The NHS has launched the world’s largest trial of a potentially gamechanging blood test that aims to detect more than 50 types of cancer before symptoms appear.
More than 100,000 volunteers are being sought to provide blood samples at mobile test clinics in regions across England from Monday to assess how well the test works in the health service.
BioNTech, the company that partnered with Pfizer to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, is now testing whether mRNA can be used to treat cancer.
Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines work by tricking our bodies into producing a small part of a virus. For the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, this involved isolating the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19). This protrudes from the outer surface of the virus and is used to latch onto specific cells in your body, infecting them and causing more copies of the virus to be made. Researchers obtained the spike protein’s RNA, then created mRNA based on these molecular instructions.
Once injected, the mRNA vaccine will instruct cells to build spike proteins in large volumes – not the virus itself, just the spike protein. This is enough to kickstart our immune response, training the body to recognise the spike protein, without making us sick. B-cells (also known as lymphocytes) can last for months or years and will “remember” the spike protein, making Y-shaped proteins called antibodies to destroy any SARS-CoV-2 encountered in the future.
While is seems like the majority of the longevity space is currently overly captivated by the Aubrey de Grey/SENS debacle, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Healthy Longevity Global Innovator Summit is now beginning — Most interestingly, former R&D Head at PepsiCo, Dr. Mehmoud Khan, will be speaking in his new role as CEO of the Hevolution Foundation; a potential multi-billion $$$ initiative with a longevity angle — Everyone should keep their eye on this one…
The National Academy of Medicine (NAM) will hold its inaugural Healthy Longevity Global Innovator Summit in September 2,021 with support from Johnson and Johnson Innovation and The John A. Hartford Foundation. The event will be virtual and held over three days, September 13 14, and 22 and feature an immersive, interactive digital venue with unique opportunities to engage and connect.
The Innovator Summit will honor the 154 international Healthy Longevity Catalyst Awardees from 2020 and bring together industry leaders, academics, researchers, scientists, and entrepreneurs whose work contributes to the field of healthy longevity. Attendees will learn about the early-stage, award-winning innovations, hear from leaders in the field of healthy longevity, and take advantage of various opportunities to interact directly with other attendees, with a view to fostering interdisciplinary and cross-sector collaboration.
The event will feature remarks from the President of the National Academy of Medicine, Dr. Victor Dzau, and Catalyst Award Sponsors, Dr. William Hait, Global Head of Johnson & Johnson External Innovation, and Dr. Terry Fulmer, President of the John A. Hartford Foundation. Visionary keynote speakers will share insights into launching biotechnology start-ups and opportunities for groundbreaking science in the field of longevity. Participants will also be able to enjoy a robust selection of breakout sessions and the chance to network with Catalyst Award winners, researchers, venture capitalists, and more in one-on-one and small group settings.
As we age, our bones become thinner, we suffer fractures more often, and bone-diseases such as osteoporosis are more likely to occur. One responsible mechanism involves the impaired function of the bone-marrow stem cells, which are required for the maintenance of bone integrity. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing and CECAD Cluster of Excellence for Ageing Research at the University of Cologne have now shown that the reduced stem cell function upon aging is due to changes in their epigenome. They were able to reverse these changes in isolated stem cells by adding acetate. This fountain of youth for the epigenome could become important for the treatment of diseases such as osteoporosis.
Aging Researchers have been looking at epigenetics as a cause of aging processes for some time. Epigenetics looks at changes in genetic information and chromosomes that do not alter the sequence of the genes themselves, but do affect their activity. One possibility is changes in proteins called histones, which package the DNA in our cells and thus control access to DNA. The Cologne research group of Peter Tessarz has now studied the epigenome of mesenchymal stem cells. These stem cells are found in bone marrow and can give rise to different types of cells such as cartilage, bone and fat cells.
With all that said, it’s natural for humans to crave and eat limited amounts of sugar. After going through all the research, here’s what I am doing for myself.
For example, foods high in fructose stimulate ghrelin while suppressing leptin—hormones responsible for hunger and satiety. Sugar can promote chronic hyperglycemia, which can both lead to weight gain and is another risk for diabetes. And sugary drinks, especially, are tied directly to obesity.
Sugar and aging: a bad combination (so what should we do?)
People looking to stay young for a long time should limit their sugar consumption. While how added sugar works in the body isn’t simple or predictable, there are literally thousands of studies tying added sugar to diseases of aging.
This is an emerging therapeutic technique that works by targeting the underlying causes of a disease, rather than the symptoms it causes. It does this by targeting a particular gene, and preventing it from making the protein that it produces.
The United Kingdom’s NHS has very recently approved a new cholesterol-lowering jab which will be offered to 300,000 people over the next three years.
The drug – inclisiran – will be administered twice a year as an injection.
It will mainly be prescribed to patients who suffer with a genetic condition that leads to high cholesterol, those who have already suffered a heart attack or stroke, or those who haven’t responded well to other cholesterol-lowering drugs, such as statins.
Physicists at The Australian National University (ANU) have developed extremely powerful microscopic lasers that are even smaller than the wavelength of the light they produce. So called ‘nanolasers’ have a huge variety of medical, surgical, industrial and military uses, covering everything from hair removal to laser printers and night-time surveillance. According to lead researcher Professor Yuri Kivshar, the nanolasers developed by his team promise to be even more powerful than existing lasers, allowing them to be useful in smaller-scale devices. “They can also be integrated on a chip,” he said.
California-based startup Relativity Space is manufacturing rockets using giant Westworld-esque 3D printers, a process they say could drastically shorten the rocket-making process from years to weeks. Tim Ellis, the company’s 30-year-old CEO, explains how the high degree of automation in Relativity’s factory has enabled them to build rockets remotely during the Covid-19 pandemic.
#Coronavirus #Space #HelloWorld.
——-
Like this video? Subscribe to Bloomberg on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/Bloomberg?sub_confirmation=1
Become a Quicktake Member for exclusive perks: http://www.youtube.com/bloomberg/join.
Bloomberg is the First Word in business news, delivering breaking news & analysis, up-to-the-minute market data, features, profiles and more: http://www.bloomberg.com.
Connect with us on… Twitter: https://twitter.com/business Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bloombergbus… https://www.instagram.com/bloombergbu…
Twitter: https://twitter.com/business.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bloombergbusiness.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bloombergbusiness/
Severe coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) can progress to an acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), which involves alveolar infiltration by activated neutrophils. The beta-blocker metoprolol has been shown to ameliorate exacerbated inflammation in the myocardial infarction setting.
Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC), Madrid, Spain Drs Clemente-Moragón and Martínez-Milla contributed equally to this work.
“The agency continues to monitor the rise of COVID cases in the Kennedy area, which combined with other factors such as weather and first-time operations, is impacting our schedule of operations,” NASA spokesperson Kathryn Hambleton told Ars. “Moving step by step, we are progressing toward launch while keeping our team as safe as possible.”
However, the SLS has already been delayed for years and surpassed budget expectations by billions of dollars. So while the pandemic has certainly thrown another wrench into the works, it’s not like things were progressing smoothly before the coronavirus struck. Regardless, Hambleton says that NASA should offer a revised schedule soon.
“As always, we will fly only when we are ready,” she told Ars Technica.
