Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: biotech/medical – Page 1,678

Medical Ethics and “Futility” (Note: Listen here function)

We breathe about 12 to 20 times a minute, without having to think. Inhale: and air flows through the mouth and nose, into the trachea. The bronchi stem out like a wishbone, and keep branching, dividing and dividing, and finally feeding out into the tiny air sacs of alveoli. Capillaries – blood vessels thinner than hairs – twine around each alveolus. Both the air sac and the blood vessel are tiny, delicate, one cell thick: portals where blood (the atmosphere of the body) meets air (atmosphere of the world). Oxygen passes from air to blood; carbon dioxide, from blood to air. Then, the exhale pushes that carbon dioxide back out the mouth and nose. Capillaries channel newly oxygenated blood back to the heart. That oxygen fuels the body. That’s why we breathe.

Today, these basics of human respiration and metabolism feel obvious – and ventilators, the machines that breathe for sick people, do, too. We have so many medical devices, so of course we’d need, and have, machines that help us to breathe. But there’s a strange, and deeply human, story behind how we learned to breathe for each other. It starts long ago, when we didn’t understand breathing at all. When the body’s failure to breathe was incomprehensible, incurable, and fatal. When we had no way of knowing how badly we needed ventilators to keep people alive through those moments of vulnerability, lest those moments be their last.

Medical TV shows have accustomed us to the sight of doctors moving quickly to keep the sickest patients alive – but that link between hurry and success hasn’t always existed. Up to 100-odd years ago, for most of human history, when doctors had a dying patient, they rushed to do what they knew, but the patient died anyway. It doesn’t matter if you hurry or move slowly if your ‘cures’ don’t work. Ventilation, the linchpin of critical care medicine, changed that. Doctors could save some of the dying. That new technology helped bring medicine from hopes and crossed fingers to saving lives.

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At our first online conference, Ending Age-Related Diseases 2020, Dr. Brian Kennedy of the National University of Singapore discussed the aging population of Singapore, the need for comprehensive healthcare, alpha-ketoglutarate and its effects against frailty in mice, ongoing trials of ketoglutarate in humans, spermidine against obesity, the role of biomarkers, and the importance of keeping people well rather than simply treating them when they are sick.

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From the data, the GTEx team could identify the relationship between specific genes and a type of regulatory DNA called expression quantitative trait loci, or eQTL. At least one eQTL regulates almost every human gene, and each eQTL can regulate more than one gene, influencing expression, GTEx member and human geneticist Kristin Ardlie of the Broad Institute tells Science.

Another major takeaway from the analyses was that sex affected gene expression in almost all of the tissue types, from heart to lung to brain cells. “The vast majority of biology is shared by males and females,” yet the gene expression differences are vast and might explain differences in disease progression, GTEx study coauthor Barbara Stranger of Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine tells Science. “In the future, this knowledge may contribute to personalized medicine, where we consider biological sex as one of the relevant components of an individual’s characteristics,” she says in a statement issued by the Centre for Genome Regulation in Barcelona, where some of the researchers who participated in the GTEx project work.

Another of the studies bolsters the association between telomere length, ancestry, and aging. Telomere length is typically measured in blood cells; GTEx researchers examined it in 23 different tissue types and found blood is indeed a good proxy for overall length in other tissues. The team also showed that, as previously reported, shorter telomeres were associated with aging and longer ones were found in people of African ancestry. But not all earlier results held; the authors didn’t see a pattern of longer telomeres in females or constantly shorter telomeres across the tissues of smokers as previous studies had.

Not everyone is singing the project’s praises. Dan Graur, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Houston who often criticizes big projects like GTEx, tells Science the results are hard to parse and there was little diversity, with 85 percent of the tissue donors being white. He also was critical of the use of deceased donor tissue, questioning if it truly reflects gene activity in living humans. “It’s like studying the mating behaviour of roadkill.”

Other scientists say there’s much work to be done. The gene regulation map leaves many unanswered questions about the exact sequences that cause disease and how gene regulation systems work in tandem. Genomicist Ewan Birney, the deputy director general of EMBL, tells Science, “We shouldn’t pack up our bags and say gene expression is solved.”

A decade-long effort to probe gene regulation reveals differences between males and females, points to essential regulatory elements, and offers insight into past work on telomeres.

Continue reading “New Map Charts Genetic Expression Across Tissue Types, Sexes” | >

Volumetric Bioprinting

Recreating human body parts using a 3D printer. This is possible in the Netherlands with the new bioprinter developed by Utrecht University and UMC Utrecht. This printer can be used to make models of organs or bones, amongst other things. These printed models can be made up of living cells on which medication can be tested, for instance.

Conventional 3D printers work by stacking plastic layers on top of each other. This build-up of layers creates a three-dimensional figure. There are already countless possibilities with these standard 3D printers. Science has been looking for years at how this technique can be applied across different areas.

Printing living cells

Scientists have already tried to print prostheses or entire organs before. So far, they have never really succeeded. However, there are some 3D printers that are able to cope with sensitive materials that contain living cells.

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September 14, 2020 — The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in radiology to aid in image interpretation tasks is evolving, but many of the old factors and concepts from the computer-aided detection (CAD) era still remain, according to a Sunday talk at the Conference on Machine Intelligence in Medical Imaging (C-MIMI).

A lot has changed as the new era of AI has emerged, such as faster computers, larger image datasets, and more advanced algorithms — including deep learning. Another thing that’s changed is the realization of additional reasons and means to incorporate AI into clinical practice, according to Maryellen Giger, PhD, of the University of Chicago. What’s more, AI is also being developed for a broader range of clinical questions, more imaging modalities, and more diseases, she said.

At the same time, many of the issues are the same as those faced in the era of CAD. There are the same clinical tasks of detection, diagnosis, and response assessment, as well as the same concern of “garbage in, garbage out,” she said. What’s more, there’s the same potential for off-label use of the software, and the same methods for statistical evaluations.

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“It is completely preserved, with all internal organs in place, including even its nose,” and a preliminary analysis reveals it lived 22,000 to 39,500 years ago… See More.

In a statement issued by the university, researcher Lena Grigorieva emphasized that “this is the first and only find of its kind — a whole bear carcass with soft tissues.”

“It is completely preserved, with all internal organs in place, including even its nose,” Grigorieva said. “This find is of great importance for the whole world.”

A preliminary analysis indicated that the adult bear lived 22,000 to 39,500 years ago.

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O,.o.

“It’s going to take four to five years until everyone gets the vaccine on this planet,” Adar Poonawalla, chief executive of the Serum Institute of India, told the newspaper.

Dragging down the feasibility, Poonwalla says that such a vaccine would likely need to include a second booster shot, like for the measles or rotavirus vaccine. That would mean 15 billion doses in total for the entire globe.

“I know the world wants to be optimistic on it… [but] I have not heard of anyone coming even close to that [level] right now,” Poonawalla added.

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Anti-bacterial efficiency close to 100% under 10-min sunlight and promising results in deactivation of coronaviruses.

Face masks have become an important tool in fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic. However, improper use or disposal of masks may lead to “secondary transmission.” A research team from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has successfully produced graphene masks with an anti-bacterial efficiency of 80%, which can be enhanced to almost 100% with exposure to sunlight for around 10 minutes. Initial tests also showed very promising results in the deactivation of two species of coronaviruses. The graphene masks are easily produced at low cost, and can help to resolve the problems of sourcing raw materials and disposing of non-biodegradable masks.

The research is conducted by Dr. Ye Ruquan, Assistant Professor from CityU’s Department of Chemistry, in collaboration with other researchers. The findings were published in the scientific journal ACS Nano, titled “Self-Reporting and Photothermally Enhanced Rapid Bacterial Killing on a Laser-Induced Graphene Mask.”

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When Sartre said hell is other people, he wasn’t living through 2020. Right now, other people are the only thing between us and species collapse. Not just the people we occasionally encounter behind fugly masks—but the experts and innovators out in the world, leading the way. The 17-year-old hacker building his own coronavirus tracker. The Google AI wonk un-coding machine bias. A former IT guy helping his community thwart surveillance. There are people everywhere, in and out … See More.

The scientists, technologists, artists, and chefs who are standing between us and species collapse.

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