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A new UK study has identified a gene signature that predicts poor survival from ovarian cancer. The study also identified genes which help the cancer develop resistance to chemotherapy — offering a new route to help tackle the disease.

The study, published in the International Journal of Cancer, examined the role of HOX genes in ovarian cancer resistance and whether a drug known as HXR9 which targets HOX, could help prevent the resistance from developing.

The HOX gene family enables the remarkably rapid cell division seen in growing embryos. Most of these genes are switched off in adults, but previous research has shown that in several cancers, including ovarian cancer, HOX genes are switched back on, helping the cancer cells to proliferate and survive.

Glad they are doing something on this because my biggest concern on biometrics and systems storing other people’s DNA/ bio information is criminals hacking in and collecting bio information on people and reselling it on the Dark Web. With this type of information; criminals can do many interesting things especially if they have access to a gene editing kit, or 3D printers, etc. We have seen how easy it is to create gene editing kits and selling them on the net for $129 each. And, how 3D printers can replicate synthetic skin, contacts mimicking eye structures, etc. So, criminals can do some amazing things once they have access to anyone’s biometrics information.

A biometric system to verify travelers exiting the country could be in effect as soon as 2018.

By Kayla Nick-Kearney.

Excellent start in using GPU for mapping and predictive analysis on brain functioning and reactions; definitely should prove interesting to medical & tech researchers and engineers across the board should find this interesting.

MIS Asia offers Information Technology strategy insight for senior IT management — resources to understand and leverage information technology from a business leadership perspective.

Results from quantitative MRI and neuropsychological testing show unprecedented improvements in ten patients with early Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or its precursors following treatment with a programmatic and personalized therapy. Results from an approach dubbed metabolic enhancement for neurodegeneration are now available online in the journal Aging.

The study, which comes jointly from the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and the UCLA Easton Laboratories for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, is the first to objectively show that memory loss in patients can be reversed, and improvement sustained, using a complex, 36-point therapeutic personalized program that involves comprehensive changes in diet, brain stimulation, exercise, optimization of sleep, specific pharmaceuticals and vitamins, and multiple additional steps that affect brain chemistry.

“All of these patients had either well-defined mild cognitive impairment (MCI), subjective cognitive impairment (SCI) or had been diagnosed with AD before beginning the program,” said author Dale Bredesen, MD, a professor at the Buck Institute and professor at the Easton Laboratories for Neurodegenerative Disease Research at UCLA, who noted that patients who had had to discontinue work were able to return to work and those struggling at their jobs were able to improve their performance. “Follow up testing showed some of the patients going from abnormal to normal.”

Continue reading “Pre and post testing show reversal of memory loss from Alzheimer’s disease in 10 patients” »

Hawking repeats Zoltan Istvan’s worries:

“Governments seem to be engaged in an AI arms race, designing planes and weapons with intelligent technologies,” Hawking told veteran interviewer Larry King. “The funding for projects directly beneficial to the human race, such as improved medical screening, seems a somewhat lower priority.”

British physicist Stephen Hawking sees signs that the applications for artificial intelligence are already going down the wrong track.

Definitely been seeing great research and success in Biocomputing; why I have been looking more and more in this area of the industry. Bio/ medical technology is our ultimate future state for singularity. It is the key that will help improve the enhancements we need to defeat cancer, aging, intelligence enhance, etc. as we have already seen the early hints already of what it can do for people, machines and data, the environment and resources. However, a word of caution, DNA ownership and security. We will need proper governance and oversight in this space.

© iStock/ Getty Images undefined How much storage do you have around the house? A few terabyte hard drives? What about USB sticks and old SATA drives? Humanity uses a staggering amount of storage, and our needs are only expanding as we build data centers, better cameras, and all sorts of other data-heavy gizmos. It’s a problem scientists from companies like IBM, Intel, and Microsoft are trying to solve, and the solution might be in our DNA.

A recent Spectrum article takes a look at the quest to unlock the storage potential of human DNA. DNA molecules are the building blocks of life, piecing our genetic information into living forms. The theory is that we can convert digital files into biological material by translating it from binary code into genetic code. That’s right: the future of storage could be test tubes.

Continue reading “The future of storage may be in DNA” »

A “huge” stash of helium discovered in East Africa could ease a decades-long shortage of the rare and valuable gas.

Researchers in the United Kingdom and Norway say the newly discovered helium gas field, found in the East African Rift Valley region of Tanzania, has the potential to ease a critical global shortage of helium, a gas that is vital to many high-tech applications, such as the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners used in many hospitals.

The researchers say the discovery is the result of a new approach to searching for helium that combines prospecting methods from the oil industry with scientific research that reveals the role of volcanic heat in the production of pockets of helium gas. [Elementary, My Dear: 8 Elements You Never Heard Of].

Continue reading “Huge Cache of Ancient Helium Discovered in Africa’s Rift Valley” »

In new experiments using bird embryos, U.S. scientists have successfully converted cells of the lower-body region into facial tissue that makes cartilage.

The researchers of the California Institute of Technology discovered a “gene circuit”, composed of just three genes, that can alter the fate of cells destined for the lower bodies of birds, turning them instead into cells that produce cartilage and bones in the head.

Reporting in the latest issue of the journal Science, published on June 24, the researchers say the results could eventually lead to therapies for conditions where facial bone or cartilage is lost. For example, cartilage destroyed in the nose due to cancer is particularly hard to replace.

Elysium Health hasn’t discovered the fountain of youth, but their new supplement—with the backing of some of the world’s foremost authorities on aging—could change how you get older.