Lifeboat Foundation

A team of scientists from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine has found the missing puzzle piece in the mystery of how melanoma tumors control their mortality.

In a paper published in Science, they describe how they identified the specific genetic changes that allow tumors to grow rapidly while also preventing their own death. This discovery could have significant implications for the way melanoma is understood and treated by oncologists.

Summary: Roflumilast, a drug commonly prescribed for the treatment of COPD and asthma helps retrieve learning memories following a period of sleep deprivation in mice.

Source: University of Groningen.

Students sometimes pull an all-nighter to prepare for an exam. However, research has shown that sleep deprivation is bad for your memory.

A protein that helps lethal skin cancer spread through the body has been identified, according to scientists, offering new hope for cancer treatment. Protein LAP1 allows cancer cells to become more aggressive by letting them change the shape of their nucleus and migrate around the body. The most serious type of cancer cells, melanoma, was found to harbour LAP1 and high levels of it were linked to poor prognosis.

Pioneering Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplants (HSCT) For Autoimmune Disorders — Dr. Richard K. Burt

Dr. Richard K. Burt MD (https://astemcelljourney.com/about/drrichardburt/) is a Fulbright Scholar, Professor of Medicine at Scripps Health Care, tenured retired Professor of Medicine at Northwestern University where he served as Chief of Immunotherapy and Autoimmune Diseases, and CEO of Genani Biotechnology.

Continue reading “Dr. Richard Burt MD — Pioneering Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplants (HSCT) For Autoimmune Disorders” »

At CES 2023, the CEO of Moderna discussed mRNA technology.

The Covid-19 pandemic continues to be a terrible plight on the world. But if there’s any silver lining in what has happened, the deadly worldwide plague has brought about advancements in medicine created to fight it that may have transformational impacts well past the pandemic.

Continue reading “The mRNA vaccine technology may hold the key to developing personalized cancer treatments” »

Researchers at Princeton’s Department of Chemistry discovered the first known de novo protein that catalyzes, or drives, the synthesis of quantum dots.

Nature uses 20 canonical amino acids.

Continue reading “Princeton Chemists Create Quantum Dots at Room Temperature Using Custom Protein” »

Newspaper headlines from the U.S. to the U.K. and most places in between highlight the surge in sick patients suffering from respiratory viruses. The so-called “tripledemic” of lung infections including respiratory synclinal virus (RSV), influenza (flu) and COVID-19 (coronavirus) is likely to last throughout the winter season. This explosion of infections requires more treatment options to support overloaded hospitals and overworked medics as they restore people’s health.

It has been known for a long time that intubation of an infant with any lung condition, or even an adult with severe COVID-19 using either ventilation or extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), comes with risks and side effects that could cause permanent damage not limited to the lungs. However, hypoxia, which means oxygen deficiency, is a medical emergency that is a common complication of severe lung infections. If not treated, it can lead to severe disability and even death.

A type of freshwater plankton has become the first organism seen thriving on a diet of viruses, according to a new study by researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the US.

Viruses are often consumed incidentally by a range wide of organisms, and may even season the diets of certain marine protists. But to qualify as a true step in the food chain – described as virovory – viruses ought to contribute a significant amount of energy or nutrients to their consumer.

The microbe Halteria is a common genus of protist known to flit about as its hair-like cilia propel it through the water. Not only did laboratory samples of the ciliate consume chloroviruses added to its environment, the giant virus fueled Halteria’s growth and increased its population size.

Point-of-care diagnoses occur when a doctor can quickly diagnose a patient during an examination without sending biological samples to a laboratory or consulting with other specialists. The stress and anxiety that can come with waiting for the results of medical testing, and the cost associated with in-depth laboratory testing, make point-of-care testing a gold standard. However, point-of-care diagnostics remain rare in oncology.

Research shows that women suspected of endometrial cancer experience stress and anxiety while waiting for a confirmed diagnosis. While the procedures and waiting time associated with endometrial cancer diagnoses vary, endometrial biopsies can take weeks to return results. Of added concern, since most endometrial cancers require surgical intervention, usually a hysterectomy, delays in diagnosis lead to delays in treatment. Indeed, these surgical delays can negatively impact survival. Thus, rapid endometrial cancer diagnostic strategies would significantly improve patient care.

Continue reading “IKnife Helps Find Endometrial Cancer” »