More progress on the cancer front! Controlling cancer effectively is a critical part of rejuvenation biotechnology and therefore all cancer progress is of great interest to our community. If there was a poster child of aging diseases, cancer would be at the front of the queue.
“The results could lead to new treatments—not only for a variety of cancers, but also other diseases that arise from faulty proteinases, such as Alzheimer’s, asthma, multiple sclerosis and arthritis.”
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.
Changes to gene activity that occur with age can be turned back, a new study shows.
A talk about how to make life extension mainstream.
Presentation by Didier Coeurnelle at Transpolitica 2016.
Treatments that enable radical healthy longevity should increasingly be seen as an ethical and economic necessity, and debated within the political mainstream.
The session was chaired by David Wood and the camera was operated by Kiran Manam.
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/
Progress with treating osteoporosis.
A team of scientists at the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI) discovered a new bone-forming growth factor, Osteolectin (Clec11a), which reverses osteoporosis in mice and has implications for regenerative medicine.
Although Osteolectin is known to be made by certain bone marrow and bone cells, CRI researchers are the first to show Osteolectin promotes the formation of new bone from skeletal stem cells in the bone marrow. The study, published in eLife, also found that deletion of Osteolectin in mice causes accelerated bone loss during adulthood and symptoms of osteoporosis, such as reduced bone strength and delayed fracture healing.
“These results demonstrate the important role Osteolectin plays in new bone formation and maintaining adult bone mass. This study opens up the possibility of using this growth factor to treat diseases like osteoporosis,” said Dr. Sean Morrison, who led the team that made the discovery. Dr. Morrison, CRI Director, holds the Mary McDermott Cook Chair in Pediatric Genetics at UT Southwestern Medical Center, and the Kathryne and Gene Bishop Distinguished Chair in Pediatric Research at Children’s Research Institute at UT Southwestern.
Dr. Aubrey de Grey on the case again in this amusing video.
Dr. Aubrey de Grey in a new video where people ask questions via Twitter. It is a bit tongue in cheek and sorry about the title but hopefully you will enjoy it,
If you liked this video and agree that eliminating age-related diseases is a good idea please consider visiting our website and making a donation for science on the link below:
An interesting but predictably hyped research study currently doing the rounds. Epigentic changes are one of the Hallmarks of Aging and this study reinforces their importance despite the usual media hype.
Graying hair, crow’s feet, an injury that’s taking longer to heal than when we were 20—faced with the unmistakable signs of aging, most of us have had a least one fantasy of turning back time. Now, scientists at the Salk Institute have found that intermittent expression of genes normally associated with an embryonic state can reverse the hallmarks of old age.
This approach, which not only prompted human skin cells in a dish to look and behave young again, also resulted in the rejuvenation of mice with a premature aging disease, countering signs of aging and increasing the animals’ lifespan by 30 percent. The early-stage work provides insight both into the cellular drivers of aging and possible therapeutic approaches for improving human health and longevity.
“Our study shows that aging may not have to proceed in one single direction,” says Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, a professor in Salk’s Gene Expression Laboratory and senior author of the paper appearing in the December 15, 2016 issue of Cell. “It has plasticity and, with careful modulation, aging might be reversed.”
For the first time, scientists have used cellular reprogramming to reverse the ageing process in living animals, enabling mice with a form of premature ageing to live 30 percent longer than control animals.
The technique involves the use of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which lets scientists reprogram skin cells to a base, embryonic-like state. From there, iPSCs can develop into other types of cells in the body – and now researchers have shown that reprogramming cells can also rejuvenate living creatures, in addition to winding back cells.
“In other studies scientists have completely reprogrammed cells all the way back to a stem-cell-like state,” says researcher Pradeep Reddy from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
Getting old may not be inevitable — scientists have found a way to turn back the clock on human and animal cells, making them look and behave like younger versions of themselves.
The researchers also used the method to treat mice with a rare disease that causes them to age prematurely and die early, and found that the method increased the animals’ lifespan by 30 percent. And, when normal mice received the treatment, they appeared to be rejuvenated, with some of their cells healing faster than normal in response to injury.
The researchers said that their findings may help scientists better understand the process of aging. One day, it may be possible to use a similar approach to ward off age-related diseases in humans, and thus improve people’s health and increase their lifespan, they said.
