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Category: biotech/medical – Page 284

Diego Zarco develops biostasis in Mexico

Cryonics and biostasis have been little known and even less practiced in South America. Diego Zarco is working to change that in Mexico. Diego started Criogenia Avanzada in Mexico City and has been developing and funding the organization, preparing to offer SST (standby, stabilization, and transport) services with storage to be done outside the country.

In this discussion, Max More asks Diego how he become interested in cryonics, what his organization does, where Criogenia Avanzada is located in the city and how it will reach patients quickly, and how his experience in the music industry prepared him for the difficult work of making biostasis work in practice.

The Future of Transplants: Stopping Rejection Before It Starts — Dr. Janine Gaiha-Rohrbach — Biogen

Dr. Janine Gaiha-Rohrbach, Ph.D. — Head of Global Medical Immunology, Biogen.

Preventing transplant loss doesn’t just save organs—it could eliminate hospitalizations, reduce lifelong medications, and transform millions of lives.

Dr. Janine Gaiha-Rohrbach, Ph.D. is a globally recognized leader in immunology and medical strategy, currently serving as Head of Global Medical Immunology at Biogen (https://www.biogen.com/).

With a PhD in Immunology and Virology from the University Hospital of Berne and extensive postdoctoral research at the Ragon Institute of Mass General Brigham, MIT, and Harvard, Dr. Gaiha-Rohrbach has dedicated her career to translating complex scientific advances into high-impact patient care.

Throughout her career, Dr. Gaiha-Rohrbach has driven innovation across diverse therapeutic areas, including HIV, hepatitis, NASH, and specialized immunology, leading multiple new product launches and shaping global strategies to expand patient access.

Continue reading “The Future of Transplants: Stopping Rejection Before It Starts — Dr. Janine Gaiha-Rohrbach — Biogen” | >

Scientists Discover How to Stop Vision Loss Before It Starts

Scientists have identified molecules that can protect the eye’s cone cells from degeneration, a major cause of vision loss. The discovery points to new drug targets—and even uncovers compounds that may be harmful.

Researchers led by Botond Roska at the Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel (IOB), along with an international team, have uncovered genetic pathways and chemical compounds that can help protect cone photoreceptors. These cells are damaged in diseases such as age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of vision loss.

Why cone cells matter for sight.

How “mindreading” AI detects hidden suicidal thoughts in the brains of young adults

A recent study published in Human Brain Mapping provides evidence that young adults experiencing suicidal thoughts process concepts related to death differently in their brains compared to healthy individuals. The findings indicate that these individuals reflexively associate death-related ideas with their own sense of self. This research suggests that brain imaging combined with artificial intelligence could eventually help identify people at risk for suicide based on how their brains represent specific words.

If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts or a mental health crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 to reach the free and confidential Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, or chat live at 988lifeline.org.

While mental health professionals typically rely on patients to report their feelings, people at risk for suicide do not always disclose their struggles. Finding an objective physical measurement in the brain could help identify those in need of support.

Depression is linked to a genuine pessimistic bias rather than a realistic view of the world

A recent study published in the journal Behaviour Research and Therapy provides evidence that people experiencing symptoms of depression hold genuinely pessimistic biases about future positive events, rather than simply viewing the world more realistically. The research suggests that while individuals with depression can update their beliefs when desirable things happen, these hopeful shifts tend to be fragile and easily reversed.

The study was designed to test whether the negative thinking patterns seen in depression reflect a genuine bias or just an absence of normal optimism. For decades, experts have debated the idea of depressive realism, a concept suggesting that depressed individuals actually see the world more accurately than healthy individuals, who tend to be overly optimistic. To test this, the researchers wanted to see how people predict everyday life events and how they adjust those expectations when real life proves them wrong.

“We know that depression involves a generally pessimistic outlook on life. Previous research has shown that people with high depressive symptoms tend to underestimate the likelihood of positive outcomes in their lives,” said study author Joe Maffly-Kipp, a postdoctoral fellow in the Mood & Individual Differences Lab (MIND Lab) at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

Study of 6 Million People Could Rewrite How We Understand Mental Health

From the article:

The study also identified specific brain cell types associated with the genetic patterns.

For the schizophrenia bipolar group, the strongest genetic signals appeared in genes active in excitatory neurons. These neurons transmit signals that activate other brain cells and help different parts of the brain communicate.

In contrast, genetic risk tied to internalizing disorders such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD showed stronger links to oligodendrocytes. These cells help nerve signals travel more efficiently through the brain.

“The findings suggest these ‘support cells’ might play an important role in those conditions,” said Verhulst, research assistant professor and an expert in quantitative and statistical genetics.”

A massive genetic analysis of more than 6 million people is revealing new clues about why mental health disorders frequently overlap.

Continue reading “Study of 6 Million People Could Rewrite How We Understand Mental Health” | >

Pitfalls and Potential of Dementia Prevention Trials

💬 Editorial by Holly Elser, MD, PhD, and Jonathan Graff-Radford, MD:

Recent randomized clinical trials on dementia prevention highlight several challenges in interpreting lifestyle intervention studies, including practice and Hawthorne effects, modest changes in cognitive outcomes, and heterogeneity in both trial design and participant baseline risk.

The trial by Zhang et al—evaluating aerobic exercise and intensive vascular risk reduction—showed no significant cognitive benefit over 2 years in older adults at elevated risk, underscoring the potential influence of midlife vs late-life intervention timing and the need for longer trials or biomarker-enriched cohorts to better assess dementia prevention strategies.

Dementia prevention is a global public health priority,1,2 with up to 45% of cases potentially attributable to modifiable risk factors over the life course.3 While recent landmark trials, including FINGER, SPRINT MIND, and POINTER, suggest either single-or multidomain lifestyle interventions can improve cognitive outcomes,4-6 others have shown no clear benefit,7,8 thus highlighting ongoing uncertainty in the field.

In this issue of JAMA Neurol ogy, Zhang and colleagues9 report the results of a single-blind, multicenter randomized clinical trial of the effects of exercise and intensive vascular risk reduction on cognitive function. Eligible study participants were between the ages of 60 and 85 years at baseline with a history of hypertension, family history of dementia, or self-reported cognitive decline. The study used a 2 × 2 factorial design wherein participants were randomized to aerobic exercise training alone, intensive pharmacological reduction of cardiovascular risk factors (IRVR) alone, both aerobic exercise and IRVR, or usual care for a 24-month period. The IRVR protocol lowered systolic blood pressure to less than 130 mm Hg, and participants with baseline serum low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) of 70 mg/dL or higher were also treated with a high-intensity statin.

Studying 2 distinct human cohorts with recent exposure to TB

https://doi.org/10.1172/jci.insight.202134 Paul Ogongo & team find different individual Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigens induce distinct T cell responses, with important implications for TB vaccine development.

5Center for Global Health Research, Kenya Medical Research Institute, Kisumu, Kenya.

6Center for Vaccine Innovation, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, La Jolla, California, USA.

7Department of Infectious Disease and Immunology, Center for Vaccine Research, Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark.

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