Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: biotech/medical – Page 1006

More and more companies and scientists are working to equip contact lenses with applications that not long ago still seemed like science fiction, such as the ability to record videos or diagnose and even treat diseases. Mojo Vision, an American startup, is one company that has been improving its prototypes since 2015. It is currently developing an ambitious project involving augmented reality lenses that, in addition to correcting your vision, will let you consult all kinds of information, from the trails on a ski slope to your pace when you run, all through microLED displays the size of a grain of sand.

“In the short term, it sounds like a futuristic idea, but 20 years ago we couldn’t even imagine many of the technological advances that we have today,” says Ana Belén Cisneros del Río, deputy dean of the College of Opticians-Optometrists in the Spanish region of Castilla y León, of the Mojo Vision project. However, Daniel Elies, a specialist in cornea, cataract and refractive surgery and medical director of the Institute of Ocular Microsurgery (IMO) Miranza Group in Madrid, does not believe that this type of contact lens will become part of everyday life anytime soon, “especially due to cost issues.”

One of the companies interested in manufacturing augmented reality contacts is Magic Leap. Sony, for its part, applied a few years ago for a patent for lenses that can record videos, and Samsung did the same for lenses equipped with a camera and a display that projects images directly into the user’s eye. Some researchers are trying to create robotic lenses that can zoom in and out with the blink of an eye, and yet others are working on night vision contact lenses, which could be useful in military applications.

Read more | >

Can we decrease mutation rate in humans?

4Institute for Cardiovascular Regeneration, Centre of Molecular Medicine, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

5German Center for Cardiovascular Research DZHK, Partner site Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Berlin, Germany.

6Cardiopulmonary Institute, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany.

Continue reading “Time’s up: mutation rate and lifespan” | >

Join us on Patreon!
https://www.patreon.com/MichaelLustgartenPhD

TruDiagnostic Discount Link (Epigenetic Testing)
CONQUERAGING!
https://bit.ly/3Rken0n.

Bristle Discount Link (Oral microbiome quantification):
ConquerAging15
https://www.bmq30trk.com/4FL3LK/GTSC3/

Cronometer Discount Link (Daily diet tracking):

Continue reading “Blood Test #6 in 2022: Diet Composition (Part I)” | >

Pfizer says it has enough promising data on its respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, vaccine designed to protect newborns that it will end enrollment in the study and submit for US Food and Drug Administration approval by the end of the year.

RSV is a common respiratory virus that typically causes mild, cold-like symptoms, but it can cause serious illness, particularly in older adults and infants. Pfizer’s vaccine candidate is administered to pregnant women who then make antibodies that cross the placenta and protect the baby after birth.

“The [study data monitoring committee] recommended, based on the data that we have, that we should go ahead and file, that this offers the potential for a safe and effective vaccine that could really dramatically help to prevent RSV during the winter season,” Dr. William Gruber, Pfizer’s senior vice president of vaccine clinical research and development, told CNN.

Read more | >

“China was leading the global recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic and accounted for half of worldwide robot installations in 2021,” said Marina Bill, President of the International Federation of Robotics. “Growth is strong across all industries with electrical and electronics being the dominant sector – up 30% to 81,600 installations. The automotive industry also showed a strong recovery. This was mainly driven by electric vehicle manufacturing in China. It rose by 89% in 2021 with 50,700 installations.”

Chinese government supports robotic automation

In China aging population’s demographics causes shortage of labor and drives the growth of robotic automation. The continued robotization of industries has been announced earlier this year by the government. The Five-Year plan for the robotics industry, released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) in Beijing, focuses on promoting innovation — making China a global leader of robot technology and industrial advancement.

Read more | >

Stability AI, the venture-backed startup behind the text-to-image AI system Stable Diffusion, is funding a wide-ranging effort to apply AI to the frontiers of biotech. Called OpenBioML, the endeavor’s first projects will focus on machine learning-based approaches to DNA sequencing, protein folding and computational biochemistry.

The company’s founders describe OpenBioML as an “open research laboratory” — and aims to explore the intersection of AI and biology in a setting where students, professionals and researchers can participate and collaborate, according to Stability AI CEO Emad Mostaque.

“OpenBioML is one of the independent research communities that Stability supports,” Mostaque told TechCrunch in an email interview. “Stability looks to develop and democratize AI, and through OpenBioML, we see an opportunity to advance the state of the art in sciences, health and medicine.”

Read more | >

Beyond passenger cars and pickups: 5 questions answered about electrifying trucks.

As part of its effort to reduce air pollution and cut greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change, California is pursuing aggressive policies to promote clean trucks. The state already requires that by 2035, all new cars and other light-duty vehicles sold in the state must be zero emission. Its powerful Air Resources Board has adopted rules requiring that most trucks be zero emission by 2035 and is now proposing that all trucks sold by 2040 must be zero emission. The Conversation asked a panel of transportation experts from the University of California, Davis, what’s involved in such a rapid transition.

XH4D/iStock.

Pollutants in diesel exhaust include nitrogen oxides, fine particulates, and numerous cancer-causing compounds. Since many disadvantaged communities are located near highways and industrial centers, their residents are especially affected by diesel truck pollution. Two regions in California – the Central Valley and Los Angeles-Long Beach – have some of the dirtiest air in the U.S., so the state has placed particular emphasis on cutting diesel use.

Continue reading “5 Hurdles to Overcome Before Zero-Emission Trucks Become a Reality” | >

It would be the first new treatment in 20 years for UTIs, which affect more than half of women at least sometime in their life, according to data compiled by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Called Gepotidacin, the antibiotic’s trial has halted enrollment early due to excellent effectiveness and safety results thus far, drugmaker GSK announced in a press release Thursday. GSK will seek approval and peer-reviewed publication early next year.

There is a need for new antibiotics such as this due to increasing antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance to bacteria has become so prevalent that the World Health Organization recently began publishing a list of bacteria that pose the greatest public health threats.

Read more | >

Cancer research – and its impact on patient care – has made some significant strides in just the last 10 years. For example, the availability and affordability of sequencing genetic information has improved greatly – meaning researchers and doctors are now better able to get information about a person’s risk for certain cancers as well as what drugs might work best for cancer patients. Another major leap forward came with the approval of vaccines that help prevent infections from the human papilloma virus (HPV) that cause cervical cancers. Many other advances have occurred in the areas of targeted therapy, immunotherapy, and cancer screening technology.

Still, cancer remains a massive health problem that researchers across the United States and elsewhere are working tirelessly to solve. Many experts are hopeful that they can build on decades of learning and recent advances to move even more rapidly toward reducing the cancer burden.

We invited 10 American Cancer Society Research Professors to share their perspectives and predictions for how cancer research will evolve over the next 10 years – and what this might mean for patients. These 10 experts are among the very best in their field; the Society’s Research Professor grants are awards that go to a select group – researchers and doctors who have made seminal contributions that have changed the direction of basic, clinical, psychosocial, behavioral, health policy or epidemiologic cancer research.

Read more | >