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Category: biotech/medical – Page 1,541

Making lasers more efficient, versatile and compact

Their inner workings reside in the realm of physics, but lasers make everyday life possible. Talking on a cell phone or googling COVID stats while your apples and oranges are scanned at the checkout counter—lasers at every step.

Lasers emit at specific wavelengths. At one wavelength, laser beams etch patterns on computer chips that define their circuitry. At telecom wavelengths, lasers fire the enormous volumes of data through optical fibers that make ours the information age.

In 2017, a new kind of laser invented by electrical engineer Boubacar Kante, Ph.D., was recognized as one of the breakthrough inventions of the year by Physics World. With his Bakar Fellows support, Kante is preparing to fabricate a prototype of the new laser and demonstrate its potential for a range of applications from microsurgery to satellite telemetry.

Israeli co. kicks off COVID oral vaccine trial in South Africa

The first volunteer in a Phase I clinical trial of an oral COVID-19 vaccine developed by an Israeli-American company has been screened and enrolled, according to Oravax Medical, a subsidiary of Oramed Pharmaceuticals.

The trial is taking place in South Africa.

Oramed Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company, is based on technology developed by Hadassah-University Medical Center and run by Israeli CEO Nadav Kidron.

Oravax developed a novel oral virus-like particle (VLP) COVID-19 vaccine based on the Oramed’s “POD” oral delivery technology that can be used to orally administer a number of protein-based therapies, which would otherwise be delivered by injection.

Volunteers for Oramed’s medical trial will receive two doses of the oral COVID vaccine three weeks apart.

A new vaccine that alters senescent cells in a way that pushes the immune system into removing them

Sorry if re-post…

A team of researchers affiliated with a large number of institutions in Japan has developed a vaccine that tricks the immune system into removing senescent cells. In their paper published in the journal Nature Aging, the group describes their vaccine, how it works and how effective it was when given to test mice.

Prior research has shown that part of the aging process is the development of —cells that outlive their usefulness but fail to die naturally. Instead, they produce chemicals that can lead to inflammation, aging and a host of other ailments. Prior research has shown that senescence occurs when cells stop dividing. Prior research has also shown that senescent cells can lead to in some instances and tumor suppression in others. Senescence also plays a role in tissue repair, and its impacts on the body vary depending on factors such as overall health and age. It is suspected that senescence is related to telomere erosion, and in some cases, environmental factors that lead to cell damage. In this new effort, the researchers have developed a vaccine that creates antibodies that attach to senescent cells, marking them for removal by .

The team was able to create the vaccine after identifying a protein made in senescent cells but not in healthy active cells. That allowed them to develop a type of vaccine based on the amino acids in the protein. When injected, the vaccine incites the body to produce antibodies that bind only to senescent cells, and that sets off an immune response that involves sending white blood cells to destroy the senescent cells.

Fecal Transplant Discovery Could Improve Care for Life-Threatening Infections

Findings suggest way to help patients heal from dangerous C. difficile.

New research from the University of Virginia School of Medicine sheds light on why a fecal transplant can benefit patients with dangerous recurrent C. difficile infections – and suggests a way to improve patient outcomes.

C. difficile infection causes life-threatening diarrhea, and it often takes hold in patients in hospitals and nursing homes as a result of long-term antibiotic use. Doctors have known that fecal transplants – literally transplanting fecal material from a healthy person into the sick – can improve C. difficile outcomes, but they haven’t fully understood why. The new UVA research offers important answers.

A Gene-Tweaked Jellyfish Offers a Glimpse at Other Minds

This research can also offer a glimpse at how other forms of thinking might be organized. “It lets us get at this issue of what are the options for a nervous system or behavior,” Weissbourd says. It’s hard to put yourself into the mind of a jellyfish—their life cycle of polyps and spores is utterly alien, their weird array of sensory organs have no analogues to our own. Clytia have specialized balance organs called statocysts; other species of jellyfish have sensors called rhopalia that detect light or chemical changes in the surrounding water.

Researchers have observed some things that could be thought of as akin to our emotional states; for example, Clytia display a unique set of behaviors when spawning, and they perform their feeding action more quickly when they’re hungry. “But they might have a totally different set of nervous system states,” Weissbourd says.

These gene-tweaked jellies are an exciting new platform for research, says Sprecher. Future experiments will improve our understanding of modular nervous systems, not only in jellyfish but in more complex species too. These are ancient creatures, but we know so little about how they see the world, or if it even makes sense to think of them as “seeing” in the way that mammals do. Literally peering inside them could help provide the answers.

AMA Live Stream #1

Yesterday’s longevity AMA: michael lustgarten, phd.

Questionsabout yesterday’s video, and more…AMA!

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Timestamps:
0:51 Evaluating what’s optimal for biomarkers that are genetically low or high.
3:59 Details on replicating the approach.
6:59 EVOO
9:41 Carotid artery thickness scan.
10:55 Exercise routine.
18:26 Sirtuins, resveratrol and longevity.
19:31 Using blood testing to identify which supplements are detrimental, neutral, or beneficial at n=1
23:00 Devices that I use.
24:54 TG/HDL ratio.
26:47 Use of herbs, adaptogens.
30:00 Rapamycin.
33:23 Fish oil.
35:30 Other fish besides sardines?
37:12 Balance between taste and health.
38:00 Tracking starch intake?
40:50 Current macros.
42:32 Importance of thymus and immunosenescence.
45:04 Evaluating what’s optimal for dietary vitamin/mineral intake.
47:46 Taking time off from supplements before blood testing (or not)
49:52 Thoughts on genetic biomarkers.
51:32 Adding weights to the biomarkers/Are they all equal for their effects during aging.
57:20 Cinnamon vs biomarkers.
58:50 Managing the diet/approach in social settings.
1:00:30 Oils and cooking.
1:01:45 Biomarker weights.
1:03:05 Investigating factors surrounding thymus hypertrophy.
1:04:08 Liposomal delivery and aging.
1:06:52 Finding trusted sources for supplements.
1:08:00 Attia, Rhonda.
1:10:18 Not just focusing on cardio for health.
1:11:05 ION test.
1:15:00 What if I don’t beat the longevity record.
1:16:30 Where would I bet on anti-aging tech.
1:18:45 Liver detox.
1:19:36 How often I eat junk food.
1:21:10 Metformin.
1:22:50 Sauna.
1:24:41 Blood donation: impact on biological age?
1:25:25 Is there an upper limit for venous recovery after blood testing?
1:26:15 No cheat days for Christmas?
1:27:29 Next-generation biological age clocks?
1:31:09 Parabiosis.
1:33:19 CR and lymphocytes.
1:36:27 Protein intake.
1:40:08 Cortisol and hormones.
1:42:00 Blood pressure.
1:43:44 TruAge clock.
1:47:35 Noise in epigenetic testing.

US tech investors believe they’re close to a cure for old age

Contrary to what you may think, getting old is not inevitable. And by getting old, I mean the bad parts: weakened muscles, fading memory, aching joints … or perhaps a disease such as cancer or diabetes makes an unwelcome appearance.

James Peyer, 35, is out to prove that age is, instead, like polio or tuberculosis. Those and other infectious diseases once were the biggest killers, until we developed effective vaccines or treatments.

Why, asked Peyer, co-founder of the New York longevity start-up Cambrian Biopharma, should age be any different? “Of our 100,000-year-plus history as a species, it’s been for only about 75 years that these diseases of ageing have been the primary predators of humankind.” He added: “We are rapidly zeroing in on our biggest.