Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: biotech/medical – Page 498

The human brain is three times bigger than a chimp’s and more spherical than a Neanderthal’s. Within a maze of bumps and grooves, neurons converse in distinct patterns that give humans unique cognitive abilities.

Scientists haven’t fully deciphered those patterns. But researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center are determined to solve the molecular mystery of what makes us .

In a study published in the journal Nature, they compared brain cell types and activities among humans, chimpanzees and rhesus monkeys. Human brains had more of a kind of cell that may help them adapt based on new experience and heal from injury. Certain human neurons also had more of a gene that affects language development.

Read more | >

While we all aspire for a long lifespan, what is most coveted is a long period of vigor and health, or “healthspan,” that precedes the inevitable decline of advancing age. Researchers at UC Santa Barbara have discovered that instruments of death that cells use to commit suicide when things go wrong contribute to making a longer and healthier life by revitalizing the specialized cellular compartments called mitochondria.

Mitochondria generate the energy for all of our activities, from movement to thought. These power plants inside our cells descended from what were once free-living bacteria.

“We are a sort of hybrid creature that arose from two independent evolutionary lineages: mitochondria, which were once bacteria, and the rest of the cell surrounding them,” notes Joel Rothman, a professor of molecular biology whose lab conducted the research.

Read more | >

Join us on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/MichaelLustgartenPhD

Discount Links:
At-Home Metabolomics: https://www.iollo.com?ref=michael-lustgarten.
Use Code: CONQUERAGING At Checkout.

NAD+ Quantification: https://www.jinfiniti.com/product/intracellular-nad-test/
Use Code: ConquerAging At Checkout.

Epigenetic, Telomere Testing: https://trudiagnostic.com/?irclickid=U-s3Ii2r7xyIU-LSYLyQdQ6…M0&irgwc=1

Continue reading “The Kynurenine/Tryptophan Ratio: An Integrated Measure Of Many Pro- And Anti-Inflammatory Factors” | >

A combined team of biomedical researchers from Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research and Microsoft Research AI4Science has made inroads into teaching AI systems how to find new medicines. In their study, reported in the journal Nature Communications, the group used feedback from chemists in the field to provide intuition guidelines for an AI model.

Finding is a notoriously difficult and laborious task. The process for finding new therapies typically involves experts in a variety of fields working on different parts of the problem. Doctors and other medical researchers, for example, must first uncover the roots of a given illness to find its cause. Chemists or other must then find a chemical that might reverse the problem or stop it from happening in the first place.

Both parts of the process take time and effort. In this new project, the research team sought to determine whether AI applications might make the second part easier.

Read more | >

This is a good application for medicine. 👍🏼

“I practically could not walk anymore without falling frequently, several times a day,” said Marc, who is now 62 years old. “In some situations, such as entering a lift, I’d trample on the spot, as though I was frozen there, you might say.”

“This allows me to walk better and to stabilize. I’m not even afraid of the stairs anymore.”

What’s new? Marc’s problem is unfortunately not unusual — about 90% of people with Parkinson’s develop a disabling walking disorder in the disease’s advanced stages. However, unlike anyone else in the world, an experimental spinal cord stimulator is now helping him overcome his mobility issue.

Continue reading “Spinal implant lets man with Parkinson’s walk again” | >

Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have used their expertise in quantum biology, artificial intelligence and bioengineering to improve how CRISPR Cas9 genome editing tools work on organisms like microbes that can be modified to produce renewable fuels and chemicals.

CRISPR is a powerful tool for bioengineering, used to modify to improve an organism’s performance or to correct mutations. The CRISPR Cas9 tool relies on a single, unique guide RNA that directs the Cas9 enzyme to bind with and cleave the corresponding targeted site in the genome.

Existing models to computationally predict effective guide RNAs for CRISPR tools were built on data from only a few model species, with weak, inconsistent efficiency when applied to microbes.

Read more | >

Researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute (NBI) have removed a key obstacle for development of extremely sensitive monitoring devices based on quantum technology.

Monitoring the heartbeat of an unborn child and other types of delicate medical examinations show the potential of . Since these sensors exploit phenomena at the scale of atoms, they can be far more accurate than today’s sensors.

Researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute (NBI), University of Copenhagen, have managed to overcome a major obstacle for development of quantum sensors. Their results are published in Nature Communications.

Read more | >

The University of Oxford researchers for the first time showcased that neural cells can be 3D printed to replicate the structure of the brain’s outer layer: the cerebral cortex.

In a significant breakthrough, scientists have created brain tissue using human stem cells through 3D printing. This advancement holds promise for potential future applications in treating brain injuries.

For the first time, the University of Oxford researchers showcased that neural cells can be 3D printed to replicate the structure of the brain’s outer layer: the cerebral cortex.

This accomplishment marks a significant advancement in the realm of neural tissue engineering.

Continue reading “New 3D printing approach offers hope for brain injury repair” | >

UCLA scientists have developed a new method to engineer more powerful immune cells that can potentially be used for “off-the-shelf” cell therapy to treat challenging cancers.

“Off-the-shelf” cell therapy, also known as allogenic therapy, uses derived from healthy donors instead of patients. The approach can bring , like (CAR) T cell therapy, to more patients in a timelier manner, which is one of the major barriers in getting these life-saving treatments to patients.

“Time is often of the essence when it comes to treating people with advanced cancers,” said Lili Yang, associate professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics and member of the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. “Currently, these types of therapies need to be tailored to the individual patient. We have to extract from a patient, genetically engineer the cells and then re-infuse them back into the patient. This process can take weeks to months and can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to treat each patient.”

Read more | >