Biotech – Page 12 – Impact Lab

Automation, Biotech, Ford Motor Company, Wearables

Exoskeletons debut at Ford factories

August 8, 2018

Staff will now be augmented by exoskeletons in Ford factories across the world.

Following successful trials, Ford will now offer employees the use of exoskeletons to reduce the strain of factory work.

Despite the emergence of Industry 4.0, smart factories, sensors, and data analytics, much of the heavy-duty operations of today’s industrial and manufacturing still rely heavily on human input.

Over time, the physical demand of such work can cause injury, muscle stress, and accidents.

Continue reading… “Exoskeletons debut at Ford factories”

Biotech, DNA, Medical Breakthrough, Science & Technology News

Designer babies on horizon as ethics council gives green light to genetically edited embryos

July 22, 2018

Designer babies are on the horizon after an influential group of scientists concluded that it could be ‘morally permissible’ to genetically engineer human embryos.

In a new report which opens the door to a change in the law, the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, said that DNA editing could become an option for parents wanting to ‘influence the genetic characteristics of their child.’

Although it would be largely used to cure devastating genetic illnesses, or predispositions to cancers and dementia, the experts said they were not ruling out cosmetic uses such as making tweaks to increase height or changing eye or hair colour, if it would make a child more successful.

Continue reading… “Designer babies on horizon as ethics council gives green light to genetically edited embryos”

Biotech, Cancer, Medical Breakthrough, Medicine, Science & Technology News

Scientists just found a novel, cheap way to use CRISPR gene editing to fight cancer

July 21, 2018

Immunotherapy Holds Big Promise for Beating Cancer

CRISPR is by all accounts a fascinating technology. Its headline feature is that it can literally be used to slice, dice, and otherwise manipulate the body’s genetic code—functions that could carry staggering implications for treating everything from inherited disorders to cancer to HIV/AIDS one day.

Now, new (though extremely early) research suggests that CRISPR could be used to vastly improve upon a new form of cancer-fighting methods that turn the body’s own immune T cells into specially targeted killers that attack cancerous tissue.

Continue reading… “Scientists just found a novel, cheap way to use CRISPR gene editing to fight cancer”

3D Printer, Biotech, Medical Breakthrough

Scientists can 3D print human heart tissue now. The future is here

July 10, 2018

Long term, the goal of 3D bioprinting is to be able to 3D print fully functioning organs which can be used to replace the failing biological organs of humans in need of a transplant. That may still be years off, but Chicago-based biotech startup Biolife4D this week announced a major new milestone: Its ability to bioprint human cardiac tissue.

The scientific landmark followed shortly after the company opened a new research facility in Houston. It involved the printing of a human cardiac patch, containing multiple cell types which make up the human heart. It could one day be used to help treat patients who have suffered acute heart failure in order to restore lost myocardial contractility, the ability of the heart to generate force for pumping blood around the body.

Continue reading… “Scientists can 3D print human heart tissue now. The future is here”

Biotech, cutting edge, Human Behavior

Thousands of Swedes are choosing to have microchips inserted into their bodies. Here’s why

June 27, 2018

Thousands of people in Sweden have inserted microchips, which can function as contactless credit cards, key cards and even rail cards, into their bodies.

Once the chip is underneath your skin, there is no longer any need to worry about misplacing a card or carrying a heavy wallet. But for many people, the idea of carrying a microchip in their body feels more dystopian than practical.

Some have suggested that Sweden’s strong welfare state may be the cause of this recent trend. But actually, the factors behind why roughly 3,500 Swedes have had microchips implanted in them are more complex than you might expect.

Continue reading… “Thousands of Swedes are choosing to have microchips inserted into their bodies. Here’s why”

Biotech, Breakthrough Thinking, Healthcare, Medical Breakthrough

Ultrasound-powered nanorobots clear bacteria and toxins from blood

June 13, 2018

The U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency aims to create a broad-spectrum detoxification robotic platform.

MRSA bacterium captured by a hybrid cell membrane-coated nanorobot (colored scanning electron microscope image and black and white image below) (credit: Esteban-Fernández de Ávila/Science Robotics)

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed tiny ultrasound-powered nanorobots that can swim through blood, removing harmful bacteria and the toxins they produce.

Continue reading… “Ultrasound-powered nanorobots clear bacteria and toxins from blood”

Biotech, New Discoveries, Robotics, Robots

These robots use living muscle tissue to mimic human fingers

June 5, 2018

As if the line between human and machine wasn’t already blurry enough, researchers in Tokyo have developed a new method for using living rat muscle tissue in robotics.

The “biohybrid” design, described today in the journal Science Robotics, simulates the look and movements of a human finger. Video shows how it bends at the joint, picks up a loop, and places it down. It’s a seemingly simple movement but one that researchers say lays the groundwork for more advanced—and even more lifelike—robots. (Meet Sophia, the robot that looks almost human.)

Continue reading… “These robots use living muscle tissue to mimic human fingers”

Biotech, Medical Breakthrough, Medicine, new technology

How to grow functioning human muscles from stem cells

May 17, 2018

… and microscale robot exoskeleton muscles from graphene and glass.

A cross section of a muscle fiber grown from induced pluripotent stem cells, showing muscle cells (green), cell nuclei (blue), and the surrounding support matrix for the cells (credit: Duke University)

Biomedical engineers at Duke University have grown the first functioning human skeletal muscle from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). (Pluripotent stem cells are important in regenerative medicine because they can generate any type of cell in the body and can propagate indefinitely; the induced version can be generated from adult cells instead of embryos.)

Continue reading… “How to grow functioning human muscles from stem cells”

Biotech, Medical Breakthrough, new technology, Stem cells

Japan approves first trials of stem cell-based heart treatment

May 17, 2018

iPS procedure raises hopes for alternative to donations and artificial organs

TOKYO — Japan is set to host the world’s first clinical trials involving the use of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells to treat heart failure.

A special health ministry panel on Wednesday gave Osaka University the green light to carry out the study, pending final authorization from the health minister. This would be the second instance of using iPS-derived cells for disease treatment in Japan, after groundbreaking trials involving retinal cells launched in 2014.

Continue reading… “Japan approves first trials of stem cell-based heart treatment”

Biotech, Healthcare, Medical Breakthrough

What Is Bioprinting?

May 11, 2018

Bioprinted materials can be used to repair damaged organs.

Bioprinting, a type of 3D printing, uses cells and other biological materials as “inks” to fabricate 3D biological structures. Bioprinted materials have the potential to repair damaged organs, cells, and tissues in the human body. In the future, bioprinting may be used to build entire organs from scratch, a possibility that could transform the field of bioprinting.

Continue reading… “What Is Bioprinting?”

Bill Gates, Biotech, Genes, Genetics, Medical Breakthrough, Science & Technology News

Gene editing for good

May 1, 2018

How CRISPR could transform global development.

Today, more people are living healthy, productive lives than ever before. This good news may come as a surprise, but there is plenty of evidence for it. Since the early 1990s, global child mortality has been cut in half. There have been massive reductions in cases of tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV/AIDS. The incidence of polio has decreased by 99 percent, bringing the world to the verge of eradicating a major infectious disease, a feat humanity has accomplished only once before, with smallpox. The proportion of the world’s population in extreme poverty, defined by the World Bank as living on less than $1.90 per day, has fallen from 35 percent to about 11 percent.

Continue reading… “Gene editing for good”

Analysis, Biotech, Genes, Medical Breakthrough

End of ageing and cancer? Scientists unveil structure of the ‘immortality’ enzyme telomerase

April 29, 2018

Making a drug is like trying to pick a lock at the molecular level. There are two ways in which you can proceed. You can try thousands of different keys at random, hopefully finding one that fits. The pharmaceutical industry does this all the time – sometimes screening hundreds of thousands of compounds to see if they interact with a certain enzyme or protein. But unfortunately it’s not always efficient – there are more drug molecule shapes than seconds have passed since the beginning of the universe.

Alternatively, like a safe cracker, you can x-ray the lock you want to open and work out the probable shape of the key from the pictures you get. This is much more effective for discovering drugs, as you can use computer models to identify promising compounds before researchers go into the lab to find the best one. Now a study, published in Nature, presents detailed images of a crucial anti-ageing enzyme known as telomerase – raising hopes that we can soon slow ageing and cure cancer.

Continue reading… “End of ageing and cancer? Scientists unveil structure of the ‘immortality’ enzyme telomerase”