Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: biotech/medical – Page 2,828

Interesting…

Odd, but definitely interesting.

For a long time it has been thought that all eukaryotes — organisms in which the DNA is enclosed in a membrane including almost all life we can see — had to contain mitochondria.

Known as the “power house” of the cell, these little subunits within the cell provide the organisms with energy and were thus thought to be essential.

But it now seems that actually they might not be that essential, as researchers describe the first eukaryote known that lacks mitochondria.

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A RUSSIAN man who has a debilitating illness has volunteered to become the first person to undergo a head transplant – but experts say the side effects of the procedure could be worse than death.

Valery Spiridonov, 30, suffers from Werdnig-Hoffmann disease, a rare form of spinal muscular atrophy.

The controversial operation will involve cooling his head to around 12 degrees Celsius, cutting it from his body and connecting it to the donated body of a brain-dead person.

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Dr. Greg Irving, a Clinical Lecturer from the University of Cambridge, recently authored a research project on the potential impact of blockchain technology on scientific research. While the use is not novel in principle, it underscores the very reason blockchain was created.

Why Scientific Research?

Irving, and rightfully so, says that in order to truly trust scientific research the reader’s must know that the content and subsequent conclusions of the research has maintained its integrity throughout editing and publishing. The author references “outcome switching, data dredging, and selective publication” as just a some of the potential pitfalls that can result in bastardized research. How then can researchers increase the trust that their research is has not been tampered with? In response Irving writes.

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Holograms are a ubiquitous part of our lives. They are in our wallets—protecting credit cards, cash and driver’s licenses from fraud—in grocery store scanners and biomedical devices.

Even though holographic technology has been around for decades, researchers still struggle to make compact holograms more efficient, complex and secure.

Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have programmed into compact holograms. These holograms use nanostructures that are sensitive to polarization (the direction in which light vibrates) to produce different images depending on the polarization of . This advancement, which works across the spectrum of light, may improvement anti-fraud holograms as well as those used in entertainment displays.

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Check out LEAF President Keith Comito explain the origin of Lifespan.io and why crowdfunding research to extend healthy lifespan is both important and exciting.

Our current campaign is here: https://www.lifespan.io/campaigns/the-major-mouse-testing-program/ and there will be more to follow soon! Connect with us on social media and subcribe on YouTube to stay informed. #CrowdfundTheCure #LifespanIO

LEAF President Keith Comito explains the origin of Lifespan.io — a crowdfunding platform specifically for biomedical research aimed at extending healthy human lifespan. Learn more, and help us Crowdfund the Cure for Aging: https://www.lifespan.io

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The use of cryogenics, for now, borders on science fiction—but that hasn’t stopped scientists and wealthy enthusiasts from trying to make it a reality.

Humai, an L.A.-based robotics company, hopes to freeze human brains after death with the expectation that technology will soon catch up—allowing the brain to be resurrected in an artificial body. Neuroscientists have excessively cautioned about lending cryogenics credence, but scientific research has blurred the definition of death and the consensus on when it occurs.

For centuries, death was called at the moment the heart stopped beating. However, medicine has evolved to the point that cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is now a common life-saving technique incorporated in basic first aid training, along with more advanced forms of resuscitation—like defibrillators—that can restart the heart. Several cases have been cited where a person under cardiac arrest has been brought back to life hours after they’ve technically died, when cooling processes and correct resuscitation procedures are implemented. According to a 2012 study published in Nature, skeletal muscle stem cells can retain their ability to regenerate for up to 17 days after death, redefining death as occurring in steps rather than at one single moment.

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Monday May 16th 17:00 GMT 13:00 EST 10:00 PST r/futurology.

The Major Mouse Testing Program is an ambitious project of the International Longevity Alliance, seeking to speed up scientific progress in the field of regenerative medicine and bio-gerontology. After ILA experts conducted an analysis of bottlenecks preventing the development of life extension technologies, it was revealed that one of these bottlenecks is the deficiency of robust animal data for the potential of different compounds to promote health and extend maximum lifespan. Without this data promising interventions cannot enter clinical trials and become available to the general public.

The ILA decided to initiate a fundraising program to fund a series of these high-risk studies: Major Mouse Testing Program. We are currently running a crowdfunding campaign for the first experiment to test a combination of Senolytics. They have been shown to help seek out and destroy senescent “death resistant” cells and improve various aspects of health. We wish to see if Senolytics are able increase maximum lifespan in addition to healthspan promotion. We have big plans for the future with combination testing of senolytics, stem cells and more to help speed up scientific progress. So go ahead ASK US ANYTHING!

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The fabrication of a prototype tissue with functional properties close to natural tissues is crucial for effective transplantation. Tissue engineering scaffolds are typically used as supports that allow cells to form tissue-like structures essentially required for the correct functioning of the cells under the conditions close to the three-dimensional tissue.

Scientists of the Bionanotechnology Lab at Kazan Federal University combined biopolymers chitosan and agarose (polysaccharides) and gelatine protein to produce tissue engineering scaffolds and demonstrated the enhancement of mechanical strength, higher and thermal properties in chitosan-gelatine-agarose hydrogels doped with halloysite.

Chitosan, a natural biodegradable and chemically versatile biopolymer, has been effectively used in antibacterial, antifungal, anti-tumour and immunostimulating formulations. To overcome the disadvantages of pure chitosan scaffolds such as mechanical fragility and low biological resistance, chitosan scaffolds are typically doped with other supporting compounds that allow for mechanical strengthening, thus yielding composite biologically resistant scaffolds.

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Very nice.

The Food and Drug Administration has given so-called “breakthrough” status to a treatment that uses the once-feared polio virus to target aggressive forms of brain cancer, in the hope of speeding it to market.

The therapy, developed at Duke University, hopes to use the virus’ debilitating properties to help fight cancer instead of harming its host, CBS News reported Thursday.

The experimental treatment was the brainchild of molecular biologist Matthias Gromeier. By removing a certain genetic sequence and replacing it with material from the common cold virus, the polio would not be able to cause the incapacitating symptoms that once afflicted President Franklin D. Roosevelt and numerous others because it would be unable to reproduce in normal cells.

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