I had read about Singapore in genetic engineering way back in the 90’s. I think they were 1st or 2nd in making immortal skin cells at the time.
Singapore scientists have unravelled a mystery that could pave the way for turning back the clock on ageing.
A recent study led by Dr Ng Shyh Chang of the Genome Institute of Singapore at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) has found a gene in human egg cells that suppresses an enzyme causing cells to age.
This is the Tcl1 gene, and by increasing the protein it produces, the researchers found they could suppress the enzyme that causes mitochondria — the cells’ batteries — to age over time.
This animation depicts the CRISPR-Cas9 method for genome editing – a powerful new technology with many applications in biomedical research, including the potential to treat human genetic disease. Feng Zhang, a leader in the development of this technology, is a faculty member at MIT, an investigator at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and a core member of the Broad Institute. Further information can be found on Prof. Zhang’s website at http://zlab.mit.edu.
Images and footage courtesy of Sputnik Animation, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Justin Knight and pond5.
Treating the brain often requires invasive surgery, but a new technique involving ultrasound and air bubbles has now shown promise at delivering drugs through the blood-brain barrier.
One of the biggest challenges of medicating brain tumours is actually getting drugs into the organ. Your brain is well protected from invasion by untoward substances or life forms, and this protection limits what will enter from the bloodstream. There have been previous efforts to open up the barrier, but they often involve a surgical approach that is far from ideal.
New article for Vice Motherboard on why society should support legalization of all drugs–and a short video of the Immortality Bus in Arkansas talking to marijuana supporters (a state where it’s totally illegal):
The “Mount Rushmore of the Drug War” featuring founding prohibitionists Harry Anslinger, Billie Holiday, and Arnold Rothstein. Image: Donkey Hotey/Flickr
I’m from San Francisco. Doing drugs—especially smoking pot—seems second nature to me. I’ve made a point of trying nearly all drugs, and I’m unabashedly proud of that fact. I consider Aldous Huxley’s The Doors of Perception one of the most important books I read in my youth, and I’ve often wondered if it should be mandatory that everyone try a hallucinogenic drug at least once in their lives.
Almost all transhumanists welcome and endorse mind-altering substances. We thrive off change, experimentation, and new experiences, including wild drug trips with friends. For transhumanists, trying drugs is not just about having fun, but about self-amelioration and becoming the best, most enlightened versions of ourselves.
I’m driving a bus across the country to deliver a Transhumanist Bill of Rights to the US Capitol. One of those rights will certainly include language that advocates for citizens being able to take any drugs they want, so long as the taking of it doesn’t directly hurt someone else.
Sugars may taste divine, but they’re also highly reactive molecules that progressively stiffen your body in a process called glycation. Scientists have now synthesised the primary molecule formed in glycation for the first time, leading to hope that drugs can be designed to break them apart.
What is glycation?
In our bodies sugars continuously react with proteins in an unregulated manner in a process known as glycation. This leads to the formation of abnormal chemical modifications of the protein which may impair its normal function. These sugar-modifications are collectively known as advanced glycation end products (AGEs) and can be subdivided in two main categories. First are the modifications that affect a single amino acid. The second category consists of modifications that link two amino acids together in a structure called a crosslink.
Pluripotent cells are great, but they can be difficult to steer into growing the way you want. Now scientists have found a new way to create 3D-printed ‘building blocks’ of embryonic stem cells (ESCs), which could be used for growing micro-organs, performing tissue regeneration experiments, testing medication and other biology research purposes.
While bioprinting with ESCs is not entirely new, until recently researchers have only managed to produce two-dimensional sheets of cells. Now a team of scientists from Tsingua University in China and Drexel University in Philadelphia have published a study in Biofabrication, introducing a novel technique for printing a grid-like 3D structure laden with stem cells.
In normal biological conditions ESCs naturally tend to cluster together into spherical ‘embryoid bodies’ – clumps of pluripotent cells which can go on to develop into any type of cell or tissue in the human body.
A pioneering gene editing therapy has shown remarkable success in a unique trial at Great Ormond Street, paving the way for a wave of gene editing trials.
A world first
Not long ago, 1 year old Layla Richards had an incurable form of leukaemia and the prognosis wasn’t looking good. After a determined search for a cure, Layla underwent an experimental therapy in which ‘designer’ immune cells were implanted that would destroy and replace her own ailing immune system.
