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Archive for the ‘biotech/medical’ category: Page 2020

Mar 7, 2016

Google Ventures‘ Bill Maris Investing in Idea of Living to 500

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, business, life extension

This article is a year old, but it is the first I’ve seen it. This guy has access to hundreds of millions of dollars per year and has this wonderful quote to go with it: “If you ask me today, is it possible to live to be 500? The answer is yes,” Bill Maris says.


Bill Maris has $425 million to invest this year, and the freedom to invest it however he wants. He’s looking for companies that will slow aging, reverse disease, and extend life.

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Mar 6, 2016

Researchers think they’ve just found a new kind of stem cell

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Though their use is marred by controversy and debate, stem cells are one of our best bets when it comes to developing regenerative treatments for a plethora of different conditions. Now, scientists believe they’ve found a brand new type of stem cell hidden in plain sight called XEN, also referred to as iXEN, and it could lead to new ways to study birth defects and reproductive problems.

Before we dive into the latest discovery, it’s worth mentioning how researchers have been using stem cells up to this point. Pluripotent stem cells are so important because they have the potential to develop into every cell in the body, effectively allowing researchers to heal any type of tissue. In the past, these cells were harvested from embryos, but researchers have now figured out how to unlock the potential of pluripotent stem cells using adult cells — avoiding the controversy.

These cells are known as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) and researchers create them by “reactivating embryonic genes to ‘reprogram’ mature adult cells”. By doing so, researchers can to an extent, control what these cells become, which means they have the power to regrow damaged tissues.

Continue reading “Researchers think they’ve just found a new kind of stem cell” »

Mar 6, 2016

Scientists trying to clone extinct Ice Age cave lions using DNA from 12,000 year old remains

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

The project is a joint venture by Russian and South Korean scientists at the Joint Foundation of Molecular Paleontology at North East Russia University in the city of Yakutsk. They will use one of the cubs for the cloning process whilst the other will be kept in a museum.


Remains of two lion cubs were found in Russia’s north-eastern Sakha Republic in August 2015.

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Mar 6, 2016

New Metal Can Become Soft and Stiff Just Like Human Muscles

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, engineering, robotics/AI, transportation

This looks very promising.


The human body is designed pretty well: Our muscles are able to switch between strength and dexterity, limbs stiffening when we do an energy-fueled task like lifting a bowling ball and softening when we do something delicate like painting with a brush. This ability is very rarely replicated in engineering systems, namely because it’s expensive, but also because it’s been damn hard to clone.

Continue reading “New Metal Can Become Soft and Stiff Just Like Human Muscles” »

Mar 6, 2016

Own Your DNA

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

What happens when you no longer own your own DNA sequencing and the person who has it refuses to release it to you?.


Having your genome sequenced doesn’t always mean you have full access to the data.

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Mar 6, 2016

3D-Printed Drugs Coming Soon

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, biotech/medical, health

Frankly, in the US this makes me really nervous. Placing drug making 3D printers in your local pharmacies. I hope that the manufacturer has a mechanism setup to cause the machine not to work if it is stolen by the local drug gangs.


The brave new world of 3D-printed drugs in the healthcare industry is heating up.

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Mar 5, 2016

Verily Is Building A Google For Medical Information

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing

The company’s CEO, Andy Conrad: The most important tool in medicine is a computer.

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Mar 4, 2016

Investigators Use WGS, Mutational Analysis to Characterize Drug-Resistant Salmonella Epidemiology

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics

The researchers sequenced bacteria samples sourced from all over the world to reconstruct a phylogenetic tree and learn how it evolved to have multidrug resistance.

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Mar 4, 2016

Genome of Virulent Fungus Missing Parts of RNAi Pathways Present in Related Species

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Finding the missing link in RNAi Pathways.


By comparing Cryptococcus genomes, Duke researchers found that C. deuterogattii lacks certain RNAi pathway genes, possibly contributing to its high virulence.

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Mar 4, 2016

Researcher develops technique for enhancing gene therapy

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, neuroscience

Using his knowledge of how genes are organized and repaired in human cells, Dr. Graham Dellaire, Dalhousie Medical School’s Cameron Research Scientist in Cancer Biology, has developed a technique that could make gene therapy more effective and safer to use. His work was recently published in Nucleic Acids Research and Nature.

CRISPR, named 2015’s breakthrough discovery of the year, stands for “Clustered Regularly-Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats.” It can accurately target and edit DNA, offering the potential to cure genetic diseases and find new treatments for cancer.

To apply CRISPR in non-dividing cells—such as those in muscle and brain tissue—researchers must first make them behave like cells that divide. They do this by turning on a cellular process called homologous recombination, which protects DNA; the recombination allows a cell’s genes to be manipulated and rearranged without the possibility of causing more harm than good.

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