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Archive for the ‘life extension’ category: Page 491

Jul 18, 2017

The Edge of Medicine and Ageing — David Sinclair

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

David Sinclair. Of note in this lecture:

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Jul 18, 2017

AgeMeter: Physiological Biomarkers to Determine Functional Age

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

Today Lifespan.io / Life Extension Advocacy Foundation has launched the fifth research project since we began 1.5 years ago. We are working with the Centers for Age Control Inc who plan to develop a multiple aging biomarker system to aid clinical research, healthcare providers and enthusiasts.

For more details check out the press release here: http://www.leafscience.org/introducing-agemeter/

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Jul 18, 2017

Altering Microglia Types to Combat Degenerative Eye Diseases

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

Tweaking the types of microglia to favour a healing type over an inflammatory type has been the focus of a number of recent studies. This time the tremedous regenerative ability of zebrafish is the focus of research.


The evidence that the immune system, and in particular the various types of tissue resident macrophages play an important role in the regeneration of tissue continues to mount up.

The difference in the behaviour of these macrophages varies between species and may significantly contribute to the differences in regenerative capacity observed between slow regenerative species like mice and humans and species capable of robust rejuvenation such as salamanders and zebrafish. The latter two species being able to regenerate lost limbs and organs and the former two being far more limited.

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Jul 16, 2017

Scientists reverse ageing in mammals and predict human trials within 10 years

Posted by in category: life extension

Salk Institute. 4 genes.


A n end to grey hair and crows-feet could be just 10 years away after scientists showed it is possible to reverse ageing in animals.

Using a new technique which takes adult cells back to their embryonic form, US researchers at the Salk Institute in California, showed it was possible to reverse ageing in mice, allowing the animals to not only look younger, but live for 30 per cent longer.

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Jul 16, 2017

Altering Macrophage Types to Treat Parkinson’s

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

A new approach to Parkinson’s alters immune cells to favour healing.


As we reported in an article yesterday, researchers are becoming increasingly interested in the potential of changing the ratio of types of macrophages present in the body to facilitate tissue regeneration and healing.

This is a line of research that covers a number of topics, including aging, regeneration, tissue repair, and inflammation. Over the last year or so we have seen a number of publications focusing on altering populations of macrophages to elicit repair and regeneration of tissues, which is a positive sign that things are moving forward.

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Jul 15, 2017

Keith Comito introduces the Lifespan Heroes campaign and how we as a community can support the development of new therapies to treat age-related diseases for a healthier and longer life

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

Keith Comito introduces the Lifespan Heroes, a campaign to help support scientific progress, journalism and advocacy at the LEAF Foundation.

By becoming a Heroes patron you are helping us to create more content, exclusive interviews, the latest biotech news, livestream events and more.

Check out the campaign here: https://www.lifespan.io/campaigns/join-us-become-a-lifespan-hero/

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Jul 15, 2017

Fisetin a Compound in Strawberries Slows Aging in Mice

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food, life extension

Interesting results in mice but don’t jump on the bandwagon yet.


Fisetin is a naturally occurring plant polyphenol from the flavonoid group, similar to quercetin. It is present in many plants, where it acts as a colouring agent. It is also found in many fruits and vegetables, such as strawberries, apples, persimmons, onions, and cucumbers.

It has also been found to be a senolytic compound able to clear senescent cells, at least it does in vitro studies in a petri dish[1]. The clearance of dysfunctional senescent cells is one of the repair based approaches proposed by the SENS Research Foundation to prevent or reverse age-related diseases.

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Jul 15, 2017

Envisaging For-Profit Alternatives to Fight Aging! and Similar Initiatives

Posted by in categories: business, life extension, sustainability

Reason at Fight Aging! discusses the need to fund and support advocacy as much as research. Ultimately profressional advocacy and marketing could help popularize the field. Currently advocacy is left to a handful of volunteers and zealous individuals and that is not an optimal strategy for growth.


Useful activities in our community can be powered either by zealotry or by money. Zealotry has the advantage of being cheap, but the profound disadvantages of being rare, unreliable, and never quite optimally opinionated for the task at hand. Set a zealot to a challenge and you get the output the zealot decides upon, and only for so long as he or she is suitably motivated by whatever internal alchemy is at work in that particular case. Sustainable, reliable, long-term zealots only exist in stories. Money, on the other hand, has the disadvantage of being expensive, but for for so long as income is greater than expenditure, it can be used to produce reliable, sustainable, long-term outcomes. Changing the world always starts with the zealots, but the whole point of the subsequent bootstrapping process is to transition to money rather than zealotry as a power source just about as rapidly as possible. The future is defined by the few visionaries who care greatly enough to set aside their lives to work upon it, but it is enacted by the vastly greater number of people who take a paycheck and go home at the end of the work day.

To the extent we agree that the advocacy, fundraising, and other matters accomplished via Fight Aging! are good things, we’d like to see more of this taking place. More of it, and not dependent on the fickle motivations of zealots. Ultimately that means finding ways to do what Fight Aging! does, but for profit, with money. In this I do not mean Fight Aging! itself, which will be powered by zealotry until such time as the alchemy fails, at which point it will vanish just like everything else does in time, but something like it, and preferably dozens of varied somethings. Experimentation and diversity drive progress, and we won’t find out exactly what it is that Fight Aging! is doing suboptimally without the existence of many other attempts at the same types of initiative.

In the years that I have been running Fight Aging!, I’ve seen many longevity science interest and news sites come and go. Zealotry has a short half-life. When it comes to the money side of the house, things haven’t been much better, however. The typical ad-supported sites roll over and die fairly quickly; there never was enough money in that to do it for a niche interest such as ours over the past fifteen years. Their business models fail, and they linger a little while on the fumes of zealotry until that also departs. The initiatives that try sponsorship from the “anti-aging” marketplace tend to last longer, but are so corrupted by that revenue that they quickly lose all possible usefulness and relevance. You can’t take money from people pushing interventions that do not work and still speak with correctness and authority.

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Jul 15, 2017

Does the Fountain of Youth really exist?

Posted by in categories: genetics, life extension

Previously he said 10 years and that was 2016 where he said 2 years until phase 1 human trials.


Is it an impossible dream to find Ponce de Leon’s Fountain of Youth? No! I’ve just attended my 67th reunion at The Harvard Medical School (HMS) and, while interviewing Dr. George Church, I discovered it is no longer science fiction.

Dr. Church, Professor of Genetics at HMS, one of the world’s great scientists, predicts we are about to end the aging process. In the next five years no less! That’s why I say — damn it! I was born too soon.

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Jul 14, 2017

Cell Functional Age Shows How Old You Really Are

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

A new aging biomarker system has been published and it looks pretty robust.


Chronological age is now generally accepted by academics as being a poor means to identify how a person is aging. Far more useful is a person’s biological age in evaluating how fast someone is aging.

Biological age is assessed using indicators known as aging biomarkers, and as rejuvenation biotechnology draws ever nearer, there is an urgent need for more effective biomarkers. As well as finding effective biomarkers, another challenge in the field of aging research is seeking consensus among academics as to which biomarkers are the best ones to use.

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