Building a Digital Immune System
Credit: Courtesy of Dr. Tomas Helikar.
The power of computer code has been a longtime fascination for Tomas Helikar, Ph.D., a professor of biochemistry at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). In college, when he learned he could use that power to help researchers better understand biology and improve human health, Dr. Helikar knew he’d found his ideal career. Since then, he’s built a successful team of scientists studying the ways we can use mathematical models in biomedical research, such as creating a digital replica of the immune system that could predict how a patient will react to infectious microorganisms ...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - June 28, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Being a Scientist Cells Tools and Techniques Bioinformatics Computational Biology Cool Tools/Techniques Modeling Profiles Source Type: blogs
Not the Last of Them
BY KIM BELLARD
I’m seeing two conflicting yet connected visions about the future. One is when journalist David Wallace-Wells says we might be in for “golden age for medicine,” with CRISPR and mRNA revolutionizing drug development. The second is the dystopian HBO hit “The Last of Us,” in which a fungal infection has turned much of the world’s population into zombie-like creatures.
The conflict is clear but the connection not so much. Mr. Wallace-Wells never mentions fungi in his article, but if we’re going to have a golden age of medicine, or if we want to avoid a global fungal outbreak, we better be p...
Source: The Health Care Blog - June 27, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Medical Practice Fungal Infections Kim Bellard Medical School Source Type: blogs
Not The Last of Them
By KIM BELLARD
I’m seeing two conflicting yet connected visions about the future. One is when journalist David Wallace-Wells says we might be in for “golden age for medicine,” with CRISPR and mRNA revolutionizing drug development. The second is the dystopian HBO hit “The Last of Us,” in which a fungal infection has turned much of the world’s population into zombie-like creatures.
The conflict is clear but the connection not so much. Mr. Wallace-Wells never mentions fungi in his article, but if we’re going to have a golden age of medicine, or if we want to avoid a global fungal outbreak, we better be pay...
Source: The Health Care Blog - June 27, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Health Policy Fungi Golden Age of Medicine Kim Bellard Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, June 26th 2023
This study explored the association between different cooking fuel types and the risk of cancer and all-cause mortality among seniors constructing Cox regression models. Data were obtained by linking waves of 6, 7, and 8 of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey, which included a total of 7,269 participants who were 65 years old and over. Cooking fuels were categorized as either biomass, fossil, or clean fuels. And the effects of switching cooking fuels on death risk were also investigated using Cox regression models.
The results indicate that, compared with the users of clean fuels, individuals using bio...
Source: Fight Aging! - June 25, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Attacking Cancer by Disabling Macrophage Recognition of CD47 " Don't Eat Me " Marker
CD47 is a "don't eat me" decoration found on the surface of cells. This is a necessary mechanism for the prevention of autoimmunity, but it is also subverted by cancer in order to prevent the innate immune system from attacking tumor cells. The cancer research community has investigated a range of approaches to prevent CD47 from holding back the immune response to cancerous cells. One possibility, demonstrated here, is to engineer the innate immune cells known as macrophages in order to block the CD47 interaction and thus ensure an aggressive response to cancerous cells.
Cancer remains one of the leading causes of...
Source: Fight Aging! - June 20, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, June 19th 2023
In conclusion, among Swedish middle-aged subjects, nearly two-thirds showed complete fatty degeneration of thymus on CT.
Age-Related Dysfunction of Water Homeostasis
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2023/06/age-related-dysfunction-of-water-homeostasis/
Dehydration can be an issue in older people. As in every complex system in the body, the mechanisms by which hydration is regulated become dysfunctional with advancing age. Researchers here look at the brain region responsible for regulating some of the response to dehydration, cataloging altered gene expression in search of the more important mechan...
Source: Fight Aging! - June 18, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Senolytic Treatments as a Strategy to Improve Immune Function in Late Life
Senescent cells accumulate in tissues throughout the body with age. Cells become senescent constantly throughout life, largely by reaching the Hayflick limit on replication, but a small number due to potentially cancerous mutations, or other forms of damage and stress. Senescent cells are rapidly removed by the immune system in youth, keeping their numbers low, but the balance between creation and destruction is disrupted with aging. There is greater stress, but perhaps more importantly the immune system becomes less efficient, less able to clear senescent cells in a timely fashion. Since senescent cells actively secrete p...
Source: Fight Aging! - June 14, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Better Health Care Tests, Faster
This article looks at some specific problems and solutions.
Speeding up Test Development
We’ve seen with COVID-19 how quickly a virus can evolve and how hard it is to design both tests and vaccinations that accommodate different variants. Virax Biolabs uses data from the World Health Organization and others to develop tests quickly. For instance, new viral variants tend to spread in the southern hemisphere before hitting the northern hemisphere in our Winter, so Virax can check existing data to prepare better tests for the North.
The company is developing a T-cell diagnostics and profiling platform called Virax Immu...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - June 13, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Andy Oram Tags: Health IT Company Healthcare IT Hospital - Health System Interoperability CLIA COVID-19 Hydreight Immunexpress ixlayer Laboratories Labs Rolland Carlson Sepsis Sepsis Lab Tests Septicyte Shane Madden testing Tomasz George Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, June 5th 2023
In conclusion, higher BMR might reduce lifespan. The underlying pathways linking to major causes of death and relevant interventions warrant further investigation.
Betting Against Progress Turns Out Poorly, But Can Work in the Short Term in a Slow Field
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2023/06/betting-against-progress-turns-out-poorly-but-can-work-in-the-short-term-in-a-slow-field/
Setting oneself up as a spokesperson for "we will not achieve this goal", as the fellow noted here is choosing to do, is a bet against technological progress. A glance at any few decade period in the past two hundred yea...
Source: Fight Aging! - June 4, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, May 29th 2023
In this study, we used a Drosophila model to understand the role of the dec2P384R mutation on animal health and elucidate the mechanisms driving these physiological changes. We found that the expression of the mammalian dec2P384R transgene in fly sleep neurons was sufficient to mimic the short sleep phenotype observed in mammals. Remarkably, dec2P384Rmutants lived significantly longer with improved health despite sleeping less. In particular, dec2P384R mutants were more stress resistant and displayed improved mitochondrial fitness in flight muscles. Differential gene expression analyses went on to reveal several altered tr...
Source: Fight Aging! - May 28, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Reviewing the Complexity of Immunosenescence
The immune system becomes more inflammatory and less competent with advancing age, undergoing sweeping changes in immune cell characteristics and relative population sizes. The cells, structures, and processes that produce immune cells similarly undergo significant changes. Taken together, this is called immunosenescence, though many researchers choose to break out the inflammatory component of dysfunction into its own category, calling it inflammaging. One of the most important goals for the research community is to find ways to improve immune function in older people.
Evidently, the decline of the immune system is...
Source: Fight Aging! - May 22, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
In an Ideal World, How Much Would We Spend on Health Care? – Part 1
BY BEN WHEATLEY
We have heard it said before, and it is no longer shocking to say, that in 2021 the United States spent $4.3 trillion on health care. To put this gaudy number in some perspective, we measure it as a share of our economy and report that health care comprised 18.3% of our gross domestic product. CMS projects that health care will approach 20% of GDP in coming years—one-fifth of everything we buy and sell in this country.
In a recent report, the Health Affairs Council on Health Care Spending and Value said that “it is unclear what percentage of GDP would represent the ideal level to devote to healt...
Source: The Health Care Blog - May 11, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Health Policy Ben Wheatley Health care spending medical debt Patent Source Type: blogs
In an Ideal World, How Much Would We Spend on Health Care?
BY BEN WHEATLEY
We have heard it said before, and it is no longer shocking to say, that in 2021 the United States spent $4.3 trillion on health care. To put this gaudy number in some perspective, we measure it as a share of our economy and report that health care comprised 18.3% of our gross domestic product. CMS projects that health care will approach 20% of GDP in coming years—one-fifth of everything we buy and sell in this country.
In a recent report, the Health Affairs Council on Health Care Spending and Value said that “it is unclear what percentage of GDP would represent the ideal level to devote to h...
Source: The Health Care Blog - May 11, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Health Policy Ben Wheatley Health care spending medical debt Patent Source Type: blogs
Let Them Stay
Paul MatzkoDr. Muhil Ravichandran has a PharmD from Rutgers University and works in cancer research. She has lived legally in America for almost her entire life and is a model immigrant. Yet because of America’s broken immigration system, she’s going to beforced to leave her home and take her much ‐needed talents elsewhere.Ravichandran legally moved to the USA with her family when she was two years old, but when she became an adult she was no longer covered by her family ’s legal status. While in college she qualified for a student visa, but upon graduation she was forced to fall back on the vagaries of the ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 2, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Paul Matzko Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, May 1st 2023
In conclusion, frailty progression accelerates in males with one LTCs and females with two LTCs or more. Health providers should be aware of planning a suitable intervention once the elderly have two or more health conditions.
Plasma Transfer Lowers Epigenetic Age and Mortality in Rats
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2023/04/plasma-transfer-lowers-epigenetic-age-and-mortality-in-rats/
Plasma transfer from young to old individuals has produced mixed results in animals and little to no benefit in humans where assessed rigorously. These studies were driven by the hypothesis that young plasma contains m...
Source: Fight Aging! - April 30, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
