Program

• The state is home to the first-in-the-nation GOP nomination event, the Iowa caucus, which takes place on Jan. 15, 2024, at 7 pm.
• I’ve observed Iowa caucus campaigns over eight cycles, and my 2022 book, “Inside the Bubble,” offers a close-up of the 2020 Democratic contest.
• Today, it looks nothing like the scattershot campaign from 2016, the only other time Trump has waged a nomination battle in the state.

Car rides, phone calls

• Registered party members can participate in the caucuses, and attendees will signal their support by writing a candidate’s name on a piece of paper.
• In electoral politics across the U.S., campaigns organize by doling out responsibilities to field staff positioned across a state or electoral district.
• These volunteers engage in outreach to other potential supporters – sometimes in-person, via door-to-door canvassing or on the phone, and increasingly by sending text messages.
• They’ll make sure that known supporters get assistance they might need to get to the caucus, such as a car ride.
• Like primaries, caucuses are within political parties, so voters can’t rely on cues like party labels to pick a candidate.

Campaign bling

• Back in 2016, reluctant Trump volunteers, unfamiliar with caucus procedures, courted Iowa supporters.
• They carry out tasks on behalf of the campaign at events themselves.
• Lest this all seem overly staid, there’s bling, too – a limited edition white and gold variant of the distinctive MAGA cap for the captains.

Caucus 101 lessons

• The events have considerable time devoted to instructing the crowd about how to caucus, which is an unusual use of time at campaign events.
• The typical rally requires attendees to register and be in place well before the event begins, perhaps 1-2 hours early.
• But early in these Trump rallies, the program pivots to a Caucus 101-like presentation – how to find out where to caucus, what to do in advance and what to expect at the caucuses.
• When Democratic candidates have offered such instruction in the past, it’s been behind closed doors, reserved for known supporters and closer to caucus time.

Barbara A. Trish does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• Until the COVID-19 pandemic, however, vaccine development was still a long and idiosyncratic process.
• But the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines brought a new approach to vaccine development that has far-reaching implications for how researchers make drugs to treat many other diseases.

Some basics of mRNA drugs

• An mRNA drug comprises two essential components: mRNA molecules, which code for desired proteins, and the lipid molecules – such as phospholipids and cholesterol – that encapsulate them.
• From a drug development perspective, mRNA drugs offer significant advantages over traditional drugs because they are easily programmable.
• More importantly, different mRNA drugs produced by the same set of methods will have similar properties.
• This predictability significantly reduces the development risks and financial costs of developing mRNA drugs.

Self vs. nonself

• This may sound paradoxical – after all, your cells already contain large amounts of mRNAs.
• How does your immune system distinguish between self and nonself mRNAs?
• Therapeutic mRNAs enter cells using endosomes – sacs made of the cell’s membrane that take in materials from the cell’s environment.

• The 2023 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine was awarded to the scientists who made this breakthrough discovery.
• RNA viruses also form double-stranded RNA when they replicate, and exposing cells to double-stranded RNA can lead to a strong immune response.
• Fortuitously, for mRNA vaccines, the residual amount of double-stranded RNA can stimulate the immune system to enhance antibody responses.

Moving beyond vaccines

• One promising example in development is using mRNA that encodes CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing proteins to knock out genes that cause specific diseases.
• This disease is an ideal target for mRNA-based CRISPR gene therapy because the target protein is produced by the liver.

• Notable new developments in these areas include using computational algorithms to optimize mRNA sequences in ways that enhance their stability and engineering RNA polymerases that introduce fewer side products that may cause an immune response.
• Further advancements have the potential to enable a new generation of safe, durable and effective mRNA therapeutics for applications beyond vaccines.

Li Li receives funding from NIH.

• At the request of the Federal Trade Commission, a federal court has temporarily halted the operation of a sprawling business opportunity scheme that has taken in millions of dollars from consumers with bogus promises of huge returns.
• The scheme has operated since at least 2018 under a number of names, including “Blueprint to Wealth,” according to the FTC’s complaint.
• The FTC’s complaint asks the court to shut down the defendants’ scheme permanently and allow the FTC to provide refunds to the consumers harmed by the scheme.
• Follow the FTC on social media, read consumer alerts and the business blog, and sign up to get the latest FTC news and alerts.

• In reality, the school requires that almost all doctoral students take additional “continuation courses” that add thousands of dollars in costs.
• The defendants also used abusive telemarketing calls to try to boost enrollment at GCU, according to the complaint.
• The FTC says the defendants’ deceptive claims and abusive telemarketing calls violated the FTC Act and the Telemarketing Sales Rule and asks the court to provide redress to consumers and prohibit the institution from further violations of the law.
• Follow the FTC on social media, read consumer alerts and the business blog, and sign up to get the latest FTC news and alerts.