Lifeboat Foundation

In back-to-back papers in the December 4 Science Translational Medicine, scientists led by Daniela Kaufer, University of California, Berkeley, and Alon Friedman, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel, report that age-related cracks in the blood-brain barrier allow an influx of serum protein albumin into the brain, where they activate TGFβ receptors, overexcite neuronal networks, and impair cognition. Breaches correlated with localized slowing of cortical activity in epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease patients, and in mouse models of AD. Called paroxysmal slow-wave events, these activity changes correlated with cognitive impairment and interspersed with seizures in epilepsy patients.

Not only does the drug reverse dementia, but researchers also believe that it could help the brain recover from concussion and trauma.

Dmitry Kaminskiy speaks as though he were trying to unload everything he knows about the science and economics of longevity—from senolytics research that seeks to stop aging cells from spewing inflammatory proteins and other molecules to the trillion-dollar life extension industry that he and his colleagues are trying to foster—in one sitting.

At the heart of the discussion with Singularity Hub is the idea that artificial intelligence will be the engine that drives breakthroughs in how we approach healthcare and healthy aging—a concept with little traction even just five years ago.

“At that time, it was considered too futuristic that artificial intelligence and data science … might be more accurate compared to any hypothesis of human doctors,” said Kaminskiy, co-founder and managing partner at Deep Knowledge Ventures, an investment firm that is betting big on AI and longevity.

Melanie Matheu is the CEO of Prellis Biologics. As a scientist, entrepreneur and somebody with a huge vision about the future of organ replacement this podcast literally asks what if we could print life from light. Laser-printing organs and vascular systems to give everybody another chance has incredible value. It changes the dynamics of how to handle endemic diseases like diabetes and many other organ issues, liver, kidney and maybe eventually very complex systems like the nervous systems inside our bodies. It’s a two-part podcast because the range of ideas and possibilities this brings up are almost infinite.

What if you could get life from light? Our guest today is doing exactly that. From laser printing of vascular elements to eventual full laser printing of organs from kidneys to livers and maybe eventually nervous systems, the ideas today are well within the grasp of reality in ten years’ time. Just imagine how this will change our medical systems, what doctors focus on and how we solve major global health crisis like diabetes. Imagine how it could give huge numbers of us a second, third or even fourth career as it expands life into the 80s, 90s and beyond.

Everybody who listens to these two podcasts will be affected directly or indirectly by the ideas Melanie is bringing to life. There is a very different to the future of organs, one that is far closer than we might have thought possible. That also means the questions and ideas about how we manage our bodies are going to change, very quickly.

Last week, a woman named Victoria Gray became the first person in the U.S. to have her cells edited with CRISPR. The 41-year-old patient was suffering from sickle cell anemia.

RELATED: FIRST HUMAN TRIAL USING CRISPR GENE-EDITING IN US BEGINS

The condition, caused by a genetic mutation that messes with the shape of red blood cells, causes havoc on patients, and to make things even worse, the options for treatment are very limited and ineffective. The only current treatment for sickle cell anemia patients is a donor transplant that works for just 10% of patients, but all that is about to change.

Rejuvenation Biotechnology: on track to be the biggest industry ever.

Dr Aubrey de Grey, CSO at the SENS Research Foundation speaking at Master Investor’s Investing in the Age of Longevity 2019 event. Aubrey discusses Rejuvenation biotechnology and how it’s on track to become the biggest industry ever.

Continue reading “Dr Aubrey de Grey | Investing in the Age of Longevity 2019” »

Gene therapies to reverse immunosenescence and atherosclerosis.

CEO of Repair Biotechnologies speaking at Master Investor’s Investing in the Age of Longevity 2019 event. Reason discusses gene therapies to reverse immunosenescence and atherosclerosis.

Continue reading “Reason | Investing in the Age of Longevity 2019” »

Time can be measured in many ways: a watch, a sundial, or the body’s natural circadian rhythms. But what about the sexual behavior of a fruit fly?

“If you ask a bunch of scientists whether animals can keep time, many would say they cannot, that things happen over time—but time itself is not measured,” says Michael Crickmore, Ph.D., a researcher in Boston Children’s Hospital’s F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center whose laboratory studies motivation. But in new research published in the journal Neuron in collaboration with the lab of Dragana Rogulja, Ph.D. at Harvard Medical School, he shows that the mating behavior of fruit flies is not haphazard. Instead, motivation and behavior are under the control of neurons that track time.

Continue reading “Internal brain timers linked with motivation and behavior” »

A Gulf War Illness study finds a connection between dysregulated gut flora, leaky gut and neuroinflammation – and a new way to potentially resolve it.

It’s nice when the government has your back. After years of neglect, the federal government finally appears, at least regarding medical research, to have Gulf War Illness (GWI) veterans’ backs.