DNA editing is often touted as a possible cure for many genetic illnesses. DNA being the blueprint of your body happily sits in every cell of the 50 or so trillion cells that form your body. That is why the idea of changing all DNA in your body to cure a genetic disease is still more science fiction than reality.

But new research claims that some form of DNA editing might help us get immune to AIDS. That is possible because HIV does not infect any cell in your body, but a specific kind of white cell (called a T-cell) that lives in your blood. White blood cells are one of the main building blocks of your immune system. The way HIV hurts its patients is by attacking those white cells and making the body vulnerable to the attack of many other illnesses that your body is otherwise perfectly capable of fending off.

The fact that those white cells are in your blood stream means that they are considerably easier to replace than any other kind of cell in your body. The new research claims that a mutation that renders a small percentage of humans immune to AIDS could be introduced into your own blood cells, which are then injected in you to multiply and replace the older white cells.

This sounds like a very promising approach. Not just because it is possible that it could succeed, but because it can be applied retroactively to cure people who already have the disease and not just to immunize people who are not already infected.

Here is the article for the curious: http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/06/gene-editing-co.html

Khaled

I had many sleepless night in college and through out my career that were all based on excitement, determination and gobbles of coke and diet coke.

Recently I started noticing something interesting, which is that on days in which I don't get enough sleep, diet coke helps me stay awake even with a concentration level that is suboptimal.

But the more interesting part is that on days in which I do get enough sleep (8 hours), then the more diet coke I drink, the less I benefit from my sleep.

It feels as if the caffeine prevents my body (mind?) from fully resting during my sleep and I end up still feeling tired the next day.

Thus, I decided to QUIT caffeine by quitting my favorite form of it: Diet Coke.

My Diet Coke Addiction Recovery

We are always amazed when we realize that a lizard can loose a limb or a tail, and then grow it right back as if nothing happened. It makes you wonder, what makes it so special that it can do that and we can't. Apparently, we can.

A new research at the University of Pittsburgh aims to achieve that. I just watched an amazing video at BBC's news website that reports on a 69 year old man that lost part of his finger, and was able to grow it back completely.

You can watch the video at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7354298.stm

The new medical technique is very simple. It uses a material called extracellular matrix, which is found in animal tissue and serves as the support and glue for the different cells. It also stimulates cell growth, which is what gives it the magical ability of helping regrow body parts in humans. Today's magic is tomorrow's science, I hope this technology makes it very quickly into mainstream medicine, as it will help prevent and cure many disabilities.

I did some research, and realized that the technique is controversial, with different opinions on whether extracellular matrix is needed at all, with some scientists claiming that they can achieve the same result with out it. But I will definitely keep an eye on this exciting research as the result is astonishing regardless of the method.

Here's additional information on Extracellular Matrix from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extracellular_matrix

I suffer from pretty harsh seasonable allergies. My record number of sneezes in a row is 13. I get them in the spring, I get them in the fall, and often in the summer and winter. So I effectively get them all the time.

But what is worse than having an allergy fit, is realizing 2 days through it that it is actually a cold. If only there was a way to know early enough whether it was a cold or allergy.

I did research it, and the number one indicator that I found was the sore throat. The theory is that if I have a soar throat then it's not allergy related. The problem? I always get a sore throat when I have allergies.

I guess I'll just have to keep on drinking my Emergen-C every time the trees decide to attack, just in case. It helps that I like the way it tastes.