Lifeboat Foundation

Researchers have discovered a way to program cells to inhibit CRISPR-Cas9 activity. “Anti-CRISPR” proteins had previously been isolated from viruses that infect bacteria, but now University of Toronto and University of Massachusetts Medical School scientists report three families of proteins that turn off CRISPR systems specifically used for gene editing. The work, which appears December 15 in Cell, offers a new strategy to prevent CRISPR-Cas9 technology from making unwanted changes.

“Making CRISPR controllable allows you to have more layers of control on the system and to turn it on or off under certain conditions, such as where it works within a cell or at what point in time,” says lead author Alan Davidson, a phage biologist and bacteriologist at the University of Toronto. “The three anti-CRISPR proteins we’ve isolated seem to bind to different parts of the Cas9, and there are surely more out there.”

CRISPR inhibitors are a natural byproduct of the evolutionary arms race between viruses and bacteria. Bacteria use CRISPR-Cas complexes to target and cut up genetic material from invading viruses. In response, viruses have developed proteins that, upon infection, can quickly bind to a host bacterium’s CRISPR-Cas systems, thus nullifying their effects.

The effects or Inflammation and the effect it has on the immune system are discussed in this article at FightAging!

With age, the immune system falls into a state of ever increasing chronic inflammation, a process known as inflammaging: the immune system is overactive, but nonetheless declines in effectiveness at the same time. Researchers here consider how inflammaging can damage the bone marrow stem cell populations responsible for generating immune cells, possibly the basis for a vicious cycle in which the failures of the immune system feed upon themselves to accelerate age-related damage and dysfunction.

Hematopoiesis is an active, continuous process involving the production and consumption of mature blood cells that constitute the hemato-lymphoid system. All blood cells arise from a small population of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in the bone marrow (BM) that have two unique properties: self-renewing capacity, the ability to generate themselves, and multi-lineage differentiation capacity, the ability to produce all blood cell types. Since, in the steady state, most adult HSCs are in the G0 phase of the cell cycle, i.e., they are quiescent and are estimated to turnover slowly on a monthly time scale, daily hematopoietic production is mainly sustained by highly proliferative downstream hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs).

Continue reading “Age-Related Inflammation and its Effects on the Generation of Immune Cells” »

John Glenn, who captured the nation’s attention in 1962 as the first American to orbit the Earth during a tense time when the United States sought supremacy over the Soviet Union in the space race, and who rocketed back into space 36 years later, becoming the oldest astronaut in history, died Dec. 8 at a hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Mr. Glenn, who in his post-NASA career served four terms as a U.S. senator from Ohio, was 95.

The death was confirmed by Hank Wilson, communications director at the John Glenn College of Public Affairs at Ohio State University. Mr. Glenn had a stroke after heart-valve replacement surgery in 2014, but the immediate cause was not announced.

Mr. Glenn was one of the seven original astronauts in NASA’s Mercury program, which was a conspicuous symbol of the country’s military and technological might at the height of the Cold War. He was not the first American in space — two of his fellow astronauts preceded him — but his three-orbit circumnavigation of the globe captured the imagination of his countrymen like few events before or since. Mr. Glenn was the last survivor of the Mercury Seven.

Continue reading “John Glenn, first American to orbit the Earth, dies at 95” »

Artificial blood takes a big step forward!

(HealthDay)—Artificial blood stored as a powder could one day revolutionize emergency medicine and provide trauma victims a better chance of survival.

Researchers have created an artificial red blood cell that effectively picks up oxygen in the lungs and delivers it to tissues throughout the body.

Continue reading “Another step closer to artificial blood” »

Israel’s Bonus says lab-grown bones successfully transplanted. Jim Drury reports.

A lab-grown, semi-liquid bone graft has been successfully injected into 11 patients’ jaws to repair bone loss. Israeli biotech firm Bonus Biogroup announced the early stage clinical trial results on Monday. SOUNDBITE (English) ORA BURGER, VICE PRESIDENT OF REGULATION AFFAIRS AT BONUS BIOGROUP, SAYING: “What we are announcing to the world is that real success in our clinical study in regenerating new bone in maxillofacial site in the jaws, it was 100 percent successful in all 11 patients.” The injectable bone grafts are made in the company’s Haifa plant, using cells extracted from patients’ fat tissue. They’re grown in sterile clean rooms, on biodegradable 3D scaffolds, before being injected into the voids in the jawbones.

Great news for SENS Research and Rejuvenation Biotechnology.

One of the biggest highlights of the year for us has got to be Internet Entrepreneur Michael Greve committing $10 million to SENS-related research and startups. A list of some of the projects he is supporting can be found at the Forever Healthy Foundation. We are so pleased to have the support of Michael and his team in the mission to bring rejuvenation biotechnology to the world.

“In order to accelerate the access to healthy longevity for all of us we directly fund cutting-edge research on molecular and cellular repair to combat the root causes of aging and support the creation of startups turning that research into therapies for human application.” — Michael Greve.

Continue reading “Funding a Cure for Aging” »

Zapping your nerves to jumpstart the blood clotting process.

Senolytics moving into human clinical trials in the next 18 months! One of the greatest pieces of biotech news of 2016.

The Silicon Valley drugmaker is part of a wave of new companies chasing after the fountain of youth.

By Caroline Chen Bloomberg

Continue reading “Anti-aging startup backed by Fidelity, Bezos raises $116 million” »

More progress with cancer and using a similar approach to senolytics, no surprise really as cancer and senescent cell share a lot of common ground and approach that work with one may well work with the other if they are aimed at inducing apoptosis.

Apoptosis, or programmed cell death, is a rapid and irreversible process to efficiently eliminate dysfunctional cells. A hallmark of cancer is the ability of malignant cells to evade apoptosis.

Dr Luminita Paraoan, from the University’s Department of Eye and Vision Science in the Institute of Ageing and Chronic Disease, has published new findings in the British Journal of Cancer that identify the requirement of a protein called p63 for the initiation of apoptosis in UM.

Continue reading “Protein that promotes ‘cell-suicide’ could revolutionise eye cancer treatment” »