Lifeboat Foundation

Could a nano array that can identify the chemical signatures of diseases bring us closer to the day when doctors might be able to use a medical tricorder a la Star Trek to instantly diagnose a patient’s conditions?

More progress in treating MS.

In findings that show the effectiveness of a new strategy for treating multiple sclerosis (MS), researchers are reporting positive results from three large, international, multicenter Phase III clinical trials of the investigational drug ocrelizumab (brand name Ocrevus) in both relapsing multiple sclerosis (RMS) and primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS).

The trial results are published online on Dec. 21, 2016, in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), and are discussed in an accompanying editorial.

Continue reading “Positive multiple sclerosis clinical trial suggests ‘unprecedented’ effects in relapsing form of the disease” »

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Gb8H8aFAp5I

Humans’ relationship with technology is growing ever-more intimate. In a sense, we have already become cyborgs, tethered to our external electronic devices, outsourcing to them our memories, our sense of direction, our socializing, our lives. But, if the past year’s technological advancements are any indication, our relationship with technology is going to get a whole lot closer. Technology could one day soon become regularly integrated with our biology to manage disease and augment human ability. Here were some of the biggest breakthroughs of the past year on the cyborg front.

Summary:

• Clinical trial failure rates for small molecules in oncology exceed 94% for molecules previously tested in animals and the costs to bring a new drug to market exceed $2.5 billion
• There are around 2,000 drugs approved for therapeutic use by the regulators with very few providing complete cures
• Advances in deep learning demonstrated superhuman accuracy in many areas and are expected to transform industries, where large amounts of training data is available
• Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), a new technology introduced in 2014 represent the “cutting edge” in artificial intelligence, where new images, videos and voice can be produced by the deep neural networks on demand
• Here for the first time we demonstrate the application of Generative Adversarial Autoencoders (AAEs), a new type of GAN, for generation of molecular fingerprints of molecules that kill cancer cells at specific concentrations
• This work is the proof of concept, which opens the door for the cornucopia of meaningful molecular leads created according to the given criteria
• The study was published in Oncotarget and the open-access manuscript is available in the Advance Open Publications section
• Authors speculate that in 2017 the conservative pharmaceutical industry will experience a transformation similar to the automotive industry with deep learned drug discovery pipelines integrated into the many business processes
• The extension of this work will be presented at the “4th Annual R&D Data Intelligence Leaders Forum” in Basel, Switzerland, Jan 24-26th, 2017

Thursday, 22nd of December Baltimore, MD — Scientists at the Pharmaceutical Artificial Intelligence (pharma. AI) group of Insilico Medicine, Inc, today announced the publication of a seminal paper demonstrating the application of generative adversarial autoencoders (AAEs) to generating new molecular fingerprints on demand. The study was published in Oncotarget on 22nd of December, 2016. The study represents the proof of concept for applying Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) to drug discovery. The authors significantly extended this model to generate new leads according to multiple requested characteristics and plan to launch a comprehensive GAN-based drug discovery engine producing promising therapeutic treatments to significantly accelerate pharmaceutical R&D and improve the success rates in clinical trials.

Cognitive training interventions are a promising approach to mitigate cognitive deficits common in aging and, ultimately, to improve functioning in older adults. Baseline neural factors, such as properties of brain networks, may predict training outcomes and can be used to improve the effectiveness of interventions. Here, we investigated the relationship between baseline brain network modularity, a measure of the segregation of brain sub-networks, and training-related gains in cognition in older adults. We found that older adults with more segregated brain sub-networks (i.e., more modular networks) at baseline exhibited greater training improvements in the ability to synthesize complex information. Further, the relationship between modularity and training-related gains was more pronounced in sub-networks mediating “associative” functions compared with those involved in sensory-motor processing. These results suggest that assessments of brain networks can be used as a biomarker to guide the implementation of cognitive interventions and improve outcomes across individuals. More broadly, these findings also suggest that properties of brain networks may capture individual differences in learning and neuroplasticity.

Trail Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT#00977418

Citation: Gallen CL, Baniqued PL, Chapman SB, Aslan S, Keebler M, Didehbani N, et al. (2016) Modular Brain Network Organization Predicts Response to Cognitive Training in Older Adults. PLoS ONE 11(12): e0169015. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0169015

Continue reading “Modular Brain Network Organization Predicts Response to Cognitive Training in Older Adults” »

Graphene has already proven its importance to brain implants as well as other Synbio technology.

By interfacing brain cells with graphene, University of Illinois at Chicago researchers have differentiated a single hyperactive Glioblastoma Multiforme cancerous astrocyte cell from a normal cell in the lab — pointing the way to developing a simple, noninvasive tool for early cancer diagnosis.

Continue reading “Using graphene to detect brain cancer cells” »

Rejuvenating the immune system offers hope for Alzheimer’s patients and removal of plaques.

Alzheimer′s disease (AD) is characterized by deposition of amyloid plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and neuroinflammation. In order to study microglial contribution to amyloid plaque phagocytosis, we developed a novel ex vivo model by co‐culturing organotypic brain slices from up to 20‐month‐old, amyloid‐bearing AD mouse model (APPPS1) and young, neonatal wild‐type (WT) mice. Surprisingly, co‐culturing resulted in proliferation, recruitment, and clustering of old microglial cells around amyloid plaques and clearance of the plaque halo. Depletion of either old or young microglial cells prevented amyloid plaque clearance, indicating a synergistic effect of both populations. Exposing old microglial cells to conditioned media of young microglia or addition of granulocyte‐macrophage colony‐stimulating factor (GM‐CSF) was sufficient to induce microglial proliferation and reduce amyloid plaque size. Our data suggest that microglial dysfunction in AD may be reversible and their phagocytic ability can be modulated to limit amyloid accumulation. This novel ex vivo model provides a valuable system for identification, screening, and testing of compounds aimed to therapeutically reinforce microglial phagocytosis.

Non-profit research ultimately benefits for-profit companies and is an essential part of the development chain of any therapy.

Companies like Unity Biotech have taken non-profit research and are developing it for-profit, this is the only way that therapies will make it to market and pay for the huge costs involved in development. You may have concerns that our current crowdfunding project is with a for-profit company so here is CellAge to answer this question.

Continue reading “CellAge Campaign Q&A: Are You a For-Profit Company? | Lifespan.io” »

The body is under constant invasion by microbes so rejuvenation of the immune system and reduction of imflammation is a big priority for rejuvenation biotechnology.

Recent publications have proposed that aging should be classified as a disease (Bulterijs et al., 2015; Zhavoronkov and Bhullar, 2015; Zhavoronkov and Moskalev, 2016). The goal of this manuscript is not to dispute these claims, but rather to suggest that when classifying aging as a disease, it is important to include the contribution of microbes.

As recently as ~115 years ago, more than half of all deaths were caused by infectious diseases, including pneumonia, influenza, tuberculosis, gastrointestinal infections, and diphtheria (Jones et al., 2012). Since then, the establishment of public health departments that focused on improved sanitation and hygiene, and the introduction of antibiotics and vaccines allowed for a dramatic decrease in infectious disease-related mortality (Report, 1999). In 2010, the death rate for infectious diseases was reduced to 3% (Jones et al., 2012). Simultaneously, as infectious disease-related mortality rates have decreased, global lifespan has increased from ~30 to ~70 years (Riley, 2005).

Continue reading “Classifying Aging As a Disease: The Role of Microbes” »