Watch our Celebration of James Bedford Day special service. On this day we celebrate the remembrance of the biotechnology self-experimenter, Dr. James Bedford, who, on January 12, 2024, will have been cryonically preserved for 57 years.
Ben Best presents \.
Discovery opens window to more effective treatment. Meet MYC, the shapeless protein responsible for making the majority of human cancer cases worse. UC Riverside researchers have found a way to rein it in, offering hope for a new era of treatments.
In healthy cells, MYC helps guide the process of transcription, in which genetic information is converted from DNA into RNA and, eventually, into proteins.
“Normally, MYC’s activity is strictly controlled. In cancer cells, it becomes hyperactive, and is not regulated properly,” said UCR associate professor of chemistry Min Xue.
Organoid intelligence is the growing of mini-brains from human stem cells, which has potential benefits for medical research and treatments.
However, there are significant ethical concerns related to the possibility of creating conscious entities and the potential for misuse. Organoid intelligence could offer valuable insights into neurological diseases, but we must establish a framework for their creation and treatment to ensure ethical use. As we continue to develop this technology, we must approach it with caution due to the potential dire consequences of its misuse.
#organoidintelligence #artificialintelligence #ethics
This week saw the official inauguration of the world’s first research prototype for whole-body MRI-guided proton therapy. The launch ceremony, at OncoRay – the National Center for Radiation Research in Oncology in Dresden, marked the start of scientific operation using the prototype, which is designed to enable real-time MRI tracking of moving tumours during proton therapy.
Proton therapy provides a means to treat tumours with extreme precision. The finite range of a proton beam enables extremely conformal dose targeting with reduced dose to nearby healthy tissue. This high conformality, however, makes proton treatments particularly sensitive to anatomical changes in the beam path, which can impair the targeting precision when treating a moving target. Real-time imaging during treatment could help solve this drawback by synchronizing dose delivery with the tumour position.
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⚠️ Over 7,100 WordPress sites have been hit by the ‘Balada Injector’ malware, which exploits sites using a vulnerable version of the Popup Builder plugin. Read More ➡️ https://thehackernews.com/2024/01/balada-injector-infects-over-7100.htm
Thousands of WordPress sites using a vulnerable version of the Popup Builder plugin have been compromised with a malware called Balada Injector.
First documented by Doctor Web in January 2023, the campaign takes place in a series of periodic attack waves, weaponizing security flaws WordPress plugins to inject backdoor designed to redirect visitors of infected sites to bogus tech support pages, fraudulent lottery wins, and push notification scams.
Subsequent findings unearthed by Sucuri have revealed the massive scale of the operation, which is said to have been active since 2017 and infiltrated no less than 1 million sites since then.
Biomedical science assumes that people want to live as long as possible. They don’t.
Have you ever wondered why SSRIs take time to show effects? A new study has delved into why antidepressants like SSRIs take weeks to start working and how this may impact mental health care.
SSRIs, or Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors, belong to a category of antidepressant drugs designed to elevate serotonin levels in the brain. Notable examples of SSRIs include fluoxetine (Prozac), sertraline (Zoloft), and escitalopram (Lexapro).
These medications generally have few unpleasant side effects and can be highly effective in treating various mood disorders, including depression and certain anxiety disorders. However, one significant drawback of SSRIs is the delayed onset of their therapeutic effects — SSRIs often take several weeks to show noticeable improvements in mood.
This extended period before “kicking in” poses challenges for patients and healthcare providers. Yet, the reason behind this lag in action is not well understood.
Every time a cancer cell divides, it sustains damage to its own DNA molecules. Researchers, including Gaorav Gupta, MD, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the UNC School of Medicine, have long wondered how cancers are able to evade detection by the body’s own defenses, despite the immune system being on constant watch for cells displaying DNA damage.
