Lifeboat Foundation

Finding out which microbes dealt it.

Engineers are using origami to design drugs, micro-robots, and future space missions.

Don’t miss “The Origami Revolution,” airing February 15, 2017 at 9 pm on PBS: http://to.pbs.org/2lp78cv

MIT spinout Manus Biosynthesis engineers microbes to produce rare and expensive ingredients for noncaloric beverages, perfumes, toothpastes, detergents, pesticides, and therapeutics. Spun out of the MIT Department of Chemical Engineering, Manus technologies could lead to new discoveries in drug development and product ingredients.

Let’s debate whether ageing is a disease *after* the diseases of old age are eliminated, shall we?

Whether or not ageing ought to be considered a disease is still matter of controversy, both among experts and laypeople. Particularly, the latter tend to turn up their noses at the thought of ageing being pathological and not ‘normal’, especially if they’re outside the life-extension/rejuvenation community. Clearly, they ignore the fact that ‘normal’ and ‘pathological’ aren’t mutually exclusive at all. It’s perfectly normal to suffer from hear loss in old age; notwithstanding, it is out of the question that hear loss is a pathology and we have developed several ways to make up for it. It presently can’t be cured, because like all age-related diseases, it can only get worse as long as the age-related damage that causes it keeps accumulating.

In my humble opinion of quasi-layperson (I’m nowhere near being an expert, but I do think I know about ageing more than your average Joe), whether or not ageing is a disease is merely a matter of semantics, depending largely on what we want to label as ‘ageing’—not to mention how we define ‘disease’.

If we say that ‘ageing’ is the set of age-related pathologies that affect a given person, then ageing isn’t a disease any more than a box of crayons is itself a crayon. Nonetheless, if you have a box of crayons then you have a bunch of crayons; if you have ageing as we defined it, then you have a bunch of diseases, and the grand total of your ailments doesn’t change whether you consider ageing as a disease as well or not. Quite frankly, I’d pick the box of crayons over ageing any time.

Continue reading “Health before semantics” »

Summary:

• Many recent advances in artificial intelligence and aging biomarkers that transpired since 2013 are converging
• Gachon University and Gil Medical Center are at the forefront of aging research in Korea
• Aging research is gaining credibility in the pharmaceutical industry and healthcare in general
• Insilico Medicine and Gachon University and Gil Medical Center have partnered to collaboratively develop biomarkers and interventions

Friday, 3rd of February, 2017, Baltimore, MD — Insilico Medicine today announced that it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and started the first collaborative research project with one of the largest research and medical networks, Gachon University and Gil Medical Center. The intent of the long-term collaboration is to develop artificially intelligent multimodal biomarkers of aging and health status as well as interventions intended to slow down or even reverse the processes leading to the age-related loss of function.

I suggest they connect with DARPA or Dr Phillip Ball on QBS.

This is undoubtedly relief for certain medical conditions, but the potential for misuse, harm and control demands an ethical debate to define the limits. Unfortunately, Technocrats shun such discussions. ⁃ TN Editor.

In labs testing how brain implants could help people with physical disabilities, tales of success can be bittersweet.

Continue reading “Harvard Medical School Is Perfecting Brain Computer Interface Implants” »

In Brief Sooam Biotech Research Foundation has cloned over 800 dogs since 2006, offering the service to bring your dead dog back for $100,000. Apart from their popular dog cloning service, they also clone cattle and pigs for medical research and breed preservation.

The Sooam Biotech Research Foundation can reincarnate your dead dog, a service that would delight pet lovers—for $100,000.

“These people have very a strong bond with their pets… and cloning provides a psychological alternative to the traditional method of just letting the pet go and keeping their memory,” said Sooam researcher and spokesman Wang Jae-Woong.

Continue reading “South Korean Dog Cloning Facility Can Give You Your Dead Dog Back” »

This wearable airbag is perfect for motorcyclists.

Expensive EpiPen auto-injectors dominate the market for emergency allergy treatment, but a cheaper alternative is now being developed: an epinephrine tablet that dissolves under the tongue.

Last month a congressional committee tore into Mylan CEO Heather Bresch. The charge: jacking up the price of EpiPens, her company’s signature product. Those price hikes left some allergy sufferers without access to emergency epinephrine, the drug that saves people who go into anaphylactic shock.

Mylan has control of the marketplace because other companies have a hard time competing with the EpiPen’s patented design. Those who have tried have mostly offered up alternative types of auto-injectors, which generally flop.

Continue reading “Forget The EpiPen—It’s Time For An Epi-Pill” »