Lifeboat Foundation

Tzar Labs, a molecular diagnostic company, and Mumbai-based Epigeneres Biotechnology, have claimed a breakthrough with their RNA-marker based technology for early detection of cancer rooted in stem cell biology. The blood tests, which can help determine whether cancer is absent, imminent, or present and also detect the different stages of the disease; will be launched by the end of this year.

Ashish Tripathi, founder and CEO of Tzar Labs, said that they are awaiting the regulatory approvals, and are building the first laboratory in Mumbai now. “We want to have labs in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad to begin with. To scale this, we need to add more labs and collection centres. We plan to launch the test in the market by the last quarter of 2020 calendar year.” Tripathi added that they would keep prices low, but did not divulge how much it could cost the end-user.

The blood test gives results in 72 hours now and can tell if one has cancer or has a chance of getting it. It is also able to say where the cancer is growing. They do an RNA mutation analysis for any organ in the body from a blood test. The company has recently conducted 1000 person clinical study, which has been peer reviewed by Stem Cell Reviews and Reports (SCRR), one of the leading global science journals in Stem Cell technology, published by Springer Science.

The third episode of our podcast, ImmortaliCast, is now available! We interviewed Didier Coeurnelle, chair and co-founder of HEALES, and Marion Steenacker, biologist from HEALES, who updated us on the partial results from the lifespan experiments on rats conducted by Harold Katcher and Rodolfo Goya and funded by HEALES. Didier also discusses the more important trends in the rejuvenation field, and the other activities and goals of HEALES.

You can watch this episode via YouTube or on the main podcast platforms:

Continue reading “Didier Coeurnelle: update on rats lifespan experiments” »

Why luxury brands like Hermès, Iris Van Herpen, and Stella McCartney are turning to mushrooms for an eco-alternative to leather.

The wondrous fungi-inspired creations in Dutch couture designer Iris Van Herpen’s Spring 2021 collection are like nothing else in the fashion world. Undulating crowns of brass coils top delicate micro-plissé gowns with bodices formed from sinuous silk tendrils. An early adopter of 3D printing and advocate for sustainability, van Herpen has emerged as a kind of oracle within the fashion industry. She spent lockdown in Amsterdam reading biologist Merlin Sheldrake’s book, Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures, which describes the hidden world of mycelium, the sprawling underground root-like networks of fungi (the visible part we know as mushrooms are akin to fruit on trees).

Terrain-relative navigation helped Perseverance land – and Ingenuity fly – autonomously on Mars. Now it’s time to test a similar system while exploring another frontier.

Latest GitLab survey finds one-year surge in automated aspects of DevOps. But is there a risk of over-automating?

We think of earthly life as evolving from the sea. But newly discovered microscopic “ball” fossils — found in ancient lake sediments in Scotland — suggest that evolution from single-celled to multicellular organisms might have occurred in lakes.

Pack your bathing costume — our solar neighborhood is much wetter than you think.

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that we cannot ignore the warning signs for future catastrophes.

NASA Goddard

The most striking aspect of the approach—for our money, anyway—is the way Bennu feels like a small world; rather than just a 1600-foot-wide hunk of rock. There’s plenty of space on Bennu’s surface to jump around. And one could even leap off the surface, enter into orbit around the asteroid, and then touch back down. The space probe, in fact, captured rocks doing just that.