July 29, 2012
Published by admin at July 29, 2012
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Gene Therapy Advances

Three interesting advances in gene therapy have recently been reported. The first reports gold nano particles to deliver gene therapy directly to skin cells, simply by including them in commercial moisturising cream. This particular therapy uses siRNA to specifically target and silence disease-causing genes. Even more exciting is the discovery […]
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May 4, 2012
Published by admin at May 4, 2012
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Quantum Time

The article “Freezing Time” published in The Scientist describes the development of extremely powerful enzyme inhibitors. Because of their vastly higher affinity for the enzyme, they can not only be used in much smaller doses for medical purposes, but persist for longer in the target enzyme but not the bloodstream: increasing […]
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April 25, 2012
Published by admin at April 25, 2012
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Get a Brain

Life extension by using stem cells or cybernetics to fix or replace organs is all very well, but it doesn’t help us if our brain decays. Our memory of who we are and the processes that result in our consciousness all reside in our brains. Brain goes, we go. So […]
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October 9, 2011
Published by admin at October 9, 2011
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Life Extension Progress

Two recent advances have brought life extension closer to reality. First, on the cloning front, scientists have finally succeeded in generating viable human embryonic stem cells from cloned cells (nuclear transfer). There is a way to go yet as the technique relied on retaining the recipient egg’s own haploid nucleus […]
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August 5, 2011
Published by admin at August 5, 2011
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A Small World

Scientists have developed the technology to analyse gene expression in hundreds of individual cells in parallel. Technical details: it uses microfluidic devices to integrate single-cell processing and RT-PCR (reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction). Dr. Hansen foresees the technology will have widespread applciations in fields ranging from stem cell research and cancer biology […]
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August 5, 2011
Published by admin at August 5, 2011
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Zincfinger

An essential for gene repair that fixes the problem without corrupting other genes (possibly causing cancer) is targeting the repair to the specific gene with the problem. We’ve already seen the use of “zinc finger” nucleases to repair blood mutations in mice; now for the first time, scientists have used them […]
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July 30, 2011
Published by admin at July 30, 2011
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Stem Cell Victory

Good news on the stem cell front, a US judge has finally ruled that federal funding for research with human embryonic stem cells (hESC) is legal. Two scientists, of all people, had sued on the grounds that funding the research violated an earlier federal law prohibiting federal funding when a […]
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July 15, 2011
Published by admin at July 15, 2011
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First Stem-Cell-Organ Transplant

Well, it’s just a tooth, but a tooth is actually a complex organ and it is an exciting first for scientists to have implanted a tooth made from stem cells into a mouse, where it integrated, survived and functioned pretty much as a normal tooth. As the authors say: “This […]
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July 10, 2011
Published by admin at July 10, 2011
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A Germ’s Genome in 2 Hours

Scientists in Asia and Europe used the Ion PGM™ sequencer to determine the strain of the deadly German E. coli bacterium, sequencing its whole genome in only 2 hours and developing and delivering screening tests in 5 days. Back in the mid-1970s, it was thought that the challenges of sequencing DNA […]
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