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Archive for the ‘biotech/medical’ category: Page 1201

Sep 9, 2021

Dr. Marina Ezcurra, Ph.D. — Exploring The Gut Microbiota-Brain Axis In Health, Disease, and Aging

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension, neuroscience

Exploring The Gut Microbiota-Brain Axis In Health, Disease, and Aging — Dr. Marina Ezcurra, Ph.D. University of Kent.


Dr. Marina Ezcurra (https://marinaezcurralab.com/) is a Lecturer in the Biology of Aging, and NeuroBiology, at the School of BioSciences, at the University of Kent, UK (https://www.kent.ac.uk/biosciences/people/2081/ezcurra-marina).

Continue reading “Dr. Marina Ezcurra, Ph.D. — Exploring The Gut Microbiota-Brain Axis In Health, Disease, and Aging” »

Sep 9, 2021

Gene self-correction in ‘chromosome caps’ can beat mutations, help prevent blood cancers

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

Mentions telomeres.

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People with rare disorders that cause shortened telomeres—protective caps that sit at the end of chromosomes—may be more likely to have blood cancers such as leukemia or myelodyplastic syndrome. Now, Johns Hopkins Medicine scientists have discovered several “self-correcting” genetic mutations in bone marrow that may protect such patients from these cancers.

Continue reading “Gene self-correction in ‘chromosome caps’ can beat mutations, help prevent blood cancers” »

Sep 9, 2021

The Evolution of Mammals Reveals 2,000 New Genes Key to Longevity in Humans

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

Summary: Researchers have identified 2,000 genes in humans linked to longevity. The genes are associated with biological mechanisms that drive the prolongation of life in mammals, including DNA repair, coagulation, and immune response.

Source: UPF Barcelona.

What determines the life expectancy of each species? This is a fundamental and highly complex question that has intrigued the field of research throughout history. From the evolutionary point of view, the major cause of these differences between species lies in their ecological adaptations. For example, life expectancy is longer in species adapted to living in trees, underground, or with large body mass, since all these adaptations reduce mortality by predation.

Sep 9, 2021

I drove a rare solar-electric yacht to test clean-sea propulsion, here’s how it went

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, solar power, sustainability, transportation

I recently set sail on Sunwater Marine’s Ramblin’ Rose, a 40-foot sailing yacht powered by solar panels and electric propulsion.


While we at Electrek often tend to focus on electric vehicles taking over roads, it’s important to remember that our inevitable abandonment of fossil fuels stems to all modes of transportation, whether it’s by land, air, or even the sea. I recently had the opportunity to set sail on Sunwater Marine’s Ramblin’ Rose, a 40-foot sailing yacht powered by solar panels and electric propulsion. It’s one of the only vessels of its kind on the West Coast.

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Sep 9, 2021

Quantum mechanics and our part in creating reality

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, mobile phones, quantum physics

A new interpretation of quantum mechanics sees agents as playing an active role in the creation of reality. Blake Stacey outlines the case for QBism and its radical potential.

The pandemic shut down our university when I was in the middle of giving a lecture. We had been anticipating the possibility for a few days, but it was still impeccable timing. I finished my spiel, out came the phones, and suddenly we weren’t going to see each other post-spring break after all. For the rest of the term, I did what so many teachers found themselves doing: gamely trying to soldier on. I scrounged and borrowed a whiteboard, easel and webcam, set myself up in the nicest light the house had to offer, and did my best to convey graduate-level physics to an audience of tiny rectangles. And like so many other teachers, I learned there’s nothing like a radical change of circumstances for driving one to re-evaluate what the essential ideas of a subject must be.

Sep 9, 2021

Common medications accumulate in gut bacteria, which may reduce drug effectiveness and alter the gut microbiome

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry, neuroscience

Common medications can accumulate in gut bacteria, a new study has found, altering bacterial function and potentially reducing the effectiveness of the drug. These interactions—seen for a variety of medications, such as depression, diabetes, and asthma drugs—could help researchers to better understand individual differences in drug effectiveness and side-effects, according to the study published in Nature.

It is known that bacteria can chemically modify some drugs, a process known as biotransformation. This study, led by researchers from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Toxicology Unit at the University of Cambridge and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Germany, is the first to show that certain species of accumulate human drugs, altering the types of bacteria and their activity.

This could change the effectiveness of the both directly, as the accumulation could reduce the availability of the drug to the body, and indirectly, as altered bacterial function and composition could be linked to .

Sep 8, 2021

BMC Cancer

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health

Info for those who may need it.


The Editors of BMC Cancer and BMC Medicine invite of submissions to our ‘Targeted Therapy’ cross journal collection. Guest edited by Prof. Min Li (University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, USA) and Dr. Yanis Boumber (The Northwestern University, USA).

We advise to submit by 1st August 2021 if you would like your manuscript to be ready for the launch date.

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Sep 8, 2021

Study examines severe breakthrough cases of COVID-19

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health

A new Yale study provides important insights into breakthrough COVID-19 cases — instances where fully vaccinated individuals are infected by SARS-CoV-2 — and who is particularly vulnerable to serious illness.

In a study of hospitalized patients in the Yale New Haven Health System, researchers identified 969 individuals who tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 infection during a 14-week period between March and July 2021. Of that group, 54 were fully vaccinated.

“These cases are extremely rare, but they are becoming more frequent as variants emerge and more time passes since patients are vaccinated,” said Hyung Chun, associate professor of medicine (cardiology) at Yale and senior author of the study published Sept. 7 in Lancet Infectious Diseases.

Sep 8, 2021

U of M scientists develop a novel virus-like particle vaccine that protects animals against COVID-19 infections

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

U of M researchers have developed a novel virus-like particle vaccine against COVID-19. Having been successfully tested in animals, the novel vaccine — created as part of a study whose findings were recently published in the scientific journal PLOS Pathogens — offers a new approach in the global battle against COVID-19 and its emerging variants.

The researchers combined the advantages of the two types of traditional vaccines — virus-based vaccines and protein-based vaccines — by preparing a bacterial protein that self-assembles into a virus-like particle. By displaying a COVID-19 protein on the surface of this virus-like particle, researchers produced a novel vaccine that is well recognized by the mammalian immune system, but yet does not have any viral infectivity.

Sep 8, 2021

Stretching the capacity of flexible energy storage

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

Some electronics can bend, twist and stretch in wearable displays, biomedical applications and soft robots. While these devices’ circuits have become increasingly pliable, the batteries and supercapacitors that power them are still rigid. Now, researchers in ACS’ Nano Letters report a flexible supercapacitor with electrodes made of wrinkled titanium carbide — a type of MXene nanomaterial — that maintained its ability to store and release electronic charges after repetitive stretching.

One major challenge stretchable electronics must overcome is the stiff and inflexible nature of their energy storage components, batteries and supercapacitors. Supercapacitors that use electrodes made from transitional metal carbides, carbonitrides or nitrides, called MXenes, have desirable electrical properties for portable flexible devices, such as rapid charging and discharging. And the way that 2D MXenes can form multi-layered nanosheets provides a large surface area for energy storage when they’re used in electrodes. However, previous researchers have had to incorporate polymers and other nanomaterials to keep these types of electrodes from breaking when bent, which decreases their electrical storage capacity. So, Desheng Kong and colleagues wanted to see if deforming a pristine titanium carbide MXene film into accordion-like ridges would maintain the electrode’s electrical properties while adding flexibility and stretchability to a supercapacitor.

The researchers disintegrated titanium aluminum carbide powder into flakes with hydrofluoric acid and captured the layers of pure titanium carbide nanosheets as a roughly textured film on a filter. Then they placed the film on a piece of pre-stretched acrylic elastomer that was 800% its relaxed size. When the researchers released the polymer, it shrank to its original state, and the adhered nanosheets crumpled into accordion-like wrinkles.