Lifeboat Foundation

Researchers from North Carolina State University have demonstrated that exosomes harvested from human skin cells can repair sun-damaged skin cells in mice. The therapy also appears to be more effective than retinol and stem cell treatment, and best of all, delivery of the therapy is needle-free.

What are exosomes?

Exosomes are essentially membrane-wrapped packages that contain proteins and other molecules, are produced and released by cells, and deliver messages to other cells. When nearby cells intercept these packages, they change their behavior based on the information contained in these packages. You might think of exosomes being almost like messages in bottles traveling in the bloodstream between cells.

We’re continuing to release talks from Ending Age-Related Diseases 2019, our highly successful two-day conference that featured talks from leading researchers and investors, bringing them together to discuss the future of aging and rejuvenation biotechnology.

Dr. Kelsey Moody gave a detailed presentation on macular degeneration, discussing its origins in the lysosomes and how it progresses along with how his company, Ichor Therapeutics, is developing an exogenous enzyme treatment that may cure this crippling disease.

Researchers at CERN are investigating how very high-energy electrons could help target tumors.

Using genetic sequencing, University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers have identified a principal cellular player controlling HIV reproduction in immune cells which, when turned off or deleted, eliminates dormant HIV reservoirs.

“This is one of the key switches that the HIV field has been searching for three decades to find,” said Tariq Rana, PhD, professor of pediatrics and genetics at UC San Diego School of Medicine. “The most exciting part of this discovery has not been seen before. By genetically modifying a long noncoding RNA, we prevent HIV recurrence in T cells and microglia upon cessation of antiretroviral treatment, suggesting that we have a potential therapeutic target to eradicate HIV and AIDS.”

HIV spreads through certain bodily fluid attacking the immune system and preventing the body from fighting off infections. If left untreated, the virus leads to the disease AIDS.

Next generation nanomedicine will rely on innovative nanomaterials capable of unprecedented performance. Which ones are the most promising candidates for a medicinal chemist?

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With metal organic frameworks.

The nonviral, bioinspired gene delivery method developed by researchers at RMIT University has proven effective in laboratory tests and is safer than standard viral approaches.

Widely considered the next frontier of cancer research, gene therapy involves introducing new genes into a patient’s cells to replace missing or malfunctioning ones that cause disease.

Continue reading “Nonviral gene therapy to speed up cancer research” »

Scientists at the University of Surrey have discovered that a natural antioxidant commonly found in green tea can help eliminate antibiotic resistant bacteria.

The study, published in the Journal of Medical Microbiology, found that epigallocatechin (EGCG) can restore the activity of aztreonam, an antibiotic commonly used to treat infections caused by the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

P. aeruginosa is associated with serious respiratory tract and bloodstream infections and in recent years has become resistant to many major classes of antibiotics. Currently a combination of antibiotics is used to fight P. aeruginosa. However, these infections are becoming increasingly difficult to treat, as resistance to last line antibiotics is being observed.

The ability to create synthetic organs has long been desired in medicine. If we could make synthetic organs for patients from their own cells, we could replace injured or damaged organs without risking the body rejecting the organ. This would have huge implications for the treatment of liver and kidney diseases, among others. For years, scientists have tried to perfect this technology but have been unable to solve the blood flow problem that has made the creation of synthetic organs impossible.

In the last few weeks, a group of scientists appear to have found the solution to this problem or, at least, a major part of it [1].