Lifeboat Foundation

Growing evidence suggests that certain types of bacteria are capable of causing colorectal cancers, indicating that a sub-set of these cancers could be the result of infectious disease.

But understanding how bacteria interact in the human gut – our microbiome — has been challenging because of the complex microbial mixture of “good” and “bad” bacteria.

Over a decade ago, French scientists discovered a pathway in certain strains of E. coli, a bacterium normally found in 90% of humans, that is “genotoxic” – toxic to DNA – causing tumor formation and colorectal cancer in mice.

Fighting Antibiotic Resistance By Repurposing Old Drugs : Shots — Health News Scientists discovered that a medication used to treat parasites in horses can fight deadly staph infections. It’s a promising new approach to solving the problem of antibiotic resistance.

The ability to modify multiple genetic elements simultaneously would help to elucidate and control the gene interactions and networks underlying complex cellular functions. However, current genome engineering technologies are limited in both the number and the type of perturbations that can be performed simultaneously. Here, we demonstrate that both Cas12a and a clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR) array can be encoded in a single transcript by adding a stabilizer tertiary RNA structure. By leveraging this system, we illustrate constitutive, conditional, inducible, orthogonal and multiplexed genome engineering of endogenous targets using up to 25 individual CRISPR RNAs delivered on a single plasmid. Our method provides a powerful platform to investigate and orchestrate the sophisticated genetic programs underlying complex cell behaviors.

The sugar-rich Western diet is fueling a superbug which has evolved to thrive in hospitals, scientists have warned.

The gut-infecting bacterium Clostridium difficile (C.diff) is evolving into two separate species, with one group increasingly adapting to live in the guts of people with poor diets, while growing ever better at avoiding the harsh disinfectants used to clean wards.

More than 13,000 NHS patients each year are infected with C.diff, which can cause debilitating diarrhoea and leave sick people dangerously dehydrated.

Today the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced a comprehensive policy framework for the development and oversight of regenerative medicine products, including novel cellular therapies.

The framework — outlined in a suite of four guidance documents — builds upon the FDA’s existing risk-based regulatory approach to more clearly describe what products are regulated as drugs, devices, and/or biological products. Further, two of the guidance documents propose an efficient, science-based process for helping to ensure the safety and effectiveness of these therapies, while supporting development in this area. The suite of guidance documents also defines a risk-based framework for how the FDA intends to focus its enforcement actions against those products that raise potential significant safety concerns. This modern framework is intended to balance the agency’s commitment to safety with mechanisms to drive further advances in regenerative medicine so innovators can bring new, effective therapies to patients as quickly and safely as possible. The policy also delivers on important provisions of the 21^st Century Cures Act.

We’re at the beginning of a paradigm change in medicine with the promise of being able to facilitate regeneration of parts of the human body, where cells and tissues can be engineered to grow healthy, functional organs to replace diseased ones; new genes can be introduced into the body to combat disease; and adult stem cells can generate replacements for cells that are lost to injury or disease. This is no longer the stuff of science fiction. This is the practical promise of modern applications of regenerative medicine.

Gene therapy and stem cells could treat Kidney Failure.

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Kizoo, part of the Forever Healthy Foundation, has announced today that it will be supporting biotech company LIfT Biosciences, a company that focuses on creating a new generation of cancer therapies that use our own immune systems.

Turning our immune system into a cancer-fighting machine

Led by CEO Alex Blyth, LIfT Biosciences is developing a new type of cancer immunotherapy approach that uses neutrophils, a type of immune cell, to seek and destroy all types of solid tumors.

Our cells are more malleable than we thought – and by transforming them inside the body, we can mend broken hearts or even degenerating brains from within.