Biotech/medical – Lifeboat News: The Blog

Aug 1
2020

New printing process advances 3D capabilities

More durable prosthetics and medical devices for patients and stronger parts for airplanes and automobiles are just some of the products that could be created through a new 3D printing technology invented by a UMass Lowell researcher.

Substances such as plastics, metals and wax are used in 3D printers to make products and parts for larger items, as the practice has disrupted the prototyping and manufacturing fields. Products created through the 3D printing of plastics include everything from toys to drones. While the global market for 3D plastics printers is estimated at $4 billion and growing, challenges remain in ensuring the printers create objects that are produced quickly, retain their strength and accurately reflect the shape desired, according to UMass Lowell’s David Kazmer, a plastics engineering professor who led the research project.

Called injection printing, the technology Kazmer pioneered is featured in the academic journal Additive Manufacturing posted online last week.

Aug 1
2020

Stanford team deploys CRISPR gene editing to fight COVID-19

The Stanford team worked with researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to develop a technique called prophylactic antiviral CRISPR in human cells, or PAC-MAN. The technology disables viruses by scrambling their genetic code. The researchers developed a new way to deliver the technology into lung cells, they reported in the journal Cell.

Stanford bioengineers teamed up with researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to develop a CRISPR system that neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 by scrambling the virus’s genetic code. They believe the technology could prove useful for combating several types of viruses, including influenza.

Aug 1
2020

Doctors try pressurized oxygen chambers in COVID fight

I posted about this a while back, as a treatment. I’m glad people are catching up.

Some doctors are now trying to deliver 100% oxygen to COVID patients in decompression chambers long used to treat divers with the bends.

As a New York University medical researcher who works once a week in an emergency room, Dr. David Lee had the luxury of time to think like a scientist while also treating coronavirus patients whose lungs kept giving out. In every case, he saw the same thing: Their blood was starved of oxygen.

One day an idea hit him: Could hyperbaric oxygen therapy, best known for treating divers with the bends, help stave off the need for ventilators and perhaps reduce deaths?

Physiologically it made sense to him, but he soon learned it was also complicated. The therapy, which involves delivering 100% oxygen straight to patients inside a pressurized chamber, is often met with skepticism by the wider medical community because fringe supporters have long touted it as a virtual cure-all without scientific evidence.

Jul 31
2020

New Hope as Dementia Therapy Reverses Memory Loss

Summary: Activating p38gamma, a naturally protective enzyme in the brain, may help to prevent the development of Alzheimer’s disease symptoms. Researchers showed the naturally protective effects of p38gamma could be harnessed to improve memory in the later stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

Source: Macquarie University

A ground-breaking new treatment developed by Macquarie University scientists has reversed the effects of memory loss associated with Alzheimer’s disease in a study of mice with advanced dementia.

Jul 31
2020

U.S. agrees to pay Sanofi and GSK $2.1 billion for 100 million doses of coronavirus vaccine

The agreement with Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKelin is the government’s second in less than two weeks for 100 million doses of vaccine.

Jul 31
2020

FDA Approves Umbilical Cord Stem Cell Trial for Severe COVID-19 Care

The first-of-its-kind, randomized, placebo-controlled, phase 1/2a trial will assess patients hospitalized at Florida and South Dakota institutions.

Jul 31
2020

Experimental stem cell therapy trial for COVID-19 initiated

Researchers announce the first patient has been dosed in a trial testing remestemcel-L, a stem cell therapy, in severe COVID-19 patients on ventilators.

grey coronavirus particle interacting with red and purple stem cell

Testing of an experimental COVID-19 stem cell therapy has begun in the US. The therapy has been developed to treat hospitalised COVID-19 patients with moderate to severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) who are on ventilators. A total of 300 are expected to be recruited into the randomised, placebo-controlled trial.

Jul 31
2020

Encyclopedia Created to Detail the Inner Workings of the Human and Mouse Genomes

ENCODE Project’s third phase offers new insights into the organization and regulation of our genes and genome.

The Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) Project is a worldwide effort to understand how the human genome functions. With the completion of its latest phase, the ENCODE Project has added millions of candidate DNA “switches” from the human and mouse genomes that appear to regulate when and where genes are turned on, and a new registry that assigns a portion of these DNA switches to useful biological categories. The project also offers new visualization tools to assist in the use of ENCODE’s large datasets.

The project’s latest results were published in Nature, accompanied by 13 additional in-depth studies published in other major journals. ENCODE is funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health.

Jul 30
2020

Exclusive: Chinese-backed hackers targeted COVID-19 vaccine firm Moderna

AstraZeneca to be exempt from coronavirus vaccine liability claims in most countries

(Reuters) — AstraZeneca has been granted protection from future product liability claims related to its COVID-19 vaccine hopeful by most of the countries with which it has struck supply agreements, a senior executive told Reuters.