All posts tagged: Cell

Is stem cell therapy about to transform medicine and reverse ageing?

Is stem cell therapy about to transform medicine and reverse ageing?

Published by skeptic

Stem cells could make good on the promise of partial reprogramming for rejuvenation therapies KATERYNA KON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Alamy I’ve covered the ageing field for many years and seen a lot of promising rejuvenation therapies get hyped up then fall flat on their faces. Ground zero for this repeated cycle was resveratrol, a natural compound once touted by biotech company Sirtris Pharmaceuticals as a miracle anti-ageing drug. In 2008, pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline bought the company for $720 million, only to pull the plug five years later after the compound turned out to be a dud. Similar disappointments have bedevilled caloric restriction, drugs targeting the ageing master switch MTOR and senolytics designed to clear out zombie cells that are a key driver of ageing. So when I heard about the first clinical trial of a new class of rejuvenation drugs, I tried not to get too excited. But the more I looked, the more I started to think, maybe this time it’s different. Make a mental note of “partial reprogramming”, because it could be the one that …

Sitting in a jail cell, alone and hopeless, a man’s life is suddenly changed : NPR

Sitting in a jail cell, alone and hopeless, a man’s life is suddenly changed : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

Jay (not pictured) found himself alone and hopeless in a jail cell when a fellow inmate’s unexpected words of comfort changed his life. Irkham Khalid/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Irkham Khalid/Getty Images When Jay was 22 years old, he was a self-described loner. In this story, he is being identified by his nickname to allow himself to speak candidly about the following experience and his mental health. He says the few people he did hang out with at the time had questionable morals.  ”I chose my friends poorly, and your friends have a tendency to rub off on you. And so I started making poor decisions,” Jay said. One evening, when he and his friends were out drinking, someone suggested they should try to break into the chemistry building on his college campus. Most of the group shrugged the suggestion off, deeming it impossible, but Jay was convinced he could pull it off. “The next night I made a plan of how to do it, and I did it,” Jay remembered. “And I didn’t …

4.5 GW: A big US solar cell factory is coming to South Carolina

4.5 GW: A big US solar cell factory is coming to South Carolina

Published by skeptic

Photo: Heliene Suniva is planning a major expansion in US solar manufacturing, with a new 4.5-gigawatt (GW) solar cell factory coming to Laurens, South Carolina. The company says the facility is expected to open in Q2 2027. Once it’s online, Suniva’s total US solar cell capacity will top 5.5 GW annually, including its existing factory in metro Atlanta. That would make it the largest merchant solar cell manufacturer in the US. The new plant will be a 620,000-square-foot facility backed by more than $350 million in investment. It’s expected to create more than 550 jobs in advanced manufacturing and clean energy. Suniva manufactures high-efficiency monocrystalline silicon solar cells. The company has been around since 2007, when it spun out of US Department of Energy-funded research at Georgia Tech. It filed for bankruptcy in 2017, but made a comeback in 2023. Advertisement – scroll for more content The company is leaning hard into domestic manufacturing at a time when supply chains – especially for solar – remain heavily global. CEO Tony Etnyre said, “Solar energy is …

Scientists Set New Record for Solar Cell Efficiency

Scientists Set New Record for Solar Cell Efficiency

Published by José Betancourt

Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech What’s not to love about solar energy? Using photovoltaic cells — tiny semiconductors that convert light directly into electricity — we’re able to harness the power of the Sun itself, turning it into wattage to power our homes. It’s great in theory, but there’s a huge catch. Of all the power our star graciously beams to us, only about 33 percent of it can ever be turned into usable electricity, and most commercial solar panels don’t even come close to that. This ceiling is known as the Shockley-Queisser limit, named after the two physicists who first theorized it back in 1961. The reason comes down to thermodynamics: sunlight comes to us as a vast rainbow of light energy, but we can only convert a narrow slice of that spectrum into usable electricity. The rest either passes through, or is lost as excess heat. But now it’s possible that a novel process could blow the Shockley-Quiesser limit wide open. …

Scientists discover critical cell behavior driving cancer, immunity, and healing

Scientists discover critical cell behavior driving cancer, immunity, and healing

Published by Jenni Sidey

A moving cell looks simple from a distance. One edge pushes forward, the rest follows, and the whole thing creeps along as if its contents somehow know where to go. That neat picture leaves out a crucial detail, according to a new study from Oregon Health & Science University. Inside the cell, proteins are not just drifting randomly until they reach the right spot. Instead, the researchers found what they describe as internal “trade winds.” These are streams of fluid that push key proteins toward the cell’s leading edge. This part drives movement, repair and attachment. The work, published in Nature Communications, challenges a long-standing assumption in biology. For years, textbook diagrams have treated many free-floating proteins as passengers of diffusion, moving by chance through the cell’s interior. This study argues that, at least in migrating cells, chance is not doing all the work. Oregon Health & Science University scientists capture a 3D single-molecule super-resolution microscopy image showing individual actin protein molecules inside a cell, each rendered as a single dot and captured at extraordinary …

Convicted killer’s ‘jury tampering’ plot to derail £45m drug smuggling trial from prison cell | UK News

Convicted killer’s ‘jury tampering’ plot to derail £45m drug smuggling trial from prison cell | UK News

Published by Sam Flores

A convicted murderer, who once escaped from prison using a grappling hook, orchestrated a plot to collapse a £45m international drug smuggling trial by claiming the jury had been bribed. William Todd, 61, has been sentenced to seven years in prison after he was found guilty of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. He directed the scheme from his cell using a secret mobile phone under the alias Ari Gold – the Hollywood agent played by Jeremy Piven in TV series Entourage. Image: £44m of MDMA was discovered concealed inside a excavator shipped to Australia Pic: National Crime Agency Todd was given two life sentences in 2001 for the attempted murder of his former business partner Arthur de Sousa and shooting dead Mr de Sousa’s bodyguard in the Berkshire village of Pangbourne. He escaped from Winchester prison after sawing through the bars of his cell window before scaling the 30ft wall using a homemade grappling hook and rope ladder – but was caught five days later. Todd was nearing the end of his sentence …

British holidaymakers face arrest, police cell and court if caught smoking in public on Caribbean islands

British holidaymakers face arrest, police cell and court if caught smoking in public on Caribbean islands

Published by Sam Flores

“Any owner, occupier, or persons responsible for the management of premises which fall under the ambit of a public place who knowingly permits another person to sell, supply, or smoke cannabis or cannabis resin on those premises also commits an offense. Persons found in breach of this law on summary conviction may be fined up to $2,000,” he said. Source link

A new cell model could help kids and teens with arthritis

A new cell model could help kids and teens with arthritis

Published by skeptic

arthritis: A disease that causes painful inflammation in the joints. cell: (in biology) The smallest structural and functional unit of an organism. Typically too small to see with the unaided eye, it consists of a watery fluid surrounded by a membrane or wall. Depending on their size, animals are made of anywhere from thousands to trillions of cells. Most organisms, such as yeasts, molds, bacteria and some algae, are composed of only one cell. chronic: A condition, such as an illness (or its symptoms, including pain), that lasts for a long time. expression: (in genetics) The process by which a cell uses the information coded in a gene to direct a cell to make a particular protein. gene: (adj. genetic) A segment of DNA that codes, or holds instructions, for a cell’s production of a protein. Offspring inherit genes from their parents. Genes influence how an organism looks and behaves. juvenile: Young, sub-adult animals. These are older than “babies” or larvae, but not yet mature enough to be considered an adult. model: A simulation of …

Stem cell patch reverses brain damage in fetuses with spina bifida

Stem cell patch reverses brain damage in fetuses with spina bifida

Published by skeptic

A false-colour X-ray showing a large neural tube defect (red) on both sides of the lower back in someone with spina bifida SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY A patch made of stem cells from donor placentas has been used to treat fetuses in the womb with a severe form of spina bifida as part of a world-first trial. The novel approach seems to have reversed a brain complication associated with the congenital condition at least as effectively as the go-to treatment, but is expected to enable more children to walk over the long term. The mother of one of the babies, who is now 4 years old, says she expected that her son Toby would require a wheelchair when he was diagnosed with the condition in the womb. “But Toby is healthy [and] has hit all of his milestones – he’s walking, running and jumping – and has no problems with bladder control, which is rare for people with the condition,” she says. Spina bifida – which affects about 1 in every 2800 births in the US …

SpaceX Official Reveals New Details About Next-Gen Cell Service

SpaceX Official Reveals New Details About Next-Gen Cell Service

Published by Jenni Sidey

SpaceX satellite policy lead Udrivolf Pica told participants in the International Telecommunication Union Space Connect webcast about the next-generation Starlink direct-to-device cellular service for smartphones. The revelation of the new service follows SpaceX’s October 2025 U.S. trademark filing for “STARLINK MOBILE” and comes as Elon Musk has recently hinted at Starlink mobile ambitions. “We are aiming at peak speeds of 150 Mbps per user,” Pica said, adding, “So something incredible if you think about the link budgets from space to the mobile phone.” PCMag reporter Michael Kan was the first to report Pica’s comments, as SpaceX plans to launch new cellular Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit. Kan continued: If SpaceX can hit its speed goal, the upgraded cellular Starlink service promises to deliver speeds close to those of traditional cell carriers’ 5G networks on Earth. The median download speeds for T-Mobile’s 5G network currently reach 309 Mbps, while AT&T’s 5G network comes in at 172 Mbps, according to Ookla’s Speedtest.net data. SpaceX has been offering the service through T-Mobile’s T-Satellite, allowing users in cellular …