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Dec 23, 2017

Robotic device improves balance and gait in Parkinson’s disease patients

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, engineering, life extension, robotics/AI

Some 50,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease (PD) every year. The American Institute of Neurology estimates there are one million people affected with this neurodegenerative disorder, with 60 years as average age of onset. Falls and fall-related injuries are a major issue for people with Parkinson’s?up to 70 percent of advanced PD patients fall at least once a year and two-thirds suffer recurring falls. These fall rates are twice as high as those of adults of comparable age, so improving balance in patients with Parkinson’s would provide a major health advantage.

Sunil Agrawal, professor of mechanical engineering and of rehabilitation and regenerative medicine at Columbia Engineering, along with Dario Martelli, a post-doctoral researcher in his group, have been working on this issue with Movement Disorders faculty from the department of neurology at Columbia University Medical Center?Stanley Fahn, a leading expert in Parkinson’s, and Un Jung Kang, division director, and Movement Disorder Fellow Lan Luo. In their latest study, published today in Scientific Reports, the team looked at whether or not Parkinson’s disease affects patients’ balance and diminishes their ability to react and adapt to walking with perturbations. The researchers found that the ability to adapt to multiple perturbations or to modify responses to changing amplitudes or directions was not affected by PD; both the Parkinson’s and the healthy subjects controlled their reactive strategies in the same way.

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Dec 23, 2017

In Human Time | The Climate Museum

Posted by in categories: environmental, media & arts

In Human Time, the first exhibition of the Climate Museum, explores intersections of polar ice, humanity, and time through installations of work by Zaria Forman and Peggy Weil.”

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Dec 23, 2017

World Inequality Report 2018 | WID.World

Posted by in category: governance

“The World Inequality Report 2018 relies on a cutting-edge methodology to measure income and wealth inequality in a systematic and transparent manner.”

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Dec 23, 2017

SpaceX launches Falcon 9 rocket

Posted by in category: satellites

The bright images in the sky that stopped traffic across the Southland came from the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on Friday. The rocket was carrying 10 satellites to low-Earth orbit, all which successfully deployed. (credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) lat.ms/2l0l8Xt

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Dec 22, 2017

Groundbreaking Gene Therapy Trial Aims to Cure Hemophilia

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

A single infusion gene therapy treatment improved levels of the essential blood clotting protein Factor VIII, with 85 percent of patients achieving normal or near-normal levels of the blood clotting factor, even many months after treatment.


Summary: British doctors say they have achieved “mind-blowing” results using gene therapy to rid people of hemophilia A. [This article first appeared on LongevityFacts. Author: Brady Hartman.]

We are one step closer to a cure for hemophilia according to the results of a groundbreaking gene therapy trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Dec 22, 2017

Researchers Discover Key to Diseases in Mitochondrial DNA Mutations

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, life extension, nuclear energy

New view on mitochondrial DNA could put the brakes on mutations that drive diseases. Scientists perform landmark sequencing of mitochondrial DNA and discover surprising facts.


Summary: New view on mitochondrial DNA could help put the brakes on mutations that drive diseases. [Author: Brady Hartman. This article first appeared on LongevityFacts.]

DNA sequences between mitochondria inside a single cell are vastly different, reported scientists in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. This discovery will help to illuminate the underlying mechanisms of diseases that start with mutations in mitochondrial DNA and provide clues about how patients might respond to specific treatments. The researchers published their findings in the journal Cell Reports this week.

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Dec 22, 2017

A Baby Spent 24 Years as a Frozen Embryo Before Being Born Last Month

Posted by in category: futurism

When Tina Gibson got married seven years ago, the 26-year-old knew it was unlikely that she would have children naturally. Her husband, 33-year-old Benjamin Gibson, had cystic fibrosis, a condition that can make men infertile, the couple told CNN.

The East Tennessee pair decided they would eventually adopt a child instead — and that they would foster several children in the meantime, until they were ready.

Then, last year, during a break between foster children, her father told them about something he’d heard on the news — embryo adoption, according to CNN. Gibson couldn’t get the idea out of her head.

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Dec 22, 2017

Infographic: How to Make an Artificial Stem Cell

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

See researchers’ recipe for synthetic mesenchymal stem cells, which showed cardiac regenerative potential in mice.

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Dec 22, 2017

Facebook Can Now Find Your Face, Even When It’s Not Tagged

Posted by in category: futurism

A new Facebook tool deploys facial-recognition to identify users in photos, even when they’re not tagged.

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Dec 22, 2017

What Is Gene Therapy? How Does It Work?

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, innovation

Gene therapy is the process of replacing defective genes with healthy ones, adding new genes to help the body fight or treat disease, or deactivating problem genes. It holds the promise to transform medicine and create options for patients who are living with difficult, and even incurable, diseases. Learn how this innovative therapy works.

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