Lifeboat Foundation

In a new realm of materials, PhD student Thanh Nguyen uses neutrons to hunt for exotic properties that could power real-world applications.

Thanh Nguyen is in the habit of breaking down barriers. Take languages, for instance: Nguyen, a third-year doctoral candidate in nuclear science and engineering (NSE), wanted “to connect with other people and cultures” for his work and social life, he says, so he learned Vietnamese, French, German, and Russian, and is now taking an MIT course in Mandarin. But this drive to push past obstacles really comes to the fore in his research, where Nguyen is trying to crack the secrets of a new and burgeoning branch of physics.

“My dissertation focuses on neutron scattering on topological semimetals, which were only experimentally discovered in 2015,” he says. “They have very special properties, but because they are so novel, there’s a lot that’s unknown, and neutrons offer a unique perspective to probe their properties at a new level of clarity.”

A landmark study shows this age-old tech is the key.

The cure for aging has long been the Holy Grail of medicine. Emerging technologies, like the gene editing tool CRISPR, have opened the floodgates to what may be possible for the future of medical science. The key to slowing down aging, however, may lie in a simple and age-old technique.

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Continue reading “It Sure Looks Like Humans Have Found a Way to Reverse Aging” »

In Project Apollo, life support was based on carrying pretty much everything that astronauts needed from launch to splashdown. That meant all of the food, air, and fuel. Fuel in particular took up most of the mass that was launched. The enormous three-stage Saturn-V rocket was basically a gigantic container for fuel, and even the Apollo spacecraft that the Saturn carried into space was mostly fuel, because fuel was needed also to return from the Moon. If NASA’s new Orion spacecraft takes astronauts back to the Moon, they’ll also use massive amounts of fuel going back and forth; and the same is true if they journey to a near-Earth asteroid. However, once a lunar base is set up, astronauts will be able use microorganisms carried from Earth to process lunar rock into fuel, along with oxygen. The latter is needed not just for breathing, but also in rocket engines where it mixes with the fuel.

Currently, there are microorganisms available naturally that draw energy from rock and in the process release chemical products that can be used as fuel. However, as with agricultural plants like corn and soy, modifying such organisms can potentially make a biologically-based lunar rock processing much more efficient. Synthetic biology refers to engineering organisms to pump out specific products under specific conditions. For spaceflight applications, organisms can be engineered specifically to live on the Moon, or for that matter on an asteroid, or on Mars, and to synthesize the consumables that humans will need in those environments.

In the case of Mars, a major resource that can be processed by synthetic biology is the atmosphere. While the Martian air is extremely thin, it can be concentrated in a biological reactor. The principal component of the Martian air is carbon dioxide, which can be turned into oxygen, food, and rocket fuel by a variety of organisms that are native to Earth. As with the Moon rocks, however, genetic techniques can make targeted changes to organisms’ capabilities to allow them to do more than simply survive on Mars. They could be made to thrive there.

Newfound Autonomy

There are ways that a robot companion could outperform humans, Jecker says, by providing sympathetic and patient support free of judgment and condescension around the clock.

“It relates to issues of dignity,” Jecker told the Times. “The ability to be sexual at any age relates to your ability to have a life. Not just to survive, but to have a life, and do things that have value. Relationships. Bodily integrity. These things are a matter of dignity.”

ReVector researchers have expertise in synthetic biology, human microbiome, and mosquito studies.

The American Society for Microbiology estimates that there are trillions of microbes living in or on the human body that constitute the human microbiome¹. The human skin microbiome (HSM) acts as a barrier between humans and our external environment, protecting us from infection, but also potentially producing molecules that attract mosquitos. Mosquitos are of particular concern to the Department of Defense, as they transmit pathogens that cause diseases such as chikungunya, Zika, dengue, West Nile virus, yellow fever, and malaria. The ReVector program aims to maintain the health of military personnel operating in disease-endemic regions by reducing attraction and feeding by mosquitos, and limiting exposure to mosquito-transmitted diseases.

Genome engineering has progressed to the point where editing the HSM to remove the molecules that attract mosquitos or add genes that produce mild mosquito repellants are now possible. While the skin microbiome has naturally evolved to modulate our interactions with the environment and organisms that surround us, exerting precise control over our microbiomes is an exciting new way to provide protection from mosquito-borne diseases.

Continue reading “DARPA Selects Teams to Modify Skin Microbiome for Disease Prevention” »

Origami-inspired tissue engineering — using eggshells, plant leaves, marine sponges, and paper as substrates.

Ira Pastor ideaXme life sciences ambassador interviews Dr. Gulden Camci-Unal, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, at the Department Chemical Engineering, Francis College of Engineering, UMass Lowell.

Continue reading “Science of Building Bones with Eggshells and Origami” »

PerkinElmer has moved to expand its life sciences portfolio with CRISPR and gene editing offerings by snapping up the cell engineering specialist Horizon Discovery.

The $383 million, all-cash deal will add gene modulation tools that—in combination with its own work in applied genomics solutions—aims to provide next-generation research tools and the customized cell lines necessary for developers of new targeted therapies, and broaden PerkinElmer’s partnership work with academic researchers and the biopharma industry.

The Cambridge, U.K.-based Horizon, with about 400 employees worldwide with offices in the U.S. and Japan, provides genetic base editing technologies for living cell models using CRISPR reagents, as well as gene modulation products using RNA interference methods.

Three actions policymakers and business leaders can take today.

New developments in AI could spur a massive democratization of access to services and work opportunities, improving the lives of millions of people around the world and creating new commercial opportunities for businesses. Yet they also raise the specter of potential new social divides and biases, sparking a public backlash and regulatory risk for businesses. For the U.S. and other advanced economies, which are increasingly fractured along income, racial, gender, and regional lines, these questions of equality are taking on a new urgency. Will advances in AI usher in an era of greater inclusiveness, increased fairness, and widening access to healthcare, education, and other public services? Or will they instead lead to new inequalities, new biases, and new exclusions?

Three frontier developments stand out in terms of both their promised rewards and their potential risks to equality. These are human augmentation, sensory AI, and geographic AI.

Continue reading “Unlocking AI’s Potential for Social Good” »

Human body bio-factories of tommorow for organ and tissue replacement.

Ira Pastor, ideaXme life sciences ambassador interviews Dr Alexander Titus Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) at the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI).

Continue reading “Advanced Technology: Science Fiction to Science Fact and Encouraging a Culture of Responsibility” »