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Category: health – Page 302

Technologist Jim O’Neill Makes the Case for Dramatic Anti-Aging Medicine

In this important conversation on health, David Gornoski sits down with Jim O’Neill, CEO of the SENS Research Foundation and former managing director of Thiel Capital. How do we effectively fight viruses such as COVID-19? O’Neill brings attention to the urgency of strengthening our immune systems. Why should we look into anti-aging? Anti-aging research, O’Neill says, looks into the possibility of targeting senescent cells where many diseases take hold. How soon can we see the results of this research? Given our societal norms, is overcoming death through scientific means something that we should look into? How does Christian teaching relate to the idea of overcoming death in time and space?

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FDA Approves Gene-Hacked Pigs for Human Consumption

I think I want non-gene hacked pigs for my supper. 😃

For the second time ever, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a gene-hacked animal for human consumption.

In this case, it’s the GalSafe pig, CNN reports, a genetically modified swine that’s safe even for people with allergies to eat. All in all, it’s a fresh sign that genetically-altered animals and sophisticated gene-hacking technology are now becoming commercially viable and entering the mainstream.

“Today’s first ever approval of an animal biotechnology product for both food and as a potential source for biomedical use represents a tremendous milestone for scientific innovation,” FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn said in a press release.

People With ADHD Can Actually Focus So Hard it’s Scary

Is ADHD actually a superpower that goes out of control from time to time? Can it be turned into an advantage?

Unclench. Mary is just an urban legend—a case example of how people with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder can hyperfocus on a task for hours, losing all awareness of their surroundings. Hers is a story that people in the ADHD community tell themselves so we will feel less alone.

“We all hate the name ADHD,” says Elaine Taylor-Klaus, cofounder of Atlanta consultancy group ImpactADHD. Because the word “deficit” is in the name, many incorrectly assume having ADHD means you can’t pay attention. Instead, ADHDers often pay more attention to certain tasks than we should. It’s called hyperfocus.

Kimberly Gordon, a psychiatrist at Sheppard Pratt Health System in Baltimore, explains the symptom as “an intense, deep concentration on a specific task.” Like our mythological Mary, Gordon says, “When individuals with ADHD hyperfocus on one thing, they tend to block out everything else going on around them. The brain sends off signals of activity, pleasure, and engagement as they are immersed in a task while hyperfocused.”

Giving Blind Runners Independence With AI

Being able to see, move, and exercise independently is something most of us take for granted. [Thomas Panek] was an avid runner before losing his sight due to a genetic condition, and had to rely on other humans and guide dogs to run again. After challenging attendants at a Google hackathon, Project Guideline was established to give blind runners (or walkers) independence from a cane, dog or another human, while exercising outdoors. Using a smartphone with line following AI software, and bone conduction headphones, users can be guided along a path with a line painted on it. You need to watch the video below to get a taste of just how incredible it is for the users.

Getting a wheeled robot to follow a line is relatively simple, but a running human is by no means a stable sensor platform. At the previously mentioned hackathon, developers put together a rough proof of concept with a smartphone, using its camera to recognize a painted line on the ground and provide left/right audio cues. As the project developed, the smartphone was attached to a waist belt and bone conduction headphones were used, which don’t affect audio situational awareness as much as normal headphones.

The shaking and side to side movement of running, and varying light conditions and visual obstructions in the outdoors made the problem more difficult to solve, but within a year the developers had completed successful running tests with [Thomas] on a well-lit indoor track and an outdoor pedestrian path with a temporary line. For the first time in 25 years, [Thomas] was able to run independently.

7 Predictions For How Technology Will Shape Healthcare in 2021

From the COVID-19 vaccine to advances in machine learning, AI, improved W-Fi and 5G, and telemedicine, experts expect a move to “patient-centric” health next year.

COVID-19 accomplished what entrepreneurs, doctors, and activists couldn’t: Designing a healthcare system that works for patients instead of providers and health insurance companies.

The industry promised to be “patient-centered” for the last decade but only the harsh demands of COVID-19 have made this a reality. As Ian McCrae, CEO of Orion Health, described it, COVID-19 is ushering in the long-overdue transformation of the healthcare system and, finally, a move to “patient-centric” health.

NIH Funds Clinical Trial to Test Device That Heals Wounds With Ultrasound

Drexel University researchers are one step closer to offering a new treatment for the millions of patients who suffer from slow-healing, chronic wounds. The battery-powered applicator — as small and light as a watch — is the first portable and potentially wearable device to heal wounds with low-frequency ultrasound.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded the research team an estimated $3 million to test the therapy on 120 patients over the next five years. By using diagnostic monitoring of blood flow in the wound tissue, the clinical trial will also determine how nutrition and inflammation impact wound closure, making treatment customization a possibility.

The project is an interdisciplinary collaboration between Drexel’s School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems, the College of Medicine and the College of Nursing and Health Professions.

Melodie Yashar — Co-Founder of Space Exploration Architecture (SEArch+)

Today we’re joined by Melodie Yashar — Designer, Researcher, Technologist, co-founder of the firm Space Exploration Architecture (SEArch+), Senior Research Associate with San Jose State University Research Foundation at NASA Ames Research Center, and an Associate Researcher within the UC Davis Center for Human/Robotics/Vehicle Integration and Performance (HRVIP). She also teaches undergraduate and graduate design at Art Center College of Design and is a 2019–2020 Future Space Leaders Fellow.

Melodie’s current work focuses on the relationship of advanced software & hardware systems for spaceflight and maintains ongoing research interests in the design of augmented environments, human-machine interaction, human performance studies, and space technology development.

As an undergraduate Melodie studied at UC Berkeley and at Art Center, and she holds graduate degrees in architecture and human-computer interaction with an emphasis in robotics from Columbia University and Carnegie Mellon University, respectively.

She also served as a Visiting Professor at Pratt Institute, as a researcher within Carnegie Mellon’s Morphing Matter Lab and Design Director of Sonic Platforms.

Having come from an interdisciplinary background, Melodie appreciates those who see research and design as a confluence of different fields—allowing problem solving to become a more thoroughly collaborative exercise.

Complete Genomic Sequence of Human Coronavirus OC43: Molecular Clock Analysis Suggests a Relatively Recent Zoonotic Coronavirus Transmission Event

Coronaviruses are enveloped, positive-stranded RNA viruses with a genome of approximately 30 kb. Based on genetic similarities, coronaviruses are classified into three groups. Two group 2 coronaviruses, human coronavirus OC43 (HCoV-OC43) and bovine coronavirus (BCoV), show remarkable antigenic and genetic similarities. In this study, we report the first complete genome sequence (30,738 nucleotides) of the prototype HCoV-OC43 strain (ATCC VR759). Complete genome and open reading frame (ORF) analyses were performed in comparison to the BCoV genome. In the region between the spike and membrane protein genes, a 290-nucleotide deletion is present, corresponding to the absence of BCoV ORFs ns4.9 and ns4.8. Nucleotide and amino acid similarity percentages were determined for the major HCoV-OC43 ORFs and for those of other group 2 coronaviruses. The highest degree of similarity is demonstrated between HCoV-OC43 and BCoV in all ORFs with the exception of the E gene. Molecular clock analysis of the spike gene sequences of BCoV and HCoV-OC43 suggests a relatively recent zoonotic transmission event and dates their most recent common ancestor to around 1890. An evolutionary rate in the order of 4 × 10−4 nucleotide changes per site per year was estimated. This is the first animal-human zoonotic pair of coronaviruses that can be analyzed in order to gain insights into the processes of adaptation of a nonhuman coronavirus to a human host, which is important for understanding the interspecies transmission events that led to the origin of the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak.

Coronaviruses are large (120- to 160-nm), roughly spherical particles with a linear, nonsegmented, capped, and polyadenylated positive-sense single-stranded RNA genome that is encapsidated in a helical nucleocapsid. The envelope is derived from intracellular membranes and contains a characteristic crown of widely spaced club-shaped spikes that are 12 to 24 nm long. The genus Coronavirus (International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses database [ICTVdb], virus code 03.019.0.1) belongs to the family Coronaviridae in the order Nidovirales (7, 8).

Before the 2002-to-2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic, coronaviruses were somewhat neglected in human medicine, but they have always been of considerable importance in animal health. Coronaviruses infect a variety of livestock, poultry, and companion animals, in whom they can cause serious and often fatal respiratory, enteric, cardiovascular, and neurologic diseases (25). Most of our understanding about the molecular pathogenic properties of coronaviruses has been achieved by the veterinary virology community.

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