Lifeboat Foundation

Blood flows into the brain primarily via the carotid arteries and the vertebral arteries. The Circle of Willis is a circular arterial structure in the brain that connects blood flowing in from the carotid arteries with blood flowing in from the basilar artery (which is fed by the vertebral arteries). Blood flows from the Circle of Willis into brain tissue via the anterior, middle, and posterior cerebral arteries. Many studies have shown that the Circle of Willis is incomplete in most people. A 1998 study of 150 healthy adult volunteers showed a complete Circle of Willis in only 42% of cases — more often complete in younger persons and females [RADIOLOGY; Krabbe-Hartkamp, MJ; 207:103–111 (1998)]. A slightly more encouraging 2002 study of 118 healthy volunteers in the 65–68 age group, showed 47% had a complete Circle of Willis [THE JOURNAL OF CARDIOVASCULAR SURGERY; Macchi, C; 43:887–890 (2002)]

For cryonics purposes, it has been believed that perfusion into the carotid arteries, but not into the vertebral arteries will result in incomplete perfusion of the brain if the Circle of Willis is not complete. In particular, if both posterior communicating arteries are missing, then perfusing only through the carotid arteries will result in no blood getting to parts of the brain supplied by the posterior cerebral arteries. Both posterior communicating arteries were missing in 11% of those in the 1998 study and in 14% of those in the 2002 study cited above.

Nonetheless, a 2008 study showing Circle of Willis complete in only 40% of 99 patients found no case of insufficient perfusion in functional tests of patients given unilateral cerebral perfusion. The authors concluded that “extracranial collateral circulation” provides an alternative pathway to the Circle of Willis for cerebral crossperfusion [EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF CARDIOTHORACIC SURGERY; Urbanski, PP; 33:402–408 (2008)]. Although persons with missing posterior communicating arteries could easily have pathways to opposite sides of the brain, other variants of Circle of Willis incompleteness would be expected to prevent perfusion across hemispheres.

Betty Lim

Is a massive, planetary-wide, space surveillance system currently being constructed that aims to monitor you all the way down to your DNA. Officially, the Space Fence is, according to Wikipedia, a 2nd generation space surveillance system being built (started in 2014) by the US Air Force and Lockheed Martin to track artificial satellites and space debris. Its budget is US$1.594 billion, it’s expected to be operational in 2019 and the Space Fence facility will be located in the Marshall Islands along with an option for another radar site in Western Australia. The Space Fence is a resurrection of a program started by Reagan in the 1980s called SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative), commonly known by its nickname “Star Wars.” However, like many exotic weapons of the New World Order, it has a cover purpose and a real purpose. This article exposes the grander implications of the Space Fence – and how it connects to other technology that could be used to enslave you.

What is the Space Fence?

Continue reading “Space Fence: Connecting the Surveillance and Transhumanist Agendas” »

Researchers from the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute have made progress in the quest to rejuvenate the aging immune system by identifying the factors responsible for the age-related decline of the thymus.

The thymus shrinks as we age

The thymus is one of the most important organs in the body, and it is where thymocytes produced in the bone marrow travel to become new T cells before being trained in the lymph nodes to become the defenders of the adaptive immune system. However, as we get older, the thymus increasingly turns to fat and starts to shrink, causing its ability to produce new T cells to fall dramatically. This process is known as thymic involution and actually begins shortly after puberty, so this is one aspect of aging that begins fairly early in life, although it is many decades later before its decline causes serious health issues.

The emerging field of synthetic biology—designing new biological components and systems—is revolutionizing medicine. Through the genetic programming of living cells, researchers are creating engineered systems that intelligently sense and respond to diverse environments, leading to more specific and effective solutions in comparison to current molecular-based therapeutics.

At the same time, cancer immunotherapy—using the body’s immune defenses to fight cancer—has transformed cancer treatment over the past decade, but only a handful of solid tumors have responded, and systemic therapy often results in significant side effects. Designing therapies that can induce a potent, anti–tumor immune response within a solid tumor without triggering systemic toxicity has posed a significant challenge.

Researchers at Columbia Engineering and Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) announced today that they are addressing this challenge by engineering a strain of non–pathogenic bacteria that can colonize solid tumors in mice and safely deliver potent immunotherapies, acting as a Trojan Horse that treats tumors from within. The therapy led not only to complete tumor regression in a mouse model of lymphoma, but also significant control of distant, uninjected tumor lesions. Their findings are published today in Nature Medicine.

http://undoing-aging.org/videos/graham-pawelec-presenting-at…jA8AFapRLc

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For a personal sense of wellness, we may still be better off thinking of aging as an inevitable process with certain positive aspects—like additional wisdom accumulated through experience—rather than a sickness we hope to eradicate. If the many startups working on extended youth and anti-aging endeavors actually manage to create a magic potion that keeps us forever young, then someday we may get the chance to think about what, if anything, humanity loses when it finally finds the fountain of youth.

Aging has come to be seen as a disease we should be preventing.

Nanosized robots capable of crawling around on a person’s brain or underneath the skin may sound like a nightmare to some, but researchers suggest the mini machines could serve medical purposes such as gathering data on the brain or the spinal column.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell University recently announced they have built nanosized, solar-powered robots made from silicon. One million such robots can fit on a 4-inch silicon wafer. “These robots are built massively in parallel, so I don’t build just one robot, I build a million robots, which is awesome,” declares Marc Miskin, an assistant professor of electrical and systems engineering at the University of Pennsylvania.

The microscopic machines can carry up to 30 times their own weight, travel at about the speed of biological cells, survive temperatures up to 400 degrees, live unscathed in battery acid or other harsh chemicals, and can be injected with a hypodermic needle.

Next-generation sequencing technologies are helping researchers to find mutations unique to an individual’s cancer as well as the genetic signatures that predict their immune response. Can they use these clues to develop long-lasting and effective anticancer vaccines?

Chemical tags on RNA usher in new realm of epigenetics.