Biotech – Page 8 – Impact Lab

3D Printer, Biotech, Medical Breakthrough, Science & Technology News

New video shows 3D printed lung “breathing”

May 16, 2019

First Breaths

Scientists just took a major step forward towards 3D printed organs — with a new lung-like system full of air sacs can expand and contract, filling the same biological role as our lungs do by pumping oxygen into blood.

Bioprinted organs could someday help people who are waiting and sometimes dying on the organ transplant waitlist. In research published in the journal Science last week, the team behind the new printing technique made a similar device and successfully grafted it into mice with injured livers.

Continue reading… “New video shows 3D printed lung “breathing””

Biotech, DNA, Genes, Genetics, Science & Technology News

Should athletes be allowed to enhance their genes?

May 5, 2019

So-called gene doping is banned in sports, but some philosophers argue that it’s the way of the future

Scientists first developed gene therapy techniques in the 1990s, exploring ways to treat disease by modifying malfunctioning cells. In 1997, a team at John Hopkins University edited genes to create what the media called “Schwarzenegger mice,” which had twice the normal amount of muscle.

The researchers’ goal was to develop treatments for muscle-wasting conditions, including old age, but the same technique could theoretically be used to add muscle bulk to athletes, a concept called gene doping. Doctors could, theoretically, inject cells with enhanced genes into the relevant body part or use a benign virus to deliver modified cells. These superhumans could be the elite athletes of the future — athletes who perform faster, higher, and stronger than any “natural” human ever could.

Continue reading… “Should athletes be allowed to enhance their genes?”

Biotech, Cancer, DNA, Science & Technology News

Cause of cancer is written into DNA of tumors, scientists find, creating a ‘black box’ for origin of disease

April 22, 2019

Cancer causes the genetic code of DNA to change and the alterations can now be read

The cause of cancer is written into the DNA of tumors, scientists have discovered, in a breakthrough which could finally show how much disease is attributable to factors like air pollution or pesticides.

Until now the roots of many cancers have proved elusive, with doctors unable to tease out the impact of a myriad of carcinogenic causes which people encounter everyday.

Even with lung cancer, it is not known just how much can be attributed to smoking and how much could be linked to other factors, such as living by a busy road, or inhaling pollutants at work.

Continue reading… “Cause of cancer is written into DNA of tumors, scientists find, creating a ‘black box’ for origin of disease”

Biotech, Health & Fitness, Science & Technology News, Wearables

‘Smart’ pajamas could monitor and help improve sleep

April 20, 2019

Ordinary-looking pajamas are transformed into “smart” ones with five strategically placed sensors that measure heartbeat, respiration and posture.

If you’ve ever dreamed about getting a good night’s sleep, your answer may someday lie in data generated by your sleepwear. Researchers have developed pajamas embedded with self-powered sensors that provide unobtrusive and continuous monitoring of heartbeat, breathing and sleep posture — all factors that play a role in how well a person slumbers.

If you’ve ever dreamed about getting a good night’s sleep, your answer may someday lie in data generated by your sleepwear. Researchers have developed pajamas embedded with self-powered sensors that provide unobtrusive and continuous monitoring of heartbeat, breathing and sleep posture — all factors that play a role in how well a person slumbers. The “smart” garments could give ordinary people, as well as clinicians, useful information to help improve sleep patterns.

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Biotech, Legalized marijuana, Science & Technology News

Pharma company hacks tequila bacteria to produce THC

April 10, 2019

Farmako, a pharmaceutical cannabis company based in Frankfurt, Germany recently registered a patent for a gene-editing process that turns tequila bacteria into cannabinoids, Futurism reports.

The genetically modified bacterium is called Zymomonas cannabinoidis, a gene-edited version of Zymomonas mobilis, which is used to produce tequila. By feeding on sugar, the bacterium produces biosynthetic cannabinoids such as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and “more than 180 known cannabinoids,” according to a press release. The process could make producing cannabinoids “a thousand times cheaper,” Futurism reports.

As VinePair reported in February, several organizations are working to engineer more cost-effective ways to produce THC, CBD, and other cannabinoids. For example, scientists revealed a process in which turning a sugar found in brewers yeast can be converted into cannabinoid compounds.

Via Vinepair.com

Artificial Intelligence, Biotech, quantum computing, Report, Science & Technology News

Top 10 technology trends transforming Humanity beyond cyberspace, Geospace and Space

April 6, 2019

Human interest in exploring the unknowns has always been universal and enduring. While, over the years, the nature of exploration has changed fundamentally, humans have always been keen to explore the unknown and discover new worlds: be it beyond our geographical boundaries, new trade routes, lands, or opportunities in cyberspace, geospace, and space (CGS). In pursuit of unknowns, it is our imagination, ideas, innovations, and inventions that are helping us push the boundaries of our exploration limits beyond CGS. It is the never-ending human drive that pushes us further to discover new worlds. Imagination has always been an indicator of human intelligence, and each new idea and innovation is helping us push the boundaries of human exploration further. Technology, which gives us the foundation on which we can define and design the human ecosystem beyond cyberspace, geospace, and space, is pushing these boundaries. Where would it take us in the coming years?

Continue reading… “Top 10 technology trends transforming Humanity beyond cyberspace, Geospace and Space”

Biotech, DNA, Medical Breakthrough, Science & Technology News

Harvard University uncovers DNA switch that controls genes for whole-body regeneration

March 20, 2019

A piece of non-coding DNA may hold the key to how humans could regenerate body parts

Humans may one day have the ability to regrow limbs after scientists at Harvard University uncovered the DNA switch that controls genes for whole-body regeneration.

Some animals can achieve extraordinary feats of repair, such as salamanders which grow back legs, or geckos which can shed their tails to escape predators and then form new ones in just two months.

Planarian worms, jellyfish, and sea anemones go even further, actually regenerating their entire bodies after being cut in half.

Now scientists have discovered that that in worms, a section of non-coding or ‘junk’ DNA controls the activation of a ‘master control gene’ called early growth response (EGR) which acts like a power switch, turning regeneration on or off.

Continue reading… “Harvard University uncovers DNA switch that controls genes for whole-body regeneration”

Biotech, brain hacking, Memory, Science & Technology News

Scientists discover how to implant false memories

March 1, 2019

Implanting false memories could cure Alzheimer’s, PTSD, and depression. It could also make scapegoating easier, allow for witness tampering, or give those under a brutal dictatorship false patriotism.

MIT researchers Steve Ramirez and Xu Liu recently made history when they successfully implanted a false memory into the mind of a mouse. The proof was a simple reaction from the rodent, but the implications are vast. They placed the furry little creature inside a metal box, and it froze, displaying a distinct fear response. The mouse was reacting as if it had received an electrical shock there, when it hadn’t at all.

What makes it more riveting is that their success was considered a long-shot. The hypothesis was that not only could they identify those neurons associated with encoding memory, but could essentially rewrite one. Experts say that this an impressive feat which helps uncover more of the mystery of how memory operates. Though neuroscientists have considered such a possibility for years, they never thought this kind of experiment could actually work.

Continue reading… “Scientists discover how to implant false memories”

Biotech, Healthcare, Medical Breakthrough, Science & Technology News

Scientists grow full-sized, beating human hearts from stem cells

February 19, 2019

Heart tissue, seeded with induced cardiac cells, matures in a bioreactor that the researchers created.It’s the closest we’ve come to growing transplantable hearts in the lab

Of the 4,000 Americans waiting for heart transplants, only 2,500 will receive new hearts in the next year. Even for those lucky enough to get a transplant, the biggest risk is the their bodies will reject the new heart and launch a massive immune reaction against the foreign cells. To combat the problems of organ shortage and decrease the chance that a patient’s body will reject it, researchers have been working to create synthetic organs from patients’ own cells. Now a team of scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School has gotten one step closer, using adult skin cells to regenerate functional human heart tissue, according to a study published recently in the journal Circulation Research.

Continue reading… “Scientists grow full-sized, beating human hearts from stem cells”

Biotech, Healthcare, Medical Breakthrough

Molecular machinery that makes potent antibiotic revealed after decades of research

February 3, 2019

Discovery by Rutgers and other scientists could lead to new antibiotics and anticancer drugs

The 3D structure of McbBCD, an enzyme (protein) that makes the potent antibiotic microcin B17 from a smaller protein known as a peptide, as revealed by X-ray crystallography. The red spheres show chemical “cycles” formed by the enzyme that are required for antibacterial activity.

Scientists at Rutgers and universities in Russia, Poland and England have solved a nearly 30-year mystery – how the molecular machinery works in an enzyme that makes a potent antibiotic.

Continue reading… “Molecular machinery that makes potent antibiotic revealed after decades of research”

Alzheimer's Disease, Biotech, Breakthrough Thinking, Medical Breakthrough, Medicine

We can now grow perfect human blood vessels in a lab

February 3, 2019

The latest game changer in diabetes research might not be a new drug or a therapy. Instead, it could be a system of human blood vessels virtually identical to the ones currently transporting blood throughout your body.

What makes these blood vessels special is that they are the first ones grown in a lab — and they’ve already generated a new lead in diabetes treatment.

Continue reading… “We can now grow perfect human blood vessels in a lab”

3D Printer, Biotech, Medical Breakthrough

Bio-Printers are churning out living fixes to broken spines

January 25, 2019

A new study showed that 3D-printing a spinal cord implant, shown here, restored movement in injured rats.UCSD JACOBS SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING

FOR DOCTORS AND medical researchers repairing the human body, a 3D printer has become almost as valuable as an x-ray machine, microscope, or a sharp scalpel. Bioengineers are using 3D printers to make more durable hip and knee joints, prosthetic limbs and, recently, to produce living tissue attached to a scaffold of printed material.

Researchers say that bio-printed tissue can be used to test the effects of drug treatments, for example, with an eventual goal of printing entire organs that can be grown and then transplanted into a patient. The latest step toward 3D-printed replacements of failed human parts comes from a team at UC San Diego. It has bio-printed a section of spinal cord that can be custom-fit into a patient’s injury.

Continue reading… “Bio-Printers are churning out living fixes to broken spines”