Linus Torvalds Splits Tech’s ‘Nobel’ With Stem Cell Pioneer

Question: What do Linux and stem cell research have in common? Answer: They’re both considered “life-enhancing technical innovations” by the Technology Acadamy Finland, a foundation that is awarding a prestigious award called the Millennium Technology Prize in Helsinki today.

Linux creator Linus Torvalds and stem cell pioneer Shinya Yamanaka are joint recipients of the 2012 prize, an honor that some call the tech equivalent of the Nobel Prize. That means they will split the €1.2 million ($1.5 million) prize money 50-50.

Torvalds and Yamanaka were named as a finalists for the prize back in April, but it was assumed that one or the other would be singled out as a grand-prize winner. The joint award comes as a bit of a surprise.

Discussion on the Ethics of Neuroscience

This was just posted on the THE BLOG OF THE PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSION FOR THE STUDY OF BIOETHICAL ISSUES

In the ethics surrounding neuroscience, an initial question considered by the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues today was the definition of the words “self” and “person.”

The subject of neuroscience is one of three that the Commission is taking up this year. The other two are whole genome sequencing and effective countermeasures to protect children.

The discussion also delved into developments in neuroscience; the use of those tools; the rights of a person; and what happens in situations such as when a person suffers a brain injury or descends into dementia.

“We know when someone suffers a brain injury, or has Alzheimer’s Disease, we’re quick to say they have become a different person,” said James Wagner, the Commission Vice-Chair and the President of Emory University. “It may not be clear what we mean by that, or what we know about that, so in light of that we want to understand words like person and self.”

Written by John Donnelly

Read the rest of the article here: LINK

The Fight To Rescue American Healthcare

Are you looking for a project to fund and support. Well - here is a great documentary that just premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and was well-received.  

ESCAPE FIRE: The Fight To Rescue American Healthcare

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Watch the trailer now: http://vimeo.com/27450676

If you have been wanting to  support a film with a great cause.  Go here and fund them.  Less than 1 week left to fund them: 

Support Independent Film: http://www.indiegogo.com/EscapeFire

The Latest With :: Thomas Ichim of MediStem, Inc talks with Dr. Larry Goldstein of UC San Diego Stem Cell Program and Author of Stem Cells for Dummies

The Latest With Stem Cells Show Thomas Ichim, CEO of MediStem and Dr. Larry Goldstein, UC San Diego Stem Cell Program & Author - Stem Cells for Dummies

Follow: Thomas Ichim on Twitter http://twitter.com/thomasichim

The Latest With on Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/TheLatestWith

Dr. Larry Goldstein: http://stemcells.ucsd.edu

About Lawrence S.B. Goldstein
Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine; Investigator,
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, UCSD School of Medicine
Dr. Goldstein is researching Alzheimer’s disease, a progressive, incurable disease that robs people of their memory and ability to think and reason.  Currently, there is no effective treatment for this disease, and there is a tremendous need to better understand the cellular basis of Alzheimer’s disease so that such treatments can be developed.  Goldstein is studying key genetic clues that come from a rare familiar form of the disease, which suggest that early defects in the physical transport system responsible for long-distance movements of information in neurons can cause neuronal dysfunction.  This failure of the neurons is predicted to initiate a series of events that results in the classic plaques and tangles that characterize the disease.  Goldstein’s lab will use human embryonic stem cells to generate human neuronal models of hereditary Alzheimer’s disease in order to test various hypotheses about the cause of the disease, as well as test new drugs for its treatment.

About Thomas Ichim, CEO MediStem Inc.  

Thomas E. Ichim is an experienced entrepreneur; the CEO of Medistem Inc.; founder of 2 biotech companies; co-founder of bioRASI, a biomedical contract research organization; and co-founder of the not-for-profit organization the Batu Center for Leukemia Research.  A native Canadian, Tom was named one of the “Top-Ten Honorable Canadians” by Maclean’s Magazine, Canada’s National News Magazine for his work in the area of leukemia, a stem cell disease. Tom is the Editor-in-Chief of the weekly on-line stem-cell intellectual property newsletter, StemCellPatents.com.  He is the author or co-author of 45 scientific papers and inventor or co-inventor on over 30 patents and patent applications.  Tom is also a Monitoring Editor for the Journal of Translational Medicine and acts as peer reviewer for numerous medical publications in the areas of immunology and molecular biology.  He is author of the book Immunological Control of Neoplasia (Rapaport Publishing, 1998), and Co-editor of the book RNA Interference: From Biology to Clinical Application, (Humana Publishing, in press).


 

Shedding light on the Food Industry

I highly recommend listening to Robyn O’Brien.  We hope to have her speak on our shows very soon.   She has a very good take on what is happening to our food in the U.S. and as the title of her website shares: SHEDDING LIGHT ON THE FOOD INDUSTRY.  You can also follow her on Twitter.

Thanks for watching.

thelatestwith.com

The Latest With Stem Cells Show Thomas Ichim, CEO of MediStem and Dr. Aubrey de Grey, Sens.org

The Latest With

The Latest With Stem Cells Show Thomas Ichim, CEO of MediStem and Dr. Aubrey de Grey, Sens.org

Researchers at MIT’s Lincoln Lab have developed technology that may someday cure the common cold, influenza

New drug could cure nearly any viral infection Researchers at MIT’s Lincoln Lab have developed technology that may someday cure the common cold, influenza and other ailments.

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/antiviral-0810.html

Most bacterial infections can be treated with antibiotics such as penicillin, discovered decades ago. However, such drugs are useless against viral infections, including influenza, the common cold, and deadly hemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola.Now, in a development that could transform how viral infections are treated, a team of researchers at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory has designed a drug that can identify cells that have been infected by any type of virus, then kill those cells to terminate the infection.

Surprising Trial Results Raise Hopes for Cancer Breakthrough

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania announced Wednesday that they have discovered a possibly “huge” breakthrough in the fight against cancer.

In two medical journals, the scientists revealed that a new treatment targeting a patient’s white blood cells, which are part of the body’s immune system, shows signs of early promise in combating leukemia.

http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/3/95/95ra73.abstract

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1103849?query=featured_home

“This is a huge accomplishment — huge,” Dr. Lee M. Nadler of Harvard Medical School told theLos Angeles Times. Nadler discovered the molecule on cancer cells that the newly engineered T-Cells were instructed to target.

more…http://slatest.slate.com/posts/2011/08/11/university_of_pennsylvania_cancer_breakthrough_researchers_tout_.html

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