Biotech/medical – Lifeboat News: The Blog

Apr 12
2019

Ketamine reverses neural changes underlying depression-related behaviors in mice

Researchers have identified ketamine-induced brain-related changes that are responsible for maintaining the remission of behaviors related to depression in mice—findings that may help researchers develop interventions that promote lasting remission of depression in humans. The study, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health, appears in the journal Science.

Major depression is one of the most common mental disorders in the United States, with approximately 17.3 million adults experienced a major depressive episode in 2017. However, many of the neural changes underlying the transitions between active depression, remission, and depression re-occurrence remain unknown. Ketamine, a fast-acting antidepressant which relieves depressive symptoms in hours instead of weeks or longer, provides an opportunity for researchers to investigate the short- and long-term biological changes underlying these transitions.

“Ketamine is a potentially transformative treatment for depression, but one of the major challenges associated with this drug is sustaining recovery after the initial treatment,” said study author Conor Liston, M.D., Ph.D., of Weill Cornell Medicine, New York City.

Apr 12
2019

Undoing Aging 2019: Highlights and Impressions

Guest writer Dr. Asimina Pantazi gives her impressions of the recent Berlin Undoing Aging Conference from the point of view of someone working in research.

As a millennial with limited orientation abilities but expertise with digital tools, I used Google Maps to find the venue, fearing that I would have no data and would get lost in Berlin, only to find out that I was only a couple of meters away from to the venue entrance.

The Undoing Aging 2019 conference took place on May 28–30 at Umspannwerk Alexanderplatz: a multi-level industrial setting, with metal stairs, funky lights, and a balcony overlooking the minimal conference hall. This gave me my first positive vibes.

Aubrey de Grey of the SENS Research Foundation and Michael Greve of the Forever Healthy Foundation organized a three-day event that focused on the cellular and molecular repair of age-related damage in order to medically control aging. The conference brought together a diverse audience from all corners of the world: scientists, doctors, students, biotechs, startups, pharma, investors, the media, government representatives, policy makers, and anti-aging research enthusiasts; many of them were Russians, and their country was impressively represented there!

Apr 12
2019

Scientists can now keep brains alive without a body

A team of scientists recently revealed they’d successfully conducted experiments on hundreds of pigs that involved keeping their brains alive for up to 36 hours after the animals had been decapitated.

Maybe Sergio Canavero, the mad scientist who wants to perform a brain transplant on a human, isn’t so crazy after all.

Apr 12
2019

Científicos descubren sistema digestivo en miniatura dentro de un tumor pulmonar

Las células cancerígenas habían formado en el pulmón del paciente un minisistema digestivo con estómago, duodeno e intestino.

Apr 12
2019

Deep Knowledge Analytics Photo

Announces the publication of a new open-access quarterly report: AI for Drug Discovery, Biomarker Development and Advanced R&D Landscape Overview 2019/Q1. Except for providing the analysis of 350 investors, 50 corporations and 150 companies operating in the field, the main events that took place in the industry from January to March 2019 are covered. The report also features the list of 30 leading R&D centers that provide important researches in the segment.

Link to the Report: https://www.ai-pharma.dka.global/quarter-1-2019

#AI #artificialintelligence #drugdiscovery

Apr 11
2019

Aging Analytics Agency Photo 4

Presents its list of the top 30 FemTech Influencers, whose efforts in the FemTech Healthcare, FemTech Preventive Medicine and FemTech Longevity sectors have helped to grow the industry to its current state of maturity.

Jill Angelo genneve Elina Berglund Natural Cycles Starling Bank Tania Boler Elvie Ghela Boskovich Judith Campisi Adia Femtech Collective Dame Products EMBR Robin Starbuck Farmanfarmaian Cora Lifestyle Angie Lee Janet Lieberman Nuala Murphy Moment.Health Elena Mustatea Bold Health Anastasia Georgievskaya Haut.AI Maven Clinic THINX Nicole Shanahan Clearaccessip, Inc. Tammy Sun Ida Tin

Link to the Report: https://www.aginganalytics.com/femtech-healthcare-q1-2019

Apr 11
2019

Strange anti-ageing effect of space travel discovered in NASA’s Twin Study

When NASA set out to study identical twin astronauts, leaving one on Earth and sending the other to the International Space Station (ISS) for a year, they expected that the rigours of microgravity would have largely negative impacts.

But on board the ISS, Scott Kelly, 51, underwent a very strange transformation which has left scientists scratching their heads.

The telomeres in his white blood cells got longer. Telomeres are the protective caps which sit at the end of chromosomes, protecting the DNA inside, like the plastic aglets on the end of shoelaces.

Apr 11
2019

Landmark NASA Twins Study Reveals Space Travel’s Effects on the Human Body

End analysis: No long term or irreversible damage due to long term space exposure.

Here’s what happens on long-duration space missions.

Apr 11
2019

Engineers tap DNA to create ‘lifelike’ machines

As a genetic material, DNA is responsible for all known life. But DNA is also a polymer. Tapping into the unique nature of the molecule, Cornell engineers have created simple machines constructed of biomaterials with properties of living things.

Using what they call DASH (DNA-based Assembly and Synthesis of Hierarchical) materials, Cornell engineers constructed a DNA material with capabilities of metabolism, in addition to self-assembly and organization – three key traits of life.

“We are introducing a brand-new, lifelike material concept powered by its very own artificial metabolism. We are not making something that’s alive, but we are creating materials that are much more lifelike than have ever been seen before,” said Dan Luo, professor of biological and environmental engineering in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Apr 11
2019

A Moss Can Naturally Clean Harmful Arsenic From Water

If you happen to be thirsty in the woods, there are a lot of things you can stick in your canteen to help clean up your drinking water. There are chlorine pills and filters (not crystals — never crystals). And now scientists have identified a certain kind of moss that could do it, too.

The moss is called Warnstorfia fluitans. It grows in Swedish wetlands contaminated with the toxic arsenic from nearby mining operations. Researchers found that the moss brought the arsenic levels of water down to drinkable levels surprisingly quickly, according to research published in the journal Environmental Pollution.

In northern Sweden, iron mines have contaminated much of the water with arsenic, a metal that is also toxic to humans. That harmful combination works its way into agricultural products like rice, traveling throughout the food web.