Lifeboat Foundation

Colossal Biosciences, a genetic engineering company focused on de-extincting past species, has announced $150 million in Series B funding, which it plans to use for bringing back the iconic dodo.

The resurrection of several extinct species is predicted to occur within the next five years. One company aiming to make that a reality is Texas-based startup Colossal Biosciences, founded in 2021 by some of the world’s leading experts in genomics. In May 2022, it appeared in the World Economic Forum’s list of Technology Pioneers and it won Genomics Innovation of the Year at the BioTech Breakthrough Awards.

𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐭 𝐍𝐚𝐠𝐨𝐲𝐚 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐉𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐲 𝐚 𝐤𝐞𝐲 𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐢𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐮𝐦𝐨𝐫. 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐢𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫, 𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐮𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐲. 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐚𝐥𝐬𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐝𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐲𝐩𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐀𝐂𝐒 𝐍𝐚𝐧𝐨.

Although early detection of many types of cancer has contributed to the recent increases in cancer survival rates, the survival rate for brain tumors has remained almost unchanged for over 20 years. Partly this is due to their late detection. Physicians often discover brain tumors only after the onset of neurological symptoms, such as loss of movement or speech, by which time the tumor has reached a considerable size. Detecting the tumor when it is still small, and starting treatment as soon as possible, should help to save lives.

One possible sign that a person has a brain tumor is the presence of tumor-related extracellular vesicles (EVs) in their urine. EVs are nano-sized vesicles involved in a variety of functions, including cell-to-cell communication. Because those found in brain cancer patients have specific types of RNA and membrane proteins, they could be used to detect the presence of cancer and its progression.

This is more about the current landscape but a bit on the future near the beginning.

In this video Dr de Grey talks the future of LEVF and how the longevity field has evolved and some of the main participants.

Continue reading “The Longevity Field Now And In The Future | Dr Aubrey de Grey 2 Ep 4” »

Feature image credits: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

It was a life-changing day for 12 patients living in the United States when they found that their cancer had vanished, thanks to a small clinical trial. Of the total number of patients, these were the patients who completed the trial.

The New York Times reported that a drug named Dostarlimab was administered to these patients — all suffering from rectal cancer — over six months. All 12 patients entered remission after the period.

Year 2020 This type of parasite that feeds on salmon actually doesn’t need oxygen to live. Which means eventually there could be even gene editing that could essentially allow humans to not need as much air or could be independent of oxygen but only need anaerobic metabolisms perhaps. Really this can only expand our understanding of new ways to evolve humans to the next level.

Although aerobic respiration is a hallmark of eukaryotes, a few unicellular lineages, growing in hypoxic environments, have secondarily lost this ability. In the absence of oxygen, the mitochondria of these organisms have lost all or parts of their genomes and evolved into mitochondria-related organelles (MROs). There has been debate regarding the presence of MROs in animals. Using deep sequencing approaches, we discovered that a member of the Cnidaria, the myxozoan Henneguya salminicola, has no mitochondrial genome, and thus has lost the ability to perform aerobic cellular respiration. This indicates that these core eukaryotic features are not ubiquitous among animals. Our analyses suggest that H. salminicola lost not only its mitochondrial genome but also nearly all nuclear genes involved in transcription and replication of the mitochondrial genome. In contrast, we identified many genes that encode proteins involved in other mitochondrial pathways and determined that genes involved in aerobic respiration or mitochondrial DNA replication were either absent or present only as pseudogenes. As a control, we used the same sequencing and annotation methods to show that a closely related myxozoan, Myxobolus squamalis, has a mitochondrial genome. The molecular results are supported by fluorescence micrographs, which show the presence of mitochondrial DNA in M. squamalis, but not in H. salminicola. Our discovery confirms that adaptation to an anaerobic environment is not unique to single-celled eukaryotes, but has also evolved in a multicellular, parasitic animal. Hence, H. salminicola provides an opportunity for understanding the evolutionary transition from an aerobic to an exclusive anaerobic metabolism.

Prasang Chandorkar was excited about turning a new leaf in his life after meeting Wachika on a matrimonial website. They soon got engaged and started planning their life ahead.

But little did they know what was in store for them. Soon after the engagement, in November 2021, Prasang was diagnosed with cancer. This brought his life to a standstill.

Researcher Geetha Manjunath quit her job to launch Thermalytix, an AI solution that offers a radiation free and non invasive way to detect breast cancer in women.

Pharmaceutical synthesis is often quite complex; simplifications are needed to speed up the initial phase of drug development and lower the cost of generic production. Now, in a study recently published in Science, researchers from Osaka University have discovered a chemical reaction that could transform drug production because of its simplicity and utility.

Pharmaceuticals generally contain a few tens of atoms and a similar number of chemical bonds between the atoms. Thus, designing complex drug architectures from simple precursors using the techniques of organic chemistry usually requires careful planning and tedious, incremental steps.

The gold standard in drug synthesis is to create, in one step, as many chemical bonds as possible. In principle, adding one carbon atom—by forming four bonds in one step—to a drug precursor can be a means of doing so. Unfortunately, atomic carbon is generally too unstable for use in common chemical reaction conditions. This is the problem that the researchers sought to address.

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The origins and workings of consciousness have remained among science’s greatest unanswered mysteries. How did it begin? What sparks it?