10 things to watch in life sciences in 2022

Life sciences, Medicine

8. There will be strong regulation of biology on the blockchain

At the end of last year, the biology blockchain issue caught my attention. I've gotten used to thinking about blockchain in a lot of different contexts. However, the blockchain mentioned here no longer only refers to the blockchain of cryptocurrency! Blockchain makes a lot of sense for biology. Naturally, the first thing that probably comes to mind is the blockchain for medical records, which would be an important application. But I'm talking about tissue, cord blood, organs, stem cells, embryos, eggs, sperm... Biological matter on these biological blockchains.

The field of biological blockchain is about to be widely studied, especially as the demand for fertility treatments and egg freezing increases. Did you know that due to lack of regulation in the fertility market and other reasons, embryos and reproductive tissues can be misplaced (permanently)! And biological blockchains can be regulated using tamper-proof ledger system applications. If you do this, you will put small parts of your body such as organs, stem cells... on the biological blockchain. Did you?

9. The vaccine family tree is growing, and it's not just for infectious diseases anymore!

One of the most striking highlights of the COVID-19 outbreak in 2019 was that the global scientific community was able to develop a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine quickly and well. From traditional vaccine approaches to emerging mRNA and peptide vaccines, our vaccine family tree has expanded.

This expanded vaccine family tree can now be used against some non-" traditional "infectious pathogens, that is, other nasty targets. These targets include cancer. We know that HPV causes cervical cancer, and an HPV vaccine has been developed; It also includes Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, developing vaccines against neurodegenerative diseases; There is also a World Health Organization Cancer List where vaccine candidates are currently being tested for each type of cancer on the list, and this move is expected to continue and expand testing.

Although the use of vaccines for non-communicable diseases is new, it is interesting to think in terms of aging and the relative vitality of the human immune system. Because a young healthy immune system can protect the body from these infectious diseases, but as we age, the body's immune capacity will gradually decrease and become extremely vulnerable to attack, which is why these diseases have become typical diseases of old age. Can we be vaccinated against Alzheimer's disease as we age? It's worth exploring.

10. Regenerative medicine

To be honest, I did put the topic I was most interested in at the end of the article. Within the human development theme of the Prime Motifs Lab, we are particularly interested in longevity, which also includes regenerative medicine. I think regenerative medicine is the next big frontier that needs to be broken through in terms of how we see life and improving human biology and its limitations. From regenerating tissue, replacing organs, and using gene therapy to give old tissue new functions, the potential for regenerative medicine is enormous. I've witnessed exciting work on wound healing, limb regeneration and tissue 3D printed scaffolds that really blew my mind.

Have we ever thought about repurposing tissue from our own body, like lymph nodes, and turning it into a second liver? I hadn't thought about it either! Sadly, my time at the Department of Defense coincided with a period of higher casualties from IEDs. The work of repairing limbs is one of the most important things the Department of Defense does in biology. However, limb restoration at that time was still only the replacement of lost limbs with prosthetics. My biggest dream and hope this year is to see our bodies repair themselves through regenerative medicine.