Lifeboat Foundation

Large swaths of U.S. military land are covered with munitions components, including the explosive chemical RDX. This molecule is toxic to people and can cause cancer. It also doesn’t naturally break down and can contaminate groundwater. Now researchers have genetically engineered a grass commonly used to fight soil erosion so that it can remove RDX from the soil, according to a new paper published May 3 in Nature Biotechnology.

A team, which includes researchers from the University of Washington, demonstrated that over the course of three years, a genetically engineered switchgrass could break down an explosive chemical in…

At Rehab, a nurse explained to me that my swallowing problem was caused by weak muscles in the esophageal sphincter. That information stimulated me to create my own therapy for the esophageal sphincter. I wrote out the transcript for the therapy, and a lady named Collette read it into a recorder. I listen to the recording several times a day. My swallowing problems resulted in a feeding being inserted up my nose. The therapy makes it possible for me to eat oatmeal, grits, eggs, pasta & beef, and corn flakes. After passing the swallowing test last Friday, the Speech Pathologist sent me to the Emergency Room, where they pulled the feeding tube from my nose.

Dysphagia refers to the difficulty in swallowing after a stroke. It is a problem that can be easily managed with proper medical care.

Papers referenced in the video:

Remnant Cholesterol and Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease Risk:
https://www.jacc.org/doi/10.1016/j.jacc.2020.10.

Continue reading “VLDL Increases During Aging, And Is Associated With Adverse Cardiovascular Outcomes” »

Criticism of a recent video denouncing resveratrol.

Following Doctor Brad Stanfield’s latest ‘why I stopped video’, this last one about resveratrol and pterostilbene, many of you asked for my opinion, well here it is.

Continue reading “Why Dr. Brad Stanfield Needed to Apologize” »

Humans are distinguished from other species by several aspects of cognition. While much comparative evolutionary neuroscience has focused on the neocortex, increasing recognition of the cerebellum’s role in cognition and motor processing has inspired considerable new research. Comparative molecular studies, however, generally continue to focus on the neocortex. We sought to characterize potential genetic regulatory traits distinguishing the human cerebellum by undertaking genome-wide epigenetic profiling of the lateral cerebellum, and compared this to the prefrontal cortex of humans, chimpanzees, and rhesus macaque monkeys. We found that humans showed greater differential CpG methylation–an epigenetic modification of DNA that can reflect past or present gene expression–in the cerebellum than the prefrontal cortex, highlighting the importance of this structure in human brain evolution. Humans also specifically show methylation differences at genes involved in neurodevelopment, neuroinflammation, synaptic plasticity, and lipid metabolism. These differences are relevant for understanding processes specific to humans, such as extensive plasticity, as well as pronounced and prevalent neurodegenerative conditions associated with aging.

Citation: Guevara EE, Hopkins WD, Hof PR, Ely JJ, Bradley BJ, Sherwood CC (2021) Comparative analysis reveals distinctive epigenetic features of the human cerebellum. PLoS Genet 17: e1009506. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.

Editor: Takashi Gojobori, National Institute of Genetics, JAPAN.

If a key process for the production of coronavirus proteins is disrupted, viral replication in infected cells can be significantly reduced.

In our new HVP COVID Report, Dr. Nick Jackson from CEPI discuss second-generation COVID-19 vaccines and preparing for the next pandemic.

A handful of companies are trying vastly different approaches to spin animal studies into the next big anti-aging therapy.

To survive 7000 metres below the surface of the sea, the Yap hadal snailfish has evolved advanced mechanisms for repairing its DNA and safeguarding its proteins.