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Category: biotech/medical

The work adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting that schizophrenia and certain other neuropsychiatric conditions may be in part neuroinflammatory disorders.

Summary: People with schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric disorders may have a more permissive blood-brain barrier which allows the immune system to become more actively involved in the central nervous system. The resulting inflammation may contribute to the clinical manifestation of psychosis-like symptoms.

Source: University of Pennsylvania

Like a stern bodyguard for the central nervous sytem, the blood-brain barrier keeps out anything that could lead to disease and dangerous inflammation–at least when all is functioning normally.

That may not be the case in people with schizophrenia and other mental disorders, suggest new findings from a team led by researchers from the School of Veterinary Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).

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The U.S. spends more per person on prescription drugs than any other nation, and spending on cancer drugs has more than doubled since 2013 to over $60 billion annually, according to the data firm IQVIA. New medications typically cost $90000 to $300000 a year. And those prices have risen much faster than patient survival.

Each year the U.S. approves dozens of new uses for cancer drugs based on early signs that they can shrink or slow the spread of tumors.

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A 3D biomaterial scaffold design to slowly release stem cells ensures that implanted stem cells stick around to relieve pain and reverse arthritis in mice knee joints. This reduces the use of stem cells by 90%, thus avoiding the challenge of redness, swelling and scar tissue that can arise from large doses of such stem cells, and potentially opening a path to reversal of osteoarthritis in humans for the first time.

The results were published in the Chemical Engineering Journal on February 25.

There is currently no treatment that can reverse the course of osteoarthritis, and our sole options are to try to relieve pain. Stem cell therapy potentially offers hope and has been shown to alienate the disease, but a ‘goldilocks’ dose of stem cells remains out of reach. Too much of a dose of stem cells and the subject suffers redness, swelling and . Too little and the therapy is only successful for a limited period due to gradual cell loss.

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Lockheed Martin Space hired 2700 people plus 700 interns in 2020, a year unlike any other for human resources managers. Almost overnight, the prime contractor with about 23000 employees switched from its traditional in-person approach to virtual recruitment, interviewing and training.

SpaceNews correspondent Debra Werner spoke with Lockheed Martin Space executives Nick Spain, human resources vice president, Renu Aggarwal, talent acquisition director, and Heather Erickson, organizational development director, about the opportunities and challenges posed by heightened demand for talent amid a pandemic.

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The only thing bad about Star Trek was they made the Borg evil.

Emerging technologies have unprecedented potential to solve some of the world’s most pressing issues. Among the most powerful — and controversial — is the gene-editing tech, CRISPR-Cas9, which will improve agricultural yields, cure genetic disorders, and eradicate infectious diseases like malaria. But CRISPR and other disruptive technologies, like brain-machine interfaces and artificial intelligence, also pose complex philosophical and ethical questions. Perhaps no one is better acquainted with these questions than Peter Diamandis, founder of the XPRIZE Foundation and co-founder of Singularity University and Human Longevity Inc. In this session, Peter will give a state of the union on the near future and explore the profound ethical implications we will face in the ongoing technological revolution.

This talk was recorded at Summit LA19.

Interested in attending Summit events? Apply to attend : https://summit.co/apply.

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“More than 100 malaria vaccine candidates have entered clinical trials in recent decades, but none has shown efficacy greater than 75% – until now.” https://www.futuretimeline.net/images/socialmedia/

Researchers led by the University of Oxford have completed a Phase II trial of R21/Matrix-M, a candidate malaria vaccine, which demonstrated an efficacy of 77% over 12-months of follow-up.

In their findings, posted on SSRN/Preprints with The Lancet, they note that their study is the first to reach the World Health Organization’s goal for a vaccine with at least 75% efficacy by 2030. It represents a substantial improvement over the current most effective malaria vaccine, which has shown just 55% efficacy in trials on African children.

The authors conducted a randomised, controlled, double-blind trial at the Clinical Research Unit of Nanoro (CRUN) / Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la Santé (IRSS), in the West African country of Burkina Faso. They recruited 450 participants, aged 5–17 months, from the catchment area of Nanoro, covering 24 villages and a population of 65000 people.

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The most interesting part is a longevity escape velocity answer starting at 12:19 and going to 16:30.

Join Aubrey de Grey, Ph.D., Sergey Young, and Sourav Sinha as they talk about how our understanding of aging has developed in the last two decades. They will discuss:

- 7 Mechanisms of Aging.
- Longevity Escape Velocity.
- Human lifespan extension options we have today.

Aubrey de Grey is a biomedical gerontologist and the Chief Science Officer of the SENS Research Foundation. He is editor-in-chief of the academic journal Rejuvenation Research, author of The Mitochondrial Free Radical Theory of Aging (1999), and co-author of Ending Aging (2007)

Sergey Young is the founder of Longevity Vision Fund, XPRIZE Innovation Board member, one of Top-100 Longevity Leaders, and a Forbes Tech Council contributor.

The event is co-hosted by Sourav Sinha. Sourav is a biotech entrepreneur recognized by Forbes 30 Under 30 for disrupting the healthcare space. He is also a World Economic Forum Global Shaper.

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Follow Sergey Young on https://sergeyyoung.com

Purchase “The Science and Technology of Growing Young” at https://amzn.to/3sP8FXA

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Fasting is one of those subjects that is widely talked about, in limited circles. Those who have looked cannot but be intrigued and impressed by the claims and results, whilst those who have not, think it borders on madness, and must be bad for you because…well, FOOD!!

So, for those who want a refresher on the science, through to those who have questions they have always been embarrassed to ask, and onwards to all those you want to send this link to, in an attempt to open their eyes…I did a quick guide to what we know, what are just finding out and at the end, the top questions that get asked on the topic.

Hope you enjoy and have a great day.

It is not just what you eat that matters but when you eat it is also something to consider.
Intermittent and prolonged fasting are showing themselves to very much be part of the repertoire to anyone serious about their health and longevity objectives.

If you want to know more about what to eat, watch my video on diet here.

All the references used can be found here:

Intermittent and periodic fasting, longevity and disease.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-020-00013-3

Belly fat resistant to every-other-day fasting.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-03/uos-bfr022521.php.
* Proteomics analysis of adipose depots after intermittent fasting reveals visceral fat preservation mechanisms.
https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(21)00118-2

Fasting boosts stem cells’ regenerative capacity.
https://news.mit.edu/2018/fasting-boosts-stem-cells-regenerative-capacity-0503
* Prolonged Fasting reduces IGF-1/PKA to promote hematopoietic stem cell-based regeneration and reverse immunosuppression.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4102383/

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Physics of DNA —“In Each of Us Lies a Message, Its Beginnings Lost in the Mists of Time” | The Daily Galaxy.

“At one time,” writes science-fiction author Dennis E. Taylor in We Are Legion (We Are Bob), “we thought that the way life came together was almost completely random, only needing an energy gradient to get going. But as we’ve moved into the information age, we’ve come to realize that life is more about information than energy. Fire has most of the characteristics of life. It eats, it grows, it reproduces. But fire retains no information. It doesn’t learn; it doesn’t adapt. The five millionth fire started by lightning will behave just like the first. But the five hundredth bacterial division will not be like the first one, especially if there is environmental pressure. That’s DNA. And RNA. That’s life.”

Information has the Ability to Animate Matter

Paul Davies, Arizona State University astrophysicist and Director of the Beyond Center, and author of The Demon in the Machine –How Hidden Webs of Information Are Solving the Mystery of Life offers a similar message to Taylor: information, like energy, has the ability to animate matter.

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