Lifeboat Foundation

It is decades away but a team in Germany did use a regenerative method on an amputees finger stumps with positive results in 2003.

Scientists from Harvard University in Massachusetts have discovered a ‘DNA switch’ that we could use to grow back parts of our bodies like animals who can regenerate, like jellyfish.

Continue reading “Humans could regrow limbs as scientists uncover a ‘DNA switch’” »

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon has removed books from its website that promoted “cures” for autism, the latest major company to try to limit the amount of misinformation related to autism and the bogus notion that it’s caused by vaccines.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention says there is no cure for autism spectrum disorder, only medications that can help some function better. It also says there is no link between vaccines and autism.

An Amazon.com Inc. spokeswoman confirmed the books were no longer available, but did not answer any additional questions.

There are certainly a whole host of technological hurdles to overcome before humans successfully travel to Mars, or beyond, but research is also pointing to a growing assortment of fundamental health challenges that astronauts may face from long stretches of time in space. A recent NASA-funded study has found dormant viruses can reactivate in the human body during spaceflight, presenting yet another physiological problem for scientists to solve before we journey out into deep space.

In the wake of CRISPR babies, there is an urgent need to better regulate and debate whether, when and how related research should be done.

Returning from a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo, the agency chief also worried that vaccine supplies could run out.

Using roundworms, one of Earth’s simplest animals, Rice University bioscientists have found the first direct link between a diet with too little vitamin B12 and an increased risk of infection by two potentially deadly pathogens.

Despite their simplicity, 1-millimeter-long nematodes called Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) share an important limitation with humans: They cannot make B12 and must get all they need from their diet. In a study published today in PLOS Genetics, researchers from the lab of Rice biochemist and cancer researcher Natasha Kirienko describe how a B12-deficient diet harms C. elegans’ health at a cellular level, reducing the worms’ ability to metabolize branched-chain amino acids (BCAA). The research showed that the reduced ability to break down BCAAs led to a toxic buildup of partially metabolized BCAA byproducts that damaged mitochondrial health.

Researchers studied the health of two populations of worms, one with a diet sufficient in B12 and another that got too little B12 from its diet. Like the second population of worms, at least 10 percent of U.S. adults get too little B12 in their diet, a risk that increases with age.

Continue reading “Study highlights danger of vitamin B12 deficiency” »

Autophagy inhibitors could be more potent against pancreatic cancer by first applying a drug that makes the cancer cells dependent on autophagy for energy.

Signals from the electrical cacophony within groups of neurons inside the motor cortex were passed on to a computer running custom software for decoding.