Lifeboat Foundation

The Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass., will retain potentially lucrative rights to a powerful gene-editing technique that could lead to major advances in medicine and agriculture, the federal Patent and Trademark Office ruled on Wednesday.

The decision, in a bitterly fought dispute closely watched by scientists and the biotechnology industry, was a blow to the University of California, often said to be the birthplace of the technique, which is known as Crispr-Cas9.

An appeals board of the patent office ruled that the gene-editing inventions claimed by the two institutions were separate and do not overlap.

Scientists have discovered a groundbreaking immunotherapy combination that kills brain cancer, promotes long-term immunity and is highly effective against breast cancer and myeloma.

Researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) in Ottawa had the promising findings published Wednesday in the journal ‘Nature Communications’.

The study outlines how the team developed a unique combination of drugs known as SMAC Mimetics and immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) that produce high kill rates for cancer tumor cells in mice.

Another SENS therapy moving closer to the clinic this time LysoSENS gets the spotlight thanks to Ichor and their new therapy for age-related blindness.

Yet another SENS repair therapy moving into clinical testing, this time age-related blindness is the focus thanks to Ichor Therapeutics.

In a controversial move, a senior US scientific committee has given the green light to one of the most contentious forms of genome editing: where genetic changes made to human embryos will then be inherited by following generations.

For the first time, a panel of experts from two of the most recognised scientific institutions in the US has advised that this process – called germline editing – should be seriously considered as an option in the future, and not outright prohibited.

It’s a considerably more positive tone than the assessment of an international summit of scientists in December 2015, which declared that it would be “irresponsible to proceed” with germline editing unless safety issues and social consensus could be satisfied.

Continue reading “US Scientists Have Cautiously Backed Permanent Gene Editing in Humans” »

Nice write up on the physical sensory parts of the brain and central nervous system. However, everyone is proving and continues to prove that with the electromagnetic spin properties tied to human cells is showing that there is the additional layer of cell to cell communication occurring within the human body as well as these cells which are charged are also able to connect with other charged particles in a room or location. My guess is we will need all to effectively enable meaningful/ useful system intelligence to provide real pragmatic value.

Not everyone is Fred Astaire or Michael Jackson, but even those of us who seem to have two left feet have got rhythm–in our brains. From breathing to walking to chewing, our days are filled with repetitive actions that depend on the rhythmic firing of neurons. Yet the neural circuitry underpinning such seemingly ordinary behaviors is not fully understood, even though better insights could lead to new therapies for disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, ALS and autism.

Recently, neuroscientists at the Salk Institute used stem cells to generate diverse networks of self-contained spinal cord systems in a dish, dubbed circuitoids, to study this rhythmic pattern in neurons. The work, which appears online in the February 14, 2017, issue of eLife, reveals that some of the circuitoids–with no external prompting–exhibited spontaneous, coordinated rhythmic activity of the kind known to drive repetitive movements.

Continue reading “Brain contains many networks of interconnected neurons that send signals with a rhythmic pattern” »

While the recent cases of Ebola and Zika contributed to an emphasis on research, response, and policy related to EIDs, the meeting also had presentations on emerging biotechnologies. Of particular note was the Synthetic Biology panel, which focused on the current state of synthetic biology, its use in the health security defense enterprise, and the policy conundrums that need to be addressed.

Synthetic Biology – Complexity through Simplification

The first presenter, Dr. Christopher Voigt of the Synthetic Biology Center at MIT, noted that synthetic biology was the application of engineering principles to biological systems. The end goal of this bioengineering framework is to leverage ever-increasing computer capabilities to simplify both the designing and writing of genomic sequences. Further simplification would then allow for the creation of more complex systems.

Continue reading “The Biotechnological Wild West: The Good, the Bad, and the Underknown of Synthetic Biology” »

Cancer care delivery has been mostly unchanged for the past 50 years but now needs a new model, a centaur, say Stanford University academics.

Wish he & a couple of others would join this ranks that others are on which makes way more sense plus benefits the masses tremendously. Musk needs to join others in their work to enhance humans via Quantum Biosystems as this work is already showing signs of success across multiple areas such as anti-aging, disease elimination, intelligence & communications, security, reduction in costs of healthcare & social programs, advancements in new creative innovations in technology & medicine, new industry new growth/ economic expansion, elimination of starvation, etc.

How can humans stay relevant in an age of artificial intelligence? Elon Musk thinks cyborgs are the answer.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO discussed the need for a “merger of biological intelligence and digital intelligence” during a talk on Monday at the World Government Summit in Dubai, CNBC reported.

Continue reading “Elon Musk sees critical role for cyborgs” »

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Buf16_802kI

New work has demonstrated that bone injuries can be repaired using a sheet of a carbon compound that has photocatalytic characteristics, and combining it with stem cells derived from human bone marrow. These developments could lead to new treatments that can exert a powerful positive effect on skeletal fractures or periodontal disease. Check out the short video below that summarizes the findings in the report, which was published in the journal ACS Nano.

The scientists found that a chemical sheet made of carbon nitride, which absorbs red light, can support the growth of bone cells — osteogenic differentiation — because of the activation of a molecule that promotes gene expression. That molecule is a transcription factor called runt-related transcription factor 2 or Runx2. The absorption of red light and the emission of fluorescence by the carbon nitride sheets accelerates bone regeneration. It seems that when the sheets are exposed to red light in liquid conditions where cells are growing, electrons are released, which stimulates the accumulation of calcium in cell cytoplasm.

Continue reading “Promising New Technique Uses Stem Cells to fix Bone Damage” »