Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: biotech/medical – Page 2,517

The biotechnology sector’s fastest-growing segment, immuno-oncology, has become the hottest buzzword for investment in Asia.

The field, that uses the body’s own immune system to help fight cancer, has seen two mega acquisitions in the United States in recent months.

And Hong Kong stock exchange is now tuning into its strong future, with Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) already agreeing to revamp listing rules that will fast track applications by firms linked with the sector to help more innovative drugs and medical devices developers go public as soon as early this summer, and raise much-needed development cash.

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Disruption of the regulator for G protein signaling 14 (RGS14) knockout (KO) in mice extends their lifespan and has multiple beneficial effects related to healthful aging, that is, protection from obesity, as reflected by reduced white adipose tissue, protection against cold exposure, and improved metabolism. The observed beneficial effects were mediated by improved mitochondrial function. But most importantly, the main mechanism responsible for the salutary properties of the RGS14 KO involved an increase in brown adipose tissue (BAT), which was confirmed by surgical BAT removal and transplantation to wild‐type (WT) mice, a surgical simulation of a molecular knockout. This technique reversed the phenotype of the RGS14 KO and WT, resulting in loss of the improved metabolism and protection against cold exposure in RGS14 KO and conferring this protection to the WT BAT recipients. Another mechanism mediating the salutary features in the RGS14 KO was increased SIRT3. This mechanism was confirmed in the RGS14 X SIRT3 double KO, which no longer demonstrated improved metabolism and protection against cold exposure. Loss of function of the Caenorhabditis elegans RGS‐14 homolog confirmed the evolutionary conservation of this mechanism. Thus, disruption of RGS14 is a model of healthful aging, as it not only enhances lifespan, but also protects against obesity and cold exposure and improves metabolism with a key mechanism of increased BAT, which, when removed, eliminates the features of healthful aging.

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A clinical-grade retinal implant made of human #embryonic stem cell (#hESC)–derived RPE grown on a synthetic substrate has been developed by Kashani and team. The progressive binding disease that causes loss of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) of the eye is known as #Non-neovascular age-related macular degeneration (#NNAMD). Currently there are only preventative measures that can be taken but there is no effective treatment. Some preventative measures include quitting smoking and the use of specific nutritional supplements to reduce the risk of developing NNAMD. The implant was not only shown to be safe in a first-in-human phase 1 clinical trial in five patients with advanced NNAMD, but also well tolerated. Plausible therapeutic effects on visual clarity were reported in the experimental results, indicating that this approach may be beneficial for treating retinal disorders involving #RPE loss.

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Researchers at Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco report that a gene variant associated with Alzheimer’s works differently in mice and humans, and they also demonstrate how modifying this gene could potentially prevent the plaques associated with Alzheimer’s from forming and damaging the brain.

An ApoE3 gene variant is associated with Alzheimer’s disease

The gene apolipoprotein E3 (ApoE3) has a variant known as ApoE4, which is associated with the development and progress of Alzheimer’s disease. People with just one copy of the ApoE4 gene are at twice the risk as people without this gene variant. Some people even have two copies of the ApoE4 gene, which makes their risk of Alzheimer’s a staggering twelve times greater.

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In a big win for the biotech industry, the US Department of Agriculture says once and for all it won’t regulate plants whose genomes have been altered using gene-editing technology.

Why it’s a field day: The decision means that we could see a boom in newfangled plants from firms like Monsanto, universities, and startups like Calyxt, whose oil-altered soybeans featured in our cover story late last year.

Here’s the logic: The USDA says gene editing is just a (much) faster form of breeding. So long as a genetic alteration could have been bred into a plant, it won’t be regulated. That includes changes that create immunity to disease or natural resistance to crop chemicals, as well as edits to make seeds bigger and heavier. It doesn’t include transgenic plants (those with a gene from a distant species)—those will still be regulated.

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  • Basic income will be widespread by the 2030s, according to Google futurist and director of engineering Ray Kurzweil.
  • Kurzweil is known for making seemingly wild predictions. In 2016, he predicted that by 2029, medical technology will add an extra year to human life expectancies on an annual basis.
  • ” We’re going to have more and more powerful technology to keep our physical bodies going. We’ll think, ‘Wow, back in 2018, people only had one body, and they couldn’t back up their mind file,’” he said onstage at TED.

As it becomes apparent that artificial intelligence will replace ever-more jobs in the coming years, a growing number of politicians, nonprofits, and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have started thinking about how we’ll cope with a world in which not everyone can — or needs to — work.

Basic income experiments, in which people are given a regular salary just to live, no strings attached, are popping up all over Europe, Africa, and North America.

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Researchers at the University of Washington have designed a convenient and natural product that uses proteins to rebuild tooth enamel and treat dental cavities.

The research finding was first published in ACS Biomaterials Science and Engineering.

“Remineralization guided by peptides is a healthy alternative to current dental care,” said lead author Mehmet Sarikaya, professor of materials science and engineering and adjunct professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Department of Oral Health Sciences.

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