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Mini brains grown in a lab from stem cells spontaneously developed rudimentary eye structures, scientists reported in a fascinating 2021 paper.

On tiny, human-derived brain organoids grown in dishes, two bilaterally symmetrical optic cups were seen to grow, mirroring the development of eye structures in human embryos. This incredible result could help us to better understand the process of eye differentiation and development, as well as eye diseases.

“Our work highlights the remarkable ability of brain organoids to generate primitive sensory structures that are light sensitive and harbor cell types similar to those found in the body,” said neuroscientist Jay Gopalakrishnan of University Hospital Düsseldorf in Germany in a 2021 statement.

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐚 𝐰𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐮𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐬

𝙍𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙖𝙩 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙙 𝙈𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙣𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙙𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙡𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙙 𝙖 𝙨𝙢𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙬𝙞𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙙𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙬𝙞𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙡𝙮 𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙙𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙡𝙮 𝙗𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙪𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙨.

Researchers think a wireless implant to treat brain tumors could eliminate hospital visits for cancer treatment. [Image courtesy of Stanford Medicine]

Continue reading “Stanford researchers think a wireless brain implant could remove tumors” »

Could knowing where your ancestors came from be the key to better cancer treatments? Maybe, but where would that key fit? How can we trace cancer’s ancestral roots to modern-day solutions? For Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Research Professor Alexander Krasnitz, the answers may lie deep within vast databases and hospital archives containing hundreds of thousands of tumor samples.

Krasnitz and CSHL Postdoctoral Fellow Pascal Belleau are working to reveal the genealogical connections between cancer and race or ethnicity. They’ve developed new software that accurately infers continental ancestry from tumor DNA and RNA. Their latest study is published in Cancer Research, and their work may help clinicians develop new strategies for early cancer detection and personalized treatments.

“Why do people of different races and ethnicities get sick at different rates with different types of cancer? They have different habits, living conditions, exposures—all kinds of social and environmental factors. But there may be a genetic component as well,” Krasnitz says.

The whole interview is good and informative but starts with Sinclair commenting that at the moment he thinks living to 150 is possible in our lifetimes but not immortality. But given that, I’m 51. If I’m going to live potentially another century the technology will get better and better in that century and I would fully expect to life spans to become what we want rather than what we have to accept.

In this Ask Me Anything session, David and Peter discuss the latest age-reversal breakthroughs, getting approval from the FDA, and the possibility of living forever.
David Sinclair is a biologist and academic known for his expertise in aging and epigenetics. Sinclair is a genetics professor and the Co-Director of Harvard Medical School’s Paul F. Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research. He’s been included in Time100 as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World, and his research has been featured all over the media. Besides writing a New York Times Best Seller, David has co-founded several biotech companies, a science publication called Aging, and is an inventor of 35 patents.
Read David’s book, Lifespan: Why We Age-and Why We Don’t Have To: https://a.co/d/85H3Mll.

Continue reading “David Sinclair’s AMA: Age Reversal Breakthroughs, FDA Approval, and Living Forever” »

The year 2022 was the 200th anniversary of the birth of Gregor Mendel. He’s known as the father of genetics, so scientists exhumed Mendel’s body and examined his DNA.

The Covid omicron XBB.1.5 variant is rapidly becoming dominant in the U.S. because it is highly immune evasive and appears more effective at binding to cells than related subvariants, scientists say.

XBB.1.5 now represents about 41% of new cases nationwide in the U.S., nearly doubling in prevalence over the past week, according to the data published Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The subvariant more than doubled as a share of cases every week through Dec. 24. In the past week, it nearly doubled from 21.7% prevalence.

Scientists and public health officials have been closely monitoring the XBB subvariant family for months because the strains have many mutations that could render the Covid-19 vaccines, including the omicron boosters, less effective and cause even more breakthrough infections.

A Peninsula biotech startup cofounded by pioneering geneticist George Church — who already is working to engineer the woolly mammoth out of extinction — is trying to raise as much as $5 million in a crowdfunding effort to design healthier, longer-living pets.

AdoraPet Biosciences Inc. of San Mateo plans to apply the genome-engineering CRISPR technology at the egg stage of dogs and cats or insert CRISPR-modified DNA into eggs, to make nonallergenic pets that don’t shed and ultimately live longer, are free of genetic diseases caused by inbreeding and are resistant to cancer and other serious diseases.

Year 2021 Basically this could cure many diseases and even allow for better human devices to be created.

New devices — worn as headsets and backpacks — rely on optogenetics, in which bursts of light toggle neurons, to control mouse brain activity.