Archive for the ‘biotech/medical’ category: Page 1907
Aug 19, 2019
Ray Kurzweil: Enhanced Longevity by 2030
Posted by Paul Battista in categories: biotech/medical, life extension, Ray Kurzweil, virtual reality
https://youtube.com/watch?v=BPKHHQFI-WM
People say, well, but we’re going to stop being human if we merge with machines. No, that is what it means to be human.
Dr. Kurtzweil, I would like to ask you. You have made hundreds of predictions out of which many already have come true, and with no doubt many more will come through. But if you would have to single out your three most important predictions for the upcoming decade, what would they be?
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Aug 19, 2019
New clues on stem cell transplant rejection revealed in study
Posted by Paul Battista in categories: biotech/medical, life extension
In 2006, scientists discovered a way to “reprogram” mature cells—adult skin cells, for example—into stem cells that could, in principle, give rise to any tissue or organ in the body. Many assumed it was only a matter of time until this groundbreaking technique found its way into the clinic and ushered in a regenerative medicine revolution.
Because the same patient would be both the donor and the recipient of cells derived from these so-called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), these cells would be seen as “self” by the immune system, the thinking went, and not subject to the problems of rejection that plague conventional transplants.
But iPSCs haven’t emerged as the cure-all that was originally envisioned, due to unforeseen setbacks, including the surprising preclinical finding that iPSC-derived cell transplants are often rejected, even after being reintroduced into the organism the cells were sourced from.
Aug 19, 2019
Researchers enhance neuron recovery in rats after blood flow stalls
Posted by Paul Battista in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, neuroscience
Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine report in a new study that they found a way to help rats recover neurons in the brain’s center of learning and memory. They accomplished the feat by blocking a molecule that controls how efficiently genetic instructions are used to build proteins.
If the approach described in the study can be applied to humans, it may one day help patients who’ve suffered a stroke, cardiac arrest or major blood loss and are thus at higher risk of memory loss.
In the study, to be published online Aug. 19 in eNeuro, researchers induced extremely low blood pressure—as would happen when the heart stops beating—in rats. These rats lost neurons in a specific region of the hippocampus critical to learning and memory, but the researchers improved the animals’ recovery of the cells by injecting a molecule that blocks a microRNA: a short molecule that tweaks gene activation by preventing the conversion of genetic blueprints into proteins. Interestingly, the scientists found that a microRNA blockade potentially causes astrocytes—cells that support neurons and make up 50% of the cells in the brain—to turn into neurons.
Aug 19, 2019
What if aging weren’t inevitable, but a curable disease?
Posted by Paul Battista in categories: biotech/medical, life extension, neuroscience
Each Cyclops had a single eye because, legend has it, the mythical giants traded the other one with the god Hades in return for the ability to see into the future. But Hades tricked them: the only vision the Cyclopes were shown was the day they would die. They carried this knowledge through their lives as a burden—the unending torture of being forewarned and yet having no ability to do anything about it.
Since ancient times, aging has been viewed as simply inevitable, unstoppable, nature’s way. “Natural causes” have long been blamed for deaths among the old, even if they died of a recognized pathological condition. The medical writer Galen argued back in the second century AD that aging is a natural process.
His view, the acceptance that one can die simply of old age, has dominated ever since. We think of aging as the accumulation of all the other conditions that get more common as we get older—cancer, dementia, physical frailty. All that tells us, though, is that we’re going to sicken and die; it doesn’t give us a way to change it. We don’t have much more control over our destiny than a Cyclops.
Aug 19, 2019
NVIDIA AI Platform Takes Conversational User Experience To A New Level
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: biotech/medical, business, law, robotics/AI
After breaking all the records related to training computer vision models, NVIDIA now claims that it’s AI platform is able to train a natural language neural network model based on one of the largest datasets in a record time. It also claims that the inference time is just 2 milliseconds which translates to an extremely fast response from the model participating in a conversation with a user.
After computer vision, natural language processing is one of the top applications of AI. From Siri to Alexa to Cortana to Google Assistant, all conversational user experiences are powered by AI.
The advancements in AI research is putting the power of language understanding and conversational interface into the hands of developers. Data scientists and developers can now build custom AI models that work exactly like Alexa and Siri but for a specialized and highly customized industry use case from the healthcare or legal vertical. This enables doctors and lawyers to interact with expert agents that can understand the terminology and the context of the conversation. This new user experience is going to be a part of future line of business applications.
Aug 19, 2019
MIT Scientists Achieve New Breakthrough in Alzheimer’s Research
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience
Study finds that Alzheimer’s damage allows toxins to enter the brain, further harming neurons.
Aug 19, 2019
“Gerevivify The Algorithm/elixir of Life”
Posted by Paul Battista in categories: biotech/medical, information science
Aren Jay shared this cogent article to my Timeline… It is not new even Hippocrates was able to determine that the gut causes and or assists in all diseases. But the 19th and 20th centuries researchers began saying that microbes are good for mankind which sent science reeling through generations until this day… Respect r.p.berry & AEWR wherein we have developed a formula and Algorithm that deals with this very serious problem completely. A very expensive cure but one that will take Woman-Man past the Escape Velocity so many have written about…
Aug 19, 2019
Ronald Kohanski at Ending Age-Related Diseases 2019
Posted by Steve Hill in categories: biotech/medical, life extension, neuroscience
Today, we’re offering another discussion from Ending Age-Related Diseases 2019, our highly successful two-day conference that featured talks from leading researchers and investors, bringing them together to discuss the future of aging and rejuvenation biotechnology.
Today, we’re offering another talk from Ending Age-Related Diseases 2019, our highly successful two-day conference that featured talks from leading researchers and investors, bringing them together to discuss the future of aging and rejuvenation biotechnology.
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Aug 19, 2019
A wireless body area sensor network based on stretchable passive tags
Posted by Omuterema Akhahenda in categories: biotech/medical, computing, wearables
Stanford engineers have developed a new type of wearable technology called BodyNet that detects physiological signals emanating from the skin. The novel tech consists of wireless sensors that stick like band-aids and beam readings.
A body area sensor network (bodyNET) is a collection of networked sensors that can be used to monitor human physiological signals. For its application in next-generation personalized healthcare systems, seamless hybridization of stretchable on-skin sensors and rigid silicon readout circuits is required. Here, we report a bodyNET composed of chip-free and battery-free stretchable on-skin sensor tags that are wirelessly linked to flexible readout circuits attached to textiles. Our design offers a conformal skin-mimicking interface by removing all direct contacts between rigid components and the human body. Therefore, this design addresses the mechanical incompatibility issue between soft on-skin devices and rigid high-performance silicon electronics. Additionally, we introduce an unconventional radiofrequency identification technology where wireless sensors are deliberately detuned to increase the tolerance of strain-induced changes in electronic properties. Finally, we show that our soft bodyNET system can be used to simultaneously and continuously analyse a person’s pulse, breath and body movement.