As the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 virus a global pandemic - with comments from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the Brookings Institute, Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence (2019), Community”, "Climate Change Impacts in the United States" report (2014) and more.

Last week, CRISPR gene-editing was used for the first time to edit a person’s DNA while it was still in their body. The project is a collaboration between Oregon Health & Science University (Portland, OR), Editas Medicine (Cambridge, MA) and Allergan (Dublin, Ireland)

As Covid-19 virus infects over 86,000 people, markets declined, events/travel are cancelled, supply chains are disrupted and more. Our note shares comments from the Center for Disease Control, World Health Organization and Bill Gates’ New England Journal of Medicine article “Responding to Covid-19 — A Once-in-a-Century Pandemic?”

Changes in the industry will include the entry of new players, new pricing models, new delivery approaches and services that are more data driven and virtual.

An Oxford University study links individual personality traits and gut microbiome composition and work by IBM and UC- San Diego believe AI can predict your age based on your microbiome.

CRISPR-Cas9 and other advances in gene-editing will impact all life sciences (biology, agriculture, farming, etc.) and change the role of legacy pharmaceutical companies

This note shares information from the US Center for Disease Control, World Health Organization and other sources on what the virus is, approaches for treatment, its geographic reach, and economic impact.

As Memphis Meats, a firm focused on developing cell-based meat, raises a $161 million funding round to build a pilot production facility …

As global leaders and influencers meet at the World Economic Forum’s annual gathering in Davos, Switzerland, here are notes on potential impacts and more.

Comments from “The AI effect: How AI is Making Healthcare More Human" ( MIT Technology Review Insights) and a Pew Research Center survey on smart watch and wearable fitness tracker use

Comments from Richard Branson's blog post “New Year's resolutions making lists”, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Social Media and “How Much Is Too Much? The growing concern over too much added sugar in our diets” (University of California – San Francisco)

Comments from COMPASS Pathways, King's College London and Usona Institute on research to understand the therapeutic effects of psilocybin and other consciousness-expanding medicines.

Comments from “What Jobs are Affected by AI?” (Brookings Institute) and “The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on the Labor Market” (Stanford University)

Comments about vertical farming start-ups Bowery Farming, Inc. (based in New York City), AeroFarms (based in Newark, NJ), Plenty (based in South San Francisco, CA) and other market dynamics.