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Category: genetics – Page 256

A discussion with Dr. Nir Barzaili on Age Later

Ever wonder why some 90-year olds don’t seem to slow down and seem. to retain the mental and physical capacity of someone half their age?
Do they have good genes? Or is there a way that all of us can get older without getting old?

That’s what Dr. Nir Barzilai, founder of the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, set out to answer in his book, Age Later.

Dr. Nir joined us for a live Q + A discussion on Zoom.
Whether you’ve read Age Later or not, you won’t want to miss this. Because by the end of the discussion, you’ll know how to turn back the clock on aging.

Listen to the Longevity by Design podcast episode with Dr. Nir’s on genetics and lifestyle factors of centenarians here: https://hubs.li/Q01rqsV-0
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New genetically engineered houseplant cleans air as efficiently as 30 air purifiers

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A Paris-based startup has created a genetically engineered houseplant that can literally clean the air within your home. The plant builds off the natural purifying properties that houseplants already offer. So, while it adds some color to whatever room you put it in, it’s also actively keeping the air cleaner than 30 air purifiers.

The company, called Neoplants, modified both a pothos plant as well as its root microbiome to pump the plant’s natural air-cleaning properties up quite a bit. Called Neo P1, the genetically engineered houseplant recently hit the market, and you can purchase it right now.

Plants can offer quite a bit to your home. Not only can they boost your mood and help reduce anxiety, according to researchers, but they can also clean the air thanks to their natural air-purifying properties. With this genetically engineered houseplant, though, you’re getting more than that basic level of purifying. In fact, Neoplants say that the Neo P1 is 30 times more effective than the top NASA plants.

Genetics May Explain Link Between Unhealthy Teen Lifestyles and Accelerated Biological Aging

Summary: The epigenetic clocks of those who indulged in unhealthy behaviors as teens were 1.7 to 3.3 years older than individuals who reported more healthy lifestyles as teens.

Source: eLife.

Biological aging results from damage to cells and tissues in the body that accumulates over time. The results of the study could lead to new ways of identifying young people at risk of developing unhealthy habits that are associated with accelerated biological aging and suggest interventions to prevent poor health outcomes later on.

In a first, doctors treated a fatal genetic disease before birth

A toddler is thriving after doctors in the U.S. and Canada used a novel technique to treat her before she was born for a rare genetic disease that caused the deaths of two of her sisters.

Ayla Bashir, a 16-month-old from Ottawa, Ontario, is the first child treated as a fetus for Pompe disease, an inherited and often fatal disorder in which the body fails to make some or all of a crucial protein.

Making melanoma immortal: Pitt scientists discover key genetic step in cancer’s race to live forever

Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have discovered the missing puzzle piece in the mystery of how melanoma tumors control their mortality.

In a paper published in Science this week, Jonathan Alder, Ph.D. and his team describe how they discovered the perfect combination of genetic alterations that tumors use to promote explosive growth and prevent their own demise, a development that could change the way oncologists understand and treat melanoma.

“We did something that was, in essence, obvious based on previous basic research and connected back to something that is happening in patients,” said Alder, assistant professor in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine at Pitt’s School of Medicine.

A transhumanist utopia | Anders Sandberg

A continuation of the enlightenment values that freed mankind of superstition.

Anders Sandberg discusses achieving a transhumanist utopia.

Watch more from Anders Sandberg at https://iai.tv/player#utm_source=YouTube&utm_medium=description.

From the objectives of the transhumanist movement, to actioning these objectives through science and to the importance of risk evaluation in dealing with modern technologies, Anders Sandberg delves into how we’re preparing for a transhumanist Utopia.

#AndersSandberg #Transhumanism #transhumanist.

Continue reading “A transhumanist utopia | Anders Sandberg” | >

Host proteins that impair Ebola virus infection identified

Several proteins have been identified in hosts that interact with Ebola virus and primarily function to inhibit the production of viral genetic material in cells and prevent Ebola virus infection, according to a study led by the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University.

Zaire ebolavirus or Ebola virus, an RNA virus pathogen that belongs to the filovirus family, causes outbreaks of severe disease in humans. This public health threat has produced outbreaks where reported case fatality rates ranged up to 90 percent.

The West Africa Ebola virus epidemic from 2013–2016 resulted in more than 28,000 infections and more than 11,000 deaths. Four outbreaks occurred in the Democratic Republic of Congo from 2017–2021 and Ebola virus reemerged in Guinea in 2021.

The untapped potential of RNA structures

The human genome has just over 20,000 genes coding for proteins. Yet, it produces at least ten times that many different non-coding RNA molecules, which can often take on more than one shape. At least some of this RNA structurome is functional in physiology or pathophysiology.

In an invited review for Nature Reviews Genetics, Danny Incarnato, a molecular geneticist from the University of Groningen (The Netherlands), and his colleague Robert C. Spitale from the University of Irvine in California (USA) describe ways to develop the, as yet, largely untapped potential of RNA structures.

RNA is perhaps best known as the intermediate between genome and protein synthesis: messenger RNA molecules copy the genetic code of a gene in the cell’s nucleus and transport it to the cytoplasm, where ribosomes translate the code into a protein. However, RNA is also a key regulator of almost every cellular process and the structures that are adopted by RNA molecules are thought to often be key to their functions.

From Pitless Cherries to Softer Kale, This Startup Is Using CRISPR to Make Better Produce

Based on marketing activation events the company ran over the summer in Seattle, Austin, and Palo Alto, the outlook for their first product looks pretty rosy. They gave away bags of salad (which were clearly labeled as being gene-edited) consisting of red-and green-leaf mustard greens, and asked people to complete a short survey about it. Adams estimated that more than 6,000 people tried the salads, and over 90 percent responded that they were “very motivated” or “somewhat motivated” to buy the product.

A New Green Revolution?

Helping people make healthier dietary choices is just one benefit that CRISPR could bring to produce. Its possibilities are wide-ranging, as evidenced by PairWise’s work to create fruit trees that can grow in different climates and yield food that’s easier to harvest. It’s not unlike Norman Borlaug’s work back in the 1940s to create a high-yield wheat seed that was resistant to stem rust—a project that ended up saving millions of people from hunger and famine.

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