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Archive for the ‘biotech/medical’ category: Page 1136

Oct 4, 2021

Can AI help predict the next pandemic?

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

I think so.


A recent study demonstrates that machine learning methods could determine the risk of a viral jump or “spillover” from animals to humans.

Continue reading “Can AI help predict the next pandemic?” »

Oct 3, 2021

Muscle-gene edit creates buff beagles

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical

Gene editing works at low efficiency in dogs.

Oct 3, 2021

This gene therapy stopped mice from going deaf — and could save some humans’ hearing too

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Circa 2017


‘We have entered the age where the human genome is a real drug target.’

Oct 3, 2021

The World’s First Artificial Kidney Could Finally Free People From Dialysis

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

What’s so special about this artificial kidney? The device was engineered to sustainably support a culture of human kidney cells without provoking an immune response.

This means that kidney failure patients can forgo the often painful and uncomfortable dialysis procedures and the lifetime on immunosuppressant drugs that are taken when a kidney transplant is performed and which can have severe side effects. project just earned a $650,000 prize from KidneyX for its first-ever demonstration of a functional prototype.

According to kidney.org, kidney disease causes more deaths than breast cancer or prostate cancer, affecting an estimated 37 million people in the U.S. or 15% of the adult population; more than 1 in 7 adults.

Oct 3, 2021

Staying Young: Scientists Discover New Enzymatic Complex That Can Stop Cells From Aging

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

Scientists in Montreal discover a new enzymatic complex that can stop cells from aging, opening the way to possible new cancer therapies.

Researchers at Université de Montréal and McGill University have discovered a new multi-enzyme complex that reprograms metabolism and overcomes “cellular senescence,” when aging cells stop dividing.

In their study published on September 16 2021, in Molecular Cell, the researchers show that an enzyme complex named HTC (hydride transfer complex) can inhibit cells from aging.

Oct 3, 2021

Airborne environmental DNA for terrestrial vertebrate community monitoring

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Oct 3, 2021

A Chinese Biotech Startup Could Best Conventional Meat Prices by 2025

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, biotech/medical

Leveraging 3D printing to make the meat appear more appetizing.

A biotech startup in China recently showcased its lab-grown pork and is aiming for cost-parity with conventionally sourced pork by 2,025 Reuters reported.

Amidst growing concerns of emissions resulting from meat production, countries are looking for protein alternates that can feed their population while also being eco-friendly. Plant-based meats have been around for a while but need further development to stand in as replacements to animal meats. Cultured or lab-grown meats are sourced from animal cells and show a high resemblance to conventional meat but lack production at scale and are expensive to manufacture, making it difficult for consumers to switch. 3D printing to make the meat appear more appetizing.

Oct 2, 2021

Digenome-seq: genome-wide profiling of CRISPR-Cas9 off-target effects in human cells

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

In vitro digestion of genomic DNA with Cas9 and single guide RNAs (sgRNAs) yields genome-wide off-target sites at frequencies below 0.1%. Off-target sites can be further reduced with modified sgRNAs.

Oct 2, 2021

The Medical Minute: Real-time tumor tracking improves cancer cure rates

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health

Image-guided radiation therapy has evolved to include the ability to track tumors in real time during treatment. It’s improving cure rates and limiting side effects for a growing number of cancer patients.

Think of it like radio making way for television. For more than a century, radiation therapy has been effective in treating cancer. From the first X-rays, to today’s computed tomography (CT) scans, physicians have relied on various imaging techniques to locate tumors and guide their treatment. Enter real-time tumor tracking.

“Magnetic Resonance-guided therapy is really a new paradigm,” said Dr. Rodney Ellis, chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. He notes the leading-edge technology merges MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) with a linear accelerator, making it possible to reshape radiation dosage based on daily changes in a tumor’s shape, size and position and its surrounding healthy anatomy.

Oct 2, 2021

Deleted coronavirus genome sequences trigger scientific intrigue

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, government, health

Efforts to study the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic have received help from a surprising source. A biologist in the United States has ‘excavated’ partial SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences from the beginnings of the pandemic’s probable epicentre in Wuhan, China, that were deposited — but later removed — from a US government database.

The partial genome sequences address an evolutionary conundrum about the early genetic diversity of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, although scientists emphasize that they do not shed light on its origins. Nor is it fully clear why researchers at Wuhan University asked for the sequences to be removed from the Sequence Read Archive (SRA), a repository for raw sequencing data maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), part of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).


Partial SARS-CoV-2 sequences from early outbreaks in Wuhan were removed from a US government database by the scientists who deposited them.