Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: genetics

The article states that European royal houses are all closely related. Well in humanities history it’s thought that over 80% of all marriages were between second cousins or closer. While until the industrial revolution the nobility would have been the only demographic who could travel further than as far as you can walk from your home and back in a day. So until the industrial revolution the nobility were probably the most genetically diverse demographic.

‘Virgin births’ happen in nature more than we thought, says Frank Swain, so what’s stopping human beings from doing the same?

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Excellent news; Intellia to continue their focus of leveraging the CRISPR/Cas9 across a variety of immune cells, such as natural killer cells and T-cells. From my own experiences with T-cells and other blood disorders; this is a big deal and one that I personally excited to see what potential cures and improvements come about.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–()–Intellia Therapeutics, a leading gene-editing company, has launched a new division, eXtellia Therapeutics, with the intent of focusing resources and research on ex vivo applications of the novel technology, CRISPR/Cas9. As in vivo and ex vivo programs require different competencies in research, manufacturing and commercialization, eXtellia Therapeutics is being launched to accelerate Intellia’s efforts in areas of significant unmet medical need – immuno-oncology, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases – using an ex vivo approach. Intellia will continue its in vivo programs and strategy through a dedicated scientific team.

“We are excited to announce the establishment of eXtellia, increasing our footprint in ex vivo gene editing for oncology and autoimmune diseases,” said Nessan Bermingham, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Intellia Therapeutics. “eXtellia enables us to bring together the required capabilities needed to take the CRISPR/Cas9 technology beyond Intellia’s emerging in vivo, HSC and CAR-T efforts. We believe eXtellia further positions us to maximize the CRISPR/ Cas9 opportunity to address severe unmet medical needs for patients.”

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This is excellent news for Epilepsy.

Epilepsy, a disorder in which nerve cell activity in the brain is disturbed, causing seizures, is the fourth most common neurological problem, following only migraine, stroke and Alzheimer’s. There is no cure for epilepsy, but there are a variety of treatment options. The disease is estimated to affect 2.2 million people in the U.S., with 150,000 people developing the condition each year.

Personalized medicine Scientists at AES discussed how new technologies, such as gene editing using CRISPR-Cas9, and next-generation sequencing, are empowering them to take a new crack at the human genome and find new ways to diagnose and treat epilepsy.

“Recent advances in DNA sequencing and genomic technologies has facilitated a flood of discoveries in identifying genetic causes of epilepsy. Where we’ve been most successful is in the epileptic encephalopathies (EE),” lead author of one of the studies presented, Candace Myers, a senior at the University of Washington, said in a press conference.

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This is an interesting conjecture.

We may be able to keep our gut in check after all. That’s the tantalizing finding from a new study published today that reveals a way that mice—and potentially humans—can control the makeup and behavior of their gut microbiome. Such a prospect upends the popular notion that the complex ecosystem of germs residing in our guts essentially acts as our puppet master, altering brain biochemistry even as it tends to our immune system, wards off infection and helps us break down our supersized burger and fries.

In a series of elaborate experiments researchers from Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital discovered that mouse poop is chock full of tiny, noncoding RNAs called microRNAs from their gastrointestinal (GI) tracts and that these biomolecules appear to shape and regulate the microbiome. “We’ve known about how microbes can influence your health for a few years now and in a way we’ve always suspected it’s a two-way process, but never really pinned it down that well,” says Tim Spector, a professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, not involved with the new study. “This [new work] explains quite nicely the two-way interaction between microbes and us, and it shows the relationship going the other way—which is fascinating,” says Spector, author of The Diet Myth: Why the Secret to Health and Weight Loss Is Already in Your Gut.

What’s more, human feces share 17 types of microRNAs with the mice, which may portend similar mechanisms in humans, the researchers found. It could also potentially open new treatment approaches involving microRNA transplantations. “Obviously that raises the immediate question: ‘Where do the microRNAs come from and why are they there?,’” says senior author Howard Weiner, a neurologist at both Harvard and Brigham. The work was published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe.

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Early detection by Grail (leveraging illumina’s gene sequencing technology) looks promising. This truly will be beneficial for early detection. And, I will be very interested in seeing how it benefits those who are genetically pre-disposed to cancer related gene mutations especially around Esaphogus, Glioblastoma, and Pancreatic cancers since these are often hard to detect in their earliest stages.

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Wow — now, I know who to blame for my hay fever allergy.

If you want someone to thank for your immunity to a whole host of pathogens — or, someone to blame for your allergies — look no further than Neanderthals.

Humans carry three important genes that hail from two ancient, human-like species: Neanderthals and Denisovans, both of which have been extinct for tens of thousands of years.

The new finding, published Thursday in the American Journal of Human Genetics, points to a growing body of evidence of interbreeding between humans and other archaic species.

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Dr Millers paper here hits the nail on the head for me about aging research and how we can speed it up.

“The time spent by gerontologists debating whether aging is a single process or many would be better devoted to trying to figure out the mechanistic links between the master clock whose existence is strongly suggested by the unitarian argument and the many cell-specific, organ-specific, and organism-wide processes that march in crude synchrony at species-specific rates.”

Yes! This is exactly the attitude to take. Too much debate and argument instead of buckling down and getting the research done to prove or disprove aging hypotheses. Cut to the chase and lets just do it.

However, in recent decades, scientific researchers in the field of aging, have found that it is indeed possible to slow down aging in animal test subjects!
This can be done by various means, including dietary and genetic interventions.

One of the most noteworthy researchers in the field is Dr Richard Miller.

The MMTP introduces – Dr Richard A Miller.

Dr Richard Miller MD, PhD, Is a professor of pathology at Michigan University, director of the Nathan Shock centre for biological aging and director of the Paul F Glenn centre for aging research.

He graduated Haverford college in 1971 with a BA, then went on to gain an MD and PhD at Yale University.

Dr Miller has held his current position at Michigan University since 1990.
He has acted as advisor for both The National Institute On Aging, and The American Federation For Aging Research.

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