Lifeboat Foundation

University of Pittsburgh researchers have identified a type of immune cell that drives chronic organ transplant failure in a mouse model of kidney transplantation and uncovered pathways that could be therapeutically targeted to improve patient outcomes. The findings are published in a new Science Immunology paper.

“In solid organ transplantation, such as kidney transplants, one-year outcomes are excellent because we have immunosuppressant drugs that manage the problem of acute rejection,” said co-senior author Fadi Lakkis, M.D., distinguished professor of surgery, professor of immunology and medicine, and scientific director of the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute at Pitt and UPMC.

“But over time, these organs often start to fail because of a slower form of rejection called chronic rejection, and current medications don’t seem to help. Understanding this problem was the motivation behind our study.”

Using an organ from a donor who underwent cardiac death, Stanford Medicine surgeons transplanted a heart while it was beating—the first time such a procedure has been achieved.

Initially performed by Joseph Woo, MD, professor and chair of cardiothoracic surgery, and his team in October, the technique has since been used in adult and pediatric patients five more times by surgeons at Stanford Medicine.

Stopping the heart before implantation can damage the cardiac tissue, so keeping it beating during transplantation avoids further injury to the organ.

Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) scientists have created a promising injectable cell therapy to treat osteoarthritis that both reduces inflammation and also regenerates articular cartilage.

Recently identified by the Food and Drug Administration as a public health crisis, osteoarthritis affects more than 520 million people worldwide who deal with pain and inflammation. Osteoarthritis is typically induced by mechanical or traumatic stress in the joint, leading to damaged cartilage that cannot be repaired naturally.

“Without better understanding of what drives the initiation and progression of osteoarthritis, effective treatment has been limited,” said lead author Johanna Bolander of WFIRM. “Initially, we studied what goes wrong in osteoarthritic joints, compared these processes to functional environments, and used this information to develop an immunotherapy cell treatment.”

Researchers discover a mechanism used by neurons to repair damage that occurs during neuronal activity.

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A new study shows that an FDA-approved, pharmaceutical-grade formulation of CBD has an antiviral effect in human lung cells and mice, and shows a significant negative association with COVID infection in human patients.

Donald Hoffman interview on spacetime, consciousness, and how biological fitness conceals reality. We discuss Nima Arkani-Hamed’s Amplituhedron, decorated permutations, evolution, and the unlimited intelligence.

The Amplituhedron is a static, monolithic, geometric object with many dimensions. Its volume codes for amplitudes of particle interactions & its structure codes for locality and unitarity. Decorated permutations are the deepest core from which the Amplituhedron gets its structure. There are no dynamics, they are monoliths as in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Continue reading “Exposing the Strange Blueprint Behind ‘Reality’ (Donald Hoffman Interview)” »

Scientists in Britain have finally solved one of the greatest mysteries of life: how chromosomes get their X shape. Chromosomes, discovered in the late 1800s, are DNA molecules which contain the genetic material of an organism.

All chromosomes, without exception, either go through or end up with an X shape before the cells of an organism divide.

But it was always a mystery how they are X-shaped. While Biology students across the world study that chromosomes get their shape during cell division, the exact reason behind their X shape was not known.

Experts from Charles River and Valo Health describe how artificial intelligence will change the drug discovery landscape.

Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are novel therapeutics that can be used to treat a wide range of diseases. This has led to a growing demand for selective, efficient, and safe ways of delivering siRNA in cells. Now, in a cooperation between the Universities of Amsterdam and Leiden, researchers have developed dedicated molecular nanocages for siRNA delivery. In a paper just out in the journal Chem they present nanocages that are easy to prepare and display tunable siRNA delivery characteristics.

The nanocages were developed in the research group for Homogeneous, Supramolecular and Bio-inspired catalysis of Prof. Joost Reek and Bas de Bruin at the University of Amsterdam’s Van ‘t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences, and further studies in the group Prof. Alexander Kros at the Leiden Institute of Chemistry.

The researchers were motivated by the potential of siRNA in gene therapy, which requires the need for effective delivery systems. They set out to develop nanocages with functional groups at the outside, making the cages capable of binding siRNA strands. As the binding is based on reversible bonds, the siRNA can in principle be released in a cellular environment. To explore the delivery characteristics of their nanocages, the researchers performed a laboratory study using various human cancer cells.