Lifeboat Foundation

After five years, more than 350,000 hours of genome sequencing, and over £200 million of investment, UK Biobank is releasing the world’s largest-by-far single set of human sequencing data—completing the most ambitious project of its kind ever undertaken. The new data, whole genome sequences of its half a million participants, will certainly drive the discovery of new diagnostics, treatments, and cures. Uniquely, the data are available to approved researchers worldwide, via a protected database containing only de-identified data.

This advance lies not only in the abundance of genomic data, but its use in combination with the existing data UK Biobank has collected over the past 15 years on lifestyle, whole body imaging scans, health information, and proteins found in the blood. The Pharma Proteomics Project was published last month in Nature, in the paper, “Plasma proteomic associations with genetics and health in the UK Biobank.”

Looking forward, these data could be used to further advance efforts such as more targeted drug discovery and development, discovering thousands of disease-causing noncoding genetic variants, accelerating precision medicine, and understanding the biological underpinnings of disease.

The drug, LOY-001, works by interacting with a hormone that accelerates aging.

Researchers at Tufts University and Harvard University’s Wyss Institute have created tiny biological robots that they call Anthrobots from human tracheal cells that can move across a surface and have been found to encourage the growth of neurons across a region of damage in a lab dish.

The multicellular robots, ranging in size from the width of a human hair to the point of a sharpened pencil, were made to self-assemble and shown to have a remarkable healing effect on other cells. The discovery is a starting point for the researchers’ vision to use patient-derived biobots as new therapeutic tools for regeneration, healing, and treatment of disease.

Continue reading “Anthrobots: Scientists build tiny biological robots from human tracheal cells” »

Regenerative medicine might just have had a new tool added to its arsenal: Scientists have created tiny biological robots out of living human cells. Though they may be small, the self-assembling bots are mighty, with a study demonstrating their potential for healing and treating disease.

The team had already proven their biological robotics chops back in 2020 with the creation of Xenobots, made from frog embryonic cells. They even managed to design Xenobots so that they could reproduce in a way that no living animal or plant does, something that had never been seen before.

Continue reading “These Tiny, Wound-Healing Robots Start Life As Just 1 Human Cell” »

Authorities are covering up the spread of antibiotic-resistant pneumonia.

Ray Kurzweil and a host of other ambitious scientists are trying to take major next steps with AI — the revival of the dead. Within three decades, he hopes to create a ‘dad bot’ in the flesh.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals plans to sell a gene-editing treatment for sickle-cell disease. A patent on CRISPR could stand in the way.

Additionally, GAI helps radiologists cross-reference comorbidities in a way that was not possible before. For instance, people with certain types of autoimmune arthritis have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (atherosclerosis, hypertension, and type 2 diabetes). These conditions might seem unrelated, but if a CT scan reveals calcifications in the coronary arteries, GAI can facilitate informing the radiologist and treating physician of this important biomarker. These types of added value are not just consumer conveniences. As potentiators of clinical research and effectuators of episodes of care, they can save the lives of patients.

Leaning into the whole.

Continue reading “Enterprise Knowledge: A Unifying Technological Vision for the Future of Radiology” »

A cancer diagnosis can greatly disrupt treatment with methadone, a medication used to treat patients with opioid use disorder, according to a perspective piece published in the New England Journal of Medicine by University of Pittsburgh researchers.

Through the lens of a specific patient treated with methadone for many years and later diagnosed with head and neck cancer, the authors discuss how segregating methadone distribution from general medical care is problematic and emphasize the need to integrate opioid use disorder treatment and improve patient access.

Before his cancer diagnosis, the patient was afforded a 28-day supply of take-home methadone doses, which he self-administered and, per clinic and federal regulations, returned to the clinic every 28 days for monitoring and refills.