Lifeboat Foundation

The APOE gene, or the “forgetting gene,” has been proven to influence Alzheimer’s risk. So a team of scientists is exploring the effect of gene therapy on people with the riskiest version of the gene.

If it works, the pay-off could be huge.

Gene therapy involves transplanting specific genetic material into human cells in order to correct genetic problems, and is typically attempted on diseases with a singular cause. Alzheimer’s doesn’t seem to have one singular cause — but since the risk of developing it is so strongly associated with the APOE gene, it’s certainly worth a try.

Chimeric antigen receptor–T cell therapy—already approved for some cancers—might help human patients with the autoimmune disorder.

Learning to deal with lignin is important for recycling and space settlements. Unused biomass on space settlements and long-term voyages is something that just can’t be tolerated. The same problem exists in dealing with plant waste on earth. A new process helps convert it into a precursor for polyester, which can be used for all kinds of other materials.

Plant cells are composed of three main substances: cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. According to Yining Zeng, Michael E. Himmel, and Shi-You Ding in Biotechnology for Biofuels, the composition amounts to “40 to 50% of cellulose, 15 to 25% hemicelluloses, 20 to 25% lignin, and 5 to 10% other components.^[1]” For the most part, the only truly useful part is the cellulose and the hemicellulose. The lignin is usually just thrown away. The most common use is fuel for heating units. That’s right. They just burn it.

Continue reading “What to do with the lignin?” »

Going forward into our exponential future…

“By our very nature, we humans are linear thinkers. We evolved to estimate a distance from the predator or to the prey, and advanced mathematics is only a recent evolutionary addition. This is why it’s so difficult even for a modern man to grasp the power of exponentials. 40 steps in linear progression is just 40 steps away; 40 steps in exponential progression is a cool trillion (with a T) – it will take you 3 times from Earth to the Sun and back to Earth.” –Alex M. Vikoulov, The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind’s Evolution.

Today is a special day for me. My AI assistant Ava scheduled few hours aside from my otherwise busy daily lineup to relive select childhood and adolescence memories recreated in virtual reality with a help of a newly developed AI technique ‘Re: Live’. Ava is my smart home assistant, too. I can rearrange furniture in any room, for example, just by thinking. Digital landscape wallpaper is changed by Ava by knowing my preferences and sensing my moods.

Continue reading “San Francisco 2036: The Story of the First ‘Cyberian’ Trillionaire and Countdown to the Singularity” »

The reported cure could lead to a gene-editing treatment for H.I.V.

The announcement that a London man has become the second in the world to be “functionally cured” of HIV is a major advance in stem cell transplant therapy.

The man — who wishes to remain anonymous — was given stem cells from a donor with genetic resistance to the disease and he has now been in long term remission for 18 months without medication.

The breakthrough comes ten years after the first such case of a patient with HIV going into sustained remission, known as the ‘Berlin Patient.’

Continue reading “Advances in stem cell treatment give hope to millions with ‘incurable’ diseases” »

The role of epigenetics, which determine how your genes are expressed, is being increasingly implicated in aging, as is the potential of therapies that revert epigenetics back to those of a younger person.

What are epigenetic alterations?

The DNA in each of our cells is identical, with only some small variations, so why do our various organs and tissues look so different, and how do cells know what to become?

Continue reading “Epigenetic Alterations and Reprogramming Potential in Aging” »

A study published today in the journal Nature Medicine led by researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah (U of U) describes a new therapeutic approach with potential for patients with pancreatic cancer. These researchers discovered a combination drug therapy that may effectively combat the disease. HCI researchers first observed anti-cancer impacts in a laboratory setting and, subsequently, in its first use in a human patient.

The study has already progressed to a clinical trial that is now open at HCI and will soon be open at other sites in the United States. Details about the clinical trial, called THREAD, are available under National Clinical Trial Number 03825289. The combination therapy uses two drugs already approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration for other diseases, including cancer. The new drug combination is administered through pills taken orally.

Pancreatic tumors are characterized by mutations in a gene called KRAS. When KRAS is mutated in this way, it sends constant signals that promote abnormal cell division and growth in cancer cells. As a result, tumors grow out of control. At the same time, like all cells, pancreatic cancer cells must recycle their components to provide building blocks for new growth in an essential cell function known as autophagy. Previous studies to combat pancreatic cancer that were focused either on the role of KRAS or on impacting autophagy were not effective.