MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'and education'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:04:58 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5181722&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2011%2F09%2Fcreating-people-seems-like-a-necessary-but-not-terribly-nice-thing-to-be-doing.php Less us ponder the subject of having children in the face of the existence of aging coupled with the possibility of progressively defeating aging - perhaps to the point where some of us alive today will escape age-related death by the skin of our teeth. Or perhaps not if we don't get our act together here and now. Evidently we need to have children in order to have the chance of incrementally defeating aging by building ever better versions of a biological repair kit to reverse ever more of the damage that causes degeneration and death. This task is one of decades, long enough that it may be today's researchers who start the job, but it'll be younger hands that finish it - their children and grandchildren. Yet creating people is somewhat like drafting them into a war and a human condition ... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5181722 Wed, 31 Aug 2011 23:00:00 +0100 5181722 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5174581&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2011%2F08%2Fchanging-the-mythology-thoughts-on-sonia-arrisons-100-plus.php The latest book to emerge from the longevity advocacy community is entitled "100 Plus: How the Coming age of Longevity Will Change Everything, From Careers and Relationships to Family and Faith", and is penned by Sonia Arrison, whom you might have heard of. The foreword is by Peter Thiel, whose name you should certainly know by now - you might recall his $3.5 million funding of the SENS Foundation's program of rejuvenation biotechnology, back when it was a branch of the Methuselah Foundation. Thiel makes a point in the opening pages, and it's one to keep in mind when reading the rest of the book: Unlike the other animals, we have knowledge of death. The origins of language, of culture, and of religion can perhaps all be traced to that point in the distant past when our ancestors first acq... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5174581 Sun, 28 Aug 2011 23:00:00 +0100 5174581 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5125703&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2011%2F08%2Fnobody-is-arguing-that-radical-life-extension-is-impossible.php Discussions on "when" can probably be skipped as lacking rigor: no-one knows. All the meaningful timelines depend greatly on seeds sown now that will only bear fruit in the 2030s - the course of twenty years remains a matter of long term planning and great uncertainty in specific outcomes while we're stuck living lives that top out at a century (and that with great luck). The beginnings of a larger research community, the outcome of the debate over strategy in longevity research, and so forth. It is interesting to ponder and plot the windings of future events, but that time is probably better spent on influencing the "how" discussion or materially contributing to progress. As to the discussion on whether engineering longevity is desirable, or should be blocked by people in power - I think... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5125703 Thu, 11 Aug 2011 23:00:00 +0100 5125703 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5077633&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2011%2F07%2Fpartaking-of-the-hope.php If you go through the first half of your life basically healthy, there are actually only a few important differences between your situation and that of your ancestors a century or two ago when it comes to health and medical technology. For all that we live in the opening years of an era of advanced biotechnology, and in an age of far greater wealth, a healthy person benefits only through (a) the reduced burden of infectious disease, and (b) through the insulating effects of wealth against malnutrition, exposure, and other environmental misfortunes. These two points are enough to explain much of the steady rise in life expectancy that occurs with growing wealth and advancing medical technology over the past centuries. What is the point of mentioning this? It is to remind us that we are no... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5077633 Thu, 28 Jul 2011 23:00:00 +0100 5077633 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5069420&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2011%2F07%2Fwe-dont-need-to-persuade-everyone.php The point of advocacy and education for the development of rejuvenation biotechnology, such as evangelism for the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence, is not to persuade everyone. It's to persuade enough of the right people: enough to ensure that progress occurs and ways to significantly reverse aging and its diseases are produced within our lifetimes. That doesn't have to be a sizable fraction of the population: the plausible cost of achieving radical life extension in mice is one to two billion dollars over a decade. Most of the really big pharmaceutical companies each spend that much on the development of two or three mainstream drugs, all costs included. A billion dollars is small change when considered against the economic output of even small segments of the human race. ... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5069420 Sun, 24 Jul 2011 23:00:00 +0100 5069420 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4992643&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2011%2F06%2Fthere-is-no-i-dont-know-what-to-do-with-my-life.php There should be no such thing as "I don't know what to do with my life." Scratch that statement away and erase it, as it should be "I will aid the development of life extension technology until I do know." It should be no surprise to anyone that many, or perhaps even a majority of people at any given time have no real idea as to what they want to do with their lives. No vision, no grand dream that captures them, no burning desire to achieve a specific great work. That isn't because they are incapable - far from it, it is because they haven't found their own personal blue touch paper yet. The space of ideas and ideals is vast, and even the most aggressively autodidactic internet-addicted polymath cannot embrace more than a fraction of the sphere of human knowledge. Yet you cannot know you... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4992643 Wed, 29 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4992643 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4968436&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2011%2F06%2Fanother-crowdsourced-research-funding-success-for-longecity.php I'm pleased to see that the Immortality Institute / Longecity has completed fundraising for their latest project, an investigation of the potential benefits of microglia transplants in the aging brain: After months of fundraising we are now delighted to announce that the project has started! Through many donations large and small, the community has raised sufficient funds to initiate the project. Last month, we passed the 80% mark and knew that full success would only be a matter of time. Then, something amazing happened: though promoting this effort, a far sighted investor has stepped forward who can see the potential in developing this research project. The angel [committed] a substantial contribution towards a research arm that is closely aligned to the project LongeCity is funding. Th... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4968436 Thu, 23 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4968436 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4934056&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2011%2F06%2Fconfusion-abounds-especially-when-religion-and-spirituality-become-involved.php Confusion is an important barrier to overcome when advocating engineered human longevity. For those folk who are not paying much attention to the topic - which is, sadly, 99.9% of the present roster of the human race - there's little apparent difference between advocacy for real, plausible scientific development and the nonsense of the "anti-aging" marketplace. It's pretty much all the same to them, and that's a big problem. One of the long term projects for the advocacy community is to raise the general level of education and awareness, such that a far greater number of people do know that they should support SENS research and not the ramblings of the pill and potion vendors if they do have an interest in living longer. Not a small project, but we can all help. Things become somewhat w... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4934056 Tue, 14 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4934056 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4921360&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2011%2F06%2Fopen-cures-a-protocol-outline-for-mitochondrial-protofection.php Open Cures is an initiative that aims to accelerate the development of existing longevity-enhancing biotechnologies demonstrated in the laboratory, but which are not being developed for commercial use in humans - largely due to regulatory barriers. Open Cures is a volunteer initiative, open to everyone willing to help, that aims to speed the advent of biotechnologies that can slow down or repair aspects of the biological damage of aging and thus extend healthy human life. Our primary long-term goal is to bring together (a) promising but undeveloped biotechnologies of longevity and (b) the developers who can bring them to the clinic. A fellow named Allen is one of the folk whose interest in the Open Cures vision convinced me that I needed to do more than just talk about it: you can see h... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4921360 Thu, 09 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4921360 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4911432&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2011%2F06%2Fhyperactivism-considered-harmful.php What I'll here call hyperactivism is a poisonous sort of dysfunction that you'll find in activist and advocate communities associated with struggling industries or long-standing initiatives that have failed to fulfill early visions of growth. It comes about because the early supporters in any new field tend to be passionate, driven, ornery, and focused: if they didn't have these characteristics, they wouldn't be up for the job of fighting over and again to persuade people to see things their way. If you are trying to build a new venture, then you need these people: they are worth their weight in gold, and they will help you succeed. When an initiative does succeed attracting broad support and a large community, the energy and quirks of the early activists are tempered by a sea of more sed... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4911432 Mon, 06 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4911432 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4883538&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2011%2F05%2Fan-introduction-to-open-cures-at-h-magazine.php I recently wrote an article that introduces the Open Cures initiative and explains the backdrop of medical research and regulation that makes Open Cures - or something very much like it - absolutely necessary. The piece is presently published at h+ Magazine: You may recognize me as the author-slash-editor of Fight Aging!, a long-running news and advocacy site focused on progress towards reversal of aging and engineering longer human lives. There is more to progress in the general sense than just the underlying science, however, and with that in mind I recently announced the launch of Open Cures, a volunteer initiative with the aim of greatly speeding up the development of clinical applications of longevity science. Participation is open to anyone who can help with the goals listed in the ... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4883538 Mon, 30 May 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4883538 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4872038&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2011%2F05%2Fcountries-medical-tourism-law-a-research-project-for-the-open-cures-initiative.php I am looking for volunteers to undertake some light, spare-time research for Open Cures: An open volunteer initiative that aims to speed the advent of biotechnologies that can slow down or repair aspects of the biological damage of aging and thus extend healthy human life. Our primary long-term goal is to bring together (a) promising but undeveloped biotechnologies of longevity and (b) the developers who can bring them to the clinic. The Open Cures roadmap looks a way past the present foundational work (website, writing, organizational details, and so forth) and past the forthcoming efforts to build a repository of documentation for longevity-enhancing biotechnologies. Beyond all of that lies a process of building relationships with the medical tourism industry and developers outside the... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4872038 Thu, 26 May 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4872038 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4862477&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2011%2F05%2Fthree-parallel-tracks.php There are three parallel tracks along which the future development of longevity science must progress, and we'll reach the end goal only as rapidly as the slowest of the three tracks moves. 1) Science and Biotechnology The most obvious of the tracks is that the technologies of rejuvenation must be developed. We can see what the form that these technologies must take: damage repaired, waning cell populations renewed, waste byproducts broken down and removed, cancer thwarted. Initiatives like SENS can describe the needed procedures in great detail, at the level of cells and molecular machinery, as we truly are within a tantalizingly close reach of their creation. But the biotechnologies of rejuvenation don't yet exist, and the many technology demonstrations of long-lived mice, flies, and ... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4862477 Tue, 24 May 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4862477 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4862480&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2011%2F05%2Fthe-latest-rejuvenation-research-and-the-most-important-debate.php I'd missed the emergence of the latest issue of Rejuvenation Research last month, which opens with this: Possibly the biggest battle that I have had to fight over the past decade is to persuade people to take seriously the idea that it is time even to think about "reversing aging" while we remain so negligibly able even to slow aging down. The flaw in that logic is simple: it is that rejuvenation, i.e. the restoration of an organism's physiological state to how it was at an earlier age, will be achieved not by reversing the processes of aging but by repairing the accumulated damage that those processes create. To get back to where we came from, in other words, we do not need to retrace the route we took from there to here. Any route will do, and in this case there turns out to be a vastly... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4862480 Mon, 23 May 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4862480 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4862483&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2011%2F05%2Fannouncing-open-cures.php I'm pleased to announce that Open Cures has launched. This is the volunteer initiative sprung from discussion of the Vegas Group concept that has been taking place here for the past few months. More than a dozen ways to extend life in mice have been demonstrated in laboratories Yet the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) forbids commercial therapies for aging Thus the best biotechnologies for human longevity languish, undeveloped... But this is a shrinking world, linked by the internet and medical tourism Advanced, safe clinical development takes place in many countries We can work around the FDA, and this is how it will be done » Looking at the future of commercial medical development and rejuvenation biotechnology, it seems clear that something has to be done. The present ... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4862483 Sun, 22 May 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4862483 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4762734&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2011%2F04%2Fpotential-early-documentation-projects-for-the-vegas-group.php What is the Vegas Group initiative setting out to achieve, in a nutshell? I'm still working on that short explanation, but here is one attempt at it. Thanks to the present regulatory situation in the US - where aging is not recognized as a disease, and therefore no therapy for aging can be legally developed - there are any number of potentially useful biotechnologies presently languishing without further development. These are methods and techniques shown to extend life in mice or repair and reverse specific biochemical aspects of aging, but for which there is no further funding for clinical development. Nothing may be happening for these technologies in the US, but there are active biotechnology and medical development communities in other parts of the world who are not so encumbered by l... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4762734 Wed, 27 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4762734 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4758721&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2011%2F04%2Fsens-foundation-is-hiring-for-the-lysosens-project.php LysoSENS is the SENS Foundation initiative to build a platform for medical bioremediation capable of breaking down the damaging byproducts of metabolism that build up in old cells and degrade their ability to recycle garbage. The short of is that we know that out there somewhere are bacteria that can eat these compounds, such as the lipofuscin that contributes to many age-related conditions. There is no buildup of prominent components of lipofuscin in graveyards, for example - so something is consuming it. That bacterial something will be armed with enzymes, biological knifes and saws that might be turned into a therapy to destroy lipofuscin if identified and introduced into the human body. You might recall that the early LysoSENS volunteers ran a contest for soil samples from obscure loc... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4758721 Tue, 26 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4758721 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4753647&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2011%2F04%2Fan-update-on-early-vegas-group-discussions.php The Vegas Group is a recently launched initiative that aims to speed up translation of existing longevity-enhancing biotechnologies from the laboratory to human therapies. There is little incentive for commercial entities to work on these technologies in the US because the FDA does not recognize aging as a disease, and will therefore never approve a therapy for aging. But if these technologies, currently documented only in the prickly, dense scientific literature, can be brought into the open biotechnology arena, explained, and made accessible, they will be picked up by semi-professionals, developers, and commercial ventures in less restricted parts of the world. Protofection, for example, is a technique for introducing replacement mitochondrial DNA into all the cells of the body - a way... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4753647 Sun, 24 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4753647 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4734019&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2011%2F04%2Fa-mailing-list-for-discussion-of-the-vegas-group-initiative.php I have created a mailing list - actually a Google group - for discussion on the Vegas Group initiative, as outlined in past posts here at Fight Aging!: The Vegas Group: a so far fictional community of the next ten years that will merge the longevity advocacy and open biotech communities in order to (a) reverse engineer the most promising life-span-enhancing techniques demonstrated in the laboratory, (b) translate that work into human rejuvenation biotechnologies, and (b) make these therapies available for use via medical tourism to Asia-Pacific region clinics. I suppose it's not quite so fictional now that a small group of people are talking about how to make it happen. The present focus - for me at least - is on kickstarting a narrow, exploratory project of documentation and reverse eng... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4734019 Sun, 17 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4734019 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4719872&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2011%2F04%2Freversing-engineering-protofection-as-a-first-target-for-the-vegas-group.php The Vegas Group is a yet-to-be-built community initiative intended to bring longevity science to the open biotechnology and DIYbio communities - and from there reverse engineer and make ready for human use the most promising longevity-enhancing technologies demonstrated in mice in the laboratory. We are entering an age of medical tourism, and the clinics and laboratories of Asia will be happy to accept business and open source biotechnologies generated by DIYbio work in the US. At this stage, I'm still thinking through the project: breaking it down into manageable chunks, and considering what I should work on first: The path to this future involves networking and community building in a whole new and different direction from that taken by much of the longevity advocacy community - and the... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4719872 Wed, 13 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4719872 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4714705&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2011%2F04%2Freversing-engineering-protofection-as-a-first-target-for-the-vegas-group.php The Vegas Group is a yet-to-be-built community initiative intended to bring longevity science to the open biotechnology and DIYbio communities - and from there reverse engineer and make ready for human use the most promising longevity-enhancing technologies demonstrated in mice in the laboratory. We are entering an age of medical tourism, and the clinics and laboratories of Asia will be happy to accept business and open source biotechnologies generated by DIYbio work in the US. At this stage, I'm still thinking through the project: breaking it down into manageable chunks, and considering what I should work on first: The path to this future involves networking and community building in a whole new and different direction from that taken by much of the longevity advocacy community - and the... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4714705 Wed, 13 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4714705 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4693252&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2011%2F04%2Fa-few-large-numbers.php Some numbers to consider, since everyone and their dog seems to be talking about the disposition of inordinately large sums of money - and little else - at the moment: Between 1970 and 2000, increasing life expectancy added $3.2 trillion in effective wealth. The yearly cost of natural death: more than 50 million lives and $100 trillion in wealth. The estimated cost of developing robust rejuvenation in mice via SENS, the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence: $100 million per year over ten years. The 2010 budget for the US National Institute on Aging: $1 billion. The 2010 budget for the US National Institutes of Health: in the vicinity of $35 billion. The NIH comprises perhaps a third of medical research funding in the US. The cost of acquiring sirtuin research company Sirt... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4693252 Thu, 07 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4693252 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4631454&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2011%2F03%2Fan-approach-to-step-one-of-the-vegas-group-bootstrapping-the-codex.php The Vegas Group: a so far fictional community of the next ten years that will merge the longevity advocacy and open biotech communities in order to (a) reverse engineer the most promising life-span-enhancing techniques demonstrated in the laboratory, (b) translate that work into human rejuvenation biotechnologies, and (b) make these therapies available for use via medical tourism to Asia-Pacific region clinics. So I have been pondering how best to make the vision of the Vegas Group a reality: what steps do we take so that we wake up six or seven years from now to an open source biotech community whose members are working on enabling the best longevity therapies produced by the formal research community - and who have the overseas connections to enable responsible use of resulting therapie... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4631454 Thu, 24 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4631454 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4592691&cid=t_169322_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2F5cPetg5jHnI%2F For those wondering about the difficulties confronting the FDA as the agency attempts to monitor the supply chain, the chart offers some insight. From roughly 1,200 foreign manufacturing plants in 2001, the number grew to more than 3,500 in 2008 - a 185 percent increase. Yet the number of FDA inspections rose 23 percent, leading to a 57 percent drop in the inspection rate. [UPDATE: In 2001, 20.7 percent of facilities were inspected, but only 8.9 percent in fiscal year 2008]. In China alone, the problem is daunting. There are nearly 1,000 manufacturers of drug substances eligible for FDA inspection. And for 89 percent of audited Chinese-made drug substances, US and European pharmaceutical purchasers fail to demand the mandatory Chinese license and certificate, according to Philippe André o... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4592691 Tue, 15 Mar 2011 12:15:33 +0100 4592691 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4592340&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2011%2F03%2Fhow-to-make-the-vegas-group-a-reality.php Elsewhere, in the land of wishful thinking: The Vegas Group came together formally sometime in 2016, though the first kick-off meeting was the year prior at one of the bi-annual conventions for longevity research held in California. ... The Vegas Group was a natural outgrowth of a decade of advocacy and anticipation for human enhancement technologies, coupled with the frustrating realization that no such technologies would be meaningfully developed, never mind made available to the public, under the regulatory regimes then in place in the US and Europe. ... by 2017 the direct action contingent of the Vegas Group consisted of about a hundred people all told. Their declared objective was a distributed collaborative effort to (a) develop human versions of the most successful longevity and me... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4592340 Mon, 14 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4592340 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4570766&cid=t_169322_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2011%2F03%2Finstitutional-zeitgeist-with-high-level-of-particiipation-by-pathologists.html Infopathic submitted a comment in response to a recent note in Lab Soft News (see: Should Pathologists Make "Cameo Appearances" in Patient Units and Surgeon's Lounge). In this note, I raised the topic of "cameo" appearances by pathologists versus the significant integration of them into the hospital clinical care processes. Below is his comment: As with most issues of true best practice, there optimally is an institutional zeitgeist underlying expected care. For years at our institution, pathologists are active participants in surgery, radiology and oncology conferences, not to mention multi-discipline care conferences and M&M. Moreover, with a remarkably active hospital autopsy service, we are routinely joined by clinicians during the case. None of this behavio... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4570766 Thu, 10 Mar 2011 14:41:08 +0100 4570766 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4560218&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2011%2F03%2Fcloser-but-still-so-very-far-away.php I noticed a recent New York Times article on the interests of one of the world's few hundred billionaires: Because [David Murdock] is 87, it makes an unusually robust specimen, which is what he must be if he is to defy the odds (and maybe even the gods) and live as long as he intends to. He wants to reach 125, and sees no reason he can't, provided that he continues eating the way he has for the last quarter century: with a methodical, messianic correctness that he believes can, and will, ward off major disease and minor ailment alike. ... His affluence has enabled him to turn his private fixation on diet and longevity into a public one. I went to see him first in North Carolina in late January. It is there, outside of Charlotte, in a city named Kannapolis near his lodge, that he has s... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4560218 Mon, 07 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4560218 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4536494&cid=t_169322_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2011%2F03%2Fpathologist-making-cameos-in-patient-units-and-surgeons-lounge.html A common criticism of some hospital pathologists is that they hole-up in their offices to diagnose the day's pathology slides and sometimes fail to develop meaningful relationships with hospital physicians and nurses. As an antidote to this problem, they are sometimes urged to visit the surgeon's lounge and make clinical "lab rounds" to correlate test results with clinical data. One clever pathology trainee has come up with a name for this phenomenon -- cameo appearances. I learned about this in a note posted on the Student Doctor Network (see: Pathology is the Future?). Below is the key passage: [S]uggesting we round or otherwise make [pathologist] cameos on the floors is ridiculous. Perhaps the surgeons should spend half of their days double scoping with us too. I'm... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4536494 Wed, 02 Mar 2011 14:11:17 +0100 4536494 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4517170&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fwhen-dietary-supplements-are-used-as-medicines%2F2011.02.24 I was surprised to get this e-mail from a reader: Surely, Dr. Hall, the public mania for nutritional supplements is baseless. All the alleged nutrients in supplements are contained in the food we eat. And what governmental agency has oversight responsibility regarding the production of these so-call nutritional supplements? Even if one believes that such pills have value, how can the consumer be assured that the product actually contains what the label signifies? I have yet to find a comment on this subject on your otherwise informative website. My co-bloggers and I have addressed these issues repeatedly.Peter Lipson covered DSHEA (The Diet Supplement Health and Education Act) nicely. It’s all been said before, but perhaps it needs to be said again — and maybe by writing this post... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4517170 Thu, 24 Feb 2011 14:00:56 +0100 4517170 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4414516&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2011%2F01%2Funcertainty-over-life-expectancy-becoming-a-mainstream-concept.php Following on in the theme of last week's post on the spreading ideas of longevity science, I think it's fair to say that uncertainty in projected life expectancy is now a fairly mainstream concept. Vast sums of money - the massive industries of pensions, life insurance, and so forth - rest upon reasonably accurate actuarial projections of life span and mortality rate. Long term projections of life span continue to trend upward as the actuaries revise their opinions on biotechnology - but I believe they still fail to account for potential revolutionary advances in medicine that lie ahead. The level of uncertainty at least is fairly well grasped now within the actuarial industry, but for various political reasons it is only slowly seeping into official projections. Unfortunately for these... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4414516 Fri, 28 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4414516 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4386267&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2011%2F01%2Ffifty-years-from-now-youre-either-dead-or-dying-so-do-something-about-it.php Much of the more active end of the present transhumanist community is very concerned with existential risk on a grand scale: the Singularity Institute, the Lifeboat Foundation, the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology, and so forth. It doesn't hurt to have some people thinking about the end of the world - it seems like a good plan, given the balance of risk and odds as we presently understand it. A tiny risk, gargantuan consequences, a lot of people in the world, and just a few thinking meaningfully about how it might all fall into the pit. A sort of inverse Pascal's Wager, if you like. As a fraction of the community of folk focused seriously on advancing technology and pushing out the horizons of what is considered possible - as opposed to those who are short-sighted or merely along for... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4386267 Fri, 21 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4386267 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4377542&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2011%2F01%2Fthe-ideas-of-longevity-science-are-spreading.php When it's working, advocacy for longevity science funding and progress towards rejuvenation biotechnology is a steady process of growth; an accumulation of articles, conversions, acts of persuasion, and new advocates. It continues year after year, and perhaps it is sometimes hard to tell whether we're better placed in 2011 than we were in 2010, but we can certainly look further back to see clear and meaningful progress over the past five or ten years in public awareness of longevity science, media attention, and support for bold action in the scientific community science. Turning a formerly fringe idea into a mainstream vision for the future - persuading the world, in other words - doesn't happen overnight, sad to say. But it does happen, and it is well underway for the goal of greatly ext... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4377542 Thu, 20 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4377542 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4313977&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2011%2F01%2Fsupport-real-progress-in-life-extension.php When it comes to a motto and a goal in life, you could do far worse than "support real progress in life extension." I may be biased on this topic, of course: As we start the new year, it is helpful to draw attention to the sobering fact that no credible human rejuvenation therapies are available today, and it is doubtful that such therapies will see the light of day in the short term. ... There is a broad consensus in the life extension community that more resources need to be allocated to combating aging as such, as opposed to increasingly futile efforts to extend life by treating aging-associated diseases. Unfortunately, the objective to launch a serious rejuvenation research program has limited mass appeal so far. As a consequence, we will have to get involved ourselves. Hopefully we... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4313977 Tue, 04 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4313977 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4302108&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F12%2Fthe-methuselah-foundation-needs-a-smart-reliable-technical-volunteer-linux-php-mysql.php The Methuselah Foundation, founded back in 2003, aims to promote and support scientific progress towards defeating age-related disease, repairing the damage of aging, and greatly extending the healthy human life span. To that end the Foundation has raised more than $10 million in funding pledges, and their initiatives include the Mprize for longevity science, the recently launched NewOrgan Prize, investment in tissue engineering startups such as Organovo, and - prior to the establishment of the SENS Foundation as a separate entity - the funding of Aubrey de Grey's research program for rejuvenation biotechnology. These activities, and the networking to support them behind the scenes, have had a great impact upon the state of the aging research community, media treatment of longevity scienc... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4302108 Fri, 31 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4302108 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4298606&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F12%2Fwealth-does-not-grant-vision.php There is a discussion that takes place with great regularity within any community of advocates. It builds from the eternal triad: (a) exceedingly wealthy people exist, (b) their wealth could change the world for the better if applied in the right way, and yet (c) they are not applying their wealth in this right way. Pick your "right way" from any of the paths you consider valuable - for me, it's generating meaningful progress towards the prevention and reversal of degenerative aging, the universal medical condition that kills more than 100,000 people every day. But perhaps you have something better, more beneficial to humanity in mind. After all, we're all very sure of the causes we support. Some folk seem to thrive on the outrage they can generate by considering just how many dollars of ... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4298606 Wed, 29 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4298606 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4294595&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F12%2Fimmortality-institute-fundraising-for-microglia-stem-cell-study.php The present fundraising initiative at the Immortality Institute is another in their series of small research projects that can, despite their modest price tag, contribute to progress in longevity and aging science: Cognitive functions of the brain decline with age. One of the protective cell types in the brain are called microglia cells. However, these microglia cells also loose function with age. Our aim is to replace non-functional microglia with new and young microglia cells derived from adult stem cells. We will inject these young microglia cells into 'Alzheimer mice' - a model for Alzheimers disease. After giving the cells some time to work, we will sacrifice the mice and measure microglia activity, neurogenesis, proliferation of neuroprogenitors and plaque density in the brain. A ... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4294595 Tue, 28 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4294595 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4167932&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F11%2Fsuggestions-for-year-end-charitable-donations-to-further-longevity-science.php The end of 2010 approaches - blink and it'll be the winter solstice already. Time flies. It seems somewhat traditional here on the American side of the watery divide for people to make their charitable donations near the year-end, and so here are three suggestions for those of us interested in advancing the cause of engineered human longevity. 1) SENS Foundation The SENS Foundation funds research into rejuvenation biotechnology, and aims to encourage greater adoption of the repair-based engineering viewpoint espoused by biomedical gerontologist Aubrey de Grey. Repair the known forms of biochemical damage that cause aging, in other words, and thereby reverse and prevent the diseases and frailty of aging. This is sadly a minority position in the aging research community, and few researches... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4167932 Mon, 15 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4167932 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4159499&cid=t_169322_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FgwDDlcchpMc%2F So what will health care reform mean to prescription drug pricing? In response to a query from Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin who is the ranking member of the House Budget Committee, the US Congressional Budget Office has analyzed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 and come up with the following forecasts, which discuss price hikes and rebates… For instance, the new law is expected to raise prices paid by pharmacies, less any rebates paid by drugmakers to insurers, by about 1 percent, on average. That increase would slightly raise federal costs for Medicare’s drug benefit and the costs for some beneficiaries, but the new discounts would make the costs faced by other beneficiaries substantially lower. T... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4159499 Fri, 12 Nov 2010 18:13:27 +0100 4159499 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4055677&cid=t_169322_86_f&fid=36669&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffadelibrary.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F10%2F11%2Fdiversity-in-health-and-care-2010-vol-7-no-3%2F This article evaluates training courses run by the British Heart Foundation to improve the knowledge of health advocates and trainers within the context of a multi-cultural society. Contact the Library for a copy of this article. Filed under: Current Awareness, Journals, Primary Care Tagged: Coronary Heart Disease, Ethnicity, Health Advocates, Health Inequalities, Training and Education, Voluntary and Community Provision (Source: Fade Library) Fade Library blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4055677 Mon, 11 Oct 2010 08:42:47 +0100 4055677 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4036611&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F10%2Fthe-rational-use-for-excess-money-is-longevity-science.php Let me be far from the first to observe that humans, collectively, are grandly and suicidally irrational. I point to war and destructive waste of institutional government as the primary symptoms, but there countless others. We humans are instinctive builders of social hierarchy, and aggressive optimizers in short-sighted search of the local maxima of our personal wellbeing. We'll ignore any number of fascinating mountains on the the horizon to climb to the top of the pitcher's mound right in front of us. These two aspects of human nature - the short-sighted quest for gain and the need for hierarchy - combine to form a collective insanity, and are the root of the grand and depressing cycle of human societies. Production of wealth in a free society leads to the creation of a violence-backe... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4036611 Mon, 04 Oct 2010 23:00:00 +0100 4036611 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4013122&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F09%2Fthe-future-of-aging.php Via Maria Konovalenko, I see that the book The Future of Aging will be published soon. It's a collection of chapters written by well known names in the field of aging and longevity science, spanning a wide range of the present field - and its goals for the next few decades. Just as the health costs of aging threaten to bankrupt developed countries, this book makes the scientific case that a biological "bailout" could be on the way, and that human aging can be different in the future than it is today. Here 40 authors argue how our improving understanding of the biology of aging and selected technologies should enable the successful use of many different and complementary methods for ameliorating aging, and why such interventions are appropriate based on our current historical, anthropologi... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4013122 Mon, 27 Sep 2010 23:00:00 +0100 4013122 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4003445&cid=t_169322_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F09%2Fprediction-that-blogs-will-merge-with-mainstream-media.html It's been about three years since I posted my last note about blogs and blogging. I view myself as a professional blogger (see: Professional Blogs as Publication Vehicles for Physicians in Academic Clinical Tracks; Professional Blogs as Meta Information Resources). By this I mean someone trained in a particular industry or discipline, pathology and the clinical labs in my case, who then focuses on news and events in that industry, A recent article raised some interesting points about blogs and I provide an excerpt from it below (see: Blogging is Alive and Well, Says Report):While blogging was still a major topic of discussion just a few years ago, things have been rather quiet around it in recent times. Even in the so-called blogosphere, we don't talk a lot about the actual activit... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4003445 Mon, 27 Sep 2010 15:33:26 +0100 4003445 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3987037&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F40th4LunYA8%2F By Daniel GriswoldThe U.S. Senate may vote in the next few days on a piece of legislation known as the DREAM Act. The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act would offer legal status to as many as 2 million students who are currently in the United States without authorization, many of them Hispanic immigrants who entered the country illegally with their parents. The act would legalize students who entered the United States at least five years before its passage and were under the age of 16 when they entered. A practical effect would be to make many of these students eligible for in-state tuition at colleges and universities. The DREAM Act is not a perfect call for those of us who believe in limited government, but in our less-than-perfect world, the act would make a bad situ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3987037 Mon, 20 Sep 2010 19:27:41 +0100 3987037 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3924860&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F09%2F20000-for-a-plan-to-remove-buildup-of-the-age-glucosepane.php The SENS Foundation recently teamed up with InnoCentive to spur movement in the development of AGE-breakers for human use. I'd mentioned this over at the Longevity Meme, but the initiative seems worth more time and attention than just a link. So here we are: but what is an AGE-breaker, and why should we care? In short, it has been known for some time that one of the unpleasant changes that takes place with aging is the accumulation of advanced glycation endproducts, or AGEs, in our biochemistry: Your body needs certain proteins in order to work properly; the creation of AGEs involves taking two or more of these proteins and sticking them together with chemical gunk, preventing them from doing their jobs. This is known as crosslinking; day in and day out, it is taking place in your body. S... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3924860 Tue, 31 Aug 2010 23:00:00 +0100 3924860 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3924861&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F08%2Ffundraising-success-for-mitochondrial-uncoupling-project.php A little while back, I pointed out the Immortality Institute's present fundraising program for modestly sized research projects. The Institute volunteers solicit proposals from life science researchers, showcase the most worthy, and match donations with funds from from the Institute coffers. The latest project will run in a Singaporean research laboratory and investigate mitochondrial uncoupling. I believe that this model for fundraising represents the future of research funding: a very transparent process, in which donors can educate themselves about the science, pick and choose exactly the projects they are willing to fund, and engage with the researchers in dialog and feedback. Many small projects compete for funding in place of one large umbrella grant, adding an additional layer of ... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3924861 Mon, 30 Aug 2010 23:00:00 +0100 3924861 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3920801&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F08%2Ffundraising-success-for-mitochondrial-uncoupling-project.php A little while back, I pointed out the Immortality Institute's present fundraising program for modestly sized research projects. The Institute volunteers solicit proposals from life science researchers, showcase the most worthy, and match donations with funds from from the Institute coffers. The latest project will run in a Singaporean research laboratory and investigate mitochondrial uncoupling. I believe that this model for fundraising represents the future of research funding: a very transparent process, in which donors can educate themselves about the science, pick and choose exactly the projects they are willing to fund, and engage with the researchers in dialog and feedback. Many small projects compete for funding in place of one large umbrella grant, adding an additional layer of ... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3920801 Mon, 30 Aug 2010 23:00:00 +0100 3920801 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3899357&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F08%2Fhazy-on-the-topic-of-how-aging-relates-to-the-diseases-of-old-age.php The latest issue of Rejuvenation Research is available online for those of you who like to keep up with the scientific journals. In the opening commentary, Aubrey de Grey points to the recent position paper issued by noteworthy biogerontologists and folk from the Lifestar Institute. In his view, it is a sign of noteworthy progress in the long struggle to turn the institutions of life science research towards a more productive approach to human aging: Most nonbiologists, and even quite a few biologists, are spectacularly hazy on the topic of how aging relates to the diseases of old age. The prevailing biogerontological approach has long been that aging is not a disease, or at best that it predisposes to disease. Regular readers will know I'm not going to agree with that, and that I view it... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3899357 Mon, 23 Aug 2010 23:00:00 +0100 3899357 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3889312&cid=t_169322_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F08%2Fbrains-of-intoverts.html There is the old joke about how you can distinguish between an introverted pathologist and an extroverted one. The former looks at his own shoes when talking to you and the latter looks at your shoes. Many of us are familiar with the common daily habit of the pathologist who takes a stack of slide trays into his or her office, shuts the door, and spends the rest of the day dictating cases, exiting only for a coffee refill. These are people who enjoy their solitude, In short, they like being alone, if you do not define a stack of glass surgical pathology slides as company. It turns out the the brain anatomy and physiology of introverts may actually be different than that of the extrovert (see: Brains of Introverts Reveal Why They Prefer Being Alone). Below is an excerpt from this article:Hu... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3889312 Fri, 20 Aug 2010 12:06:17 +0100 3889312 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3889054&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F08%2Ffundraising-for-mitochondrial-uncoupling-research.php As you might recall, the Immortality Institute started their search for a new research project to fund earlier this year. This is a follow-on to raising funds for laser ablation of lipofuscin last year. I am hopeful that the Institute can make this a regular yearly feature, and not least because establishing reliable methods for crowdsourcing life science funding is an important development for the future of research. The Institute has settled on the project to be funded, which is an investigation of the phenomenon of mitochondrial uncoupling: Scientific research is the only way to conquer the blight of involuntary death. The ImmInst.org community isn't rich, so we pick our priorities quite carefully. The mitochondroial uncoupling project ticks all the important boxes: it investigates ... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3889054 Thu, 19 Aug 2010 23:00:00 +0100 3889054 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3865230&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F08%2Fthe-balancing-act-of-longevity-research-advocacy.php Advocacy for longevity research is a balancing act informed by ongoing developments in raising funds, actual progress in the fields of interest, and the growth of the community of supporters. In an ideal world, these three factors will all advance steadily: an upward curve of success. In practice things are never that easy. A supportive community of a given size will only contribute so much in the way of resources: are those resources assigned to research, which tends to produce newsworthy results at irregular intervals in addition to actual progress, or to outreach and education? What will best grow the community so as to grow the resource pool of donations, and in turn help to achieve research goals more rapidly? Life science research is an unreliable beast by its very nature: progress ... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3865230 Thu, 12 Aug 2010 23:00:00 +0100 3865230 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3858119&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F08%2Fescaping-the-hand-you-were-dealt.php We all grow up indoctrinated; bathed in the the common views and short-cut truths of the society in which we were raised. The early rebellious years don't tend to change this state of indoctrination all that much. For every obvious thing to rebel against, there are a hundred viewpoints layered deep - opinions and teachings left unexamined for so long that they become axioms. Those are the chains and walls that matter: the things that nearly everyone takes for granted, that place bounds upon how you view the world. But people tend to rebel against the color of the wallpaper - whilst taking it as read, just like their parents and peers, that the wall must exist and must be made of bricks. Unless you are particularly willful, it can take a lifetime to escape the formative shaping of your min... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3858119 Tue, 10 Aug 2010 23:00:00 +0100 3858119 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3805789&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F07%2Fthe-tedium-of-discussing-boredom-in-connection-with-enhanced-longevity.php It seems I have become jaded - one might even say bored - by repeated discussion of the potential for longevity-induced boredom. My capacity to enjoy the novelty of each new appearance of this fairly simple exchange of views has been blunted. For now, at least - it'll take a couple of years for that to wear off. There really isn't much to it: one side says, without any real evidence to back it up, that longer lives will inevitably lead to the boredom of repetition, and a dulled, meaningless existence. Those of us with more sense and imagination pull out the numbers to show that this viewpoint is nonsense however you choose to look at it. There is more to be experienced than any person could undertake in a million years, even in this limited world of ours today. And if you have the prospec... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3805789 Thu, 29 Jul 2010 23:00:00 +0100 3805789 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3726587&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F07%2Fon-the-view-of-death-as-oblivion.php Here are two quotes from writers of antiquity, letters in a bottle to demonstrate that for all the great differences in time and place, the core of human nature in complex civilizations remains much the same. So far, at least: Death: There's nothing bad about it at all except the thing that comes before it - the fear of it.   - Seneca I think the slain care little if they sleep or rise again.   - Aeschylus Insofar as death is oblivion, the destruction of the self, it is rational to be unconcerned about being dead. You won't exist to have feelings on the matter - which is exactly the same situation as for all time prior to the point in your development at which you like to think that you became yourself. Equally, it is rational to be very concerned about be... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3726587 Sun, 04 Jul 2010 23:00:00 +0100 3726587 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3721978&cid=t_169322_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F07%2Fpathologists-as-clinicians-what-exactly-does-this-mean.html Discussion: Insourcing of Pathology Specimens by Specialty Groups; Consideration of the Underlying Forces that Promote Pathology Insourcing; The Importance of Integration of Insourced Pathology Services). Subsequent to posting these notes, I have learned from one colleague, an astute observer of our field, that these pathologists are actually becoming clinician-like. For example, those working in a GU practice and specializing in the interpretation of GU biopsies work so closely with their urologist colleagues that they are starting to identify more closely with this specialty than with pathology. Put another way, they are more becoming more closely integrated with a clinical specialty than with pathology. It is quite possible that these "insourcing" pathologists working in speci... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3721978 Fri, 02 Jul 2010 12:50:57 +0100 3721978 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3645069&cid=t_169322_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2010%2F06%2Fw.html I recently posted a note announcing a webinar on the insourcing of pathology specimens (see: Webinar on the "Insourcing" of Pathology Specimens by Clinical Practice Groups). The title of the presentation indicates the need to "fight back" against the practice. Graham Grieve submitted the following comment: Why is [specimen insourcing] a threat to the specialty of pathology? Shortly afterward, Joe Plandowski sent the following note to me that I now offer to readers as a guest blog. What is wrong with "in-sourcing" of specimens by specialty groups? Consider these points: Many large, and not so large, GI and Uro specialists have moved out of the hospital into their own facilities for patient procedures (e.g., ASCs [ambulatory surgery centers] and Endoscopy Center... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3645069 Wed, 09 Jun 2010 12:06:33 +0100 3645069 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3522611&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F04%2Fcolorful-brochures-from-the-methuselah-foundation.php The Methuselah Foundation volunteers have released a couple of fine-looking PDF format brochures. One outlines the initiatives and mission of the Foundation, while the second introduces the recently announced NewOrgan Prize. They should be put to good use at conventions, for friends, and as handouts - so get to it!   From the first brochure: Aging is inevitable. Or is it? Alzheimer's, cancer, stroke and heart attack are among the familiar and dreaded results of aging. Knowing - but not wanting to accept - that fate we looked deeper to explore how and why our bodies age. We found that some of our questions had no answers even though scientists believe there is great untapped potential for understanding, reversing and solving the ravages of ag... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3522611 Thu, 29 Apr 2010 23:00:00 +0100 3522611 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3515311&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F04%2Fanimal-studies-in-medical-research-are-horrible-and-terrible.php Animal experimentation is horrible and terrible. Even in the most ethical of studies suffering is inflicted upon animals that otherwise would not have happened; entire genotypes of animals doomed to additional suffering have been bred in some cases. But the alternative is far worse: to not perform these animal studies, or rather for some privileged group to use force to prevent others from performing such studies. For without animal studies there would be no meaningful progress in medical science. It is a harsh and unpleasant aspect of the human condition that forcing suffering upon animals in the course of scientific studies is necessary to advance both human and veterinary medicine. A few suffer for the benefit of many - an equation that should make any sane and compassionate person unco... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3515311 Tue, 27 Apr 2010 23:00:00 +0100 3515311 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3479830&cid=t_169322_131_f&fid=34989&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FGeneticsHealth%2F%7E3%2FmVvI4Yoy74A%2F Weekends don’t count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless. – Bill Watterson Post from: BlissTree Quote of the Day: Weekends, According to Calvin and Hobbes (Source: Genetics and Health) Genetics and Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3479830 Sat, 17 Apr 2010 13:48:20 +0100 3479830 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3404140&cid=t_169322_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FY7R5qT0ZpKI%2F Two essays published in separate periodicals this week raise troubling questions about the extent to which psychiatrists may be unduly influenced by the pharmaceutical industry, and how this relationship may effect public trust in psychiatry. The upshot? The concern about corruption, or at least the appearance of corruption is palpable. Sigmund Freud (see photo) would not be pleased. Interestingly, one of the authors if Tom Insel, the director of the National Institute of Mental Health (click on read more below). For instance, Lisa Cosgrove and Harold Bursztajn write in Psychiatric Times that they looked at the two philanthropic arms of the American Psychiatric Association - the American Psychiatric Foundation and the American Psychiatric Institute for Research and Education - and found th... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3404140 Thu, 25 Mar 2010 16:23:54 +0100 3404140 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3331262&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F03%2Fa-steady-flow-of-new-donors-at-the-methuselah-foundation.php You should go and take a look at the donor list for the Methuselah Foundation. While the pace of large donations from high net worth individuals seems to have slowed these days, the steady influx of new donors from the public at large has picked up. The screen capture below is a representative slice of February, for example: Its worth repeating that these are entirely new donors; folk from beyond the community of early supporters who dug deep to boost the Foundation's launch and sustain its growth in the first few years of operation. This view doesn't include the more than 200 people who are members of the 300, and who make recurring donations to the Foundation that average out to around $85/month each. You'll see from the graphic above that new members of the 300 are amongst the new fa... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3331262 Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3331262 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3269673&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F02%2Fencouraging-transparency-in-life-science-fundraising.php Transparency in fundraising and early stage research is the wave of the future. Young biotechnologists - and especially those in the open source biology movement - should be out there blogging their ongoing work, itemizing their costs, and engaging in microscale fundraising. These days many people could start a company if they wanted to. Direct costs (not opportunity costs, founder labor, etc) for the sort of low capital investment entrepreneurial ventures that catch all the attention are in the $5-20,000 range. That is roughly the amount of money taken to answer the question "is this worth chasing any further?" Similarly, many people could fund the answer to an important piece of scientific research if they so desired. Biotechnology is cheap nowadays, and only getting cheaper as time a... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3269673 Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3269673 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3175840&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F01%2Fthe-campaign-against-aging.php The health and vigor of an advocacy community might be measured by the number of different initiatives presently underway. This is a marker for the number of people who feel strongly enough and sure enough about the envisaged end goals to get out there and spend their own money and time to make a difference. More of these people will bring a greater diversity of ideas to the community, and enable a more rapid exploration of what works and what doesn't work. Many hands make light work, and this is as true in advocacy as anywhere else. So that said, allow me to point you towards the most recent addition to the stable of grassroots longevity science advocacy groups, the Campaign Against Aging. Insofar as science goes, the founders support the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence v... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3175840 Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3175840 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3163746&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F01%2Fa-project-for-2010-10000-people-1-million-for-longevity-science.php As we inch our way into 2010, let me point out a worthwhile fundraising project that I think you should strongly consider help to achieve its goals. Last year a few earnest folk started and publicized a Facebook Cause, a group pledge that aims to gather 10,000 members in support of the longevity research carried out by the SENS Foundation. This research aims to reverse critical biochemical changes that cause age-related degeneration, frailty, and disease, and thereby eliminate suffering and restore the aged to health: SENS Foundation would like to draw your attention to an exciting initiative organised by a group of our supporters. The 10,000 people, $1 million to defeat aging Cause on Facebook asks each member to pledge just $100, which becomes payable once a total of 10,000 individuals ... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3163746 Mon, 11 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3163746 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3149015&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F01%2Fon-life-span-and-legacies.php As a general rule, human organizations and human initiatives are not very long-lived. Those that make it out of the nascent stage in which 90% fail or are abandoned don't tend to last much longer than five to ten years. They either calcify and are superseded by new, more relevant ventures, or change so radically as to be effectively a different organization. Those human organizations that have lasted for decades in a fairly consistent form - many of which are familiar to all of us, I'm sure - are outliers, and very unusual. This line of thinking applies just as much to advocacy as any other form of endeavor. You should expect that the organizations you support today - and that did not exist five years ago - will not exist five years from now. They will use your donations to important acco... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3149015 Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3149015 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3118844&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F12%2Fthe-maesgarreau-tendency.php "Trust but verify" is a good way to lead one's life. Ideally, we'd never take anyone's word for anything, and have the time and means to dig up supporting evidence for any position or statement that we encounter. But who has the time for that? We have to organize our busy lives around blocks of selective ignorance, portions of human knowledge and culture wherein we choose to take statements at face value, or follow the consensus viewpoint without doing the necessary groundwork to validate it. Books can and have been written on how to best go about this: acquiring and processing information costs time, and time is the most valuable resource most us of possess. There exist a growing number of people propagating various forms of the viewpoint that we middle-aged folk in developed countries m... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3118844 Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3118844 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3059707&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F12%2Fnews-from-the-methuselah-foundation.php The latest Methuselah Foundation newsletter is now available online. If you haven't been keeping up, you should dive into the archive over there and read the last couple of months of newsletters. The contents well illustrate the current focus and direction of the Foundation: It's time to celebrate! It has been a great year at Methuselah and a great year for advances in aging research. Television, newspapers and websites have covered stories on calorie restriction, resveratrol and rapamycin. Leading biologists working in longevity research are finally grabbing the attention of other scientists (this year's Nobel Prize in Medicine is a very real example of this), the media and the general public. Methuselah Foundation is energetically working on new initiatives, connecting with more resea... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3059707 Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3059707 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3044714&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F11%2Fvote-for-longevity-science-in-the-chase-community-giving-initiative.php Over the past year or two, the grassroots community of longevity science supporters and advocates have been getting a lot of practice in networking and persuasion. There is a growing trend amongst large organizations to crowdsource some of their charitable contributions: it's great publicity and seems to generate much more goodwill and awareness for the recipient causes than a straight donation. So everyone wins. In this, we can see the effects of competition at work; initiatives generally involve voting or some other form of popularity contest that can be won by through grassroots social networking and organization. Longevity science supporters have won some and lost some over the past year, seeking to direct funds to the SENS Foundation or Methuselah Foundation. It's all good experience... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3044714 Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3044714 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3026903&cid=t_169322_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FvP9UPAOxoUk%2F Keeping up with drugmakers can be challenging, so the agency is putting your tax dollars to work. The FDA has signed a two-year, $652,000 contract with the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Technology and Education to develop a program to ensure FDA reviewers are up to speed with state-of-the-art drug manufacturing and technology. The hope is that the FDA’s Office of Pharmaceutical Science staff will find it easier to review and evaluate the quality of information submitted for new drug applications. A worthy goal, indeed, and hopefully the NIPTE will offer tips on sleuthing for any info not included in an NDA. The program will begin this year and is expected to be completed by September 2011. (Source: Pharmalot) Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3026903 Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:16:48 +0100 3026903 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2992647&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F11%2Fmethuselah-foundation-psa-videos.php I'm slipping behind the times here, it seems; the recently produced batch of Methuselah Foundation public service announcement video slots were mentioned by the deathist authors at Futurisms before that topic made it to the head of my "yet to post" list. Those folk write well, actually; it is a pity that they feel, like Leon Kass, that the spirit and purpose of their conservatism is to stand in support of present suffering and barbarism against a bright future of cures, change, and progress. History will judge them unkindly, if it recalls them at all. In any case, here are some of the videos that the Methuselah Foundation volunteers have been working on of late. See what you think: (Source: Fight Aging!) Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2992647 Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100 2992647 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2967259&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F11%2Fevaluating-an-industry-that-doesnt-exist.php Imagine an industry poised to burst into existence. The signs are there: the advocates, the tinkerers, the potential business models and user demand, the promising early scientific work yet to be fully exploited. But how you determine whether this is real or all an illusion? How to find out whether an explosion of progress and growth is just about to happen, or whether the seeds of this nascent industry will continue to germinate at low levels of activity for years longer? There is only one useful method: invest a significant amount of money and see how much interest, activity, and follow-on investment it attracts. This is one of the lines of reasoning behind the most adventurous of venture capital deals, behind research prizes, and behind large philanthropic donations to young fields of ... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2967259 Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100 2967259 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2939261&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F10%2Fwhy-advocacy-for-longevity-science.php Why advocacy for longevity science? Why is it important for us to be building megaphones, educating people about the scientific foundation for extended healthy life, and persuading everyone we can to help? Put simply it is because this advocacy is a necessary part of the only reliable, proven path to establishing a research community capably of getting the job done. One of the most active Immortality Institute activists, brokenportal, sent me the text below today, which I reproduce with his permission. The dedication is a reminder to the rest of us just what it takes to make things happen in this world of ours: Will we reach the point of Longevity Escape Velocity, and thus live on in good health for centuries, sustained by ever more effective advances in longevity medicine? Many of us a... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2939261 Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0100 2939261 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2751900&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F08%2Fthere-is-no-overpopulation-only-waste-corruption-and-inhumanity.php Advocates for rapid and widespread development of engineered longevity are making some progress in dismissing the Tithonus Error - the common and mistaken belief that longevity-enhancing medicine would make a person spend more years as a frail and decrepit elder rather than more years in the prime of life. As more people come to see a future of longevity therapies as personally beneficial, however, a more insidious form of opposition will come to the fore. By far and away the most common reason I see given these days in opposition to engineered longevity is fear of overpopulation. Environmentalism has become almost a religion in its own right now, and many strands of that religion are essentially death cults: loose networks of like-thinking people who fervently believe, for whatever reaso... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2751900 Sun, 30 Aug 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2751900 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2734030&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F08%2Fworking-on-the-methuselah-foundation-website-1.php As a few of you might know, I've spent the past couple of months rebuilding the Methuselah Foundation web presence and support systems on a quasi-volunteer basis. What's above the waterline and visible to the public is now largely beaten into shape and reinforced with steel rods, set in the form it will occupy going forward. While I take a break from all that for a little while, it'd be nice to hear what you folk think of the result; does it do it for you? More importantly, it would be helpful to gather outside and unbiased opinions both on what does exist on the website and what might exist in the future - whether in your eyes there are areas of the Foundation website that could be improved or extended. What would you like to see? (Source: Fight Aging!) Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2734030 Mon, 24 Aug 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2734030 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2712092&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F08%2Ffundraising-success-for-laser-ablation-of-lipofuscin.php The good news for today is that the longevity science grassroots centered at the Immortality Institute have successfully raised $8,000 to fund research into laser ablation of lipofuscin. Those funds will be matched up to $16,000 at the SENS Foundation and put towards work on a method of eliminating one form of damaging metabolic byproducts that build up with age: Lipofucsin is an aggregate of many different biochemical byproducts that builds up in your longest-lived cells, leading to dysfunction and disease. Lipofuscin levels are a very straightforward difference between old and young people, and removing it at regular intervals should have a noticeable impact on age-related degeneration. This is in fact an aspect of one of the seven avenues of Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senesce... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2712092 Mon, 17 Aug 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2712092 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2691469&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F08%2Flaser-ablation-research-fundraising-deadline-is-monday-august-17th.php As you no doubt know by now, the Immortality Institute is raising $8000 in public donations that will then be matched up to $16,000, that money going towards the validation of laser ablation of lipofuscin as a longevity therapy. From the project and donation page: This research proposes to further study the use of laser pulses to destroy lipofuscin. The technical term for this approach is Selective Photothermolysis. LEDs, lasers, and infrared light have already found their way into many clinical and cosmetic applications. This research will investigate the use of laser pulses to improve human health at a much more fundamental level. Mr. Schooler has conducted preliminary qualitative research using laser pulses to destroy lipofuscin in nematodes (round worms). VIDEO HERE. This investigati... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2691469 Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2691469 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2605963&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F07%2Frejuvenation-research-for-june-2009.php The latest edition of Rejuvenation Research (volume 12, number 3) is available online - I'd already noted what I consider the most interesting scientific paper over at the Longevity Meme, an argument for DNA damage as an important cause of aging. Here, however, I'll note that this edition of the journal opens with a characteristically punchy editorial from biomedical gerontologist Aubrey de Grey: A brief perusal of my publication record will reveal something about my recent activities that may - indeed, probably should - strike you as sad: I hardly contribute anything to the biogerontology literature any more, essentially restricting myself instead to my characteristic outbursts in this space and the occasional invited book chapter. Unltimately, however, this is not a reason for sympathy,... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2605963 Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2605963 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2601978&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F07%2Fthe-campaign-for-aging-research.php Let me direct your attention to the Campaign for Aging Research, a recently formed non-profit group that focuses on advocacy and research fundraising for engineered longevity. Their organizational viewpoint on the science is informed by the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS), and the Campaign volunteers have a very post-blog, social network look to their online outreach efforts. The Campaign for Aging Research is about "More time." More time to live, more time to understand the world and more time to discover. C.A.R offers a different perspective on life and the future. The same way we get contact lenses instead of accepting bad eye sight or take aspirin to overcome a strong migraine, aging is natural like the bad eye sight and the migraine, yet it is a handicap that ... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2601978 Mon, 13 Jul 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2601978 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2570409&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F07%2Faging-and-death-are-good-and-needed-is-still-the-expected-opinion.php When you spend time following aging and longevity research, thereby becoming immersed in a comparatively small community and conversation, it's easy to lose track of just how unusual your knowledge and viewpoints are in comparison to what passes for the norm. This is true of any group, culture, or endeavor, and is a natural consequence of the economics of learning - most people don't need to know anything about the countless communities outside those they belong to in order to be successful, and you only have a set amount of attention to divide amongst all the things you consider to be important. So "the norm" is really a collective measure of decided ignorance about any given topic. The "the norm" on aging, death by aging, and engineered longevity is what a specialist in some other field ... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2570409 Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2570409 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2527781&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F06%2Fhelp-the-immortality-institute-fund-research-into-laser-ablation-of-lipofuscin.php I'm pleased to see that the Immortality Institute folk have set up an $8000 matching fund to help contribute to one line of research aimed at removing one cause of the damage of aging. This is exactly the sort of positive development enabled by falling costs in biotechnology - small groups of interested people can raise enough money to support meaningful early stage research: In case you have not yet heard or read, the Immortality Institute is providing a matching grant for research into laser ablation of lipofuscin. Read all about it here: http://www.imminst.org/archive/articles/laser-research-grant Listen to Nason Schooler describe the proposed research here (2008), or here (2009) I am particularly interested to see the results of the worm lifespan studies to confirm whether or not l... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2527781 Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2527781 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2510340&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F06%2Fbid-in-a-charity-auction-for-a-portrait-of-aubrey-de-grey.php One of the fine folk at the Immortality Institute has painted a good-looking portrait of Aubrey de Grey, and is auctioning it at Ebay. The auction proceeds are presently planned to go towards the Institute's matching grant for laser ablation of lipofuscin. The Immortality Institute is excited to announce a new matching grant for anti-aging research. The Institute will match every contribution up to $8,000 for the study of laser ablation of lipofuscin - research that will be conducted by Nason Schooler [at] the SENS Foundation Research Center in Tempe Arizona. The science underlying the use of lasers to this end is explained in a presentation from the Understanding Aging conference archived at Future Current. In short: lipofuscin, a mix of metabolic byproducts and other compounds tha... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2510340 Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2510340 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2442885&cid=t_169322_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2009%2F05%2Fa-discussion-of-the-private-autopsy.html This article requires additional discussion. Below is an excerpt from it with boldface emphasis mine:If I could have arranged for an independent autopsy by a pathologist outside the hospital where my sister died, I might have done it. But at the time, I had no idea how to go about it and felt too dispirited to try. Recently, I typed “autopsy expert” into a search engine and found Dr. William Manion, a pathologist and lawyer in New Jersey....Some clients hire him because they want to sue doctors, he said in an interview, but others are just looking for peace of mind. Some are upset because they feel doctors didn’t take the time to explain what happened....Similarly, he said that people whose relatives died of undiagnosed, advanced cancer sometimes recalled symptoms from a few months b... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2442885 Wed, 27 May 2009 10:50:45 +0100 2442885 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2441227&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F05%2Fmethuselah-foundation-update-rationale-for-the-my-bridge-4-life-initiative.php With the recent reorganization of the Methuselah Foundation, its varied initiatives were split into three categories: short term (the new My Bridge 4 Life), mid-term (the Mprize for longevity science), and long term (MLife Sciences - currently SENS and support of Organovo). Many of us following along at home were not quite seeing the rationale behind the new short term initiative, however. So for today, let me point you to Dave Gobel's explanation: The reason for MB4L is that we are working to reduce the "aha! gap" or conceptual hurdle for the billions of folks for whom a leap straight to the idea of extending healthy life is too vast and daunting a gap. ... The new effort - focused on the short term and exemplified by MB4L - is designed to gain the positive attention of the 99.9% of th... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2441227 Wed, 27 May 2009 04:00:00 +0100 2441227 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2441232&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F05%2Fto-what-extent-is-persuasion-required-beyond-the-scientific-community.php I believe that widespread public understanding and support of longevity science is a necessary step towards a large and well-funded scientific community focused on achieving engineered longevity. On longer timescales (a decade, a generation), resources for research and development most reliably flow towards the areas of greatest public knowledge, desire, and approval. Just look at the many, many projects that have long been technically possible yet not been accomplished in the past decades: the creation of an orbital flight industry, for example, colonizing the sea, or irrigating the Sahara. Engineering the reversal of aging is a large and multi-faceted project that will run over a generation or more, even once the research community is fully engaged and progress is well underway. Ergo, pu... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2441232 Wed, 20 May 2009 04:00:00 +0100 2441232 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2415639&cid=t_169322_131_f&fid=34989&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FGeneticsHealth%2F%7E3%2F_lK0-s4kndM%2F People outside the United Kingdom may not be familiar with Chris Woodhead, but he was the Chief Inspector of Schools in the UK who reported in 195 that some 15,000 UK teachers were incompetent and should be replaced. Five years after, Woodhead resigned from his position after he had several altercations with the then Secretary of Education. Almost ten years later, Woodhead is stirring up new controversies in The Guardian interview and in his book “The Desolations of Learning”. Do genes dictate success in school? Woodland says that children have differing abilities that the current British school system do not take into account when putting children together in classes. So what happens? Smarter children do worse after 4-5 years because these children succumb to the peer pressure to be ... Genetics and Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2415639 Sat, 16 May 2009 12:51:00 +0100 2415639 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2398618&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F05%2Fmicrofunding-of-earlystage-scientific-research.php These days many people could start a company if they wanted to. Direct costs (not opportunity costs, founder labor, etc) for the sort of low capital investment entrepreneurial ventures that catch all the attention are in the $5-20,000 range. That is roughly the amount of money taken to answer the question "is this worth chasing any further?" Similarly, many people could fund the answer to an important piece of scientific research if they so desired. Biotechnology is cheap nowadays, and only getting cheaper as time advances. The range of $5-20,000 will buy you a postgrad who knows what he's doing and lab access for long enough to answer an interesting question or produce a proof of principle - roughly the same as "is this worth chasing any further?" Can you use lasers to destroy lipofuscin... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2398618 Thu, 07 May 2009 04:00:00 +0100 2398618 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2382288&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F05%2Fis-the-term-life-extension-lost-to-scum-and-writhing-worms.php I'm written in the past of the demise of the term "anti-aging" as anything other than a marker for scammers, marketeers, cosmetics salespeople. It's now a signifier for those who either have little to no interest in actual, working longevity science, or who are actively harming the prospects for actual working longevity science by convincing people that it's all nonsense. Anti-aging is beyond salvage as a term for discussion; we should move on and use other language to describe the technologies of healthy life extension and advanced medicine to extend healthy life spans. ... But I'm stubborn, and so kept at it for a while, to see what the balance of voices looked like. Ultimately I took my own advice and moved on to terms like "repair of aging" and "longevity science." You need a bigger... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2382288 Fri, 01 May 2009 04:00:00 +0100 2382288 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2349271&cid=t_169322_131_f&fid=34989&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FGeneticsHealth%2F%7E3%2FKh3crT2YFwY%2F In recent years, more and more genetic tests and therapies have become available for patients, physicians and the interested individual. But how does one know which tests to take or are appropriate for one’s condition? And what do we do after we have the test results on our hands? Can our physician help us? Image: Newscom This March, the Genomic Medicine Institute was launched at El Camino Hospital in Monterey, California in response to the emerging opportunities and challenges that the genomic era has introduced. El Camino partnered with DNA Direct to become the first community hospital to integrate genomic medical services into its routine healthcare and provide El Camino physicians and their patients with access to leading edge genomic-based technologies. I had the pleasure of talking... Genetics and Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2349271 Mon, 13 Apr 2009 03:40:00 +0100 2349271 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2306855&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F001710.php The mind of humanity dwells somewhat in the now, a great deal in the recent past, and very little in the future. The greatest attention is focused on what is and what recently was - an outcome of our evolutionary history. You can imagine how a focus on learning to live in the world of the the recent past was a predictor for success under most circumstances for our more primitive ancestors. These days, stand still to ruminate upon recent events and you're liable to have a building erected above you while you pause, and fifteen new technologies dropped into your lap to boot. The evolved biases stand, however: while a great many people claim to look foward with wisdom and sagacity, few do more than transpose the fundament and structure of last week ahead by seven days. We humans just don't p... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2306855 Wed, 01 Apr 2009 04:00:00 +0100 2306855 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2295401&cid=t_169322_131_f&fid=34989&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FGeneticsHealth%2F%7E3%2F9HA-95gyzhk%2F Competition is certainly good for us. One by one, the big league universities in the Boston neighborhood are going OPEN ACCESS. Open access to publications. Image: sxc.hu Open access publishing means that research works can be read (online) and used freely by the public without paying subscription fees to journals and publishers. I know personally how expensive it is to subscribe to just one journal, and the information from abstracts are really so limited that having more open access journals is just good for the science. Last January, the University of California and publication giant Springer agreed to have articles written by UP-affiliated authors to be published immediately and in full, even if the rest of Springer’s articles remain subscription-only. In early February, Harvard Univ... Genetics and Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2295401 Fri, 27 Mar 2009 20:49:14 +0100 2295401 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2182628&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F001676.php When looking at a goal of research and development programs that could stretch across two decades or longer, such as those proposed to repair aging in the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) outline, you have to settle in for the long haul. Fundraising and advocacy is important in the here and now - if you don't get started, you don't get started - but you have to think for the long haul. In the broader research community, thinking for the long haul means setting out to build a community of interested, networked researchers. It also means culturing the students who will be researchers of note five or ten years from now. This is one of the goals of the Methuselah Foundation's Undergraduate Research Initiative: it's not just that talented students can help accomplish ear... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2182628 Thu, 12 Feb 2009 05:00:00 +0100 2182628 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2112185&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34872&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthbolt.net%2F2009%2F01%2F17%2Fsexbolt-saturday-asexual-you-are-not-alone%2F Remember Claire, the 105 year old who said ‘no sex was the secret to longevity’. Well, it turns out that she’s not alone in being disinterested in sex. Seems that that are a whole lot of people (research has the number at 1% of the population) out there who classify themselves as asexual - as having no interest in sex and feeling no sexual attraction. It’s a concept that most of us have difficulty understanding. We ask: How could someone be totally disinterested in sex? Don’t they want to make connections and have relationships with others? Don’t they want someone to love? And what about children and a family? David Jay has been wrestling with these questions most of his life. Early on, he realized that unlike all his friends, he really had no interest i... Healthbolt blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2112185 Sun, 18 Jan 2009 00:40:57 +0100 2112185 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2092605&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F001652.php Time flies: it doesn't seem as though more than two years have passed since entrepreneur turned fund manager Peter Thiel made a $3 million matching pledge to the Methuselah Foundation. Every two dollars of a donation to Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) research aimed at repairing the damage of aging and reversing its effects draws an additional dollar from this matching fund. Over that time, $1.3 million have been drawn from the fund, boosting the $2.6 million raised for research. That leaves another $1.7 million to go - and a little under 12 months until this matching pledge expires. Three years seems an eternity when it's ahead of you, but when you're done you wonder where it went so quickly. Thanks to solid fundraising over the years of its existence, the Methuse... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2092605 Fri, 09 Jan 2009 05:00:00 +0100 2092605 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2026837&cid=t_169322_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2008%2F12%2Fseeking-a-definition-for-a-lifestyle-disease.html I must admit at the start of this note that I thought I understood the definition of lifestyle diseases -- in my mind, the term referred to diseases caused by some action, or lack of action, on the part of an individual that caused a disease to develop. Examples of the former, an action taken, would be lung cancer caused by smoking or hepatic cirrhosis caused by excessive ethanol intake. It turns out that I was wrong in my use of the term. The causes of lifestyle diseases are based on the general behavior of populations rather than individuals. Here is the definition from the Wikipedia:Lifestyle diseases (also called diseases of longevity or diseases of civilization) are diseases that appear to increase in frequency as countries become more industrialized and people live longer. They inclu... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2026837 Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:11:36 +0100 2026837 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1961220&cid=t_169322_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2F452890280%2F Last month, the FDA awarded the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Technology and Education, a non-profit representing several universities, a contract to develop ‘Quality by Design’ science for drugmakers. The idea is to improve manufacturing processes that, presumably, would improve quality and lower costs in plants - and create mininum standards for overseas plants as well. We spoke with Prabir Basu, a former pharma exec who heads NIPTE, which is aligned with the FDA’s Critical Path Initiative, about what QBD can do. This is an excerpt… Pharmalot: First things first, what is Quality by Design and why is it needed? Basu: QBD is using the right science and engineering to design a drug so that you have a process assures you of the quality. And the failure rate wo... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1961220 Fri, 14 Nov 2008 12:33:30 +0100 1961220 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1886302&cid=t_169322_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2008%2F10%2Fcaps-transforma.html I received an email from the College of American Pathologists (CAP) inviting me to visit their new web site that is designed to make the case that pathology requires transformation. I suspect that much of the impetus for this web site comes from Dr. Jared Schwartz, the current president of the CAP and a strong advocate for change. I would describe this web site as a good start that needs more work. My major problem with it is that it has too much of a folksy, anecdotal feel for my taste with one tab devoted to "real stories" about the field. Clicking on this tab reveals a number of testimonials including the following: Nora Bowers says that her Pathologist Saved her Life. Most pathologists already know that their work is vital and don't require essays from patients to convince th... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1886302 Fri, 17 Oct 2008 11:40:49 +0100 1886302 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1870869&cid=t_169322_131_f&fid=34989&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FGeneticsHealth%2F%7E3%2FdUNDxsv4sLk%2F Complete Genomics launched this week with an announcement to provide a person’s entire genetic sequence for $5,000 each. The company’s ultimate goal is to sequence 1 million complete genomes, or 1,000 people each in 1,000 disease studies, in the hopes of revealing the genetic basis behind major human diseases. From a scientist’s point of view, this is exactly the data and perhaps sample size we need to study the role of genetics on development and cause of disease. It would be a nightmare to analyze, but it won’t be for lack of data, if the sequence will be made available across different studies. But it’s another story from an individual’s point of view. Having a complete sequence of one’s genome will identify all the genetic mutations and alleles... Genetics and Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1870869 Sun, 12 Oct 2008 13:18:49 +0100 1870869 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1742776&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F001558.php There are three days left - until September 1st - in which to vote and comment on the submitted Amex Members Projects to determine the top 25 that will move on to the next stage. The combination of votes and public interest will ultimately determine how American Express awards $2.5 million in philanthropic funding. From the website: We're inviting you to come together to share ideas for projects that could make a difference in the world. Then it's up to you to support, and ultimately vote on, which projects get $2.5 million in funding from American Express. As you no doubt know, the Methuselah Foundation volunteers have a well-formed longevity science proposal in the running: Create a program that utilizes college undergraduates to perform research in a variety of scientific venues surr... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1742776 Fri, 29 Aug 2008 04:00:00 +0100 1742776 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1674899&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F001537.php It takes 20 years, give or take, for a new technology to move through multiple cycles of development, commercialization, and competition necessary to evolve from experimental prototype to widespread maturity. A look back at the past few decades of medical progress suggests that 30 years is more likely in that field - there's one effect of regulation for you, a slowing of the technologies that manage to make it over the regulatory hurdle in the first place. What does this pace of progress in medicine mean for middle-aged and younger people today? It means that the 2030s will see widespread, cost-effective use of the medical technologies you presently read about in the science press. A small selection: Replacement organs will be grown to order from your own cells. Stem cells will be creat... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1674899 Fri, 01 Aug 2008 04:00:00 +0100 1674899 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1461014&cid=t_169322_131_f&fid=34989&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FGeneticsHealth%2F%7E3%2F295870048%2F Thank you to Alyssa Friedland  from Genetic Alliance for this press release - a momentous occasion in the field of genetics.  I have decided to issue the press release in its entire form.  You may think me biased but the arguments put forward in the statement are cogent, well thought out and they echo my own opinions. What we need to do now is ensure that we take a responsible approach to this legislation and continue to ensure that the field of genetics is introduced into mainstream medicine ethically and to the highest clinical standards. Elaine Warburton   www.geneticsandhealth.com ******************************************************* President Bush Signs Landmark Genetic Nondiscrimination Information Act Into Law The Coalition for Genetic Fairness (http://www.geneticfairness.or... Genetics and Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1461014 Thu, 22 May 2008 14:42:12 +0100 1461014 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1426503&cid=t_169322_131_f&fid=34989&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FGeneticsHealth%2F%7E3%2F285268125%2F   Scientists and policy developers at the Translating ELSI, Ethical Legal Social Implications of Human Genetics Research conference have been mulling over the myriad of ethical arguments over testing and storing our kids’ DNA. The biggest driver for the advancement of genetic testing is the ‘early detection improves outcomes’ argument and if an individual is found to be at risk of a particular disease then life-long surveillance is a remedy. However, consider the scenario that you’ve just discovered that your 9 year old daughter has a risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer and your 6 year son is at risk of early-onset Alzheimer’s.  Where do you go for advice? What can you do? Another unique consideration is what happens to the biobank samples in... Genetics and Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1426503 Wed, 07 May 2008 10:15:58 +0100 1426503 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1426504&cid=t_169322_131_f&fid=34989&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FGeneticsHealth%2F%7E3%2F285259938%2F Following my recent article on ethical guidelines for informed consent in genomic studies, a group of scientists met at the Translating ESLI conference in Cleveland to debate this whole ethical argument. This issue is particularly critical for genome-wide association studies and in establishing and using large biobanks. It was universally acknowledged that consent forms are difficult to read for participants who do not have reading skills beyond middle school or high school, for example. As a result, these paticipants may be unaware of what exactly the research could mean to them. Laura Beskow, a researcher at Duke University’s Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy worked with the Association of American Medical Colleges to start a working group on informed consent issues and what ... Genetics and Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1426504 Wed, 07 May 2008 09:57:34 +0100 1426504 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1369701&cid=t_169322_131_f&fid=34989&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FGeneticsHealth%2F%7E3%2F269835053%2F   The Washington Post featured a series of thought-provoking articles in ‘The Science Century’ section of the newspaper.  Here are some of my favourites: The Post’s Joel Achenbach writes about how “the most important things happening in the world today…[will] be happening in laboratories — out of sight, inscrutable and unhyped until the very moment when they change life as we know it.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/11/AR2008041103328.html Ronald M. Green, the author of “Babies by Design: The Ethics of Genetic Choice,” asks, “Why should we think that the human genome is a once-and-for-all-finished, untamperable product? All of the biblically derived faiths permit human beings to improve on nature us... Genetics and Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1369701 Mon, 14 Apr 2008 06:56:29 +0100 1369701 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1367939&cid=t_169322_131_f&fid=34989&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FGeneticsHealth%2F%7E3%2F268841505%2F G&H’s INTERVIEW WITH NAVIGENICS Navigenics approached Genetics and Health for an interview. With so much written about similar genomics companies such as 23andme, Knome, deCODE genetics, I was intrigued to learn more about this company.  In particular, Navigenics appears to be the only company within this industry genre who provides a comprehensive wellness model – a healthcare model that Opaldia, the genetic screening and health surveillance company I founded, endorsed whole-heartedly.  I interviewed Navigenics’ Medical Director Dr Michael A Nierenberg MD, clinical professor of medicine, emeritus at Stanford University to find out what makes Navigenics stand out amongst its competition.  He was most candid in his responses and the company has been open and transparent in ... Genetics and Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1367939 Sat, 12 Apr 2008 08:00:08 +0100 1367939 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1366717&cid=t_169322_131_f&fid=34989&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FGeneticsHealth%2F%7E3%2F268355754%2F Concluding G&H’s exclusive interview with Navigenics’ Medical Director Dr Michael Nierenberg, we explore the challenges faced by Navigenics to integrate its genomic services into mainstream medicine …  When founding my old company Opaldia, probably the single most challenging aspect of early adoption of genetic testing was physician barriers.  Mostly this was borne out of a genuine lack of understanding about the field of genetics but also concerns that testing was too much in its infancy and tests had not been subject to rigorous clinical evaluation.  Time and again the phrase ‘not undergone prospective trials’ was used as a defense against bringing genetic testing into mainstream medical practice.  I was interested to learn how Navigenics proposed to ove... Genetics and Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1366717 Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:00:29 +0100 1366717 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1366718&cid=t_169322_131_f&fid=34989&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FGeneticsHealth%2F%7E3%2F268294755%2F Continuing G&H’s exclusive interview with Navigenics’ Medical Director Dr Michael Nierenberg, we explore the whole issue of privacy, insurance, GINA and ethics….. One of the main consumer concerns is that of privacy of information, both in terms that a genetic test has been undertaken but also that the results of the test are kept private and out of the public domain.  At the time of writing, the controversial GINA (Genetic Information Non-discrimination Act) is being passed by the US Senate which will enable genetic testing information to be kept private and not be used to discriminate against an individual, particularly by the insurance industry.  The insurance industry is understandable against the Bill.  Dr Nierenberg. Navigenics’ Medical Director, ad... Genetics and Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1366718 Fri, 11 Apr 2008 08:00:40 +0100 1366718 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1349439&cid=t_169322_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2008%2F04%2Foperationalizin.html In a previous note (see: Progress in Diagnoses with Endo-Microscopy), I discuss some of the evolving science and technology underlying endo-microscopy. Using this technique, a probe is inserted into suspicious lesions discovered during colonoscopy. This probe functions as a confocal microscope and provides a detailed examination of the lesion at the cellular level. After reading this note, Bev MD posted the following comment:As a pathologist, I would have a few questions about the sensitivity/specificity of this technique. How would it label cells that we consider "dysplastic' for instance? What would be its false negative rate, risking nonremoval of a cancerous polyp that has invaded by the time of a re-exam? Given the relative ease of resecting most polyps, I can't see much benefit ... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1349439 Fri, 04 Apr 2008 11:37:51 +0100 1349439 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1349624&cid=t_169322_131_f&fid=34989&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FGeneticsHealth%2F%7E3%2F263545811%2F Icelandic company deCode Genetics has announced it has signed a Letter of Intent to offer its genetic testing products to US Preventative Medicine customers. US Preventative Medicine is a Dallas based company. The company has developed a suite of prevention, early detection and chronic condition management products and services that improve health outcomes while reducing health care costs.  It’s products are as follows: “The signing of the letter of intent with DeCode is significant because we will be the first entity in the US and internationally to offer a full continuum of geographically dispersed, comprehensive solutions for personalized medicine,” Christopher Fey, chairman and CEO of US Preventive Medicine, said in a statement. Elaine Warburton www.geneticsandhealth.com Ta... Genetics and Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1349624 Thu, 03 Apr 2008 20:24:25 +0100 1349624 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1344125&cid=t_169322_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2008%2F04%2Fa-new-model-for.html David Carr, in a very insightful article in the New York Times (see: We Want It, and Waiting Is No Option), makes a number of interesting observations about the behavior of mainly younger consumers. He describes his visit to a large record store and remarks that most of the customers were "trading headphones at listening posts as they riffled their way through songs that they would no doubt go home and download later." In the article, he quotes extensively from the ideas contained in a new book entitled "Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations" by Clay Shirky. He goes on to make the following observations about the web and consumer behavior: ...[T]he Web is not competition for traditional media, but a completely different system that emp... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1344125 Wed, 02 Apr 2008 11:57:11 +0100 1344125 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1319276&cid=t_169322_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2008%2F03%2Fmore-on-reinven.html In a recent post (see: Reinventing the Autopsy: CT Imaging as a Routine Part of the Procedure), I suggested that this may be the right time to begin to reinvent the autopsy. In particular, I believe that a whole-body CT scan should be a mandatory first step in all such procedures. At the beginning of this note, I cited Dr. Jared Schwartz as the individual who had stimulated my interest in integrating imaging techniques such as the CT scan into the standard autopsy. He has posted a comment to this note which I copy below with boldface emphasis mine:Bruce you are correct I have been preaching to pathologists, pathology educators and hospital leaders of the potential value of reinvigorating the autopsy using modern technologic tools. Imaging combined with fine needle aspiration and the promis... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1319276 Fri, 21 Mar 2008 12:28:51 +0100 1319276 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1314161&cid=t_169322_131_f&fid=34989&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FGeneticsHealth%2F%7E3%2F254276298%2F Following my recent article titled “Genetic testing - ‘recreational genomics’ or the future of diagnostics”, I queried why doctors were finding it challenging to provide their patients with adequate information on genetic testing and I questioned whether there should be increased availability of training courses to help support doctors. On cue, a report published in JAMA concludes just that … although doctors know quite a bit about genomic medicine, it is still not being integrated into their clinical practice.  The report also argues that genomic medicine should be a part of the risk assessment and treatment of common chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, and cancer. In this systematic review, Dr Maren T. Scheuner, M.D., M.... Genetics and Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1314161 Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:13:21 +0100 1314161 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1314027&cid=t_169322_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2008%2F03%2Frunning-he-sect.html In conclusion, hotdog ingredient labels are misleading; most brands are more than 50% water by weight. The amount of meat (skeletal muscle) in most brands comprised less than 10% of the cross-sectional surface area. More expensive brands generally had more meat. All hotdogs contained other tissue types (bone and cartilage) not related to skeletal muscle; brain tissue was not present.So what lessons can be learned from this article? First of all, it's a little shocking that meat was the top-listed ingredient in all brands but comprised as little as 2.9% of the wieners by microscopic cross-section analysis. To be fair to the hot dog manufacturers, the original weight of the actual "meat" ingredients may not accurately correlate with the cross-section analysis described. However, I ... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1314027 Wed, 19 Mar 2008 12:32:53 +0100 1314027 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1310950&cid=t_169322_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2008%2F03%2Freinventing-the.html A remark by Dr. Jared Schwartz during a lecture at the Futurescape Conference last June caused me to reflect on the possibility of reinventing the classic autopsy. At that time, he remarked that his department had installed an older model CT scanner in the autopsy room at Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina. Pathologists in his department were using CT scans to supplement and enhance their autopsy findings. Germane to this same point, Dr. Michael Feldman noted in his lecture at the recent Molecular Summit that he uses CT images of surgically resected whole prostate glands as part of an ongoing research study on the integration of molecular data. I believe that autopsies, as currently performed by pathologists, are inefficient from a work input-output perspective, ineffecti... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1310950 Tue, 18 Mar 2008 11:50:43 +0100 1310950 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1301845&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F001436.php It was something like two years ago that I noted the pointlessness of trying to use the term "anti-aging" to describe longevity science or research into the repair of aging. Unfortunately, some topics just can't be discussed well in email, blog and website; they are drowned out by the efforts of those trying to make money. So it is with scientific anti-aging research and the vast sea of static produced by the purveyors of useless, all brand and no cattle "anti-aging" products. Just take a look at what is seen when searching for any sane, non-monetary, responsible discussion of anti-aging science on Google, Google News, Google Blog Search and Technorati - a blizzard of junk and nonsense. It's the same everywhere you look, a storm of short-termist profit seeking that destroys the primary ut... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1301845 Thu, 13 Mar 2008 04:00:00 +0100 1301845 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1233262&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F001416.php At the end of last year, during the very successful Methuselah Foundation donation drive, I said: The Longevity Meme Folding@Home team has been steadily rising through the ranks since its inception, thanks to the volunteer efforts of the many team members. The team is closing in on rank 200, a point that has been marked as a milestone for while. The lower ranks are a tough slog, but the team has been doing well - growing and producing results. I have decided that the best thing to do to mark the passage of rank 200, rather than send out another round of Longevity Meme tchotchkes, is to donate a chunk of change to the Methuselah Foundation, where it can be put to good use in advancing longevity science. Here is my incentive for the team: pass rank 200, and stay beneath that level for a we... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1233262 Thu, 14 Feb 2008 05:00:00 +0100 1233262 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1223853&cid=t_169322_122_f&fid=36506&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FBrainSciencePodcastBlog%2F%7E3%2F233459242%2F From the Blackwell Publishing website: “On April 2nd Wiley-Blackwell celebrated the premiere issue of Mind, Brain, and Education with a reception at the Harvard Faculty Club in Cambridge, Massachusetts. During the celebration Kurt Fischer (Harvard University), Howard Gardner (Harvard University), Maryanne Wolf (Tufts University), and Stanislas Dehaene (Collège de France) discussed their recent findings regarding how brain science informs educational practice.” You can here what Fischer, Wolf, and Dehaene had to say here. (Source: the Brain Science Podcast and Blog with Dr. Ginger Campbell) the Brain Science Podcast and Blog with Dr. Ginger Campbell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1223853 Tue, 12 Feb 2008 01:09:49 +0100 1223853 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1118217&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F001380.php Videoblogging, much like those newfangled social networks, is passing me by - but online video has proven to be a tremendously effective tool for reaching people, and more power to those who are making it work: My End Aging Challenge is simple: Create and post a reply to this video on YouTube explaining why you support Dr. Aubrey de Grey's and the Methuselah Foundation's mission to end aging. I will donate $10 to the Methuselah Foundation for every video response. If you have the means, I also suggest that you offer in your video response to match me with a donation of your own for every video. After you shoot your video, follow this link to post your video reply. Good show. If you want something done, no matter how daunting or large the task, the best way to go about it is to get out th... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1118217 Wed, 26 Dec 2007 05:00:00 +0100 1118217 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1098791&cid=t_169322_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2007%2F12%2F16%2Fyoutube-video-suggests-even-young-people-should-have-alzheimer%25e2%2580%2599s-awareness%2F Today while surfing YouTube, I came across an interesting video titled “My Name is Lisa”. This film is about a young girl’s challenges to cope with her mother’s progressing Alzheimer’s disease. The video was a submission to YouTube’s “Project Direct”, a competition for film creators who have “something to say”. I appreciated this video because it seems pretty accurate compared to experiences I’ve had with Alzheimer’s patients and their family members. However, one curious thing about the film was the age of the child in the video. I suppose that as women are having children later in life, it’s possible that children as young as the girl depicted in this video would have to deal with their primary caregiver suffering from something as dynamic as Alzheimer�... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1098791 Mon, 17 Dec 2007 02:00:28 +0100 1098791 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=989614&cid=t_169322_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2007%2F10%2Fpathtalk-blog.html A small group of pathology residents with Trent McBride, Kenneth Youens, Diana Cardona, and Gretchen Galliano taking leading roles have started a pathology blog called Pathtalk.org. Here's a link to their "about" page that describes their backgrounds. I asked Trent to write a short note about what prompted he and colleagues to launch this venture and his contribution is listed below. The purpose of Pathtalk.org is to create an informal  pathology blog that will serve multiple purposes including education, entertainment, advice, discussion, and commentary. In my view, a blog is superior to other forms of media because of the following: It combines the function of forums or bulletin boards with the superior presentation quality of a more traditional news site. It is accessi... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=989614 Tue, 30 Oct 2007 13:11:39 +0100 989614 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=907088&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F001315.php I should point out that the Methuselah Foundation is offering a free copy of Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime, autographed by biomedical gerontologist Aubrey de Grey, with any donation of $100 or more to Foundation-sponsored longevity research: In Ending Aging, noted biomedical gerontologist Aubrey de Grey takes us on an engaging journey, detailing the path to a future in which we do not have to become frail and decrepit as we grow old and wise - and showing how we can get there within our lifetimes. You can help support this goal and get a free autographed copy of Ending Aging with a donation of $100 or more to the Methuselah Foundation, a 501(c)(3) registered charity. Donations by US citizens are tax-deductible and all donation... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=907088 Wed, 26 Sep 2007 04:00:00 +0100 907088 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=824560&cid=t_169322_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2007%2F08%2Fapiii-informati.html Mike Becich's excellent yearly conference on pathology informatics, APIII, is fast approaching. It will take place on September 9-12 in Pittsburgh. You can review all of the details at the conference web site. Robert Michel interviewed Mike Becich about what to expect at this year's conference (see: Surprises Expected at Next Month's APIII Conference) for the Dark Daily. Here's a list of the four surprises about the upcoming conference revealed by Mike: Surprise #1: Pathology and radiology are starting to work together to do diagnostic-level imaging support.  Surprise #2: Emerging standards for pathology imaging are being decided at the meeting.    Surprise #3: Pathology informatics is developing in ways that enable translational medicine and research. Surprise #4: Th... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=824560 Mon, 27 Aug 2007 23:35:10 +0100 824560 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=815186&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F001289.php With the addition of a generous donation from entrepreneur Brian Cartmell, the Methuselah Foundation now has seven six-figure pledges to its name, the other foward-looking supporters of healthy life extension research being Gary Hudson, Brad A. Armstrong, David Fisher, the Scott B. and Anne P. Appleby Charitable Trust, the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research and one anonymous philanthropist. Above that, two seven-figure pledges, from Peter Thiel and an anonymous philanthropist. Below that, 140 or so $25,000 pledges from members of The Three Hundred, of which twelve have donated five-figure sums already. I point this out because I realized it wasn't all that long ago that the five-figure pledges were beginning to roll in to the Foundation on a regular basis, and I marked it as a real sig... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=815186 Tue, 21 Aug 2007 04:00:00 +0100 815186 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=806887&cid=t_169322_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2007%2F08%2Fpowerpoint-lect.html All of the PowerPoint lectures presented at the First World Congress on Pathology Informatics are now available here as on-line PDF files, courtesy of the Health Informatics Society of Australia (HISA), At the top level of this page, you will see two categories: one for the plenary conference and the second for the pre-conference workshop. If you click on the icon for the plenary conference, the two conference days, Thursday and Friday, are shown. Clicking on each of these will display each of the lectures delivered on that day. My warmest congratulations to HISA , to all of the Congress faculty members, and to the organizers of this Congress for all of their good efforts and for the outstanding educational experience that was presented in Brisbane. I particularly want to recognize Drs. Ul... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=806887 Sat, 18 Aug 2007 13:17:37 +0100 806887 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=751612&cid=t_169322_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2007%2F07%2Ffred-sanfilippo.html Emory University has named Fred Sanfilippo, MD, PhD, a distinguished physician-scientist who currently leads the health sciences at the Ohio State University, to head its own healthcare enterprise (see: Emory Selects Fred Sanfilippo as New Leader for Health Sciences Center). Below is an excerpt from the announcement:Dr. Sanfilippo, an expert in transplant immunology who has published more than 250 scientific papers, will succeed Michael M.E. Johns, MD, as executive vice president for health affairs, CEO of the Woodruff Health Sciences Center and chairman of the board of Emory Healthcare. Dr. Sanfilippo currently is serving as senior vice president and executive dean for health sciences at Ohio State, and as CEO of the Ohio State University Medical Center. He was selected by Emory after an ... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=751612 Mon, 23 Jul 2007 19:51:43 +0100 751612 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=747092&cid=t_169322_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2007%2F07%2Fnew-digital-pat.html Dr. Keith Kaplan, one of the leading telepathology experts in the country, recently launched a blog dedicated to digital pathology. It's called Digital Pathology Blog. This will be a must read for anyone with even a passing interest in this area. Congratulations, Keith, for taking the time to explore this critical area and also sharing your expertise with the rest of us. (Source: Lab Soft News) Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=747092 Fri, 20 Jul 2007 16:45:50 +0100 747092 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=674332&cid=t_169322_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2007%2F06%2Fcap_futurescape.html Jochen "Joe" Lennerz participated in the CAP Foundation Futurescape Conference recently held in Chicago as one of the recipients of a pathology resident travel award. Two previous notes (see: The Future of Medicine and, Therefore, of Pathology and Lab Medicine & Need to Establish a Value Proposition for Digital Pathology) made reference to this same conference. The following is his summary of some of the ideas that he carried away from the event. Originally from Germany, Dr. Lennerz is currently in the Anatomic Pathology basic research track at the Washington University in St. Louis.  He received his doctorate in the neurosciences from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. However, he describes his most formative experiences as those gained while training as a pathology ... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=674332 Fri, 15 Jun 2007 11:30:06 +0100 674332 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=651085&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F001230.php Cultural norms of knowledge, belief and intent bear no necessary relationship with fact, sanity and sense. Humans are hardwired to respect the norm: any set of concepts widely held are valued highly for that fact, while new or rare ideas have a real hurdle to acceptance. One aspect of this facet of the human condition is illustrated by Russell Blackford: science is by its nature a process of generating new ideas that are not widely held by the world at large, even when those ideas have come to be generally accepted within the scientific community. Hence demonstrating truth through science is by necessity a great deal harder than it might be in a more just universe: Bloom and Weisberg conclude that resistance to scientific thinking will continue beyond childhood into adulthood if the scien... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=651085 Thu, 31 May 2007 04:00:00 +0100 651085 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=645118&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F001226.php The folk of the Calorie Restriction (CR) Society are continuing their efforts to raise funds to broaden human CR research with a fundraising event in August. As for many successful health-oriented organizations, the Society prospers through close ties with the research community - just look at any of their conferences in recent years. As Mary Robinson relates: At last year's CR Conference, we all told Dr. Spindler that we would raise the money for him to do a human study on gene expression in CR - on us. This is a cool idea in so many ways. From all the moaning and groaning from the calorie restriction researchers at the conference, it is very clear that they are having a hard time getting funding from NIH. It's not a disease, after all - aging. Or is it? Spindler also thought it would be... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=645118 Sun, 27 May 2007 04:00:00 +0100 645118 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=638153&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F001222.php Research prizes for medicine work, which is we're seeing more of them these days. It's very hard to institutionalize innovation, to build a conveyor belt for radical new ideas, but the contest model has traditionally worked well for this purpose. If you look back at the history of prizes for scientific and technical achievement, they draw healthy multiples of the prize purse in funding for novel lines of research, and empower worthy developers who would traditionally not have made much headway in the mainstream. The Mprize for longevity research is perhaps the most familiar initiative for readers here. a scientific competition designed to draw attention to the ability of new technologies to slow and even reverse the damage of the aging process, preserving health and wisdom in a world that... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=638153 Wed, 23 May 2007 04:00:00 +0100 638153 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=611146&cid=t_169322_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2007%2F05%2Fwalmart_to_open.html I have posted a number of previous notes about an initiative by Wal-Mart to open a number of walk-in clinics in their stores staffed by nurse-clinicians that will treat common health problems for  modest fixed fees. After a trial trial run of 76 clinics in 12 states, it appears that the company is now ready to expand this line of business (see: Wal-Mart to open 400 in-store clinics). Below is an excerpt from the story: Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said on Tuesday that it will contract with local hospitals and other organizations to open as many as 400 in-store health clinics in the next two to three years. Should current market forces continue, the world's largest retailer said up to 2,000 clinics could be in Wal-Mart stores over the next five to seven years. Wal-Mart said the effort marks a... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=611146 Mon, 14 May 2007 12:00:00 +0100 611146 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=486143&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F001158.php By way of a reminder, the Methuselah Foundation recently set up a forum accessible to the public; if you'd like to hobnob with the researchers and volunteers presently working on Foundation science projects, or discuss the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence and other directions for near-future longevity research, then this is the place to be. See, for example, a posted overview of the MitoSENS project, and thoughts on RAGES and bioremediation: When trying to bioremediate AGE crosslinks from aged tissues, a major concern would be that the crosslink might be buried by the protein fibers it crosslinks, so that the bioremediation enzymes might be unable to access it. The utility of using enzymes to bioremediate AGEs has been questioned based on this (Furber, 2006). I think a p... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=486143 Tue, 20 Mar 2007 04:00:00 +0100 486143 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=468082&cid=t_169322_155_f&fid=34629&url=http%3A%2F%2Flabsoftnews.typepad.com%2Flab_soft_news%2F2007%2F03%2Fpathologists_gr.html The Dark Daily has provided coverage for a recent and important phenomenon whereby large clinical specialty groups recruit a pathologist to work in the group and provide in-house surgical pathology services (see: More Physicians Move to Group Model, Except, Maybe, Pathologists). Below is an excerpt from the article (boldface emphasis mine):Consolidation of physician group practices continues, although the pathology specialty seems to be resisting this trend....Urology and gastroenterology groups, particularly those with eight or more physicians, generally have enough specimen volume to profitably internalize their biopsy referrals. That is why many of these groups are establishing in-house anatomic pathology laboratories....Dark Daily observes that anatomic pathology groups are now seeing ... Lab Soft News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=468082 Tue, 13 Mar 2007 12:27:12 +0100 468082 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=482270&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F001149.php I position I wholeheartedly endorse from Veritas, posting at Betterhumans: We pour over the newest science and technology magazines. We visit tons of future-oriented sites (or better yet, subscribe to their RSS feeds). We keep an ear to the wind, straining to hear any mention of advances in nanotechnology, AI, VR, renewable energy, healthy life extension research, or the latest hint of a cure for cancer. But too many of us have been complacent for too long. "I'm just a student" "I don't have enough money to make a real difference." "What can one person do?" Wrong, wrong, and so damn wrong. There's plenty of stuff you can do. You futurists in the audience, those looking forward eagerly to a world of advanced technology and medicine capable of defeating ageing, think on this: just who... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=482270 Sun, 11 Mar 2007 05:00:00 +0100 482270 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=482276&cid=t_169322_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F001143.php Advocates and scientists supportive of healthy life extension research, like the nanotechnologists, are looking ahead to a timeline of development that spans decades, the time between now and the first meaningful waypoints on the road to defeating age-related frailty, suffering and death. Given the length of planning, just how important is it to direct some efforts towards talking to the younger folk - those who may be embarking upon scientific careers in the late 2010s and early 2020s, or themselves decide, as did I, that advocacy and support is vital? WIth that in mind, I note that Shannon Vyff recently asked me, a couple of times, to point out her new children's book. Vyff and her family generously support the present Methuselah Foundation initiatives, so I see no issue with a little e... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=482276 Mon, 05 Mar 2007 05:00:00 +0100 482276