Lifeboat Foundation

Dr Haroldo Silva from SENS talks about ALT cancer in this short film.

As normal cells divide, the ends of their chromosomes (telomeres) progressively shorten until eventually the cells reach senescence or undergo apoptosis. Cancers, which disproportionally kill more individuals in the 65 years or above age group, often overcome this built-in replication limit by expressing the enzyme telomerase.

Continue reading “Uncovering the genetic basis of ALT (Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres) — Harold Silva” »

Many lower organisms retain the miraculous ability to regenerate form and function of almost any tissue after injury. Humans share many of our genes with these organisms, but our capacity for regeneration is limited. Scientists at the MDI Biological Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, are studying the genetics of these organisms to find out how regenerative mechanisms might be activated in humans.

The ability of animals to regenerate body parts has fascinated scientists since the time of Aristotle. But until the advent of sophisticated tools for genetic and computational analysis, scientists had no way of studying the genetic machinery that enables regeneration. Using such tools, scientists at the MDI Biological Laboratory have identified genetic regulators governing regeneration that are common across species.

In a paper published in the journal PLOS ONE, MDI Biological Laboratory scientistsBenjamin L. King, Ph.D., and Voot P. Yin, Ph.D., identified these common genetic regulators in three regenerative species: the zebrafish, a common aquarium fish originally from India; the axolotl, a salamander native to the lakes of Mexico; and the bichir, a ray-finned fish from Africa.

Continue reading “Scientists unlock genetic code controlling limb regeneration” »

#CRISPR can be used to alter the genes of not only one organism, but an entire species, through a method of inheritance known as a gene drive. But what happens if something goes awry?

The faces of murderers or rapists could be ‘recreated’ from DNA left at the scene of the crime, according to new research.

Scientists have identified the genes that shape the extraordinary variation in the human face.

Many features, such as nose size and face width, stem from specific mutations, say researchers.

Continue reading “Faces of murderers could be recreated from DNA left at crime scenes after science breakthrough” »

Anyone attending the Bioweapons Convention in December?

He signatory nations of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) will meet …to discuss the state of bioweapons globally…he world has radically changed s.

Good; glad they are hearing us. Because it is a huge issue for sure especially with some of the things that I seen some of the researchers proposing to use CRISPR, 3D Printers, etc. to create some bizarre creatures. Example, in March to scientists in the UK wanted to use CRISPR to create a dragon; personally I didn’t expect it to be successful. However, the scientists didn’t consider the fallout to the public if they had actually succeeded.

For a few hundred dollars, anyone can start doing genetic editing in the comfort of their own home.

Summary: Researchers have optimized optogenetics to map the neural circuits of the rodent brain with single neuron resolution.

Source: Max Planck Florida.

Researchers at the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience are optimizing optogenetic methods for circuit mapping, enabling measurements of functional synaptic connectivity with single neuron resolution.

Alterar a natureza da natureza.

Inovadores estão trabalhando em direção a um mundo no qual a matéria viva é totalmente programável por meio da biologia sintética onde as pessoas já não são apenas consumidores de tecnologia, mas os cidadãos de um mundo tecnológico.

Continue reading “Changing the Nature of Nature” »

A team of Harvard Medical School scientists, which includes genetics professor George Church, have designed a bacterial genome that has been rewritten on a massive scale, with changes in more than 62,000 spots.

They haven’t used it to make living E. coli yet, but the findings, reported today in Science, mark progress towards genetically engineered bacteria that could make new materials without risk of exchanging genes with organisms in the wild.

“It‘s an important step forward for demonstrating the malleability of the genetic code and how entirely new types of biological functions and properties can be extracted from organisms through genomes that have been recoded,” Farren Isaacs of Yale University, who has worked with the team in the past, told Nature.