Lifeboat Foundation

Gene therapy has traditionally been applied to well-understood diseases where a single genetic mutation was to blame. A new generation of technology is expanding the potential of gene therapy to treat conditions that were previously unreachable. Since the first gene therapy clinical trials in the 1990s, the technology has made its way into the market for conditions ranging from blindness to cancer. Gene therapy has the potential to fix any genetic mutation causing disease by inserting a new copy of the faulty gene. However, its reach has historically been limited. We’ve been constrained with the things we.

Law professor Natalie Ram discusses implications of landmark warrant.

David A. Sinclair, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and co-director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biological Mechanisms of Aging.
Dr. Sinclair’s work focuses on understanding the mechanisms that drive human aging and identifying ways to slow or reverse aging’s effects. In particular, he has examined the role of sirtuins in disease and aging, with special emphasis on how sirtuin activity is modulated by compounds produced by the body as well as those consumed in the diet, such as resveratrol. His work has implications for human metabolism, mitochondrial and neurological health, and cancer.

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The first attempt in the United States to use a gene editing tool called CRISPR against cancer seems safe in the three patients who have had it so far, but it’s too soon to know if it will improve survival, doctors reported Wednesday.

The doctors were able to take immune system cells from the patients’ blood and alter them genetically to help them recognize and fight cancer, with minimal and manageable side effects. The treatment deletes three genes that might have been hindering these cells’ ability to attack the disease, and adds a new, fourth feature to help them do the job.

“It’s the most complicated genetic, cellular engineering that’s been attempted so far,” said the study leader, Dr. Edward Stadtmauer of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. “This is proof that we can safely do gene editing of these cells.”

Compound that robs tumors of essential amino acid headed for clinical trials.

If we want to reach Mars, we may have to upgrade our DNA.

Scientists Announce Promising New Dengue Vaccine : Goats and Soda Dengue afflicts nearly 400 million people worldwide every year, but a vaccine has remained elusive. New research offers a path forward.

The future of microrobots!

Circa 2009

March 19, 2009 Researchers at the University of Miami and at the Universities of Tokyo and Tohoku, Japan, have been able to prove the existence of a “spin battery,” that could have significant applications including much faster, less expensive and use less energy consuming computer hard drives with no moving parts, and could even be developed to power cars.

A “spin battery” is “charged” by applying a large magnetic field to nano-magnets in a device called a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ). Like a toy car, the spin battery is “wound up” by applying a large magnetic field — no chemistry involved.

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