Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: biotech/medical – Page 968

Unnecessary playing with nature.

In January, Bennett’s doctors offered him the chance to receive a heart from a pig. He took it. “I know it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s my last choice,” he said in a press release from the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, where he was being treated. On 7 January, doctors transplanted the heart, which had been genetically modified so that the human body would tolerate it.

Bennett survived for eight weeks with his new heart before his body shut down. After his death, the research team learnt that the transplanted organ was infected with a pig herpesvirus that had not been detected by tests1.

But even a few weeks is a long time for an animal organ placed in a human, known as a xenotransplant. Given that the human immune system begins attacking non-genetically modified pig organs in minutes, other xenotransplantation researchers are impressed with the experiment. “It’s actually beyond my expectation that the patient lived up to two months,” says Luhan Yang, a bioengineer and chief executive of Qihan Biotech in Hangzhou, China. “I think it’s a victory for the field.”

Continue reading “Will pigs solve the organ crisis? The future of animal-to-human transplants” | >

Scientists in Israel have created the first nano-robot antibodies designed to fight cancer. The first human trial for the new nano-robots will start soon, and it will determine just how effective the antibodies are. What is special about these particular antibodies, too, is that they are programmed to decide whether cells surrounding tumors are “bad” or “good.”

The trial is currently underway in Australia and if it goes according to plan, the nano-robot antibodies will be able to fight cells around tumors that can help the tumor while also boosting the capability of the cells inhibiting the growth of the cancerous cells. The antibodies were invented by Professor Yanay Ofran and are based on human and animal antibodies.

The goal of these nano-robot antibodies is to unlock the full potential that antibodies offer, Ofran says. Currently, the use of antibodies in medicine only utilizes a fraction of the capabilities offered by these natural disease fighters. As such, finding a way to maximize their capability has been a long-term goal for quite a while.

Read more | >

About 600 seemingly disparate fungi that never quite found a fit along the fungal family tree have been shown to have a common ancestor, according to a University of Alberta-led research team that used genome sequencing to give these peculiar creatures their own classification home.

“They don’t have any particular feature that you can see with the where you can say they belong to the same group. But when you go to the , suddenly this emerges,” says Toby Spribille, principal investigator on the project and associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences.

“I like to think of these as the platypus and echidna of the fungal world.”

Read more | >

Major depressive disorder is associated with altered interoception — or the ability to sense the internal state of your body. Now, new brain imaging research provides evidence that depressed individuals tend to exhibit “faulty” neural processing of gastric interoception, particularly among those with high levels of rumination. The findings have been published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research.

“Repetitive negative thinking (RNT), usually referred to as ‘rumination’ in persons who suffer from depression, is a very significant clinical problem,” explained study author Salvador M. Guinjoan, a principal investigator at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research and associate professor at Oklahoma University Health Sciences Center at Tulsa.

“The reason is that when it is severe and persistent, RNT conditions higher chances of depression relapse and is associated with residual symptoms after treatment, is more common in persons who do not respond to treatment, and is even related to suicide. This particular communication refers to one among a series of projects in our lab attempting to understand rumination.”

Read more | >

The discovery could lead to potential future targeted therapies and treatments for this brain disorder.

Researchers have found two novel genes that increase an individual’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This disorder is the leading cause of dementia and has an estimated heritability —genetic factor causing variation in the population, or an inherited trait— of 70%.

Digicomphoto/iStock.

Details from the study.

Continue reading “The world’s largest Alzheimer’s study has made a gene discovery that could lead to treatments” | >

New research shows that drug-resistant bacteria can make the journey from the digestive tract to the lungs, raising the probability of infection.

Oxford University has published a critical new study about what causes antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and what it does. The results, which were published in Nature Communications.

Luismmolina/iStock.

Continue reading “A new study of drug-resistant bacteria moving freely between organs could save lives” | >

A new performance system could avoid bonus and stock grant payments.

Google’s parent company Alphabet, which so far seemed immune to layoffs in the tech industry, is preparing to lay off as many as 10,000 employees. To do so, it has brought in a new system of ranking employee performance, Forbes.

Tech companies that rode the growth wave during the pandemic years have now begun to cut down their workforce amidst fears of a looming recession. Earlier this month, Meta announced that it was trimming its workforce, and Amazon too, has followed suit.

Read more | >

Almost 50 years after the death of the legendary Bruce Lee, researchers may have actually found the cause; too much water.

Almost 50 years ago, on July 20, 1973, the legendary martial artist Bruce Lee passed away at 32 years of age. Supposedly in the prime of his life and incredibly physically fit, his unexpected death shocked his fans.

A new study published in the journal Clinical Kidney Journal appears to reveal that Bruce Lee’s untimely demise was likely brought on by consuming too much water.

Continue reading “Bruce Lee died after consuming too much water, claims a new study” | >

November is Stomach Cancer Awareness Month, which makes this a good time to learn more about treating stomach cancer.

More than 26,000 people in the U.S. will be diagnosed with stomach cancer this year, and more than 11,000 people will die of the disease, according to the American Cancer Society. Stomach cancer accounts for about 1.5% of all new cancers diagnosed in the U.S. each year.

Stomach cancer, also known as gastric cancer, can affect any part of the stomach. In most of the world, stomach cancers form in the main part of the stomach. In the U.S., stomach cancer is more likely to affect the area where the esophagus meets the stomach. Where the cancer occurs in the stomach is one factor health care professionals consider when determining treatment options.

Read more | >