8/31/2008 PERMALINK
fMRI and a memory trick reveal how your brain remembers "We want to know how the brain areas that encode memory are organized," said Charan Ranganath, a professor at the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience. "If your memory is affected by aging ... is there a way to learn that can capitalize on the brain structures that may still be working well?" Only when volunteers memorized word pairs as a compound word, did fMRI scans show the perirhinal cortex lit up. Apparently, for successful storage of memories the perirhinal cortex must form the simple associations before passing these up to the hippocampus, which adds more complex to the memories ... more

8/31/2008 PERMALINK
New crime scene test can find needle in DNA haystack A team of investigators led by scientists at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) have found a way to identify possible suspects at crime scenes using only a small amount of DNA, even if it is mixed with hundreds of other genetic fingerprints. Using genotyping microarrays, the scientists were able to identify an individuals DNA from within a mix of DNA samples, even if that individual represented less than 0.1 percent of the total mix, or less than one part per thousand. They were able to do this even when the mix of DNA included more than 200 individual DNA samples ... more

8/31/2008 PERMALINK
More pleasure center neuron spines from drug abuse ~ not so bad? Previous studies have shown that repeated use of drugs such as cocaine, amphetamines and nicotine increase the number of anatomical structures called dendritic spines in brain regions associated with pleasure and reward. It was previously believed this makes addiction harder to overcome, but scientists have now found that this may be part of the body's defense mechanism to combat addiction and related behaviors. "Our findings suggest that increased brain connections during chronic drug use may actually limit behavioral changes associated with drug addiction, rather than support them," said Dr. Christopher Cowan, assistant professor of psychiatry at UT Southwestern and senior author of the study ... UT Southwestern Medical Center

8/31/2008 PERMALINK
Tweaking a naturally occurring enzyme flushes cocaine from the body
By tweaking a naturally occurring enzyme, chemists have created a molecule that can flush a cocaine overdose out of your body before it can cause irreparable damage to the central nervous system. It is the first therapy to remove the drug from a user's body. "When patients go to the emergency room, the doctors really can't help a lot," says Chang-Guo Zhan at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. "The cocaine is still in their system." This new enzyme mod changes that ... more

8/30/2008 PERMALINK
We could be replacing brain cells with faster nano by 2035 Nanoengineer John Burch, co-designer of Productive Nanosystems from Molecules to Superproducts, predicts that by the mid-2030s, we can start replacing brain cells with damage-resistant nano-neurons that process thoughts much faster than today’s biological brains ... more ... watch

8/30/2008 PERMALINK
Using nanotubes to manipulate the growth of your neurons Water soluble carbon nanotubes can be used to inhibit in neurons the process where cells absorb molecules such as proteins from the outside by engulfing them with their cell membrane ... more

8/30/2008 PERMALINK
DNA tubes with programmable sizes for nano fabs
Dr. Peng Yin of the Pierce Lab and colleagues have developed a simple process for mass producing molecular tubes of identical--and precisely programmable--circumferences. This makes possible the use of molecular tubes in a number of nano-tech apps. The molecular tubes are composed of wound-up strands of DNA, an ideal construction material for self-assembling molecular structures and devices, because two complementary DNA strands can automatically recognize and bind with each other. DNA has been used to form rigid building blocks, known as tiles, and these tiles can assemble into extended lattice structures including tubes. However until now, controlling the diameters of such tubes has been difficult to achieve ... CalTech

8/30/2008 PERMALINK
Engineers create artificial bone that blends into tendons Engineers at Georgia Tech have used skin cells to create artificial bones that mimic the ability of natural bone to blend into other tissues such as tendons or ligaments. The artificial bones display a gradual change from bone to softer tissue rather than the sudden shift of previously developed artificial tissue, providing better integration with the body and allowing them to handle weight more successfully ... more

8/30/2008 PERMALINK
Many more of your genes are controlled by you biological clock Before the current research, only 16 clock-controlled genes had been discovered in Neurospora in more than 40 years of research. A team lead by Jonathan Arnold, a professor in the University of Georgia department of genetics, uncovered a remarkable 295 genes that are influenced by the biological clock -- and that number could be dramatically higher, given the conservative controls the researchers put on their work. "It appears the clock influences a number of biological processes, including cell cycling, protein metabolism, ribosome biogenesis and varied signaling processes," said Arnold ... more

8/30/2008 PERMALINK
Exoskeleton motorcycle ~ you don't ride it you wear it Check out this animation of an electric exoskeleton motorcycle concept created by a college student for a Yamaha design competition. One of the most interesting personal transport concepts that I've seen this year ... watch

8/29/2008 PERMALINK
RES device reads signs, overlays nav arrows on real time video
The closest thing yet to the Reality Enhancement System (RES) humods have been longing for appears to be the navigation, communication and entertainment device, World Travel Pilot 700 from Blaupunkt. With GPS-driven arrows integrated right into the real time video keeping your navigation on track, plus traffic sign recognition. This device appears to be a big step towards the ideal of a smart bot RES that models reality as you move through it with an overlay of information that tells you exactly what you need to know, exactly when you need to know it. That's the humods' future and this device seems a big step towards it ... more

8/29/2008 PERMALINK
Get your own miniture black helicopter flying surveillance cam There is a scene in a science fiction novel where a woman is watched by the CEO of her corporation over a video link from a miniature security helicopter flying along behind her. Well, that technology has now arrived. The Draganflyer X6 is a remotely operated, unmanned, miniature black helicopter operated with an easy to use hand held controller, while you view what the helicopter sees through video glasses. Accepting multiple interchangeable video camera and still camera modules: 1080p HD video camera, 10.1 mega-pixel still camera, low light video camera, or thermal imaging video camera, this little guy can fulfill you every surveillance need. For Paris Hilton to get any privacy now, she's going to need a personal ground to air missle system ... more ... watch
Someone should try installing this technology: Teaching bots to see and respond to human 'tells'

8/29/2008 PERMALINK
Watching the body's chemical messengers actually at work Scientists can now look at microscopic activity within the body's chemical messenger system live as it happens. The cutting edge laser technology offers a new insight into the tiny world of activity taking place within single cells ... University of Nottingham ... watch

8/29/2008 PERMALINK
Delaying the onset of age-related neurological decline Across species, a common symptom of advanced age is loss of brain function. Aging negatively affects a broad range of neural activity, including learning (reflected in long-term potentiation), control of motor function, and memory. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could slow that process down, or halt it altogether? A group at Kyushu University has managed to do just that. By introducing a transgene encoding, a human mitochondrial transcription factor into mice, researchers have been able to delay the onset of age-related neurological decline, as measured in a number of different assays ... more ... more

See also: Mental skills begin declining 15 years before death

8/29/2008 PERMALINK
Winners of Google's first Android Developer Challenge
Here are the 10 winners of Google's $275,000 prizes, and the 10 winners of their $100,000 prizes, along with all the runners up. Shown below is a screen shot from $275,000 winner cab4me. As our main computing platform shifts to a pocket device in the years ahead, these devices will run Reality Enhancement Services (RES), which Android is designed to facilitate. RES overlays location-based information on the reality around you, so no matter where you go, you will always have exactly the location-specific data you need. Apple's iPhone and Android are the leaders in RES. Because Android is more open than iPhone, look for Android to take over from Windows as the number one computer operating system ... more

8/29/2008 PERMALINK
Using nano instead of viruses to recode stem cell DNA
Using viruses to install new DNA sequences has proven risky, so researchers are seeking to substitute nano for viral transports. A new study, Nanoparticles for Gene Transfer to Human Embryonic Stem Cell Colonies used biodegradable polymeric nanoparticles to facilitate nonviral gene transfer to human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). Small (~200 nm), positively charged (~10 mV) particles are formed by the self assembly of cationic, hydrolytically degradable poly(β-amino esters) and plasmid DNA. Nanoparticles were synthesized with gene delivery efficacy up to 4 times higher than that of the leading commercially available transfection agent, Lipofectamine 2000, with minimal toxicity ... more ... Here's another promising approach to solving this problem: Breakthrough ~ gene mods minus the risk of using insertion viruses

8/29/2008 PERMALINK
Could the bacteria in our bodies connect us to the net? Melanie Swan at Broader Perspective wonders about harnessing the bacteria in our bodies for communication purposes.

There are at least three ways for achieving human-electronic interfaces; physical implants, wearware and a third as yet unconsidered possibility, exploiting the human bacterial biome. The 1,000 trillion bacteria that are part of each human (10x the number of human cells) could be an ideal augmentation substrate ... more

Existing brain/computer interface research includes: 1. reprogramming the molecules our neurons use to communicate. 2. growing neurons onto chips. These are probably much faster paths to a direct human/computer interface than Swan's suggestion, since research aimed at gaining a better understanding of the massive microbial colony that calls each of us home is just getting underway. See: Can imbalances in gut microflora accelerate aging? and Making groups of bacteria dance to our music

8/28/2008 PERMALINK
Breakthrough ~ gene mods minus the risk of using insertion viruses
In what appears to be a significant breakthrough in altering genes inside humans safely and effectively, researchers have found a new method to create lasting genetic changes within human cells, opening up the way for curing inherited diseases and making lifespan extension and other significant genetic changes. In the past, gene-based therapies have met with limited successes in part because of difficulties finding ways to insert a new version of an entire gene into human cells and to have that new gene stay active for a long time. Scientists in the laboratory of Peter Glazer, professor of genetics at the Yale School of Medicine said their technique avoids these pitfalls by employing oligonucleotides, short synthetic DNA molecules that are easier to insert into cells and do not require viruses for their delivery. Importantly, the new technique fixes the defect in the existing gene so it can be expressed in a natural manner, Dr. Glazer noted ... more

8/28/2008 PERMALINK
Freeze-dried black raspberries fix damaged genes Researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center examined the effect of freeze-dried black raspberries on genes altered by a chemical carcinogen in an animal model of esophageal cancer. The carcinogen affected the activity of some 2,200 genes in the animals' esophagus in only one week, but 460 of those genes were restored to normal activity in animals that consumed freeze-dried black raspberry powder as part of their diet during the exposure. These findings, published in recent issue of the journal Cancer Research, also helped identify 53 genes that may play a fundamental role in early cancer development and may therefore be important targets for chemoprevention agents. "We have clearly shown that berries, which contain a variety of anticancer compounds, have a genome-wide effect on the expression of genes involved in cancer development," says principal investigator Gary D. Stoner, a professor of pathology, human nutrition and medicine who studies dietary agents for the prevention of esophageal cancer. Stoner notes that black raspberries have vitamins, minerals, phenols and phytosterols, many of which individually are known to prevent cancer in animals. "Freeze drying the berries concentrates these elements about ten times, giving us a power pack of chemoprevention agents that can influence the different signaling pathways that are deregulated in cancer," he says but warns, "We never get 100 percent tumor inhibition with berries. So we need to think about another food that we can add to them that will boost the chemopreventive activities of berries alone." ... more

8/28/2008 PERMALINK
Mental skills begin declining 15 years before death Even with no dementia, mental skills begin declining 15 years before death is the stark conclusion of a new study just published in the online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. “These changes are different and separate from the changes in thinking skills that occur as people get older,” said study author Valgeir Thorvaldsson, MSc, of Göteberg University in Sweden. “We found accelerated changes in people’s mental skills that indicated a terminal decline phase years before death.” The start of the decline is different for various cognitive abilities. Perceptual speed, which measures how quickly people can compare figures, begins declining nearly 15 years before death. Spatial ability starts declining nearly eight years before death. And verbal ability starts declining about six-and-a-half years before death.
Just think of the benefits to humankind if this process could be corrected with cellular therapies and the world's scientists, engineers, inventors, authors, musicians and artists could all be given another 15 years of peak mental performance. Can their be any more powerful argument for developing humods technologies as fast as possible! ... more

8/28/2008 PERMALINK
Modding a runner's leg muscles to be as strong as a cheetah's
The next Olympic Games could prove to be a lot more interesting than the games just completed in Beijing. Professor Peter Weyand of Southern Methodist University's Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development, known for his expertise in terrestrial locomotion and human and animal performance, predicted in an interview recently that humans would soon have the "ability to modify and greatly enhance muscle fibre strength." It will soon be possible, Weyand speculated, to actually reduce the difference between the muscle properties of humans and the world's fastest animal, the cheetah, to almost zero. "Speed is conferred by an ability of the limbs to hit the ground forcefully in relation to the body's weight, an attribute conferred largely by the properties of the muscles of the runner." Scientists believe man can’t run faster than 30 mph, with the best at about 27 mph. A cheetah, on the other hand, reaches speeds thrice that. Weyand said he expected speed to continue to improve and faster runners to emerge ... more

8/28/2008 PERMALINK
Deafness cure ~ defective cochlear cells replaced with healthy ones We've reported with pleasure in recent months on improvements in sound quality from artificial cochlear implants and the number of cochlear implants passing the 100,000 mark, but these all still have shortcomings. Now comes a biological cure for deafness as Oregon Health & Science University scientists report having successfully produced functional auditory hair cells in the cochlea of the mouse inner ear. The breakthrough suggests that a new therapy may be developed in the future to successfully treat hearing loss. “One approach to restore auditory function is to replace defective cells with healthy new cells,” said John Brigande, Ph.D., an assistant professor of otolaryngology at the Oregon Hearing Research Center in the OHSU School of Medicine. “Our work shows that it is possible to produce functional auditory hair cells in the mammalian cochlea.” ... more

8/28/2008 PERMALINK
Interesting papers from Rejuvenation Research
Interesting papers from this month's issue of the journal Rejuvenation Research:

• Identifying the Genes and Genetic Interrelationships Underlying the Impact of Calorie Restriction on Maximum Lifespan: An Artificial Intelligence-Based Approach ... more
• Aging, Stem Cells, and Mammalian Target of Rapamycin: A Prospect of Pharmacologic Rejuvenation of Aging Stem Cells ... more
• Long-Term Effects of Caloric Restriction or Exercise on DNA and RNA Oxidation Levels in White Blood Cells and Urine in Humans ... more
• Host Cell Mobilization for In Situ Tissue Regeneration ... more
• Exercise-Induced Activation of STAT3 Signaling Is Increased with Age ... more

8/28/2008 PERMALINK
Low levels of brain memory regulator BDNF may cause obesity A brain chemical that plays a role in long term memory also appears to be involved in regulating how much people eat and their likelihood of becoming obese. The National Institutes of Health study provides the first strong evidence that BDNF is important for body weight in human beings. The NIH researchers studied children and adults with WAGR syndrome, a rare genetic condition. The researchers found that some of the people with this syndrome lack a gene for BDNF and have correspondingly low blood levels of the substance. The people in this subgroup also have unusually large appetites and a strong tendency towards obesity. “This is a promising new lead in the search for biological pathways that contribute to obesity,” said Duane Alexander, M.D., director of the NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. “This finding may eventually lead to the development of new drugs to regulate appetite in people who have not had success with other treatments.” ... more

8/27/2008 PERMALINK
Can imbalances in gut microflora accelerate aging? Some researchers have estimated that humans may have 10 times more microbial cells living inside us than we have actual human cells in our bodies. Yet, scant attention has been given by most physicians to keeping these microbial colonies healthy and balanced. A side effect of antibiotics is that the body's microbial mix can be significantly altered by them. There has been some research recently that suggests microbial imbalances might be the cause of inflammation blamed for many diseases associated with aging.
"We think that imbalances in gut microflora lead to a chronic, low-level inflammation in the intestines and the presence of these inflammatory biomarkers in the bloodstream. The overall impact of these circulating biomarkers is unclear, but it's been suggested that they could negatively impact healthy tissues," said Liam O'Mahony, the lead investigator of a recent inflammation study. "The Bifantis results not only have great implications for the treatment of digestive conditions, but offer researchers a potentially new path of exploration around inflammation-based diseases like arthritis." Probiotic supplement have been shown to mitigate some digestive diseases, but might they also help slow down inflammation-related effects of aging throughout the body? More studies need to be done ... more

8/27/2008 PERMALINK
Tweaking brain's immune cells to attack dementia-causing plaque Microglia are cells found in the central nervous system that act as the brain’s immune cell. The human brain has approximately 14 billion microglia that patrol different areas of the brain and migrate to a site of injury to help restore normal functioning. Unfortunately, microglia don't normally attack the senile plaques that can accumulate with aging and cause brain dementia. But now, researchers at the University of British Columbia have discovered a new method of getting microglia to attack the plaques that is reminesent of putting a stick into a bees. nest to make the bees angry. The research team found that the plaques themselves are not sufficient microglial activators. But when the microglia were treated with an inflammatory stimulants, they will attacked the plaques. “It is very exciting to watch under a microscope the way these microglial cells gather around and attach to the plaques,” said Dr. Sadayuki Hashioka lead author on the paper ... more

8/27/2008 PERMALINK
Government's snoopbots getting more sophisticated New Scientist has a report on the new, ever more sophisticated technologies that your government is using to spy on you.

Technology companies, in particular telecommunications firms and internet service providers, have often been criticised for assisting governments in what many see as unwarranted intrusion, most notably in China. Now German electronics company Siemens has gone a step further, developing a complete "surveillance in a box" system called the Intelligence Platform, designed for security services in Europe and Asia. It has already sold the system to 60 countries. According to a document obtained by New Scientist, the system integrates tasks typically done by separate surveillance teams or machines, pooling data from sources such as telephone calls, email and internet activity, bank transactions and insurance records. It then sorts through this mountain of information using software that Siemens dubs "intelligence modules" ... more

8/27/2008 PERMALINK
Vote for your favorite mobile pod
The 5th Peugeot Design Competition is asking you to vote for your favorite car. For this competition, Peugeot invited young designers to imagine the Peugeot of the metropolises of tomorrow. This concept car should be designed to be driven in the large urban cities of the future, while exhibiting key values of the 21st century. Projects, while conveying Peugeot’s stylistic qualities, must incorporate four criteria specific to this design competition: environmental friendliness, social harmony, interactive mobility and economic efficiency.
Some of these are amazing personal transport concepts. I define a personal transport as a vehicle that you wouldn't feel like you were getting into, you would feel like you were putting it on. My personal favorite in the competition is a design from a Norwegian named Oskar Johansen. Oh, I so want one of those ... more

8/27/2008 PERMALINK
Does aging cause inflamation & inflamation cause cancer? From a research paper titled: Inflammation, ageing and cancer.

Cancer incidence and mortality rates of most human cancers increase consistently with age. A low-grade systemic inflammation characterizes aging and this pro-inflammatory status underlies biological mechanisms responsible for age-related inflammatory diseases. Clinical and epidemiological studies show a strong association between chronic infection, inflammation and cancer and indicate that even in tumors not directly linked to pathogens, the micro environment is characterized by the presence of a smoldering inflammation ... more

8/27/2008 PERMALINK
How disease-specific stem cells will reshape medicine MIT's Technology Review has posted an interview with Doug Melton, co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, explaining how the recent development of disease-specific stem cell lines (see: Twenty disease-specific stem cell lines created) will reshape medicine.

Technology Review: Why are disease-specific cell lines so important?

Doug Melton: If a patient has Parkinson's disease, their dopamine-producing cells are gone. We don't understand anything about what makes those cells go away--the field is kind of stuck because you can't watch the progression of the disease. Stem cells can make neurons in a dish. Imagine you have iPS cells from a healthy person and from a Parkinson's patient. If you make dopamine neurons from both sets of cells in separate dishes, you can look at what went wrong with the diseased stem cell.

That ability to compare is what makes the recent successful creation of these disease-specific stem cell lines by several different research groups around the world a much anticipated milestone in the regenerative medicine field ... more

8/27/2008 PERMALINK
New bot from Google makes your searching easier Google has implemented a new bot on their search engine's main page that produces a drop down list of potential possibilities that refines as you type in more. The new bot lets you click on a longer, very precise search string, after typing in just a word or two. Rankings in the drop down list are formulated based on the popularity of previous search requests similar to yours. You'll need to have scripts turned on in your browser for the new bot to work.
Wow, bots beats botox by 43 million to 11 million links, but botox still gets top billing, will the discrimination against bots never end? ... more

8/27/2008 PERMALINK
Achilles heel of 1918 & bird flu viruses found In a enormous breakthrough in the battle against viruses that can kill you, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and Rutgers University have reported a discovery that should quickly lead to the development of drugs to eliminate the threat posed by avian flu and other virulent strains of influenza. The researchers have determined the three-dimensional structure of a site on an influenza A virus protein that binds to a human protein target, thereby suppressing your natural defenses to the infection and paving the way for the virus to replicate efficiently inside your cells and kill you. This so-called NS1 virus protein is shared by all influenza A viruses isolated from humans, including avian influenza, or bird flu, and the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic virus that killed 50 million to 100 million worldwide. "Our work uncovers an Achilles heel of influenza A viruses that cause human epidemics and high mortality pandemics," said Gaetano T. Montelione, professor of molecular biology and biochemistry at Rutgers. "We have identified the structure of a key target site for drugs that could be developed to effectively combat this disease." So lets all hope that a flu pandemic stays away for another 2 or 3 years to allow time for drugs utilizing this 'achilles heal' to be developed. (Americans should hope for 10 or 12 years, to allow for the absurdly long approval process run by those Luddite Lunkheads at the FDA ~ Editor) ... more

8/27/2008 PERMALINK
Stress disrupts your immune system at the genetic level Gregory Miller and colleagues at Harvard Medical School have found that the pattern of gene expression differed between caregivers of family members with cancer relative to a matched group of individuals who did not have this type of life stress. They found that among the caregivers, even though they had normal cortisol levels in their blood, the pattern of gene expression in the monocytes, a type of white blood cell involved in the body's immune response, was altered so that they were relatively less responsive to the anti-inflammatory actions of cortisol, but relatively more responsive to pro-inflammatory actions of a transcription factor called nuclear factor-kappa B, or NF-κB. "Caregivers have similar cortisol levels as controls, their cells seem to be 'hearing' less of this signal," says Miller. "In other words, [due to chronic stress] something goes awry in caregivers' white blood cells so they are not able to 'receive' the signal from cortisol that tells them to shut down inflammation." ... more

8/27/2008 PERMALINK
Bot lets you ask the web more like you'd ask a person Ubiquity is a new bot that runs in the Firefox browser that lets you use natural language to control the web. It is a breakthrough bot that points the way towards making the web functional on a pocket device. Mozilla Labs says that Ubiquity empowers users to control the web browser with language-based instructions. (With search, users type what they want to find. With Ubiquity, they type what they want to do.) And enables on-demand, user-generated mashups with existing open Web APIs. (In other words, allowing everyone–not just Web developers–to remix the Web so it fits their needs, no matter what page they are on, or what they are doing.) ... more

8/27/2008 PERMALINK
Are digital drifters the workers of the future? The numbers of digital workers operating as ronin outside the normal structures are growing rapidly all around the globe. And a technologically sophisticated infrastructure is coalescing to support them. The cyberpunk novels written towards the end of the last century predicted this. They also predicted a vibrant life extension and human modification and enhancement industry existing outside those stuctures in a netherworld of medically sophisticated ronin. I wonder if, given the resistance from the FDA and other elements of our ossified institutions, that is how it is going to have to be? ... more

8/27/2008 PERMALINK
The amazingly instant plasticity of your brain Researchers have known for many years that when vision is lost, a person's senses of touch and hearing become enhanced. But exactly how the human brain accomplishes this has been unclear.
Now a long-term study from the Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) demonstrates that sudden and complete loss of vision leads to profound, but rapidly reversible, changes in the visual cortex.
"The brain's ability to reorganize itself is much greater than previously believed," explains senior author Alvaro Pascual-Leone, MD, PhD, Director of the Berenson-Allen Center and Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School (HMS). "In our studies [in which a group of sighted study subjects were blindfolded for five days], we have shown that even in an adult, the normally developed visual system quickly becomes engaged to process touch in response to complete loss of sight. The speed and dynamic nature of the changes we observed suggest that rather than establishing new nerve connections – which would take a long time – the visual cortex is unveiling abilities that are normally concealed when sight is intact." ... more

8/26/2008 PERMALINK
Life extending calorie restriction does not cut cell's energy level Restricting the diet of a number of different types of lab animals has been shown to make them live much longer than normal. Now, new research shows that calorie-restricted cells make just as much ATP — the cellular fuel molecule — as do cells of animals fed a normal diet.
Organisms apparently are somehow able to live longer with less intake of food, without any decrease in cellular energy. “It’s not a starvation; it’s just a specific sort of remodeling of the cells’ metabolism in a way that also causes the organism to live longer,” says research leader Vladimir Titorenko, a molecular biologist at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada ... more

8/26/2008 PERMALINK
How to survive in a deadly viral pandemic
The mass media has dropped the story for now, but pandemic disease experts are still urgently warning that bird flu and other deadly viral outbreaks are constantly popping up all around the world. And given the amount of travel in today's globalized world, a pandemic is just a matter of time.
As you will learn from the panel discussion on the episode of the Charlie Rose show linked below, when it comes, it will come at you fast and furiously. Relying on your government to protect you is a potentially fatal mistake. The only way to insure survival is to have the tools necessary in place before the pandemic hits. After it hits, important survival tools will be unavailable. WATCH THIS SHOW!
The experts recommend stockpiling N95 masks, surgical gloves, and alcohol hand sanitizer gel. But since going out into a pandemic always entails risk, ideally you should have enough food stored to let you hold up until the pandemic burns through the population and burns itself out. This can take 2 months. If you live in an apartment, you will need tape to seal up bathroom, kitchen and any other vents that may connect to common ducts with other apartments and around doors opening into interior building hallways. The key to surviving a viral pandemic is being able to isolate yourself from exposure to the virus ... watch

8/26/2008 PERMALINK
New insights into how to keep your cells youthful When cells divide, telomeres – the tails of repetitive DNA that extend from the ends of each chromosome – become progressively shorter. Telomeres function like cellular clocks: as they become critically stubby cells are no longer capable of dividing and undergo growth arrest termed cellular "senescence". Fortunately, over the course of a cell's lifetime, an enzyme complex known as telomerase works to restore telomeres to a more youthful length after each cell division. Caring for the ends of chromosomes known as telomeres, require interacting crews of proteins, all with a common goal but each with a specialized task.
Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies led by Vicki Lundblad, Ph.D., a Professor in the Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory, had found that the Est1 and Est3 proteins orchestrate the process. But just how the two proteins ensured that things run smoothly was still unclear. A computer-generated 3-D model (see photo) enabled identification of the amino acid residues (shown in red) that allow Est3 to interact with the telomerase ... more

8/26/2008 PERMALINK
Are you younger physiologically than your calendar age? At present, the best experimental approach to that question is to inspect your driver’s license; we are very good at measuring chronological age, but far worse at measuring physiological age. Understatement alert: It would be nice to have access to a biological measurement (or series of measurements) that allowed us to determine an individual’s physiological age. Until we have such a tool, questions like “how rapidly is this individual aging?” and “is this treatment having a positive effect on the rate of aging?” will remain unanswerable. Telomere length is a tantalizing biomarker for the aging process: it’s positively correlated with life expectancy and negatively correlated with stress and disease ... more

8/26/2008 PERMALINK
Discovering where guilt & depression reside in your brain Dr Roland Zahn, a clinical neuroscientist in The University of Manchester's School of Psychological Sciences and his colleagues, have used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan the brains of 29 healthy individuals while they considered certain social behaviors. The findings chart the regions of the brain that interact to link knowledge about socially appropriate behavior with different moral feelings, depending on the context in which the social behavior occurs. "The most distinctive feature of depressive disorders is an exaggerated negative attitude to oneself, which is typically accompanied by feelings of guilt," he said. "Now that we understand how the brains of healthy individuals respond to feelings of guilt, we hope to be able to better understand why and where there are differences in brain activity in people suffering from, or prone to, depression ... more

8/26/2008 PERMALINK
Will bots leave humans in their dust? Vernor Vinge is the computer and mathematics professor who popularized the idea of a singularity, where technological advances start to happen so swiftly they become impossible for an ordinary human to comprehend. In an article and interview in the NY Times, Vinge talks about how either Intelligence Amplification (I.A.) of humans or Artificially Intelligence (A.I.) machines are going to dominate the future. Unmodified humans won't stand a chance and his new novel, Rainbow's End, set in a singularity future ... more ... more (reg req for both links)

8/25/2008 PERMALINK
Did altruism & charity evolved from monkeys? Researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University have shown capuchin monkeys, just like humans, find giving to be a satisfying experience. This finding comes on the coattails of a recent imaging study in humans that documented activity in reward centers of the brain after humans gave to charity. Evidently, what we thought was the uniquely human charitable impulse is just brain chemistry that we share with other primate species ... more

8/25/2008 PERMALINK
Sensory extension & personal protection bot swarms European and Indian researchers are applying principles learned from living organisms to design self-organising networks of wireless sensors suitable for a wide range of environmental monitoring purposes. “Living systems are intrinsically robust against cells dying or being damaged,” says Sergio Barbarossa of the University of Rome 'La Sapienza', who is the scientific coordinator of WINSOC. “The behavior of most organs is an emerging feature, resulting from the interaction of many cells, where no cell is particularly robust or even aware of the whole behavior.”
This early work is moving us rapidly towards swarms of smart micro and nano bots surround each of us, extending our senses, warning and protecting us from all hazards and annoyances we might have otherwise encountered ... more

8/25/2008 PERMALINK
Number killed annually by FDA bureacrats skyrocketing
The tragic death toll caused by the FDA bureaucrats keeping treatments that save lives unavailable in America for years and years after they are available in Europe, Asia and elsewhere, just keeps rising. As FuturePundit recently pointed out:

Why do terminally ill patients have to wait so long to get access to the only treatments that hold any promise of saving their lives? And why is it not their right to decide?
The problem has been magnified in recent years as the number of new drug approvals has fallen dramatically. The FDA approved just 16 new drugs last year, and is on pace to approve only 18 this year. That's down from a high of 53 in 1996 and 39 in 1997.
After a few high-profile drug scares, such as the 2004 withdrawal of Vioxx from the market, FDA officials have become gun-shy about approving new products. After all, the agency receives scathing criticism from Congress and the press when an approved drug turns out to be more risky than expected -- but rarely for keeping beneficial ones off the market.

It is likely that tens of thousands of additional deaths will occur this year as a result of the work of the Luddite Lunkheads at the FDA. And you can just forget rejuvenation and life extension therapies, because the FDA doesn't even have a category for those types of treatments, and no category sends the signal 'das ist verboten' to all researchers considering the development of such treatments ... more

8/25/2008 PERMALINK
MIT codes up a smarter pattern recognition bot Our brains are great at picking out patterns, our computers, not so much. We can look at a line of trees and immediately see the face peeking out from behind one of them, while computers quickly bog down trying to plow through the tremendous amount of data from in an unstructured, real-world environment.
However now, in what will be a major advance in artificial intelligence if true, MIT claims to have a new bot that can help computers recognize patterns the same way that humans do. The bot is able to quickly analyze an overview of a set of data, to figure out which type of organizational structure best fits it. "Instead of looking for a particular kind of structure, we came up with a broader algorithm that is able to look for all of these structures and weigh them against each other," said Josh Tenenbaum, an associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT and senior author of the paper. The bot considers a range of possible data structures, such as trees, linear orders, rings, dominance hierarchies, clusters, etc. It finds the best-fitting structure of each type for a given data set and then picks the type of structure that best represents the data ... more

8/25/2008 PERMALINK
Hot tube-size nuclear 'battery' powers 20,000 homes
A new type of nuclear generator invented by Los Alamos National Laboratory's award-winning scientist Dr. Otis Peterson is only about the width of a residential “hot tub”(1.5 meters), but can produce enough electricity to power 20,000 average American homes for seven to ten years for a cost of around $25 to $30 million or only about $15 to $20 per home per month.
Unlike today's large-scale reactors, this device employs a uranium hydride process that has no cooling water to overheat nor any moving parts inside the reactor that can fail, making it much safer than the old-style nuclear reactors that are supply 20% of America's electricity today.
The unit is a sealed module that is buried underground, out of sight and harm’s way that is never even opened on site. It just sits underground like a large battery, supplying power for approximately 5 years, before being taken back to the factory to be refueled and used again ... more

8/25/2008 PERMALINK
OpenCog development tutorial sessions available OpenCog is a free and open source software project aimed at providing a generic framework for the development of smart bot code. The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence's Director of Research, Dr. Ben Goertzel, will be running weekly tutorial sessions on OpenCogPrime from September 2008 through January 2009. Each session will center on a chapter of the OpenCog Wiki book. OpenCog is a promising open source code platform for developing useful smart bots ... more

See also: Project aims for open source bots as smart as humans

8/25/2008 PERMALINK
Google's new bot that can speed up your web surfing Google's new Web Accelerator bot uses a variety of strategies to make your web pages load faster, including: Sending your page requests through Google machines dedicated to handling Google Web Accelerator traffic. Storing copies of frequently looked at pages to make them quickly accessible. Downloading only the updates if a web page has changed slightly since you last viewed it. Prefetching certain pages onto your computer in advance. Managing your Internet connection to reduce delays. Compressing data before sending it to your computer. Google Web Accelerator runs on either Firefox or Explorer ... more

8/24/2008 PERMALINK
Game bot teaches real world 'experience' Conventional wisdom holds that 'experience' isn't something that you can teach in a school. It can only be accumulated gradually over many long years of sweat out in the field. However, European researchers beg to differ. They say that they have developed a game-bot that helps players acquire real-life skills and actual realistic 'experience' through game play.
Their game called ChangeMasters is focused on teaching change management, a vital executive function in today's fast evolving world. Responding to dynamic markets, changing consumers preferences, a competitor's new strategy or product innovation, apparently now can be learned by simply playing a game.
Ikea, Fiat, the Scottish government, Cambridge and INSEAD in Europe, Yale, MIT, Stanford and many others in the USA, and CEIBS, the top Chinese school are all using ChangeMasters to teach the equivalent of real world 'experience' say the developers ... more ... more

8/24/2008 PERMALINK
Impermeable nano-branes just a single atom thick Nano-scale graphene sheets demonstrate yet another incredible ability, as scientists from the Cornell Center for Materials Research at Cornell University fabricate a graphene membrane that is impermeable to standard gases including helium.
Single atom thick graphene can create extremely durable balloons that are thinner and lighter than anything previously thought possible.
Where might this research lead? Better bio-hazard protection? Transparent space suits? Huge, solar collecting balloons that can float for years high up in the atmosphere, beaming power back down to the surface or perhaps even upward to drive a space elevator traveling along a carbon fiber cable? Who knows ... more

See also: Concept of space elevator proven to be practical

8/24/2008 PERMALINK
Better bio-chip fabs offer protein scanning breakthrough Scientists at The University of Manchester have developed a new, much faster method of fabricating biological ‘chips’ that promises quicker testing for serious diseases, faster detection of infections and more rapid discovery of new drugs.
Protein chips, or ‘protein arrays’ as they are more commonly known, have proteins attached to them that allows important scientific data about the behavior of proteins to be rapidly gathered.
The Manchester team of Dr Lu Shin Wong, Dr Jenny Thirlway and Prof Jason Micklefield say the technical challenges of attaching proteins in a reliable way have previously held back the widespread application and development of protein chips, but now their lab has found a reliable new way of attaching active proteins to a chip. In a significant advance over existing techniques, the attachment occurs in a single step in just a few hours and requires no prior chemical modification of the protein or additional chemical steps ... more

8/24/2008 PERMALINK
Hilarious movie of bot avatars learning to walk The BBC has a hilarious movie of robot avatars of different shapes and sizes trying to learn how to walk. The movie is from research that was recently presented at the Artificial Live XI conference. "In the beginning, we just drop a robot into a space. But they don't know anything, so they don't do anything," said Professor Ralf Der of the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences in Leipzig. The neural network eventually picks up on electronic noise, which causes small motions. It eventually tries larger motions as it learns about its range of movement. "It's like a newborn baby, said Der, "It doesn't know anything but tries motions that are natural for its body. Half an hour later, it's rolling and jumping." ... more

See also: Co-operating bot swarms shown at Artificial Life XI

8/24/2008 PERMALINK
Teaching bots to see and respond to human 'tells' Humans are constantly giving off detectable changes in behavior that indicate what they are thinking or what they are about to do. Poker players call it a 'tell.'
Sanjay Joshi and colleagues from the University of California at Davis are trying to teach bots how to learn by studying and modeling how infant rats and other animals learn coordination and how to pick up 'tells' from each other. The robot shown in the photo was designed with the same basic senses and motor skills as a rat pup.
Recently, Joshi's lab has been working on getting robots to pick up on cues from a leader and follow, (see Following Controller for Autonomous Mobile Robots Using Behavioral Cues). They hope to eventually be able to code bots to be able to pick up subtile human 'tells,' like the way that walking humans tend to turn their heads slightly in the direction they will go, just before making a turn ... more ... more

8/24/2008 PERMALINK
Discovering why your body sometimes attacks itself Scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have found a mechanism in the immune system, which when turned off, causes the development of autoimmune disease. The findings shed light on the processes that lead to the development of autoimmunity and could also have implications for the development of drugs to increase the immune response in diseases. Collaborating with Belgium scientists, NIH researchers created a mouse without the enzyme furin in T cells and discovered that mice without furin in these cells developed systemic autoimmune disease. The immune systems of the mice attacked their own cells and tissues throughout their bodies.
"We already know that furin seems to have roles in a variety of human diseases, such as cancer, cystic fibrosis and infectious diseases," says lead author Marko Pesu, Ph.D., in the NIAMS' Molecular Immunology and Inflammation Branch. "These findings show that having no furin in certain immune system cells can increase the immune response and lead to autoimmune disease in mice." ... more

See also: Blocking DR3 cell receptors prevents autoimmune disorders

8/23/2008 PERMALINK
Are DNA repairs reshaping the human genome? Researchers at Duke University Medical Center and at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) have shown how broken sections of chromosomes can recombine to change genomes and spawn new species. "People have discovered high levels of repeated sequences in the genomes of most higher species and spun theories about why there are so many repeats," said Lucas Argueso, Ph.D., a research scholar in Duke's Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology. "We have been able to show with yeast that these repeated sequences allow the formation of new types of chromosomes (chromosome aberrations), and represent one important way of diversifying the genome. Every so often the rearrangements may be advantageous. Those particular differences may prove to be more successful in natural selection and eventually you may get a new species." ... more

8/22/2008 PERMALINK
Intel working on shape shifting nano-computers Intel's CTO, Justin Rattner, during his keynote at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, predicted major advances in human-machine interfaces with some promising changes coming much sooner than expected. "There is speculation that we may be approaching an inflection point where the rate of technology advancements is accelerating at an exponential rate," said Rattner. "And machines could even overtake humans in their ability to reason."
Rattner pointed out that Intel researchers are already investigating how millions of tiny micro-robots, called catoms, could build shape-shifting materials. If used to replace the case, display and keyboard of a computing device, this technology could make it possible for a device to change physical form in order to suit the specific way you are using it. A mobile computer, for example, could be tiny when in a pocket, change to the shape of an earpiece when used as a mobile phone, and be large and flat with a keyboard for browsing the Internet or watching a movie ... more

8/22/2008 PERMALINK
Coiled carbon nanotubes formed into springs A team of Clemson University researchers, led by Apparao Rao, professor of physics, has invented a way to make beds of tiny, shock-absorbing carbon nano-springs, which could protect delicate objects from damaging impacts. With collaborators at the University of California at San Diego, the team has shown that layers of these tiny springs called coiled carbon nanotubes, each a thousand times smaller than a human hair, can act as extremely resilient shock absorbers. "Because our current method produces coiled nanotubes quickly in high yield, it can be readily scaled up to industrial levels," said Rao. "After formation, the coiled nanotubes can be peeled off in one piece and placed on other surfaces to form instant cushioning coatings." ... more

8/22/2008 PERMALINK
A.I. guru Ben Goertzel talks about the humods future If you have some transit time to kill, here is an interesting audio interview from The Future and You podcast with artificial intelligence researcher Ben Goertzel ... MP3 interview
Goertzel understands that the destiny of humans is to evolve into humods and get off this rock and colonize the galaxy. To do that three things are necessary, longer lifespans, a direct net-to-brain interface, and an army of smart bots to command over that interface.
Goertzel founded and is CEO of Novamente, a company that is working on a cognition engine to make those smart bots (or intelligent agents in A.I. speak) a reality ... more

8/22/2008 PERMALINK
Connecting an implant to your neurons By infusing water-soluble polymers with neurotrophins, proteins that help neurons grow and survive, Jessica O. Winter, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Ohio State University and colleagues have found a way to make neural implants work better. "We're trying to get the nerve tissue to integrate with a device -- to grow into it to form a better connection," Winter said. They are combining different polymers, some shaped like tiny spheres and fibers, to create composite coatings that release neurotrophins in a steady dose over time. The coatings also give nerves a scaffold to cling to as they grow around an implant ... more

8/22/2008 PERMALINK
Disease causing DNA mutations in 1 of 200 babies Researchers at the University of Newcastle, England, and the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech in the United States have revealed a large reservoir of mitochondrial DNA mutations present in the general population. Clinical analysis of blood samples from almost 3,000 infants born in north Cumbria, England, showed that at least 1 in 200 individuals in the general public harbor mitochondrial DNA mutations that may lead to disease ... more

8/21/2008 PERMALINK
Sugar breaks down your brain's ability to resist Key appetite control cells in the human brain are damaged as you age by eating lots of carbs and sugars, causing increased hunger and potentially weight-gain as you grow older. The research by Dr Zane Andrews, a neuroendocrinologist with Monash University's Department of Physiology found that your brain's appetite-suppressing cells come under heavier attack from free radicals after eating meals rich in carbohydrates and sugars. "The more carbs and sugars you eat, the more your appetite-control cells are damaged, and potentially you consume more," Dr Andrews said ... more

8/21/2008 PERMALINK
Molecule can keep bacteria from making you sick
Scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center led by Dr. Vanessa Sperandio, associate professor of microbiology and biochemistry, have found a new way to prevent the bacteria that cause gastroenteritis, tularemia and severe diarrhea from making you sick. The researchers found that the molecule LED209 can interfere with the biochemical signals of the bacteria, stopping them from releasing the toxins that make you sick. The research offers a promising new approach to combating the increasing microbial resistance to traditional antibiotics ... more

8/21/2008 PERMALINK
Getting your anti-tumor genes to fight like ninjas The PTEN tumor suppressor gene is frequently lost or mutated; in fact, PTEN is one of the most frequently mutated of all tumor suppressors. But now, a new study defines a pathway that maintains PTEN in the nucleus and offer a new target for enhancing this gene's tumor suppressive function. "Our laboratory recently discovered that even when PTEN is produced normally by a cell, it has to be properly localized within the nucleus in order to maintain its full tumor suppressive abilities," explains senior author Pier Paolo Pandolfi, MD, PhD, Director of Basic Research in BIDMC's Cancer Center and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School ... more

8/21/2008 PERMALINK
AQUA personal submarine for ocean colonization
The AQUA personal submarine is designer Sungchul Yang's effort to make ocean colonization practical by providing a basic transportation system capable of sailing both on and under the ocean's surface. What Ford's Model T did for personal mobility on land, this watercraft is designed to do for personal mobility at sea ... more

8/21/2008 PERMALINK
More insanity from medical regulatory bureaucrats Luddite medical regulators in California and New York appear determined to prevent you from getting information about your own genes that can tell you how much risk you have of developing various diseases. Offered over the net by companies like 23andMe, backed by the same people that brought you Google, these test should be available online to anyone that wants them.
But Luddite medical regulators don't see it that way. They want to ban these test outright, or if public outcry prevents them from doing that, then they will try to make it cost far more by requiring the tests to be ordered only through a doctor.
This is the same Luddite logic found at the federal government's FDA, which kills tens of thousands of sick Americans annual by withholding approvals of promising treatments in this country for years after they are saving lives elsewhere around the world. If we abolished the FDA tomorrow, a few more lives would be lost to experimental treatments that did not work, but far more lives would be saved each year by not having every major advance delayed for years in this country after they are available in Europe and elsewhere ... more (registration required)
See also: The luddite logic of medical regulatory bureaucrats

8/21/2008 PERMALINK
A growth factor that makes your brain grow larger Athletes have been using growth factors to increase the size of their muscles for many years, now Yale University researchers lead by Ronald Duman, Professor of Psychiatry and Pharmacology and Director of the Division of Molecular Psychiatry have found that the size of a key area of the brain involved in memory and mood disorders is controlled by variation in a growth factor gene (vascular endothelial growth factor, or VEGF) that also is know to influence blood vessel growth. Yale University researchers have been at the forefront of the hunt for genes that stimulate the growth of new neurons, a process called neurogenesis ... more

8/21/2008 PERMALINK
Not all fat is bad, brown fat makes you thinner Two new studies delve into the secrets of the body's 'good' fat ~ brown fat:
A study by researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center has shown that a protein known for its role in inducing bone growth can also help promote the development of brown fat, a "good" fat that helps in the expenditure of energy and plays a role in fighting obesity ... more
A surprise discovery -- that calorie-burning brown fat can be produced experimentally from muscle precursor cells in mice -- raises the prospect of new ways to fight obesity and overweight, say scientists from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute ... more

8/20/2008 PERMALINK
New nano-positioners with atomic-scale precision The device, called a monolithic comb drive, might be used as a "nanoscale manipulator" that precisely moves or senses movement and forces. The devices also can be used in watery environments for probing biological molecules, said Jason Vaughn Clark, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and mechanical engineering, who created the design.
The monolithic comb drives could make it possible to improve a class of probe-based sensors that detect viruses and biological molecules. The sensors detect objects using two different components: A probe is moved while at the same time the platform holding the specimen is positioned. The new technology would replace both components with a single one - the monolithic comb drive.
The innovation could allow sensors to work faster and at higher resolution and would be small enough to fit on a microchip. The higher resolution might be used to design future computer hard drives capable of high-density data storage and retrieval. Another possible use might be to fabricate or assemble miniature micro and nanoscale machines.
The size of the entire device is less than one millimeter, or a thousandth of a meter. The smallest feature size is about three micrometers, roughly one-thirtieth as wide as a human hair. "You can make them smaller, though," said the developers.
The work is based at the Birck Nanotechnology Center at Purdue's Discovery Park ... more

8/20/2008 PERMALINK
Microbatteries to power your implants & wearware The energy for tomorrow's miniature electronic devices could come from tiny microbatteries about half the size of a human cell and built with viruses. MIT engineers have developed a way to at once create and install such microbatteries -- which could one day power a range of miniature devices, from labs-on-a-chip to implantable medical sensors -- by stamping them onto a variety of surfaces.
The team describes assembling and successfully testing two of the three key components of a battery. A complete battery is on its way. "To our knowledge, this is the first instance in which microcontact printing has been used to fabricate and position microbattery electrodes and the first use of virus-based assembly in such a process," wrote MIT professors Paula T. Hammond, Angela M. Belcher, Yet-Ming Chiang and colleagues. Further, the technique itself "does not involve any expensive equipment, and is done at room temperature," said Belcher, the Germeshausen Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Biological Engineering ... more

8/20/2008 PERMALINK
Got A Robot Vacuum Cleaning Up My Life Users tend to love the little Roomba, the first truly useful household bot. So much so, that it has now even inspired a pretty good little music video. If you've got a few minutes to spare, check it out ... watch

8/20/2008 PERMALINK
Extending your senses across an army of 'motes'
The picture of a future with wireless sensor networks--webs of sensory devices that function without a central infrastructure--is quickly coming into sharper focus through the work of Los Alamos National Laboratory computer scientist Sami Ayyorgun. "It's not easy to envision the impacts that sensor networks will make, both socially and economically," Ayyorgun said. "Like many other researchers, I think they are likely to rival the impact that the Internet has made on our lives."
Imagine routinely enhancing your own senses via a connection to a local networks of small, independently powered nanobots, often called motes. These motes would use each other to relay signals, transmitting communiqués through a series of "hops" from one mote to the next and ultimately into a wearware or implanted device in you. This research brings that day closer ... more

8/20/2008 PERMALINK
New Method to Grow Human Embryonic Stem Cells Noboru Sato, a stem-cell scientist at University of California Riverside has devised a method of growing Human Embryonic Stem Cells (hESCs) in the lab that uses no animal-derived materials – an important advance in the use of hESCs for future medical purposes. hESCs offer tremendous potential cell therapy to reverse the various degenerative effects of aging ... more

8/20/2008 PERMALINK
Self-assembling nanochips break the size barrier Using molecules that can assemble themselves into precise patterns, researchers at MIT's Nanostructures Laboratory have come up with a way of beating size limitations that would otherwise crimp improvements in data-storage media and electronic microchips. Called block copolymers, these self-assembling moleculars have been known for many years, but the problem was that the regular patterns they produced were well-ordered only over very small areas. The MIT researchers found a way to combine this self-assembly with conventional lithographic chip-making technology, so that the lithographic patterns provide a set of "anchors" to hold the structure in place, while the self-assembling molecules fill in the fine detail between the anchors. The work, carried out by three MIT professors and three graduate students, is necessary for the development of tiny but powerful wearable and implantable smart bots ... more

8/20/2008 PERMALINK
Wearable smart nano-sensor mods your posture The secret of the iPosture is WINS ^TM, or Wearable Intelligent Nano-Sensor, a microchip that monitors stance several times every second. The iPosture is worn close to the skin of the chest and operates on a coin-size battery. It warns the user when detecting any deviation greater than just three degrees from the chosen posture that lasts longer than one minute. Specialied software filters spurious movements, which allows the iPosture to adapt to a variety of activities and body types. It can be worn clipped to the shirt or bra, as a necklace, or attached to the skin with special adhesive patches ... more

8/20/2008 PERMALINK
Human stem cells found to trigger immune response In what could be a major setback for potential human embryonic stem cell therapies. The cells have been found to trigger an immune response in mice, researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine report. The finding suggests that the effectiveness of human therapies derived from the cells could be limited unless ways are found to dampen the rejection response. The researchers found the immune response in mice could be mitigated by the use of common antirejection medications. Overall, the work indicated that, contrary to previous suggestions, the immune system is not blind to the presence of foreign embryonic stem cells. “It’s getting harder and harder to believe that these cells are immunoprivileged,” said Joseph Wu, MD, PhD, assistant professor of cardiovascular medicine and of radiology. “In fact, the rejection of these cells confirms our suspicions that they do cause an immune response.” ... more

8/20/2008 PERMALINK
Red blood cells lab grown from embryonic stem cells

Blood donations could soon be a thing of the past, now that the first functional red blood cells hve been grown in the lab from human embryonic stem cells (ESCs). "You wouldn't have to worry about shortages because you could create as many as you want," says Robert Lanza, chief scientist at Advanced Cell Technology, a company specializing in applying stem cell technology in the field of regenerative medicine, which grew the red blood cells in their lab ... more

8/20/2008 PERMALINK
Limbs saved by menstrual blood stem cells Cells obtained from menstrual blood, termed 'endometrial regenerative cells' (ERCs) are capable of restoring blood flow in an animal model of advanced peripheral artery disease. When circulation-blocked mice were treated with ERC injections, circulation and functionality were restored. Critical limb ischemia causes approximately 150,000 amputations per year in the US. Currently there are no medical or surgical interventions that are effective in the advanced stages of the disease. ERCs are cells taken from menstrual blood that are capable of forming into at least 9 different tissue types, including heart, liver and lung.
"The advantage of ERCs is that they can be used in an 'off the shelf' manner, meaning they can be delivered to the point of care, do not require matching, and are easily injectable without the need for complex equipment," said Dr. Michael Murphy, a vascular surgeon from Indiana University and lead author of this study. Dr. Murphy has already performed clinical trials with adult stem cells for patients with peripheral artery disease ... more

8/20/2008 PERMALINK
Biomarkers reveal our biological age
The exact processes involved in human aging are still puzzling. Scientists working with Lenhard Rudolph and Hong Jiang from the Max Planck Research Group for Stem Cell Aging in Ulm have now identified a group of proteins that reveal the biological age of a person. These biomarkers could be used in medicine to adapt therapies for older people to their individual biological age. Chronological age does not necessarily correspond to biological age. "Many older people have a very good ability to regenerate, even better than some younger people," says Lenhard Rudolph, who headed the study. The shortening of telomeres and DNA damage, which they brought about in the study through radiation, led to an overlapping reaction in the human cells and the affected cells release marker proteins. "A significant increase can be shown to be associated with aging and age-related diseases," Rudolph sums up. In the image, telomeres (dyed red) are the end pieces of the chromosomes. As cells age, telomeres become shorter and some chromosomes eventually lose their ends completely and cells are no longer able to divide. ... more

8/20/2008 PERMALINK
Growing human replacement organs and limbs Salamanders and newts are the only vertebrates that can grow entire organs and replacement limbs as adults. Researchers at universities in California and Kentucky are working to uncover the molecular tricks that make this possible for these vertebrates. They hope to ultimately discovery a method that will allow humans to regrow damaged organ tissue or even grow new limbs as readily as salamanders and newts can do ... more

8/20/2008 PERMALINK
Running slows down your aging clock Regular running slows the effects of aging, according to a new study from Stanford University School of Medicine that has tracked 500 older runners for more than 20 years. Elderly runners have fewer disabilities, a longer span of active life and are half as likely as aging nonrunners to die early deaths, the research found. "The study has a very pro-exercise message," said James Fries, MD, an emeritus professor of medicine at the medical school and the study's senior author. "If you had to pick one thing to make people healthier as they age, it would be aerobic exercise." ... more

8/20/2008 PERMALINK
When stem cells in the brain go bad, tumors result ~ An aggressive childhood brain tumor known as medulloblastoma originates in normal brain "stem" cells that turn malignant when acted on by a known mutant, cancer-causing oncogene, say researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the University of California, San Francisco. "We now have a better idea of where these brain tumors come from and their relationship to normal stem cells in the brain," said Keith Ligon, MD, PhD, co-senior author of the report and an investigator at the Center for Molecular Oncologic Pathology at Dana-Farber ... more

8/19/2008 PERMALINK
Never worry about charging your cell phone again By harvesting sufficient energy from normal daily motion, M2E can power a significant number of mobile electronic devices. M2E's patent-pending technology delivers three to seven times more power than competing kinetic energy solutions. It can provide soldiers on the battlefield with continuously self-recharging power for mission-critical electronics or keep your cell phone constantly charged just from your normal daily motion ... more