Technology & Society
Another article on organ growing from the WSJ: Inside a warren of rooms buried in the basement of Gregorio Marañón hospital here, Dr. Aviles and his team are at the sharpest edge of the bioengineering revolution that has turned the
From the WSJ: Researchers reported fresh evidence Wednesday that using gene therapy to manipulate the immune system is emerging as a promising new strategy in the fight against cancer. Five patients with a lethal leukemia achieved complete and rapid remissions
From Singularity Hub: In the world of genomics, Chinese biotech giant BGI is big and getting bigger. The firm agreed to purchase Bay Area juggernaut Complete Genomics for a bargain basement $117 million in 2012. BGI owns 156 DNA sequencers
This was delivered in Venice Beach. Here’s a link to the full program.
From Bloomberg: Muscle damaged by heart attacks can be repaired by an injectable gel that forms scaffolding, attracting stem cells and blood vessels in a study that may lead to a new method for reducing heart failure. The technique, studied
Dr. Doris Taylor is doing great work over at the Texas Heart Institute. Here’s an article about her team using pig hearts as scaffolds for human heart stem cells.
Can be found here (requires free registration).
From Huff Po: Researchers at Stanford University have created HIV-resistant T-cells, a breakthrough that, if proven successful in humans, could potentially stop the virus from developing into AIDS. The discovery was announced in Tuesday’s issue of Molecular Therapy, and according
From Reuters: Doctors in Sweden have replaced a vital blocked blood vessel in a 10-year-old girl using the first vein grown in a lab from a patient’s own stem cells. The successful transplant operation, reported online in The Lancet medical
A good article on gene therapy from The Scientist: The concept is simple: if a mutated gene is causing a problem, replace or supplement it with a new, accurate copy. In theory, such a strategy could not just treat, but
The DOD is funding a lot of great work in regenerative medicine. Here’s yet another example developed at the University of Georgia’s Regenerative Bioscience Center. Thanks, DOD (and the folks over at DARPA).
Here’s a great article from PandoDaily discussing what gene sequencing companies like Halcyon might do now that another company (Oxford Nanopore) has managed to do cheap, fast, sequencing first. Halcyon board member Elon Musk has this to say: Halcyon has
Vivek Wadhwa, who has just joined us at Singularity University, wrote this article for the Washington Post on hacking DNA. Much of his argument echos what I say in 100 Plus: “Just as the personal computer revolution brought information technology
Here’s a link to my recent interview with ‘Big Think’ where I mentioned Timothy Brown, the only man who has ever been cured of AIDS.
Last weekend’s Singularity Summit in NYC was an excellent event. I enjoyed meeting many smart folks interested in future tech issues. Here’s an article from MSNBC about the event, as well as a photo taken by my friend Steve Rosenbaum:
From GenomeWeb News: The Obama Administration is asking the biomedical and biotech industries and research communities for their ideas about what steps the country should take to support and advance biological research innovation and business. The White House’s Office of
This is important news: Researchers have shown they can reverse the aging process for human adult stem cells, which are responsible for helping old or damaged tissues regenerate. The findings could lead to medical treatments that may repair a host
Researchers funded by the UK-based Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have discovered a new mechanism controlling ageing in white blood cells. The research, published in the September issue of the Journal of Immunology, opens up the possibility of
Dr. Atala of Wake Forest University is one of the leaders in the field of regenerative medicine — a true hero. Here’s a recent op-ed he wrote for CNN on the topic.
This is an amazing article about (70 year old!) Harvard Professor George Whitesides. He’s working to create cheap diagnostics for developing countries and he tells the reporter this: My view of the health care worker of the future is not