Sony has announced a follow-up product to the Reon Pocket, the app-controlled “wearable air conditioner” it released last year after crowdfunding it on the company’s own platform. The Reon Pocket 2 looks more or less the same as the original model, but the newly designed internals can achieve up to twice the level of heat absorption, according to Sony, resulting in more powerful cooling performance. Sony also says that it’s improved the sweat-proofing in the Reon Pocket 2, making it more suitable for light exercise situations.
Google uses artificial intelligence technology to find millions of buildings on the satellite map that were previously difficult to locate. These can now be used for humanitarian aid or other purposes. Google utilized its building detection model (Continental-Scale Building Detection from High Resolution Satellite Imagery) to create an Open Buildings dataset, containing locations and footprints of 516 million buildings with coverage across most African continent countries.
In this data set, there are millions of buildings that have not been discovered in the past. These newly-discovered building materials will help the outside world understand African populations and where they live, facilitating health care services such as education or vaccination to their communities.
Google’s team of developers built a training set for their building detection model by manually labeling 1.75 million buildings in 100k images to make the most accurate identification possible, even when dealing with rural or urban environments that have vastly different properties and features. The need to identify what kind of dwelling place is being captured was especially difficult during scoping missions in remote areas where natural landmarks were plentiful. At the same time, dense surroundings made it hard to differentiate between multiple structures on an aerial image at once.
This study builds on an earlier paper by the Rothstein lab that looked at the most common genetic cause of ALS, a mutation in the C9orf72 gene (also referred to as the “C9 mutation”). There, they showed that the C9 mutation produced defects in a structure called the nuclear pore that is responsible for moving proteins and other molecules in and out of the nucleus of cells.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a rapidly progressive and fatal degenerative disease affecting the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord responsible for controlling voluntary muscle movement. “Sporadic” or non-inherited ALS, accounts for roughly 90% percent of cases, and 10% of cases are due to known genetic mutations. By studying lab-grown neurons derived from skin or blood cells from 10 normal controls, eight with an ALS causing mutation, and 17 with non-inherited ALS, researchers have found a possible starting point for the dysfunction that causes the disease. The study, which was published in Science Translational Medicine, was funded in part by the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of the National Institutes of Health.
Using a library of ALS patient-derived cells, the research team led by Jeffrey Rothstein, M.D., Ph.D., at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, developed induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived neurons from the patients’ cultured cells to discover a common defect regardless of whether the cell came from persons with inherited or non-inherited ALS. They report that in ALS nerve cells, there is an accumulation of a protein called CHMP7 in the nucleus of cultured nerve cells as well as in ALS samples from the brain region that controls movement. Treatments that decrease the amount of CHMP7 in the cultured cells prevented a series of abnormalities that are characteristic of ALS.
“There is considerable interest in identifying new therapeutic targets for ALS, particularly for the sporadic form of the disorder,” said Amelie Gubitz, Ph.D., program director, NINDS. “Gene-targeting strategies like the one shown here now allow us to move from biological discovery straight to therapy development.”
Despite years of efforts, malaria remains a major health problem. The mosquito-borne parasitic disease sickens more than 200 million people every year and kills more than 400000, many of whom are children.
For the first time, scientists have shown that a new kind of genetic engineering can crash populations of malaria-spreading mosquitoes.
In the landmark study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature Communications, researchers placed the genetically modified mosquitoes in a special laboratory that simulated the conditions in sub-Saharan Africa, where they spread the deadly disease.
The male mosquitoes were engineered with a sequence of DNA known as a “gene drive” that can rapidly transmit a deleterious mutation that essentially wipes out populations of the insects.
Thrilled to see Paradromics’ $20M fund raise lead by the talented Dr. Amy Kruse! Paradromics is building a brain computer interface supported by DARPA’s Biologi… See More.
The investment demonstrates confidence in Paradromics as a well-positioned player in the $200 billion BCI therapy market. Last year, Paradromics successfully completed testing of its platform, demonstrating the largest ever electrical recording of cortical activity that exceeded more than 30000 electrode channels in sheep cortex. This recording allowed researchers to observe the brain activity of sheep in response to sound stimuli with high fidelity.
“We are combining the best of neural science and medical device engineering to create a robust and reliable platform for new clinical therapies,” said Paradromics CEO Matt Angle. “This funding round is a validation of both our technology and strategic vision in leading this important developing market.”
The current funding round follows $10M in early stage private funding as well as $15M of public funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Defense (DARPA).
Now businesses, start-ups and their backers are eyeing an even bigger bonanza in the form of the next generation of seniors. The market opportunities will shift to the development of products and services through a greater adoption of emerging technology to provide preventive health care, and help people to live in their homes for longer, plus increase independence and well being.
Opportunities in China’s elderly health care will shift to the development of tech-based products and services to help people live longer in their homes and increase their independence and well being.
Improving Quality Of Life & Health, For Hundreds Of Millions Globally, Suffering Food Allergies & Intolerances — Lisa Gable, Chief Executive Officer, Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE)
Lisa Gable is the Chief Executive Officer, of Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE — https://www.foodallergy.org), an organization with a mission to improve the quality of life and the health of 85 million Americans with food allergies and food intolerances, including 32 million of those are at risk for life-threatening anaphylaxis, and to provide them hope through the promise of new treatments. To date FARE has turned over $100 million in donor gifts into ground-breaking research and has provided a voice for the community, advocating on its behalf and offering hope for a better tomorrow.
Ms. Gable has served four U.S. presidents and two governors, counseled Fortune 500 CEOs, and represented global public-private partnerships and non-profits with an end goal of moving organizations to higher levels of performance.
As the former President of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation, Ms. Gable created and led a coalition of food and beverage industry corporations and public health and government agencies, resulting in the reduction of 6.4 trillion calories from the American diet.
Ms Gable was appointed the first female U.S. Commissioner General to the 2005 Aichi World EXPO, holding the personal rank of Ambassador, served as a U.S. Delegate to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, and served both in the Reagan White House and Defense Department, serving as an advisor to the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chief of Staff.
Ms. Gable’s corporate experience included serving as senior vice president of Global Public Policy at PepsiCo, and 15 years in Silicon Valley, including Global Brand Identity Manager for Intel Corporation, as Intel was on the cusp of launching what would become one of the most dominant tech brands, Intel Inside.
Among her varied volunteer activities, Ms. Gable has served on several boards including as a National Trustee for the Boys and Girls Club of America, a board member for Girl Scouts of the USA and as a member of the Institute of Medicine Roundtable on Obesity Solutions. A published writer, her new book Turnaround: How to Change Course When Things Are Going South (https://turnaroundbook.com/) will be coming out October 5, 2021.
Ms. Gable also has had recurring media appearances including four years as a regularly scheduled guest with Lifetime’s national morning program The Balancing Act.
A ‘deadly fungal infection’ that can be resistant to all existing treatments has been worrying health officials following recent outbreaks in hospitals and care homes around the USA
Tetra’s trial will be the first worldwide drug which involves the use of an injectable sterile synthetic cannabinoid in patients infected by COVID-19. Tetra will use this study to demonstrate that its ARDS-003 drug can help prevent the acute respiratory distress seen in serious complications of COVID-19.
The proposed study is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to evaluate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and preliminary efficacy of ascending doses of ARDS-003 in hospitalized COVID-19 patients with pneumonia and at risk of developing acute respiratory distress syndrome.
Seeking guidance on clinical study protocol to be conducted in patients with COVID-19 is a pre-requisite of the Health Canada regulatory process for COVID-related trials. The Office of Clinical Trials of Health Canada’s Therapeutic Products Directorate acknowledged that Tetra’s extensive nonclinical data, including genotoxicity, safety pharmacology and toxicities studies, assessing the safety and pharmacokinetic profile of the investigational drug meet the authority’s requirements for a New Molecular Entity and granted the Company the approval for filing a clinical trial application in patients infected with Sars-CoV-2 (COVID-19). The authorities also agreed on the proposed study design, target population, and primary and secondary objectives and endpoints of the study in severe COVID-19 patients. To this end, contingent to Health Canada’s accelerated review process for Covid-related trials, the Company’s drug ARDS-003, will be evaluated in COVID-19 patients.
