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Archive for the ‘biotech/medical’ category: Page 2296

Mar 18, 2018

Researchers catch the molecule triggering inflammation in autoimmune diseases

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

In a first, a research team catches a rogue molecule in the act — one implicated in the inflammation of autoimmune diseases like arthritis.

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Mar 17, 2018

Team develops 3D tissue model of a developing human heart

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

Utilizing induced pluripotent stem cells for regenerative medicine.


The #heart is the first organ to develop in the womb and the first cause of concern for many parents.

For expecting mothers, the excitement of pregnancy is often offset by anxiety over medication they require. Parents and doctors often have to consider the mother’s health as well as the potential risk regarding how medication could affect their baby. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires certain drugs to be labeled with pregnancy exposure and risk. Some drugs are labeled to show that testing on animals has failed to demonstrate a risk but there are no adequate and well-controlled studies of pregnant women.

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Mar 17, 2018

Aubrey and myself announcing a new way to get more scientists to work on cures for aging — The Forever Healthy Foundation Fellowship in Rejuvenation Biotechnology

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

All Ph.D.s invited smile

Details: https://www.undoing-aging.org/news/request-for-proposal-anno…technology

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Mar 16, 2018

New therapeutic gel shows promise against cancerous tumors!

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Scientists at the UNC School of Medicine and NC State have created an injectable gel-like scaffold that can hold combination #chemo-immunotherapeutic drugs and deliver them locally to tumors in a sequential manner. The results in animal models so far suggest this approach could one day ramp up therapeutic benefits for patients bearing tumors or after removal of the primary tumors.

The research, published in Science Translational Medicine, focused on two specific types of melanoma and breast #cancer, but this approach could work in other tissue types. Also, the research showed that this localized delivery of combination therapy significantly inhibited the recurrence of cancer after the primary was surgically removed.

“We’ve created a simple method to use #chemotherapy while leveraging the biology of the #tumor and our natural defense against foreign invaders to beat back with limited side effects,” said senior author Zhen Gu, PhD, associate professor in the joint UNC/NCSU Biomedical Engineering Department. “We have a lot more work to do before human clinical trials, but we think this approach holds great promise.”

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Mar 16, 2018

Bionic Kidney To Replace Dialysis

Posted by in categories: aging, bioengineering, bionic, biotech/medical

It’s not uncommon for the press to get hyped up before the long process of refinement and FDA approval. Let’s hope that this one moves along quickly — while demonstrating safety and efficacy.

https://www.troab.com/worlds-first-bionic-kidney-set-replace…-two-years

Mar 16, 2018

Undoing Aging With Aubrey de Grey Part Three

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

Parte 3 of the SENS Research Foundation interview by LEAF is out!


Welcome to part three and the final part of our SENS Undoing Aging 2018 interview; we have a few more scientific questions today for Aubrey and his team as well as questions about future developments and taking new therapies to market.

Dr. de Grey, has your position on the relevance of telomere attrition changed since you first devised SENS, especially in the light of the recent results with fibrosis and your involvement with AgeX?

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Mar 16, 2018

Hybrid artificial-natural cells bring together the best of both worlds

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical

Sometimes I think I’m jumping the gun when speculating. Take this further, a better full body replacement?


The more we study natural biological cells, the more we learn about how to control them or build artificial versions. These independent avenues of study have huge potential, but also their limitations. Researchers from Imperial College London have worked out a way to borrow the strengths of each, fusing together living and non-living cells to create tiny chemical factories that might one day aid drug delivery.

In past work, scientists have packaged proteins and enzymes inside artificial casings to better treat conditions like cancer or diabetes. Rather than just using some natural parts, the Imperial College study instead wrapped entire biological cells inside artificial ones.

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Mar 15, 2018

Blood, Fraud and Money Led to Theranos CEO’s Fall From Grace

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, economics

“The Theranos story is an important lesson for Silicon Valley,” said Jina Choi, director of the SEC’s San Francisco Regional Office. “Innovators who seek to revolutionize and disrupt an industry must tell investors the truth about what their technology can do today, not just what they hope it might do someday.”


Elizabeth Holmes raised hundreds of millions of dollars from investors on the promise that her medical-testing startup Theranos Inc. would change medicine with a single drop of blood. On Wednesday, securities regulators called her a fraud and forced her to give up the company she built.

The lawsuit and settlement announced Wednesday by the U.Securities and Exchange Commission detailed how Holmes and her chief deputy lied for years about their technology, snookered the media, and used the publicity to get investors to hand more than $700 million to keep the closely held company afloat.

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Mar 14, 2018

A Year in Space Changed 7% of This Astronaut’s DNA

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, space travel

Spending an extended period of time in outer space takes a toll on the human body. And while NASA was aware of some physical changes that astronauts needed to be prepared for upon coming back to Earth, they were curious to learn further about how extended space time would affect a human body on a molecular level. After one astronaut spent a year in space, NASA was able to determine that the prolonged spaceflight actually altered his DNA.

Astronaut Scott Kelly and his twin brother Mark Kelly took part in NASA’s twin study, a means to compare the human body on Earth to its counterpart following a year in space. While Scott spent a year in space, Mark stayed behind, and upon Scott’s return, NASA was able to track and monitor the ways that spaceflight had altered Scott’s body.

via GIPHY

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Mar 14, 2018

Hospitals use protons to fight cancer

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

The difference between traditional radiation and proton therapy is in how the radiation is delivered.

Traditional therapy irradiates tumors with X-ray waves, and all tissue along the beams’ path gets a similar dose of radiation.

Proton therapy instead uses beams of protons, charged subatomic particles that can be controlled with magnets. A small amount of radiation is deposited on the way into the body, most of it goes directly into the tumor, and none passes through the other side.

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