Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Shiley Eye Institute, with colleagues in China, have developed an eye lens restoration treatment that has been tested in monkeys and in a small human clinical trial. It produced much fewer surgical complications than the current standard-of-care and resulted in regenerated lenses with superior visual function in all 12 of the pediatric cataract patients who received the new surgery.… read more

*****UPDATE JULY 12, 2016*****

Juno Therapeutics, Inc. announced July 7 that it has received notice from the FDA that it has placed a clinical hold on an immune-cell cancer treatment known as the “ROCKET” trial, which was reported on KurzweilAI on Mar. 10, 2016.

The clinical hold was initiated after two patient deaths, which followed the recent addition of fludarabine to the pre-conditioning regimen. Juno has… read more

Scientists have found a way to improve the efficiency of the controversial gene editing technology, CRISPR/Cas9 (“CRISPR”).

Lauded as a groundbreaking technology that allows scientists to modify genes* for many different applications, CRISPR/Cas9 has hit stormy waters over the ethics of editing human embryos. Although the technology is faster and cheaper than past gene editing techniques, one of the problems cited is that the efficiency of deleting unwanted… read more

For the first time, researchers have reported decreases in levels of a key molecule in aging human skin, which could lead to developing new anti-aging treatments and screening new compounds.

Scientists have known for some time that major structures in the cell called mitochondria (which generate and control most of the cell’s supply of energy) are somehow involved in aging, but the exact role of the mitochondria… read more