Lifeboat Foundation

A newly published study details how engineers developed programmable RNA vaccines that work against Ebola, H1N1 influenza, and a common parasites in mice.

MIT engineers have developed a new type of easily customizable vaccine that can be manufactured in one week, allowing it to be rapidly deployed in response to disease outbreaks. So far, they have designed vaccines against Ebola, H1N1 influenza, and Toxoplasma gondii (a relative of the parasite that causes malaria), which were 100 percent effective in tests in mice.

The vaccine consists of strands of genetic material known as messenger RNA, which can be designed to code for any viral, bacterial, or parasitic protein. These molecules are then packaged into a molecule that delivers the RNA into cells, where it is translated into proteins that provoke an immune response from the host.

Continue reading “Engineers Design Programmable RNA Vaccines That Protext Against Ebola and H1N1 Influenza” »

Researchers have developed a new method to wipe out tumors.

An interesting development. The regenerating teeth with stem cells thing wont hit til about 2022’ish.

Dental fillings that regenerate teeth are “a new paradigm for dental treatments” and could end root canals.

Doctors in India were able to perform this amazing operation that took over a year to give a boy a new nose by growing it on his forehead.

With the advantage of high resolution providing facial designs that can be created based on the FACS (facial active coding system), 3D photography scanning and printing of the subject will create images with connected feature grids. This allows the angles of the craniomaxillofacial surface to be observed for specific unique aspects of physical characteristics, for underlying anatomical bone structures based on eye to midline features.

The nasal process provides the centerpiece of anatomical facial mapping and organization which affects how the individual is viewed by the world around them. These connected grids with the aid of imaging allow for facial feature approximation for important craniofacial-facial planning creating vital structures that will be 3D printed according to accepted innovation in FACS (Facial active coding system) design. Medical grade silicone soft tissue prosthetics with colour are being created out of the UK with the Picsisma printer by Fripp Design as far back as 2013.

Continue reading “Multi-planar Processing: Rhinoplasty Implant” »

“May you live in interesting times,” resonates with many involved in the metal 3D printing industry, an ironic phrase regarded by some as a curse. Magnus René, CEO of the Arcam Group AB, might one of the last to agree. In the 3D metal printing market Arcam are unique. Holding propriety Electron Beam Melting (EBM) patents the company is at the forefront of cutting edge industries such as aerospace and medicine. I asked Arcam’s CEO about some of these developments.

René compares today’s additive manufacturing landscape to an earlier career experience in another industry at the frontier of technology.

“I was with a company that developed and released the [semiconductor] printers that are used still to this day for manufacture. Those were also interesting times, we really felt that we were changing the way things were manufactured.”

Continue reading “3D Printing Metal Interview with Arcam CEO Magnus René” »

A team of researchers led by professor Jean-Christophe Marine (VIB-KU Leuven) has identified NEAT1, a non-coding RNA, as a potential therapeutic target in the fight against cancer. In collaboration with the Cédric Blanpain lab (ULB), VIB researchers have shown that NEAT1 plays an important role in the survival of highly dividing cells — and in particular of cancer cells. These findings can help develop new drugs that target NEAT1, in order to kill cancer cells more effectively.

As a non-coding RNA, NEAT1 is not translated into a protein. It does however contribute to the formation of so-called ‘paraspeckles’, subnuclear particles that can be found in the cell nuclei of cancer cells. The function of these particles has remained obscure. Although highly conserved through evolution, NEAT1 appears to be dispensable for normal embryonic development and adult life as mice lacking NEAT1 are viable and healthy.

Guarding the genome

Continue reading “Researchers reveal new therapeutic avenue in the fight against cancer” »

Way cool.

Ideally, injectable or implantable medical devices should not only be small and electrically functional, they should be soft, like the body tissues with which they interact. Scientists from two UChicago labs set out to see if they could design a material with all three of those properties.

The material they came up with, published online June 27, 2016, in Nature Materials, forms the basis of an ingenious light-activated injectable device that could eventually be used to stimulate nerve cells and manipulate the behavior of muscles and organs.

Continue reading “Injectable biomaterial could be used to manipulate organ behavior” »

Happy 4th of July! Time for our own independence day from cancer!

High-throughput screening of a library of diverse drugs to find treatments for ‘ALT’ cancers, those which rely on Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres.