A 5 year study. In recent years it has been shown to extend the lives of nematodes (or roundworms) by 57% and mice by 6%. In humans, claims abound that metformin-takers are living longer, having fewer cardiovascular episodes and seeing reduced odds of getting cancer.
Groundbreaking TAME trial, which directly targets aging as an endpoint, finally begins this November, reveals lead clinician Dr Nir Barzilai.
NBC is developing an untitled cryonics-themed project which hails from writer and executive producer David Slack and filmmaker Phillip Noyce who will direct the pilot and executive produce.
Sony Television produces the series which follows an enigmatic billionaire who has gathered more than 250 people who attempt to cheat death by undergoing cryogenic suspension in hopes that a future breakthrough would someday allow them to be brought back to life.
However, as these people from different moments in time wake up, they soon realise you can’t cheat death without paying a price. Josh Berman and Chris King will also serve as executive producer. Noyce also helmed the pilots of and executive produced ABC’s “Revenge” and FOX’s “The Resident”.
A joint study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the University of Maryland (UMD) has revealed a previously undocumented protective function of the telomerase enzyme.
Telomerase is used by somatic cells too
It was thought for a long time that telomerase is only active in certain cell types, such as stem cells, immune cells, and embryonic cells, in order to protect them from aging. Aside from a few cell types and, of course, cancer cells, which are able to hijack the telomerase enzyme in order to replicate uncontrollably, researchers believed that the enzyme is switched off in other types of cells.
Results from the new study, reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) have shown that telomerase is reactivated in normal adult cells at the latter stage of cell aging, and this activity reduces the potential for DNA damage that could lead cells to become cancerous. “This study reshapes the current understanding of telomerase’s function in normal cells,” said Kan Cao, PhD, an associate professor of cell biology and molecular genetics at UMD, who is senior author of the study. “Our work shows, for the first time, that there is a role for telomerase in adult cells beyond promoting tumor formation.
University of Maryland-led team found that telomerase, which immortalizes cancer cells, also prevents tumors and slows a key stage in normal cell death.
Age-related changes to the signals sent and received by our cells travelling via the bloodstream are one of the hallmarks of aging. A team of researchers, including Drs. Irina and Michael Conboy, has published the results of a new study suggesting that rejuvenation might be achieved by the calibration of these signals found in the blood [1].
The search for rejuvenation
The Conboys had done earlier research in joining of the circulatory systems between young and old animals, a process known as parabiosis, and they showed that tissue aging was not a one-way street and could be rapidly reversed in a matter of weeks, given access to the beneficial signaling from the younger animal [2].