Category Archives: BioEngineering

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies have produced encouraging clinical outcomes, demonstrating their therapeutic potential in mitigating tumour development. However, another form of T-cell immunotherapy based on T-cell receptors (TCR) has also shown great potential in this field. Here, Nikki Withers speaks to Miguel Forte who elaborates on the process and explains why he is excited about seeing an idea translate into an industrial proposition.

STIMULATING the natural defences of a persons immune system to kill cancer cells, known as immunotherapy, has become a novel and exciting approach to treat cancer. For example, the role of T cells in cell-mediated immunity has inspired the development of several strategies to genetically modify T cells, such as chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, to target cancer cells. In recent years, CAR T-cell therapy has received much attention from researchers and the press alike, and the landmark approval and clinical successes of Novartis Kymriah (the first FDA-approved treatment to include a gene therapy step in the United States) and Gilead/Kite Pharmas Yescarta (the first CAR T-cell therapy for adults living with certain types of non-Hodgkin lymphoma) has prompted a surge of further research. However, this approach which involves isolating cells from a patient, bioengineering them to express CARs that identify and attach to tumour cells and injecting them back into the patient has several limitations, according to Miguel Forte, former CEO of Zelluna Immunotherapy and currently CEO of Bone Therapeutics.

Forte has been working on a T-cell immunotherapy approach that primarily focuses on the T-cell receptors (TCRs). Similar to CAR therapies, TCR therapies modify the patients T lymphocytes ex vivo before being injected back into the patients body. However, they differ in their mechanisms for recognising antigens. CAR T-cell therapy can be compared to a policeman, with a photograph of the criminal, being able to identify them on the street, explained Forte. It is an artificial way of guiding those cells to the cancer when the cancer cells are in suspension. The difficulty with CAR is that it cannot always penetrate and deliver an effect in solid tumours. TCR therapy, which utilises the natural mechanisms that T cells use to recognise the antigen and therefore the cancer, is better suited to penetrate the tumour ie, the policeman is able to go inside the building where a criminal is hiding.

It is obviously more costly at the beginning of the development when you are fine tuning your process, compared to when you progress to a larger scale as you approach the market

Of note, this approach targets the TCR- peptide/major histocompatibility complex (MHC) interaction, which enables eradication of tumour cells. Intracellular tumour-related antigens can be presented as peptides in the MHC on the cell surface, which interact with the TCR on antigen-specific T cells to stimulate an anti-tumour response. Imagine you, or the cells, are not just a soldier in an army but a captain that can bring other immune cells into the mix. TCRs and these cells, once they go in, have a direct kill activity and an immunostimulatory activity to other cells to have a more comprehensive effect of killing the tumour cells. Forte concluded that this approach is scientifically appealing and could bring value to a large array of solid tumours.

The benefits of TCR therapies are evident; however, as with all new approaches, it is not without its challenges. The first relates to the manufacturing of these therapies; the process requires extracting patient material, changing it and then returning it to the patient. Unlike drug discovery with small molecules where you have an inert, well-defined, chemically-established component, with biologics you go up a notch in terms of complexity, Forte explained, adding that while small molecules are unidimensional, biologics are three-dimensional and, thus, more complex and challenging to manufacture. You need to remember that your product, the cells, are a living being. It is something that replicates, changes and responds to its environment. This makes it a lot more challenging to characterise and define the right specifications of the product. The initial challenge is to put in place a consistent and reliable manufacturing process.

Generating the necessary pre-clinical data can also prove challenging; studies are easier to conduct in animal models when you are working with chemical entities rather than human cells, according to Forte. Finally, when the product does get to clinic, there are elements of manufacturing, supply and logistics that can prove challenging; however, companies are starting to provide solutions for this. Working in cell and gene therapy we need to apply what we have done with other products, explained Forte. You need to adapt to the complexity and diversity of the product you have in hand. Here, you have a live product. Something that responds. It is similar to having a child; you can modulate it, but you can never fully control the behaviour of something you are shaping.

Bringing a new drug to market, from drug discovery through clinical trials to approval, can be a costly process, especially when developing cell-based therapies. These are more expensive than developing chemistry or biologics, but when biologics started to be developed, they were also very expensive, explained Forte. We are now seeing a reduction of those costs as more companies are developing products and consequently more solutions are surfacing.

Forte was involved in developing his first cell therapy product about 10 years ago. At this time, it was difficult; a lot of solutions you had to build in house. Nowadays, you can import this from solutions already available so you can concentrate on the specificity; for instance, the viral vector for gene editing your cells or the cytokine concentration for the expansion of your cells. He added that as these therapies grow, so too does the competition, resulting in reduced costs. However, the price and return on investment must correlate with benefit. It is obviously more costly at the beginning of the development when you are fine tuning your process, compared to when you progress to a larger scale as you approach the market.

The well-publicised success story of Emily Whitehead a six-year-old leukaemia patient who was one of the first patients to receive CAR T-cell therapy is a prime example of the success of immunotherapy treatments. Even though these patients may need to continue medications, they can live a relatively normal life. The gene- edited cells remain in the individual and continue to control the cancer by restoring the immune systems capabilities, said Forte. He hopes that similar results will be seen with TCR therapies: Hopefully, a significant fraction of patients will have a clinical and biological response that will reduce the tumour bulk, give them a quality life and remain doing so by controlling the cancer for a significant amount of time.

Forte concluded that the possibilities for TCR- based immunotherapies are exciting and hopefully products will be developed that will deliver an immediate and sustained effect in cancer patients.

About the author

MIGUEL FORTE

Miguel is currently the CEO of Bone Therapeutics and visiting Professor at the Lisbon University in Portugal. He also serves as Chief Commercialization Officer and Chair of the Commercialization Committee of the International Society of Cellular Therapy (ISCT) and is Member of Board of Directors of ISCT and ARM. Miguel was CEO of Zelluna Immunotherapy until the end of 2019. Miguel holds a masters degree from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon, Portugal, a PhD in Immunology from the University of Birmingham, UK, an accreditation as Specialist in Infectious Diseases and a certificate on Health Economics of Pharmaceuticals and Medical Technologies (HEP). He is Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine of the RCP in the UK.

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TCR therapy an attractive alternative to CAR T for immunotherapy - Drug Target Review

SAN ANTONIO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Southwest Research Institute has received funding from the Medical CBRN Defense Consortium (MCDC) administered by Advanced Technology International to develop a nerve agent antidote for emergency use on the battlefield or to protect public health.

The use of nerve agents continues to be a significant threat to both military and civilian populations. This prototype medication could serve as a countermeasure against a nerve agent attack. SwRI will lead the development of the antidote under the $9.9 million, five-year program, and will collaborate with University of Pittsburgh on the synthesis and compound design, through the support of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA).

This antidote improves on the current standard of care, importantly, its ability to reverse the effects of the toxin in the central nervous system, said SwRIs Dr. Jonathan Bohmann, a principal scientist in SwRIs Pharmaceutical and Bioengineering Department. The antidote will eventually be administered through an autoinjector, which allows for rapid and effective treatment in the field. It would work much like an Epinephrine Auto-Injector or EpiPen administered during a severe allergy attack. The initial goal of the project is to support our warfighters; however, this treatment could also eventually be administered for civilian use.

In the design of the new medication, SwRI will use a computer-based drug design software platform called Rhodium. SwRI developed Rhodium, a proprietary docking simulation software program tool, to enhance drug design and safety while reducing costs and speeding up development time. The Institute offers Rhodium as a service to clients.

SwRI is one of 193 industry, government and nonprofit organizations supporting the medical countermeasures sector in MCDC. This sector was founded to support U.S. Department of Defense needs in areas of infectious diseases, chemical threats and other medical countermeasures for military personnel.

SwRIs Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Division is ISO 9001:2015 certified, meeting international quality standards for product development from initial design through production and service. SwRI scientists support drug development from discovery to clinical trials in FDA-inspected Current Good Manufacturing Practice facilities.

Rhodium supports drug development and screening for antibiotics as well as preventative treatments such as vaccines. The software also predicts adverse drug reactions and side effects.

For more information, visit https://www.swri.org/industries/pharmaceutical-development.

https://www.swri.org/press-release/rhodium-nerve-agent-antidote-dtra-mcdc

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SwRI Receives $9.9 Million to Develop Nerve Agent Antidote - Business Wire

GUWAHATI: An IIT-Guwahati team of researchers have started experiments, exploring the possibilities to clone the immunogenic proteins of SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the novel coronavirus disease, to be used as diagnostics and possible vaccine for the novel coronavirus infected patients.

Most importantly, they have developed a viral vector system to deliver foreign antigens that could be useful in future treatment for COVID-19 or novel coronavirus infected patients, said associate professor Sachin Kumar from the Biosciences and Bioengineering (BSBE) department of IIT-G, who is leading the group of researchers working on viral diseases.

Recently, the research group has developed recombinant vaccines against Japanese Encephalitis and classical swine fever virus which got published in the journal Vaccine and Archives of virology. By developing these vaccines, Kumar said that the IIT-G lab could substantially contribute to the research and development towards severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus -2 (SARS-CoV-2) which is popularly known as the novel coronavirus. Earlier, the virus from the same coronavirus family came in between 2002-2004 as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) or coronavirus -1.

Now, the lab at IIT Guwahati is exploring the possibilities to clone the immunogenic proteins of SARS-CoV-2 to be used as diagnostics and vaccinate the novel coronavirus infected patients. Although it is just a proof of concept and the work requires a thorough validation in cell culture and animal model before coming to any conclusion. Similarly, the development of rapid detection and portable diagnostic kits for various viruses and microorganisms is also being pursued at the institute, Kumar told TOI.

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IIT Guwahati researchers exploring ways to find COVID-19 vaccine - Times of India

Russ Altman (Image credit: Courtesy Russ Altman)

The impact of COVID-19 on society and the way artificial intelligence can be leveraged to increase understanding of the virus and its spread will be the focus of an April 1 virtual conference sponsored by the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI).

COVID-19 and AI: A Virtual Conference, which is open to the public, will convene experts from Stanford and beyond. It will be livestreamed to engage the broad research community, government and international organizations, and civil society.

Russ Altman, one of the conference chairs, is an associate director of HAI and the Kenneth Fong Professor and professor of bioengineering, of genetics, of medicine, of biomedical data science, and, by courtesy, of computer science. He is also the host of the Sirius radio show The Future of Everything. He discusses the aims of the conference.

What was the idea behind the conference?

At HAI, we felt this was an opportunity to use our unique focus on AI and humanity to serve the public in a time of crisis. The issues involved in the pandemic are both nuanced and complex. Approaching it from multiple fields of expertise will help speed us toward solutions. The goal is to make leading-edge and interdisciplinary research available, bringing together our network of experts from across different schools and departments.

We have a world-class set of doctors and biological scientists at Stanford Medical School and theyll, of course, be involved. Well also have experts on AI, as well as the social sciences and humanities, to give their scholarly perspective on the implications of this virus, now and over time. The conference will be entirely virtual with every speaker participating remotely, providing an unpolished but authentic window into the minds of thinkers we respect.

What useful information will come out of the conference?

Were asking our speakers to begin their presentation by talking about the problem theyre addressing and why it matters. They will present the methods theyre using, whether scientific or sociological or humanistic, the results theyre seeing even if their work is preliminary and the caveats to their conclusions. Then theyll go into deeper detail that will be very interesting to academic researchers and colleagues. Importantly, we intend to have a summary of key takeaways afterward along with links to information where people can learn more.

We will not give medical advice or information about how to ensure personal safety. The CDC and other public health agencies are mobilized to do that.

What do you think AI has to offer in the fight over viruses like COVID-19?

AI is extremely good at finding patterns across multiple data types. For example, were now able to analyze patterns of human response to the pressures of the pandemic as measured through sentiments on social media, and even patterns in geospatial data to see where social distancing may and may not be working. And, of course, we are using AI to look for patterns in the genome of the virus and its biology to see where we can attack it.

This interdisciplinary conference will show how the availability of molecular, cellular and genomic data, patient and hospital data, population data all of that can be harnessed for insight. Weve always examined these data sources through more traditional methods. But now for the first time, and at a critical time of global crisis, we have the ability to use AI to look deeper into data and see patterns that were otherwise not visible previously, including the social and cultural impact of this pandemic. This is what will enable us to work together as a scholarly, scientific community to help the future of humankind.

Who do you hope will attend?

The core audience is scholars and researchers. We want to have a meaningful discussion about the research challenges and opportunities in the battle against this virus. Having said that, we know that there are many people with an interest in how scientists, researchers, sociologists and humanists are helping in this time of crisis. So were making the conference open to anyone interested in attending. It will be a live video stream from a link on our website, and available as a recording afterward.

What kind of policy effect do you hope the conference can have?

Good policy is always informed by good research. A major goal of HAI is to catalyze high-quality research that we hope will be heeded by policymakers as they work to craft responses to COVID-19 and future pandemic threats. So this will give insights to policymakers on what will be published in the coming months.

Register for the April 1 conference.

Learn more about the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI).

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Stanford virtual conference to focus on COVID19 and artificial intelligence | Stanford News - Stanford University News

Coronavirus

Crying and other ways I'm coping with virtual commencement, virtual classes, and the onslaught of drastic changes brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

Sophie Burkholder

I felt prepared for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at least in the beginning.

Im a Bioengineering major at the University of Pennsylvania, where classes in cellular engineering and statistical analysis gave me the knowledge and understanding to answer the questions my friends and family have during this pandemic.

Can I get infected more than once? Not within a short period of time.

Should I still get my flu shot? Yes, especially if youre older. A flu shot can reduce your bodys chances of potentially having to fight off two viruses at once.

If Im young and healthy, is this still a big deal? Absolutely.

From the start of the coronavirus outbreak in China, I closely followed its spread. I saw the lockdowns that accompanied its public discovery there. I read stories of the people who were sick and dying in overcrowded Wuhan hospitals. And I looked for tales of hope of doctors who prevailed against infections, of vaccines and treatments that might soon help, of families that made dramatic adjustments to their lifestyles for the sake of others.

But over the past month, those moments of hope shrank in comparison to the growing anxiety and certainty that the virus would arrive here in the United States, and eventually, in Philadelphia. I begged my sister to cancel her spring break plans to France. I called my parents every day to make sure they ordered prescription medications in advance. But in worrying about the dramatic adjustments everyone else would have to make in the face of an unprecedented challenge to modern life, I never thought about how it might affect me.

I went home to Pittsburgh for spring break this year, with little plans other than to watch television, knit a scarf, and practice new baking recipes.

But then the rumors of Penns closure started among fellow school newspaper staffers. Harvard terminated its semester, transitioning all classes to an online format and giving students just a five-day notice to leave campus. Other Ivy League schools soon followed suit, and Philadelphia-based universities like Temple announced closures as well.

The next day, one of my professors sent an email describing how we would transition to having class via Zoom, if necessary. Still, I doubted the notion that Penn would shut down for the remainder of the semester that my senior spring would be cancelled with an impersonal email from President Amy Gutmann.

But thats exactly what happened. As I read over her words, Virtual instruction will continue through the remainder of the spring semester, hot tears welled up in my eyes.

I felt so stupid. Of course Penn had to close. We werent the first school to do so in response to the pandemic, and we wouldnt be the last. Since receiving the news last week, my youngest sisters high school issued temporary cancellations and Governor Tom Wolf announced that all Pennsylvania schools must close.

On Monday, Gutmann wrote us another email. This time she told us theyd be canceling commencement in favor of a virtual ceremony.

Furious, my classmates immediately started a petition to postpone graduation to a later date. It garnered more than 5,000 signatures in less than 24 hours. But some of us simply sat there and cried, knowing our last chance to see each other and celebrate the past three and a half years had vanished. (On Tuesday evening, Gutmann emailed us again to say that in addition to the virtual ceremony, Penn will recognize our graduating class with an in-person commencement on campus when it is safe and feasible to do so. She explained that it will be some time before they could know specifics.)

After the CDC announced that no gatherings of more than 50 people could take place for the next eight weeks, I had a creeping feeling that graduation would no longer happen. Still, after reading that email, I couldnt decide if I was happier to know with certainty that the worst possibility was now true or whether I still wanted that lingering sense of hope that things could magically change at the last minute.

The calm and reasoned logic Id initially brought to discussions of the coronavirus pandemic grew wishy-washy as more and more of my friends messaged me half-hearted goodbyes. One of my best friends, now with her family in Boston, texted that she wasnt sure if shed come back to Philly at all before her Massachusetts-based life science consulting job started in September. Underclassmen sent messages in our club group chats saying they were sorry they couldnt get to know the seniors better, and wished us all the best for the future.

I cried because I felt robbed of so many goodbyes to friends and teachers and mentors. But I also cried because nothing felt fair about any of this. Through tears, I whined to my sister over the phone about the likely cancellation of graduation and the fact that my senior design project a sort of capstone course for all Penn engineering majors had essentially been aborted.

My classmates are irate, and perhaps rightfully so. Nursing students have worries about meeting their required clinical rotation hours for graduation. Other students launched a petition demanding all classes alter to a pass-fail grading system. And even more students have dire concerns over where theyre supposed to live for the rest of the year.

My peers formed a Facebook group of Penn seniors who would still be around campus (many of us, myself included, have our own apartments). But over the weekend, we received even more emails from the administration chastising students who defied the universitys new policies by throwing St. Patricks Day parties or storming the labs of engineering buildings to salvage what they could of their projects. Lingering hopes to see friends, even in small gatherings, were quashed with threats of intervention by Penn Police.

I feel desperate and upset too. I hadnt yet bought my cap and gown, and now I maybe never will. Theres so much uncertainty and so little closure that I feel like Im going through a messy breakup. Im comforted by the hilarious quarantine playlists people have made on Spotify and the Zoom-related memes in my Facebook feed, but I still feel as if Im in a dream, drifting through what feels like an unending liminality of anxiety and board games. I expect that feeling will linger for a while.

Im not here to perpetually complain about the premature end to my senior year. Simply put, it blows.

But were in the midst of a pandemic like never before. Life as usual wont cut it anymore, and the transition from regular in-person interactions to isolation with a limited supply of toilet paper wont be easy. Still, the stories of nursing home patients dying from an outbreak in Washington or Italian doctors facing the choice of who they can and cant afford to give life-saving care to make me know that a lack of normalcy right now is necessary.

To all the young and healthy people out there who went out to restaurants and bars or concerts that were still happening last weekend (and maybe youre still gathering in large numbers now), please think more carefully about your choices. Recognize the privilege of your youth and health and use it to help those around you. The practices of social distancing and self isolation are the most important at the start of a pandemic, before the number of infections expands beyond control.

My senior year might be over, goodbyes splintered, and warm end-of-college memories erased before they were even made, but I want to stay positive. My Twitter feed tells me that I should use this isolation to write my magnum opus or discover a new physics law, but Im keeping calm by watching mindless sitcoms for now. Im learning to be a better texter and offering up video chats with friends and family as a substitute for face-to-face contact. Its not perfect or normal by any means and I still cry a lot but its the best I can do for myself and others.

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My Senior Year at Penn Is Over. But Im Learning to Be Okay With That. - Philadelphia magazine

WASHINGTON The coronavirus outbreak threatens to inflict "carnage" on refugees around the world who often live in cramped conditions, lack access to clean water and are in countries with failing or stretched medical systems, humanitarian aid groups say.

From Syria to Bangladesh to Uganda, the risk posed to people who have fled war and persecution is potentially dire, and only urgent international action can avert a catastrophe, aid organizations told NBC News.

As of Tuesday, only 10 cases had been reported among refugees and displaced persons, and all of those were patients in Germany, according to the U.N. refugee agency. But in the absence of extensive testing at refugee camps in the Middle East, Africa or Asia, it's unclear whether the fast-moving virus has already reached them, medical experts and humanitarian workers said.

"We don't know, and that's largely because we haven't done any testing," said Muhammad Zaman, a professor of bioengineering at Boston University. "We need to know how acute the problem is before we come up with an intervention."

Given the fast-moving nature of the epidemic, if COVID-19 hasn't already spread to refugees, it's only a matter of time, Zaman added.

Beyond the potentially tragic consequences for refugees, failing to counter the spread of the virus among large refugee communities near the border of Europe or elsewhere could undercut any success in containing the outbreak and enable it to spread further, aid officials said.

Experience with the Ebola virus and other outbreaks has shown that governments need to include refugees and displaced persons in their plans to counter epidemics and to ensure that the refugees have the same access to medical treatment, said Andrej Mahecic, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, or UNHCR.

"If we keep them safe, it's keeping all of us safe," he told NBC News.

The UNHCR has issued an initial appeal to governments for $33 million to help provide hygiene kits, protective gear, water sanitation and training for health workers to protect refugees from the coronavirus.

The two main tactics recommended to halt the spread of the virus hand-washing and social distancing are sometimes impossible for refugees to follow at crowded camps.

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Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, warned that the epidemic could cause devastating consequences at crowded refugee camps and in countries with damaged health care systems.

"Millions of conflict-affected people are living in cramped refugee and displacement sites with desperately poor hygiene and sanitation facilities," Egeland said in a statement.

"There will also be carnage when the virus reaches parts of Syria, Yemen and Venezuela where hospitals have been demolished and health systems have collapsed. "

Refugee advocates are especially concerned about nearly 1 million Syrians who have fled an offensive by Russia and the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad in recent weeks. Many of them are sleeping in bombed-out structures, in tents or out in the open.

As coronavirus cases and deaths spike in Iran and rise in Iraq and Lebanon, the Syrians fleeing toward the Turkish border are particularly vulnerable, said Hardin Lang, vice president for programs and policy at Refugees International.

The crowded conditions could turn temporary camps into "a tinderbox for the spread of the disease," Lang said.

The World Health Organization "is preparing for contagion across Syria," WHO spokesperson Hedinn Halldorsson told NBC News, and the organization has sent testing kits to northwest Syria and other items.

The population of northwest Syria is especially vulnerable because of the spread of the epidemic in neighboring countries, porous borders, the damaged health care system and a recent outbreak of H1N1 virus, Halldorsson said. The presence of H1N1 could undermine "timely COVID-19 diagnosis and put an added strain on laboratories," she added.

Last week, Doctors Without Borders issued an urgent appeal to evacuate thousands of refugees from "squalid" camps on the Greek island of Lesbos, where it said authorities are not prepared for a potential COVID-19 outbreak.

It would be "impossible to contain an outbreak" at the camps on Lesbos and other Greek islands, said Dr. Hilde Vochten, medical coordinator in Greece for Doctors Without Borders. "To this day, we have not seen a credible emergency plan to protect and treat people living there in case of an outbreak."

Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

In Yemen, five years of war have pummeled the country's medical system, with hospitals and infrastructure bombed by the Saudi-led coalition or seized by Houthi rebels. As a result, the "response capacity of the health system is all but completely wiped out," said Rayan Koteiche of Physicians for Human Rights.

Because of Yemen's broken health sector, the country had a dramatic surge of cholera, a disease that had been virtually eradicated from the planet, in 2017.

Given the threat of COVID-19 now spreading across the Middle East, the situation in Yemen is "beyond worrying," Koteiche said. He co-authored a report released Wednesday that documented 120 attacks on medical facilities and health workers by both the Saudi-led coalition and Iranian-backed Houthi rebels over the past five years.

Decisions by governments in recent days to shut national borders also threaten to deprive people fleeing violence and persecution from getting medical treatment or securing food, said Elinor Raikes of the International Rescue Committee.

Colombia recently closed its border with Venezuela, and "many Venezuelans who cross the border on a daily basis for food, work and health care are now stranded without access to basic lifesaving needs," Raikes said.

Aid groups also worry that the coronavirus will provide ammunition to anti-migrant, anti-refugee political voices that will use it as an excuse to shut the door on people fleeing war and persecution, even though there is no link between the coronavirus and refugees.

"We're already concerned about the weaponization of public concern over the COVID-19 by politicians and leaders that are already pushing an agenda to seal borders to deny access to refugees and asylum-seekers. You are already hearing calls to close borders," Lang said.

Download the NBC News app for full coverage and alerts about the coronavirus outbreak

With global travel increasingly restricted and the virus spreading, international aid organizations face difficult decisions about how many staff members to keep in place. Aid groups usually rotate personnel in and out every few months, but sending staff in now from Western countries where the epidemic has taken root carries the risk of spreading the disease to refugee communities.

Refugees International, which is based in Washington, D.C., has decided to suspend travel to refugee camps to avoid any risk of spreading the coronavirus, Lang said.

The UNHCR said Tuesday that it has suspended the resettlement of refugees to third countries partly because of the restrictions and uncertainty surrounding international travel and partly out of concern that the refugees could be exposed to the epidemic by flying to other countries.

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Coronavirus could cause 'carnage' among the world's refugees, aid groups say - NBC News