Lifeboat Foundation

Holograms are a ubiquitous part of our lives. They are in our wallets—protecting credit cards, cash and driver’s licenses from fraud—in grocery store scanners and biomedical devices.

Even though holographic technology has been around for decades, researchers still struggle to make compact holograms more efficient, complex and secure.

Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have programmed polarization into compact holograms. These holograms use nanostructures that are sensitive to polarization (the direction in which light vibrates) to produce different images depending on the polarization of incident light. This advancement, which works across the spectrum of light, may improvement anti-fraud holograms as well as those used in entertainment displays.

Check out LEAF President Keith Comito explain the origin of Lifespan.io and why crowdfunding research to extend healthy lifespan is both important and exciting.

Our current campaign is here: https://www.lifespan.io/campaigns/the-major-mouse-testing-program/ and there will be more to follow soon! Connect with us on social media and subcribe on YouTube to stay informed. #CrowdfundTheCure #LifespanIO

Continue reading “Crowdfunding the Cure for Aging | Life Extension Research, LifespanIO, and You” »

It was unveiled at the DARPA technology expo.

The use of cryogenics, for now, borders on science fiction—but that hasn’t stopped scientists and wealthy enthusiasts from trying to make it a reality.

Humai, an L.A.-based robotics company, hopes to freeze human brains after death with the expectation that technology will soon catch up—allowing the brain to be resurrected in an artificial body. Neuroscientists have excessively cautioned about lending cryogenics credence, but scientific research has blurred the definition of death and the consensus on when it occurs.

For centuries, death was called at the moment the heart stopped beating. However, medicine has evolved to the point that cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is now a common life-saving technique incorporated in basic first aid training, along with more advanced forms of resuscitation—like defibrillators—that can restart the heart. Several cases have been cited where a person under cardiac arrest has been brought back to life hours after they’ve technically died, when cooling processes and correct resuscitation procedures are implemented. According to a 2012 study published in Nature, skeletal muscle stem cells can retain their ability to regenerate for up to 17 days after death, redefining death as occurring in steps rather than at one single moment.

Continue reading “We’re Closer Than Ever to Bringing the Dead Back to Life” »

Monday May 16th 17:00 GMT 13:00 EST 10:00 PST r/futurology.

The Major Mouse Testing Program is an ambitious project of the International Longevity Alliance, seeking to speed up scientific progress in the field of regenerative medicine and bio-gerontology. After ILA experts conducted an analysis of bottlenecks preventing the development of life extension technologies, it was revealed that one of these bottlenecks is the deficiency of robust animal data for the potential of different compounds to promote health and extend maximum lifespan. Without this data promising interventions cannot enter clinical trials and become available to the general public.

The ILA decided to initiate a fundraising program to fund a series of these high-risk studies: Major Mouse Testing Program. We are currently running a crowdfunding campaign for the first experiment to test a combination of Senolytics. They have been shown to help seek out and destroy senescent “death resistant” cells and improve various aspects of health. We wish to see if Senolytics are able increase maximum lifespan in addition to healthspan promotion. We have big plans for the future with combination testing of senolytics, stem cells and more to help speed up scientific progress. So go ahead ASK US ANYTHING!

Continue reading “The Major Mouse Testing Program AMA on Reddit!” »

The fabrication of a prototype tissue with functional properties close to natural tissues is crucial for effective transplantation. Tissue engineering scaffolds are typically used as supports that allow cells to form tissue-like structures essentially required for the correct functioning of the cells under the conditions close to the three-dimensional tissue.

Scientists of the Bionanotechnology Lab at Kazan Federal University combined biopolymers chitosan and agarose (polysaccharides) and gelatine protein to produce tissue engineering scaffolds and demonstrated the enhancement of mechanical strength, higher water uptake and thermal properties in chitosan-gelatine-agarose hydrogels doped with halloysite.

Chitosan, a natural biodegradable and chemically versatile biopolymer, has been effectively used in antibacterial, antifungal, anti-tumour and immunostimulating formulations. To overcome the disadvantages of pure chitosan scaffolds such as mechanical fragility and low biological resistance, chitosan scaffolds are typically doped with other supporting compounds that allow for mechanical strengthening, thus yielding composite biologically resistant scaffolds.

Continue reading “Clay nanotube-biopolymer composite scaffolds for tissue engineering” »

Very nice.

The Food and Drug Administration has given so-called “breakthrough” status to a treatment that uses the once-feared polio virus to target aggressive forms of brain cancer, in the hope of speeding it to market.

The therapy, developed at Duke University, hopes to use the virus’ debilitating properties to help fight cancer instead of harming its host, CBS News reported Thursday.

Continue reading “FDA fast-tracks treatment that uses polio virus to fight brain cancer” »

Very promising. I hope within the next 10 years that Glioblastoma is eradicated.

A team from the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) in Trieste has obtained very promising results by applying gene therapy to glioblastoma. Tests in vitro and in vivo on mice provided very clear-cut results, and modelling demonstrates that the treatment targets at least six different points of tumour metabolism. Gene therapy, a technique that selectively attacks a tumour, might provide hope in the fight against this type of deadly cancer, for which surgery is practically impossible and chemo- and radiotherapy are ineffective against very aggressive recurrences. The study was published in the journal Oncotarget.

Only a few days ago, the press (especially in English-speaking countries) enthusiastically announced the publication of a study that described in great detail the genetics of breast cancer, a discovery that according to many marks a breakthrough in the battle against this cancer. This kind of news confirms the impression that in the near future the war against cancer will be fought on the battlefields of genetics. Italy too, is working on this front. At SISSA, for example, where Antonello Mallamaci and his group have just published highly promising results on the application of gene therapy against glioblastomas, a family of brain tumours among the most common and aggressive. A diagnosis of glioblastoma is literally equal to a very imminent death sentence: “surgery is rarely curative, as these tumours insinuate themselves in healthy tissues, and also chemo- and radiotherapy have little effectiveness.

Singaporean scientists have developed a method for generating stem cells that only requires a single drop of blood.