Lifeboat Foundation

Scientists in the US have used the CRISPR-Cas system to target the RNA of hepatitis C virus (HCV).

Methods: In this review, due to their promise, we focus on inorganic nanomaterials [such as hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles (HMSNs), tungsten sulfide quantum dots (WS2QDs), and gold nanorods (AuNRs)] combining PTT with CHT, RT or IT in one treatment, aiming to provide a comprehensive understanding of PTT-based combinational cancer therapy. Results: This review found much evidence for the use of inorganic nanoparticles for PTT-based combinational cancer therapy. Conclusion: Under synergistic effects, inorganic nanomaterial-based combinational treatments exhibit enhanced therapeutic effects compared to PTT, CHT, RT, IT or PDT alone and should be further investigated in the cancer field.

Applications of inorganic nanomaterials in photothermal therapy based on combinational cancer treatment — pubmed.

Since antiquity, cultures on nearly every continent have discovered that certain plant leaves, when chewed or brewed or rubbed on the body, could relieve diverse ailments, inspire hallucinations or, in higher dosages, even cause death. Today, pharmaceutical companies import these once-rare plants from specialized farms and extract their active chemical compounds to make drugs like scopolamine for relieving motion sickness and postoperative nausea, and atropine, to curb the drooling associated with Parkinson’s disease or help maintain cardiac function when intubating COVID-19 patients and placing them on ventilators.

Now, Stanford engineers are recreating these ancient remedies in a thoroughly modern way by genetically reprogramming the cellular machinery of a special strain of yeast, effectively transforming them into microscopic factories that convert sugars and amino acids into these folkloric drugs, in much the same way that brewers’ yeast can naturally convert sugars into alcohol.

Autonomous vessels may offer solution to pandemic struggles.

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Forty states have already led the way, and the time is now.

Since the start of the pandemic, scientists have learned that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is quite cunning. When the virus enters the body, it’s capable of turning off an entire branch of the immune system, allowing it to spread for days before the immune system can sound the alarm on the intruder. However, researchers still don’t know the full scope of tissues and cell types that are most vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2. Most research has focused on identifying genes and pathways that facilitate the virus’s entry into lung cells – yet both clinical and scientific data indicate that it can cause damage in a wide range of organs. Now, new Cornell research has developed potential roadmaps for how the virus infects these other organs and identifies what molecular factors could help facilitate or restrict infection.

Research from the Feschotte Lab identifies 28 new SARS-CoV-2 and coronavirus associated receptors and factors that predict which tissues are most vulnerable to infection.

🤔 My belief is: Many people have ideas on how to fix the global economy. It is only in trying as many ideas as possible to see what works, and what fails. Personally I believe in the ideologies of Scottish Intellectuals David Hume, and Adam Smith. Capital needs to be broadly spread out to the most productive hands of an economy. Currently that would be creatives. Musk and Bezos have multiplied wealth and created jobs, like Steve Jobs. With people cozy to the idea of working a… See More.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has asked states to be ready to distribute a coronavirus vaccine by late October. Pfizer (PFE) thinks it will have enough data to ask the US Food and Drug Administration to authorize its potential vaccine next month.

Most experts think it’s unlikely — but not impossible — that a vaccine will be ready ahead of the US election. But with at least seven candidates in phase three trials, it’s very likely that at least one successful vaccine will emerge in the months to come. Pharmaceutical companies are also racing to develop effective treatments for the disease.

Continue reading “A vaccine won’t cure the global economy” »

Circa 2014 o,.o.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, has announced the start of a five-year, $26 million effort to develop brain implants that can treat mental disease with deep-brain stimulation.

The hope is to implant electrodes in different regions of the brain along with a tiny chip placed between the brain and the skull. The chip would monitor electrical signals in the brain and send data wirelessly back to scientists in order to gain a better understanding of psychological diseases like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The implant would also be used to trigger electrical impulses in order to relieve symptoms.

Continue reading “DARPA teams begin work on tiny brain implant to treat PTSD” »

Lysol Disinfectant Spray and Lysol Disinfectant Max Cover Mist meet the EPA’s criteria for use against the SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the ongoing pandemic, based on laboratory testing that found both products kill the virus two minutes after contact, the agency announced in a statement Monday.

While there are more than 420 products on the list of disinfectants that the EPA says are strong enough to ward off “harder-to-kill” viruses than the novel coronavirus, the two Lysol products are the first to have been tested directly against the virus and proved effective.