John Hewitt

John Hewitt runs a small company outside of Philadelphia that designs and builds custom instruments for neuroscience research. He publishes regular reviews of the literature addressing problems in biology and medicine.

Latest

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Medicine Outsmarting the Virus [long_description] Variants in the SARS-CoV-2 virus control infectivity, severity, and immunity. Against this hydra, the best modes of defense are multipronged. John Hewitt takes stock of currently available SARS-CoV-2 therapies; in particular, he notes new combination therapies that strike at the heart of the virus to complement vaccinations and provide a defense the virus cannot outsmart.
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Biology Life Lessons [long_description] Shoichi Kato et al. have exploited the minimalist cell architecture and mitochondrial dynamics of Cyanidioschyzon merolae to shed new light on life at its most primitive stage of endosymbiosis. Inside this small red algal cell lives a mitochondrion. Kato et al. find that Aurora kinase controls mitochondrial division. In this review, John Hewitt explores the mechanisms of this division.
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Medicine Therapeutic Options for COVID-19 [long_description] A critical analysis of the currently available options for combating the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and the disease it causes, COVID-19. These include early testing, oxygenation through intubation and extracorporeal membranes, various drug therapies, antibodies, and mitotherapy. He also comments on failed efforts to repurpose treatments of other diseases for the coronavirus.
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Biology Long Live Longevity [long_description] Controlling the life cycle of the body and avoiding cellular senescence, John Hewitt argues, will require controlling the nervous system and mitochondria distributed by it. Hewitt assesses the prospects of two different therapeutic approaches in the fight against senescence: senolytics and mutated mitochondrial DNA
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Biology The Excitable Mitochondria [long_description] Without a CAD model of the brain, we will never be able to develop the advanced brain implants we will want. But instead of scaling up neural nets, John Hewitt argues, we need to begin with the mitochondrial networks that drove neuronal evolution.