Lifeboat Foundation

O,.o Circa 2019

CRISPR/Cas9 is now a household name associated with genetic engineering studies. Through cutting-edge research described in their paper published in Scientific Reports, a team of researchers from Tokyo University of Science, Meiji University, and Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, led by Dr Takayuki Arazoe and Prof Shigeru Kuwata, has recently established a series of novel strategies to increase the efficiency of targeted gene disruption and new gene “introduction” using the CRISPR/Cas9 system in the rice blast fungus Pyricularia (Magnaporthe) oryzae. These strategies include quicker (single-step) gene introduction, use of small homologous sequences, and bypassing of certain prerequisite host DNA “patterns” and host component modification.

The team led by Dr Arazoe and Prof Kuwata has devised simple and quick techniques for gene editing (target gene disruption, sequence substitution, and re-introduction of desired genes) using CRISPR/Cas9 in the rice blast fungus Pyricularia (Magnaporthe) oryzae, a type of filamentous fungus. Spurred on by encouraging results, the researchers surmise, “Plants and their pathogens are still coevolving in nature. Exploiting the mutation mechanisms of model pathogenic fungi as a genome editing technique might lead to the development of further novel techniques in genetic engineering.”

The working component of the CRISPR/Cas9 system binds to the target gene region (DNA) and causes a site-specific double-stranded break (DSB) in the DNA. Effective binding of this component requires a certain “motif” or “pattern” called the protospacer-adjacent motif (PAM), which follows downstream of the target gene region.

Watch a strange, sprouting mushroom reach out like an octopus … or the devil’s fingers.
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Scientists have developed a new system using the CRISPR genome-editing system to attack and kill cancer cells. The system targets cancel cells directly and, like “scissors,” cuts their DNA, killing them.

Circa 2014

Forget blue whales and giant redwood trees. The biggest living organism is over 2 miles across, and you’ll hardly ever see it.

After a decade, National Ignition Facility nears a self-heated, sustained reaction, though net energy gain is still elusive.

A public dispute between a 17-year-old transgender woman and her family has shone a spotlight on the existence of ‘schools’ that exist to ‘regulate’ the behaviour of the country’s teenagers.

Circa 2018

Children from the Uighur community are said to be ‘locked up like farm animals’ in ‘re-education’ camps in western China mirror.

RIP… I hope we see more mainstream studies related to the CCR5 mutation and it’s relationship to the HIV virus soon…

Mr Brown, known as the Berlin patient, was cured after a bone marrow transplant to treat leukaemia.

My most recent article published in my LinkedIn profile. Opinions and thoughts are welcome.

Elon Musk has been warning for years of the risks that the progress in AI can pose to humanity. Long story short, his position is that AI, once it eventually becomes AGI, is going to be so advanced that it will make humans irrelevant.

In order to prevent this from happening, Elon Musk argues that a symbiosis between the human mind and AI is necessary, so that a sort of “Brain Computer Interface” or BCI allow humans direct communication with the cloud, and allow to process information at the speed that things are done in the cloud. Also, it would allow to limitlessly increase the scarce memory that our brains are capable of holding.

Continue reading “The dilemma we face with the advent of brain-computer interfaces” »