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Category: biotech/medical – Page 1,259

Circa 2020

Gene therapy shows promise for clinical benefit in demyelinating, neurodegenerative disease.

Krabbe disease is an aggressive, incurable pediatric neurodegenerative disease caused by mutations in the galactosylceramidase (GALC) gene. Deficiency of the GALC protein activity leads to cytotoxic accumulation of a cellular metabolite called psychosine, which compromises normal turnover of myelin in the central and peripheral nervous system (CNS, PNS). The ensuing damage leads to progressive disease, including paralysis, loss of sensory functions and death, in the developing infant. The incidence of Krabbe disease is estimated at 1 in 100,000 live births.

The standard of care for presymptomatic babies is hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT); however, the morbidity and mortality of HSCT is high due to the strong ablative chemotherapy just after birth, and notably, this treatment is not curative. Furthermore, affected babies must be diagnosed and receive HSCT prior to symptom onset, typically a mere 4 weeks of age. No standard of care has been established for post-symptomatic treatment of the disease.

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The semiconductor industry just can’t catch a break.

After grappling with pandemic-fueled supply bottlenecks, chipmakers are facing a new headache: Russia, one of the world’s biggest suppliers of gases used to make semiconductors, has started to limit exports.

Moscow began restricting exports of inert, or “noble” gases, including neon, argon and helium to “unfriendly” countries at the end of May, according to a report by Russian state news agency TASS.

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GPT-3 is a neural network machine learning model trained using internet data to generate any type of text. Developed by OpenAI, it applies machine learning to generate various types of content, including stories, code, legal documents, and even translations based on just a few input words. GPT-3 has been getting a lot of attention for the seemingly unlimited range of possibilities it offers. GPT-3 is also being used for automated conversational tasks, responding to any text. So here mentioned the 10 experiments with GPT-3.

Interviewing AI: Using the Chat preset within GPT-3 Playground you can ask the current entity about its personality. And while of your dialog, the GPT-3’s personality emerges. Note that after 2048 tokens there’s a hard cut, and you never will encounter the same personality setting again. It imitates a human person worrying about data privacy.

Doctor’s Assistant: The AI has been fed with patient files, describing their profile and symptoms in a few lines. The AI spontaneously makes suggestions of what the disease could be. GPT-3 got away with an impressive 8 out of 10 correct guesses. This could become amazing support to doctors, and a great tool to investigate.

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A team of researchers from Portugal, Israel, Poland and Spain has found the gene that prompts the parasite Trypanosoma brucei to change from its normal long, slender shape to one that is short and stumpy. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the group describes how they found the gene and their hope that doing so will lead to a cure for African sleeping sickness.

African sleeping sickness is caused by Trypanosoma brucei transmitted by tsetse fly bites. People afflicted initially show no symptoms, giving the parasite time to multiply. Eventually, it makes its way to the brain, leading to personality and and sleep disorders. If left untreated, it is fatal. Prior research has shown that once the parasite reaches a certain saturation point in the body, individual kinetoplastids begin to change shape from a long, slender appearance to a shorter and stumpier form. Researchers have been studying the transformation in hopes of determining a way to get the parasite to transform earlier, because in its stumpy form, it cannot reproduce. In this new effort, the researchers found the gene responsible for initiating the shift.

The researchers found the gene by taking a closer look at so-called junk DNA—parts of the genome labeled as non-coding, and thus not likely to be of use to researchers. They analyzed the RNA produced via instructions from the genome at such sites and found 1,428 possibilities, which they narrowed to 399. They were then able to find one they called “grumpy” by studying nearby that were already known to play a role in the process of transformation. They confirmed their find by artificially increasing the same type of RNA in a parasite sample in mice and found that it induced the change to the stumpy form.

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Michael LorreyGates is, famously, the guy who said, “Why would anyone ever need more than 640kb of memory?” and “The internet is a fad.”

2 Replies.

Paul Battista shared a link. Lifeboat Foundation.

The benefits of exercise in a pill? Science is now closer to that goal.

Researchers have identified a molecule in the blood that is produced during exercise and can effectively reduce food intake and obesity in mice. The discovery improves our understanding of the physiological processes that underlie the interplay between exercise and hunger. Scientists from Baylor College of Medicine, Stanford School of Medicine and collaborating institutions reported the findings on June 15 in the journal Nature.

“Regular exercise has been proven to help weight loss, regulate appetite, and improve the metabolic profile, especially for people who are overweight and obese,” said co-corresponding author Dr. Yong Xu, professor of pediatrics – nutrition and molecular and cellular biology at Baylor. “If we can understand the mechanism by which exercise triggers these benefits, then we are closer to helping many people improve their health.”

Continue reading “Major Scientific Breakthrough Toward the Benefits of Exercise in a Pill” | >

STANFORD, Calif. — An “anti-hunger” pill could be on the horizon, according to a new study. Researchers from Stanford Medicine and Baylor University have identified a molecule that keeps people from getting hungry after exercising.

In experiments, the compound dramatically reduced food intake and obesity in mice. Study authors hope to turn it into a medication that may even replace the need to go to the gym.

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Tiktok MechanicThats a illness not normal hairloss lmao.

Tiktok Mechanic This drug is for the illness alopecia areata.

Tiktok MechanicEric Klien ya well it doesnt say that.

Eric KlienAdmin.

Tiktok Mechanic The article says that.

Muhammad Furqan shared a post. Lifeboat Foundation.

Continue reading “Musk sued for 7 billion over ‘Dogecoin Crypto Pyramid Scheme’” | >

With 17.3 million adult Americans affected, depression is one of the most prevalent mental disorders in the country. A gloomy or depressed mood that lasts for two weeks or more is considered major depression.

Depression is distinct from common mood swings and brief emotional reactions to problems in daily life. Depression may develop into a serious medical condition, particularly if it is recurring and of moderate to severe intensity. The afflicted individual may experience severe suffering and perform badly at work, in school, and with family. In the worst cases, depression might result in suicide.

Since its introduction in the late 1980s to prevent heart attack and stroke, statins have been hailed as a wonder drug and prescribed to tens of millions of individuals. However, some research has suggested that the medications may still have other benefits, particularly those for mental health. A recent study investigates the impact of statins on the emotional bias, a risk factor for depression. The study appears in Biological Psychiatry and was published by Elsevier.

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