Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: biotech/medical – Page 54

Robert Anton Wilson — Jack Parsons and Aleister Crowley

Few people are aware of Marvel Whiteside Parsons (a.k.a Jack Parsons), co-founder of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratories. Parsons made major contributions to rocket development, particularly in the area of solid fuel propellant. The solid motors on the Space Shuttle and the motors in the Minuteman missile were based on the solid propellant technology that he invented. He was a founding member of Aerojet Corporation, and he even has a crater on the dark side of the moon named after him. So why isn’t he as celebrated as the other founding fathers of spaceflight?

Aleister Crowley, born Edward Alexander Crowley, was a British occultist, writer, mountaineer, philosopher, poet, mystic, drug experimenter, and chess player. He was an influential member in several occult organizations, including the Golden Dawn, the A∴A∴, and Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), and is best known today for his occult writings, especially The Book of the Law, the central sacred text of Thelema. He gained much notoriety during his lifetime, and was infamously dubbed \.

RNA editing tool can take some of the risk out of gene therapy

The ability to correct disease-causing genetic mistakes using genome editors holds great promise in medicine, but it is not without risk. When this type of “genetic surgery” is performed on DNA, for instance, there is always the danger of leaving permanent genetic scars that may even be heritable.

Abstract: Applying precision medicine to patients with pancreatic cancer could lead to higher survival rates

As part of JCI’s ongoing review series on pancreatic cancer Vasiliki Pantazopoulou et al. discuss nuances of experimental models and the use of patient-derived systems for improving outcomes.

1Salk Institute for Biological Studies, San Diego, California, USA.

2Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.

3Department of Surgery, Division of Surgical Oncology, Moores Cancer Center, UCSD, San Diego, California, USA.

PlasmaBlade-assisted surgical septal myectomy: technique and our experience

The pulsed-electron avalanche knife (PEAK) PlasmaBlade is an electrosurgical device that provides atraumatic, scalpel-like cutting precision and electrocautery-like hemostasis. Primarily, the PlasmaBlade uses pulsed radiofrequency energy to generate a plasma-mediated discharge along the exposed rim of an insulated blade. Plasma is an electrically conductive cloud created when the energy contacts tissue. The “plasma” allows the radiofrequency energy to cross the tissue at a much lower overall power level, resulting in lower operating temperatures and less thermal damage (7). The PlasmaBlade operates at 40–100°C, while the blade tip stays near body temperature. Therefore, underlying tissue damage is limited. Studies reporting the use of the PlasmaBlade during internal mammary artery harvesting or ocular surgeries have found the area of collateral damage to be only 2–10 μm with the PlasmaBlade compared to 100–400 μm with electrosurgery (7, 8).

The PlasmaBlade has been extensively used in ophthalmologic, plastic, and dermatological surgeries as precisely as a scalpel with the hemostatic control of conventional electrosurgery. Studies have also reported a reduced risk of bleeding, tissue injury, and scar formation with the PlasmaBlade (9– 11). However, experience in cardiac surgery is limited to pocket creation for the pacemaker and implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) implantation (12, 13) and internal mammary artery harvesting (7).

In our institute, we have used the PlasmaBlade to perform SSM for the last 4 years. The purpose of this retrospective study is to review our clinical outcomes and the effect of PlasmaBlade cutting on the excised muscle in terms of necrosis and inflammation.

Generative AI models build new antibiotics starting from a single atom

Researchers have tapped into the power of generative artificial intelligence to aid them in the fight against one of humanity’s most pernicious foes: antibiotic-resistant bacteria. | Researchers have tapped into the power of generative artificial intelligence to aid them in the fight against one of humanity’s most pernicious foes: antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Using a model trained on a library of about 40,000 chemicals, scientists were able to build never-before-seen antibiotics that killed two of the most notorious multidrug-resistant bacteria on earth.

Gut Neurons Direct Immune Healing After Inflammation

Their previous work revealed that ILC2s are a major source of a tissue-healing growth factor called amphiregulin and have the capacity to receive neuronal signals that modulate their function and can impact disease progression and recovery.

In the new study, they demonstrated that the tissue-protective function of ILC2s depends on production of a molecule called adrenomedullin 2 (ADM2) from the enteric nervous system; administering the molecule expanded this group of ILC2s and provided therapeutic benefit in a preclinical model of inflammatory bowel disease, whereas loss of ADM2 signaling exacerbated disease due to the lack of these protective cells.

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