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Archive for the ‘biotech/medical’ category: Page 1954

Jun 19, 2019

New study finds 45,000 deaths annually linked to lack of health coverage

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health

Nearly 45,000 annual deaths are associated with lack of health insurance, according to a new study published online today by the American Journal of Public Health. That figure is about two and a half times higher than an estimate from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in 2002.

The study, conducted at Harvard Medical School and Cambridge Health Alliance, found that uninsured, working-age Americans have a 40 percent higher risk of death than their privately insured counterparts, up from a 25 percent excess death rate found in 1993.

“The uninsured have a higher risk of death when compared to the privately insured, even after taking into account socioeconomics, health behaviors, and baseline health,” said lead author Andrew Wilper, M.D., who currently teaches at the University of Washington School of Medicine. “We doctors have many new ways to prevent deaths from hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease — but only if patients can get into our offices and afford their medications.”

Jun 19, 2019

Using CRISPR to resurrect the woolly mammoth

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, existential risks, genetics

De-extinction, bringing extinct species back from the dead, is now on the table thanks to the revolutionary gene-editing technology CRISPR.

Jun 19, 2019

Three Facebook moderators break their NDAs to expose a company in crisis

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Thanks Betty Lim ❤🔘 Great stuff.


“At first it didn’t bother me — but after a while, it started taking a toll,” Bennetti told me. “I got to feel, like, a cloud — a darkness — over me. I started being depressed. I’m a very happy, outgoing person, and I was [becoming] withdrawn. My anxiety went up. It was hard to get through it every day. It started affecting my home life.”

Johnson was particularly disturbed by the site’s sole bathroom, which she regularly found in a state of disrepair. (The company says it has janitors available every shift in Tampa.) In the stalls, signs posted in response to employee misbehavior proliferated. Do not use your feet to flush the toilet. Do not flush more than five toilet seat covers at one time. Do not put any substances, natural or unnatural, on the walls.

Continue reading “Three Facebook moderators break their NDAs to expose a company in crisis” »

Jun 19, 2019

Eating Cheese Could Actually Make You Live Longer, Science Says

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food, life extension, science

a woman eating a slice of pizza: A study published in the journal Nature Medicine found that eating cheese can lead to a longer lifespan. © Provided by Bauer Media Pty Ltd A study published in the journal Nature Medicine found that eating cheese can lead to a longer lifespan.

Every now and again, a study is released that makes our heart skip a beat.

Recently, research published in the journal Nature Medicine found that eating cheese can lead to a longer lifespan (and it wasn’t even satire!).

Jun 19, 2019

Podcast Special Edition Mini-Cast: Preview of The 2019 Ending-Age Related Diseases Conference

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

“As far as I’m concerned, ageing is humanity’s worst problem, by some serious distance.”–Aubrey de Grey.

Jun 19, 2019

Medicine dispensing innovation wins engineering prize

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, engineering

Thanks to a new locker system for dispensing medicines, patients can now get their medicines in only 36 seconds.

Jun 19, 2019

What universities can learn from one of science’s biggest frauds

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, science

Gunsalus agrees that the Sato case highlights some of the problems with misconduct investigations, and says that if shortcomings emerge, further reviews may be needed. She suggests institutional panels should include external members and that officials should also use a standardized checklist to strengthen their processes. “There should be some way for journals, funders, patients and others to be assured of the credibility and thoroughness of university reviews,” says Gunsalus.


Detailed analysis of misconduct investigations into huge research fraud suggests institutional probes aren’t rigorous enough.

Jun 18, 2019

New DNA-Scanning Software Can ID You in Minutes

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics

But could hackers abscond with your genetic information?

Jun 18, 2019

Pocket-sized DNA reader used to scan entire human genome sequence

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

It still needs some help to assemble a genome, but it provides unique information.

Jun 18, 2019

Sensitive scanning technology for low frequency nuclear point mutations in human genomic DNA

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics

Knowledge of the kinds and numbers of nuclear point mutations in human tissues is essential to the understanding of the mutation mechanisms underlying genetic diseases. However, nuclear point mutant fractions in normal humans are so low that few methods exist to measure them. We have now developed a means to scan for point mutations in 100 bp nuclear single copy sequences at mutant fractions as low as 10–6.Beginning with about 10 human cells we first enrich for the desired nuclear sequence 10 000-fold from the genomic DNA by sequence-specific hybridization coupled with a biotin–streptavidin capture system. We next enrich for rare mutant sequences 100-fold against the wild-type sequence by wide bore constant denaturant capillary electrophoresis (CDCE). The mutant-enriched sample is subsequently amplified by high fidelity PCR using fluorescein-labeled primers. Amplified mutant sequences are further enriched via two rounds of CDCE coupled with high fidelity PCR. Individual mutants, seen as distinct peaks on CDCE, are then isolated and sequenced. We have tested this approach by measuring N-methyl–N ′-nitro–N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG)-induced point mutations in a 121 bp sequence of the adenomatous polyposis coli gene (APC) in human lymphoblastoid MT1 cells. Twelve different MNNG-induced GC→AT transitions were reproducibly observed in MNNG-treated cells at mutant fractions between 2 × 10–6 and 9 × 10–6. The sensitivity of this approach was limited by the fidelity of Pfu DNA polymerase, which created 14 different GC→TA transversions at a mutant fraction equivalent to ~10–6 in the original samples. The approach described herein should be general for all DNA sequences suitable for CDCE analysis. Its sensitivity and capacity would permit detection of stem cell mutations in tissue sectors consisting of ~10 cells.