Lifeboat Foundation

A study has found that a mitochondrial disease in newborns shows cancer-like changes in proliferating cells, causing tissues to age prematurely. The finding is a significant step forward in understanding the syndrome and developing treatments for mitochondrial diseases.

GRACILE syndrome, a mitochondrial disease that is one of the Finnish heritage diseases, shows altered cell metabolism and proliferation resembling that of cancer cells. In the future, similar mitochondrial diseases could potentially be treated by limiting excessive cell proliferation. This is demonstrated in a study led by docent Jukka Kallijärvi and professor emerita Vineta Fellman that was carried out at the Folkhälsan Research Center and the University of Helsinki and published in Nature Communications in April 2023.

Mitochondria are organelles responsible for a large portion of cellular energy metabolism. Mutations in genes required for mitochondrial functions cause mitochondrial diseases in humans. GRACILE syndrome is caused by a malfunction in the respiratory chain, the very system the mitochondria utilize to generate cellular energy. The onset of the syndrome is in the fetal period, manifesting after birth as a liver and kidney disease with severe metabolic complications. Newborns with the syndrome usually only survive a few weeks.

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A major impediment to treating the deadly brain cancer glioblastoma has been that the most potent chemotherapy can’t permeate the blood-brain barrier to reach the aggressive brain tumor.

But now Northwestern Medicine scientists report results of the first in-human clinical trial in which they used a novel, skull-implantable ultrasound device to open the blood-brain barrier and repeatedly permeate large, critical regions of the human brain to deliver chemotherapy that was injected intravenously.

Continue reading “Chemotherapy drug reaches brain in humans for first time” »

Long-term sufferers of chronic back pain experienced dramatic reductions in pain and related disability that remained at their one-year follow-up after taking part in a new treatment tested by Curtin-Macquarie-Monash University research.

Published today in the journal The Lancet, the research found large clinically significant improvements in the intensity of pain and pain-related disability among almost 500 people who had been seeking help for their pain for an average of four years before trialing the new treatment.

The treatment, which delivered a health care and work productivity saving of more than $5,000 per person, took a whole-person approach by also helping people to make lifestyle changes aimed at improving their social and emotional health.

Joe Nicholson-Alaska Airlines.

The retrofitted aircraft will expand the reach and applicability of zero emissions flight technology, further advancing the aviation industry’s quest towards achieving net-zero carbon emissions.

What could possibly go wrong?

“First of all, the environment has changed, and the need for more resilient energy transport methods for military operations is at a premium,” explained Col. Paul “Promo” Calhoun to Popular Mechanics in an exclusive interview. American forces operate globally like the special operations units he resupplied as a C-17 cargo pilot, from outposts in the South China Sea to the Iraqi desert. Since there is no simple way to power them, many forces use their radars, anti-drone microwave weapons, lasers, or other energy-intensive equipment. And with each passing year, the severity of the issue increases.

Our cells naturally degrade over time, which is part of the reason we’re not as mobile and sprightly aged 80 as we are aged 8. Now scientists have figured out a way to boost cell lifespan and longevity using a synthetic genetic ‘clock’.

Researchers from the University of California San Diego based their findings on the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, making it unlikely that humans might live forever any time soon – but the team thinks that the work could be developed to eventually help the human body age in a healthier way.

By ‘rewiring’ the yeast cells, the researchers were able to boost their lifespan by 82 percent on average. It’s a promising development in the control of cellular aging and treating age-related conditions.

Neural networks are distributed computing structures inspired by the structure of a biological brain and aim to achieve cognitive performance comparable to that of humans but in a much shorter time.

These technologies now form the basis of machine learning and artificial intelligence systems that can perceive the environment and adapt their own behavior by analyzing the effects of previous actions and working autonomously. They are used in many areas of application, such as speech and image recognition and synthesis, autonomous driving and augmented reality systems, bioinformatics, genetic and molecular sequencing, and high-performance computing technologies.

Compared to conventional computing approaches, in order to perform complex functions, neural networks need to be initially “trained” with a large amount of known information that the network then uses to adapt by learning from experience. Training is an extremely energy-intensive process and as computing power increases, the neural networks’ consumption grows very rapidly, doubling every six months or so.

A solar-powered motorhome, shaped like a huge elongated teardrop, silently rolled into Madrid on Friday as part of a month-long journey from the Netherlands to southern Spain to highlight more sustainable modes of transport.

Engineering students at the Technical University of Eindhoven in the Netherlands created the blue and white vehicle, named Stella Vita – Latin for “star” and “life” – to inspire car makers and politicians to accelerate the transition toward green energy.

Continue reading “This solar-powered motorhome was designed by students” »