Friday, June 30, 2017

Genomic Vaccines and Related High-Tech Health Studies #Science #Health #Medicine

Some reject anything which mentions vaccines but these aren't the Facebook vaccines which have been so popular for demonstrating lack of respect for knowledge or medical science.  These vaccines go after cancerous tumors and in novel ways.



Credit: World Economic Forum

Tip to SciAm:  you might be better served by graphics from some other source.  The one yesterday was a just as much of a (cough) cracker as this one.


Standard vaccines to prevent infectious diseases consist of killed or weakened pathogens or proteins from those microorganisms. Vaccines that treat cancer also rely on proteins. In contrast, a new kind of vaccine, which is poised to make major inroads in medicine, consists of genes. Genomic vaccines promise to offer many advantages, including fast manufacture when a virus, such as Zika or Ebola, suddenly becomes more virulent or widespread. They have been decades in the making, but dozens have now entered clinical trials.

Scientific American:  Genomic Vaccines Fight Disease in Ways Not Possible Before

Fo' real cancer killers and, as above, there are dozens of different kinds of them.


The interested student is encouraged to pursue the source article since our purpose is to titillate.  We were not aware this science existed and, what do you know, it fights cancer.  After wiping out the infectious diseases, cancer is one of the biggest remaining and now a new type of assault on it.  Well ...


After we have heard of flesh-eating bacteria, brain-eating amoebae, and E. coli, there's really not much which encourages us to go anywhere near water again but there's a new way of ensuring it's clean.  (Science Daily:  Swimming microbots can remove pathogenic bacteria from water)

The lack of clean water in many areas around the world is a persistent, major public health problem. One day, tiny robots could help address this issue by zooming around contaminated water and cleaning up disease-causing bacteria. Scientists report a new development toward this goal in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

- SD

'Zooming around?'  You worked all those years for a PhD and then write of zooming around?  Golly.


Of course you want to know if they work.

And they trapped more than 80 percent of E. coli in water spiked with a high concentration of the bacteria. Then, because of the iron's magnetic properties, the microbots are removed easily with a magnet, without leaving behind any harmful waste in the water.

- SD

The Rockhouse is mixed on that since it looks like good success but 20% remaining may or may not be anywhere near a non-risky level.  Moreover, what happens if I drink that water while these nanobots are still in it.  I suppose, in the fullness of time, those nanobots will pass through me to wind up back in the water supply so then what becomes of them.

This one looks kind of cool and kind of vague, mates.  The source is there for the interested student.


Here's one which may bang your gong quite handily.  (Science Daily:  Higher IQ in childhood is linked to a longer life)

So a team of researchers from the University of Edinburgh set out to examine the association between intelligence test scores measured at age 11 and leading causes of death in men and women up to age 79.

Their findings are based on data from 33,536 men and 32,229 women born in Scotland in 1936, who took a validated childhood intelligence test at age 11, and who could be linked to cause of death data up to December 2015.

Cause of death included coronary heart disease, stroke, specific cancers, respiratory disease, digestive disease, external causes (including suicide and death from injury), and dementia.

After taking account of several factors (confounders) that could have influenced the results, such as age, sex and socioeconomic status, the researchers found that higher childhood intelligence was associated with a lower risk of death until age 79.

- SD

Relax on finding any magic since IQ is not claimed to present any significant health benefit beyond recognition and avoidance of things which are not health benefits (e.g. smoking).

There's no magic pill nor any DNA trick revealed since it will confirm that which you know already.  Living longer comes from pushing away from the smokes, the beers, and Taco Bell.  The article is there for the interested student and you won't find magic but you will find common sense.


Ed:  you smoke and claim to be at least marginally intelligent!

If smart people didn't do stupid things, you wouldn't have a problem with Congress, would yewww?

Ha.

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