Here’s the timeline of how the Coronavirus outbreak evolved from Wuhan city in China and spreading its tentacles across the world.The 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), officially named as Covid-19 by the WHO, has spread to 25 more countries apart from China alarming public health authorities across the world.

A total of ‭60,328 (including ‭59,865 in China, Hong Kong and Macau) confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection including 1,368 deaths (including one in the Philippines and one in Hong Kong) have been reported across the world as of 13 February 2020.

Out of the ‭59,865 confirmed cases in China, 8,204 are reported to be severe cases.

Two of the company’s key products include the CARDIOSKIN™ and ON’COHUB™.

CARDIOSKIN™is an ECG solution that helps in long-term monitoring and data analysis for patients with various indications, including syncope, palpitations, atrial fibrillation, coronary ischemia, dilated cardiomyopathy, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and inherited arrhythmic diseases.

ON’COHUB™ is an e-solution designed to provide follow-up data collection and management in patients with solid tumours.

Founded in 2012 at Aalto University, Finland, the company offers personalised support to cancer patients through various phases of therapy by providing self-management strategies and digital symptom management, as well as reduce emergency room visits through its platform.

Despite the lack of knowledge on adverse events in cancer immunotherapies, Kaiku Health is working towards understanding and managing toxicities of immune checkpoint inhibitor and CAR T Cell therapies.

The OncoBEAM™ is a digital polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology that combines emulsion PCR and flow cytometry for the detection of mutant tumour DNA molecules.

US technology company Microsoft has launched its new retail solution to enhance the online and offline shopping experience for consumers.

The Microsoft Synchronized Shopping solution makes use of ‘intelligent Cloud technology’ and has been developed in partnership with its Gold partner Popcornapps.

The solution is developed on ‘Azure Cloud services, progressive web-apps (PWA) and geo-location-based services’.

The PWA is designed to be compatible with various form factors in iOS and Android devices and uses a Universal Windows Platform (UWP) application to interact with devices in-store.

It is currently being tested exclusively at the Harvey Norman Millenia Walk flagship store in Singapore.

Harvey Norman chief executive officer Katie Page said: “Customers must be able to make decisions holistically, especially in a digitally connected world.

Cancer Research UK has announced a £56m research network to transform the UK into a global hub for radiotherapy study.

The network, Cancer Research UK RadNet, will bring together the Universities of Cambridge, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester and Oxford, as well as the Cancer Research UK City of London Centre, The Institute of Cancer Research and London in partnership with The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust.

Cancer Research UK chief executive Michelle Mitchell said: “Radiotherapy is a cornerstone of cancer medicine, with around 3 in 10 patients receiving it as part of their primary treatment.

“Scientists will combine advances in our understanding of cancer biology with cutting-edge technology to make this treatment more precise and effective than ever before”.

The network aims to explore flash radiotherapy, which delivers pulses of radiation in high doses within a fraction of a second so healthy tissues surrounding the tumour get less damaged compared to conventional radiotherapy.

Cancer Research UK RadNet will explore different approaches to overcome hypoxia, a condition of low oxygen within tumours.

Researchers from the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania have found that liquid biopsy can help to predict the prognosis of glioblastoma(GBM), the most aggressive and common brain cancer in adults.

The study indicated that patients with a higher concentration of cfDNA have shorter progression-free survival than those with less cfDNA.

Furthermore, cfDNA increases in patients either at the time of or just before their disease progresses.

Liquid biopsy was compared with the genetic sequencing of solid tissue biopsies in GBM cases.

Both biopsies detected the genetic mutations in over half of the patients and none of the mutations overlapped, indicating that the liquid biopsy may provide complementary information about the genetic constitution of each tumour.

An estimated 11,000 cases of GBM are diagnosed every year, with a five-year survival rate between 5 and 10%.