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Category: biotech/medical

Total semiconductor shipments including shipments of ICs as well as optoelectronics, sensor/actuator and discrete (O-S-D) devices are forecast to rise 13% to a record high of 1.135 trillion units in 2021, according to IC Insights. It would mark the third time that semiconductor units have surpassed one trillion units in a calendar year — the first time being in 2018.

The 13% increase follows a 3% increase in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic was wreaking havoc across many segments of the economy, IC Insights indicated. From 1978, when 32.6 billion units were shipped, through 2021, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for semiconductor units is forecast to be 8.6%. The strong CAGR also demonstrates that new market drivers continue to emerge that fuel demand for more semiconductors.

Between 2004 and 2007, semiconductor shipments broke through the 400-, 500-, and 600-billion unit levels before the global financial meltdown led to a steep decline in semiconductor shipments in 2008 and 2009. Unit growth rebounded sharply in 2010 with a 25% increase and surpassed 700 billion devices that year. Another strong increase in 2017 (12% growth) lifted semiconductor unit shipments beyond the 900-billion level before the one-trillion mark was surpassed in 2018, IC Insights said.

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Aging is maleable and can be intervened to slow down and even reverse it.
Several experiments in animal models have shown that certain gene therapies as well as interventions via partial cellular reprograming can significantly extend healthspan and lifespan in mice and other model organisms.

An article published on December 30, 2020 in Fortune magazine, reaches the following conclusions:
* Without treatments to slow or reverse aspects of biological aging, an aging population means we are in for a health care cost tsunami.
* The most exciting opportunity for such an improvement in health productivity is to understand and address the biology of aging.
* There is promising scientific research on reversing aspects of aging, some of which is not far from clinical application.
* While all this research represents thrilling progress, we invest far too little in research that could help us go further in understanding and treating aging.

World leaders, like anyone else, mostly die of age related diseases which in the end means dying of aging itself.

Let’s bring world leaders to the quest of solving aging.

Links of interest:
“Cracking the code of biological aging could solve America’s health care crisis”. https://fortune.com/2020/12/30/anti-aging-research-health-care-spending-biden/

“Reversing aging: We can turn back cognitive decline in mice. Will the same techniques work on humans?”. https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2021/02/17/reversing-aging-we-can-turn-back-cognitive-decline-in-mice-will-the-same-techniques-work-on-humans/

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Neuralink, co-founded by Elon Musk in 2016, has revealed a macaque with chips embedded on each side of its brain, playing a mind-controlled version of the 1972 video game, Pong.

Although established in 2016, Neuralink remained secretive about its work until July 2019, when Musk presented his concept for a new brain–machine interface (BMI). Not only would this help physically diseased or injured people, Musk believed it could also treat mental illness – and even be used by healthy individuals who might wish to enhance themselves.

A prototype in August 2020 demonstrated the Neuralink technology in a pig. This coin-sized chip, featuring a read/write link, contained 1024 channels with a wireless megabit data rate and all-day battery life. Brain signals conveying the pig’s sense of smell could be seen in real time. The FDA had by then approved it as a breakthrough device, allowing use in limited human trials under the US federal guidelines for testing medical devices.

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Summary: Researchers have identified specific anti-bodies that can have a neutralizing effect on the virus responsible for tick-borne encephalitis. Preliminary response in using the anti-bodies in mice has proven affected in preventing TBE. It is hoped a vaccine candidate for TBE can be developed for humans.

Source: Rockefeller University.

Tick-borne encephalitis is a disease just as nasty as it sounds. Once bitten by an infected tick, some people develop flu-like symptoms that resolve quietly but leave behind rampant neurological disease–brain swelling, memory loss, and cognitive decline. Cases are on the rise in Central Europe and Russia with some 10000 incidents reported each year. Vaccines can provide protection, but only for a limited time. There is no cure.

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Papers referenced int the video:

Deficient synthesis of glutathione underlies oxidative stress in aging and.
can be corrected by dietary cysteine and glycine supplementation:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21795440/

Glycine and N-acetylcysteine (GlyNAC) supplementation in older adults improves glutathione deficiency, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, inflammation, insulin resistance, endothelial dysfunction, genotoxicity, muscle strength, and cognition: Results of a pilot clinical trial:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33783984/

Glutathione declines during aging (Age-related changes in the glutathione redox system):
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11835271/

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Wildlife Care And Combating Emerging Zoonotic Diseases — Dr. Suzan Murray, D.V.M., D.A.C.Z.M. Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, Program Director, Global Health Program.

Dr. Suzan Murray, D.V.M., D.A.C.Z.M. is a board-certified zoo veterinarian at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) and serves as both the Program Director of the Global Health Program and as SCBI’s chief wildlife veterinary medical officer.

Dr. Murray leads an interdisciplinary team engaged in worldwide efforts to address health issues in endangered wildlife and combat emerging infectious diseases of global significance, including zoonotic diseases.

Dr. Murray also acts as the Smithsonian liaison to the Foreign Animal Disease Threat and Pandemic Preparedness subcommittees of the White House’s Office of Science and Technology.

Dr. Murray’s work focuses on providing clinical care to free-ranging wildlife, pathogen detection, advanced diagnostics, training of international veterinarians and other health professionals, capacity building, and collaboration in infectious disease research at the human-wildlife-domestic animal interface. She previously served as chief veterinarian for the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and has a wealth of clinical knowledge and experience with wildlife and zoo animals both free-ranging and in human care.

Dr. Murray earned a bachelor’s degree from Amherst College, completed her veterinary degree from Tufts University, and after a surgical internship, she completed a residency in zoological medicine at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and became a Diplomate of the American College of Zoological Medicine (DACZM) in 2000.

Dr. Murray has been either the principle investigator or co-principle investigator on several research grants including Morris Animal Foundation, Smithsonian Endowment, Smithsonian Women’s Committee, and James Bond Funds.

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New, reversible CRISPR method can control gene expression while leaving underlying DNA sequence unchanged.

Over the past decade, the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system has revolutionized genetic engineering, allowing scientists to make targeted changes to organisms’ DNA. While the system could potentially be useful in treating a variety of diseases, CRISPR-Cas9 editing involves cutting DNA strands, leading to permanent changes to the cell’s genetic material.

Now, in a paper published online in Cell on April 9, researchers describe a new gene editing technology called CRISPRoff that allows researchers to control gene expression with high specificity while leaving the sequence of the DNA unchanged. Designed by Whitehead Institute Member Jonathan Weissman, University of California San Francisco assistant professor Luke Gilbert, Weissman lab postdoc James Nuñez and collaborators, the method is stable enough to be inherited through hundreds of cell divisions, and is also fully reversible.

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Daily injections of insulin are a hassle for the hundreds of millions of people with diabetes. An oral pill would be much easier to swallow (pun intended), and now researchers from New York University Abu Dhabi have developed a new method for packing insulin into capsules that can survive the trip through the stomach to the bloodstream, and only release their payload when it’s needed.

Diabetes is characterized by inconsistent levels of insulin, a hormone that regulates glucose levels in the blood. Normally the condition is managed with regular subcutaneous injections, but they can be difficult for patients to self-administer, and the unpleasantness may make some people skip doses.

In an ideal world, managing diabetes would be as simple as popping a pill, but unfortunately developing that kind of system has been tricky. Insulin is a fragile molecule that’s quickly broken down in the stomach before it can work its magic. Much of the challenge for scientists then is to find ways to package insulin so it survives long enough to permeate the intestinal wall to get into the bloodstream.

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