DNA is Better at Math than You Are
By KIM BELLARD
I was tempted to write about the work being done at Wharton that suggests that AI may already be better at being entrepreneurial than most of us, and of course I’m always interested to see how nanoparticles are starting to change health care (e.g., breast cancer or cancer more generally), but when I saw what researchers at China’s Shanghai Jiao Tong University have done with DNA-based computers, well, I couldn’t pass that up.
If PCs helped change the image of computers from the big mainframes, and mobile phones further redefined what a computer is, then DNA computers may cause us to one day...
Source: The Health Care Blog - September 20, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Health Tech DNA Future of Computing Kim Bellard Source Type: blogs
The Lack of Consensus on Approaches to Aging as a Flaw to be Fixed
It can be argued that the largest challenge facing the development of means to treat aging as a medical condition is that there is, as of yet, no useful consensus position on how to measure aging, how to define aging, or which of the countless measurable aspects of biochemistry that change with age are the most appropriate targets for therapy. This means that any given research group or biotech startup has a lot of leeway to argue that their approach is the right one - and it might take twenty years to establish the effects of their therapies on long-term health and life span, even given a successful development program. T...
Source: Fight Aging! - September 19, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Chatting Apton Acquisition with PacBio CEO Christian Henry
PacBio CEO Christian Henry chatted with me recently by teleconference on a variety of topics, but the focus was the recent PacBio acquisition of Apton Biosystems for $85M in equity. As a regular reminder, my employer’s CEO reports in a sense to Henry, as he’s on the Board of Directors. A particularly interesting revelation by Henry is that PacBio had its eye on Apton in late 2021, essentially as soon as they completed theOmniome acquisition announced in July 2021 that formed the foundation for their now-released Onso short read instrument. PacBio believed then that the desktop instrument design from Omniome...
Source: Omics! Omics! - September 19, 2023 Category: Bioinformatics Authors: Keith Robison Source Type: blogs
Leaking Gut, Leaking Blood Vessels, Leaking Blood Brain Barrier
In today's open access paper, researchers attempt to throw a big tent over three distinct issues in the aging of the body and brain. Firstly, the intestinal barrier fails, allowing bacteria and bacterial metabolites into tissue and the circulation, where they can provoke dysfunction and inflammation. Secondly, blood vessels become leaky, harming surrounding tissues by allowing excessive fluid, inappropriate molecules and cells to escape. Lastly, the blood-brain barrier leaks; this is a more specialized barrier layer surrounding blood vessels in the brain, and when it leaks, the passage of unwanted cells and molecules into ...
Source: Fight Aging! - September 18, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Wanted: Biophysics Program Directors
UPDATE: The positions are now open, and will close September 27. Visit the Job Vacancies page for more information.
We’re recruiting accomplished scientists for program officer positions in the Division of Biophysics, Biomedical Technology, and Computational Biosciences (BBCB). The selected candidates will be responsible for scientific and administrative management of a portfolio of research grants, and will stimulate, plan, advise, direct, and evaluate program activities related to their field of expertise.
One program officer position is in the Biophysics Branch, which supports grant portfolios that apply te...
Source: NIGMS Feedback Loop Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - September 18, 2023 Category: Biomedical Science Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Job Announcements Source Type: blogs
Wanted: BBCB Program Directors
UPDATE: The positions are now open, and will close September 27. Visit the Job Vacancies page for more information.
We’re recruiting accomplished scientists for program officer positions in the Division of Biophysics, Biomedical Technology, and Computational Biosciences (BBCB). The selected candidates will be responsible for scientific and administrative management of a portfolio of research grants, and will stimulate, plan, advise, direct, and evaluate program activities related to their field of expertise.
One program officer position is in the Biophysics Branch, which supports grant portfolios that apply te...
Source: NIGMS Feedback Loop Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - September 18, 2023 Category: Biomedical Science Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Job Announcements Source Type: blogs
Wanted: Division of Genetics and Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology Program Directors
We’re seeking two highly qualified scientists to serve as program directors in the Genetic Mechanisms and Developmental and Cellular Processes Branches of our Division of Genetics and Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology (GMCDB).
GMCDB supports research grants focused on understanding the structure and function of cells and cellular components and the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie inheritance, gene expression, and development. All prospective candidates should have expertise in the mechanism and regulation of genetics including basic molecular processes, cellular biology, and/or development...
Source: NIGMS Feedback Loop Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - September 15, 2023 Category: Biomedical Science Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Job Announcements Source Type: blogs
The Times They Are A-Changing … .Fast
By KIM BELLARD
If you have been following my Twitter – oops, I mean “X” – feed lately, you may have noticed that I’ve been emphasizing The Coming Wave, the new book from Mustafa Suleyman (with Michael Bhaskar). If you have not yet read it, or at least ordered it, I urge you to do so, because, frankly, our lives are not going to be the same, at all. And we’re woefully unprepared.
One thing I especially appreciated is that, although he made his reputation in artificial intelligence, Mr. Suleyman doesn’t only focus on AI. He also discusses synthetic biology, quantum computing, robotics, and new energ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - September 14, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Health Tech AI Kim Bellard quantum computing Smart Pills synthetic biology The Coming Wave Source Type: blogs
Quiz: Sepsis Science
Bacteria are the most common triggers of sepsis.Credit: Mark Ellisman and Thomas Deerinck, National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research, University of California San Diego.
At least 1.7 million adults in the United States develop a life-threatening condition called sepsis each year. Sepsis is an overwhelming or impaired whole-body immune response that’s most often caused by bacterial infections. However, it can also be caused by viral infections, such as COVID-19 or influenza; fungal infections; or other injuries, including physical trauma. Anyone can get sepsis, but there’s a higher risk ...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - September 13, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Being a Scientist Injury and Illness Quiz Research Roundup Sepsis Source Type: blogs
Wanted: Division of Pharmacology, Physiology, and Biological Chemistry Branch Chief
We’re seeking a highly qualified scientist to serve as a branch chief in our Division of Pharmacology, Physiology, and Biological Chemistry (PPBC). This is a newly created position for the Division as it reorganizes into three branches. Applicants should have significant interest and experience in the scientific areas managed by the Division, which will continue to encompass all the existing research portfolios and will generally be arranged into branches covering physiology and clinical sciences, biochemistry and molecular pharmacology, and chemistry and chemical biology. For a listing of the current scientifi...
Source: NIGMS Feedback Loop Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - September 11, 2023 Category: Biomedical Science Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Job Announcements Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, September 11th 2023
This article reviews the current regulatory role of miR-7 in inflammation and related diseases, including viral infection, autoimmune hepatitis, inflammatory bowel disease, and encephalitis. It expounds on the molecular mechanism by which miR-7 regulates the occurrence of inflammatory diseases. Finally, the existing problems and future development directions of miR-7-based intervention on inflammation and related diseases are discussed to provide new references and help strengthen the understanding of the pathogenesis of inflammation and related diseases, as well as the development of new strategies for clinical interventi...
Source: Fight Aging! - September 10, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Suppression of Transposable Element Activity Extends Life in Nematode Worms
There is a growing interest in the role of transposable elements in aging. These are sections of the genome, remnants of ancient viral infections, that are capable of copying themselves when active, causing mutational damage in the process. Transposable elements are suppressed in youth, their portions of the genome folded away and hidden from transcriptional machinery, but this suppression fails with age as epigenetic markers that determine the structure of the genome change. Any mechanism that increases mutational damage in large numbers of cells might be suspected to contribute to degenerative aging, but definitive proof...
Source: Fight Aging! - September 8, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Identifying a Stem Cell Population in the Adult Thymus
Researchers here report on the characterization of a stem cell population in the adult thymus that gives rise to the thymic epithelial cells that allow the thymus to host the development of T cells of the adaptive immune system. This is of interest because the thymus atrophies with age, losing active thymic epithelial tissue. The supply of new T cells provided to the immune system diminishes greatly as a consequence, and this is a major contributing factor in the age-related decline of immune function. It is the case that cell therapy approaches are one of the potential ways in which an aged thymus might be regenerated, an...
Source: Fight Aging! - September 7, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Q & A With Dylan Burnette: Muscle Cells, Cell Movement, and Microscopy
Courtesy of Dr. Dylan Burnette.
“We scientists know very little of what can be known—I find that invigorating,” says Dylan Burnette, Ph.D., an associate professor of cell and developmental biology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee. “Most people find it exhausting, but I’m comfortable with not knowing all of biology’s secrets.” In an interview, Dr. Burnette shared his lab’s work on muscle cells, the knowledge he hopes readers take away from his research, and some advice to future scientists about being comfortable being wrong.
Q: How did you first become interested in s...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - September 6, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Being a Scientist Cellular Imaging Cellular Processes Profiles Source Type: blogs
A High Level Popular Science View of the Longevity Industry
The article I'll point out today is an entirely unremarkable, high level tour of the most discussed, most notable portions of the longevity industry and related research efforts. Twenty years ago, we'd all have been delighted to see the media both noticing translational aging research at all, and then actually taking seriously the prospect of treating aging as a medical condition. We've come a long way to now see summary discussions of work on the treatment of aging as business as usual, not really worth mentioning. Still, articles like this miss near all of the really interesting projects, and that is the way of high leve...
Source: Fight Aging! - September 5, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Healthy Life Extension Community Source Type: blogs
