Lifeboat Foundation

For the first time, an artificial molecular motor has been created that can ‘talk’ to living cells – by gently pulling their surface with enough physical force to elicit a biochemical response. The approach could help scientists decode the language that cells use to communicate with each other in tissues.

‘There is a mechanical language in the form of physical forces applied by the cells themselves, and we want to understand what information is communicated and what the consequences are,’ explains Aránzazu del Campo, who led the study at the Leibniz Institute for New Materials, Germany. ‘Ultimately, we want to be able to provide signals to cells and guide their function when they are not able to do that by themselves in disease cases.’

Usually, studying how cells communicate by sensing mechanical stimuli and producing biochemical responses requires prodding them with pipettes or the tip of an atomic force microscope. However, this doesn’t work at the more complex tissue level.

US$8.5 Billion In Funding — 150+ Projects

Dr. Maria Millan, MD, is the President and CEO of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM — https://www.cirm.ca.gov/), an organization that was created in 2004 when voters initially approved a state Proposition which allocated US$3 billion to fund this fascinating area of medicine, and which recently received an additional US$5.5 billion in renewed funding.

Continue reading “Dr. Maria Millan, MD — President and CEO — California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM)” »

In an early trial, patients received a single infusion of a CRISPR-based therapy to knock out the mutated gene responsible for their disease.

Zhurong Mars rover — video, audio, and science images.

China’s Zhurong Mars rover sent back its first video and audio from the Red Planet this week as scientists made strides in research on brains and artificial organs.

As smart watches are increasingly able to monitor the vital signs of health, including what’s going on when we sleep, a problem has emerged: Those wearable, wireless devices are often disconnected from our body overnight, being charged at the bedside.

“Quality of sleep and its patterns contain a lot of important information about patients’ health conditions,” says Sunghoon Ivan Lee, assistant professor in the University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Information and Computer Sciences and director of the Advanced Human Health Analytics Laboratory.

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“People are just exhausted.”

As COVID-19 restrictions loosen across the United States, the hospitality industry — which was walloped by the pandemic — is experiencing a new challenge: too few workers available to address soaring demand for dining out.

A furious debate is underway over what’s behind the labor shortage, which is prompting restaurants to adapt by modernizing with kiosks and digital ordering. Many are biting the bullet and ponying up more in compensation just to attract employees.

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Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is one of the most common chronic pain conditions out there, yet we still know shockingly little about it.

For decades, the debilitating condition — marked by widespread pain and fatigue — has been vastly understudied, and while it’s commonly thought to originate in the brain, no one really knows how fibromyalgia starts or what can be done to treat it. Some physicians maintain it doesn’t even exist, and many patients report feeling gaslit by the medical community.

New research on mice has now found further evidence that fibromyalgia is not only real, but may involve an autoimmune response as a driver for the illness.

Starting next year, the US military’s Special Operations Command (SOCOM) will start to test out an experimental pill that it says can actually stave off the effects of aging on soldiers.

The experiment, Breaking Defense reports, is part of a push to augment human ability and keep combatants healthy and operating at peak performance for longer. And, pending successful performance and clinical tests, it could make its way out into the public as a new longevity treatment for the masses as well.

“These efforts are not about creating physical traits that don’t already exist naturally,” SOCOM spokesperson and Navy Commander Tim Hawkins told Breaking Defense. “This is about enhancing the mission readiness of our forces by improving performance characteristics that typically decline with age.”

A team of researchers at Tel Aviv University has developed a breakthrough RNA-based drug delivery system to target diseased cells that could improve the treatment of blood cancers, various types of solid cancers, different inflammatory diseases and viral diseases – including coronavirus.

“We are the first in the world to deliver the drug exclusively to cells that are currently relevant to the disease.”

Continue reading “Tel Aviv team develops RNA ‘missiles’ to directly target cancer cells” »