Biotech/medical – Lifeboat News: The Blog

Nov 28
2023

Wild New Study Suggests We Could Use Tiny Black Holes as Sources of Nuclear Power

The notion of black holes is one that invokes terror and dread. They’re inescapable! They devour everything! Nothing ever comes out!

The accuracy of these beliefs falls on the spectrum of debatable to incorrect. And a pair of physicists has now calculated how proverbial blood might be wrung from the black hole stone. According to Zhan-Feng Mai and Run-Qiu Yang of Tianjin University in China, teeny tiny black holes could theoretically be used as a source of power.

Their calculations find that these ultradense objects could work as rechargeable batteries and nuclear reactors, providing energy on the scale of gigaelectronvolts.

Nov 28
2023

A New Drug That Could Extend Dogs’ Lives Inches Closer to Approval

Yes, if it’s quality life this is good and maybe even use this as an example of helping humans live longer and why not cats?

For the first time, the FDA has indicated a willingness to endorse a longevity drug.

Nov 28
2023

Researchers develop faster, cheaper, and more precise method for identifying bacteria

That’s good news. Maybe there’s gonna be fewer super bugs springing up.

Researchers have developed a method that identifies bacteria easily, cheaply and more precisely than before. This can help reduce use of antibiotics.

Far too many antibiotics are used around the world. As a result, bacteria are becoming resistant.

Curing bacterial diseases is becoming more difficult than before, because antibiotics are perhaps our foremost weapons in the fight against them.

Nov 28
2023

Could a Drug Give Your Pet More Dog Years?

Longevity drugs for our canine companions are moving closer to reality. They also raise questions about what it might mean to succeed.

Nov 28
2023

5 More Brain-Computer Interface Companies You Need to Know

The brain-computer interface (BCI) space continues to rise in notoriety, and a number of players are throwing their hats in the ring.

Such technologies could enable users to control a computer with their brain, or even go beyond that. Countless immobile people someday could control a mouse cursor, keyboard, mobile device/tablet, wheelchair or prosthetic device by only thinking.

Big names have already established their presence in the space. Elon Musk’s Neuralink continues to make headway, while Bill Gates-and Jeff Bezos-backed Synchron has an innovative catheter-delivered implant. Blackrock Neurotech, which has a next-generation BCI, has been implanting its Utah Array in patients since 2004.

Nov 28
2023

Radical Remission Project ”Stories That Heal” Podcast

The brings you the true stories and experiences from radical remission survivors and the healers and doctors who have helped them overcome a dire prognosis. These episodes are full of stories of hope and inspiration for anyone living with a life-changing diagnosis.

Nov 28
2023

CAR-T cell therapy leads to long-term remission in lupus while maintaining vaccine response

New research at ACR Convergence 2023, the American College of Rheumatology’s annual meeting, demonstrates that CAR-T cell therapy could lead to sustained suppression of autoantibodies in treatment-resistant lupus while maintaining a robust response to vaccines.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE, lupus) is a complex autoimmune disease marked by the production of autoantibodies to nucleic acid DNA and nuclear protein autoantigens and is associated with dysfunctional B cells. It mainly affects women and is more common and severe in people who are Black, Hispanic, or Asian. Lupus can lead to a wide range of systemic problems varying in severity, including skin, kidney, lung, joints, and heart disease and complications during pregnancy.

The disease often requires life-long treatment with immunosuppressive or immunomodulatory drugs, and a considerable number of patients don’t respond to them. One theoretical option for these patients is chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy, which is successfully used to treat refractory blood cancers by destroying malignant cells.

Nov 28
2023

Study finds 188 kinds of new rare CRISPR systems in bacterial genomes

Design Cells / iStock.

The tool can correct genetic errors, control gene activity, and potentially treat diseases like cancer. However, its use raises ethical concerns regarding altering human genes and embryos.

Nov 28
2023

GPT-4’s potential in shaping the future of radiology

GPT-4 for radiology.

As the benefits of AI in healthcare continue to emerge, we investigate GPT-4’s potential in radiology. Learn about research exploring GPT-4’s potential in assisting report structuring, classifying diseases, and generating comprehensive findings summaries:

Nov 28
2023

Study identifies a key protein for healthy aging

Life expectancy and healthy aging in mice can be determined by a protein present in some cells of the immune system, according to a study published in the journal Cell Reports. When this protein—known as the CD300f immune receptor—is absent, animal models have a shorter life expectancy and suffer from pathologies associated with cognitive decline and premature aging, especially in females.

“Our study indicates that alterations in immune system cells, for instance, in macrophages and microglia, can determine the healthy aging degree in mice,” notes Hugo Peluffo, leader of this study and member of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and the Institute of Neurosciences (UBneuro) of the University of Barcelona.

Understanding how the CD300f immune receptor —and the myeloid cells of the immune system—can determine by themselves the onset rate of aging-associated pathologies, “will help to better understand this process, and it will contribute to the design of strategies to regulate its action. For instance, using the immune receptor CD300f as a target in biomedicine,” notes the expert. “Also, our team has previously shown that some variants of the CD300f immune receptor could be useful as biomarkers in patients.”