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Category: biotech/medical

Amit Awasthi, an immunologist with the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute in India and corresponding author of the study, says he and his colleagues pursued this line of inquiry because previous research had linked high salt intake with autoimmune diseases, suggesting that increased salt stimulates immune cells. Meanwhile, tumors are well known to grow in immune-suppressive environments.

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In mice, a diet high in salt suppresses tumor growth—but only when gut microbes are there to stimulate immune cells, a September 10 study in Science Advances reports. The findings raise tantalizing questions about the role of diet and gut microbes in human cancers, and may point to new avenues for therapeutic development.

While the study isn’t the first to connect a high-salt diet to shrinking tumors, “[the authors] have shown a unique mechanistic role of high salt induced gut microbiome changes as the central phenomenon behind their observed anti-cancer effect,” writes Venkataswarup Tiriveedhi, a biologist at Tennessee State University who has studied the effect of salt on cancer progression but was not involved in the study, in an email to The Scientist.

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Yes he starts with his personal controversy, emerging challenges, TAME, longevity is moving along well but has a long way to go.

Dr. Aubrey de Grey discusses the changing priorities at the forefront of the field of longevity rejuvenation research at Lifespan.io’s 2021 EARD conference. “The crusade is accelerating”, says Dr. De Grey, “but there’s so much still to do.”
De Grey is the author of The Mitochondrial Free Radical Theory of Aging (1999) and co-author of Ending Aging (2007). He is an international adjunct professor of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, the American Aging Association, and the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies.

SENS Research Foundation works to develop, promote, and ensure widespread access to therapies that cure and prevent the diseases and disabilities of aging by comprehensively repairing the damage that builds up in our bodies over time.

The annual Ending Age-Related Diseases (EARD) conference by Lifespan.io brings together longevity thought leaders together to exchange research reports, inspire and get inspired with new ideas, find collaborators, supporters, and mentors.

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It’s great to be here, of course. I just thought I’d start by saying that some of you may have heard perhaps of a complication that’s going on in my life right now. I just wanted to say that there is an independent investigation, which was started at the beginning of July and is still ongoing. That, of course, means a couple of things.

First of all, it means that I am on administrative leave, which means that I am not representing SENS Research Foundation here today; officially, I am here in a personal capacity. I should mention that I just noticed I have the SENS Research Foundation logo at the bottom of all my slides, so please pretend that that isn’t there.

Apart from that, I can’t say anything more at all about what’s going on; of course, this would be the wrong place anyway. I just want to say how overwhelmed I am for all the love and support that I’ve received from hundreds and hundreds of people, and it shouldn’t be long now. So you know, watch this space. So, having said all that, let me share my screen.

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Scientists in the U.S. and U.K. have recently grown seven miniature human organs and housed them together on a chip to create a human-on-a-chip, a whole body biomimetic device. These clusters of assembled cells mimic how organs in the body function, both separately and in tandem.

The chip could take the place of animal and tissue testing for drugs in pharmaceutical development, say its creators. It will have to win regulatory approval in each country looking to use it for tests, and it could allow for insights into how organs interact, says Linda Griffith, professor of biological and mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Griffith heads The PhysioMimetics program at MIT, which has collaborated with CN Bio Innovations, a British company that creates live organ-on-a-chip devices. The $26.3-million development program is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

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Ancient DNA extracted from human bones has rewritten early Japanese history by underlining that modern day populations in Japan have a tripartite genetic origin—a finding that refines previously accepted views of a dual genomic ancestry.

Twelve newly sequenced ancient Japanese genomes show that modern day populations do indeed show the genetic signatures of early indigenous Jomon hunter-gatherer-fishers and immigrant Yayoi farmers—but also add a third genetic component that is linked to the Kofun peoples, whose culture spread in Japan between the 3rd and 7th centuries.

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Altana AI, a startup building a database for global supply chain networks, today announced that it raised $15 million in a series A funding round led by GV with participation from Floating Point, Ridgeline Partners, Amadeus Capital Partners, and Schematic Ventures. The proceeds, which bring the company’s total raised to $22 million to date, will be used to further develop Altana’s data and AI systems and launch new machine learning and network analysis tools, according to CEO Evan Smith.

Trade wars, the rise of ecommerce, pandemic supply chain shocks, and sustainability concerns are driving fundamental changes to supply chain networks and global trade flows. Nearly 75% of companies report supply chain disruptions in some capacity due to pandemic-related transportation restrictions. And in a recent IBM survey, 40% of executives stressed the need for spare capacity to weather future crises.

Altana’s product aims to solve these challenges with a platform that connects and learns from billions of supply chain data points. It answers questions about products, shipments, companies, and networks, filtering out illicit trade and targeting bad actors and security threats across global commerce networks.

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He explored the possibility of using gene therapy or gene editing—technologies that were dominating headlines for their ability to tackle other rare genetic disorders. But scientists told him those approaches would be difficult to implement for Dravet. Instead, a newfangled idea called transfer RNA (tRNA) therapy seemed like it might be the answer.

Drug Discovery tRNA therapies could help restore proteins lost in translation.

A new class of therapies based on transfer RNA could treat forms of cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, genetic epilepsies, and more by.

Ryan Cross

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A very good illustration.

Experiments with dummy heads and masks. Credit: TU Wien

Tiny droplets loaded with viruses disappear more slowly after exhalation than previous models suggested. Experiments and simulations by TU Wien (Vienna) can now explain this.

It is easier to get infected in winter than in summer — this is true for the Corona pandemic, for influenza, and for other viral diseases. Relative humidity plays an important role in this. Outdoors, it is much higher outside in winter than in summer, as can be seen from the fact that our breath condenses into droplets in the cold air.

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A number of recent studies have homed in on compelling associations between mental health and the microbiome. These insights into strange gut-brain connections have found links between depression and certain species of gut bacteria, and one study even found symptoms of schizophrenia could be transferred from mouse to mouse via fecal transplants.

But are these microbiome perturbations unique to specific psychiatric conditions, or is there a more common gut bacteria signature shared amongst several conditions?

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