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Archive for the ‘biotech/medical’ category: Page 1114

Dec 16, 2021

Surgeons Successfully Transplanted Pig Kidneys to Two Humans

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Pig Kidney transplant to humans: Surgeons in New York have successfully transplanted pig kidneys to two recipients in what could be a revolutionary study.

Dec 16, 2021

Roche, Genentech, Recursion Launch Up-to-$12B AI Drug Discovery Effort

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry, genetics, neuroscience, robotics/AI

Roche and its Genentech subsidiary have committed up to $12 billion to Recursion in return for using its Recursion Operating System (OS) to advance therapies in 40 programs that include “key areas” of neuroscience and an undisclosed oncology indication.

Recursion OS applies machine learning and high-content screening methods in what the companies said would be a “transformational” model for tech-enabled target and drug discovery.

The integrated, multi-faceted OS is designed to generate, analyze and glean insights from large-scale proprietary biological and chemical datasets—in this case, extensive single-cell perturbation screening data from Roche and Genentech—by integrating wet-lab and dry-lab biology at scale to phenomically capture chemical and genetic alterations in neuroscience-related cell types and select cancer cell lines.

Dec 16, 2021

Uncovered: Key to how exercise protects against consequences of ageing

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

Monash University, Australia scientists have discovered an enzyme that is key to why exercise improves our health. Importantly this discovery has opened up the possibility of drugs to promote this enzyme’s activity, protecting against the consequences of aging on metabolic health, including type 2 diabetes.

The proportion of people worldwide over 60 years old will double in the next three decades and by 2031, more than six million Australians will be over 65 years old. The incidence of type 2 diabetes increases with age so this aging population will also result in an increased incidence of the disease globally.

One of the main reasons for the increased prevalence of type 2 diabetes with age is the development of insulin resistance, or an inability for the body to respond to insulin, and this is often caused by reduced physical activity as we age.

Dec 16, 2021

Mayo Clinic research finds immune system responds to mRNA treatment for cancer

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

ROCHESTER, Minn. ― Adding messenger RNA, or mRNA therapy improves the response to cancer immunotherapy in patients who weren’t responding to the treatment, Mayo Clinic research shows. Immunotherapy uses the body’s immune system to prevent, control and eliminate cancer. The study is published in Cancer Immunology Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

The phrase messenger RNA and its acronym, mRNA, have become familiar to the public during the COVID-19 pandemic. The mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 work by instructing cells in the body how to make a protein that triggers an immune response against the virus.

MRNA technology has also been of interest to cancer researchers and physicians. One of the major obstacles in cancer treatment is the low response rate in patients who receive immune checkpoint inhibitors to prevent an immune response from being so strong that it destroys healthy cells in the body.

Dec 16, 2021

N Of 1 Extend Lifespan Experiment: How To Start | Dr Michael Lustgarten Interview Series 3 Ep 1

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food, life extension, media & arts

In this video Dr. Lustgarten introduces his N of 1 experiment and gives an overview of the processes that he follows. He also discusses why he thinks it is important to track your own markers and not just rely on published trials.

Dr. Michael Lustgarten is a scientist at the Tufts University Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging in Boston, Massachusetts. His research currently focuses on the role of the gut microbiome and serum metabolome on muscle mass and function in older adults.
In this series of interviews Dr Lustgarten shares his experience with his rigorous n of 1 experiment over the last 7 years and shows how we or anyone can conduct a similar trial by tracking food, exercise and sleep, measure results and derive relationships between them, with a goal of extending our healthspan.

Continue reading “N Of 1 Extend Lifespan Experiment: How To Start | Dr Michael Lustgarten Interview Series 3 Ep 1” »

Dec 16, 2021

Coordinated Gene Expression and Chromatin Regulation during Hydra Head Regeneration

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing

Abstract. The cnidarian model organism Hydra has long been studied for its remarkable ability to regenerate its head, which is controlled by a head organizer located near the hypostome. The canonical Wnt pathway plays a central role in head organizer function during regeneration and during bud formation, which is the asexual mode of reproduction in Hydra. However, it is unclear how shared the developmental programs of head organizer genesis are in budding and regeneration. Time-series analysis of gene expression changes during head regeneration and budding revealed a set of 298 differentially expressed genes during the 48-h head regeneration and 72-h budding time courses. In order to understand the regulatory elements controlling Hydra head regeneration, we first identified 27,137 open-chromatin elements that are open in one or more sections of the organism body or regenerating tissue. We used histone modification ChIP-seq to identify 9,998 candidate proximal promoter and 3,018 candidate enhancer-like regions respectively. We show that a subset of these regulatory elements is dynamically remodeled during head regeneration and identify a set of transcription factor motifs that are enriched in the enhancer regions activated during head regeneration. Our results show that Hydra displays complex gene regulatory structures of developmentally dynamic enhancers, which suggests that the evolution of complex developmental enhancers predates the split of cnidarians and bilaterians.

Dec 16, 2021

US-Israeli start-up hopes to cure brain diseases with micro-robots

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, robotics/AI

Bionaut Labs aims to use robots smaller than a grain of rice to deliver medications exactly where they are needed and minimize the side effects for the body.

Dec 15, 2021

Habitability in the Solar System

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, climatology, existential risks, sustainability

Moderator: Michael Wall.
Panelists: Kennda Lynch, Abigail Fraeman, Morgan Cable.

Part of the Earth at the Crossroads conference held on Nov. 18, 2021.

Continue reading “Habitability in the Solar System” »

Dec 15, 2021

Sam Harris and Brett Weinstein Twitter feud | Jamie Metzl and Lex Fridman

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, genetics

Lex Fridman Podcast full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K78jqx9fx2I
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Jamie Metzl is an author specializing in topics of genetic engineering, biotechnology, and geopolitics.

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Dec 15, 2021

Learning and Protecting Itself: How the Brain Adapts

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Blocking matrix metalloproteinases MMP2 and MMP9 can have the opposite effect on neuroplasticity depending on whether the brain is healthy or injured.


Summary: Blocking the matrix metalloproteinases MMP2 and MMP9 can have the opposite effect on neuroplasticity depending on whether the brain is healthy or injured.

Source: University of Gottingen

Continue reading “Learning and Protecting Itself: How the Brain Adapts” »