Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: biotech/medical – Page 2,484

Snipr raises $50M to use CRISPR to modulate the microbiome

Snipr Biome has raised (PDF) $50 million (€43 million, DKK320 million) to take CRISPR-based microbiome drugs into clinical trials. The Danish biotech is using CRISPR/Cas to selectively target and kill bacteria with specific DNA sequences.

Christian Grøndahl, the CEO of Snipr, began working with his co-founders on the use of gene editing to modify or kill bacteria shortly after he left Kymab in 2015. The work led to a series of patents on altering microbiota, for reasons including immune modulation, and a €2.6 million investment from Lundbeckfonden Emerge to support research into potential applications for the technology.

Now, Lundbeckfonden has joined with Dutch VC shop LSP to lead a $50 million series A round. The jump in funding follows a period in which Snipr has begun to validate its technology and refine its R&D strategy.

A robotic leg, born without prior knowledge, learns to walk

For a newborn giraffe or wildebeest, being born can be a perilous introduction to the world—predators lie in wait for an opportunity to make a meal of the herd’s weakest member. This is why many species have evolved ways for their juveniles to find their footing within minutes of birth.

It’s an astonishing evolutionary feat that has long inspired biologists and roboticists—and now a team of USC researchers at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering believe they have become the first to create an AI-controlled robotic limb driven by animal-like tendons that can even be tripped up and then recover within the time of the next footfall, a task for which the was never explicitly programmed to do.

Francisco J. Valero-Cuevas, a professor of Biomedical Engineering a professor of Biokinesiology & Physical Therapy at USC in a project with USC Viterbi School of Engineering doctoral student Ali Marjaninejad and two other doctoral students—Dario Urbina-Melendez and Brian Cohn, have developed a bio-inspired algorithm that can learn a new walking task by itself after only 5 minutes of unstructured play, and then adapt to other tasks without any additional programming.

Promising compound selectively kills brain cancer stem cells

Scripps Research scientists have discovered a compound that potently and selectively kills the stem-like cells that make glioblastoma brain cancers so deadly.

In a study published this week in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Scripps Research scientists found that the new compound, which they dubbed RIPGBM, kills stem-like cells cultured from patients’ tumors with more than 40 times the potency of the standard GBM drug . They found too that RIPGBM is highly selective, sparing other types of cells, and that it powerfully suppresses the growth of GBM tumors in a mouse model of the disease.

“Our discovery of this compound and the cellular pathways it affects offers a promising new strategy for treating glioblastoma,” says principal investigator Luke Lairson, PhD, an assistant professor of chemistry at Scripps Research.

Alzheimer’s disease can be spotted through simple eye test

Alzheimer’s disease may soon be spotted through a simple eye test, after scientists discovered tell-tale alterations in the retina and blood vessels when dementia is present.

Currently diagnosing Alzheimer’s is tricky, requiring an expensive brain scan, a risky spinal tap or in most cases a behavioural assessment by a doctor based on symptoms.

But US scientists at the Duke Eye Centre in North Carolina, wondered if changes might also be visible in the retina, which is an extension of the brain and so could offer a window into what is happening behind the skull.

FDA Approves New Fast-Acting Ketamine-Derived Antidepressant Spray

A nasal spray that could alleviate symptoms of depression in just a few hours has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – though the decision has attracted its share of criticism and controversy. The new drug, called esketamine, is a molecular variation of ketamine, which is already being used as an anesthetic, an antidepressant, and a party drug.

Esketamine will be sold as a spray called Spravato and is intended for patients with treatment-resistant depression, meaning they have failed to respond to at least two other types of antidepressant. Because of ketamine’s mind-altering effects and high potential for abuse, patients will be required to take Esketamine in a doctor’s office or clinic and remain under medical supervision for two hours after administration.

Most people with a diagnosis of depression are prescribed selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) such as Prozac. These ensure that neurons have access to an increased amount of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which is a key emotional regulator. However, it is thought that around one-third of people with major depressive disorder (MDD) do not respond to conventional medications for the condition, which is why researchers are hunting for alternative treatments.

Bobby Brooke – The Potential of Thymus Regeneration

Intervene Immune is a company focused on the age-related decline of the immune system, which is known as immunosenescence. Here, Bobby Brooke, CEO of Intervene Immune, discusses the clinical potential of regenerating the thymus as a means of reversing age-related immune system decline.

Earlier this year, we hosted the Ending Age-Related Diseases 2018 conference at the Cooper Union, New York City. This was a conference designed to bring together the best in the aging research and biotech investment worlds and saw a range of industry experts sharing their insights.

As the human body ages, the thymus begins to shrink, and fewer numbers of T cells are created and trained to fight. The thymus tissue also turns to fat rather than healthy immune cell-producing thymic tissue. Eventually, the thymus wastes away, becoming a useless fatty organ that no longer produces immune cells.

This structural decay of the thymus and the failure of the immune system when we are old opens us up to multiple age-related diseases, particularly cancer, along with infectious diseases, such as pneumonia and flu.

The Relationship Between Longevity and Immunity

There is a strong correlation between the decline of the immune system and a decrease in future lifespan. As the immune system performs a myriad of functions with a multitude of specialized cell types, its breakdown has serious ramifications for health and longevity. As we age, our immune systems steadily decline, becoming less efficient and more inclined to contribute to chronic inflammation due to inappropriate activation.

This smoldering chronic inflammation, also known as inflammaging, speeds up the development of various age-related diseases due to the crosstalk it has with the various damages of aging. In many ways, inflammaging is the glue that binds these damages together, as each of them has an inflammatory component and their progress is often accelerated in the presence of increased inflammation.

At a basic level, inflammation disrupts tissue maintenance and regeneration by blocking various repair pathways, so when that inflammation is chronic, as is commonly seen in aged individuals, the healing of organs and tissues is poor. Therefore, it is no surprise that chronic inflammation causes most older people to struggle to heal and recover from injury.