Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: biotech/medical – Page 1045

The early-stage development of many age-targeting compounds often involves studies of their effects on the lifespan of the transparent nematode (worm) model Caenorhabditis elegans. A highly manual process, this exercise is time-consuming and only produces data on one endpoint – lifespan.

Durham University associate professors David Weinkove and Chris Saunter invented a technology that automates measurements of movement in many large populations of worms simultaneously. Crucially, this technology goes beyond measuring lifespan, also capturing information about how worms’ health declines as they age – their healthspan.

Longevity. Technology: Together, Weinkove and Saunter have co-founded a spinout company called Magnitude Biosciences, leveraging their innovative platform to test drugs and other interventions for their capacity to prolong healthspan. We caught up with Weinkove to learn more about the background to the company and where it goes from here.

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Remedium Bio has announced that it has closed more than $2.3m in its expanded seed round financing. Funding from the raise is being used to study Remedium’s lead product, a single-injection gene therapy potentially capable of reversing cartilage loss; this research is being conducted in collaboration with scientists from Tufts University School of Medicine who are engaged in researching rheumatic disorders.

The financing was led by Sherwood Ventures and included participation from, LongevityTech. Fund, Primo Medical Group, Angel Star Ventures, Apis Health Angels, MicroVentures, and Guindy Alumni Angels.

Longevity. Technology: Remedium’s pipeline includes therapeutic indications in osteoarthritis, diabetes, stroke and other large unmet clinical needs.

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A biotech firm wants to create “synthetic” human embryos that would be used to harvest organs in order to facilitate transplants and treat conditions such as infertility, genetic disease, and aging, according to researchers.

The Israel-based company, Renewal Bio, claimed that it successfully used advanced stem cell technology and artificial wombs in order to grow mouse embryos which continued to develop for several days.

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A new AI-enabled, optical fiber sensor device developed at Imperial College London can measure key biomarkers of traumatic brain injury simultaneously.

The “promising” results from tests on animal tissues suggest it could help clinicians to better monitor both and patients’ response to treatment than is currently possible, which indicate the high potential for future diagnostic trials in humans.

People who experience a serious blow to the head, such as during road traffic accidents, can suffer (TBI)—a leading cause of death and disability worldwide that can result in long-term difficulties with memory, concentration and solving problems.

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Constructing a tiny robot out of DNA

DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is a molecule composed of two long strands of nucleotides that coil around each other to form a double helix. It is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms that carries genetic instructions for development, functioning, growth, and reproduction. Nearly every cell in a person’s body has the same DNA. Most DNA is located in the cell nucleus (where it is called nuclear DNA), but a small amount of DNA can also be found in the mitochondria (where it is called mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA).

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Brain cells with the same “birthdate” are more likely to wire together into cooperative signaling circuits that carry out many functions, including the storage of memories, a new study finds.

Led by researchers from NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the new study on the brains of mice developing in the womb found that () with the same birthdate showed distinct connectivity and activity throughout the animals’ , whether they were asleep or awake.

Published online August 22 in Nature Neuroscience, the findings suggest that evolution took advantage of the orderly birth of neurons—by gestational day—to form localized microcircuits in the hippocampus, the region that forms memories. Rather than attempting to create each new from scratch, the researchers suggest, the brain may exploit the stepwise formation of neuronal layers to establish neural templates, like “Lego pieces,” that match each new experience to an existing template as it is remembered.

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“We took skin biopsies from patients living with Huntington’s disease and reprogrammed the skin biopsies into neurons. We then compared these neurons with reprogrammed neurons from healthy people. The results are very interesting. We have found several defects that explain some of the disease mechanisms in neurons from patients with Huntington’s disease. Among other things, we observed that neurons from patients with Huntington’s disease show problems in breaking down and recycling a particular kind of protein – which can lead to a lack of energy in these cells”, says Johan Jakobsson, professor of neuroscience at Lund University.

The researchers have also measured the biological age of the cells and observed that the reprogrammed neurons retain their biological age, which is significant if they are to be used for research in the new model system.

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Imagine a world where the smart watch on your wrist never ran out of charge, because it used your sweat to power itself.

It sounds like science fiction but researchers have figured out how to engineer a bacterial biofilm to be able to produce continuous electricity from perspiration.

They can harvest energy in evaporation and convert it to electricity which could revolutionise wearable electronic devices from personal medical sensors to electronics.

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