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Category: bioengineering – Page 206

Biologist Daisy Robinton talks about engineering aging and the possibilities new technology offers.

Harvard University biologist Daisy Robinton reveals how science is helping us understand how and why we age.

Daisy Robinton is a scientist at Harvard University researching mechanisms of stem cell identity at the intersection of cancer and developmental biology. Daisy’s passion for the effective translation of science has fuelled her years of teaching and speaking, and in 2011 Daisy founded the Science in the News Spring Public Lecture Series at Harvard. Daisy consults to numerous biotech startups in the US and UK and for projects ranging from feature film screenplays on the future of medicine and longevity to the “Future of Making” via bioengineering with IDEO.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.

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Check out the LEAF interview with Synthetic Biology company CellAge who plan to use their technology to create aging biomarkers for the research community to use for free as well as new approaches to removing senescent cells.

CellAge are using synthetic biology to remove senescent cells that accumulate with age and contribute to disease. We took the time to interview them about their technology, treating age-related diseases and their plans for the future.

You can also check out their campaign on Lifespan.io:

https://www.lifespan.io/campaigns/cellage-targeting-senescen…c-biology/

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What combinations of mutations help cancer cells survive? Which cells in the brain are involved in the onset of Alzheimer’s? How do immune cells conduct their convoluted decision-making processes? Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science have now combined two powerful research tools — CRISPR gene editing and single cell genomic profiling — in a method that may finally help us get answers to these questions and many more.

The new technology enables researchers to manipulate gene functions within single cells, and understand the results of each change in extremely high resolution. A single experiment with this method, say the scientists, may be equal to thousands of experiments conducted using previous approaches, and it may advance the field of genetic engineering for medical applications.

The gene-editing technique CRISPR is already transforming biology research around the world, and its clinical use in humans is just around the corner. CRISPR was first discovered in bacteria as a primitive acquired immune system, which cuts and pastes viral DNA into their own genomes to fight viruses. In recent years, this bacterial system has been adopted by researchers to snip out or insert nearly any gene in any organism or cell, quickly and efficiently. “But CRISPR, on its own, is a blunt research tool, since we often have trouble observing or understanding the outcome of this genomic editing,” says Prof. Ido Amit of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Immunology Department, who led the study. “Most studies so far have looked for black-or-white types of effects,” adds Dr. Diego Jaitin, of Amit’s lab group, “but the majority of processes in the body are complex and even chaotic.”

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Excellent article by Nick Gillespie, Editor-in Chief of Reason. Genetic editing is so far the 21st Century’s most important science—and it’s already being challenged by many as too radical: http://reason.com/blog/2016/12/15/will-gene-editing-technologies-spark-the #transhumanism #CRISPR #Future

The folks behind CRISPR gene editing were runners-up for Time’s Person of the Year. Their creation may win the future for secular China.

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Synthetic biology meets senolytics at Lifespan.io

We are developing tools to help researchers accurately target and remove dysfunctional cells in the body that have entered a state called “senescence”, and thereby assist in restoring it to youthful functionality. Please subscribe, share, and fund our campaign today! ►Campaign Link: https://www.lifespan.io/campaigns/cellage-targeting-senescen…c-biology/ ►Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/user/LifespanIO?sub_confirmation=1

Our society has never aged more rapidly – one of the most visible symptoms of the changing demographics is the exponential increase in the incidence of age-related diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular diseases and osteoarthritis. Not only does aging have a negative effect on the quality of life among the elderly but it also causes a significant financial strain on both private and public sectors. As the proportion of older people is increasing so is health care spending. According to a WHO analysis, the annual number of new cancer cases is projected to rise to 17 million by 2020, and reach 27 million by 2030. Similar trends are clearly visible in other age-related diseases such as cardiovascular disease. Few effective treatments addressing these challenges are currently available and most of them focus on a single disease rather than adopting a more holistic approach to aging.

Recently a new approach which has the potential of significantly alleviating these problems has been validated by a number of in vivo and in vitro studies. It has been demonstrated that senescent cells (cells which have ceased to replicate due to stress or replicative capacity exhaustion) are linked to many age-related diseases. Furthermore, removing senescent cells from mice has been recently shown to drastically increase mouse healthspan (a period of life free of serious diseases).

Here at CellAge we are working hard to help translate these findings into humans!

Continue reading “CellAge: Senescent Cell Targeting Technology Video” | >

Dr. Aubrey de Grey from the SENS Research Foundation was kind enough to talk in support of CellAge and their campaign on Lifespan.io

We are developing tools to help researchers accurately target and remove dysfunctional cells in the body that have entered a state called “senescence”, and thereby assist in restoring it to youthful functionality. Please subscribe, share, and fund our campaign today! ►Campaign Link: https://www.lifespan.io/campaigns/cellage-targeting-senescen…c-biology/ ►Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/user/LifespanIO?sub_confirmation=1

Our society has never aged more rapidly – one of the most visible symptoms of the changing demographics is the exponential increase in the incidence of age-related diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular diseases and osteoarthritis. Not only does aging have a negative effect on the quality of life among the elderly but it also causes a significant financial strain on both private and public sectors. As the proportion of older people is increasing so is health care spending. According to a WHO analysis, the annual number of new cancer cases is projected to rise to 17 million by 2020, and reach 27 million by 2030. Similar trends are clearly visible in other age-related diseases such as cardiovascular disease. Few effective treatments addressing these challenges are currently available and most of them focus on a single disease rather than adopting a more holistic approach to aging.

Recently a new approach which has the potential of significantly alleviating these problems has been validated by a number of in vivo and in vitro studies. It has been demonstrated that senescent cells (cells which have ceased to replicate due to stress or replicative capacity exhaustion) are linked to many age-related diseases. Furthermore, removing senescent cells from mice has been recently shown to drastically increase mouse healthspan (a period of life free of serious diseases).

Here at CellAge we are working hard to help translate these findings into humans!

Continue reading “CellAge: Dr. Aubrey de Grey Endorsement Video” | >

Excellent. Now, the question is “has Microsoft seen this?” as they are working on solving Diabetes too as part of their Synbio program that has already shown us their DNA Data Storage.

People with type 1 diabetes must inject themselves with insulin multiple times per day. This is because their immune system has destroyed cells in the pancreas that secrete insulin to maintain a healthy blood glucose level.

A team of bioengineers now report a possible alternative to such injections. The researchers engineered human kidney cells to act like pancreatic β cells, namely to sense blood glucose levels and produce insulin accordingly (Science 2016, DOI: 10.1126/science.aaf4006). When implanted in mice with type 1 diabetes, the cells prevent high blood glucose levels, also known as hyperglycemia.

Right now, “all we offer diabetic patients to cope with their disease is to have them measure their blood glucose levels and then inject a hormone,” says Martin Fussenegger of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, who led the team that engineered the cells. Although this works, he says, getting the dose right can be tough. “We set out to pioneer a new disease treatment concept.”

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After getting off its $100 million-plus IPO in the summer, gene editing biotech Intellia Therapeutics is getting ready for human tests of its preclinical CRISPR tech with new digs designed to help bolster its research capabilities.

The biotech, which has the backing and partnerships of the likes of Atlas, Novartis and Regeneron, is on the move as it heads over to its new lab facilities at 40 Erie Street, in Cambridge, MA.

“The field of genome editing is rapidly evolving and our work to develop therapies for patients requires that we have the infrastructure necessary for R&D growth and prepare for preclinical studies and clinical trials,” said Dr. Nessan Bermingham, CEO and founder of Intellia Therapeutics.

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The CellAge AMA is open for questions, come along and ask about biotechnology, senolytics and so on.

Welcome to the CellAge AMA with Mantas Matjusaitis, PhD student in synthetic biology and founder of CellAge. I am here to talk about our work to improve the targeting of dysfunctional “senescent” cells in the body, and thereby aid in their eventual removal. This is important because removal of these cells has been shown to be a critical component in the effort to improve healthy human lifespan.

In short, CellAge is going to develop synthetic DNA promoters which are specific to senescent cells, as the promoters that are currently used for this purpose, such as the p16 gene promoter, suffer from various issues and limitations (not comprehensively targeting all senescent cells, collateral damage in targeting some cells that are not senescent, etc.). You can find more details in our technology video here, and on our Lifespan.io information page.

Seeing as our primary mission is to expand the interface between synthetic biology and aging research, as well as drive translational research forward, we will offer the senescence reporter assay we develop to academics for free. We predict that in the very near future this assay will be also used as a quality control step in the cell therapy manufacturing process to make cell therapies safer.

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Check out the The Longevity Reporter interview with CellAge as they talk about rejuvenation biotechnology.

Innovative new startup Cell Age is using synthetic biology to develop new ways of targeting and removing senescent cells. We caught up with CEO Mantas Matjusaitis for an interview as their first fundraiser goes live on Lifespan.io (find it here)

Could you tell us a little bit about your approach and what makes you different?

We are a synthetic biology company which will use proven proprietary methods to develop tools and therapies to specifically target senescent cells. Early on, we will be focusing on developing novel approaches to identify senescent cells and this will help to screen for new drugs as well as move the field forward in general. Importantly, we will offer our first products for free to researchers from academia, because, in the end, our mission is to help the society and scientific community and we think this is the right way forward. Later on, our tools will be used to make cell-based therapies safer by removing senescent cells before the transplantations. And eventually, we are aiming to help create safe and accurate gene therapies to help fight age-related diseases like osteoarthritis, atherosclerosis and more.

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