Biotech/medical – Lifeboat News: The Blog

Jan 15
2016

Genomics, Cannabidiols Drive Epilepsy Research

This is excellent news for Epilepsy.

Epilepsy, a disorder in which nerve cell activity in the brain is disturbed, causing seizures, is the fourth most common neurological problem, following only migraine, stroke and Alzheimer’s. There is no cure for epilepsy, but there are a variety of treatment options. The disease is estimated to affect 2.2 million people in the U.S., with 150,000 people developing the condition each year.

Personalized medicine Scientists at AES discussed how new technologies, such as gene editing using CRISPR-Cas9, and next-generation sequencing, are empowering them to take a new crack at the human genome and find new ways to diagnose and treat epilepsy.

“Recent advances in DNA sequencing and genomic technologies has facilitated a flood of discoveries in identifying genetic causes of epilepsy. Where we’ve been most successful is in the epileptic encephalopathies (EE),” lead author of one of the studies presented, Candace Myers, a senior at the University of Washington, said in a press conference.

Jan 15
2016

Frozen Tardigrade Brought Back to Life After 30 Years

Tardigrades, or “water bears,” are renowned for their remarkable survival skills. But these microscopic creatures are far more indestructible than we thought. In a recent experiment, scientists in Japan successfully revived a tardigrade that had been frozen for more than three decades.

That’s a new record.

Tardigrades are tiny water-dwelling extremophiles that are capable of withstanding some of the most severe environmental conditions, including freezing, total dehydration, radiation, and even the vacuum of space. Much of this has to do with their extraordinary genome, of which nearly 18% is comprised of DNA from other organisms, including plants, fungi, bacteria, and viruses.

Jan 14
2016

‘Spermbots’ to aid fertility treatments

Scientists have developed motorised ‘spermbots’ by attaching tiny metal helices to sperm cells that can aid poor swimmers to reach an egg, an advance that could improve fertility treatments.

Jan 14
2016

Scientists use polymer nano-shell treatment to order bones to repair themselves

Was hit by a car when I was younger and broke my leg. This would have been better then a metal rod. Fascinating.

A team of researchers from the University of Michigan has developed a new technique to aid bone repair, using polymer nano-shells to deliver microRNA molecules. The method could one day have a big impact on regenerative medicine, directing cells already present at injury sites to aid healing.

The new study builds on previous research conducted back in 2011, where nanofiber microspheres were used to carry cells to injury sites to help the wounding process. The new work uses the same idea, but rather than transporting foreign cells, focuses on making better use of the cells already at the wound site.

The team developed tiny polymer spheres that are able to easily breach cell walls, carrying microRNA molecules to cells at bone wound sites. The spheres are designed to protect the molecules during transit, degrading once in place in cells at the site of the wound.

Jan 14
2016

‘Fountain Of Youth:’ New Hormone Prolongs Lifespan, Decreases Negative Effects Of Aging In Mice

I was shocked to learn recently that one of the major reasons longevity drugs haven’t been going to human trials, despite obvious promise, is that the FDA requires that any potential drug trial has to have a disease or condition it treats. Because aging hasn’t been seen as a disease or medical condition, no drug trials have been allowed to go forward to treat it. NONE! Finally, late last year, aging has been OFFICIALLY recognized as a disease and is therefor now a valid target disease for drug trials. **sigh**.

Are we one step closer to developing compounds that can extend our lifespan?

Jan 13
2016

Watch Scientists Make These Microbots Move With A Magnetic Force Field

Interesting and could change as well as acellerate our efforts around bot technology and humans as well as other areas of robotic technology.

Like Jedi Knights, researchers at Purdue University are using the force — force fields, that is. (Photo : Windell Oskay | Flickr)

Like Jedi Knights, researchers at Purdue University are using the force — force fields, that is. The team of scientists has discovered a way to control tiny robots with the help of individual magnetic fields, which, in turn, might help us one day learn how to control entire groups of microbots and nanobots in areas like medicine or even manufacturing.

While the idea of controlling microbots might be simple, it’s a deceptively complicated goal, especially if the bots in question are conceivably too small to realistically accommodate a tiny enough battery to power them. This is where the magnetic force fields come into play: they can generate enough energy and charge to move the microbots about — “like using mini force fields.”

Jan 13
2016

7 Mind-Blowing Digital Health Tools That Could Disrupt Health Care in 2016

Wow!!! Chewing gum wearable technology, Cyborg Chips, Ingestible sensors to let doctors know if you’re taking your meds, etc. 2016 is going to be interesting

The phrase “Brave New World” has become one of the most often used clichés in medical technology in recent years. Google the title of Aldous Huxley’s 1932 dystopian, and anticipatory, novel with the word medicine and 2,940,000 results appear.

But could there be better shorthand to describe some of the recent developments in medical, health and bio-tech? Consider these possibilities coming to fruition, or close to, in 2016:

1. Back from Extinction

Gene-editing startup Editas Medicine of Cambridge, Mass., filed to go public this month. The company’s founder, Harvard professor George Church, hopes to, among other things, revive the extinct woolly mammoth or create a facsimile. Investors include Google and Bill Gates.

Jan 13
2016

Scientists have started growing human fallopian tubes in the lab

Researchers in Germany have successfully grown the innermost layer of human fallopian tubes in the lab — the first step towards creating a functional model that will allow scientists to study how reproductive diseases such as cancer start, as well as provide important insight into the enigmatic organs.

The fallopian tubes play a crucial role in the female reproductive system by connecting the ovaries to the uterus, but recent research has suggested that if fallopian tube cells become infected, they can migrate, and could be a key trigger for ovarian cancer — one of the most deadly types of female reproductive cancer.

Despite the importance of these organs, we have a lot to learn about how they function, particularly on the inside — an area that (as you can imagine) is particularly challenging for scientists to study while their patients are alive.

Jan 13
2016

Does our Microbiome Control Us or Do We Control It?

This is an interesting conjecture.

We may be able to keep our gut in check after all. That’s the tantalizing finding from a new study published today that reveals a way that mice—and potentially humans—can control the makeup and behavior of their gut microbiome. Such a prospect upends the popular notion that the complex ecosystem of germs residing in our guts essentially acts as our puppet master, altering brain biochemistry even as it tends to our immune system, wards off infection and helps us break down our supersized burger and fries.

In a series of elaborate experiments researchers from Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital discovered that mouse poop is chock full of tiny, noncoding RNAs called microRNAs from their gastrointestinal (GI) tracts and that these biomolecules appear to shape and regulate the microbiome. “We’ve known about how microbes can influence your health for a few years now and in a way we’ve always suspected it’s a two-way process, but never really pinned it down that well,” says Tim Spector, a professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, not involved with the new study. “This [new work] explains quite nicely the two-way interaction between microbes and us, and it shows the relationship going the other way—which is fascinating,” says Spector, author of The Diet Myth: Why the Secret to Health and Weight Loss Is Already in Your Gut.

What’s more, human feces share 17 types of microRNAs with the mice, which may portend similar mechanisms in humans, the researchers found. It could also potentially open new treatment approaches involving microRNA transplantations. “Obviously that raises the immediate question: ‘Where do the microRNAs come from and why are they there?,’” says senior author Howard Weiner, a neurologist at both Harvard and Brigham. The work was published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe.

Jan 13
2016

DNA ‘lock and key’ allows for precision drug delivery to target cancer and other cells

DNA-based lock-and-key pore design allows for precision delivery of drugs to cancer and other cells (credit: Stefan Howorka and Jonathan Burns/UCL)

Scientists at University College London (UCL) and Nanion Technologies in Munich have developed synthetic DNA-based pores that control which molecules can pass through a cell’s wall, achieving more precise drug delivery.

Therapeutics, including anti-cancer drugs, are ferried around the body in nanoscale carriers called vesicles, targeted to different tissues using biological markers. The new DNA-based pore design is intended to improve that process.