Sep 3, 2019
New Blood Test Could Predict Your Life Expectancy
Posted by Paul Battista in category: biotech/medical
New blood test could predict your risk of early death!
New blood test could predict your risk of early death!
Age-related changes to the signals sent and received by our cells travelling via the bloodstream are one of the hallmarks of aging. A team of researchers, including Drs. Irina and Michael Conboy, has published the results of a new study suggesting that rejuvenation might be achieved by the calibration of these signals found in the blood [1].
The search for rejuvenation
The Conboys had done earlier research in joining of the circulatory systems between young and old animals, a process known as parabiosis, and they showed that tissue aging was not a one-way street and could be rapidly reversed in a matter of weeks, given access to the beneficial signaling from the younger animal [2].
Why the rush? It now costs $2.6 billion, by one estimate, to get a new drug to market, and pipelines are only getting slower and more expensive. There’s hope—and hype—that AI could help chip away at that figure by reducing the time and labor before a drug starts clinical trials. The idea is that the same techniques used to generate realistic deepfakes and deftly play Go might be able to decipher the complex rules of drug design and generate molecules from scratch.
Insilico Medicine is among several startups trying to harness artificial intelligence to speed to development of drugs.
Scientists have identified the mechanism that lets geckos regrow severed limbs, and they may get it to work in humans.
We will soon learn if a much-hyped, rapamycin-like drug can boost the immune response by targeting how the body ages.
A simple treatment to stave off the health problems of old age could be available in five to 12 years. Here’s how it would work.
A group of DARPA-funded scientists associated with Elon Musk say they’ve invented a new way to “rapidly implant” brain electrodes into rats — and their “sewing machine” implantation system could facilitate the creation of a mind-reading brain-computer interface, as first reported by Bloomberg.
“Although more research is needed to refine the overall interface system and better integrate its components, these developments may ultimately open the possibility of bundling next-generation robotics, AI software, and electronics to create alternatives to present-day neurosurgical techniques,” DARPA biotech director Justin Sanchez told Bloomberg.
Non-addictive painkillers from scorpion venom? Bring them on!
A team of researchers has just demonstrated quantum enhancement in an actual X-ray machine, achieving the desirable goal of eliminating background noise for precision detection.
The relationships between photon pairs on quantum scales can be exploited to create sharper, higher-resolution images than classical optics. This emerging field is called quantum imaging, and it has some really impressive potential — particularly since, using optical light, it can be used to show objects that can’t usually be seen, like bones and organs.
Quantum correlation describes a number of different relationships between photon pairs. Entanglement is one of these, and is applied in optical quantum imaging.