Lifeboat Foundation

Gene editing has shown great promise as a non-heritable way to treat a wide range of conditions, including many genetic diseases and more recently, even COVID-19. But could a version of the CRISPR gene-editing tool also help deliver long-lasting pain relief without the risk of addiction associated with prescription opioid drugs?

In work recently published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, researchers demonstrated in mice that a modified version of the CRISPR system can be used to “turn off” a gene in critical neurons to block the transmission of pain signals [1]. While much more study is needed and the approach is still far from being tested in people, the findings suggest that this new CRISPR-based strategy could form the basis for a whole new way to manage chronic pain.

This novel approach to treating chronic pain occurred to Ana Moreno, the study’s first author, when she was a Ph.D. student in the NIH-supported lab of Prashant Mali, University of California, San Diego. Mali had been studying a wide range of novel gene-and cell-based therapeutics. While reading up on both, Moreno landed on a paper about a mutation in a gene that encodes a pain-enhancing protein in spinal neurons called NaV1.7.

Dr. Shawna Pandya MD, is a scientist-astronaut candidate with Project PoSSUM, physician, aquanaut, speaker, martial artist, advanced diver, skydiver, and pilot-in-training.

Dr. Pandya is also the VP of Immersive Medicine with the virtual reality healthcare company, Luxsonic Technologies, Director of the International Institute of Astronautical Sciences (IIAS)/PoSSUM Space Medicine Group, Chief Instructor of the IIAS/PoSSUM Operational Space Medicine course, Director of Medical Research at Orbital Assembly Construction (a company building the world’s first rotating space station providing the first artificial gravity habitat), clinical lecturer at the University of Alberta, podcast host with the World Extreme Medicine’s WEMCast series, Primary Investigator (PI) for the Shad Canada-Blue Origin student micro-gravity competition, member of the ASCEND 2021 Guiding Coalition, Life Sciences Team Lead for the Association of Spaceflight Professionals, sesional lecturer for the “Technology and the Future of Medicine,” course at the University of Alberta, and Fellow of the Explorers’ Club.

Continue reading “Dr Shawna Pandya MD — Physician, Scientist, Astronaut Candidate, Aquanaut, Martial Artist, Sky-Diver” »

The companies attempting to avoid transparency.

Jerry Lehnert.

· 1tSpohntsnorted ·

Continue reading “State’s Largest Business Lobby Sues Environmental Regulators Over PFAS Sampling Of Wastewater” »

I’ll believe it when I see it. But this is a skyhook which can be made with existing materials.

With one end of a steel cable hovering in Earth’s orbit and the other end somewhere in outer space, the concept of a futuristic floating “space elevator” promises to amplify humans’ ability to explore the universe — and scientists engineering an improved take on the 19th-century idea say the one-time fantasy is close to becoming a reality.

“Technical-wise, it’s kind of ready,” said George Zhu, a professor of mechanical engineering at York University and a coauthor of a new study on the idea. “It just has small engineering [adjustments], and there’s no fundamental difficulty to do that.”

Continue reading “Far from science fiction, space elevators may be nearing deployment” »

This is the only solely ion propelled series of aircrafts that can lift their power supplies against earth’s gravity. These prototypes were patented specifically for lifting their onboard power supplies and the widely published patent has been in effect since 2014.

While the craft wasn’t working at full power for this test footage since their was a power loss, the safety tether still went completely loose when the craft was energized, and it is also shown flying outdoors. There is an indoor flight that lasted for almost 2 minutes continually when it was flying at its best. There is a video of that and other sustained flights on this YouTube channel.

Continue reading “Self Contained Ion Powered Aircraft Charlene Model Outdoors” »

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World Economic Forum.

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Researchers use microwaves to observe an atomic sample 30000 times a second without destroying it.

Algorithms may be key to effectively using ReRAM devices in edge-learning systems, turning a ReRAM disadvantage to good use.

“The axons of nerve cells function a bit like a railway system, where the cargo is essential components required for the cells to survive and function. In neurodegenerative diseases, this railway system can get damaged or blocked,” Tasneem Khatib, the study’s first author, explained in a statement. “We reckoned that replacing two molecules that we know work effectively together would help to repair this transport network more effectively than delivering either one alone, and that is exactly what we found.”

Most neurodegenerative diseases are caused by multiple genetic abnormalities, making them difficult to address with gene therapy targeted at single mutations. Astellas is working on a gene therapy that expresses two proteins, and a University of Cambridge team has shown that it holds promise in glau…