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From the LA Times: Italian researchers have used a defanged version of HIV to replace faulty genes — and eliminate devastating symptoms — in children suffering two rare and fatal genetic diseases. Improved gene therapy techniques prevented the onset of

That’s the hope of Dr. Irving Weissman of Stanford University. According to Science Magazine: A single drug can shrink or cure human breast, ovary, colon, bladder, brain, liver, and prostate tumors that have been transplanted into mice, researchers have found.

This is an incredibly sad piece of news, since things originally seemed to be going so well. It is important to note, however, that Hannah did not die due to her new windpipe failing — the new organ worked well.

It’s well known that there are great disparities in life expectancy around the world and within the US, but how many people know the numbers for their neighborhoods? Today I dug into the data for San Mateo County and found

Another beautiful case of the ‘old’ not really being quite so old. 80-year-old Yuichiro Miura reached the top of Everest and called his daughter, saying that “This is the best feeling in the world.” Gotta love it. Here’s the WSJ

From Singularity Hub: When we age, all parts of our body deteriorate over time. But while aging as a whole might be an accumulation of disparate processes, scientists have long wondered if it might be controlled by some central location

Cross-Posted from Singularityweblog.com: Just last month, regenerative medicine scored another solid victory by saving a toddler’s life. Yet, disappointingly, the news came and went without much follow-on thought. Hannah Warren, a Korean-Canadian girl who is now two years old, was

Attorney Michelle Crosby has written a thoughtful piece at the Huffington Post about family structure and the issues we will face once people are living radically longer and healthier lives. She writes that, “Someday, your child or grandchild may live

Here’s a nice summary of the research from the WSJ: Dr. de Peppo and his colleagues used a method known as reprogramming to transform human skin cells into embryonic-like stem cells, which can become all other cells in the body.

“A 2-year-old girl born without a windpipe now has a new one grown from her own stem cells, the youngest patient in the world to benefit from the experimental treatment.” Read more here from AP. And here’s a quote from