Lifeboat Foundation

Stability AI, the venture-backed startup behind the text-to-image AI system Stable Diffusion, is funding a wide-ranging effort to apply AI to the frontiers of biotech. Called OpenBioML, the endeavor’s first projects will focus on machine learning-based approaches to DNA sequencing, protein folding and computational biochemistry.

The company’s founders describe OpenBioML as an “open research laboratory” — and aims to explore the intersection of AI and biology in a setting where students, professionals and researchers can participate and collaborate, according to Stability AI CEO Emad Mostaque.

“OpenBioML is one of the independent research communities that Stability supports,” Mostaque told TechCrunch in an email interview. “Stability looks to develop and democratize AI, and through OpenBioML, we see an opportunity to advance the state of the art in sciences, health and medicine.”

Continue reading “Stability AI backs effort to bring machine learning to biomed” »

It would be the first new treatment in 20 years for UTIs, which affect more than half of women at least sometime in their life, according to data compiled by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Called Gepotidacin, the antibiotic’s trial has halted enrollment early due to excellent effectiveness and safety results thus far, drugmaker GSK announced in a press release Thursday. GSK will seek approval and peer-reviewed publication early next year.

There is a need for new antibiotics such as this due to increasing antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance to bacteria has become so prevalent that the World Health Organization recently began publishing a list of bacteria that pose the greatest public health threats.

Continue reading “Promising New Antibiotic Emerges for Treating UTIs” »

Cancer research – and its impact on patient care – has made some significant strides in just the last 10 years. For example, the availability and affordability of sequencing genetic information has improved greatly – meaning researchers and doctors are now better able to get information about a person’s risk for certain cancers as well as what drugs might work best for cancer patients. Another major leap forward came with the approval of vaccines that help prevent infections from the human papilloma virus (HPV) that cause cervical cancers. Many other advances have occurred in the areas of targeted therapy, immunotherapy, and cancer screening technology.

Still, cancer remains a massive health problem that researchers across the United States and elsewhere are working tirelessly to solve. Many experts are hopeful that they can build on decades of learning and recent advances to move even more rapidly toward reducing the cancer burden.

We invited 10 American Cancer Society Research Professors to share their perspectives and predictions for how cancer research will evolve over the next 10 years – and what this might mean for patients. These 10 experts are among the very best in their field; the Society’s Research Professor grants are awards that go to a select group – researchers and doctors who have made seminal contributions that have changed the direction of basic, clinical, psychosocial, behavioral, health policy or epidemiologic cancer research.

“This represents a significant source of PFAS in the home environment,” said Sydney Evans, a science analyst with the EWG.

PFAS, or per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a class of about 12,000 compounds used to make products resist water, stains and heat. They’re called “forever chemicals” because they don’t naturally break down, accumulating in humans and animals. PFAS are linked to a range of serious health problems like cancer, birth defects, kidney disease and liver disease.

The chemicals are likely used in pet food bags to make them repel grease. For cats, the highest levels were detected in the Meow Mix Tender Centers salmon and chicken flavors dry cat food, at more than 600 parts per million (ppm). Purina Cat Chow Complete chicken showed over 350 ppm, while Blue Buffalo, Iams and Rachael Ray Nutrish all had levels of less than 100 ppm.

Continue reading “Most US pet food contaminated with ‘forever chemicals’, study finds” »

Personal computing has gotten smaller and more intimate over the years—from the desktop computer to the laptop, to smartphones and tablets, to smart watches and smart glasses.

But the next generation of wearable computing technology—for health and wellness, social interaction and myriad other applications—will be even closer to the wearer than a watch or glasses: It will be affixed to the skin.

Continue reading “New ‘smart tattoos’ tackle tech challenges of on-skin computing” »

Matthew Cobb is a zoologist and author whose background is in insect genetics and the history of science. Over the past decade or so, as CRISPR was discovered and applied to genetic remodeling, he started to get concerned—afraid, actually—about three potential applications of the technology. He’s in good company: Jennifer Doudna, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020 for discovering and harnessing CRISPR, is afraid of the same things. So he decided to delve into these topics, and As Gods: A Moral History of the Genetic Age is the result.

Summing up fears

The first of his worries is the notion of introducing heritable mutations into the human genome. He Jianqui did this to three human female embryos in China in 2018, so the three girls with the engineered mutations that they will pass on to their kids (if they’re allowed to have any) are about four now. Their identities are classified for their protection, but presumably their health is being monitored, and the poor girls have probably already been poked and prodded incessantly by every type of medical specialist there is.

Continue reading “Biotechnology is creating ethical worries—and we’ve been here before” »

A compound that both inhibits the MRSA superbug and renders it more vulnerable to antibiotics in lab experiments has been discovered by researchers at the University of Bath in the UK.

Antibiotic resistance poses a major threat to human health around the world, and Staphylococcus aureus has become one of the most notorious multidrug-resistant pathogens. Led by Dr. Maisem Laabei and Dr. Ian Blagbrough at the University of Bath, scientists have discovered a compound that both inhibits the Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) superbug and renders it more vulnerable to antibiotics.

Staphylococcus aureus (staph) is a type of bacteria found on people’s skin. Staph bacteria are usually harmless, but they can cause serious infections that can lead to sepsis or death. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a cause of staph infection that is difficult to treat because of resistance to some antibiotics.

Continue reading “New Compound Discovered That Destroys the MRSA Superbug” »

GENEVA (AP) — The number of people infected with tuberculosis, including the kind resistant to drugs, rose globally for the first time in years, according to a report Thursday by the World Health Organization.

The U.N. health agency said more than 10 million people worldwide were sickened by tuberculosis in 2021, a 4.5% rise from the year before. About 1.6 million people died, it said. WHO said about 450,000 cases involved people infected with drug-resistant TB, 3% more than in 2020.

Dr. Mel Spigelman, president of the non-profit TB Alliance, said more than a decade of progress was lost when COVID-19 emerged in 2020.

Concern is rising over the ongoing Ebola outbreak in Uganda that is now swiftly spreading in the densely populated capital city of Kampala. The outbreak is caused by a lesser-seen species of Ebolavirus, the Sudan virus, for which there is no proven vaccine or treatment.

Uganda’s Ministry of Health declared an outbreak on September 20, a day after a 24-year-old man from a rural area in central Uganda died of the disease. Since then, the virus has spread to seven districts in the country, with the ministry reporting a total of 109 confirmed cases and 30 deaths. Health workers accounted for 15 of the confirmed cases and six of the confirmed deaths. There are also unofficial reports of probable cases and deaths.

Health experts are particularly concerned about the spread into Kampala, which government officials reported only Sunday. As of Wednesday, the city of more than 1.6 million has seen at least 15 confirmed cases. Of the 15 cases, six are school-age children from the same family.

Continue reading “Uganda Ebola outbreak tops 100 cases, 30 deaths; cases growing in capital” »