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Archive for the ‘biotech/medical’ category: Page 2641

Feb 11, 2016

Mammal brain frozen and thawed out perfectly for first time

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food, neuroscience

Interesting. What do you think of this?


A mammal brain has been defrosted from cryogenic storage in an almost perfect state for the first time. This breakthrough, accomplished using a rabbit brain, brings us one – albeit tiny – step closer to the prospect of reanimating a human brain that has been cryogenically preserved.

After death, organs begin to decay, but we can delay this by cooling these tissues, just like freezing food. But in the same way that a frozen strawberry becomes soggy when defrosted, it is difficult to perfectly preserve mammals at cold temperatures. We, and strawberries, contain large amounts of water, which freezes into ice crystals that damage cells.

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Feb 10, 2016

CBS News investigation: Liquid biopsy giving false sense of security about cancer risk?

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, security

Not good — CancerIntercept Detect and Monitor test is not providing accurate information in some results. The cancerIntercept test whole concept was to detect a growing tumor in the body, before the patient may notice symptoms — acting like a cancer stethoscope for detecting and monitoring cancer.


Pathway Genomics claims its liquid biopsy can detect cancer before patient shows symptoms — but expert says that promise is “years away”.

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Feb 10, 2016

Empathy line will check the robots’ advance

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, robotics/AI

Yesterday, I highlighted one key a reason why robots will not be able to completely eliminate roles like doctors, etc. and that is lack of empathy.

Also, another key barrier that will remain the lack of a diverse set of innovators & development engineers in the space. AI designed today is strictly designed with a subset of the population; therefore, the larger consumer space will continue to see limitations with their own AI experiences. No matter how much you try, you can never replace female thinking & interpretation with male thinking & interpretation and vice versa. Therefore, there will always be something missing in AI for a larger part of the population.


The Future of the Professions, a book by father and son duo Richard and Daniel Susskind predicts radical change about the automated future of professions.

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Feb 10, 2016

Mammal brain successfully returned from cryopreservation for the first time

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, cryonics, life extension, neuroscience

A rabbit’s brain has been successfully returned from long-term cryogenic storage, marking the first time a whole mammalian brain has been recovered in near-perfect condition.

It marks a significant breakthrough in the field of cryonics and boosts the prospect of one day bringing frozen human brains back to life.

Researchers from 21st Century Medicine (21CM) used a new technique called Aldehyde-stabilized cryopreservation that filled the vascular system of the rabbit brain with chemicals that would allow it to be cooled to −211 degrees Fahrenheit (−135 degrees Celsius). When it was thawed, the cell membranes, synapses, and intracellular structures remained intact.

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Feb 10, 2016

Scientists say they’ve found a genetic ‘switch’ that could turn obesity on or off

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics

There’s still much that we don’t understand about obesity and its underlying causes, but scientists in Germany say they’ve discovered a genetic ‘switch’ that could effectively turn obesity on or off.

The new report is based on epigenetics research — that is, the way the genes in our bodies change based on chemical and environmental factors, rather than modifications in the fundamental DNA genetic code itself. We’re all born with a certain set of genes, but these can be turned on or off, or dialled up or down, though processes inside the body (it’s part of the reason why identical twins don’t always look identical).

It’s one of these epigenetic tags that the scientists have identified, and it works like a light switch rather than a dimmer. “Once the switch is triggered, it is a lifelong, epigenetically-driven decision that ends in a stable, either a lean or obese phenotype,” lead author Andrew Pospisilik from the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics. “The effect is akin to a light switch — on or off, lean or obese. Typically, we usually consider epigenetic control of disease to act much more like a dimmer, shifting phenotypes like body weight up or down gradually.”

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Feb 10, 2016

Top U.S. Intelligence Official Calls Gene Editing a WMD Threat

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Although I hate to admit it; there is some truth to the US Intelligence concerns that Gene Editing. Such as biological weapons could be enhanced with gene editing. However, my verdict is still out on some of the other concerns that were highlighted.


Easy to use. Hard to control. The intelligence community now sees CRISPR as a threat to national safety.

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Feb 10, 2016

Personalized Medicine Market Worth $149+ Billion By 2020 Covering Companion Diagnostic And Targeted Therapeutics

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Personalized medicine worth over $149 Billion in less than 4 years. I do hope some of folks who participated in the provider survey on precision medicine that was published last week showing only 49% of the providers surveyed supported precision treatment rethink their position.

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Feb 9, 2016

NYC Startup Aims to 3D Print Bones with Patients‘ Own Stem Cells

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, biotech/medical, materials

https://youtube.com/watch?v=NKeeHahhNL4

When the idea of a medical transplant is brought up, most people’s thoughts are usually drawn to procedures such as blood transfusions or organ replacements. But, oftentimes, we forget the importance of our bone structure, as well as the 2 million painful bone transplants that take place every year around world. Previously stuck in a Medieval-like operation method, surgeons had little option but to replace their patients’ bones with the bones of animals or human cadavers, and even this procedure can oftentimes led to complications due to the body’s rejection of the foreign replacement. But 3D bioprinting has been a major influence in changing the entire nature of this traditional surgical procedure, new methods of creating bone grafts have been developed by researchers around the world from Montana State University to Tokyo. 3D printing has become a recent revelation in skeletal reconstruction surgery, with 3D printed synthetic implants and even harvested stem cell materials proving to be a much safer and efficient surgical alternative.

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Feb 9, 2016

Robots in health care could lead to a doctorless hospital

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health, robotics/AI

As long as there is no level of “personable experience/ empathy” AI will not eliminate the need for doctors or other medical staff members. For example, a female of 30 yrs of age newly married talking to a stone face robot that she has stage 3 breast cancer for first time. Yep; I see that one going well.

Plus, can you imagine how children in hospital wards for several months at a time will come out with only robots w/ no “EMPATHY.” I believe there are plenty of pyshcological case studies on this. If you ever want to advance AI; you must have women heavily embedded in its development as well as leading the work around it; or you will never get there.

Here’s another thought — can you imaging the potential lawsuits in the making because a child was proven to be impacted by only having interactions with robots in the children’s ward for months a time. Especially, when the robots that cannot connect due to the lack of design of “empathy”. Who gets sued? Hospitals, tech companies, etc.? This list could go on and on. So, again you must have various perspectives in the AI design in place or you could really be in trouble on a large scale.

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Feb 9, 2016

First case of Zika Virus reported in East Tennessee

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health

First confirmed case of Zika Virus hits Tennessee (US)


The Tennessee Department of Health confirmed Tuesday afternoon the first case of Zika virus in the state.

TDH, along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reported one person in the state tested positive for the Zika virus.

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