Archive for the ‘biotech/medical’ category: Page 2017
Oct 31, 2018
Neutralizing RNS May Improve Immunotherapy Outcomes
Posted by Nicola Bagalà in category: biotech/medical
Neutralising reactive nitrogen species to make immunotherapy more effective.
Researchers at the University of Notre Dame discovered that amino acid nitration can inhibit the activation of T cells employed in immunotherapy against cancer and that suppression of reactive nitrogen species (RNS) responsible for nitration can significantly boost the effectiveness of immunotherapy [1].
Abstract
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Oct 31, 2018
A Potential New Path to Increasing NAD+
Posted by Steve Hill in category: biotech/medical
Oct 31, 2018
Cellular kill code discovery may help extinguish cancers
Posted by Genevieve Klien in category: biotech/medical
Research has discovered that inside every cell in the human body is a kill code designed to trigger self-destruction if it senses a cell is turning cancerous. Across two studies the scientists homed in on the code underlying this mechanism and believe it may lead to a new kind of cancer treatment.
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Oct 30, 2018
190 universities just launched 600 free online courses. Here’s the full list
Posted by Nicholi Avery in categories: biotech/medical, business, computing, education, engineering, health
If you haven’t heard, universities around the world are offering their courses online for free (or at least partially free). These courses are collectively called MOOCs or Massive Open Online Courses.
In the past six years or so, over 800 universities have created more than 10,000 of these MOOCs. And I’ve been keeping track of these MOOCs the entire time over at Class Central, ever since they rose to prominence.
In the past four months alone, 190 universities have announced 600 such free online courses. I’ve compiled a list of them and categorized them according to the following subjects: Computer Science, Mathematics, Programming, Data Science, Humanities, Social Sciences, Education & Teaching, Health & Medicine, Business, Personal Development, Engineering, Art & Design, and finally Science.
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Oct 30, 2018
Discovery of cancer ‘kill code’ could inspire new treatments
Posted by Nicholi Avery in category: biotech/medical
I have always said the trick with being diagnosed with cancer is living long enough to see newer and better therapies coming out to help you outlive your own diagnosis:
Scientists at Northwestern University have discovered a “kill code” in every cell of the body that’s triggered by chemotherapy and that causes cancerous cells to self-destruct. What’s more, they’ve learned enough about the code that they’ve figured out how to trigger it without chemo—a finding that they believe could lead to new therapies.
The discovery, reported in the journals Nature Communications and eLife, is a code that’s found in both large and small ribonucleic acids (RNAs). The researchers also have early evidence that the small RNAs, called microRNAs, can be introduced into cells to trigger the kill switch.
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Oct 30, 2018
Researchers discover drug cocktail that increases lifespan College
Posted by Carse Peel in category: biotech/medical
Oct 30, 2018
Journal Club October 2018 — Drug Synergy Slows Aging
Posted by Steve Hill in categories: biotech/medical, life extension
The October Journal Club will be focusing on a new study in worms where a combination of compounds acted in synergy to almost double lifespan.
SUMMARY There is growing interest in pharmacological interventions directly targeting the aging process. Pharmacological interventions against aging should be efficacious when started in adults and, ideally, repurpose existing drugs. We show that dramatic lifespan extension can be achieved by targeting multiple, evolutionarily conserved aging pathways and mechanisms using drug combinations. Using this approach in C. elegans, we were able to slow aging and significantly extend healthy lifespan. To identify the mechanism of these drug synergies, we applied transcriptomics and lipidomics analysis. We found that drug interactions involved the TGF-b pathway and recruited genes related with IGF signaling. daf-2, daf-7, and sbp-1 interact upstream of changes in lipid metabolism, resulting in increased monounsaturated fatty acid content and this is required for healthy lifespan extension. These data suggest that combinations of drugs targeting distinct subsets of the aging gene regulatory network can be leveraged to cause synergistic lifespan benefits.
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Oct 30, 2018
Eye scan may detect Alzheimer’s disease in seconds
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience
Oct 29, 2018
Studies raise questions over how epigenetic information is inherited
Posted by Xavier Rosseel in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, health
Evidence has been building in recent years that our diet, our habits or traumatic experiences can have consequences for the health of our children — and even our grandchildren. The explanation that has gained most currency for how this occurs is so-called ‘epigenetic inheritance’ — patterns of chemical ‘marks’ on or around our DNA that are hypothesised to be passed down the generations. But new research from the University of Cambridge suggests that this mechanism of non-genetic inheritance is likely to be very rare.
A second study, also from Cambridge, suggests, however, that one way that environmental effects are passed on may in fact be through molecules produced from the DNA known as RNA that are found in a father’s sperm.
The mechanism by which we inherit innate characteristics from our parents is well understood: we inherit half of our genes from our mother and half from our father. However, the mechanism whereby a ‘memory’ of the parent’s environment and behaviour might be passed down through the generations is not understood.
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