Biotech/medical – Lifeboat News: The Blog

Apr 30
2016

There’s a new sheriff in town in Silicon Valley — the FDA

Lookout Silicon Valley — FDA is here. I do suggest tech companies working on technologies that enhances or alters any bio living things to ensure that your certifications, processes are well defined and govern, and in some cases the engineers, etc. will need some level of a medical background and certifications as well. Why many have stated that future engineers and technologists will need a bio background through education, etc.

Helmy Eltoukhy’s company is on a roll. The start-up is a leading contender in the crowded field of firms working on “liquid biopsy” tests that aim to be able to tell in a single blood draw whether a person has cancer.

Venture investors are backing Guardant Health to the tune of nearly $200 million. Leading medical centers are testing its technology. And earlier this month, it presented promising data on how well its screening tool, which works by scanning for tiny DNA fragments shed by dying tumor cells, worked on an initial group of 10,000 patients with late-stage cancers.

Just one thing is holding the company back: Guardant Health has yet to get approval from Food and Drug Administration.

Apr 30
2016

Gene-trification? Inside the Brooklyn lab where you can splice your own DNA

The “Build A Bear” version of Gene Editing — go splice your own gene.

The biohacking movement has created a wealth of options for hobbyist scientists. In Brooklyn, a DIY lab offers a place for the curious to dabble.

Apr 30
2016

Are people actually BORN murderers? Brain imaging study finds ‘killer gene’

Thru Gene Editing could we some day see no more murderers?

FOR MOST of us, understanding how mass murderers can kill without remorse is an impossible feat.

Apr 29
2016

AI, Bioenhancement, and the Singularity

A beautiful story about Ray Kurzweil and Bill Joy meeting and discussing Singularity many years ago.

There may be such a thing as a social fabric, or just a tapestry of individual interactions. Either way, we should worry about biotech-super-charged transhumanism, which is on a tear.

Apr 28
2016

Gene therapy reverses sight loss and is long-lasting

A genetic therapy has improved the vision of patients who would otherwise have gone blind.

A clinical study by British scientists has shown that the improvement is long-lasting and so the therapy is suitable to be offered as a treatment.

The researchers will apply for approval to begin trials to treat more common forms of blindness next year.

Apr 28
2016

Long in the tooth, or just a redhead?

The results pointed to MC1R, known previously as a gene for red hair and freckles.

Scientists say they have made a leap in knowing why some people retain their youthful looks while others age badly.

The new study is the first time that “a gene has been found that explains, in part, why some people look older and others younger for their age”, Manfred Kayser, a professor of forensic molecular genetics at Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam in the Netherlands and a senior author on the study, said in a statement.

Apr 28
2016

Researchers Identify Potential HIV Vaccine Possibility With ‘Looped’ Antibodies

Scientists are now one step closer to neutralizing HIV.

In a study conducted at Vanderbilt University and published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers isolated antibodies with a loop-like structure that binds tightly to HIV and disables it. Unlike traditional vaccines, which jump-start an immune response by exposing the patient to a pathogen, this newly discovered method could work even in people who have not previously been exposed to by the virus.

Using computer modeling, the researchers identified the amino acid sequences that bound most tightly to HIV and re-engineered them in an optimal sequence that simulated vaccination.

Apr 28
2016

DNA used to build the world’s smallest thermometer

DNA used in a thermometer.

A thermometer 20,000-times smaller than a human hair has been developed by researchers using DNA that is capable of measuring temperatures within living cells.

The thermometer, unveiled this week in the journal Nano Letters, was built by scientists at the University of Montreal and is expected to improve human understanding of nanotechnologies.

DNA is made up of four different molecules: Nucleotide adenine (A), nucleotide thymine (T), nucleotide cytosine © and nucleotide guanine (G). Nucleotides A and T bind weakly together, whereas nucleotides C and G bind strongly together.

Apr 28
2016

Now, a brain map to help decode inner thoughts

Cool

New York: Scientists have built a “semantic atlas” or a brain map that identifies areas that respond to words having similar meanings. The finding can help give voice to those who cannot speak such as victims of stroke, brain damage or motor neuron diseases.

Apr 28
2016

New Brain Map Shows Where Words Are Stored Inside Your Head

New keys unlock how words are stored in our brains.

Researchers have created a new map of the human brain which shows where we organize words depending on their meaning—and it could help us read minds more accurately than ever.

Scientists from the University of California, Berkeley, have published an interactive version of the map online. It allows you to explore the whole brain, clicking around to see where different types of words—from social and spatial, to violent and visual—are stored.

The team constructed the maps by playing seven different participants a two-hour chunk of The Moth Radio Hour while scanning their brains using functional MRI. The brain scans showed how the oxygen levels in blood across the brain changed, and this data was then used as a measure of how active a particular part of the brain was.