Lifeboat Foundation

An exciting experimental drug developed by scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine has been found to stop the progression of Parkinson’s disease in live mice models. The new drug could be the first medication to specifically slow the progression of the devastating disease as opposed to current treatments that only target the symptoms.

Microglia are a kind of immune cell primarily found in the brain. One of the neurodegenerative processes that occurs in the brains of Parkinson’s disease patients is when the microglial cells send chemical signals to another kind of brain cell called astrocytes. This signal spurns those astrocytes into more aggressive behaviors, eating away at connections between neurons.

“The activated astrocytes we focused on go into a revolt against the brain,” explains Ted Dawson, one of the researchers on the project, “and this structural breakdown contributes to the dead zones of brain tissue found in those with Parkinson’s disease. The idea was that if we could find a way to calm those astrocytes, we might be able to slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease.”

Continue reading “Drug that stops progression of Parkinson’s disease heads for human trials” »

Researchers have manipulated the immune system to respond more aggressively to cancer according to a new study [1].

Manipulating macrophages

We have discussed modulating the immune system multiple times recently, especially in regards to macrophages and manipulating their behavior. Macrophages are part of the innate immune system and carry out a wide variety of tasks, such as clearing away cell debris, engulfing pathogens, facilitating tissue growth, and disposing of senescent cells once other immune cells have destroyed them.

Continue reading “Manipulating the Immune System for Cancer Immunotherapy” »

British researchers are zeroing in on genes they believe are responsible for early onset Alzheimer’s disease in people with Down syndrome.

WEDNESDAY, July 3, 2018 — British researchers are zeroing in on the genes that they believe are responsible for early onset Alzheimer’s disease in people with Down syndrome.

The two conditions have long been strongly linked.

Continue reading “Scientists find gene linking Down syndrome, early Alzheimer’s” »

Following heart attacks, a handful of monkeys regained some of the pumping ability their hearts had lost after being given human embryonic stem cells, according to a study published Monday in Nature Biotechnology.

Scientists have tried for years to develop a stem cell treatment for heart disease caused by lack of blood flow, which contributed to more than 9.4 million deaths worldwide in 2016, according to the World Health Organization.

“We’re talking about the number one cause of death in the world [for humans],” said study author Dr. Charles Murry, director of the Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine at the University of Washington. “And at the moment all of our treatments are … dancing around the root problem, which is that you don’t have enough muscle cells.”

Continue reading “Human stem cells give monkey hearts a boost after heart attacks, study says” »

The ocean’s creatures hold secrets to some of today’s biggest medical mysteries.

“I believe gene therapy will become a mainstay in treating, and maybe curing, many of our most devastating and intractable illnesses,” said FDA commissioner Dr Scott Gottlieb after Luxturna’s approval.

As innovative gene and cell therapies continue to make the transition from the laboratory to the clinic, they are bringing with them the promise of truly personalised medicine. The last few years have seen the regulatory approval of the first gene therapies that take a patient’s own immune cells and genetically engineer them to target cancer cells more effectively.

These chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapies now represent a rapidly growing field, with Novartis’s Kymriah, the first CAR-T therapy approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in August 2017 for the treatment of a rare blood cancer, seen as the tip of the iceberg for this treatment class’ potential. Approval of Kite Pharma’s Yescarta, a CAR-T treatment for certain forms of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, followed just a few months later.

Continue reading “Can the gene and cell therapy revolution scale up?” »

Scientists have designed a special type of drug that helps the body eat and destroy cancerous cells.

The treatment boosts the action of white blood cells, called macrophages, that the immune system uses to gobble up unwanted invaders.

Tests in mice showed the therapy worked for aggressive breast and skin tumours, Nature Biomedical Engineering journal reports.

The next phase of a NASA sponsored mission to 3D print human organs and tissues in space will launch in February 2019. A 3D BioFabrication Facility (BFF) developed by nScrypt and Techshot and destined for the International Space Station (ISS) will form part of the cargo of SpaceX CRS-17.

3D printing in zero gravity

Continue reading “SpaceX mission will bring 3D bioprinter to ISS, plans to 3D print cardiac patches for damaged hearts” »

Monsanto’s agricultural biotechnology research and development operations that are going to Bayer are the largest in the world and include making genetically modified seeds for such crops as corn, soybeans and cotton. Corn represented almost 60 percent of Monsanto’s total seed and genomics business last year.

German conglomerate Bayer on Thursday closed its $63 billion merger with St. Louis-based agribusiness giant Monsanto and plans to drop the U.S. company’s name.