Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: biotech/medical

Starving cancer via amino acids looks like a promising approach.

Cutting out certain amino acids — the building blocks of proteins — from the diet of mice slows tumor growth and prolongs survival, according to new research published in Nature.

Researchers at the Cancer Research UK Beatson Institute and the University of Glasgow found that removing two non-essential amino acids — serine and glycine — from the diet of mice slowed the development of lymphoma and intestinal cancer.

The researchers also found that the special diet made some cancer cells more susceptible to chemicals in cells called reactive oxygen species.

Read more

Scientists hope they have found a drug to stop all neurodegenerative brain diseases, including dementia. In 2013, a UK Medical Research Council team stopped brain cells dying in an animal for the first time, creating headline news around the world. But the compound used was unsuitable for people, as it caused organ damage. Now two drugs have been found that should have the same protective effect on the brain and are already safely used in people. “It’s really exciting,” said Prof Giovanna Mallucci, from the MRC Toxicology Unit in Leicester. She wants to start human clinical trials on dementia patients soon and expects to know whether the drugs work within two to three years.

Why might they work?

The novel approach is focused on the natural defence mechanisms built into brain cells.

Read more

Facebook’s advanced hardware group is working on technology to let you “hear with your skin.” The technology could be used to help deaf people communicate, but Facebook also envisions it as a way to advance communications for people who can already hear, allowing for such things as a conversation to be automatically translated into another language.

The technology is being developed by Facebook’s Building 8 research group, led by ex-DARPA director and former head of Google’s experimental research group Regina Dugan.

Read more

Facebook today unveiled a project from its secretive Building 8 research group that’s working to create a brain-computer interface that lets you type with your thoughts. Regina Dugan, a former director of DARPA and the ex-head of Google’s experimental ATAP research group, announced the news today onstage at Facebook’s F8 developer conference. Dugan, who now heads up Building 8, says the goal is “something as simple as a yes-no brain click” that could fundamentally change how we interact with and use technology. While it does not exist today outside of very specific medical research trials, Dugan says her team is actively working to make it a reality.

Read more

“The 192,000-square-foot facility will house UNMCs Interprofessional Experiential Center for Enduring Learning, or iEXCEL program, which aims to help physicians and other healthcare professionals do clinical training exercises and develop surgical skills via advanced simulation technologies, virtual immersive reality, augmented reality and holographic technologies, officials say.

The center’s advancements will include the creation of 3D/virtual and augmented reality content for clinical and surgical training modules; leading-edge technology such as the iEXCEL Helix – an extended 280-degree curved screen creating a 2-D/3D immersive environment; laser-based “3D iSpace,” a five-sided virtual immersive reality environment, and a 130-seat holographic auditorium.

The goal is to move beyond traditional lecture-based models to embrace more hands-on experiential learning, which can improve retainment of skills competencies proficiencies. Thus, the traditional mentor-based “see one, do one, teach one” training model for physicians will now be complemented by human patient simulators, surgical simulation, interactive visualization tools such as head-mounted displays, interactive “learning walls” and 3D virtual immersive reality environments.”

The University of Nebraska Medical Center has broken ground on a new $119 million facility meant to help physicians and nurses train for next-generation care delivery using emerging virtual and augmented reality technology.

The Omaha-based Davis Global Center will deploy various simulation platforms to help optimize medical training for clinicians, with an eye toward ultimately improving quality and safety, officials said.

“Learners do best by having experience, whether it’s learning how to play a sport, a musical instrument or, in my case, do cardiac surgery,” UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey Gold, MD, said in a statement. “The more experience, the more practice, the more hands-on opportunities we get, the better off we are to deliver high quality, safe, effective and patient-centered care. This center will achieve all of those goals and continue to bring Nebraska to the epicenter of the learning world.”

Read more

  • An advisory council has urged the U.S. to establish a new body that creates plans for national biodefense and to set aside a $2 billion standby fund to address emerging bioterror threats.
  • As gene editing technology advances, the potential for its use as a weapon increases, and preparing for such threats before they happen is of the utmost importance.

Though the technology promises seemingly innumerable ways to positively impact human life, gene editing is truly a double-edged sword, with nearly as many potentially negative consequences as benefits. Now, an advisory council to President Obama is urging the government to start creating countermeasures for the negative use of emerging biotechnologies.

This month, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) wrote a letter to President Obama recommending measures to address this potential for harm using new technologies. It advocates funding new research into antibiotic and antiviral drugs to combat resistance and having a $250 million fund for the stockpiling of vaccines.

Read more

Bandages which can detect how a wound is healing and send messages back to doctors could be trialled within the next 12 months, scientists have said.

The bandages would use real-time 5G technology to monitor what treatment is needed and also keep track of a patient’s activity levels.

The work is being led by Swansea University’s Institute of Life Science.

Read more

We all know how to get pregnant or at least should know, but despite so many tips out there boosting the chances of conceiving, the actual first 2 weeks of pregnancy remain an undetectable mystery to science.

A pregnancy test is usually done via markers detecting hormones in specific substances like urine and blood. At the very beginning, though, these hormone levels are just too low to register a positive test. Without actually looking into the womb, nobody can watch fertilized eggs grow. Yes, we understand the process going on, as the embryo (which is basically a mass of cells called blastocyst) starts dropping its outer layer to implant within the uterine lining.

However, only a couple of weeks ago researchers from Rockefeller University were the first to witness and even raise human embryos in a laboratory for the maximum ethically allowable time of 13 days.

Read more