My interview.
An African perspective on COVID-19 and technology.
Category: biotech/medical – Page 1,923
The brain’s functional organization slows down following a relationship breakup
Summary: Findings reveal individual differences in the severity of depressive symptoms following a relationship breakdown are associated with changes in resting-state whole-brain dynamics.
Source: UPF Barcelona
During a person’s life, the experience of a stressful life event can lead to the development of depressive symptoms, even in a non-clinical population. For example, a relationship breakup is a fairly common event and is a powerful risk factor for quality of life, in addition to increasing the risk of a major depressive disorder.
The case for self-explainable AI
For instance, suppose a neural network has labeled the image of a skin mole as cancerous. Is it because it found malignant patterns in the mole or is it because of irrelevant elements such as image lighting, camera type, or the presence of some other artifact in the image, such as pen markings or rulers?
Researchers have developed various interpretability techniques that help investigate decisions made by various machine learning algorithms. But these methods are not enough to address AI’s explainability problem and create trust in deep learning models, argues Daniel Elton, a scientist who researches the applications of artificial intelligence in medical imaging.
Elton discusses why we need to shift from techniques that interpret AI decisions to AI models that can explain their decisions by themselves as humans do. His paper, “Self-explaining AI as an alternative to interpretable AI,” recently published in the arXiv preprint server, expands on this idea.
New adjuvant successful in extending immunity against HIV
Researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and the Emory Vaccine Center (EVC) are first to show a new adjuvant, 3M-052, helps induce long-lasting immunity against HIV. The study results are published today in Science Immunology.
In this pre–clinical study that included 90 rhesus monkeys, the researchers showed 3M-052, a new, synthetic small molecule that targets a specific receptor (TLR 7/8), successfully induced vaccine-specific, long-lived bone marrow plasma cells (BM-LLPCs), which are critical for durable immunity. In a striking observation, 3M-052-induced BM-LLPCs were maintained at high numbers for more than one year after vaccination. This prolonged interval is not only feasible in monitoring pre–clinical effectiveness, it is also highly informative in down selecting vaccine candidates.
First author Sudhir Pai Kasturi, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and a research assistant professor at Yerkes and the EVC, says, “We have known adjuvants are critical immunity-boosting supplements that help improve the effectiveness of vaccines. Until now, however, it has been unclear which class of adjuvants can promote stable and long-lived immunity in nonhuman primate models. Our study provides that information.”
Combining AI and biology could solve drug discovery’s biggest problems
There’s a lot of hope that artificial intelligence could help speed up the time it takes to make a drug and also increase the rate of success. Several startups have emerged to capitalize on this opportunity. But Insitro is a bit different from some of these other companies, which rely more heavily on machine learning than biology.
Machine learning can speed up the creation of new drugs and unlock the mysteries of major diseases, says Insitro CEO Daphne Koller.
[Photo: Ivan-balvan/iStock]
CRISPR-engineered T cells in patients with refractory cancer
:oooooo.
CRISPR-Cas9 is a revolutionary gene-editing technology that offers the potential to treat diseases such as cancer, but the effects of CRISPR in patients are currently unknown. Stadtmauer et al. report a phase 1 clinical trial to assess the safety and feasibility of CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing in three patients with advanced cancer (see the Perspective by Hamilton and Doudna). They removed immune cells called T lymphocytes from patients and used CRISPR-Cas9 to disrupt three genes (TRAC, TRBC, and PDCD1) with the goal of improving antitumor immunity. A cancer-targeting transgene, NY-ESO-1, was also introduced to recognize tumors. The engineered cells were administered to patients and were well tolerated, with durable engraftment observed for the study duration. These encouraging observations pave the way for future trials to study CRISPR-engineered cancer immunotherapies.
Unique Modifications in Shark Immunity Genes Uncovered
A new genomics study of shark DNA, including from great white and great hammerhead sharks, reveals unique modifications in their immunity genes that may underlie the rapid wound healing and possibly higher resistance to cancers in these ocean predators. This research brings us a few steps closer to understanding, from a genetic sense, why sharks exhibit some characteristics that are highly desirable by humans.
Master of Your Immune System: The Thymus and Gene Therapy
Liz Parrish and Integrated Health Systems discuss the thymus, an organ that is essential to healthy immune function.
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#agingwell #immunesystem #genetherapy #CRISPR #thymus #Immunology
Breakthrough in Age Reversal With Youngblood Plasma — Dr Harold Katcher — CTO Nugenics Research
#nugencis #nugenicsresearch #humanlongevity #agereversal #blissatomic
Dr. Harold has been a pioneer in the field of cancer research, in the development of modern aspects of gene hunting and sequencing. He carries expertise in bioinformatics, chronobiology, and biotechnology and is currently working in the capacity of Chief Technical Officer at Nugenics Research Pvt Ltd. exploring in anti-aging modalities.
They recently released a paper online on #biorxiv regarding their breakthrough research on Human Age Reversal using Young Blood #plasma, the paper’s authors include recognized Longevity academician Steve Horvath.
The paper also caught the attention of #davidsinclair the leading researcher/voice in the field of Human Longevity.
Dr Katcher spoke about how & why he moved from cancer research to Human Longevity, his research & results of 54% age reversal in Rats, his partner #akshaysanghavi, the future road map/timelines on how & when this might be commercially available.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/harold-katcher-340aa78
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.07.082917v1
https://blissatomic.blogspot.com/
Timelines
0:25- Introduction
1:14- Approach to Reverse Aging
5:49 –Aging a Progression
8:09 — Age Reversal Experiment Results
9:59 — What is the DNA Methylation Clock
13:12 –Young Blood plasma
14:23 — Chronological Limit on Reverse Aging
17:20 — Side Effects if any on the Rats
18:07 — Nugencis Research & Biz Partner Akshay Sanghavi
20:06 — Response from Peers
22:50 — Reason to Move From pioneering Cancer Research to Aging
29:00 –Rats to Dogs & the then Human testing
30:00 — Immortal Jellyfish