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Category: biotech/medical
Muscle constitutes the largest organ in humans, accounting for 40% of body mass, and it plays an essential role in maintaining life. Muscle tissue is notable for its unique ability for spontaneous regeneration. However, in serious injuries such as those sustained in car accidents or tumor resection which results in a volumetric muscle loss (VML), the muscle’s ability to recover is greatly diminished. Currently, VML treatments comprise surgical interventions with autologous muscle flaps or grafts accompanied by physical therapy. However, surgical procedures often lead to reduced muscular function, and in some cases result in a complete graft failure. Thus, there is a demand for additional therapeutic options to improve muscle loss recovery.
A promising strategy to improve the functional capacity of the damaged muscle is to induce de novo regeneration of skeletal muscle via the integration of transplanted cells. Diverse types of cells, including satellite cells (muscle stem cells), myoblasts, and mesenchymal stem cells, have been used to treat muscle loss. However, invasive muscle biopsies, poor cell availability, and limited long-term maintenance impede clinical translation, where millions to billions of mature cells may be needed to provide therapeutic benefits.
Bonny Lemma. Originally published in the HIR Winter 2019 Issue.
Jennifer Lopez has one more industry to add to her illustrious résumé: molecular biology. In 2016, she was asked to be the executive producer of a new futuristic bio-crime drama for NBC called C.R.I.S.P.R. While that project is a work of science fiction, the CRISPR technology that it is based on is very real.
CRISPR, or Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, is not just a gene editing technique, but also a phenomenon that carries significant implications for the future of biotechnology. Therefore, the interactions between the countless players in this field and the objectives driving them are crucial to understanding of CRISPR and the promise it holds.
Could also be used for other viruses too.
Two new studies explain how each cell in the body embeds a code that may become active when a healthy cell mutates into a cancerous one.
Although the definitive causes of Alzheimer’s diseases aren’t yet fully understood, one of the leading suspects is the accumulation of abnormal proteins in the brain that impinges on the activity of the neurons. Scientists at Northwestern University have explored this phenomenon in a group of elderly individuals with excellent memory, known as SuperAgers, and found them to be far more resistant to the troublesome buildup of some of these proteins, shedding further light on how the disease may take hold.
A lot of the research into the progression of Alzheimer’s focus on a pair of proteins called amyloid and tau. Clumps of amyloid are thought to build up and develop into plaques that impact on memory and cognitive function, while tau takes the form of tangles that interfere with the way nutrients are taken up by the neurons, eventually leading to the death of the cell.
The Northwestern University researchers carried out experiments to study the prevalence of these proteins in SuperAgers, a group of subjects over the age of 80 with the memory capacity of someone 20 to 30 years younger than them. These subjects are assessed annually as part of ongoing research at Northwestern’s Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease.
Scientists are developing a range of second-generation Covid vaccines aimed at expanding protection against the disease.
To monitor the prevalence of the virus among employees nationwide, the tech billionaire worked with researchers to build an antibody-testing program. Here’s what he learned.
Summary: FOXO3, a gene linked to longevity in humans, protects neural stem cells from the negative effects of stress.
Source: Weill Cornell Medicine
DNA variants passed on to modern humans from Neanderthals can increase as well as decrease our ability to fight SARS-CoV-2, a new PNAS study finds. New research has found that a group of genes that reduces the risk of developing severe COVID-19 by around 20% is inherited from Neanderthals Th.
Companies that are creating rejuvenation biotechnology interventions must develop their products to target individual diseases in order to be approved by the FDA. While that is still the case, this particular FOA is intended to promote broader research that does not necessarily target individual diseases as endpoints.
The National Institutes of Aging in the United States, a component of the National Institutes of Health, is funding clinical trials for interventions that directly affect the root causes of age-related diseases.
Direct funding for trials against aging
Probably the most important and interesting part of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is that the NIA specifically mentions “multiple chronic conditions” caused by the processes of aging along with more conventional trials that are targeted directly at specific downstream effects of aging.