Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: biotech/medical

Your genes determine how fast your DNA mutates with age, study shows

An analysis of genetic data from over 900,000 people shows that certain stretches of DNA, made up of short sequences repeated over and over, become longer and more unstable as we age. The study found that common genetic variants can speed up or slow down this process by up to four-fold, and that certain expanded sequences are linked to serious diseases including kidney failure and liver disease.

More than 60 inherited disorders are caused by expanded DNA repeats: repetitive genetic sequences that grow longer over time. These include devastating conditions like Huntington’s disease, myotonic dystrophy, and certain forms of ALS.

Most people carry DNA repeats that gradually expand throughout their lives, but this instability and what genetic factors control it hadn’t been fully analyzed within large biobanks.

Cochlear Implant User Affect and Reported Quality of Life

In adults receiving cochlear implants, gains in positive affect and reductions in negative affect corresponded with improvements in quality-of-life scores across listening, communication, and participation domains. Strongest statistical associations were observed in social and emotional CIQOL areas, but effect sizes were small.

Importance The use of patient-reported outcome measures to assess outcomes in adults who use cochlear implants has increased, as highlighted by the inclusion of the Cochlear Implant Quality of Life (CIQOL) instruments in the Minimal Speech Testing Battery, version 3. However, the self-reported nature of these instruments raises questions regarding how psychosocial characteristics impact responses.

Objective To assess whether affect and CIQOL domain scores change over time and whether affect is associated with CIQOL domain scores.

Design, Setting, and Participants Prospective longitudinal cohort study in adult cochlear implant candidates (aged 18–89 years) meeting indications for cochlear implantation based on bilateral moderate to profound hearing loss with aided sentence recognition scores 60% or less between September 19, 2019, and October 8, 2021, in a single tertiary otolaryngology referral center. Patients receiving a second cochlear implant and those without Montreal Cognitive Assessment scores were excluded. Follow-up duration was 1 year. Data analysis was performed between October 15, 2023, and August 5, 2025.

Discrimination of normal from slow-aging mice by plasma metabolomic and proteomic features

Tests that can predict whether a drug is likely to extend mouse lifespan could speed up the search for anti-aging drugs. We have applied a machine learning algorithm, XGBoost regression, to seek sets of plasma metabolites (n = 12,000) and peptides (n = 17,000) that can discriminate control mice from mice treated with one of five anti-aging interventions (n = 278 mice). When the model is trained on any four of these five interventions, it predicts significantly higher lifespan extension in mice exposed to the intervention which was not included in the training set. Plasma peptide data sets also succeed at this task. Models trained on drug-treated normal mice also discriminate long-lived mutant mice from their respective controls, and models trained on males can discriminate drug-treated from control females.

Abstract: Merlin’s Disappearing Act: NF2 loss conjures pancreatic cancer survival in the hostile tumor microenvironment:

Sofia Ferreira & Laura D. Attardi comment on Yi Xu et al.: https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI194395

1Division of Radiation and Cancer Biology, Department of Radiation Oncology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA.

2Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA.

Address correspondence to: Laura D. Attardi, Stanford University School of Medicine, 269 Campus Drive, CCSR-South, Room 1,255, Stanford, California, 94,305, USA. Phone: 650.725.8424; Email: [email protected].

Prospective Audit and Feedback to Reduce Antibiotic Overuse at Hospital Discharge

Cluster RCT: A discharge-focused prospective audit and feedback intervention did not reduce overall antibiotic use at hospital discharge but improved optimal discharge prescribing for common infections; broader approaches are needed.

Question Does a discharge-focused prospective audit and feedback process decrease antibiotic overuse at hospital discharge?

Findings In this stepped-wedge cluster-randomized clinical trial across participating units at 10 hospitals with 21 842 admissions, the frequency and duration of antibiotic prescribing at hospital discharge did not decrease after implementing a prospective audit and feedback process. However, in selected patients with uncomplicated infections, optimal antibiotic-prescribing increased once the intervention went into effect.

Meaning Discharge-focused prospective audit and feedback was not effective in reducing general antibiotic overuse at hospital discharge, but it did improve antibiotic prescribing in a subset of patients, suggesting that other strategies are needed to prevent unnecessary antibiotic use at this transition of care.

Origin cells for common malignant brain tumor in young adults uncovered

IDH-mutant glioma, caused by abnormalities in a specific gene (IDH), is the most common malignant brain tumor among young adults under the age of 50. It is a refractory brain cancer that is difficult to treat due to its high recurrence rate.

Until now, treatment has focused primarily on removing the visible tumor mass. However, a Korean research team has discovered for the first time that normal brain cells acquire the initial IDH mutation and spread out through the cortex long before a visible tumor mass harboring additional cancer mutations forms, opening a new path for early diagnosis and treatment to suppress recurrence.

AI, Autonomy, and Scale: Why Elon Musk’s Timeline Will Break Society

Questions to inspire discussion.

🎯 Q: How should retail investors approach AI and robotics opportunities? A: Focus on technology leaders like Palantir, Tesla, and Nvidia that demonstrate innovation through speed of introducing revolutionary, scalable products rather than attempting venture capital strategies requiring $1M bets across 100 companies.

💼 Q: What venture capital strategy do elite firms use for AI investments? A: Elite VCs like A16Z (founded by Marc Andreessen) invest $1M each in 100 companies, expecting 1–10 to become trillion-dollar successes that make all other bets profitable.

🛡️ Q: Which defense sector companies are disrupting established contractors? A: Companies like Anduril are disrupting the five prime contractors by introducing innovative technologies like drones, which have become dominant in recent conflicts due to lack of innovation in the sector.

⚖️ Q: What mindset should investors maintain when evaluating AI opportunities? A: Be a judicious skeptic, balancing optimism with skepticism to avoid getting carried away by hype and marketing, which is undervalued but crucial for informed investment decisions.

Tesla’s Competitive Advantages.

Continue reading “AI, Autonomy, and Scale: Why Elon Musk’s Timeline Will Break Society” | >
/* */