The seductive allure of spatial biology: accelerating new discoveries in the life sciences

Spatial biology is a rapidly developing field which enables the visualization of protein and transcriptomic data while preserving tissue context and architecture. Initially used in discovery, there is growing promise for translational and diagnostic assay developments. Immediate applications are in precision medicine, such as being able to match patients to optimal therapies through better understanding the tumor microenvironment. However, it also has ramifications for many other disciplines (e.g. immunology, cancer, infectious disease and digital pathology). With increasingly massive data sets being generated, data storage, curation, analysis and sharing require more computational approaches and artificial intelligence-powered tools to fully utilize spatial tools. Here, we discuss spatial biology as an important convergent science approach to tackling complex global challenges in areas such as health.

Financing adult learning and education (ALE) now and in future

This article submits that while the world continues to view education as a human right, it also persists in depriving an important section of it - namely adult learning and education (ALE) - of adequate funding. Located within the lifelong learning domain, which facilitates both the resolution of challenges and adjustment to the vagaries of living throughout a lifetime, ALE is indispensable within the framework of the United Nations 2030 Agenda with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This article identifies four factors which are currently responsible for the poor funding of ALE. These factors are: (1) the world's obsession with the provision of school education; (2) the lack of adequate instruments to work out ALE's returns on investment; (3) the hope that employers will ultimately supply ALE; and (4) the assumption that an expansion of formal schooling will eventually lead to the establishment of literate societies free of inter-generational crises. Since ALE is generally framed as a broad literacy education project, the author undertakes a review of literacy education costing. This leads him to posit that quality literacy education can be supplied at a unit cost ranging between USD 150 and USD 250 annually within any Global Alliance for Literacy (GAL) country. Finally, the article offers four recommendations to increase ALE funding going forward.

Ethical leadership and why health information management professionals need to be involved. Commentary on Health information is central to changes in healthcare: a clinician's view (Hoyle, 2019)

Philip Hoyle presents a compelling argument for the significant and highly valued role that the management of health information plays in the Australian healthcare system and the delivery of health services in this country. However, he also brings to our attention the ill-defined nature of the ethical oversight of this very information. Hoyle uses words such as "honesty," "commitment to beneficence," "commitment to equity" and "respect for variation" when describing the characteristics of ethical leadership. He singles out health information management professionals - Health Information Managers (HIMs) and Clinical Coders (CCs) - as the key professional group who need to step up and seize the initiative, get conversations going, form partnerships, do research and publish findings, so the knowledge and insights that the health information management profession has the potential to offer are not only more widely known and understood but also more useful to others working in the healthcare arena. Hoyle calls on health information management professionals to step out from behind the scenes and take responsibility for the ethical use of the information they help produce. Hoyle's words resonated powerfully with me, particularly with respect to the clinical coding workforce in Australia, which is made up of trained CCs and qualified HIMs. In a truly ethical environment, HIMs and CCs would not be asked to meet performance indicators for increased funding metrics or to change codes to avoid triggering certain indicators; they would simply be asked to ensure complete, accurate coding for every episode of care. This is what ethical leadership would look like. I am concerned about our clinical coding workforce. I am now asking, are our CCs and HIMs up to the task of taking back absolute and unchallenged ownership of their particular skill set, which makes them the keepers of the clinical coding standards and the experts in accurate and complete code assignment?

Position Paper on Road Map for RNA Virus Research in India

The Indian subcontinent with its population density, climatic conditions, means of subsistence, socioeconomic factors as well as travel and tourism presents a fertile ground for thriving of RNA viruses. Despite being pathogens of huge significance, there is very little focus on research into the biology and pathogenesis of RNA viruses in India. Studies on epidemiology and disease burden, risk factors, the immune response to RNA viruses, circulating virus strains and virus evolution, animal models of disease, antivirals and vaccines are strikingly absent. Emerging RNA viruses such as Zika virus, Nipah virus and Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus are a matter of grave concern to India. Here we summarize the outcome of the India|EMBO symposium on “RNA viruses: immunology, pathogenesis and translational opportunities” organized at Faridabad, National Capital Region, India, on March 28–30, 2018. The meeting focused on RNA viruses (non-HIV), and both national and international experts on RNA viruses covered topics ranging from epidemiology, immune response, virus evolution and vaccine trials concerning RNA viruses. The aim of the symposium was to create a road map for RNA virus research in India. Both concrete and tentative ideas pointing towards short-term and long-term goals were presented with recommendations for follow-up at government level.

Addressing Pressing Needs in the Development of Advanced Therapies

The commercial development of advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) represents great opportunity for therapeutic innovation but is beset by many challenges for its developers. Although the ATMP field continues to progress at a rapid pace, evidenced by the increasing number of clinical trials conducted over the past few years, several factors continue to complicate the introduction of ATMPs as a curative treatment for multiple disease types, by blocking their translational pathway from research to the patient. While several recent publications (Trounson and McDonald, 2015; Abou-El-Enein et al., 2016a,b) as well as an Innovative Medicines Initiative consultation (IMI, 2016) this year have highlighted the major gaps in ATMP development, with manufacturing, regulatory, and reimbursement issues at the forefront, there remains to be formulated a coherent strategy to address these by bringing the relevant stakeholders to a single forum, whose task it would be to design and execute a delta plan to alleviate the most pressing bottlenecks. This article focuses on two of the most urgent areas in need of attention in ATMP development, namely manufacturing and reimbursement, and promotes the concept of innovation-dedicated research infrastructures to support a multi-sector approach for ensuring the successful development, entry, and ensuing survival of ATMPs in the healthcare market.