A new treatment strategy could increase the success rate of stem cell transplants, according to University of Queensland researchers.
The approach removes the need for donor matching and the use of immunosuppressant drugs to prevent rejection, and could make stem cell treatment accessible to more patients.
UQ Diamantina Institute researcher Dr Jatin Patel said researchers found immunosuppressant drugs had a negative impact on the transplanted stem cells.
Should there be any ethical or legal boundaries to technologies that enhance humans? I pondered this last week as I read an online article about the recent trials of upper-body “exoskeletons” by production line staff at Volkswagen and at Chrysler-Fiat. These lightweight wearable frames greatly reduce the physical strain of repetitive overhead assembly work, and will be an important industrial enhancement as workforces age.
We tend to think of medical advancement in terms of better cures for diseases and recovery from injury. Enhancement however goes beyond therapy, and extends us in ways that some may argue are unnatural. Some human enhancements are of course also pre-emptive therapeutic interventions. Vaccination is both an enhancement of our immune system, and a therapeutic intervention. However, in cases where there is little preventative justification, what degree of enhancement is acceptable?
We drink coffee expecting our work performance to improve. We accept non-elective operations, breast implants, orthodontic improvements and other interventions which improve our perception of ourselves. We generally accept such enhancements with little question. However devices and drugs that improve athletic performance can lead us to question their legitimacy.
Intervene Immune is a company focused on the age-related decline of the immune system, which is known as immunosenescence. Here, Bobby Brooke, CEO of Intervene Immune, discusses the clinical potential of regenerating the thymus as a means of reversing age-related immune system decline.
Earlier this year, we hosted the Ending Age-Related Diseases 2018 conference at the Cooper Union, New York City. This was a conference designed to bring together the best in the aging research and biotech investment worlds and saw a range of industry experts sharing their insights.
As the human body ages, the thymus begins to shrink, and fewer numbers of T cells are created and trained to fight. The thymus tissue also turns to fat rather than healthy immune cell-producing thymic tissue. Eventually, the thymus wastes away, becoming a useless fatty organ that no longer produces immune cells.
This structural decay of the thymus and the failure of the immune system when we are old opens us up to multiple age-related diseases, particularly cancer, along with infectious diseases, such as pneumonia and flu.
To understand the mechanisms by which molecules act in cells, or the effects of drugs on them, it would be ideal to be able to track individual molecules, including where in the cell they are located and what modifications they undergo when conditions in the cell change. However, this has proven difficult with existing technologies, particularly given the amount of time required to perform such monitoring.
A research team centered at Osaka University, in collaboration with RIKEN, has developed a system that can overcome these difficulties by automatically searching for, focusing on, imaging, and tracking single molecules within living cells. The team showed that this approach could analyze hundreds of thousands of single molecules in hundreds of cells in a short period, providing reliable data on the status and dynamics of molecules of interest.
For the development of this method, reported in the journal Nature Communications, the team used an artificial intelligence-based system, involving the training of neural networks to learn to focus correctly on a sample and to automatically search for cells, followed by the tracking of single fluorescently labeled molecules with a total internal reflection fluorescence microscope.
Anversa, who according to publications was most recently affiliated with the Cardiocentro Ticino and University of Zurich, could not be reached for comment. An email to his address at Cardiocentro Ticino bounced back. A number of Anversa’s co-authors either did not immediately respond to a request for comment, or declined.
“We are committed to upholding the highest ethical standards and to rigorously maintaining the integrity of our research,” Harvard and the Brigham said. “Any concerns brought to our attention are reviewed in accordance with institutional policies and applicable regulations.”
Anversa received his MD from the University of Parma in Italy and gained prominence as a stem-cell researcher at New York Medical College in Valhalla, N.Y., where he worked before moving to Harvard Medical School and the Brigham in 2007. Anversa became a full professor in 2010, joined in that rank that year by Dr. José Baselga, who earlier this fall resigned his post at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center amid reports that he failed to adequately disclose financial conflicts of interest.
New Aubrey interview.
Today we explore human longevity and life extension efforts focused on adding healthy years to a person’s lifespan, and even reversing the aging process.
My guest is Dr. Aubrey de Grey, a leading voice in the field and the Chief Science Officer of the SENS Research Foundation which is doing pioneering work on significantly extending healthy, active lifespans. Aubrey is a biomedical gerontologist with a degree in Computer Science and a Ph.D. in Biology. He is author of the book “Ending Aging” and Editor-in-Chief of the scientific journal “Rejuvenation Research”.
We explore such concepts the “pro aging trance”, “longevity escape velocity” and “comprehensive damage repair” that can sustain a human body.
Podcast version at: https://is.gd/MM_on_iTunes
More on Aubrey and the SENS Research Foundation: https://www.sens.org
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MIND & MACHINE features interviews by August Bradley with leaders in transformational technologies. More at: https://www.MindAndMachine.io
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Sputnik’s interlocutor has a medallion with a phone number and instructions for what to do if he dies. So it’s highly likely that if he dies he will end up where he and Sputnik have come.
Freeze Your Own Grandma
Danila Medvedev is a 38-year-old futurist, transhumanist and Chairman of the board of the Russian company KrioRus. The company was founded in 2006 and, as you can guess from its name, deals with the question of how to preserve the bodies of dead people for a future awakening.
