Lifeboat Foundation

Detection of rare cells in blood and other bodily fluids has numerous important applications including diagnostics, monitoring disease progression and evaluating immune response. For example, detecting and collecting circulating tumour cells (CTCs) in blood can help cancer diagnostics, study their role in the metastatic cascade and predict patient outcomes. However, because each millilitre of whole blood contains billions of blood cells, the rare cells (such as CTCs) that occur at extremely low concentrations (typically lower than 100‑1000 cells per millilitre) are very difficult to detect. Although various solutions have been developed to address this challenge, existing techniques in general are limited by high cost and low throughput.

Researchers at UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering have developed a new cytometry platform to detect rare cells in blood with high throughput and low cost. Published in Light: Science and Applications, this novel cytometry technique, termed magnetically modulated lensless speckle imaging, first uses magnetic bead labelling to enrich the target cells. Then the enriched liquid sample containing magnetic bead-labelled target cells is placed under an alternating magnetic field, which causes the target cells to oscillate laterally at a fixed frequency. At the same time, a laser diode illuminates the sample from above and an image sensor positioned below the sample captures a high-frame-rate lensless video of the time-varying optical pattern generated by the sample. The recorded spatiotemporal pattern contains the information needed to detect the oscillating target cells.

The researchers built a compact and low-cost prototype of this computational lensless cytometer using off-the-shelf image sensors, laser diodes and electromagnets, and used a custom-built translation stage to allow the imager unit to scan liquid sample loaded in a glass tube. The prototype can screen the equivalent of ~1.2 mL of whole blood sample in ~7 min, while costing only ~$750 and weighing ~2.1 kg. Multiple parallel imaging channels can also be easily added to the system to further increase sample throughput.

A team of researchers from the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) and the Université Paul Sabatier-Toulouse III (France) have developed a system that is capable of managing all traffic in a city, which will help to prevent traffic jams while reducing the driving times of vehicles and pollution levels. The system has been designed for autonomous vehicles and includes a route provider service capable of forecasting the present and future density of traffic in the city. It also takes that information into account when choosing new routes. The work has been published in Electronics.

Unlike existing systems that can suggest alternative routes depending on the bottlenecks at a certain time, the new system makes it possible to find out the present and future density of traffic in the entire metropolitan area, and controls traffic as a whole, aiming to minimize or totally eliminate traffic jams. In addition, it allows including different criteria—environmental, atypical situations, accidents, etc.—to dynamically provide advice about routes.

“Our proposal makes it easier for authorities to restrict or eliminate traffic in a certain area during the time period they find appropriate. For example, reducing traffic next to schools during the entry/exit hours, or in areas where ambulances circulate or an accident has happened, etc.,” explains Carlos Tavares Calafate, researcher at the Networking Research Group-DISCA of the UPV and coordinator of the work.

Israeli researchers discover specific type of white blood cells that can be engineered to attack solid tumors, with fewer side effects than chemotherapy.

Much too easy: Planting a two-dollar spy chip on hardware with a technique that can be pulled off on a less than $200 budget? Yet that was the work of a proof in concept investigation by a security researcher and tech-watching sites were discussing the story on Monday.

Turns out you can slip a spy chip into any hardware for no more than $198 to $200, said reports. The spotlight was on security researcher Monta Elkins, Hacker-in-Chief, FoxGuard Solutions. He has a proof-of-concept version of a hardware implant.

John Dunn, Naked Security, talked about the chip as bad news for security were it to happen. “In fact, this has already happened as part of a project by researcher Monta Elkins, designed to prove that this sort of high-end hardware hack is no longer the preserve of nation-states.”

This purpose of this video is to GET DR. BILL ANDREWS ON THE JOE ROGAN EXPERIENCE. You can help make this reality in many ways. Please start by joining the Facebook group: GET DR. BILL ANDREWS ON THE JOE ROGAN EXPERIENCE: https://www.facebook.com/pg/Get-Dr-Bill-Andrews-on-The-Joe-R…e_internal

I believe we can get closer to reversing human aging by finding stronger human telomerase activators if Dr. Bill Andrews/Sierra Sciences receives more funding ($50 million USD would probably be enough for Dr. Andrews and his team to discover stronger human telomerase activators within a year).

Continue reading “Get Dr. Bill Andrews on The Joe Rogan Experience” »

A deficit arises in molecules needed for neurons to communicate efficiently.

What if the future of cancer treatment lies not with stronger drugs and larger doses of radiation that kill cells indiscriminately, but instead harnesses the power of our immune system to destroy cancer cells in our own body? Dr. Michael Jensen shares details of an FDA approved cancer treatment with a 91% cure-rate.

Dr. Michael Jensen is a leader in the field of cancer immunotherapy research. As the founding director of the Ben Towne Center for Childhood Cancer Research at Seattle Children’s Research Institute, Dr. Jensen and his team are pioneering translational research with striking results that just might change the way we think of disease treatment.

Continue reading “Immune to Cancer | Michael Jensen | TEDxStMarksSchool” »

Here’s the reality: We’re messing up the Earth and any far-out ideas of colonizing another orb when we’re done with our own are wishful thinking.

The question asked in the title of this post is one I have been pondering for the most part of a decade now, ever since I saw the image, shown in Figure 1, of the galaxy PGC54559 (popularly known as Hoag’s Object) in 2010, following several months of thinking about what Kardashev Type III civilisations might look like.

I had seen it before, of course, as it is one of the most striking of the many superlatively beautiful and photogenic images that the Hubble Space Telescope has made available to humanity as part of its astounding legacy. But when I saw it again on NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day on that day in late August 2010, I saw it in a quite different context – one prompted by having thought deeply for some months about what galaxy-scale macro-engineering might look like. And so, picture it: that idea, coupled with that image, and you can see, I hope, how the question asked in this post’s title would come immediately and insistently to mind (at least, for me!). As I thought about it even more for a few weeks, I even ended up tweeting about it – so strongly had the idea installed itself into my head! –

And then I saw Hoag’s Object (PGC54559)! Could it be an example of a K Type III civilisation? An intriguing thought! http://is.gd/fGBDQ

Continue reading “Is ‘Hoag’s Object’ an ‘engineered’ galaxy?” »