Lifeboat Foundation

UK experts say the low-dose steroid treatment is a major breakthrough in the fight against the deadly virus.

It cut the risk of death by a third for patients on ventilators. For those on oxygen, it cut deaths by a fifth.

The drug is part of the world’s biggest trial testing existing treatments to see if they also work for coronavirus.

Continue reading “Coronavirus: Dexamethasone proves first life-saving drug” »

In 2005, University of California, Berkeley, researchers made the surprising discovery that making conjoined twins out of young and old mice—such that they share blood and organs—can rejuvenate tissues and reverse the signs of aging in the old mice. The finding sparked a flurry of research into whether a youngster’s blood might contain special proteins or molecules that could serve as a “fountain of youth” for mice and humans alike.

But a new study by the same team shows that similar age-reversing effects can be achieved by simply diluting the blood plasma of old mice—no young blood needed.

In the study, the team found that replacing half of the blood plasma of old mice with a mixture of saline and albumin—where the albumin simply replaces protein that was lost when the original blood plasma was removed—has the same or stronger rejuvenation effects on the brain, liver and muscle than pairing with young mice or young blood exchange. Performing the same procedure on young mice had no detrimental effects on their health.

Why does this happen?

To put things as simply as possible, the root cause of all aging is a loss of energy on the cellular level, and there are basically two major theories for why this occurs. One says cellular energy decline is the result of accumulated cellular and mitochondrial damage. In other words, it’s the result of wear and tear on a cellular level. The other theory speculates that it is the result of genetic programming, with some genes getting overexpressed while others get underexpressed as we age.

These two theories of cellular energy decline aren’t in competition with one another. They just look at the problem from two different vantage points. The reality is these “causes” are interrelated. Gene overexpression and underexpression can cause cellular damage. Cellular damage can impair gene expressions.

I remember I looked over a study from the Lancet. I questioned it. I have also read other studies, and I have questioned them. At least I know my questioning was within reason now. People can not spike studies and expect to get away with it, as the truth always comes out in the end.

Two major study retractions in one month have left researchers wondering if the peer review process is broken.

If there are only enough vaccines for a fraction of the world who will get them first?

This post is about some fairly recent improvements in the field of AI-based voice cloning. If we have hours and hours of footage of a particular voice at our disposal then that voice can be cloned using existing methods. But this recent breakthrough enables us to do the same using…

Two people with beta thalassaemia and one with sickle cell disease no longer require blood transfusions, which are normally used to treat severe forms of these inherited diseases, after their bone marrow stem cells were gene-edited with CRISPR.

Result of the ongoing trial, which is the first to use CRISPR to treat inherited genetic disorders, were announced today at a virtual meeting of the European Hematology Association.

This is really old news:

Two tried-and-true vaccines — a century-old inoculation against tuberculosis and a decades-old polio vaccine once given as a sugar cube — are being evaluated to see if they can offer limited protection against the coronavirus.

The old vaccines are oddities among the cutting-edge and targeted technologies being developed to combat the novel coronavirus. New vaccines aim to teach the body’s immune system to recognize and destroy the coronavirus, but scientists are only now beginning to test them in people. Vaccines developed against TB and polio have already been used in millions of people and could offer a low-risk way to rev up the body’s first line of defense — the innate immune system — against a broad array of pathogens, including the coronavirus.

Continue reading “Can old vaccines from science’s medicine cabinet ward off coronavirus?” »

Chinese company, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL), this week announced a new battery technology that could revolutionise the electric vehicle market.

Established in 2011 and headquartered in Ningde, eastern China, CATL employs more than 24,000 people and has grown to become the world’s largest maker of lithium batteries. Amid surging demand for electric vehicles, its revenue soared by 54% last year. China, as a whole, installed 62.2 GWh of battery storage capacity last year, according to the China Automotive Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, of which CATL supplied 31.5 GWh for a market share of nearly 51%.

In addition to domestic sales, CATL supplies a wide range of carmakers internationally – including Tesla, BMW, Toyota, Honda, and Volkswagen. While sales have slumped more recently, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, CATL and its clients are expecting demand to return in 2021.