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Archive for the ‘biotech/medical’ category: Page 1322

Aug 31, 2020

Are Radioactive Diamond Batteries a Cure for Nuclear Waste?

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, nuclear energy

Researchers are developing a new battery powered by lab-grown gems made from reformed nuclear waste. If it works, it will last thousands of years.

Aug 31, 2020

IBM looks to revolutionize industrial chemistry and in the process may have cut the discovery time for Covid-19 treatments in half

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry

Aug 31, 2020

Mitochondria control cells using their own complete fatty acid synthesis machine

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

It shouldn’t be any secret that mitochondria can make their own fatty acids. The enzymes mitochondria use to do it were discovered decades ago. Unfortunately, only a few individuals among the biologically literate masses have come to appreciate this critical fact about mitochondrial behavior. Perhaps the bigger issue is why mitochondria would go to all the trouble when cells can already make all the fatty acids they need.

Wikipedia itself remains largely in the dark when it comes to mitochondrial fatty acid synthesis. It does contain several exhaustive entries for enzymatic players in the main cellular fatty acid processes, but it is hard pressed even to mention that mitochondria can do it, too. For years, the small cadre of devotees who studied it referred to it as FASII, for fatty acid synthesis type II. This was because it looked just like the pathways of the same name used by bacteria, from which mitochondria are derived. Eukaryotes, on the other hand, employ FAS type I (FASI) in the cytoplasm.

The main difference seems to be that the FASI enzymes have partially merged into large multifunctional conglomerates that carry out whole sequences of reactions together. Presumably, this makes for greater efficiency because the many enzymes and substrates needn’t slowly diffuse to find each other within a large cytoplasmic reaction space. In the fullness of time, something curious happened to the field: A trickle of more recent papers began using a new name for FASII as done by mitochondria: It was now mtFAS.

Aug 31, 2020

Veterans Are Taking a Psychedelic Plant to Fight PTSD

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Veterans are spending thousands on retreats in central America where they take ayahuasca, a psychedelic drug one attendant called a “Hail Mary” for PTSD symptoms, according to The New York Times.


The psychedelic brew ayahuasca is being hailed as “a Hail Mary.”

Aug 31, 2020

Aubrey de Grey | Keynote Speech

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

In his keynote speech at Ending Age-Related Diseases 2020, Dr. Aubrey de Grey of SENS Research Foundation discusses the current state of the rejuvenation biotechnology industry in the context of the current pandemic. He mentions the failure of Unity Biotechnology’s Phase 2 clinical trial for osteoarthritis, COVID-19 and the elderly immune system, the current popularization of rejuvenation biotechnology, XPRIZE, and the steps that are currently being taken towards a world without age-related diseases.

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Aug 31, 2020

Elon Musk unveils ‘Fitbit in your skull’ brain chip, demonstrates on pig

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, Elon Musk, food, neuroscience

It was at this webcast that Musk unveiled the latest version of his company NeuraLink’s latest prototype, the Link VO.9 — a chip that would allow humans to control devices with their brains.

Musk said this could eventually help cure people with conditions like memory loss, hearing loss, paralysis, blindness, brain damage, depression and anxiety.

Viewers of the webcast met Gertrude, a pig that had the chip implanted in her brain two months ago. A graph shown onscreen showed the waves inside Gertrude’s brain, which fired when her brain communicated with her snout while she was eating.

Aug 31, 2020

Meet the woman who gave the world antiviral drugs

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Fifty years ago, few scientists believed a drug could fight viruses with low side effects. Then Gertrude Elion showed the doubters “what I could do on my own.”

Aug 31, 2020

Genetics Remains Paramount for Moving Rare Cancers Forward

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics

The evolving understanding of cancer genetics is allowing for clinicians to look at how to move rare cancer treatments, and identifications, forward.

Aug 31, 2020

How Covid-19 Pandemic Could Stymie Near-Term Space Tourism

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Humans’ natural immune response is at least partly a behavioral response of avoidance. If so, the psychological ramifications of such ingrained behavior could mean trouble for space entrepreneurs.

Aug 31, 2020

KitoTech raises $3M as demand soars for its at-home no-stitch wound closure kit

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, business

Seattle healthcare startup KitoTech Medical faced a challenge at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was difficult to pitch the company’s microMend wound closure device to new hospitals and clinics, limiting the ability to grow its business.

So in response, KitoTech quickly pivoted and developed two new consumer-focused products — and the results have been “remarkable,” according to CEO Ron Berenson.

KitoTech just raised $3 million to help support its growth. The company is known for its microMend device, which was made from technology originally developed at the University of Washington. It uses tiny staples that poke into the skin on either side of a wound and is applied over a cut like a traditional butterfly bandage. The process is painless and can heal wounds up to three times faster than those closed with traditional sutures, according to the company.