Biotech | News Odyssey

Biotech Disease Breakthroughs

01 August 2019 News Odyssey An ordered list of links for each blog series is on the Archive page. (0)

Angus Liu | June 26, 2019 | FierceBiotech.com

Link between Parkinson's disease and the gut?

Public Domain, LinkMounting evidence is pointing to an association between the gut and Parkinson’s disease. New research coming out of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine has added some weight to the connection and offered a new model for testing drugs aimed at treating the neurodegenerative disorder.

In mouse studies, Johns Hopkins scientists found that misfolded alpha-synuclein protein—which scientists believe accumulates in the brain and drives Parkinson’s—can travel from the gut to the brain. They published the findings in the journal Neuron.

Angus Liu | June 27, 2019 | FierceBiotech.com

Treating pancreatic cancer by starving tumor cells

By Henry Vandyke Carter - Henry Gray (1918)Gray's Anatomy, Plate 1225, Public Domain, LinkScientists have been trying to stop cancer by starving tumor cells of nutrients. Now a team of researchers at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) has offered fresh insights into how that might be done, pointing to a possible way of developing new drugs to treat pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic tumor cells can turn to a nutrient supply route, called macropinocytosis, to survive and continue growing. Scientists hope to block this process, otherwise known as “cellular drinking,” to starve pancreatic tumors. But what molecular signaling pathway should they target?

Press Assoc. | Aug. 14, 2019 | EveningExpress.co.uk

Aging, MS, New Discoveries

By LadyofHatsNew research indicates that increasing brain stiffness with age causes brain stem dysfunction.

But scientists have demonstrated ways to return older stem cells to a younger, healthier state, potentially affecting future treatments for multiple sclerosis (MS).

The team, based at the Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute (University of Cambridge), studied old and young rat brains to understand the impact of age-related stiffening on oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs).

These cells are vital for maintaining normal brain function, and for the regeneration of myelin – the fatty sheath that surrounds nerves and which is damaged in multiple sclerosis (MS) Read more.

Predetermining sex in mammals

31 July 2019 News Odyssey An ordered list of links for each blog series is on the Archive page. (0)

Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman | July 4, 2019 | JPost.com

Proof of concept in mice for now

By Andy Mabbett - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, LinkIsraeli scientists have demonstrated the ability for mammals to mate and produce only female babies. A similar system based on identical principles could produce only males.

The research for the study was led by Prof. Udi Qimron, Dr. Ido Yosef and Dr. Motti Gerlic and conducted by Dr. Liat Edry-Botzer, Rea Globus, Inbar Shlomovitz and Prof. Ariel Munitz, all of the Department of Clinical Microbiology and Immunology at Tel Aviv University’s Sackler School of Medicine. The research was published in EMBO Reports.

“We proved the concept in mouse models, but the concept could also be demonstrated in cattle, swine, goats, chickens and other animals,” Qimron said. He noted that humans are likewise mammals and the concept could ultimately be applied to human children “if a mad ruler decides he wants to engineer the people to have only male or female offspring – we have provided the proof of concept.”

Public Domain, Link

...and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind ... the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind ...the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. -Genesis 1

Search

A SistersSite eBook

Flesh and Bone and The Protestant Conscience is an e-book on Amazon.com. It is 99¢ and in the Amazon lending library as well. It is also available here in PDF format. The book description follows.

Would you let your conscience be your guide?

Does God care if the skin and bone of the dead are passed along to the living for medical uses? Is organ donation OK with God? Should you sign a Living Will?

Read more

Did you know that dead organ donors are often anesthetized before their organs are removed? Do you know the current definition of death? The conscience cannot function without facts.

As we ponder the ethics of in vitro fertilization, stem cell research and man-made chimeras, our thoughts trail off. How then should we live? (Ez 33:10)

How should a Christian think about euthanasia by starvation when doctors and the state attorney general all agree it is time to withhold feeding from a brain injured patient? Some things are family matters, but someday it may be our family.

Here is a small book to help you think about whether you want to sign your driver's license, donate a kidney, cremate your loved one, and many other practical questions that may arise in the course of your healthcare decisions or watch over others.

It offers a special focus on the doctrine of the Resurrection that is related to such decisions. Sunday School classes and Bible Study groups could use this book to facilitate discussion about the issues covered.

Looking for children's activities?

Help your child learn to use a keyboard while memorizing Scripture.