Lifeboat Foundation

Injecting specially prepared human adult stem cells directly into the brains of chronic stroke patients proved safe and effective in restoring motor (muscle) function in a small clinical trial led by Stanford University School of Medicine investigators.

The 18 patients had suffered their first and only stroke between six months and three years before receiving the injections, which involved drilling a small hole through their skulls.

For most patients, at least a full year had passed since their stroke — well past the time when further recovery might be hoped for. In each case, the stroke had taken place beneath the brain’s outermost layer, or cortex, and had severely affected motor function. “Some patients couldn’t walk,” Steinberg said. “Others couldn’t move their arm.”

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What will scientists do with $100 million to mass-produce genes in the lab?

You’ve probably heard of CRISPR — the gene editing tool that essentially lets scientists cut and paste DNA, removing things like HIV and muscular dystrophy from our cells — and now scientists have discovered a way to edit RNA with just as much precision.

RNA is DNA’s close biological cousin, responsible for translating messages from the nucleus to the rest of the cell, and being able to change it could open up all-new disease-fighting possibilities.

Just like CRISPR/Cas9 editing, the new procedure selectively cuts up RNA, which gives us microscopic control over genetic information, and the researchers behind it say it could open up the method could be used to block viruses and halt disease in its tracks.

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Hmmmm;

Today a group of 25 scientists officially announced their plan to build a human genome from scratch within the next 10 years. The proposal — called the Human Genome Project-Write — would be, as BuzzFeed News put it, to lay “DNA letters like bricks”.

The group also includes experts from Harvard Medical School, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the USA government’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Yale University, the University of Edinburgh, Columbia University, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Washington, Autodesk Bio/Nano Research Group, Bioeconomy Capital and other institutions, and is led by geneticist Jef Boeke of the New York University Langone Medical Center.

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Yes, it’s true that a group of leading geneticists is calling for the construction of a synthetic human genome. That means they want to take 3 billion chemical building blocks and assemble them into one complete package of DNA, encoding all the body parts and life processes that make up a functional human being.”

“But the organizers want to make one thing very clear: ‘We’re not planning to make synthetic people,’ says a somewhat exasperated Jef Boeke, one of the champions of this proposal. ‘We never were.’

The Human Genome Project-Write could bring down the cost of DNA manufacturing.

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Scientists may have discovered the Fountain of Youth in this anti-aging supplement.

Australian scientists are developing a biocompatible implant that will allow paralyzed patients to control machines with just their thoughts.

Forget Siri and Cortana. Soon, you may be able to give commands to machines just by “thinking” them.

A team of researchers and engineers at Melbourne University are developing a stentrode, a tiny implant to be placed into a blood vessel next to the brain, which can record electric activity from a specific part of the brain. The information will then be decoded and interpreted into thoughts.

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Singapore, Singapore, June 03, 2016 –(PR.com)– Qatari scientists have recently discovered that an unmutated specific gene marker tends to indicate better prognosis for patients of metastatic colorectal cancer undergoing certain regiment of targeted therapies.

In a first published report of its kind on the subject, the study found that metastatic colorectal cancer patients with wild-type Kirsten Ras (KRAS) gene will likely have better survival rate upon receiving anti-epithelial growth factor receptors (EGFR) targeted therapy.

Meanwhile, the mutated-type KRAS metastatic colorectal cancer patients receiving anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) therapy tend to have poorer survival outcomes, according to authors Kakil Ibrahim Rasul, Hind Elmalik, Mini Satheesh and Prem Chandra from National Center for Cancer Care and Research (NCCCR) in Doha, Qatar.

Following a controversial top-secret meeting last month, a group of scientists have announced that they’re working on synthesizing human genes from scratch. The project, currently titled HGP-Write, has the stated aim of reducing the cost of gene synthesis to “address a number of human health challenges.” As the group explains, that includes growing replacement organs, engineering cancer resistance and building new vaccinations using human cells. But in order for all of that to happen, the scientists may have to also work on developing a blueprint for what a perfect human would look like.

In some ways, the concept is just an extension of current gene editing (CRISPR) techniques that are proving their worth by saving lives. CRISPR has already been used to save the life of a one-year-old girl with a terminal case of drug-resistant leukemia. Other initiatives using the system involve curing hemophilia and HIV, although the latter has proven capable of fighting back against attempts to kill it. This new project, meanwhile, will devote time and resources to examining the ethics and economics of how far we should go with gene editing.

HGP-Write is being led by DNA pioneer George Church, a Harvard biologist who is already working on various projects to tweak humanity. In a profile, Stat revealed that the scientist published a paper in 2014 pushing “de novo synthesis,” the concept of creating perfect genes from scratch. In early 2015, he used CRISPR to implant wooly mammoth DNA into a living Asian elephant as the first step toward bringing extinct animals back from the dead. Which, when you write it down like that, makes him sound like a less plausible version of John Hammond, the fictional creator of Jurassic Park.

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