Lifeboat Foundation

3D printing in the medical industry isn’t new. We’ve seen companies 3D print prosthetics and even bones, but now a company in India has claimed to have developed 3D printable liver tissue, which they are hoping that one day will be usable for full-fledged liver transplants, although we suppose there will be quite a bit of legal and regulatory hurdles to overcome.

According to Pandorum Technologies, the company behind the technology, they claim that these 3D printed liver tissues are made of human cells and will allow for inexpensive medical research. This also means that reachers will need to rely less on human and animal trials. The entire process could also save companies millions of dollars which is usually needed in research and development.

Pandorum Technologies’ co-founder Arun Chandru said, “Our 3D bio-printed mini-livers that mimic the human liver will serve as test platforms for discovery and development of drugs with better efficacy, less side effects and at lower costs.” Apart from being used as test platforms, 3D printable liver tissue could also be used for other purposes.

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This came up recently and it occurred I never posted this here. This is a lecture by Robert Bradbury, not not Ray Bradbury. I had the pleasure of exchanging a few emails with him. Unfortunately those emails are lost so I cannot share them. He was an advocate of life extension and he was a big thinker. I’ll post both vids and a link to the M-brain page. He is not with us anymore I regret to say. Ready?

Renown aging expert Robert Bradbury discusses whole genome engineering, evolution and aging and ways to defeat aging. His talk touches on many areas including nanotechnology, biology, and computer science. More information can be found at http://manhattanbeachproject.com Follow updates at http://twitter.com/maxlifeorg

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Tardigrades — known affectionately as water bears or moss piglets — have pretty much got it all. These microscopic invertebrates are capable of surviving the most extreme conditions you could dream up, including prolonged desiccation and near-100 percent water loss, freezing and boiling temperatures, intense ionising radiation, and the vacuum of outer space.

Scientists have discovered that to survive extreme desiccation, tardigardes produce a special type of ‘bioglass’ to hold essential proteins and molecules together until they’re rehydrated back to life. Now they’re figuring out how to use this mechanism to develop drought-resistant crops and longer-lasting vaccines.

Back in September, researchers from the University of Chicago announced that they’d discovered a new type of glass — one produced internally by the tardigrade during desiccation. While they’re yet to figure out exactly how the glass is formed, they concluded that it’s produced as a protective mechanism to ensure that tardigrades can survive losing pretty much all of the water in their cells.

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If you haven’t heard of the bionic pancreas, it’s likely you soon will. With diabetes on the rise and the demand for insulin therapies becoming a real pain point for the medical establishment, the need for innovative solutions has spiked. Back in April, we reported on the Do-It-Yourself Pancreas system, a closed-loop artificial pancreas scavenged from a Medtronic pump, Dexcom CGM, a Raspberry Pi, and CareLink USB. Now a fully bionic pancreas similar in design to the Do-It-Yourself model is being developed by doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston University, with the goal of winning FDA approval. If it succeeds, this will likely be the first bionic organ to see widespread adoption.

Let’s examine some of the previous attempts at bionic organs to see if we can catch a glimpse of where things are heading and some of the societal repercussions that lay in wait. The holy grail of bionic organs is without question the human heart. Coronary artery disease being one of the principal causes of the death worldwide, a fully functioning bionic heart could radically change life expectancy and alter the demographic landscape.

The first bionic hearts, designed over 70 years ago, were plagued by problems that often resulted in thromboembolism and hemorrhage, and made this even more of a gamble than donor transplants. Recent technological advances, however — specifically the advent of bio-prosthetic materials that fool the human immune system into believing the bionic heart is an organic part of the body — could indicate a new era of artificial organs is upon us.

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Hydras, simple fresh-water animals, have the ability to live forever if kept in ideal conditions, a recent study shows.

The organisms are made mostly of stem cells that have the ability to continually divide, thus constantly renewing the body.

“The differentiated cells of the tentacles and the foot are constantly being pushed off the body and replaced with new cells migrating from the body column,” Daniel Martinez, a biologist at Pomona College, said in a statement.

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Death is a disease.

Diseases can and will be cured.

Do the math. wink

Continue reading “New genes associated with extreme longevity identified” »

A machine prototype called Farma can let you manufacture your daily prescription of drugs right in your own home. Designed by MIT Media Lab graduate Will Patrick, the concept tech features a green cylinder and uses blue-green algae that’s genetically engineered to produce pharmaceutical drugs.

In the future, you might be able to skip the pharmacy and, instead, make your treatments along with your morning breakfast.

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Quoted from Richard Dawkins’ book “Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder”.The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (Official)

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Optogenetic laser light stimulation of the thalamus (credit: Jia Liu et al./eLife)

By flashing high-frequency (40 to 100 pulses per second) optogenetic lasers at the brain’s thalamus, scientists were able to wake up sleeping rats and cause widespread brain activity. In contrast, flashing the laser at 10 pulses per second suppressed the activity of the brain’s sensory cortex and caused rats to enter a seizure-like state of unconsciousness.

“We hope to use this knowledge to develop better treatments for brain injuries and other neurological disorders,” said Jin Hyung Lee, Ph.D., assistant professor of neurology, neurosurgery, and bioengineering at Stanford University, and a senior author of the study, published in the open-access journal eLIFE.

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