Lifeboat Foundation

A new approach to treating diabetes sees gene therapy altering other cells in the pancreas so they produce insulin to replace the beta cells that are attacked by the immune system.

Progress has been made towards a potential solution to type 1 diabetes. The novel approach seeks to cure type 1 diabetes and to allow type 2 diabetics to stop using insulin shots by altering other cells in the pancreas so they produce insulin.

The research team based at UT Health San Antonio have found a way to increase the types of pancreatic cells that secrete insulin. The team are now moving towards starting clinical trials in the next three year but they are first testing the approach in larger sized animals, these studies are believed to cost an estimated $5 million.

Continue reading “Treating Diabetes” »

An article discussing the benefits of rejuvenation for your friends and family.

Rejuvenation biotechnologies would bring significant benefits to individuals, but these benefits would indirectly extend to their families and friends too. The ways they can benefit from the rejuvenation of others might be not so obvious, so let’s have a look at them together.

Nearly everyone knows how terrible it is to lose people dear to you. Maybe your grandparents died when you were a child, and that might have been your first encounter with death, at an age when you still couldn’t properly comprehend it. Maybe it happened suddenly, or maybe your grandparents have suffered for long before passing away. Eventually, the moment comes when you start thinking that the same fate awaits your parents, your siblings, your friends. Rejuvenation would spare you seeing your elderly relatives and friends wilt away, suffer and die, because none of that would happen to them. Of course, rejuvenation would spare this pain to your friends and relatives too. Your children and grandchildren would never have to see you become sicker and sicker as you age, and would never—in principle—have to bury you. Today, being 80 means you often have to attend the funeral of a dear friend who passed away. People who have been important parts of your life just keep dying.

This is one of the first articles I’ve seen specifically on #Judiasm and #transhumaism, with input by rabbis. Naturally the article is cautious, but interesting too.

Transhumanism, an intellectual and cultural movement supporting the use of science and technology to improve human mental and physical characteristics and capacities, a concept once limited to the realm of science-fiction, is now becoming more of a reality than ever before. The once outlier philosophy is quickly becoming mainstream, an accepted part of the social conscience that is the new religion for the anti-religious, including its own Messianic vision.

There are many aspects to the transhumanism philosophy, often abbreviated as H+ or h+, including physical longevity through medical breakthroughs and/or merging mankind with machines. Many transhumanists advocate transferring the sum total of a person’s knowledge and experiences into a computer and recreating the individual as a form of artificial intelligence ( AI ) in order to extend an individual’s life.

Continue reading “Synergy Between Torah and Science: How Far is TOO Far?” »

Rudrapur, Uttrakhand, India — July 02, 2017

Revita Life Sciences, (http://revitalife.co.in) a biotechnology company focused on translational regenerative therapeutic applications, has announced that it is continuing to advance their novel, multi-modality clinical intervention in the state of brain death in humans.

“We have proactively continued to advance our multi-modality protocol, as an extended treatment before extubation, in an attempt to reverse the state of brain death” said Mr.Pranjal Agrawal, CEO Revita Life Sciences. “This treatment approach has yielded some very encouraging initial outcome signs, ranging from minor observations on blood pressure changes with response to painful stimuli, to eye opening and finger movements, with corresponding transient to permanent reversal changes in EEG patterns.”

Continue reading “Revita Life Sciences Continues to Advance Multi-Modality Protocol in Attempt to Revive Brain Dead Subjects” »

The June Journal Club video is now available for your viewing pleasure. Dr. Oliver Medvedik talks about telomeres and cellular reprogramming in this latest edition of our new live streamed monthly show.

It has been a busy few months since we launched our Lifespan Heroes campaign on Lifespan.io the aim of which is to help us expand the scale and scope of our activities.

Continue reading “Journal Club June 2017 Video Available” »

Gearing up for clinical trials.

Liz discusses how we can overcome the limits on human health and lifespan; elaborating on BioViva’s role as a translational engine to provide access to cutting-edge therapies for those most in need.

http://journey100.org | Journey to 100 is a world-exclusive conference exploring ideas for a new and sustainable approach to lifelong health. The day kick starts a 10-year project that aims to make Guernsey the first community in the world to break through the 100-year life expectancy barrier.

Continue reading “BioViva at Journey to 100” »

As if anyone needed any excuse to drink more beer, a team of researchers have managed to produce an alcoholic beverage that also contains probiotics. In a novel breakthrough, they claim that the beer could help improve gut health and immunity, though the science is still out on that last one.

There are plenty of dairy-based probiotics, but currently there are no beers that also contain probiotics, mainly because beer contains something known as hop acids, which limit the growth and survival of potential probiotics. This spurred the researchers at the National University of Singapore to see if they could manage it.

They succeeded in developing a sour beer that can support the probiotic strain known as Lactobacillus paracasei L26. This particular probiotic is already found in the human gut, and there is some evidence that it might be able to regulate the immune system.

Continue reading “Researchers Produce World’s First Probiotic Beer” »

CRISPR technology is transforming biomedical research and is at the heart of numerous recent discoveries — but if no one can pay for treatments it produces, how will we make use of it? Experts have a range of ideas to solve this knotty problem.

Rapid developments in brain-machine interfacing and neuroprosthetics are revolutionizing the way we treat paralyzed people, but the same technologies could eventually be put to more generalized use—a development that’ll turn many of us into veritable cyborgs. Before we get to that point, however, we’ll need to make sure these neural devices are safe, secure, and as hacker-proof as possible.

In anticipation of our cyborg future, researchers from the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering in Geneva Switzerland have published a new Policy Forum paper in Science titled, “Help, hope, and hype: Ethical dimensions of neuroprosthetics.” The intent of the authors is to raise awareness of this new breed of neurotechnologies, and the various ways they can be abused. Importantly, the researchers come up with some ways to mitigate potential problems before they arise.