug to specifically kill the virus at certain aspects within the virus, and then it doesn't allow it to replicate. And that's the way it's designed." #CoCrystalPharma #Norovirus #Antivirals #DrugDiscovery #InfectiousDiseases cocrystalpharma.com  Listen to the podcast here

James Sapirstein, CEO of CoCrystal Pharma, is developing a platform of antiviral therapies to treat norovirus, influenza and other viruses.  Norovirus, commonly transmitted on cruise ships and in dormitories, currently lacks effective vaccines or treatments. CoCrystal's oral small-molecule approach aims to treat active infections by reducing viral shedding duration and provide prophylactic prevention using a novel mechanism that targets viral entry points to prevent replication. James explains, "At CoCrystal Pharma, we have a platform of antiviral programs. The first program is for norovirus, and we have another program for influenza A. And then we also have a platform for rhinovirus, which is also many times referred to as the common cold. There's really not much out there."   "Norovirus is commonly known on cruise ships and in dormitories, college dormitories, and really it spreads by touch. That's why, when cruise ships have an outbreak of norovirus, if people haven't washed their hands or they touch an area where someone has touched that area before with active norovirus, they can get infected. And because people touch their faces over a thousand times, literally in a couple of hours, it's easy to transmit the virus."   "But there's also chronic norovirus, which people don't really talk about much because it's mostly in the nursing homes and assisted living areas, where some of these patients really suffer, and they're septic for a very long period of time. And they're not tested to see if they have norovirus because they have so many other health issues that people just aren't tested correctly." "Most antivirals, for the most part, work on the RNA. They cleave off the RNA, or they cleave off the cell membrane so that it doesn't replicate and the virus dies off. For us, it's much more specific. We like to call it a pocket where the virus enters the cell. We design a drug to specifically kill the virus at certain aspects within the virus, and then it doesn't allow it to replicate. And that's the way it's designed." #CoCrystalPharma #Norovirus #Antivirals #DrugDiscovery #InfectiousDiseases cocrystalpharma.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Claire Smith, a regional medical officer at SCP Health and a practicing hospitalist in Missouri, highlights how virtual hospitalists are transforming healthcare by providing 24/7 physician collaboration to support onsite teams, particularly in rural hospitals and during patient surges. Implementing telehospitalists can play a critical role in reducing clinician burnout, improving access to physician expertise, and enhancing emergency department efficiency. Integrating telehospitalists into a care model shows potential to reshape workforce demographics and improve the ability to meet unpredictable demands. Claire explains, "So a hospitalist is typically an internal medicine or family medicine-trained physician who focuses the entirety of their career on hospital medicine. So, taking care of hospitalized patients. They are focused on the end-to-end experience of a patient who is hospitalized. So they are integral in the admission from the emergency department, from the time it is determined the patient needs care within the hospital to the time that they are discharged to their next site of care, whether that be home, a skilled nursing facility, etc. So hospitalists do not focus on outpatient medicine. They collaborate with primary care physicians and care for hospitalized patients."   "And what we are seeing is that we are now integrating virtual hospitalists or telehospitalists into workflows to support teams in a variety of situations, including resource shortages or temporary surges in the patient population, so that we can best support the onsite teams and patients."   "What we see is that telehospitalists are being utilized when demands exceed onsite capacities, as well as in those rural situations where resources are more scarce. So a telehospitalist changes the dynamic from really an occasional ad hoc contact with advanced practitioners who may be supporting rural practice hospital medicine to reliable collaboration."  #SCPHealth #Telehospitalist #RuralHealth #HospitalMedicine #Telemedicine #HealthcareInnovation #ClinicianWellbeing #VirtualCare #24x7Coverage #PatientCare scphealth.com Listen to the podcast here  

Dr. Claire Smith, a regional medical officer at SCP Health and a practicing hospitalist in Missouri, highlights how virtual hospitalists are transforming healthcare by providing 24/7 physician collaboration to support onsite teams, particularly in rural hospitals and during patient surges. Implementing telehospitalists can play a critical role in reducing clinician burnout, improving access to physician expertise, and enhancing emergency department efficiency. Integrating telehospitalists into a care model shows potential to reshape workforce demographics and improve the ability to meet unpredictable demands. Claire explains, "So a hospitalist is typically an internal medicine or family medicine-trained physician who focuses the entirety of their career on hospital medicine. So, taking care of hospitalized patients. They are focused on the end-to-end experience of a patient who is hospitalized. So they are integral in the admission from the emergency department, from the time it is determined the patient needs care within the hospital to the time that they are discharged to their next site of care, whether that be home, a skilled nursing facility, etc. So hospitalists do not focus on outpatient medicine. They collaborate with primary care physicians and care for hospitalized patients."   "And what we are seeing is that we are now integrating virtual hospitalists or telehospitalists into workflows to support teams in a variety of situations, including resource shortages or temporary surges in the patient population, so that we can best support the onsite teams and patients."   "What we see is that telehospitalists are being utilized when demands exceed onsite capacities, as well as in those rural situations where resources are more scarce. So a telehospitalist changes the dynamic from really an occasional ad hoc contact with advanced practitioners who may be supporting rural practice hospital medicine to reliable collaboration."  #SCPHealth #Telehospitalist #RuralHealth #HospitalMedicine #Telemedicine #HealthcareInnovation #ClinicianWellbeing #VirtualCare #24x7Coverage #PatientCare scphealth.com Download the transcript here  

Dr. Mark George is the principal psychiatric investigator of Abbott's TRANSCEND study and also a professor of psychiatry at MUSC Health Institute of Psychiatry.  The TRANSCEND study represents a paradigm shift in depression treatment by investigating deep brain stimulation as a potential solution for treatment-resistant depression. This research involves surgically implanting a device that delivers targeted electrical stimulation to specific brain circuits. By reframing depression as a brain disorder rather than a chemical imbalance, this study emphasizes the biological nature of depression, offering an alternative to a condition with limited options. Mark explains, "There are a lot of people, unfortunately, maybe a quarter of the people with depression who lead lives of misery where the medications and talking just don't get them back on their game. And so that's what we call treatment-resistant depression. And that's where I've spent my career trying to come up with new treatments."   "Well, so if the medications aren't working, you can try even more medicines, but the odds go way down. So there's a whole class of things where we actually stimulate the brain to try to, non-invasively and not using a pill, get in and change circuits in the brain. And those have started to really transform the care of treatment-resistant depression. There are several of them that are both non-invasive, and then others that are invasive."  "But the real holy grail would be for us to find the circuit or the spot in the brain and be able to put something there and then fix it. And then there you go, you live your life, and it would not be a pill that you have to take every day. And it would not have systemic side effects like medications. It wouldn't cause weight gain, sexual side effects, those kinds of things. So the real interest in the deep brain stimulation study that Abbott TRANSCEND is: "Could we stick a wire in the area of the brain that's not working right and pass very, very small amounts of electricity and really wake somebody up and get them out of their depression?" #Abbott #DBS #TRANSCENDstudy  #TRD #TreatmentReistantDepression TRANSCEND  Listen to the podcast here

Dr. Mark George is the principal psychiatric investigator of Abbott's TRANSCEND study and also a professor of psychiatry at MUSC Health Institute of Psychiatry.  The TRANSCEND study represents a paradigm shift in depression treatment by investigating deep brain stimulation as a potential solution for treatment-resistant depression. This research involves surgically implanting a device that delivers targeted electrical stimulation to specific brain circuits. By reframing depression as a brain disorder rather than a chemical imbalance, this study emphasizes the biological nature of depression, offering an alternative to a condition with limited options. Mark explains, "There are a lot of people, unfortunately, maybe a quarter of the people with depression who lead lives of misery where the medications and talking just don't get them back on their game. And so that's what we call treatment-resistant depression. And that's where I've spent my career trying to come up with new treatments."   "Well, so if the medications aren't working, you can try even more medicines, but the odds go way down. So there's a whole class of things where we actually stimulate the brain to try to, non-invasively and not using a pill, get in and change circuits in the brain. And those have started to really transform the care of treatment-resistant depression. There are several of them that are both non-invasive, and then others that are invasive."  "But the real holy grail would be for us to find the circuit or the spot in the brain and be able to put something there and then fix it. And then there you go, you live your life, and it would not be a pill that you have to take every day. And it would not have systemic side effects like medications. It wouldn't cause weight gain, sexual side effects, those kinds of things. So the real interest in the deep brain stimulation study that Abbott TRANSCEND is: "Could we stick a wire in the area of the brain that's not working right and pass very, very small amounts of electricity and really wake somebody up and get them out of their depression?" #Abbott #DBS #TRANSCENDstudy  #TRD #TreatmentReistantDepression TRANSCEND  Download the transcript here

Dr. Manish Arora, CEO at LinusBio, has developed an innovative approach to precision medicine through the Traced test, which measures exposure to trace elements and environmental toxins using hair biomarkers. The technology analyzes a small hair sample and can measure chemicals that enter the bloodstream and deposit in the hair as it grows.  This exposome-based test identifies exposure patterns through longitudinal monitoring and provides a precise method to measure environmental impacts, unlike genomic biomarkers, and offers actionable guidance for reducing toxic exposure. Manish explains, "So we like using hair for many reasons. One is we can collect it very easily at home. All you need is a pair of household scissors, a quick snip, and we only ask you for about three to five strands. We don't need a whole lot. What is amazing about hair is that it can actually give you a daily readout over the past month. And let me share with you how this happens. If you've ever seen a tree that's been cut down and you've seen growth rings in it, we think of them as yearly  growth rings."   "And here there's a growth ring forming almost every hour. So in fact, if you were able to take a strand of hair one centimeter, you would get a whole month of readout at an hourly resolution. That's like 800 to a thousand sequential blood tests. And that's what we have figured out. So unlike many other tests that just give you one number, we give you your monthly profile. Again, all from just one centimeter of hair." "The Traced test, as its first offering, is looking at essential elements like zinc and copper, but also the toxic metals that so many of us have heard of and are concerned about, like lead, cadmium, and arsenic. So what it does is it measures 15 different trace elements, the good and the bad, gives you an overall score, but gives you a daily profile over the last month. And there are such interesting patterns that we find. We find people who have high exposures every five to six days. And very often, when we speak to them, they're doing something very different on the weekend, which is a source of exposure. So we keep finding these patterns and instead of just saying, "Hey, you are high or low," we can work with them, look at these patterns, and then give them exposure guidance. Simple steps: how to improve your environment, how to reduce your toxic exposures." #LinusBio #TracedTest #PrecisionMedicine #Exposome #DigitalBiomarkers #EnvironmentalHealth #PreventiveCare #HealthcareInnovation #Diagnostics #Toxins #Wellness #HealthTech #Environment  linusbio.com  Listen to the podcast here

Dr. Manish Arora, CEO at LinusBio, has developed an innovative approach to precision medicine through the Traced test, which measures exposure to trace elements and environmental toxins using hair biomarkers. The technology analyzes a small hair sample and can measure chemicals that enter the bloodstream and deposit in the hair as it grows.  This exposome-based test identifies exposure patterns through longitudinal monitoring and provides a precise method to measure environmental impacts, unlike genomic biomarkers, and offers actionable guidance for reducing toxic exposure. Manish explains, "So we like using hair for many reasons. One is we can collect it very easily at home. All you need is a pair of household scissors, a quick snip, and we only ask you for about three to five strands. We don't need a whole lot. What is amazing about hair is that it can actually give you a daily readout over the past month. And let me share with you how this happens. If you've ever seen a tree that's been cut down and you've seen growth rings in it, we think of them as yearly  growth rings."   "And here there's a growth ring forming almost every hour. So in fact, if you were able to take a strand of hair one centimeter, you would get a whole month of readout at an hourly resolution. That's like 800 to a thousand sequential blood tests. And that's what we have figured out. So unlike many other tests that just give you one number, we give you your monthly profile. Again, all from just one centimeter of hair." "The Traced test, as its first offering, is looking at essential elements like zinc and copper, but also the toxic metals that so many of us have heard of and are concerned about, like lead, cadmium, and arsenic. So what it does is it measures 15 different trace elements, the good and the bad, gives you an overall score, but gives you a daily profile over the last month. And there are such interesting patterns that we find. We find people who have high exposures every five to six days. And very often, when we speak to them, they're doing something very different on the weekend, which is a source of exposure. So we keep finding these patterns and instead of just saying, "Hey, you are high or low," we can work with them, look at these patterns, and then give them exposure guidance. Simple steps: how to improve your environment, how to reduce your toxic exposures." #LinusBio #TracedTest #PrecisionMedicine #Exposome #DigitalBiomarkers #EnvironmentalHealth #PreventiveCare #HealthcareInnovation #Diagnostics #Toxins #Wellness #HealthTech #Environment  linusbio.com Download the transcript here