The bright images in the sky that stopped traffic across the Southland came from the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on Friday. The rocket was carrying 10 satellites to low-Earth orbit, all which successfully deployed. (credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) lat.ms/2l0l8Xt
A single infusion gene therapy treatment improved levels of the essential blood clotting protein Factor VIII, with 85 percent of patients achieving normal or near-normal levels of the blood clotting factor, even many months after treatment.
Summary: British doctors say they have achieved “mind-blowing” results using gene therapy to rid people of hemophilia A. [This article first appeared on LongevityFacts. Author: Brady Hartman.]
We are one step closer to a cure for hemophilia according to the results of a groundbreaking gene therapy trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Continue reading “Groundbreaking Gene Therapy Trial Aims to Cure Hemophilia” »
New view on mitochondrial DNA could put the brakes on mutations that drive diseases. Scientists perform landmark sequencing of mitochondrial DNA and discover surprising facts.
Summary: New view on mitochondrial DNA could help put the brakes on mutations that drive diseases. [Author: Brady Hartman. This article first appeared on LongevityFacts.]
DNA sequences between mitochondria inside a single cell are vastly different, reported scientists in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. This discovery will help to illuminate the underlying mechanisms of diseases that start with mutations in mitochondrial DNA and provide clues about how patients might respond to specific treatments. The researchers published their findings in the journal Cell Reports this week.
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When Tina Gibson got married seven years ago, the 26-year-old knew it was unlikely that she would have children naturally. Her husband, 33-year-old Benjamin Gibson, had cystic fibrosis, a condition that can make men infertile, the couple told CNN.
The East Tennessee pair decided they would eventually adopt a child instead — and that they would foster several children in the meantime, until they were ready.
Then, last year, during a break between foster children, her father told them about something he’d heard on the news — embryo adoption, according to CNN. Gibson couldn’t get the idea out of her head.
Continue reading “A Baby Spent 24 Years as a Frozen Embryo Before Being Born Last Month” »
Gene therapy is the process of replacing defective genes with healthy ones, adding new genes to help the body fight or treat disease, or deactivating problem genes. It holds the promise to transform medicine and create options for patients who are living with difficult, and even incurable, diseases. Learn how this innovative therapy works.
The US federal government has lifted an enforced moratorium on funding research into how to make viruses deadlier and more transmissible.
The moratorium, which was imposed three years ago, froze funding for what’s called “gain of function” research: controversial experiments seeking to alter pathogens and make them even more dangerous. Now, the money is back on the table, giving those trials the green light once more.
The director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Francis S. Collins, announced the lifting of the moratorium on Tuesday, saying gain of function (GOF) research with viruses like influenza, MERS, and SARS could help us “identify, understand, and develop strategies and effective countermeasures against rapidly evolving pathogens that pose a threat to public health”.
Continue reading “The US Just Ended Its Own Ban on Engineering Deadly Viruses in The Lab” »
Have you ever had an argument because you disagree about the way something happened? You were both there, you saw the same thing, but you remember it differently.
This happens quite a lot, because human memories are imperfect. As much as we all like to think we can trust our own minds, memories can be altered over time.
Elizabeth F. Loftus is a researcher and professor of cognitive psychology and human memory. She is well known in the field for her work on the creation and nature of false memories, and how people can be influenced by information after an event has happened, event consulting or providing expert witness testimony for hundreds of court cases.
If you’re like most of our readers, you’re probably reading this right now on your mobile, which means there’s also a chance you’re reading it on a broken, fragmented phone screen.
Luckily, the days of squinting at cracked phone displays like this could soon be over, thanks to a team of Japanese scientists who have developed a new kind of self-healing glass that fuses itself back together, simply by pressure being applied.
The self-healing polymer, created by researchers at the University of Tokyo, was initially discovered by accident while they were studying new adhesives.
Continue reading “Scientists Have Developed Glass That Heals Itself When You Press It Together” »
