Tag: Health

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Paul Allen says cancer is back, but voices optimism

Paul Allen
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen sits in on a GeekWire interview in 2017. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)

Nine years after he underwent treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a potentially fatal but treatable form of cancer, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen says the disease has returned.

On Twitter and in a blog post, the 65-year-old billionaire investor, philanthropist and self-described “Idea Man” says he and his physicians are optimistic about his chances. Allen intends to stay involved with his Vulcan Inc. holding company and the research institutes that he’s founded, as well as the sports teams that he owns, the Seattle Seahawks and the Portland Trail Blazers.

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Stem cells help fix damaged hearts in monkeys

Heart stem cells
Heart cells grown in the lab from human embryonic stem cells can restore lost heart function for macaque monkeys. Will they do the same for humans? (UW Medicine via YouTube)

Medical researchers have restored the function of damaged hearts in macaque monkeys, using heart muscle cells derived from human embryonic stem cells. Now they want to do the same for humans.

The technique, detailed today in the journal Nature Biotechnology, could go into human clinical trials as early as 2020, said senior study author Charles Murry, director of the Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

“I’ve been in research since 1984, and this worked better than anything I’ve ever seen for the treatment of heart failure,” he told GeekWire.

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Scientists pull out protein data from single cells

NanoPOTS protein analysis
Ying Zhu, a chemist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, places a chip containing samples for analysis into the automated NanoPOTS system. (PNNL Photo / Andrea Starr)

Scientists have developed a technique that can analyze fluid from a single human cell to identify its proteins — which could open the way for tracking the progression of cancer one cell at a time.

The method is known as NanoPOTS, or “nanodroplet processing in one pot for trace samples.” It was developed by scientists at the the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and detailed in a study published in the German journal Angewandte Chemie.

“NanoPOTS is like a molecular microscope that allows us to analyze samples that are 500 times smaller than we could see before,” PNNL analytical chemist Ryan Kelly, the study’s senior author, said in a news release. “We can identify more proteins in one cell than could previously be identified from a group of hundreds of cells.”

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Gates Foundation backs malaria-blocking mosquito

Mosquito
Anopheles mosquitoes are carriers for the malaria parasite. (CDC Photo / James Gathany)

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is extending its partnership with Oxitec, a British mosquito control company, to develop mosquitoes that are genetically engineered to suppress malaria.

Oxitec’s latest project follows up on its work with Aedes aegypti, the mosquito species that can spread a range of diseases including yellow fever, dengue fever, chikungunya and Zika fever — but not malaria. A different type of mosquito, Anopheles, is the carrier for malaria parasites.

Previously, the Gates Foundation supported Oxitec’s development of male Aedes mosquitoes that have been genetically engineered so that their female offspring don’t survive to adulthood.

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Grail raises $300 million for cancer detection tools

Grail, a biotech company with early backing from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, says it’s raised $300 million in an oversubscribed Series C financing round. Gates and Bezos got in on a $100 million Series A round in 2016, and since then, total investment has risen to $1.5 billion.

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How robots and mini-organs can save real humans

Kidney organoids
This is a bird’s-eye view of a microwell plate containing kidney organoids that were produced from human stem cells by a robotic system. The yellow boxed region is shown at higher magnification to reveal individual organoids. Red, green and yellow colors mark distinct segments of 3-D kidney tissue. (UW Medicine Photo / Freedman Lab)

Good news, everybody: Robots can now create human mini-organs from stem cells. What could possibly go wrong?

The method may sound like a nightmare from HBO’s AI thriller “WestWorld,” but researchers from the University of Washington School of Medicine say it really is good news.

“This is a new ‘secret weapon’ in our fight against disease,” Benjamin Freedman, a medical researcher at the UW Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine and the Kidney Research Institute, said in a news release.

The robotic system could accelerate the production and use of organ tissues that don’t have to be cut out of an actual human but are nevertheless suitable for research and drug discovery. The system is described in a study published online today in the journal Cell Stem Cell.

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Protein designers get a boost for flu vaccine project

David Baker
David Baker heads the University of Washington’s Institute for Protein Design. (UW Medicine Photo)

The University of Washington’s Institute for Protein Design has won an $11.3 million grant from the Open Philanthropy Project to cook up a public health breakthrough: a universal flu vaccine.

This marks the San Francisco-based nonprofit group’s first gift to a research effort in the Seattle area, and one of its largest gifts to date. Open Phil’s main funders are Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and philanthropist Cari Tuna, a husband-and-wife team.

The grant will accelerate the institute’s efforts to advance the field of protein design and put it to use in real-world applications.

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Positive results for ‘tumor-agnostic’ cancer drug

Ted Laetsch
UT Southwestern Medical Center’s Ted Laetsch is the lead author of a study focusing on how a drug called larotrectinib can be used to treat pediatric cancer patients. (UT Southwestern Photo)

Two clinical studies have provided evidence suggesting that an experimental precision-medicine drug called larotrectinib can fight soft-tissue tumors regardless of the patient’s age or the type of tumor.

Seattle Children’s Hospital participated in both studies.

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Fusion venture branches out into cancer therapy

Cancer therapy
An artist’s conception shows how a beam of neutrons could be directed at a tumor in a patient’s head, shown in a cutaway view. (TAE Life Sciences Illustration)

TAE Technologies, the California-based fusion energy company backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, has spawned a spinoff focusing on a novel type of cancer therapy.

The spinoff, TAE Life Sciences, is a majority-owned subsidiary of TAE Technologies and will take advantage of the company’s accelerator-based beam technology.

In its quest to tame nuclear fusion, TAE Technologies has developed a high-intensity beam system that shoots energetic particles at clouds of plasma to boost stability and performance.

TAE Life Sciences aims to use similar beams for an application known as boron neutron capture therapy, or BNCT. The technique involves injecting a drug containing non-radioactive boron into a cancer patient’s tumor, and then shooting a neutron beam at the tumor.

The boron atoms absorb the neutrons, resulting in a localized radiation effect that kills the tumor cells while preserving non-cancerous tissue.

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How families will help shape the future of health

Future of Health panel
Panelists discuss the future of health during a Town Hall Seattle forum at the Institute for Systems Biology. From left: GeekWire’s Clare McGrane, the panel’s moderator; Leroy Hood of Providence St. Joseph Health; Howard Frumkin of the University of Washington School of Public Health; and John Aitchison of the Center for Infectious Disease Research. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)

It’s no secret that a rising flood of data, from the results of sophisticated genetic tests to the vital signs recorded by your smartphone, is transforming the way we approach health and wellness. But one of the pioneers of that trend says big data could well shift the focus of the quest for wellness from the hospital to the home.

“I think the most powerful unit for scientific wellness is the family,” Leroy Hood, co-founder of Seattle’s Institute for Systems Biology and chief science officer at Providence St. Joseph Health, said during a March 7 forum on the future of health.

The forum was hosted by the Institute for System Biology’s headquarters as part of Town Hall Seattle’s science lecture series.

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