biotech/medical – Lifeboat News: The Blog https://lifeboat.com/blog Safeguarding Humanity Tue, 22 Apr 2025 14:14:55 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.2 In vivo veritas: Xenotransplantation can help us study the development and function of human neurons in a living brain https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/04/in-vivo-veritas-xenotransplantation-can-help-us-study-the-development-and-function-of-human-neurons-in-a-living-brain https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/04/in-vivo-veritas-xenotransplantation-can-help-us-study-the-development-and-function-of-human-neurons-in-a-living-brain#respond Tue, 22 Apr 2025 14:14:55 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/04/in-vivo-veritas-xenotransplantation-can-help-us-study-the-development-and-function-of-human-neurons-in-a-living-brain

Transplanted cells offer insight into human-specific properties, such as a lengthy cortical development and sensitivity to neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disease.

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AI Predicts Cancer Killing Drug Combos https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/04/ai-predicts-cancer-killing-drug-combos https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/04/ai-predicts-cancer-killing-drug-combos#respond Tue, 22 Apr 2025 10:03:27 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/04/ai-predicts-cancer-killing-drug-combos

A new machine learning model may help treat cancer more effectively.

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Alzheimer’s risk factors that can impact cognition in adults as young as 24 revealed https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/04/alzheimers-risk-factors-that-can-impact-cognition-in-adults-as-young-as-24-revealed https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/04/alzheimers-risk-factors-that-can-impact-cognition-in-adults-as-young-as-24-revealed#respond Tue, 22 Apr 2025 07:16:52 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/04/alzheimers-risk-factors-that-can-impact-cognition-in-adults-as-young-as-24-revealed

A new study from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the Columbia Butler Aging Center suggests that risk factors and biomarkers related to Alzheimer’s disease are associated with cognition much earlier in life than previously recognized. The study highlights significant associations between cognition and Alzheimer’s disease risk factors as young as ages 24 to 44 and underscores the importance of early prevention.

This is the first study to systematically examine Alzheimer’s disease risk factors, including biomarkers related to in a large group of generally healthy middle-aged individuals in the U.S. The findings are published in The Lancet-Regional Health Americas.

“Previously, research on Alzheimer’s disease risk factors has focused on individuals aged 50 and older,” said Allison Aiello, Ph.D., James S. Jackson Healthy Longevity Professor of Epidemiology in the Butler Aging Center and Columbia Mailman School. “The potential impact of our findings is substantial, offering clinicians and health researchers a clearer understanding of the early emergence of Alzheimer’s disease risk factors and their association with cognition before middle age.

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Breakthrough Drug Restores Vision: Researchers Successfully Reverse Retinal Damage https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/04/breakthrough-drug-restores-vision-researchers-successfully-reverse-retinal-damage https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/04/breakthrough-drug-restores-vision-researchers-successfully-reverse-retinal-damage#respond Tue, 22 Apr 2025 07:15:03 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/04/breakthrough-drug-restores-vision-researchers-successfully-reverse-retinal-damage

Vision is one of the most important human senses, yet more than 300 million people around the world are at risk of losing it due to various retinal diseases. Although recent treatments have helped slow the progression of these conditions, no effective therapy has been able to restore vision that has already been lost, until now. Researchers at KAIST have developed a new drug that successfully restores vision.

On March 30, KAIST announced that a research team headed by Professor Jin Woo Kim from the Department of Biological Sciences has created a treatment that regenerates retinal nerves to restore vision.

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Light-activated probe reveals how tuberculosis evades immune defenses https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/04/light-activated-probe-reveals-how-tuberculosis-evades-immune-defenses https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/04/light-activated-probe-reveals-how-tuberculosis-evades-immune-defenses#respond Tue, 22 Apr 2025 06:06:22 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/04/light-activated-probe-reveals-how-tuberculosis-evades-immune-defenses

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease that kills more than a million people worldwide every year. The pathogen that causes the disease, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is deadly in part because of its complex outer envelope, which helps it evade immune responses of infected hosts.

In an ACS Infectious Diseases paper, researchers developed a chemical probe to study a key component of this envelope. Their results provide a step toward finding new ways of inactivating the bacterium.

Because curing TB requires taking drugs for months, which can result in TB resistance to some antibiotics, scientists are working to develop new treatments. One possible target is the bacterium’s outermost layer, called the mycomembrane, which protects the bacteria from stressors. When M. is attacked by a host’s macrophage , the mycomembrane produces compounds that suppress the infected host’s immune response.

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Acetylcholine structure reveals mechanisms that cause autoimmune disease https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/04/acetylcholine-structure-reveals-mechanisms-that-cause-autoimmune-disease https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/04/acetylcholine-structure-reveals-mechanisms-that-cause-autoimmune-disease#respond Tue, 22 Apr 2025 03:02:46 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/04/acetylcholine-structure-reveals-mechanisms-that-cause-autoimmune-disease

People who suffer from the autoimmune disease myasthenia gravis experience muscle weakness that can affect any of the muscles we use to blink, smile or even move our body around.

Researchers have known that the disease is caused by miscommunication between nerves and muscles. The body’s immune system mistakenly produces “autoantibodies,” or antibodies that attack its own tissues and proteins. In the case of myasthenia gravis, the body produces autoantibodies that target acetylcholine receptors (AChRs), which are essential triggers for normal muscle contraction functions.

Medications prescribed to boost acetylcholine and suppress the immune system have varying levels of success, leading researchers to believe that myasthenia gravis may be caused by varying underlying mechanisms for different people.

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Tesla Major Announcements, Tariff War Draws Blood https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/04/tesla-major-announcements-tariff-war-draws-blood https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/04/tesla-major-announcements-tariff-war-draws-blood#respond Tue, 22 Apr 2025 02:14:18 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/04/tesla-major-announcements-tariff-war-draws-blood

Questions to inspire discussion.

🚕 Q: What’s the expected price range for Tesla’s upcoming Robo Taxi? A: Tesla’s Robo Taxi will enter a new price tier under $30,000, significantly increasing sales and profitability due to its lower hardware cost structure.

Tesla’s Expansion in China.

🇨🇳 Q: How is Tesla expanding its Full Self-Driving (FSD) in China? A: Tesla is offering a 30-day free trial of FSD in China, with new software version 13.2.8 for both Hardware 3 and 4, likely rolling out between end of April and early May.

🤝 Q: Why is Tesla’s relationship with China important? A: Tesla’s good relationship with China, established 5 years ago without a joint venture, is crucial for success as China benefits from learning Tesla’s FSD perspective and benchmarking against their own vehicles.

💰 Q: How will tariffs affect low-priced vehicles in the US? A: 25% tariffs on imported vehicles will apply to nearly 80% of vehicles priced under $30,000, impacting popular models like Civic and Corolla.

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Artificial intelligence could end disease, lead to “radical abundance,” Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis says https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/04/artificial-intelligence-could-end-disease-lead-to-radical-abundance-google-deepmind-ceo-demis-hassabis-says https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/04/artificial-intelligence-could-end-disease-lead-to-radical-abundance-google-deepmind-ceo-demis-hassabis-says#respond Tue, 22 Apr 2025 02:07:56 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/04/artificial-intelligence-could-end-disease-lead-to-radical-abundance-google-deepmind-ceo-demis-hassabis-says

When Demis Hassabis won the Nobel Prize last year, he celebrated by playing poker with a world champion of chess. Hassabis loves a game, which is how he became a pioneer of artificial intelligence. The 48-year-old British scientist is co-founder and CEO of Google’s AI powerhouse, called DeepMind. We met two years ago when chatbots announced a new age. Now, Hassabis and others are chasing what’s called artificial general intelligence—a silicon intellect as versatile as a human but with superhuman speed and knowledge. After his Nobel and a knighthood from King Charles, we hurried back to London to see what’s next from a genius who may hold the cards of our future.

Demis Hassabis: What’s always guided me and— the passion I’ve always had is understanding the world around us. I’ve always been— since I was a kid, fascinated by the biggest questions. You know, the— meaning of— of life, the— nature of consciousness, the nature of reality itself. I’ve loved reading about all the great scientists who worked on these problems and the philosophers, and I wanted to see if we could advance human knowledge. And for me, my expression of doing that was to build what I think is the ultimate tool for advancing human knowledge, which is— which is AI.

Scott Pelley: We sat down in this room two years ago. And I wonder if AI is moving faster today than you imagined.

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Myelin: A possible proton capacitor for energy storage during sleep and energy supply during wakefulness https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/04/myelin-a-possible-proton-capacitor-for-energy-storage-during-sleep-and-energy-supply-during-wakefulness https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/04/myelin-a-possible-proton-capacitor-for-energy-storage-during-sleep-and-energy-supply-during-wakefulness#respond Mon, 21 Apr 2025 22:10:41 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/04/myelin-a-possible-proton-capacitor-for-energy-storage-during-sleep-and-energy-supply-during-wakefulness

There are several physiological reasons why biological organisms sleep. One key one concerns brain metabolism. In our article we discuss the role of metabolism in myelin, based on the recent discovery that myelin contains mitochondrial components that enable the production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) via oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS). These mitochondrial components in myelin probably originate from vesiculation of the mitochondrial membranes in form from mitochondrial derived vesicles (MDVs). We hypothesize that myelin acts as a proton capacitor, accumulating energy in the form of protons during sleep and converting it to ATP via OXPHOS during wakefulness. Empirical evidence supporting our hypothesis is discussed, including data on myelin metabolic activity, MDVs, and allometric scaling between white matter volume and sleep duration in mammals.

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Building ‘cellular bridges’ for spinal cord repair after injury https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/04/building-cellular-bridges-for-spinal-cord-repair-after-injury https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/04/building-cellular-bridges-for-spinal-cord-repair-after-injury#respond Mon, 21 Apr 2025 22:08:13 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/04/building-cellular-bridges-for-spinal-cord-repair-after-injury

Capitalizing on the flexibility of tiny cells inside the body’s smallest blood vessels may be a powerful spinal cord repair strategy, new research suggests.

In mouse experiments, scientists introduced a specific type of recombinant protein to the site of a spinal cord injury where these cells, called pericytes, had flooded the lesion zone. Once exposed to this protein, results showed, pericytes change shape and inhibit the production of some molecules while secreting others, creating “cellular bridges” that support regeneration of axons—the long, slender extensions of nerve cell bodies that transmit messages.

Researchers observed axon regrowth in injured mice that received a single treatment injection of the growth-factor protein, and the animals also regained movement in their hind limbs. An experiment involving suggests the results are not restricted to mice.

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