NASA shared the results of two new studies made possible by the Curiosity rover, and they could both help us determine whether Mars hosted life.

The Neurogenesis Debate

Written by Nicholi Avery

On March 7 2018, a study was published in the highly esteemed journal Nature by an international team of scientists claiming that #neurogenesis starts to rapidly decline in the #human brain as early as 13 years old and becomes undetectable in adults. This rocked the scientific community as there has been a long-established theory that neurogenesis takes place throughout the course of life in the mammalian #brain. Until the 1990s, neurologists were practicing their profession under the doctrine established in the late 19th to early 20th century by the prominent histologist Ramon y Cajal, often referred to as a god of neuroscience;

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A new class of patients could soon be treated for breast cancer, no chemotherapy required. That’s because they don’t really benefit from it, according to a study published Sunday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Those patients: those diagnosed with early-stage, invasive, hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer who scored in a specific range of a genetic test. They benefit just as much from chemotherapy, which many don’t tolerate well and can have long-term consequences, as they do from hormone treatments, which have many fewer side effects.

But before this study came out, many people in this group were prescribed chemotherapy because doctors had, based on the best information available, assumed it would help them. For those people, the side effects of chemotherapy could have been avoided, without making the treatment any less effective.

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Today, we will be taking a look at a new study showing that an NAD+ precursor was able to improve mitochondrial function in cells and flies with a model of Parkinson’s disease.

Summary

While mitochondrial dysfunction is emerging as key in Parkinson’s disease (PD), a central question remains whether mitochondria are actual disease drivers and whether boosting mitochondrial biogenesis and function ameliorates pathology. We address these questions using patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells and Drosophila models of GBA-related PD (GBA-PD), the most common PD genetic risk. Patient neurons display stress responses, mitochondrial demise, and changes in NAD+ metabolism. NAD+ precursors have been proposed to ameliorate agerelated metabolic decline and disease. We report that increasing NAD+ via the NAD+ precursor nicotinamide riboside (NR) significantly ameliorates mitochondrial function in patient neurons. Human neurons require nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT) to maintain the NAD+ pool and utilize NRK1 to synthesize NAD+ from NAD+ precursors. Remarkably, NR prevents the age-related dopaminergic neuronal loss and motor decline in fly models of GBA-PD.

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Researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine have shown that they can block inflammation in mice, thereby protecting them from liver disease and hardening of the arteries while increasing their healthy lifespan.

The study, published in the journal Nature, shows that inflammation can be blocked using a naturally occurring antibody that binds with oxidized phospholipids (OxPL), molecules that are located on the cell surface and are modified by inflammation [1]. This is the first time in a living animal that OxPL has been shown to trigger inflammation that leads to the formation of arterial plaques, the foundation of heart disease.

The mice were given a high-fat diet and treated with the antibody, which prevented artery-hardening arterial plaques from forming, prevented liver disease, and increased their lifespan. The study results also highlight a potential new approach to preventing or reversing a variety of inflammatory diseases.

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CFTC head to the UN: Cryptocoins aren’t going anywhere; “we are witnessing a technological revolution”

Introduction

Good evening. The United Nations has played a special role in my life. I grew up close by, about 20 miles away in northern New Jersey. More importantly, my Aunt is the founder and president of the International Health Awareness Network (IHAN), which works in consultative status with the Department of Public Information of the United Nations. Consequently, from the first days of that ambitious project back in 1987, she was often in these buildings advocating her vision, and seeking support for the organization, which aspires to “educate, empower and provide health care to socioeconomically underserved women and children.” My family would come to see her here. And occasionally, I had the great fortune of participating at IHAN events, listening to the speeches, and hearing about the organization’s vision to fulfill its mission. Those moments are themselves transformational, and foundational in setting my agenda for facilitating change in the future.

Additionally, in 2008, my sister’s wedding reception was held in the Delegates Dining Room of the United Nations. A spectacular night for my family, and another reason why this building and institution is so special to me.

Astronaut is life.

A relatively inexperienced crew of two astronauts and a cosmonaut blasted off Wednesday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for a five-month mission on the International Space Station.

Scientists can 3D-print a human cornea in ten minutes.

I, for one, still dream of flourishing in the future through advances in science and technology, but hopefully one that addresses societal inequities, retains the richness and diversity of our natural systems and indigenous cultures, rather than the somewhat simple and sterile futures depicted by many science fiction writers and futurists. Timothy Leary liked to remind us to remember our hippie roots, with their celebration of diversity and nature, and I hear him calling us again.

What used to be the province of acid-tripping tie-dye wearers has been co-opted by Silicon Valley—and we must be responsible about how we wield this new reality.