Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: biotech/medical – Page 1744

The United States has secured almost a third of the first one billion doses planned for AstraZeneca’s experimental COVID-19 vaccine by pledging up to $1.2 billion, as world powers scramble for medicines to get their economies back to work.

While not proven to be effective against the coronavirus, vaccines are seen by world leaders as the only real way to restart their stalled economies, and even to get an edge over global competitors.

After President Donald Trump demanded a vaccine, the U.S. Department of Health agreed to provide up to US$1.2 billion to accelerate AstraZeneca’s vaccine development and secure 300 million doses for the United States.

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When pharmaceutical company Moderna issued a press release about the promising results of its Phase I clinical trial for a coronavirus vaccine, the media and the markets went wild. The New York Times ran a story that went viral on Twitter, racking up millions of views as social media influencers and doctors alike shared it far and wide. Moderna’s stock price shot up 20 percent and several peer companies like Novavax rallied even higher at more than 30 percent.

But was it justified?

The news cycle in the era of the coronavirus pandemic feels like tidal waves of hope and fear on steroids. Perhaps that’s because with more than 36 million Americans losing their jobs and more than 90,000 losing their lives, everyone is desperately looking for the light at the end of the tunnel. Covid-19 is taking an unprecedented physical and psychological toll on the American people and so small bits of potentially good news that should be taken with a grain of salt can end up dominating the headlines. People turn molehills into mountains because we really need and want a game-changer right now. But the truth is the truth regardless of what we want or feel, especially in science and medicine.

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If you’re interested in superlongevity and cognitive enhancement, I have a YouTube video to recommend. Our good friend, Ira Pastor, on his excellent podcast ideaXme, discusses with Dr. Rudolph Tanzi the topic of inflammaging, specifically brain inflammation, plaque, tau tangles, brain health, and Alzheimer’s disease. Then they discuss some emergent therapies to prevent Alzheimer’s by protecting the neurons.

The discussion is concise and complete, but also very easy to follow.

Ira Pastor, ideaXme life sciences ambassador, interviews Dr. Rudolph Tanzi, Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Neurology at Harvard University, Vice-Chair of Neurology, Director of the Genetics and Aging Research Unit, and Co-Director of the Henry and Allison McCance Center for Brain Health at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Continue reading “Dr Rudolph Tanzi, the brain health rockstar talks of alzheimer’s disease” | >

Doctors in Japan have successfully transplanted liver cells derived from embryonic stem cells into a newborn baby, in a world first that could provide new treatment options for infants.

The newborn was suffering from urea cycle disorder, where the liver is not capable of breaking down toxic ammonia.

But the six-day-old was too small to undergo a liver transplant, generally not considered safe until a child weighs around six kilogrammes (13 pounds) at around three to five months old.

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A team of quantum physicists from a UAE-based research lab has developed a rapid laser test to detect COVID-19 patients, which can reduce the testing time to a few seconds with an accuracy rate of 85–90 percent and has the potential to replace the current nasal swab and blood tests that take several hours to process.

QuantLase Imaging Lab, the medical research arm of the Abu Dhabi-based International Holdings Company, in a press statement said that the rapid test uses a novel equipment which enables for much faster mass screening, with test results available in seconds and allowing testing on a wider scale including in public places.

The test uses laser to detect changes in the blood that could identify carriers before they become contagious and will cost as low as 100 dirhams (193 yuan, 27 U.S. dollars), according to researchers involved with the project.

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