Scientists raise the alarm following updated research ethics guidelines on heritable human genome editing.
Category: biotech/medical – Page 117
Three individuals with profoundly impaired vision who got stem-cell transplants have seen significant improvements in their eyesight that have lasted for more than a year, marking a significant advancement in the restoration of blind vision.
A fourth person with very compromised vision saw improvement, although it did not last.
These four are the first to receive transplants of reprogrammed stem cells to heal injured corneas, the eye’s clear outer surface.
Individuals born before 37 weeks of gestation, considered to be preterm infants, have, on average, lower employment income, university enrollment and educational attainment through age 28, according to a study publishing November 6, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Petros Pechlivanoglou of The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada.
Preterm birth affects about 10% of all births worldwide and accounts for one in five deaths in children. Economic and lifestyle factors can affect a family’s access to therapies and supports, financial stability and quality of life.
Year 2021 resharing This design could be used to put on a watch or smartphone.
This new device changes the function of cells by injecting them with synthetic DNA.
Since the public release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, artificial intelligence (AI) has quickly become a driving force in innovation and everyday life, sparking both excitement and concern. AI promises breakthroughs in fields like medicine, education, and energy, with the potential to solve some of society’s toughest challenges. But at the same time, fears around job displacement, privacy, and the spread of misinformation have led many to call for tighter government control.
Many are now seeking swift government intervention to regulate AI’s development in the waning “lame duck” session before the inauguration of the next Congress. These efforts have been led by tech giants, including OpenAI, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, under the guise of securing “responsible development of advanced AI systems” from risks like misinformation and bias. Building on the Biden administration’s executive order to create the U.S. Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute (AISI) and mandate that AI “safety tests,” among other things, be reported to the government, the bipartisan negotiations would permanently authorize the AISI to act as the nation’s primary AI regulatory agency.
The problem is, the measures pushed by these lobbying campaigns favor large, entrenched corporations, sidelining smaller competitors and stifling innovation. If Congress moves forward with establishing a federal AI safety agency, even with the best of intentions, it risks cementing Big Tech’s dominance at the expense of startups. Rather than fostering competition, such regulation would likely serve the interests of the industry’s largest corporations, stifling entrepreneurship and limiting AI’s potential to transform America—and the world—for the better. The unintended consequences are serious: slower product improvement, fewer technological breakthroughs, and severe costs to the economy and consumers.
We all want to ‘age successfully’ with as few health issues as possible. A new study suggests getting more than seven hours of sleep a night could go a long way to achieving that goal.
The study involved 3,306 participants aged 45 and over, whose sleep habits were recorded in 2011, 2013, and 2015, followed by a health check five years later. The data, analyzed by a team from Wenzhou Medical University in China, showed that those who bank at least seven hours of sleep a night tend to have significantly better health later in life.
“Successful aging was evaluated in 2020 and was defined as being free of major chronic diseases, no physical impairment, high cognitive function, good mental health, and active engagement with life,” write the researchers in their published paper.
Novel magnetic nanodiscs could provide a much less invasive way of stimulating parts of the brain, paving the way for stimulation therapies without implants or genetic modification, MIT researchers report.
The scientists envision that the tiny discs, which are about 250 nanometers across (about 1/500 the width of a human hair), would be injected directly into the desired location in the brain. From there, they could be activated at any time simply by applying a magnetic field outside the body. The new particles could quickly find applications in biomedical research, and eventually, after sufficient testing, might be applied to clinical uses.
The development of these nanoparticles is described in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, in a paper by Polina Anikeeva, a professor in MIT’s departments of Materials Science and Engineering and Brain and Cognitive Sciences, graduate student Ye Ji Kim, and 17 others at MIT and in Germany.
Virologist Beata Halassy says self-treatment worked and was a positive experience — but researchers warn that it is not something others should try.
New research into a chemical from a caterpillar fungus, known for its potential as a cancer treatment, has shown how it interacts with genes to disrupt cell growth signals. This finding marks a promising step toward developing new cancer drugs.
The chemical, called cordycepin, interrupts overactive cell growth signals common in cancer, potentially offering a treatment approach that could be gentler on healthy tissues compared to many existing therapies.
Caterpillar fungus: a potential cancer treatment.
A study in Pharmacological Research has found that small extracellular vesicles derived from embryonic stem cells (ESC-sEVs) alleviate osteoarthritis in cells and mice. Restoring senescent cells’ function Excessive […].