A neuroscientist’s neon pink arm cast led him and fellow researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis to discover previously undetected neuronal pulses in the human brain that activate after an immobilizing illness or injury.
Category: biotech/medical – Page 2,052
Netflix ‘Pandemic’ Star Just Showed His Covid-19 Antibody Drug Works In Hamsters. How Quickly Could It Treat Humans?
Via Jacob Gunn Glanville
Here’s the Forbes article on our program. Press release and some media to follow. We will be publishing our manuscript within a week to bioarxiv.
Jacob Glanville is an admirer of the human immune system — but he thinks we can do better.
On Tuesday, his company Centivax announced that they have created optimized antibodies that protect hamsters from lethal amounts of the virus that causes COVID-19. Compared to animals that did not receive the antibody, treated hamsters were found to have 97 percent less virus in their lungs after 48 hours.
This is a milestone for Centivax, which is among many companies trying to develop antibody treatments for COVID-19. Centivax’s antibodies are unique, however, in how they are made. Rather than using mammalian cells to produce a protein drug, which is common, slow, and expensive, Centivax is using cheap bacteria.
Technological Singularity Will Be Late But Antiaging and Advanced Biotech is Near
A rejuvenation roadmap, and some info on Rejuvenate Bio.
Ray Kurzweil predicted the Technological Singularity will be reached in 2045. This actually means there will be strong AI, something like AGI that is 1 billion times more capable than the human brain in many aspects.
These Tiny Neutron Generators Could Pave the Way for Fusion
The Madison, Wisconsin-based startup Phoenix has scouted a team of nuclear elites for a new frontier: small reactors that can revolutionize medical imaging, munitions scanning, and even non-destructive testing for quality assurance.
And in the longer term, scientists say training people to run neutron generators helps to familiarize and speed up the future of nuclear fusion.
CAR T cells beyond cancer: Targeting senescence-related diseases
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells have transformed the treatment of refractory blood cancers. These genetically engineered immune cells seek out and destroy cancer cells with precision. Now, scientists at Memorial Sloan Kettering are deploying them against other diseases, including those caused by senescence, a chronic “alarm state” in tissues. The scope of such ailments is vast and includes debilitating conditions, such as fibrotic liver disease, atherosclerosis, and diabetes.
Key to the success of CAR T cell therapy has been finding a good target. The first US Food and Drug Administration-approved CAR T cells target a molecule on the surface of blood cancers called CD19. It is present on cancer cells but few other normal cells, so side effects are limited.
Taking their cue from this prior work, a team of investigators including Scott Lowe, Chair of the Cancer Biology and Genetics Program in the Sloan Kettering Institute, and Michel Sadelain, Director of the Center for Cell Engineering at MSK, along with their trainees Corina Amor, Judith Feucht, and Josef Leibold, sought to identify a target on senescent cells. These cells no longer divide, but they actively send “help me” signals to the immune system.
A flood of coronavirus apps are tracking us. Now it’s time to keep track of them
There’s a deluge of apps that detect your covid-19 exposure, often with little transparency. Our Covid Tracing Tracker project will document them.
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Regeneron Launches Trials of COVID-19 Antibody “Cocktail”
The cocktail, now named REGN-COV2, consists of two antibodies—REGN10933 and REGN10987—that are designed to bind non-competitively to the receptor binding domain of SARS-CoV-2’s spike protein. Regeneron says that such binding diminishes the ability of mutant viruses to escape treatment—with details from preclinical research to be published in upcoming research studies.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals said today it has launched the first clinical trial of its dual-antibody “cocktail” designed to both prevent and treat COVID-19, as well as prevent viral escape. The cocktail, now named REGN-COV2, consists of two antibodies—REGN10933 and REGN10987—that are designed to bind non-competitively to the receptor binding domain of SARS-CoV-2’s spike protein. [Regeneron].
Israeli AI firm that offers early COVID-19 detection gets FDA approval
CLEW, an Israeli medtech firm specializing in real-time AI analytics platforms, received approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its “Predictive Analytics Platform in Support of COVID-19 Patients,” the company announced Tuesday.
The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) solution was given Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) by the FDA so that it may be implemented within the United States’ health system as soon as possible.
