Lifeboat Foundation

Approach to identifying the best drug targets gets critical test.

Researchers in Germany have discovered a new mechanism by which Alzheimer’s disease impairs memory recall – and, importantly, found a way to reverse it in mice. Neurons encoded with existing memories are being drowned out by noise from neurons encoding new experiences, and silencing these allowed the mice to regain lost memories.

The hippocampus is the region of the brain responsible for encoding experiences into memories, by building networks of neurons that store the information. When we recall a previous situation, those same neurons are activated. But when Alzheimer’s strikes, the hippocampus is usually one of the first brain regions to go. This manifests as the familiar memory loss and confusion that patients suffer from.

It was previously thought that the disease impairs the neurons containing memories so that they can’t be activated during recall, and eventually the memory they hold is lost. But the new study, from researchers at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), found a different mechanism at work.

A technological advancement that may prove crucial in the long-term success of dental implants has been developed by University of Queensland researchers.

Dr. Karan Gulati, NHMRC Early Career Fellow from the UQ School of Dentistry, said modifying dental implants with ‘nanopores’ will help protect against one of the leading causes of implant failure.

“Poor integration between the implant and the surrounding tissue is one of the leading causes of dental implant failure,” Dr. Gulati said. “If the sealing between the implant and the surrounding gum tissue fails it can result in bacteria entering the implant and causing infection.”

After years of hype, many people feel AI has failed to deliver, says Tim Cross.

Technology Quarterly Jun 11th 2020 edition

An instrument on board the International Space Station contains one of the coldest places in the universe, and researchers have used it to create a cloud of frozen atoms.

The aim of this study is to evaluate if the sweat produced by COVID-19 persons (SARS-CoV-2 PCR positive) has a different odour for trained detection dogs than the sweat produced by non COVID-19 persons. The study was conducted on 3 sites, following the same protocol procedures, and involved a total of 18 dogs. A total of 198 armpits sweat samples were obtained from different hospitals. For each involved dog, the acquisition of the specific odour of COVID-19 sweat samples required from one to four hours, with an amount of positive samples sniffing ranging from four to ten. For this proof of concept, we kept 8 dogs of the initial group (explosive detection dogs and colon cancer detection dogs), who performed a total of 368 trials, and will include the other dogs in our future studies as their adaptation to samples scenting takes more time.

The percentages of success of the dogs to find the positive sample in a line containing several other negative samples or mocks (2 to 6) were 100p100 for 4 dogs, and respectively 83p100, 84p100, 90p100 and 94p100 for the others, all significantly different from the percentage of success that would be obtained by chance alone.

We conclude that there is a very high evidence that the armpits sweat odour of COVID-19+ persons is different, and that dogs can detect a person infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Therefore, in 2020, we launched an initiative to focus NTZ’s efforts on the rejuvenation field, and to establish a worldwide network of translators of the field in order to turn NTZ into a tool for the whole field in the area of translation. This means that if a person or an entity in the rejuvenation field needs a translation which requires a translator familiar with the topic, with sufficient technical knowledge and reliability in any language pair, they only need to contact NTZ. Translators specialized in the science of rejuvenation know the technical terms, the main theories of aging, the most influential scientists, the key organizations, the most promising companies and the most active investors in the field. They are also aware of the importance of the rejuvenation field and are part of the worldwide effort to end an immense source of suffering in the world: aging and death caused by the inability to undo it.

SpaceX has promised that future Starlink satellites will have sunshades so they don’t blocks astronomers’ views of the stars.

One day, cell and gene therapies will be as common as small molecules and antibody-based therapies are today, according to panelists at BIO’s June 8 virtual session, “The Next Generation of Medicine: Cell Therapies, Gene Therapies and Beyond.”

Because cell and gene therapies have the potential to address complex biological issues such as dysregulation, translocation and mutations, they can use that power to change what the body is doing.

“So, while small molecules and antibody therapies will still be around 30 years from now, they will be less important. Cell and gene therapies will dominate,” James Sabry, global head of pharma partnering at Roche, said.