Lifeboat Foundation

Hypoxia, stress induce genetic, physiological adaptations through HIF signaling pathways. Adaptations result in context dependent improvement or disease.

In 2006, Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD, made a discovery that revolutionized biomedical research and earned him a Nobel Prize. His lab found that stem cells, the body’s ‘building blocks,’ can be made from just a small sample of skin. These cells, called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), have changed the way we research disease, bringing us closer than ever to cures — Dr. Yamanaka’s (and NYSCF’s) ultimate goal.

“I am doing whatever it takes to bring this technology to patients,” remarked Dr. Yamanaka, in his keynote address at the 2019 NYSCF Conference. “When I was training as a young surgeon, my father passed away. I couldn’t do anything to help him, and that had a huge impact on me. I truly believe that it is science that will help patients suffering from intractable diseases.”

During the 2019 NYSCF Conference held at The Rockefeller University on October 22–23, over 500 researchers, students, and thought leaders shared their latest findings in translational stem cell research, highlighting how stem cells are being used to illuminate disease mechanisms, discover new therapies, and advance precision medicine.

We all have the potential to pioneer this universe of wonders and discoveries, but we are like genies trapped in bottles. Not only that, the bottle is rusting away, and we have barely gotten to exercise our powers. Yet here we sit, instead of working on the situation, we do what we can to deny death and pretend it’s not happening. We fight tooth and nail for land, gold, traditions, landmarks, and policies, but when it comes to human life, the most valuable of all, something causes us to pull back and let it slide. If gold or a landmark had a genie in it then would it be less valuable?

The author of The Denial of Death, Ernest Becker, writes, “This is the paradox: he is out of nature and hopelessly in it; he is dual, up in the stars and yet housed in a heart-pumping, breath-gasping body that once belonged to a fish and still carries the gill-marks to prove it.” “Man is literally split in two: he has an awareness of his own splendid uniqueness in that he sticks out of nature with a towering majesty, and yet he goes back into the ground a few feet in order blindly and dumbly to rot and disappear forever.” What do you do in a position like that? What are the most sensible courses of action to take for apes wandering along, suddenly finding themselves alight with the vast powers of reflective cognition? Becker says we go mad driving ourselves blind with social and psychological games, that when faced with fight or flight, we flee into rationalizations and distractions.

Being “inauthentic” and “one dimensional”, people are “unable to transcend their social conditioning: the corporation men in the West, the bureaucrats in the East, the tribal men locked up in tradition—man everywhere who doesn’t understand what it means to think for himself and who, if he did, would shrink back at the idea of such audacity and exposure.” Having not completely figured out what it means to think independently yet, humanity as a whole just kind of sinks back into default positions of mimicry and whatever generates tribal acceptance and basic survival needs. When fighting the duality is considered, even the thought of getting a basic grip on it is overwhelming.

Scientists have discovered yet another life-giving treatment for disease using adult stem cells, while the number of substantial medical breakthroughs from life-taking embryonic stem cell research remains essentially zero.

Neuromyelitis optica (NMO), also known as Devic’s disease, causes the immune system to react against the body’s own cells in the central nervous system, particularly the eyes and spinal cord. Those who contract the disease usually lose their eyesight and ability to walk within five years.

Continue reading “Another adult stem cell breakthrough” »

This 16-year-old high school student from Iloilo went viral after discovering the properties of Aratiles fruit or Sarisa that can cure diabetes.

The young Filipina scientist was identified as Maria Isabel Layson, was one of the winners of the 2019 National Science and Technology Fair (NSTF), that was held last February.

She was also one of the 12 candidates sent to the International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix, Arizona USA to represent the Philippines in one of the biggest pre-college science research competition in the world and was the first in her batch to receive Gokongwei Brothers Foundation Young Scientist Award.

Did you know that obesity, autoimmune disease, diabetes, arthritis, depression, anxiety and eczema all have one thing in common? It’s the gut.

The meatball that shook the world has investors salivating.

Researchers develop a novel method to measure gravity that can get much more information.

In a classic episode of an old-school TV comedy called I Love Lucy, we see Lucille Ball stepping into an assembly line job at a candy factory. As the pace of the conveyor belt exceeds her ability to wrap the candy, the frenzy gets the best of her. She shoves candy into her pockets, into her hat, into her mouth—it’s a job fail.

As we know, faster doesn’t always mean better. And precision can take a big bite out of speed.

Continue reading “New twist on CRISPR technology” »