Lifeboat Foundation

Chinese biologists reiterate doubts over validity of genome editing study

A number of Chinese scientists have announced publicly that they cannot replicate the breakthrough genome editing technology NgAgo discovered by a Hebei-based researcher, Han Chunyu, urging to investigate his team for the sake of “reputation of Chinese scientists.”

After months of study, 13 biologists including Wei Wensheng and Sun Yujie from Peking University’s School of Life Science, and other biologists from prestigious institutes such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhejiang University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said publicly that they cannot replicate Han’s results, and called on Han to publicize his raw data.

In the first controlled clinical trial of nicotinamide riboside (NR), a newly discovered form of Vitamin B3, researchers have shown that the compound is safe for humans and increases levels of a cell metabolite called NAD+ that is critical for cellular energy production and protection against stress and DNA damage.

Levels of NAD+ (first discovered by biochemists in 1906) diminish with age, and it has been suggested that loss of this metabolite may play a role in age-related health decline.

Continue reading “First human clinical trial for nicotinamide riboside” »

Mouse study furthers idea that manipulating resident stem cells could help patients with TMJ disorders and other fibrocartilage diseases or injuries.

Scientists in Japan have used cardiac muscle cells derived from the stem cells of a macaque to mend the damaged hearts of five other monkeys.

The technique shows that using donor stem cells might one day be a viable way to regenerate the organs of human heart attack patients – an approach that could dramatically reduce the time and expense of developing individualised stem cell treatments.

While using stem cell therapy to treat conditions like heart problems isn’t new, the technique usually involves cultivating stem cells taken from the patient themselves – which can be very expensive.

Continue reading “Scientists just used stem cells from one monkey to heal the hearts of five others” »

SoftBank is pouring a massive $130 million funding round into the science fiction-invoking robots at Zymergen, which creates new microbes for corporations and government agencies.

More than 20,000 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer each year in the United States, most of whom have advanced disease. Although chemotherapy can put the disease into remission, it often recurs and the treatment’s effectiveness tends to wane over time. As a result, ovarian cancer is the fifth most-common cause of cancer death in women.

On Saturday, a team of researchers including Stanford oncologist Jonathan Berek, MD, presented the results of an international, multi-center phase-3 clinical trial of a new oral medication called niraparib in 553 women with advanced, recurrent ovarian cancer at the annual meeting of the European Society for Molecular Oncology in Copenhagen. Berek, the Laurie Kraus Lacob Professor and director of the Stanford Women’s Cancer Center, supervised Stanford’s involvement in the trial.

The aim of the study was to see whether niraparib could prolong the length of remission, also known as “progression-free survival,” in the women when compared to treatment with a placebo. As Berek described the niraparib treatment for me in an phone call, “This is a daily oral treatment with relatively low toxicity. Importantly, women don’t have to go to the hospital for regular infusions and are unlikely to experience significant hair loss.”

Continue reading “In International Phase-3 Clinical Trial, New Drug Shown To Prolong Ovarian Cancer Remission” »

We are living in a world that is global and exponential. Technology is taking things that used to be scarce and making them abundant—and these forces are reshaping the fields of medicine and healthcare in completely novel ways.

Opening this year’s Exponential Medicine conference in San Diego, Daniel Kraft, the curator of the conference, and faculty chair of Medicine and Neuroscience at Singularity University, took the audience on a whirlwind tour of the latest developments in healthcare and medicine.

Continue reading “‘It’s a Powerful Time to Reshape Healthcare Across the Planet’” »

Lung cancer treatment is moving beyond chemotherapy, with Merck & Co. setting the pace in a new category of therapies that harness the body’s immune system to fight tumors.

The U.S. drugmaker’s drug Keytruda reduced the risk of death or cancer progression by 50 percent, Merck said, unveiling details of a crucial study at a meeting of the European Society for Medical Oncology. The medicine gave patients an average of 10.3 months before their cancer progressed, compared with six months on chemotherapy. Unlike competitor Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., whose similar drug Opdivo failed in an advanced trial and caused its stock to plunge, Merck selected patients who harbored high levels of a protein thought to predict how well the immune-system drugs will work.

The results give Merck a head start — and not just on Bristol-Myers. Roche Holding AG and AstraZeneca Plc are also in the race for the best new immune therapy against lung tumors, the most common cancer in the world. Doctors will probably start testing patients soon after diagnosis to see whether they’re suited to treatment with Keytruda and can forgo the many side effects of chemotherapy, said Stefan Zimmermann, a chief oncologist at the Cantonal Hospital of Fribourg, Switzerland.

Continue reading “Merck Leads as Lung Cancer Treatment Moves Beyond Chemotherapy” »

Even more criticism of the Nature article last week!

Leading scientific journal Nature reported on Wednesday about a maximum lifespan for humans. But are their statistics right?