Lifeboat Foundation

Blended Reality is a versatile concept that can be extended from the physical and digital worlds to the chemical and biological world. In the convergence of healthcare diagnostics and digital health, it can play a fundamental role: the transformation of human biology, real-world parameters into digital data to obtain contextual health information and enable personalized drug treatments. The fusion of microfluidics, edge computing and commercial mobility with diagnostics, digital health, big data, precision medicine, and theranostics will disrupt existing, established structures in our healthcare system. This will allow new models of partnerships among technology and pharmaceutical industries (see fig. 1).

From the very beginning of mankind, healthcare was purely empirical and mostly a combination of empirical and spiritual skills. While access to cures was exclusive and very limited, the success rate was not very high in most cases. During the Renaissance a systematic exploration of natural phenomena and physiology laid the scientific foundation of modern medicine. A real breakthrough in quality and access to healthcare services has taken place in the past 150 years as an aftermath of the Industrial Revolution. It brought significant advances in science as well as societal changes: expanding government-granted access to the establishing working classes as the main human capital of the industrialization process in the Western Hemisphere. Keeping a business employees healthy became an indispensable prerequisite to increasing the national economic output and well-being on a societal level.

Inspiring stuff from Michael Greve!

Michael Greve delivers a talk at Rejuvenation Biotechnology, a SENS Research Foundation Conference. This event was held August 16, 2016.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5chIH_ozLkI

Inconvenient truths about aging, senescent cells and more.

Filmed August 16th 2016.

Continue reading “Aubrey de Grey and Panel — Prolonging Lifespan” »

Our friends at the Methuselah Foundation are working on macular degeneration.

Typically, a fellowship and participation in a research study to cure a major disease would occur years after completing undergrad, possibly even after earning a PhD. But Jennifer DeRosa is not a typical student.

As early as high school, DeRosa was already in the lab, conducting research in plant biotechnology at the College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF) before graduating valedictorian from Skaneateles High School. As a freshman student at Onondaga Community College, she continued to develop skills in molecular biology, analytical chemistry, and cell biology. She logged over 1,600 hours in academic and industry laboratories while maintaining a perfect 4.0 GPA, completing her associate’s degree in Math and Science in only one year.

Continue reading “Methuselah Foundation Fellowship Award Winner Tackles Research in Macular Degeneration” »

Using light, a team of MIT researchers were able to print 3D structures that “remember” their original shapes. Even after being stretched, twisted, and bent at extreme angles, the structures sprang back to their original forms within seconds of being heated to a certain temperature “sweet spot.”

Beyond 3D-printed dinners, additive manufacturing has helped create artificial jaws, better prosthetics, and even brain tumors. Researchers at MIT have found a way to print 3D structures that remember their original shapes within seconds of being heated at a specific temperature “sweet spot,” paving the way towards developing tiny drug capsules that open upon early signs of infection.

Researchers often turn to 3D printing to fabricate shape-memory structures since the technology lets them to custom-design structures with relatively fine detail. The only problem is that conventional 3D printers come with size restrictions—the structures’ details can’t go any smaller than a few millimeters, and the restriction limits how fast the material can recover its original shape.

Continue reading “MIT’s 3D-Printed Shape-Shifting Objects Could Revolutionize Medicine” »

Researchers genetically modify piglets to be resistant to an incurable disease plaguing hog farms, Porcine Reproductive Respiratory Syndrome (PRSS). The researchers cut out a specific gene to cure the pigs.

Scientists from Northwestern University have been able to create a heat-sensitive bandage that coaxes naturally-occurring stem cells to heal wounds faster.

Technology that allows wounds to heal faster is in great need, especially for those patients that are susceptible to complications from seemingly simple injuries. For diabetics, small bruises and cuts can be life-threatening. What if there was a way to speed up healing these wounds?

The answer may lie in this new bandage. Researchers from Northwestern University have developed a heat-responsive bandage that helps wounds heal faster.

Continue reading “Regenerative Bandage Heals Wounds 4x Faster” »

A team of researchers from MIT have developed a new technique on the genome-editing system known as CRISPR, which offers precise manipulation of when and where gene editing occurs.

Implantable device could teach about brain development and disease.