Lifeboat Foundation

DNA codes for life as we know it, but in recent years, scientists have discovered more uses for the molecule. Because DNA is foldable and “sticky,” they’ve begun making microscopic shapes called DNA origami. Over the last decade or so, researchers have improved at this DNA art, and now, Caltech scientists say they used DNA to sketch a glowing masterpiece — a replica of Vincent van Gogh’s famous painting “The Starry Night”— on a canvas the size of a dime.

While the mini-van Gogh is neat — if a little fuzzy and monochromatic — the demonstration shows the technique may be approaching more practical uses. One of the difficulties of making technologies ever-smaller is figuring out how to precisely place components. As it turns out, our fingers are just a little too fat to build on scales far thinner than a human hair.

Researchers hope DNA origami can be like surrogate hands on the tiniest scales, and if successful, the technology may be used to build useful devices smaller than any yet in existence.

Continue reading “How to Make Molecular Devices? Microscopic DNA Tools May Be Key” »

Hate your head; don’t worry Russian scientist knows how to correct that problem.

Russian programmer Valery Spiridonov is scheduled to have head transplant surgery in December 2017. This unique and highly complex operation will utilize Russian technology and know-how.

Alfred G. Knudson Jr., a medical researcher who helped decode a mystery of cancer — using genetics, mathematics and intuition to explain how and why certain forms of the disease attack — died July 10 at his home in Philadelphia. He was 93.

His death was announced by the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, where Dr. Knudson had served as president, scientific director and in other capacities since joining the institution in 1976. He had heart ailments and dementia, said his wife, Anna Meadows, a pediatric oncologist.

Dr. Knudson was among the most renowned researchers in his field, with honors including a 1998 Lasker Award, commonly known as the American Nobel, and a 2004 Kyoto Prize recognizing him for a discovery that “opened a new horizon in modern cancer genetics and played a pivotal role in the major developments” in cancer research.

Continue reading “Alfred G. Knudson Jr., geneticist who decoded a mystery of cancer, dies at 93” »

Imagine your chest tightening as you struggle for for breath. There’s no cure for it, and it will most likely be a hindrance to your day-to-day life.

This feeling is familiar to the 300 million people worldwide who suffer from asthma. In the US alone, one in 14 people has asthma, and ten of them die from asthma every day.

For children, relying on symptoms to determine whether an asthma attack is about to happen is particularly difficult. Not only is it harder for them to articulate their discomfort, it’s less likely that they will be able to attribute it to asthmatic symptoms.

Continue reading “This Mobile Game Helps Children Prevent Asthma Attacks” »

Interesting.

But research is still in early stages, experts note.

When we look at the huge tech and industrial revolution that is just on the verge of happening due to QC and Medical technologies; synthetic diamonds will be a central piece of this story. I hope Intel, Nvidia, HP, Xerox, Apple, etc. all are assessing how they can either produce or partner with producers of synthetic diamonds. Printer companies could be big players in the mass production story of Synthetic Diamonds; and partnerships between Intel and HP or Intel and Xerox could prove to be fruitful.

COULD synthetic diamonds be key to developing the advanced electronics of tomorrow? A company crowd-funding on Cambridge’s SyndicateRoom thinks so.

Evince is looking to raise £650,000 to develop a working prototype of its new semi-conductor, which it says has the potential to perform 100 times better than silicon.

Continue reading “Why diamonds could be technology’s best friend” »

Roger Dumoulin-White, president and CEO of Theralase Technologies, explains his company’s two divisions: the currently operating therapeutic laser division and the anti-cancer division. The company’s TLC-1000 laser is used for pain relief, tissue healing and more, and upwards of 1,200 medicial facilities worldwide use the device. The next-generation TLC-2000 laser was recently FDA-approved. At this time, Theralase Technologies is conducting clinical trials for photodynamic compounds that help to destroy cancer cells.

Click play to learn how these new technologies have the potential to revolutionize cancer treatment.

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Continue reading “This Company Users Lasers to Relieve Pain and Treat Cancer” »

At the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) and Tufts University a team has developed a microfluidic chip that mimics human tissue for use in drug testing applications. The chip is based on a silk gel that overcomes the limitations of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), a silicon material widely used to host living cells within microfluidic devices. As an example, PDMS has problems handling lipids, absorbing them instead of letting them move freely along with other nearby compounds and so not applicable with lipid-based compounds. Additionally, PDMS is not biodegradable and so a small device based on it can’t easily be used as an implantable. Silk, on the other hand, just needed a bit of engineering to make a candidate that overcomes many of PDMS’s limitations.

IRVINE, Calif., July 11, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — From measuring glaucoma to augmenting reality, advances in technology have enabled smart contact lenses to steadily gain traction in the past year. Although still in the early stages of development, the introduction of such novelties will inevitably be life-changing.

Photo — http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160711/388295