Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: biotech/medical – Page 3,215

Biotechnology, synthetic biology keys to humans colonizing other planets

Over the last 12,000 years or so, human civilization has noticeably reshaped the Earth’s surface. But changes on our own planet will likely pale in comparison when humans settle on other celestial bodies. While many of the changes on Earth over the centuries have been related to food production, by way of agriculture, changes on other worlds will result, not only from the need for on-site production of food, but also for all other consumables, including air.

As vital as synthetic biology will be to the early piloted missions to Mars and voyages of exploration, it will become indispensable to establish a long-term human presence off-Earth, namely colonization. That’s because we’ve evolved over billions of years to thrive specifically in the environments provides by our home planet.

Our physiology is well-suited to Earth’s gravity and its oxygen-rich atmosphere. We also depend on Earth’s magnetic field to shield us from intense space radiation in the form of charged particles. In comparison, Mars currently has no magnetic field to trap particle radiation and an atmosphere that is so thin that any shielding against other types of space radiation is negligible compared with the protection that Earth’s atmosphere affords. At the Martian surface, atmospheric pressure never gets above 7 millibars. That’s like Earth at an altitude of about 27,000 m (89,000 ft), which is almost the edge of space. And it’s not like the moon is a better option for us since it has no atmosphere at all.

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C.U. Robotics Startup Revolutionizes Hospitality

Healthcare has a new set of hospital cleaners through Maidbot.

Maidbot, an Ithaca-based startup run by Cornell students that combines hospitality and robotics, has gained attention in several competitions around the country, most recently competing against 14 other college startups in the RECESS Pitch Competition earlier this month. “With this new automated system we were really excited to revolutionize and transform the hospitality industry.” —Micah Green ’18.

Additionally, Maidbot was announced as one of 32 semi-finalists in the Student Startup Madness competition — a collegiate startup tournament at SXSW — earlier this month. If Maidbot is to win in the semi-final round, the startup will be able to pitch to investors in Austin, Texas, in March. Inspired by the television show The Jetsons, Maidbot is a robot created to assist hotel room attendants with housekeeping tasks. Micah Green ’18, a co-founder of the company, had previously worked as a room attendant at a hotel.

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Post-transcriptional control of gene expression: mRNA decay

Could we actually start seeing some standards around CRISPR being proposed & implemented around CRISPR?

Bethesda, MD –This SRC will present the very latest developments in this field, with talks by leading international experts working with both prokaryotic and eukaryotic models. This unique blend from the two communities is always much appreciated by attendees of this meeting and one of its main highlights. The topics covered will include events occurring at both the 5’ and 3’ ends of mRNA related to decay, the links between translation, quality control and mRNA stability, and the relationship between RNA degradation and disease. Two full sessions will be devoted to mechanisms of sRNA, CRISPR RNA and miRNA regulation and how they pertain to mRNA stability. The meeting is traditionally of a very manageable size (typically about 120 attendees), providing unrestricted access to students and post-docs for dynamic discussions with more established scientists and potential future employers. Informal Meet the Expert sessions will be held over lunch, with assigned tables to selected speakers.

There will be a total of 9 very broad-ranging sessions over the 4 days, with 36 invited speakers at the top of their fields and two internationally renowned keynote speakers, Chris Lima and Jörg Vogel. Speakers are encouraged to present their most recent and unpublished data. There will be two poster sessions and 2–3 additional speakers per session will be chosen to give oral presentations, based on the submitted abstracts. This promises to be a very interesting and lively meeting in one of Europe’s most beautiful cities. We hope to see you there!

FASEB has announced a total of 36 Science Research Conferences (SRC) in 2016. Registration opens January 7, 2016. For more information about an SRC, view preliminary programs, or find a listing of all our 2016 SRCs, please visit http://www.faseb.org/SRC.

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Phospholipid signaling in cancer, neurodegeneration and cardiovascular disease

Now, this is intriguing — pathways are a critical part of our system that monitors and manages how our bodies respond and interact to changes in our bodies. This recent SRC report focuses on the researchers efforts in monitoring pathways and how defects in pathways contribute to the biology and pathophysiology of cancer.

Bethesda, MD — This SRC focuses on new developments in the biology of lipid signaling with an emphasis on cancer, neuronal and cardiovascular diseases. The emphasis will be on molecular, cellular, structure/function and enzymatic mechanisms of physiological signaling pathways and how defects in these pathways contribute to the biology and pathophysiology of cancer, neurodegeneration and cardiovascular disease. The focus will be on how diacylglycerol, phosphatidic acid, lysophospholipids, sphingolipids and phosphoinositide lipids modulate specific pathways and processes in the contexts of physiological growth-regulatory signals, intracellular and extracellular vesicular trafficking, regulation of cell polarization, migration, motility and invasion, autophagy and epithelial extrusion, and as nuclear regulators of mRNA processing and gene expression. These sessions will include discussions on how signaling becomes dysfunctional in diseases. There will be presentations on new translational approaches and therapeutic targets. There will be significant representation from the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry in order to facilitate networking between industry and academia. The topic areas have been chosen to maximize discussion of provocative and important developments.

We particularly wish to encourage the participation of new and junior researchers in the field and are securing additional support to provide PhD/postdoctoral fellow travel awards. Organizers have kept multiple short session speaking slots open. These will be selected from novel advances during 2015–2016 and from submitted abstracts. There will be multiple opportunities for new investigators and postdoctoral fellows to present and discuss their work including at poster sessions, short talks and short 5–10 minute oral ‘research snapshots’ to highlight their submitted abstracts. There will be multiple poster sessions during the conference. Time will also be allocated to at least two “meet the expert sessions” wherein established research leaders will dedicate time to interact with trainees and new investigators, specifically to give advice concerning the science and possible prospects for postdoctoral training, research funding, publishing or employment tracks.

The 2016 meeting brings together a wide range of leading investigators from across the globe. The scope of their subjects is vast, encompassing studies at the level of single proteins as well as the pathophysiology of complex disease. The program will highlight inter-disciplinary approaches and how major advances in biophysical, proteomic, genomic, imaging, modeling and therapeutic approaches are driving the field. The discussion forums and recreational activities will provide all participants extensive opportunities to exchange new ideas and forge new collaborations in a supportive interdisciplinary environment for participants at all stages of their research profession.

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Australian Scientists Will Soon Begin Trials for a Fully Implantable Bionic Eye

Finally. Bionic eye technology that could give sight back to millions of individuals worldwide is set to start trials.

Adding to the recent buzz surrounding the development of bionic eye systems is news of scientists from Australia who are set to begin trials on The Phoenix99 bionic eye—a fully implantable system that marks a significant breakthrough in neural stimulation technology.

The device, developed by engineers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), has already been demonstrated successfully in pre-clinical work led by a team of elite surgical experts from Sydney, and it is expected to give patients better vision than any of the current restoration technologies.

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3D Printed Stent May Soon Give Hope to Esophageal Cancer Patients

A lot of folks who know me well; knows that I donate my time and expertise to help with the various cancer foundations such as the National Esophageal Cancer Foundation. Esophageal Cancer is one form of cancer not often caught in time due to its symptoms. However, researchers have developed a 3D Stent that is simply amazing and is bringing a lot of hope for so many. Technology and medicine together is an amazing team.

I cannot wait to share this with the foundation’s president; she lost her husband only 2 years ago to this deadly cancer, I lost a cousin, and 2 years ago doctor’s removed a lesion from my esophagus. I cannot express enough to folks (especially younger folks; this is truly a silent killer and it hits all ages (20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s). And, once you ever have a lesion or cancer; you must be diligent in your follow ups no matter what.

fauPretty much everyone I know, myself included, has lost someone to cancer, many of them far too young. Finding a cure for cancer is the lofty, ultimate goal for medical researchers, and people like to fantasize about the day when the headline suddenly appears in the paper: “Cure for Cancer Found!” No more deaths from the disease, no more painful, drawn-out treatments – just a shot or a pill that can eliminate cancer as easily as clearing up an ear infection.

In reality, will it happen like that? It probably won’t be that easy – cancer is a complicated beast, and there are so many different forms with their own unique complexities that a universal, one-off cure is a difficult proposition. However, a lot of promising recent developments do point to a near future in which treatment is much more effective and deaths much more rare. And a lot of those developments involve 3D printing.

ds00500_im03992_c7_esophagealstentthu_jpgNo cancer is pleasant, but some are much easier to treat than others. Certain types of cancers tend to come with a dire prognosis, and esophageal cancer is one of those. It’s the eighth most common type of cancer in the world, but it’s often detected late, and it’s very difficult to operate on; in fact, 50 to 60 percent of patients with the disease are ineligible for surgery. Those patients are often treated with the surgical implantation of a stent, which is made from a metal mesh and can cause numerous complications such as bleeding, perforation or tumor ingrowth.

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