Toggle light / dark theme

I think I want non-gene hacked pigs for my supper. 😃


For the second time ever, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a gene-hacked animal for human consumption.

In this case, it’s the GalSafe pig, CNN reports, a genetically modified swine that’s safe even for people with allergies to eat. All in all, it’s a fresh sign that genetically-altered animals and sophisticated gene-hacking technology are now becoming commercially viable and entering the mainstream.

“Today’s first ever approval of an animal biotechnology product for both food and as a potential source for biomedical use represents a tremendous milestone for scientific innovation,” FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn said in a press release.

The United States generates seven million tons of sewage sludge annually, enough to fill 2, 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools. While a portion of this waste is repurposed for manure and other land applications, a substantial amount is still disposed of in landfills. In a new study, Texas A&M University researchers have uncovered an efficient way to use leftover sludge to make biodegradable plastics.

In the September issue of the journal American Chemical Society (ACS) Omega, the researchers report that the bacterium Zobellella denitrificans ZD1, found in mangroves, can consume sludge and wastewater to produce polyhydroxybutyrate, a type of biopolymer that can be used in lieu of petroleum-based plastics. In addition to reducing the burden on landfills and the environment, the researchers said Zobellella denitrificans ZD1 offers a way to cut down upstream costs for bioplastics manufacturing, a step toward making them more competitively priced against regular plastics.

“The price of raw materials to cultivate biopolymer-producing bacteria accounts for 25–45% of the total production cost of manufacturing bioplastics. Certainly, this cost can be greatly reduced if we can tap into an alternate resource that is cheaper and readily obtainable,” said Kung-Hui (Bella) Chu, professor in the Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “We have demonstrated a potential way to use municipal wastewater-activated sludge and agri-and aqua-culture industrial wastewater to make biodegradable plastics. Furthermore, the does not require elaborate sterilization processes to prevent contamination from other microbes, further cutting down operating and production costs of bioplastics.”

Although a single cataclysmic event gained most attention this year — the COVID pandemic — there were many other newsworthy developments in science and research, from daring space missions to room-temperature superconductors.


Mars missions, record‑breaking wildfires and a room‑temperature superconductor are among this year’s top non‑COVID stories.

Optics researchers from The University of Queensland and Nokia Bell Labs in the US have developed a new technique to demonstrate the time reversal of optical waves, which could transform the fields of advanced biomedical imaging and telecommunications.

Time reversal of waves in physics doesn’t mean traveling back to the future; it describes a special type of wave which can retrace a path backwards through an object, as if watching a movie of the traveling wave, played in reverse.

UQ’s Dr. Mickael Mounaix and Dr. Joel Carpenter, together with Dr. Nick Fontaine’s team at Nokia Bell Labs, are the first to demonstrate this time reversal of optical waves, using a new device they developed that allows full 3D control of light through an optical fiber.

Am I reading this wrong? Sunelight is literally a cure / weapon against corona? Or am I missing something / making an incorrect logical link?


Researchers from Tel Aviv University (TAU) have proven that the coronavirus can be killed efficiently, quickly, and cheaply using ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes (UV-LEDs). They believe that the UV-LED technology will soon be available for private and commercial use.

This is the first study conducted on the disinfection efficiency of UV-LED irradiation at different wavelengths or frequencies on a virus from the family of coronaviruses. The study was led by Professor Hadas Mamane, Head of the Environmental Engineering Program at TAU’s School of Mechnical Engineering, Iby and Aladar Fleischman Faculty of Engineering. The article was published in November 2020 issue of the Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B: Biology.

“The entire world is currently looking for effective solutions to disinfect the coronavirus,” said Professor Mamane. “The problem is that in order to disinfect a bus, train, sports hall, or plane by chemical spraying, you need physical manpower, and in order for the spraying to be effective, you have to give the chemical time to act on the surface. Disinfection systems based on LED bulbs, however, can be installed in the ventilation system and air conditioner, for example, and sterilize the air sucked in and then emitted into the room.

A bit of everything here from hallmarks of aging to epigenetic reprogramming(which effects telomeres, gene expression, etc) and even diet.


In this talk given at Ending Age-Related Diseases 2020, Dr. Kris Verburgh of the Free University of Brussels discusses the methods by which people might lead longer, healthier lives. While some of these methods involve the use of advanced rejuvenation biotechnology techniques, others are simpler to implement and require a minimum amount of technology, such as nutrition and exercise, along with health-monitoring technology that already exists in the public space.

HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT US?
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
LEAF / Lifespan.io is a 501©(3) nonprofit organization. Everything we’ve done thus far and everything we will do in the future is thanks to your support — please stand with us to fight the diseases of aging and increase healthy human lifespan.
â–ș Support us with monthly donations by becoming a Lifespan Hero: https://www.lifespan.io/hero.
â–ș Make a one-time donation and learn about other ways to support us here: http://lifespan.io/support.
â–ș Learn more, and help us #CrowdsourceTheCure: https://www.lifespan.io.
â–ș Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/user/LifespanIO

JOIN US
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
Join us, and together, we can overcome diseases like Alzheimer’s, heart disease, and cancer by addressing their shared source: the aging processes themselves.

#Research #Aging #Funding #LEAF #Biotech #Nutrition #Rejuvenation #Lifespan

Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute and University College London have rebuilt a human thymus, an essential organ in the immune system, using human stem cells and a bioengineered scaffold. Their work is an important step towards being able to build artificial thymi which could be used as transplants.

The thymus is an organ in the chest where T lymphocytes, which play a vital role in the immune system, mature. If the thymus does not work properly or does not form during foetal development in the womb, this can lead to diseases such as severe immunodeficiency, where the body cannot fight infectious diseases or , or autoimmunity, where the immune system mistakenly attacks the patient’s own healthy tissue.

In their proof-of-concept study, published in Nature Communications today, the scientists rebuilt thymi using taken from patients who had to have the organ removed during surgery. When transplanted into mice, the bioengineered thymi were able to support the development of mature and functional human T lymphocytes.