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Category: biotech/medical – Page 1204

Treating brain diseases is also always difficult because of something called the “blood-brain barrier.” This wall of cells is designed to prevent toxins and pathogens from getting from the blood into the brain — but it also makes it hard to get treatments into the brain.

People with the Icelandic mutation are five times more likely to reach their 85 birthday without an Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

The Icelandic variant: Scientists have identified a couple of differences between the brains of people with Alzheimer’s and those of healthy people.

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Janice Chen, Ph.D., one of Olympic gold medalist Nathan Chen’s siblings, is on a mission to build a $100 billion biotech company.

In 2018, she co-founded Mammoth Biosciences with Trevor Martin, Lucas Harrington and Jennifer Doudna 0, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry two years later for her pioneering work in CRISPR gene editing. Doudna also served as Chen’s mentor while she pursued her doctorate degree in molecular and cell biology at the University of California at Berkeley.

Mammoth is built on Chen’s work as a graduate student researcher in Doudna’s lab. Since the dawn of COVID-19 in 2020, the startup has seen accelerated growth as it snagged $100 million in multiple contracts and government grants.

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New research from Griffith University has shown that a bacterium commonly present in the nose can sneak into the brain and set off a cascade of events that may lead to Alzheimer’s disease.

Associate Professor Jenny Ekberg and colleagues from the Clem Jones Centre for Neurobiology and Stem Cell Research at Menzies Health Institute Queensland and Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery, in collaboration with Queensland University of Technology, have discovered that the bacterium Chlamydia pneumoniae can invade the brain via the nerves of the nasal cavity.

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A little confusing. Cure aging in 20 years but you’re not a longevity company?

Altos Labs recently exited stealth mode to announce $3 billion in funding, reportedly from investors including Jeff Bezos, and a team full of Nobel Prize winners and pioneering scientists. However, the secretive company’s representatives insist that “Altos is not an anti-aging or longevity company”. Despite this, a key member of their scientific leadership recently publicly stated that he is convinced that, using the same technologies they are working with at Altos, we will be able to prevent aging within twenty years.

The scientist making these bold statements is Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, a Spanish biologist who has spent years pioneering innovations in developmental biology, regenerative medicine and aging research at the Salk Institute.

Continue reading “Prevent Aging within 20 Years? — Altos Labs’ Cellular Reprogramming Excitement” | >

How Jeff Bezos and Altos Labs are challenging death itself: The science of partial cellular reprogramming!

Hey it’s Han from WrySci-HX going over the science behind Altos Labs (the biotech company looking to extend healthspan and lifespan), news from the cultured meat industry, developments on a new device that can change your skin into nerve cells, and other science / technology happenings! More below ↓↓↓

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Continue reading “Altos Labs Explained: Jeff Bezos’ Billion Gamble to Live Forever [Science Update March 2022]” | >

After about three rounds of trying to get workers back to an office setting, this time it looks real. The uptick in Covid-19 cases caused the first foray into returning to headquarters to be pushed back. When things looked better, Delta and Omicron variant waves hit, forcing businesses to relent on their plans to get employees out of their homes and into cubicles.

Two years after the start of the pandemic, it looks like this time the executives will have their wish. Companies in all sectors—ranging from tech to Wall Street—are announcing their timelines for returning. The dominant style of work is the hybrid model, in which people will be asked to go to work for two or three days a week at their office and the rest of the time from home or wherever they so choose.

We will likely soon see a showdown. Many surveys over the last year or so showed that employees adamantly responded that they would rather quit than commute back to an office. It’s easier said than done. Saying something in a survey isn’t binding. You may have a preference of how you want to work, but it’s another thing to resign without another job lined up.

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Senolytics are an emerging class of drugs designed to target zombie-like cells that have stopped dividing and build up in the body as we age, and the past few years have seen some exciting discoveries that demonstrate their potential. Adding another to the list are Mayo Clinic researchers, who have shown that these drugs can protect against aging and its related diseases, by acting on a protein long associated with longevity.

The zombie-like cells involved in this research are known as senescent cells, and their accumulation during aging is associated with a range of diseases. Recent studies have shown that using senolytics to clear them out could serve as new and effective treatments for dementia and diabetes, and also improve health and lifespan more broadly.

The Mayo Clinic team were exploring how senolytics can influence levels of a protein called a-klotho, known to help protect older people from the effects of aging. The role of this protein in the aging process is well established and has placed it at the center of much research in this space, with studies demonstrating how it could help reverse osteoarthritis and regenerate old muscles.

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