Biotech/medical – Lifeboat News: The Blog

Dec 4
2020

House passes historic bill to decriminalize cannabis

The proposal would end a federal ban on marijuana and create a pathway to expunge related criminal records.

As the cannabis industry continues to take root state by state, the House of Representatives voted in favor of removing marijuana from the federal Controlled Substances Act.

The House voted Friday on the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, or MORE Act, which decriminalizes cannabis and clears the way to erase nonviolent federal marijuana convictions. The Senate is unlikely to approve the bill.

The MORE Act also creates pathways for ownership opportunities in the emerging industry, allows veterans to obtain medical cannabis recommendations from Veteran Affairs doctors, and establishes funding sources to reinvest in communities disproportionately affected by the war on drugs.

Dec 4
2020

Dr. Leonard Hayflick — Cellular Senescence, Mycoplasmology, and Viral Vaccine Development

Dr leonard hayflick — father of cell senescence!

Dr. Leonard Hayflick, is Professor of Anatomy, University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, where he has been part of the faculty since 1988.

Dr. Hayflick received his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania, did a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Texas under the tutelage of the renowned cell culturist Prof. Charles Pomerat, and then returned to Philadelphia, where he spent ten years as an Associate Member of the Wistar Institute, and two years as an Assistant Professor of Research Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Hayflick is extremely well known for his research in a range of domains including cell biology, virus vaccine development, and mycoplasmology.

In 1962 he discovered that, contrary to what was believed since the turn of the century, cultured normal human and animal cells have a limited capacity to replicate. This phenomenon became known as “The Hayflick Limit” which became a discovery that overturned a dogma that existed since early in the twentieth century and focused attention on the cell as the fundamental location of age changes.

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Dec 4
2020

Ancient Viruses Are Buried in Your DNA

Endogenous retroviruses wormed into the human genome eons ago. Today viral genes continue to produce a variety of mysterious proteins in the body.

Dec 4
2020

UN commission reclassifies cannabis, no longer considered risky narcotic

The UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) took a number of decisions on Wednesday, leading to changes in the way cannabis is internationally regulated, including its reclassification out of the most dangerous category of drugs.

Dec 3
2020

Psilocybin Treatment for Mental Health Gets Legal Framework

Oregon became the first state to legalize therapeutic use of the drug, as new research affirms its benefits for treating depression.

Dec 3
2020

To study aging, scientists are looking to outer space

Scientists stress that the symptoms of space travel aren’t exactly the same as aging, and many changes reverse themselves once people return to Earth, but the comparisons are still useful. Spaceflight is an immersive experience that spares no traveler, while aging happens to every Earthling whether we like it or not. As such, life in space is a good model for understanding aging as a chronic process, Bailey says. The barren otherworld of outer space could even reveal new ways to protect ourselves against the process of growing old.

Space travel induces bodily changes that are remarkably similar to growing old, providing a unique way to boost medical research.

Dec 3
2020

Scientists Discover the First Animal That Doesn’t Breathe Oxygen to Live

The parasite—which lacks mitochondria, and the genes and proteins needed for breathing—yet again expands our horizons for the possibilities of life on Earth.

Dec 3
2020

BioAge lands $90 million; gears up for clinical trials in 2021

Longevity biotech firm BioAge Labs is readying itself for clinical trials after raising a whopping $90 million Series C funding round. The company revealed it will be moving its lead platform-derived therapies, BGE-117 and BGE-175, into Phase 2 clinical trials in the first half of 2021.

Longevity. Technology: As the developer of an AI platform that maps the molecular pathways impacting human Longevity, we’ve followed developments at BioAge with great interest. With two compounds ready to enter the clinic next year, and more on the way, this company is fast-becoming one of Longevity’s most exciting prospects.

The new funds will be used to develop BioAge’s portfolio of therapies for increasing healthspan and lifespan, as well as to augment its AI platform, and further expand its capabilities to test drug candidates in predictive models of human diseases of aging.

Dec 3
2020

CDC Issues Warning Against Travel To Mexico

The CDC issued a level four warning last month, it’s most severe, advising against all travel to Mexico.

However, those who choose to travel to Mexico should get a COVID-19 test between three and five days after they return. They should also quarantine at home for seven days.

Dec 3
2020

Oral drug blocks SARS-CoV-2 transmission

Sounds important.

Treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection with a new antiviral drug, MK-4482/EIDD-2801 or Molnupiravir, completely suppresses virus transmission within 24 hours, researchers in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University have discovered.

The group led by Dr. Richard Plemper, Distinguished University Professor at Georgia State, originally discovered that the drug is potent against influenza viruses.

“This is the first demonstration of an orally available drug to rapidly block SARS-CoV-2 transmission,” said Plemper. “MK-4482/EIDD-2801 could be game-changing.”