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Archive for the ‘bioengineering’ category: Page 188

Dec 6, 2016

CellAge: Targeting Senescent Cells With Synthetic Biology

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, life extension

The fourth Lifespan.io campaign and CellAge are using synthetic biology to create an accurate aging biomarker for senescent cells and a new therapy for precision targeting of those problem cells. Senescent cells are one of the processes of aging and this could change the way we age.


Lifespan.io is proud to present our fourth rejuvenation biotechnology project!

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Dec 4, 2016

Breakthrough prize awards $25m to researchers at ‘Oscars of science’

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, information science, quantum physics, science

It is not often that a scientist walks the red carpet at a Silicon Valley party and has Morgan Freeman award them millions of dollars while Alicia Keys performs on stage and other A-listers rub shoulders with NASA astronauts.

But the guest list for the Breakthrough prize ceremony is intended to make it an occasion. At the fifth such event in California last night, a handful of the world’s top researchers left their labs behind for the limelight. Honoured for their work on black holes and string theory, DNA repair and rare diseases, and unfathomable modifications to Schrödinger’s equation, they went home to newly recharged bank accounts.

Founded by Yuri Milner, the billionaire tech investor, with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Google’s Sergey Brin, the Breakthrough prizes aim to right a perceived wrong: that scientists and engineers are not appreciated by society. With lucrative prizes and a lavish party dubbed “the Oscars of science”, Milner and his companions want to elevate scientists to rock star status.

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Dec 3, 2016

ARL insight into synthetic biology and advanced 3D printing materials

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, bioengineering, biological, computing, military

The US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) are at an advanced stage of with their synthetic biology research. The work could see bacteria being used to send signals and sense in a way similar to computers, the advantage being that it could potentially provide a more intuitive sensory experience to a piece of tech, and bypass some of the pitfalls unique to electrical structures. The research also has application for new 3D printing materials.

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Dec 3, 2016

Tools for Would-Be Biohackers: Here Come 3 Mini-Labs

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, genetics

These desktop gadgets should make DIY genetic engineering much easier.

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Dec 2, 2016

Glenn Cohen: How Ethical Is It to Engineer Human-Animal Hybrids?

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, cyborgs, genetics

Harvard bioethics specialist Glenn Cohen considers the complex question of whether humans should mix their genetic material with other animals to create chimeras.

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Dec 2, 2016

The Neuroscientist Who’s Building a Better Memory for Humans

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, cyborgs, neuroscience

In an epidsode of the dystopian near-future series, Black Mirror, a small, implantable device behind the ear grants the ability to remember, access, and replay every moment of your life in perfect detail, like a movie right before your eyes.

Theodore Berger, a biomedical engineer at the University of Southern California, can’t promise that level of perfect recall—perhaps for the better—but he is working on a memory prosthesis. The device, surgically implanted directly into the brain, mimics the function of a structure called the hippocampus by electrically stimulating the brain in a particular way to form memories—at least in rats and monkeys. And now, he’s testing one that could work in humans.

Berger’s device hinges on a theory about how the hippocampus transforms short-term memories, like where you deposited your keys, into long-term memories—so you can find them later. In his early experiments, he played a tone and then puffed air in a rabbit’s face, causing it to blink. Eventually, just playing the tone would make the rabbit blink, just like Pavlov’s famous salivating dogs. Berger recorded the hippocampus’ activity with electrodes, and as the rabbits learned to associate the tone with the air puff, patterns in those signals changed in a predictable way.

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Dec 1, 2016

Building “genetic circuits” in cells could kill tumors

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, genetics

More on the cell circuited technology that will deprive cancer cells of oxygen.


Imagine having cells in your body that can actively repel cancer in a way that makes it theoretically impossible for you to suffer from it.

Researchers at the U.K.’s University of Southampton…have engineered cells with a so-called “built-in genetic circuit” capable of producing a molecule for inhibiting the ability of tumors to grow and survive in the body.

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Nov 28, 2016

Brain Implants that Augment the Human Brain Using AI

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, genetics, robotics/AI

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ySsv5-jSqss

BMI implant leveraging AI.


You probably clicked on this article because the idea of using brain implants to allow artificial intelligence (AI) to read your brain sounds futuristic and fascinating. It is fascinating, but it’s not as futuristic as you might think. Before we start talking about brain implants and how to augment the human brain using AI, we need to put some context around human intelligence and why we might want to tinker with it.

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Nov 26, 2016

Human cells with ‘built-in circuit’ can kill cancer cells

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, genetics

I have been evangelizing this for a while and glad to see others chiming in.


London, Nov 26 (IANS) Researchers have engineered cells with a “built-in genetic circuit” that produces a molecule that impairs the ability of cancer cells to survive and grow in their low oxygen environment.

The genetic circuit produces the machinery necessary for the production of a compound that inhibits a protein which has a significant and critical role in the growth and survival of tumours.

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Nov 26, 2016

Biologist discusses a synthetic metabolic pathway that fixes carbon dioxide and synthetic biology

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biological, climatology, sustainability

A synthetic metabolic pathway developed by Tobias Erb and his colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg converts CO2 from the atmosphere into organic matter more efficiently than plants are able to through photosynthesis. We asked the researcher what significance this process could have for climate protection, discussed the hurdles the research team had to overcome to achieve their goal, and looked at the new perspectives that synthetic biology opens up.

Does the synthetic metabolic pathway that fixes CO2 now represent an effective means of curbing climate change?

Firstly, we are aiming to understand the fundamental biological and chemical principles of how CO2 in gaseous form can be converted into organic molecules. Our primary motivation is not stopping . We are seeking to develop atmospheric CO2 as a source of carbon for the future using biological methods. Producing a CO2-neutral process or even one that removes CO2 from the atmosphere and has a positive impact on the climate would be a fantastic secondary effect.

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