Lifeboat Foundation

Researchers have identified a brain signal that indicates whether a person is comprehending what others are saying. The researchers have shown that they can track the signal using relatively inexpensive EEG (electroencephalography) readings taken on a person’s scalp.

During everyday interactions, people routinely speak at rates of 120 to 200 words per minute. For a listener to understand speech at these rates—and not lose track of the conversation—the brain must comprehend the meaning of each of these words very rapidly.

Imagine constantly worrying that something you eat is going to cause your throat to swell shut or your heart to stop beating. That’s the reality people with severe peanut allergies must live with every day, because their bodies launch out-of-control immune responses against even a trace of peanut protein.

But now, relief may be on the horizon. A phase 3 clinical trial by pharmaceutical company Aimmune Therapeutics shows that gradual and methodical exposure to purified peanut protein can train the body to drastically tone down the reaction. After one year of daily treatment with the company’s peanut protein-filled capsules, currently called AR101, study participants could safely tolerate 30 times more allergen than they could before the trial began.

The trial included 496 children aged 4 to 17 with allergies so severe that they could not ingest more than 30 milligrams of peanut protein without experiencing moderate to highly dangerous effects. For reference, one peanut contains 250 to 350 milligrams of peanut protein.

Continue reading “Daily Pill Shows Promise For Alleviating Life-Threatening Peanut Allergies” »

According to China’s National Central Cancer Registry, Esophageal cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer in China. Like many other types, cancer of the esophagus can be treated with chemotherapy. But, as is also true of other forms of cancer, chemotherapy isn’t always successful. In China, and around the world, there’s a great need for the development of new treatments.

Dr. Shixiu Wu, president of the Hangzhou Cancer Hospital, has tested a somewhat new treatment that takes a patient’s T-cells from the body, genetically edits them to target cancerous cells, then puts the altered cells back. If the process sounds at all familiar, it’s probably because using T-cells in this manner was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration back in August 2017.

Continue reading “Chinese Doctors Are Using Modified T-Cells to Treat Advanced Forms of Cancer” »

An American research team wanted to know which combination of diet and exercise has the most beneficial results on metabolic syndrome in 10 weeks.

A maverick neuroscientist believes he has deciphered the code by which the brain forms long-term memories.

Using artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques, researchers at Shiley Eye Institute at UC San Diego Health and University of California San Diego School of Medicine, with colleagues in China, Germany and Texas, have developed a new computational tool to screen patients with common but blinding retinal diseases, potentially speeding diagnoses and treatment.

The quest for “quantum supremacy”—unambiguous proof that a quantum computer does something faster than an ordinary computer—has paradoxically led to a boom in quasi-quantum classical algorithms.

This bed makes itself.

Using a state-of-the-art type of electron microscopy, an MIT-led team has discovered the structure of an enzyme that is crucial for maintaining an adequate supply of DNA building blocks in human cells.

Courtesy of the researchers.