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Tissue-specific aging clocks map structured aging-modulatory drug-score patterns across 49 human tissue and cell-line categories

Aging clocks are typically trained on pooled multi-tissue data, implicitly assuming that aging is uniform across organs. Here we challenge this assumption by constructing 49 transcriptomic clocks across 47 tissue types and 2 cell-line categories from GTEx v8 (948 unique donors contributing to the retained clock categories) using donor-grouped cross-validation. Clocks achieved a median Pearson r of 0.543 (best: artery aorta, r = 0.855). We identified 10,253 unique clock genes, of which 69.2% appeared in only one tissue; however, null simulation confirmed that this low overlap is the expected consequence of sparse elastic-net selection rather than biological tissue-specificity. We then projected 3,926 LINCS L1000 compound-name entries onto each clock to build a drug × category age-reversal matrix. At a permissive threshold (|score|> 1.0), 94.2% of drugs showed mixed score directions (positive in some categories and negative in others). This permissive mixed-direction proportion was descriptive and did not itself exceed shuffled expectations. Under a more stringent exploratory criterion requiring |score|> 2.0 in at least three categories in each direction, 2.8% of compound entries showed pronounced bidirectional divergence, compared with approximately 0.1% under the shuffled null. Compound rankings remained stable when analysis was restricted to the 34 clocks with r ≥ 0.5 (Spearman ρ = 0.897 versus the full analysis). A Jaccard-based enrichment statistic yielded highly concordant compound rankings (median per-category Spearman ρ = 0.961), indicating that results were not artifacts of the enrichment method. After Benjamini–Hochberg FDR correction across all 192,374 drug-category pairs, only 0.79% reached FDR < 0.05, indicating that individual drug-category calls require caution. Rapamycin showed net pro-aging transcriptional signatures in our system; we explicitly emphasize that transcriptome-based scores and organismal lifespan are distinct endpoints. DepMap CRISPR analysis was repeated after GTEx-based standardization across 13 matched categories, although individual gene-level results were limited. Four statistical robustness tests confirmed model stability. These findings describe category-associated drug-score patterns and provide a tissue-aware resource for generating hypotheses about drug responses, while cautioning against over-interpretation of individual drug-category predictions without experimental validation.

A Deep‐Learning Based Biomarker of Systemic Cellular Senescence Burden to Predict Mortality and Health Outcomes

Spearman correlation coefficients were calculated between the SASP Score and chronological age, biological aging measures—including telomere length, proteomic aging clock (PAC) (Kuo et al. 2024), healthspan proteomic score (HPS) (Kuo et al. 2025), biological age (BioAge) (Sayed et al. 2021), phenotypic age (PhenoAge) (Diniz et al. 2017)—as well as other baseline aging traits including a 49-item frailty index (Williams et al. 2019) in the UK Biobank test sample. Details on the development of these biological aging measures are provided in the cited references, and the field IDs used to extract the relevant data are listed in Table S1.

The distribution of the SASP Score was compared across subgroups based on a common disease risk factor, including age group, sex, frailty status, waist-to-hip ratio group, and smoking status. Group differences were assessed using Wilcoxon rank-sum tests, with p-values adjusted for multiple testing using the Benjamini-Hochberg false discovery rate (FDR) method (Benjamini and Hochberg 1995). Additionally, the SASP Score distributions in subgroups were visualized using violin plots.

Cox proportional hazards models were used to investigate the associations of the standardized SASP Score with mortality and multiple aging-related diseases during follow-up (censored at death, or the last follow-up date of hospital inpatient data, whichever occurred first), with adjustments for baseline covariates. Mortality was ascertained through linkage to national death registries, and disease outcomes were derived using the UKB first occurrence data, which integrate multi-source data based on ICD-10 codes. Baseline covariates—including age, sex, ethnicity, education level, Townsend deprivation index (higher values associated with more material deprivation), smoking status (never, previous, current smoker), alcohol drinker status (never, previous, current drinker), systolic blood pressure, and BMI—were collected from UK Biobank online questionnaires or physical measurements at the baseline assessment. UK Biobank field IDs used to extract covariates and outcomes are provided in Table S1. Hazard ratios for each condition per SD increase in the SASP Score were reported with the multiple testing adjusted p-values using the FDR method. Model discrimination was evaluated using Harrell’s C-index, and the 95% confidence intervals were computed using a normal approximation based on the standard error of the C estimate.

RNA-Based Gene Editing Tool Combats Diseases With Multiple Mutations

Investigators from Mass General Brigham and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have developed STITCHR, a new gene editing tool that can insert therapeutic genes into specific locations without causing unwanted mutations. The system can be formulated completely as RNA, dramatically simplifying delivery logistics compared to traditional systems that use both RNA and DNA. By inserting an entire gene, the tool offers a one-and-done approach that overcomes hurdles from CRISPR gene editing technology—which is programmed to correct individual mutations—offering a promising step forward for gene therapy. Results are published in Nature.

“CRISPR has revolutionized how we think about gene editing, but it has limitations. CRISPR can’t target every location in the genome, and it can’t fix the thousands of mutations present in diseases like cystic fibrosis,” said co-senior author Omar Abudayyeh, PhD, an investigator at the Gene and Cell Therapy Institute (GCTI) at Mass General Brigham and Engineering in Medicine Division in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). “When we started our lab, one of the big things we wanted to figure out was how to insert large pieces of genes, or even entire genes, to replace faulty ones. This would allow us to target every mutation for a disease with a single gene editing construct.”

STITCHR harnesses the power of enzymes from genetic elements called retrotransposons, which are found in all eukaryotic cells, including animals, fungi, and plants. They are often called “jumping genes” for their tendency to move around and insert themselves into the genome. The researchers recognized how the copy-and-paste mechanism they use to move could be repurposed to edit genes at specific locations.

[4K] Watch the FIRST Orbital Starship Mission!!!

SpaceX is targeting Starship Flight 14 NET Monday, September 28, 2026 at 7:15 a.m. CT (12:15 UTC). This will be the FIRST orbital launch attempt of Starship with Ship 41 and Booster 21, carrying the first operational batch of 26 Starlink V3 satellites on a roughly 10-hour mission of about six orbits at around 275 km before a Pacific Ocean splashdown. Booster 21 will splash down in the Gulf after boostback, making this a major step from prior suborbital tests toward sustained orbit, payload ops, and eventual full reuse.

Want to know why Starship’s V3 Booster only has 3 grid fins instead of 4? Watch this!! — • The Genius Reason Why SpaceX Deleted A Gri…

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Massimo Pigliucci on Story, Virtue, Character and AI

This conversation went live on December 1, 2022. One day after ChatGPT launched.

Neither of us had any idea what was coming. Massimo Pigliucci and I were talking about something far older than any chatbot: why brilliant people go bad.

Massimo is one of the rare minds who holds doctorates in both biology and philosophy, and he actually lives the #Stoicism he writes about. His book, The Quest for Character, centers on Socrates and his most gifted student, Alcibiades. Charming, talented, handsome, rich, personally mentored by the wisest man in Athens. And yet.

That “and yet” is the whole problem of #leadership, then and now.

We got into questions I still haven’t fully settled. Can virtue be taught at all, or only shown? Is the Roman idea of “the way of the ancestors” really just an organizing story, and do we need a new one? Did Gandhi and King change people through what they said or through how they lived? And is the #transhumanism dream of engineering out human flaws a solution, or a way of avoiding the harder work of character?

Massimo’s answer to that last one surprised me.

The Next Frontier Of AI Isn’t Intelligence, It’s Trust

Building trust requires explainability, transparency, and human control over AI’s learning and actions, preventing unapproved behavioral shifts. Compilence Inc. presents a solution: human-written rules (ELIA), a gate (ARC) to control AI’s knowledge and actions, and an external record (Tissue) for auditable facts. This architecture ensures human oversight, consistent behavior, and verifiable changes, answering who approved an AI’s altered behavior. This capability, crucial for care robots and neurotechnology, enables truly trustworthy and governable AI systems.

Wearable sensor metrics, AI, and context

“No one ever made a decision because of a number. They need a story.—Daniel Kahneman.

An essay from WSJ (gift link) https://wsj.com/opinion/when-ai-tells-a-story-about-your-hea…_permalink.

As health-tracking devices (like Oura rings, Whoop bands, and continuous glucose monitors) proliferate and generative AI becomes better at interpreting data, companies promise to turn personal measurements into actionable health insights. However, while AI excels at turning complex, ambiguous data into compelling personalized stories, there is a significant risk that these narrative health insights offer false precision—making recommendations feel far more reliable and individualized than the actual evidence supports.

1. Biology vs. Upstream Metrics.

Just as drug trials targeting specific biomarkers (e.g., lowering inflammation or Lp(a) levels) don’t always reduce overall disease or mortality, tracking upstream metrics (like glucose spikes in non-diabetics or sleep/readiness scores on wearables) often relies on unvalidated formulas with little proof that acting on them improves long-term health.

* AI works spectacularly in constrained biological problems (like AlphaFold predicting protein structures), but predicting holistic human health outcomes remains far more complex.

2. The Danger of AI Storytelling.

* Quoting Daniel Kahneman, “No one ever made a decision because of a number. They need a story.” Generative AI excels at connecting disparate data points (e.g., your HRV, sleep length, workout mileage, and stress levels) into plausible, persuasive narratives.

Pancreatic Cancer: Emerging Breakthroughs and Clinical Strategies

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most fatal malignancies, with one of the lowest cancer survival rates.1 The most common type of pancreatic cancer—called pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC)—starts in the cells lining the ducts that carry digestive enzymes out of the pancreas. A minority of pancreatic cancers also emerge within hormone-producing cells of the pancreas.

Pancreatic cancer often causes symptoms only after it has spread to other organs, leading to diagnoses in advanced stages and its high mortality rate. Another challenge that contributes to the low pancreatic cancer survival rate is the development of resistance to chemotherapy.2 The heterogeneity of the tumor microenvironment and its dense protective stroma promote its chemoresistance.

However, researchers are increasingly understanding more about pancreatic cancer, contributing to advances in vaccines against the condition and more effective treatment options including those in combination with chemotherapy. Read on to learn about breakthroughs and clinical findings that offer strategies to overcome the barriers posed by pancreatic cancer tumors.

Japanese supercomputer simulations may explain Webb’s Little Red Dots

Of all the discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope, the multitude of Little Red Dots it has observed is among the most enigmatic. Now, simulations using the Japanese Supercomputer ATERUI III have explained the nature of the Little Red Dots without requiring any exotic assumptions. The simulations show that the Little Red Dots are black holes growing at a rate that would be impossible today because of conditions in the early universe.

In the study, published in the journal Nature, a research team led by Sunmyon Chon at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics used the ATERUI III supercomputer at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan to conduct the most detailed cosmological simulations to date of conditions in the early universe.

The team’s simulation started with the conditions surrounding a galaxy in the early universe, then zoomed in to individual gas clouds. These computationally intensive simulations were made possible by ATERUI III’s high-resolution computing power.

‘Artificial leaf’ generates clean hydrogen from contaminated seawater

Scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, have designed a device that harvests sunlight to generate clean hydrogen from seawater and simultaneously degrades hydrazine, a highly toxic contaminant from industrial wastewater.

Inspired by leaves, the device directly captures sunlight and converts it into electricity to drive the reaction without the need for external power sources. The innovation is published in Nature Communications.

Two-in-one green solution To produce green hydrogen from water, an electric current is passed through water between two electrodes, splitting the water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen—a process known as electrolysis.

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