Lifeboat Foundation

Yesterday, I shared the new cancer research discovery by Prof. Samie Jaffrey and his team. The following provides additional details on their discovery.

The human body is made of trillions of cells. Each fulfills a specific purpose, undergoes tremendous wear and tear and is eventually replaced. Despite extensive research, some questions related to protein production that fuels this simple process have gone unanswered. Fascinated by these intricacies, Prof. Samie Jaffrey, pharmacology, may have found part of the answer.

Jaffrey and his team discovered that messenger RNA molecules, responsible for conveying genetic information to protein producers in the cell, have special features that predetermine how much protein they generate. The discovery could provide scientists with a greater understanding of the causes of cancer and ways of regulating it.

Continue reading “Researchers Explain Mechanism Controlling Cell Protein Generation” »

By Jonathan Latham, PhD

Test your understanding of the living world with this simple question. What kind of biomolecule is found in all living organisms? If your answer is “DNA”, you are incorrect. The mistake is very forgiveable though. The standard English-language biology education casts DNA (DeoxyriboNucleic Acid) as the master molecule of life, coordinating and controlling most, if not all, living functions. This master molecule concept is popular. It is plausible. It is taught in every university and high school. But it is wrong. DNA is no master controller, nor is it even at the centre of biology. Instead, science overwhelmingly shows that life is self-organised and thus the pieces are in place for biology to undergo the ultimate paradigm shift.

Synbio research at work and discovery.

Study of synthetic essential genes identifies a novel pathway in prostate cancer and suggests a framework for the discovery of targets in cancers harboring tumor-suppressor deficiencies.

The scientist behind the artificial expansion of the genetic code explains how it can bring about never-before-seen functions in life on Earth.

Some people have mutations that greatly lower their cholesterol. Tests in mice suggest gene editing could give the rest of us the same protection.

Over the past several years, DARPA-funded researchers have pioneered RNA vaccine technology, a medical countermeasure against infectious diseases that uses coded genetic constructs to stimulate production of viral proteins in the body, which in turn can trigger a protective antibody response. As a follow-on effort, DARPA funded research into genetic constructs that can directly stimulate production of antibodies in the body.^, DARPA is now launching the Pandemic Prevention Platform (P3) program, aimed at developing that foundational work into an entire system capable of halting the spread of any viral disease outbreak before it can escalate to pandemic status. Such a capability would offer a stark contrast to the state of the art for developing and deploying traditional vaccines—a process that does not deliver treatments to patients until months, years, or even decades after a viral threat emerges.

“DARPA’s goal is to create a technology platform that can place a protective treatment into health providers’ hands within 60 days of a pathogen being identified, and have that treatment induce protection in patients within three days of administration. We need to be able to move at this speed considering how quickly outbreaks can get out of control,” said Matt Hepburn, the P3 Program Manager. “The technology needs to work on any viral disease, whether it’s one humans have faced before or not.”

Recent outbreaks of viral infectious diseases such as Zika, H1N1 influenza, and Ebola have cast into sharp relief the inability of the global health system to rapidly contain the spread of a disease using existing tools and procedures. State-of-the-art medical countermeasures typically take many months or even years to develop, produce, distribute, and administer. These solutions often arrive too late—if at all—and in quantities too small to respond to emerging threats. In contrast, the envisioned P3 platform would cut response time to weeks and stay within the window of relevance for containing an outbreak.

DNA — now with a new base pair! (credit: Romesberg Lab)

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have developed the first stable semisynthetic organism — a bacterium with two new synthetic bases (called X and Y) added to the four natural bases (A, T, C, and G) that every living organism possesses. Adding two more letters to expand the genetic alphabet can be used to make novel proteins for new therapeutics, according to the researchers.

All life as we currently know it contains just four bases that pair up to form two “base pairs” — the rungs of the DNA ladder — which are simply rearranged to create different organisms.

Continue reading “First stable semisynthetic organism created” »

Wait until you see how Quantum bio is applied in Biosecurity.

By guest author Devang Mehta

The world in 1918 was emerging from under the pall of a World War that had claimed 38 million lives, and yet in the span of only one year, just as many lives would be lost to the Spanish Flu — an influenza pandemic that is still regarded the single deadliest epidemic in recorded history. The disease reached all corners of the world, from the Antipodes to Europe and Asia, eventually claiming 20–50 million lives. The 1918 virus caused unusually strong symptoms, described by one physician at the time as “a blood-tinged froth that sometimes gushed from (the) nose and mouth”. The disease also had an incredibly high mortality rate of 10–20%, which combined with a high rate of infection meant that up to 6% of the world’s population died due to the virus.

Continue reading “Synbio and Biosecurity” »

When I saw this article, I chuckled. Although the article zeros in on CRISPR, we could in some ways claim humans have already been altered by various stimulates over time especially as we look at steroids, botox to improve neuro & nerve ending activities, etc.

Humans continue to accomplish technological feats that change the world as we know it, often doing so in such fundamental ways that the previous generation scarcely recognizes the new society. Those of us in our late teens and early 20s will not be immune to this fate. We too will not recognize our planet, and it will be sooner than later.

For the past few decades, scientists have been toying with a piece of prokaryotic DNA that enables these single-celled organisms to defend themselves from viral invaders. CRISPR, as it is abbreviated, allows prokaryotes to remove the DNA that viruses insert into their genome, which, left unattended to, forces a hijacked cell to manufacture new viruses. CRISPR edits a cell’s DNA, cutting out sequences that do not belong. However, its potential goes beyond this function.

Continue reading “Are Humans the Next GMO?” »