Lifeboat Foundation

A new study has found that a novel T cell genetically engineered by University of Arizona Health Sciences researchers is able to target and attack pathogenic T cells that cause Type 1 diabetes, which could lead to new immunotherapy treatments.

The immune system fights bacteria, viruses and other pathogens by utilizing several types of T cells, all of which have receptors that are specific to particular antigens. On killer T cells, the receptor works in concert with three signaling modules and a coreceptor to destroy the infected cell. Michael Kuhns, Ph.D., an associate professor in the UArizona College of Medicine—Tucson Department of Immunobiology, copied the evolutionary design to engineer a five-module chimeric antigen receptor, or 5MCAR, T cell.

“The 5MCAR was an attempt to figure out if we could build something by biomimicry, using some of evolution’s natural pieces, and redirect T cells to do what we want them to do. We engineered a 5MCAR that would direct killer T cells to target autoimmune T cells that mediate Type 1 diabetes,” said Dr. Kuhns, who is member of the UArizona Cancer Center, BIO5 Institute and Arizona Center on Aging. “So now, a killer T cell will actually recognize another T cell. We flipped T cell-mediated immunity on its head.”

Researchers at Lancaster University have developed a new material that can store energy for months, and potentially years, at a time. The material can be activated by light, and then release the pent-up energy on demand in the form of heat.

The team started with a metal-organic framework (MOF), materials that are famous for being very porous and as such, having an extremely high surface area. That in turn allows them to hold onto large amounts of molecules, making them great for desalinating or filtering water, capturing carbon dioxide out of the air, or delivering drugs in the body.

For the new study, the Lancaster researchers tested out how well a MOF might be able to store energy. They started with a version of the material called a DMOF1, and loaded its pores with azobenzene molecules. This compound is excellent at absorbing light, which causes its molecules to physically change shape.

Here the video of the first discussion panel out of two, during the celebration of the Healthy Masters Conference 2020, which took place on November 29, 2020. Nuno Martins, organizer and moderator of the event, asked all panelists to comment on the following theme: What can we do to improve our health and longevity. Given the essence of the event, the question was surrounded by the objective of achieving radical life extension or super longevity. My intervention starts at minute 20:13 and in the description of the video there are all the time marks that direct to the begining of each talk.

First discussion panel out of two, during the celebration of the Healthy Masters Conference 2020 which took place on November 29, 2020.
Nuno Martins, PhD, organizer and moderator of the event, asked all panelists to comment on the following theme: What can we do to improve our health and longevity?
Given the essence of the event, the question was surrounded by the objective of achieving radical life extension or super longevity.

Continue reading “Panelists at the Healthy Masters 2020 on What Can We Do to Improve Health and Longevity” »

Fable Studio has announced two new conversational AI virtual beings, or artificial people. Their names are Charlie and Beck, and they will be able to hold conversations as if they were real people.

The new characters are a blend of storytelling and artificial intelligence, a marriage that Fable is pioneering in the belief that virtual beings will become a huge market as people seek companionship and entertainment during the tough climate of the pandemic.

CEO Edward Saatchi believes that virtual beings are the start of something big. He organizes the Virtual Beings Summit, and this summer he noted that virtual beings companies — from Genies to AI Foundation — have raised more than $320 million.

Just as engineers once compressed some of the power of room-sized mainframes into desktop PCs, so too have Stanford researchers shown how to pack some of the punch delivered by today’s ginormous particle accelerators onto a tiny silicon chip.

Um wtf o.o

Denmark culled 17 million minks in November in response to Covid-19 outbreaks at more than 200 mink farms. Now the country plans to dig up the dead animals after they started to rise out of their shallow graves.

The journey to see future technology starts in 2022, when Elon Musk and SpaceX send the first Starship to Mars — beginning the preparations for the arrival of the first human explorers.

We see the evolution of space exploration, from NASA’s Artemis mission, humans landing on Mars, and the interplanetary internet system going online. To the launch of the Starshot Alpha Centauri program, and quantum computers designing plants that can survive on Mars.

Continue reading “TIMELAPSE OF FUTURE TECH: From 2022 — 4000+” »

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) — A Fairbanks clinician suffered anaphylactic symptoms after being given the Pfizer Inc coronavirus vaccine, a hospital said on Friday, becoming the third Alaska health care worker to suffer an adverse reaction to the new drug. The clinician, whose name was not released, started showing symptoms about 10 minutes after being inoculated on Thursday, according to Foundation Health Partners, operator of the Fairbanks Memorial Hospital. The health care worker was treated in the hospital’s emergency room with epinephrine and released about six hours later, Foundation Health Partners said in a written statement. “Allergic reactions, though uncommon, can occur with injections of medications and vaccines,” Foundation Health Partners’ Chief Medical Officer Dr. Angelique Ramirez said in the statement.

“A reactogenic vaccine is not the same thing as an unsafe vaccine,” says Saad Omer, a vaccinologist and the director of the Yale Institute for Global Health.”

The COVID-19 vaccine will make some people feel sick. But they’re not—that’s the immune system doing its job.