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 'biotech'. Fri, 19 Mar 2010 19:56:38 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3382774&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F007032.html Hey ladies, consider "elective oocyte cryopreservation" before you get too old to store your eggs for a future pregnancy. Genetics & IVF Institute (GIVF) is launching a Personal Egg Banking service in the Washington, DC area to help women 40 and under who want to cryopreserve (freeze) their eggs now for use in the future when they wish to become pregnant. The age of a woman's eggs dramatically affects her ability to conceive. At 30, a healthy woman has about a 20% chance per month of conceiving, but the likelihood of pregnancy plummets as a woman grows older. At 40, her chances drop to about 5%. Egg banking is one of those services where the buyers will tend to wait... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3382774 Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3382774 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3378424&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F03%2Fthe-other-end-of-psychological-stress-and-telomere-length.php In recent years a number of studies have shown a correlation between high levels of psychological stress and shorter telomeres. For example, we have this from 2004: The UCSF-led team determined that chronic stress, and the perception of life stress, each had a significant impact on three biological factors - the length of telomeres, the activity of telomerase, and levels of oxidative stress - in immune system cells known as peripheral blood mononucleocytes, in healthy premenopausal women. A greater weight of work over a much longer period of time links chronic psychological stress with poor health in general, and there is also reason to believe that shorter telomeres correlate well to poor health and greater risk of age-related disease. So does psychological stress over time cause what a... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3378424 Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3378424 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3374088&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F03%2Fthe-longer-life-foundation.php is an example of one of the conservative funding sources in aging research; it is similar to the Ellison Medical Foundation in choices of which research to fund and the public face of the organization. Nothing that will rock the boat, in other words, or appear to be advocating near-future longevity engineering in humans. This describes much of the funding landscape, sadly, which is how the Glenn Foundation can look like a force for change by comparison, simply by talking about extending the healthy human life span in the context of funding mainstream aging research. From the Longer Life Foundation website: The Foundation, a not-for-profit organization, funds research that has immediate and practical applications for health promotion and for the assessment of longevity trends. ... The F... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3374088 Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3374088 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3370367&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F03%2Fregeneration-in-mice-through-a-single-gene-deletion.php You might recall the accidental discovery of unusually potent regeneration in MRL mice by Ellen Heber-Katz's team some years ago: Our laboratory has determined that the MRL mouse strain is unique in its capacity for regenerative wound healing, as shown by the closure of ear punches with normal tissue architecture and cartilage replacement reminiscent of amphibian regeneration as opposed to scarring. One line of research into regenerative medicine is based on understanding and then recreating in mammals the regenerative powers of lower animals like the salamander or zebrafish. The existence of MRL mice, a laboratory breed originally created for quite different reasons, provides hope that the required genetic or other alterations to mammalian biochemistry are not in fact insurmountably lar... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3370367 Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3370367 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3362367&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F03%2Fthymus-transplant-extends-life-in-old-mice.php Amidst the preprint list of the Rejuvenation Research journal, I see an interesting paper I'd somehow missed: life span can be extended in old mice by transplant of a young thymus. Noninvasive Neonatal Thymus Graft into the Axillary Cavity Extends the Lifespan of Old Mice: Neonatal thymus grafts exert a rejuvenating action on various immunological and nonimmunological functions found altered in old mice. Commonly, half of a thymus is grafted under the kidney capsule. The invasiveness of the surgical procedure and the use of limited thymus tissue may explain why precedent survival kinetics remain unaffected. In this trial, we grafted two neonatal thymi into the axillary cavity of old mice, thus reducing the invasiveness of the intervention and increasing the amount of grafted neonatal t... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3362367 Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3362367 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3358948&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F03%2Fthe-conservative-view-of-progress-in-applied-cancer-research.php We examined temporal trends in death rates from all-cancer and the 19 most common cancers in the United States from 1970-2006. ... Progress in reducing cancer death rates is evident whether measured against baseline rates in 1970 or in 1990. The downturn in cancer death rates since 1990 result mostly from reductions in tobacco use, increased screening allowing early detection of several cancers, and modest to large improvements in treatment for specific cancers. Continued and increased investment in cancer prevention and control, access to high quality health care, and research could accelerate this progress. That there is debate over the effectiveness of funding for cancer research is somewhat a function of slow and steady progress rather than sudden leaps in technology both inspiring an... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3358948 Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3358948 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3354273&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F007005.html The cost of genome sequencing has now fallen far enough that scientists are able to sequence the entire genome of people with rare genetic diseases to identify their causes. James Lupski, a physician-scientist who suffers from a neurological disorder called Charcot-Marie-Tooth, has been searching for the genetic cause of his disease for more than 25 years. Late last year, he finally found it--by sequencing his entire genome. While a number of human genome sequences have been published to date, Lupski's research is the first to show how whole-genome sequencing can be used to identify the genetic cause of an individual's disease. The project, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, reflects a new approach to the hunt for... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3354273 Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3354273 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3350568&cid=t_112104_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FWd4iws7642I%2F A pleasant morning here on the Pharmalot corporate campus. After a recent spell of snow, spring appears to have finally bloomed. And that makes it a bit easier to cope with those mid-week deadlines and meetings, yes? So grab a cup of something stimulating and dig in for another day. Here are a few interesting items to help you on your way. Cheers, everyone… Abbott Bests Biogen With Bid For Facet Biotech (Bloomberg) Bristol-Myers’ CEO 2009 Pay Was Down 22 Percent (Associated Press) Sandoz Names Don DeGolyer To Heads US Ops (Chain Drug Review) Novartis Takes Option On Transgene Cancer Vaccine (Reuters) Lilly, Amylin Diabetes Drug Await FDA OK (The Wall Street Journal) Teva Pharmaceuticals Names Phillip Frost As Chairman (Associated Press) Coffee pix thx to chichcacha flickr creat... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3350568 Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:24:03 +0100 3350568 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3350246&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F03%2Fresting-metabolic-rate-and-aging-another-of-metabolisms-complexities.php This study investigates age-dependent changes in resting metabolic rate (RMR) considering changes in body composition and fat distribution within the longitudinal study on nutrition and health status in an aging population in Giessen (GISELA), Germany ... Approach 1: RMR correlates significantly negatively with age in women and men. Considering fat free mass, fat mass, and [weight and height], age proved to be a significant predictor of RMR in both sexes in multiple regression analysis; RMR falls by 11.2 kJ/d and 34.1 kJ/d per year in females and males, respectively. Approach 2: In males but not in females RMR decreases significantly in the course of the follow up. After ten years measured RMR is significantly lower than expected RMR predicted on the basis of body composition and fat d... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3350246 Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3350246 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3346426&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F007000.html For a long time nanotechnology was one of those technologies that lay only in our future. It is starting to show up in our present. Cornell researchers have attached antibodies to nanoparticles to attack colorectal cancer cells. ITHACA, N.Y. - Another weapon in the arsenal against cancer: Nanoparticles that identify, target and kill specific cancer cells while leaving healthy cells alone. Led by Carl Batt, the Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of Food Science, the researchers synthesized nanoparticles – shaped something like a dumbbell – made of gold sandwiched between two pieces of iron oxide. They then attached antibodies, which target a molecule found only in colorectal cancer cells, to the particles. Once bound, the nanoparticles are engulfed by the cancer... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3346426 Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3346426 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3346490&cid=t_112104_107_f&fid=36584&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.biotech-weblog.com%2F50226711%2Fpublish_your_print_flyers_on_the_biotech_weblog.php Lately, I've been receiving a number of email requesting to plug their products and events on this blog. I would like to take this opportunity to inform our readers about the advertising options available on the Biotech Weblog. For advertisers, you may want to know that the Biotech Weblog is open for sponsorship as well. Consider it akin to having print flyers made and distributed worldwide. You don't even need to think about flyer templates. Talk to our advertising staff about the different options by ... (Source: The Biotech Weblog) The Biotech Weblog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3346490 Mon, 08 Mar 2010 06:37:27 +0100 3346490 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3346427&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006999.html If we only knew how to instruct cells to do exactly what we want then most human degeneration with age would become repairable. Some Yale researchers have found a way to block an inhibitor mechanism so that new arteries grow in mice and zebrafish. "Successfully growing new arteries could provide a biological option for patients facing bypass surgery," said lead author of the study Michael Simons, M.D., chief of the Section of Cardiology at Yale School of Medicine. In the past, researchers used growth factors—proteins that stimulate the growth of cells—to grow new arteries, but this method was unsuccessful. Simons and his team studied mice and zebrafish to see if they could simulate arterial formation by switching on and off... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3346427 Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3346427 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3342631&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F03%2Fcapabilities-in-stem-cell-science-are-advancing-rapidly.php Progress in controlling and manipulating stem cells is rapid these days. Important advances in infrastructural methodologies for storing, creating, and growing stem cells are being made on a near-weekly basis. As these fundamental tools of stem cell science become better and cheaper, so do the end results - therapies built upon regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. Replacements for damaged tissues, including those damaged by some of the processes of aging. Enhanced regeneration that would not normally take place in an old body. And so forth. Here are two items that are illustrative of the present pace in research and development: Breakthrough Reveals Blood Vessel Cells Are Key to Growing Unlimited Amounts of Adult Stem Cells In a leap toward making stem cell therapy widely avail... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3342631 Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3342631 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3342626&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006995.html Faster and faster in biological sciences. CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 2, 2010 – Fictional candy maker Willy Wonka called his whimsical device to sort good chocolate eggs from bad, an eggucator. Likewise, by determining what enzymes and compounds to keep and which to discard, scientists are aiming to find their own golden eggs: more potent drugs and cleaner sources of energy. Toward that end, Harvard researchers and a team of international collaborators demonstrated a new microfluidic sorting device that rapidly analyzes millions of biological reactions. Smaller than an iPod Nano, the device analyzes reactions a 1,000-times faster and uses 10 million-fold less volumes of reagent than conventional state-of-the-art robotic methods. The scientists anticipate that the invention could reduce screen... FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3342626 Sun, 07 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3342626 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3326959&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2Fwvvr_WTmaTI%2F It seemed like only a question of time, but Bristol-Myers Squibb said this afternoon that Lamberto Andreotti, its president and chief operating officer since last March, would succeed James M. Cornelius as CEO. Andreotti, a 12-year veteran of the company, is 59 years old and Cornelius is 66. Cornelius was tapped as Bristol-Myers CEO in 2006 (first on an interim basis) and then got the added job as chairman in 2008. Picking a successor was one of his key missions. Andreotti takes command after Bristol-Myers decided to sit out the wave of multibillion-dollar takeovers that saw big competitors Pfizer, Merck and Lilly get even bigger. Bristol-Myers instead has pursued smaller biotech deals and alliances as well as developing its own pipeline through what it called a “string of pearls&#... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3326959 Tue, 02 Mar 2010 22:55:09 +0100 3326959 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3326950&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F03%2Fmanipulating-fat-in-the-context-of-slowing-aging.php Researchers have established to a more than reasonable degree that fat is important in longevity and aging. A compelling experiment in mice, for example, demonstrates that less visceral fat means a longer life. Then we have the link between fat and chronic inflammation, and the strong correlations between excess fat tissue and all of the common age-related conditions. Given all of this evidence, it shouldn't be surprising that at least some of those researchers interested in slowing down the aging process are thinking in terms of changing the fundamental processes of fat metabolism. One such paper caught my eye today, and I thought I'd share: Protein kinase A signaling as an anti-aging target: As one of its many functions, protein kinase A (PKA) plays a key role in the regulation of met... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3326950 Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3326950 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3322326&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006981.html About 1 in 6000 babies is born with a genetic disorder of the nervous system called Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). The mouse equivalent of SMA has now been treated with gene therapy with substantial improvement. COLUMBUS, Ohio – Reversing a protein deficiency through gene therapy can correct motor function, restore nerve signals and improve survival in mice that serve as a model for the lethal childhood disorder spinal muscular atrophy, new research shows. This muscle-wasting disease results when a child’s motor neurons – nerve cells that send signals from the spinal cord to muscles – produce insufficient amounts of what is called survival motor neuron protein, or SMN. This reduced protein in motor neurons specifically – rather than in other... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3322326 Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3322326 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3322329&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F03%2Fon-medical-tourism-for-stem-cell-therapies.php Over at Singularity Hub, you'll find a good general interest article on medical tourism and stem cell therapies. Absent a revolution, competition between regulatory regions is the only thing likely to shake up the sorry state of medical development in the US. Five years, a decade, or longer might pass these days between the early commercial availability of new therapies overseas and their final and expensive passage through the FDA course of hurdles and obstacles. But when responsible companies are regularly offering safe (and much cheaper) therapies in India, Vietnam, and China years ahead of their availability in the US, something has to give. You can’t keep a good thing down. When the US restricted stem cell research in the early part of the century that research didn’t die, it emi... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3322329 Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3322329 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3318365&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006977.html A group of scientists has systematically mapped state changes in embryonic cells as they turn into the various types of cells needed to form organs and a complete organism. This information is needed, for example, to figure out how to coax stem cells into forming replacement organs. LA JOLLA, CA – February 2, 2010 –– Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute and The Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) led an international effort to build a map that shows in detail how the human genome is modified during embryonic development. This detailed mapping is a significant move towards the success of targeted differentiation of stem cells into specific organs, which is a crucial consideration for stem cell therapy. The study was... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3318365 Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3318365 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3314614&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F02%2Fcells-hearts-and-brains.php While its easy to lose perspective amidst the daily grind, we do in fact already live in a science-fiction future, in which researchers are earnestly engaged in engineering the human body and its component parts. For example: Heart Stem Cells Move Closer to Human Treatments: In one study, out of Germany, 35 patients who received bone-marrow stem cell transplantation during coronary artery bypass surgery achieved "excellent long-term safety and survival." Ten patients who received similar transplantations after repair of mitral valves also fared well, with improvements in the heart's pumping capacity. Slovenian investigators had similar success, with improvements seen in patients with advanced heart failure who received bone-marrow derived stem cells. There were also advances in gene ther... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3314614 Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3314614 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3306810&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F02%2Freversing-blindness-in-retinitis-pigmentosa-with-stem-cells.php Retinitis pigmentosa is an inherited form of slow degenerative blindness, in which essential retinal cells accumulate defects due to one or more mutated genes. Generating replacement, properly formed retinal cells to treat this condition is one of the longer-running initiatives in the stem cell research community; if you look back in the Longevity Meme archives, you'll see it mentioned in 2004, for example. It appears that researchers have now succeeded in restoring sight in mice: An international research team led by Columbia University Medical Center successfully used mouse embryonic stem cells to replace diseased retinal cells and restore sight in a mouse model of retinitis pigmentosa. ... In Dr. Tsang's study, sight was restored in one-fourth of the mice that received the stem cell... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3306810 Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3306810 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3298281&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F02%2Fa-few-cancer-stem-cell-articles.php Cancer stem cell theories offers the prospect that various types of cancer spawn from characteristic stem-cell-like initial populations. Cancer exists because random mutations that occur in our cells as a result of damage and age will eventually produce one of these prolific and damaging cell types, possibly by damaging an existing adult stem cell, or possibly by radically mutating a normal somatic cell. Cancer stem cells are hard to eradicate completely through old-style chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or surgery, which is why cancers tend to recur - all it takes is one remaining errant stem cell to rebuild the cancer anew. But the nature of cancer stem cells also means that they are the weak link: destroy them and the cancer cannot survive. Fortunately, identifying and safely destroying spec... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3298281 Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3298281 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3290788&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F02%2Fthe-latest-on-mitochondrial-uncoupling.php I have written on the topic of mitochondrial uncoupling in the past, so back into the archives we go for a quick summary: Mitochondria are the power plants of your cells: they toil to turn food into ATP, used as fuel by the cell. In recent years, the eye of the research community has turned towards the process of mitochondrial uncoupling, whereby the processing of food is uncoupled from the generation of ATP. The result is less ATP and more energy in the form of heat - this is a part of the temperature regulation process in mammals, for example. It also appears to be important in calorie restriction, and therefore possibly important to longevity and aging. Research is still in full swing, however, and the vision of how mitochondrial uncoupling fits into the big picture of metabolism and ... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3290788 Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3290788 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3283506&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=35052&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FWomensBioethicsBlog%2F%7E3%2Fh7eQIpWbePw%2Fdiy-synthetic-biology-more-than.html A few years in his book, A Many-Colored Glass, Freeman Dyson envisioned that the domestication of biotechnology would result in a new art form, as creative as painting or sculpture and would give rise to an explosion of new diverse creatures, few of which will be masterpieces, but “all will bring joy to their creators and variety to our flora and fauna.”  Now, college biology students are competing to see who can create new, living tools to address the planet's problems (e.g., bacteria that   The comments and reactions to the article range from go-get-'em to we-are-destroying-ourselves-and-the planet to philosophical: Sample comment 1:  Genetic engineering by experienced professionals is dangerous enough. Genetic engineering by students is a spectacularly bad idea. S... Women's Bioethics Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3283506 Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:47:25 +0100 3283506 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3283510&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2FfB-HAGTvP9Q%2F Sam Waksal, the founder of ImClone Systems who fell from grace before the company became $6.5 billion takeover property for Eli Lilly, is back in the biotech world, trying to raise $50 million for a start-up, according to TheStreet.com. Waksal (pictured at right in 2003) has an up-and-down bio highlighted by getting Imclone’s cancer drug Erbitux on the road to market. His lowlight came with a guilty plea to insider-trading charges for selling ImClone shares knowing FDA was going to issue a negative report on the drug before the agency’s eventual approval of it. Lifestyle diva Martha Stewart also avoided losses by selling ImClone shares, leading to her conviction on obstruction of justice charges. Now Waksal wants to buy, develop or license new drugs aimed at cancer or infectiou... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3283510 Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:40:54 +0100 3283510 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3275768&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F02%2Fging-a-new-aging-science-blog.php Ourboros recently pointed out a fairly new blog on aging and longevity science that I had failed to notice in my wanderings. In my defense, most of the tools for discovering new blog content are so clogged with autospam that it's a wonder anyone can find anything. I just learned of an excellent new blog - @ging, dedicated to "scientific findings on aging and its underlying mechanisms" ... it’s bilingual in English and Spanish, with almost every article appearing in both languages. Authors Shaday and Layla Michan state their site's mission succinctly as follows: "This space is devoted to analyze and discuss the advances on aging research." ... The site has been up less than a month; so far, posts have dealt with a wide variety of subject, from demographics to genetics to molecular deta... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3275768 Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3275768 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3275765&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006948.html Some U Wisc Madison researchers compared induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells - made from reprogrammed adult cells reprogrammed) to embryonic stem cells and find embryonic stem cells become other cell types more efficiently. Techniques to make iPS cells still need additional improvement. MADISON — The great promise of induced pluripotent stem cells is that the all-purpose cells seem capable of performing all the same tricks as embryonic stem cells, but without the controversy. However, a new study published this week (Feb. 15) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences comparing the ability of induced cells and embryonic cells to morph into the cells of the brain has found that induced cells — even those free of the... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3275765 Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3275765 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3275769&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F02%2Fredefining-bionics-again.php For those of us of a certain age, the word "bionic" will always be associated with enhanced mechanical limbs. If other organs are bionic, then they had better be devices of chrome and ceramic, electrically powered, and the sort of thing turned out by a high-tech workshop. But the usage of "bionic" or "bionics" in medical technology is much broader than this, and often altered. Consider, for example, that a living, beating, recellularized heart is just as much an artificial, engineered construct as the latest type of electromechanical heart replacements being tested today. Under the dictionary definition of bionic, both of these items are bionic technologies. On this topic, and via researcher Leonid Gavrilov's blog, I see that one of the folk involved in recellularization work likes the us... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3275769 Mon, 15 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3275769 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3275766&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006949.html The ultimate DNA sequencing devices will process individual strands of DNA, one letter at a time, thru measuring gates. Arizona State University researcher Stuart Lindsay leads a team using nanotech to read strands of DNA. Lindsay's team relies on the eyes of nanotechnology, scanning tunneling- (STM) and atomic force- (ATM) microscopes, to make their measurements. The microscopes have a delicate electrode tip that is held very close to the DNA sample. In their latest innovation, Lindsay's team made two electrodes, one on the end of microscope probe, and another on the surface, that had their tiny ends chemically modified to attract and catch the DNA between a gap like a pair of chemical tweezers. The gap between these functionalized electrodes... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3275766 Mon, 15 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3275766 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3251178&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006929.html Tell those stem cells to get off their duffs and fix things! EVANSTON, Ill. --- Northwestern University researchers are the first to design a bioactive nanomaterial that promotes the growth of new cartilage in vivo and without the use of expensive growth factors. Minimally invasive, the therapy activates the bone marrow stem cells and produces natural cartilage. No conventional therapy can do this. The results will be published online the week of Feb. 1 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). "Unlike bone, cartilage does not grow back, and therefore clinical strategies to regenerate this tissue are of great interest," said Samuel I. Stupp, senior author, Board of Trustees Professor of Chemistry, Materials Science and Engineering, and... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3251178 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3251178 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3235813&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2FjNwDA2dmWP4%2F There’s been plenty of hand-waving in Washington about bringing generic versions of biotech drugs to market in this country. But rather than wait for all that to get worked out, Teva, the Israeli generics giant, went ahead and ran clinical trials on a biotech drug that’s a whole lot like Amgen’s Neupogen, a $900 million drug used to stimulate the growth of white blood cells. The FDA has agreed to take a look at Teva’s application. But, as Dow Jones Newswires notes, Teva and Amgen are also duking it out in court, with Amgen arguing that the Teva drug infringes on an Amgen patent. The case brings to mind the long, colorful court battle between Amgen and Roche over Roche’s Mircera, an anemia drug that a court ruled infringed on Amgen’s patents. Mircera neve... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3235813 Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:15:41 +0100 3235813 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3239534&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F02%2Flooking-ahead-to-mitochondrial-dna-replacement-therapies.php If you wend your way back through the Fight Aging! archives, you'll find a lot of material on mitochondria, mitochondrial DNA, and how accumulated damage to mitochondrial DNA contributes greatly to aging. The short version is this: Mitochondria are the cell's power plants, important in the operation of metabolism, central to the mechanisms by which metabolism determines life span, and implicated as the culprit in many age-related diseases. As described in the mitochondrial free radical theory of aging, a small number of mitochondrial genes are known to be crucial to its operation as the cell's power plant. Damage to those genes is unfortunately a natural consequence of the operation of a mitochondrion, and leads to a Rube Goldberg sequence of events in which is a healthy cell is turned in... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3239534 Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3239534 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3235805&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F02%2Fspermidine-and-another-vote-for-autophagy.php For many years, up until fairly recently, life science researchers who talked in public about altering or reversing the course of aging found that this was a quick and effective way to destroy fundraising prospects. The mainstream institutions involved in grants are conservative indeed. So next to nobody said anything - in public at least. But times are changing. It has to be said that scientists involved in aging research are now becoming noticeably more comfortable about talking in public on the topic of extending life span. Perhaps a little too comfortable here in the choice of title, but the science is sound: Spermidine: A novel autophagy inducer and longevity elixir: Spermidine is a ubiquitous polycation that is synthesized from putrescine and serves as a precursor of spermine. Putr... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3235805 Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3235805 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3235801&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006920.html Check for whether you carry 100 potentially dangerous genes for prospective parents. Counsyl, a Stanford startup based in Redwood City, CA, has developed a genetic test for prospective parents that determines their risk for passing more than 100 different genetic diseases on to their child. The test, which costs $349 and is already covered by some major insurers, could rapidly expand preconception screening for rare inherited conditions. Here is a map of 100 medical centers offering this test. You can bet that the list of testable genetic diseases will grow each year and the general usefulness of pre-pregnancy genetic screening of prospective will grow along with the list of testable genes. The big recent cost declines for genetic testing and... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3235801 Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3235801 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3227712&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006914.html By age 30 only 12% of a woman's eggs still remain. A successful collaboration between the Universities of St Andrews and Edinburgh has resulted in a better understanding of how many eggs a woman has in her ovaries (ovarian reserve) from conception to menopause. It is the first time that scientists have ever modelled human ovarian reserve from establishment before birth to menopause around 50 years of age. By age 40 only 3% remain. The odds of a successful pregnancy at that point therefore are small to none. Tom Kelsey, a Senior Research Fellow at the School of Computer Science at St Andrews, said, "Previous models have looked at the decline in ovarian reserve, but not at the dynamics of... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3227712 Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3227712 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3220503&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2Fct7bF6eQFh0%2F Biogen Idec has invested heavily in drug research. Genzyme has snapped up smaller companies. Neither approach has worked particularly well, this morning’s WSJ notes, and both companies under pressure from activist shareholders to beef up their performance. Perennial activist Carl Icahn yesterday gave notice that he intends to nominate three directors to Biogen’s board, following up his success last year in landing two director slots on the board. The company it would evaluate the Icahn candidates, according to Reuters. Icahn and affiliates hold less than a 6% stake in the company, Biogen says. There’s more on the latest Biogen-Icahn faceoff here. Meanwhile, Genzyme yesterday announced revised terms for its executive compensation plans. The move followed criticism that Genzyme�... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3220503 Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:51:12 +0100 3220503 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3220499&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F01%2Fan-intriguing-view-of-alzheimers-disease.php Alzheimer's research is a field in constant flux; no unifying theory of Alzheimer's biochemistry goes unchallenged, there are a great many such theories coming and going, and much remains to be discovered or proven. Conversely, so much money flows into Alzheimer's science that new results are constantly emerging to sway the picture in one direction or another. This is science at its messiest, which is usually also where it is most interesting, and most likely to soon deliver a firm, defensible theory. A large fraction of the Alzheimer's research community focuses in some way on forms of amyloid or other aggregates that build up in the brain: why is it there, what is the mechanism by which it causes harm, how can we get rid of it safely, is it a cause or secondary marker of other harmful m... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3220499 Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3220499 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3216548&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F01%2Fanother-run-at-making-old-stem-cells-act-as-though-young.php Why do stem cell populations in the body become less effective with age? The resulting decline in the generation of replacement cells is one of the contributing factors to age-related degeneration, leading to tissues and organs that are damaged, weaker, or dysfunctional. But does this happen because the stem cells themselves are becoming damaged, or fewer in number, or is it because they are responding to changes in the cellular environment and simply doing less work? For example, we might theorize that reduced stem cell activity in response to the biochemical signs of aging is an evolutionary adaptation intended to reduce the risk of cancer. To date, the pendulum of scientific evidence and debate has been swinging more towards theories that involve the cellular environment. You might reca... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3216548 Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3216548 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3212295&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F01%2Fa-little-more-heat-shock-protein-manipulation-work.php Last week, I posted on the topic of calorie restriction mimetics, with a focus on enhancement of autophagy and the operation of heat shock proteins as a path to extended longevity - or at least some repair of age-related cellular damage. Both autophagy and heat shock proteins contribute to cleaning up damage and dysfunctional molecular machinery in our cells, and are strongly implicated in the benefits to health and longevity provided by exercise and calorie restriction. As an addendum to that post, let me point out another example of early stage research into enhanced heat shock protein activity. This is an open access paper: Modulation of Heat Shock Transcription Factor 1 as a Therapeutic Target for Small Molecule Intervention in Neurodegenerative Disease: The misfolding of proteins in... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3212295 Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3212295 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3201727&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006892.html Osteoarthritis is expensive, prevalent, and painful. Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the ten most disabling diseases in the developed world and is set to become more of a financial burden on health services as average life expectancy increases. OA is the most common form of arthritis, affecting nearly 27 million Americans or 12.1% of the adult population of the United States, according to Laurence et al.¹ A 2001 study showed that the disease costs US health services about $89.1 billion,2 and indirect costs relating to wages and productivity losses and unplanned home care averaged $4603 per person.3 Aging and accumulated damage are expensive. If they didn't happen the total cost of health care would be a small fraction of what... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3201727 Sun, 24 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3201727 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3200416&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2FAyXed6Wcsko%2F Biotech research is the sexy thing these days in the drug business, but that kind of buzz isn’t worth much in Hollywood. With the movie Extraordinary Measures opening this weekend, though, biotech gets its glamour moment. The movie tells the story of a John Crowley, a father who sets out to find a cure for Pompe disease, a rare disease that afflicts his children. The movie is based on a true story — one that appeared in the WSJ in the early aughts, before being turned into a book. Here’s a 2001 WSJ story on Crowley; here’s an excerpt from the book; and here’s a key passage from a story that ran on the Journal’s front page in 2003: Seeking a treatment, Mr. Crowley, now 36 years old, quit his job as a financial consultant, met with legions of scientists an... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3200416 Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:45:13 +0100 3200416 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3197600&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2FdYyVfyYXZfQ%2F Venture capital funding was way down last year, but health care fell less than other sectors. A few different sets of figures are out today — one from Dow Jones VentureSource, another from the National Venture Capital Association. The figures from the groups differ a bit, but the broad outlines are similar. VC deals totaled $21.41 billion last year, down 31% from 2008, according to VentureSource. For the first time, health-care companies got more VC money ($7.73 billion, down 14% from the previous year) than IT companies ($6.07 billion, down 35% from the previous year). The WSJ’s Venture Capital Dispatch blog has more on the VentureSource figures. The National Venture Capital Association said VCs put $17.68 billion into U.S. companies last year — 37% less than they spent... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3197600 Fri, 22 Jan 2010 13:51:30 +0100 3197600 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3197696&cid=t_112104_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F01%2F22%2Fa-genealogical-study-of-the-concept-of-successful-aging-iii-%25e2%2580%2599successful-aging%25e2%2580%2599-in-the-neurosciences-and-the-link-to-cognitive-enhancement%2F This is the last part of my project description for the Ph.D.-project called “A genealogical study of the concept of ’successful aging’ and its relation to the idea of ‘human enhancement”. See the first two parts here and here.  ’Successful aging’ in the neurosciences and the link to ‘cognitive enhancement’ In order to narrow the problem field, the project will look closely at how the notion of ‘successful aging’ has been understood and defined in the field of neuroscience in the last decades, and how ‘successful cognitive aging’ has played together with discussions — both in the scientific literature, in science policy documents and in general public discourse — about the possibility for so called ‘cognitive enhancement’ (‘neuro... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3197696 Fri, 22 Jan 2010 08:00:42 +0100 3197696 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3200409&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F01%2Fa-small-selection-of-calorie-restriction-mimetic-drug-research.php Could a drug introduced in the 2010s be able to induce rejuvenation, the repair of age-related damage? To a very limited degree, yes. We would expect some types of drug, early and poor examples of which are presently undergoing investigation in the laboratory, to be able to stimulate the aged body to repair certain types of cellular damage and aggregate buildup that it would otherwise be unable to deal with - in other words to rejuvenate some aspects of cellular biology to their youthful states of operation. One line of research to this end is based on what has been learned from the study of the biochemistry of calorie restriction and exercise. A calorie restriction mimetic drug is one that replicates some of the biochemical changes in gene expression and cellular processes caused by calo... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3200409 Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3200409 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3193687&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2FdzXGuBel-SM%2F Here’s a quick roundup of some news on experimental drugs: Two pills for multiple sclerosis fared well in clinical trials published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine. One, Novartis’s fingolimod, was tested against a placebo and against Avonex, a form of interferon sold by Biogen Idec. The other, Merck KGaA’s cladribine, was tested against a placebo. (The main findings of the studies had previously been reported.) Current drugs for MS are given via injection or infusion, so the convenience of oral drugs would be an improvement for patients. But, as the WSJ notes, the studies of fingolimod and cladribine suggested that the drugs may have serious side effects that will have to be weighed against the potential benefits. A new approach to treating clostridium d... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3193687 Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:10:23 +0100 3193687 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3193681&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006887.html Scientists at Cornell have developed a better technique for coaxing stem cells into becoming lining for blood vessels. NEW YORK (Jan. 20, 2010) -- In a significant step toward restoring healthy blood circulation to treat a variety of diseases, a team of scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College has developed a new technique and described a novel mechanism for turning human embryonic and pluripotent stem cells into plentiful, functional endothelial cells, which are critical to the formation of blood vessels. Endothelial cells form the interior "lining" of all blood vessels and are the main component of capillaries, the smallest and most abundant vessels. In the near future, the researchers believe, it will be possible to inject these cells into humans... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3193681 Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3193681 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3189178&cid=t_112104_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F01%2F20%2Fa-genealogical-study-of-the-concept-of-successful-aging-ii-the-relation-between-%25e2%2580%2599successful-aging%25e2%2580%2599-and-%25e2%2580%2598human-enhancement%25e2%2580%2599%2F This is the second part of my project description for the Ph.D.-project called ‘A genealogical study of the concept of ’successful aging’ and its relation to the idea of ‘human enhancement’. See the first part here. The relation between ’successful aging’ and ‘human enhancement’ The project will particularly focus on an analysis of the possible connection between ideas about the prevention and treatment of age-related diseases, on the one hand, and the current merging discourse on ‘human enhancement’, on the other. Like ‘successful aging’, the notion of ‘human enhancement’ — including a large variety of different ideas about the future possibilities for technological improvements of human bodies — became widely spread in the 1980’s and... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3189178 Wed, 20 Jan 2010 08:00:10 +0100 3189178 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3189113&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F01%2Frapamycin-longevity-may-stack-with-calorie-restriction-longevity.php One of the more interesting frontiers in research aimed at slowing aging is the search for methods that complement calorie restriction rather simply recapturing a part of its benefits to health and longevity. To date, there have not been much in the way of results on this count, but I think that this will change: the number of ways to extend life in laboratory animals is expanding rapidly, as is the pool of funding for the field. You might recall last year's research demonstrating rapamycin to extend life in mice, and to a great enough degree to be a contender for the Mprize for longevity science. Compared with the non-drug-taking group, the lifespans of the mice given rapamycin increased by up to 14%, even though they were middle-aged when treatment began. Their life expectancy at 20 mo... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3189113 Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3189113 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3185299&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006881.html More genetic variants that influence blood sugar and insulin have been identified. A major international study with leadership from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers has identified 10 new gene variants associated with blood sugar or insulin levels. Two of these novel variants and three that earlier studies associated with glucose levels were also found to increase the risk of type 2 diabetes. Along with a related study from members of the same research consortium, associating additional genetic variants with the metabolic response to a sugary meal, the report will appear in Nature Genetics and has been released online. "Only four gene variants had previously been associated with glucose metabolism, and just one of them was known to affect type 2... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3185299 Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3185299 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3182201&cid=t_112104_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F01%2F18%2Fa-genealogical-study-of-the-concept-of-successful-aging-i%2F I’ve just begun my ph.d.-project here at Medical Museion. Titled ”A genealogical study of the concept of successful aging and its relation to the idea of human enhancement”, the project is financed by the new Center for Healthy Aging at the Faculty of Health Sciences. Below is the first part of the project description concerning the notion of successful aging. In two following parts I will first introduce the possible relation between successful aging and human enhancement, and then my attempt to narrow the project to cognitive aspects of ageing and cognitive enhancement. Comments to one or all three parts are much appreciated. The genealogy of the notion of ’successful aging’ At present there is much focus on the notion of successful aging (healthy aging, opti... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3182201 Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:00:39 +0100 3182201 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3171865&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F01%2Falternative-lengthening-of-telomeres-alt-101.php Telomeres are the protective caps of material at the ends of your chromosomes. As normal somatic cells divide, telomeres become shorter and shorter until the lack of telomere length halts the cell division process - in effect this limits normal cellular replication. But stem cells, the source of our tissues during growth and maintainers of adult tissue, use the enzyme telomerase to keep their telomeres long, enabling them to divide long past the point at which somatic cells would halt. In addition, cancers are spawned of mutant cells that hijack this telomerase mechanism in order to multiply rapidly and endlessly. If we are to engineer an end to aging, we must engineer an end to cancer along the way. I believe that robust cancer therapies based on targeting mechanisms presently under deve... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3171865 Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3171865 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3171863&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006868.html Nanowires can deliver drugs and other compounds into cells grown in culture Many experiments in biology rely on manipulating cells: adding a gene, protein, or other molecule, for instance, to study its effects on the cell. But getting a molecule into a cell is much like breaking into a fortress; it often relies on biological tricks such as infecting a cell with a virus or attaching a protein to another one that will sneak it through the cell's membrane. Many of these methods are specific to certain types of cells and only work with specific molecules. A paper in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences offers a surprisingly simple and direct alternative: using nanowires as needles to... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3171863 Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3171863 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3163749&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2FGAy4FGogVGw%2F J.P. Morgan is hosting its big drug-industry conference this week in San Francisco. Here are a couple tidbits from the first few days: Sales of the multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri topped $1 billion last year, Biogen Idec said today, and the number of patients taking the drug neared 50,000. On the one hand, that’s notable, given that the drug (which Biogen co-markets with Elan) was pulled from the market in 2005 because of safety concerns. On the other hand, Biogen recently said its CEO will step down later this year, a move that Dow Jones Newswires said was linked in part to concerns about Tysabri’s growth trajectory. The CEO, James Mullen, will be speaking at the conference at 4:30 Pacific time today. You can tune in online. Dendreon now has about $600 million in cash, which ... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3163749 Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:43:32 +0100 3163749 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3159682&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006858.html Methyl groups put on the backbone of DNA regulate gene expression. Some researchers find that IVF babies do not have the same pattern of DNA methylation as babies conceived using natural sex. “These epigenetic differences have the potential to affect embyronic development and foetal growth, as well as influencing long-term patterns of gene expression associated with increased risk of many human diseases,” said Professor Carmen Sapienza, a geneticist at Temple University in Philadelphia, who jointly led the research. People who use IVF are, on average, older than people making babies without the help assisted reproduction technologies. Plus, they have problems that prevent them from starting pregnancies naturally, The researchers can not rule out the possibility that these factors explain... FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3159682 Mon, 11 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3159682 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3145949&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2FYiep6ee2tl8%2F Last year saw big changes at the FDA — starting at the top with a new commissioner, appointed by a new administration — but you wouldn’t know it from looking at the number of drugs the agency approved. The Obama-era FDA approved 26 new drugs last year. That’s a hair’s breadth from the 25 new drugs approved by the Bush-era FDA in 2008, according to figures out today from Washington Analysis, a research shop whose customers are institutional investors. Of course, the drug approval process is a long one, and changes put in place last year may take a while to play out. Ira Loss, a senior health policy analyst at Washington Analysis, suggested that a recent increase in funding for the agency could speed up the decision-making process. Companies “are going to... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3145949 Tue, 05 Jan 2010 21:39:05 +0100 3145949 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3142505&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F01%2Fmethionine-restriction-as-the-cause-of-calorie-restriction-benefits.php Diet is the key to a great many evolution-driven adaptations in the machinery of our bodies; changes in dietary intake cause the controlling mechanisms of metabolism to sit up and take notice. In particular, lowering the intake of calories by 30-40% or so, and while maintaining an optimal level of micronutrients, causes metabolic processes to operate in a mode that extends life and provides numerous other health benefits. Practiced as a lifestyle, this is known as a calorie restriction diet, and the laboratory version for animals is often called dietary restriction. Calorie (or dietary) restriction provides similar health and longevity benefits in almost every species tested to date. Diet, of course, is more than a simple count of calories. Composition of food varies enormously, here thin... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3142505 Mon, 04 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3142505 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3139016&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006840.html Carbon nanotubes can measure electrical fields of individual DNA letters. Faster sequencing of DNA holds enormous potential for biology and medicine, particularly for personalized diagnosis and customized treatment based on each individual's genomic makeup. At present however, sequencing technology remains cumbersome and cost prohibitive for most clinical applications, though this may be changing, thanks to a range of innovative new techniques. In the current issue of Science, Stuart Lindsay, director of Arizona State University's Center for Single Molecule Biophysics at the Biodesign Institute, along with his colleagues, demonstrates the potential of one such method in which a single-stranded ribbon of DNA is threaded through a carbon nanotube, producing voltage spikes that provide inform... FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3139016 Sun, 03 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3139016 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3139015&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006841.html Caveman DNA to reveal all. DNA that is left in the remains of long-dead plants, animals, or humans allows a direct look into the history of evolution. So far, studies of this kind on ancestral members of our own species have been hampered by scientists' inability to distinguish the ancient DNA from modern-day human DNA contamination. Now, research by Svante Pääbo from The Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, published online on December 31st in Current Biology — a Cell Press publication — overcomes this hurdle and shows how it is possible to directly analyze DNA from a member of our own species who lived around 30,000 years ago. The ability to sequence individual DNA strands allows the scientists... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3139015 Sun, 03 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3139015 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3136549&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2010%2F01%2Fan-update-on-medical-bioremediation-in-the-latest-rejuvenation-research.php We report on an enzyme discovery project to survey the availability of microorganisms and enzymes with these abilities. We found that such microorganisms and enzymes exist. We identified numerous bacteria having the ability to transform cholesterol and 7-ketocholesterol. Most of these species initiate the breakdown by same reaction mechanism as cholesterol oxidase, and we have used this enzyme directly to reduce the toxicity of 7-ketocholesterol, the major toxic oxysterol, to cultured human cells. We also discovered that soil fungi, plants, and some bacteria possess peroxidase and carotenoid cleavage oxygenase enzymes that effectively destroy with varied degrees of efficiency and selectivity the carotenoid lipofuscin found in macular degeneration. Look closely enough and all life science ... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3136549 Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3136549 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3135497&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F12%2Fconsidering-the-outer-limits-of-organ-bioprinting.php The technology to print organs from raw materials - the patient's own cells, scaffolding material, and so forth - is in its earliest stages. There is some hope that this field could help to extend healthy human life by offering on-demand replacements for failing and age-damaged tissue. To date a few soft tissues, blood vessel-like structures, and bone have been successfully printed. There have been some important advances in using the self-assembly properties of living cells to do some of the work instead of the printer. The first replacement printed organs are probably more than a decade out, but there is a great deal more that could be accomplished beyond that goal. When looked at over the long term, a broad category of modern technology might have a life cycle in the region of five dec... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3135497 Thu, 31 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3135497 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3133576&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F12%2Flysosomal-activity-declines-with-aging.php Lysosomes are roving garbage disposal and recycling units that exist in droves within your cells. One of their jobs is to break down damaged cellular machinery before it causes issues, and so that the component molecules can be reused. Another task is the disposal of unwanted or harmful biochemicals: [Lysosomes] are used for the digestion of macromolecules from phagocytosis (ingestion of other dying cells or larger extracellular material, like foreign invading microbes), endocytosis (where receptor proteins are recycled from the cell surface), and autophagy (wherein old or unneeded organelles or proteins, or microbes that have invaded the cytoplasm are delivered to the lysosome). If you've been following along these past few years, you'll know that autophagy is clearly very important in ... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3133576 Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3133576 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3129482&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F12%2Ftengion-to-hold-ipo.php I see that Tengion, Anthony Atala's tissue engineering company, has filed to go public. Tengion, which discovers, develops, manufactures and commercializes a range of replacement organs and tissues, or neo-organs and neo-tissues, filed on Thursday with the SEC to raise up to $40 million in an initial public offering. ... The East Norriton, PA-based company, which was founded in 2003 and has yet to generate revenue, plans to list on the NASDAQ under the symbol TNGN. Its product candidates focus on combining technology with the body's intrinsic capacity to regenerate tissue to address urologic, renal, gastrointestinal and vascular diseases; there are six candidates in the pipeline. Net proceeds from the deal will be used for research and development, repayment of debt and general corporate ... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3129482 Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3129482 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3126579&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F12%2Fantipodean-pharmaceuticals-and-their-mitochondrially-targeted-antioxidant.php You might recall the work of Skulachev's research group in producing an ingested antioxidant compound that targets the mitochondria and extends life span in mice. Similarly, mice genetically engineered to produce more naturally-occurring antioxidants in their mitochondria also live longer. By way of comparison, all other forms of antioxidant examined to date generally do nothing for life span, and may even harm your health and longevity. The plausible explanation for the effects of mitochondrially targeted antioxidants rests on the mitochondrial free radical theory of aging. In short, your mitochondria are powerplants, thousands of them in each cell of your body. They convert food into the chemicals used to power cellular processes, but emit damaging free radicals as a byproduct. Some fra... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3126579 Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3126579 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3120414&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F12%2Fvideo-from-the-manhattan-beach-project-longevity-summit.php I see that video interviews and presentations from the recent Manhattan Beach Project Longevity Summit are available on YouTube. A number of folk from the pro-longevity community who don't normally show up in interviews online are featured, so head on over to the Project channel and see what you think. A selection follows: Manhattan Beach Project Defined A conference of leading scientists, entrepreneurs, anti-aging doctors held in Manhattan Beach, California on November 13-15, 2009. The goal of the event was to create real time lines and real budgets designed to completely change the face of aging. Dave Kekich: The Bridge to Longevity If we can keep ourselves healthy for just another 15 to 20 years there will be new technologies that can actually reverse aging. Ray Kurzweil Addresses ... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3120414 Thu, 24 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3120414 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3115053&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F12%2Flongevity-tends-to-change-economic-behavior-for-the-better.php People base their plans and their lives around how long they expect to live. With fewer years ahead, you are more willing to take risks and less willing to participate in long-term plans. But much of the value that we humans create and maintains in the world around us requires long-term planning and commitment. The waste inherent in modern democratic governments is a good illustration of what short-termism does to value: political appointees placed in stewardship of resources have no incentive to undertake the tasks necessary for long-term growth, and every incentive to squander the prospects for long term gains in favor of maximizing short term gains. But what I said above about plans and time is true on every timescale. There are (probably largely unknown and unknowable) economic benefi... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3115053 Tue, 22 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3115053 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3111377&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006808.html Dr. Shinya Yamanaka, a scientist who did key scientific experiments to turn adult cells into pluripotent stem cells is the subject of a New York Times story on the bright prospects for stem cell research. Yamanaka sees both embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells as still risky for therapies. But he's optimistic about solving these problems. As for the cells with which he now works, iPS cells, many hurdles remain before they are truly as versatile as the embryonic stem cells they mimic. “Embryonic stem cells are not safe,” he said. “But at the moment, iPS cells are more dangerous.” For instance, many skin cells only partly complete the transition to stem cells, and there are no reliable markers yet... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3111377 Tue, 22 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3111377 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3110955&cid=t_112104_139_f&fid=38879&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.virology.ws%2F1204-fib50.mp4 I previously posted the audio version of Futures in Biotech episode 50: More biotech stories. In this episode I joined host Marc Pelletier and George Farr, Justin Sanchez, and Dave Brodbeck for a discussion on recent big stories in bioscience. Topics included erasing memory, controlling neurons with light, the role of the new virus XMRV in prostate cancer and chronic fatigue syndrome, and prions as genetic elements in yeast. For those of you who prefer watching the speakers, here is a video version of the same podcast, courtesy of Team ODTV. Get the Flash Player to see this player. // Download video (149 MB .mp4) (Source: virology blog) virology blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3110955 Mon, 21 Dec 2009 20:45:22 +0100 3110955 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3111381&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F12%2Fhalf-an-eye-on-the-progression-of-nanotechnology.php We should all keep an eye on progress towards molecular nanotechnology. It is a field that will first blossom when biotechnology is mature and in full swing, and the merging of the two will most likely lead to impressive technologies for medicine and human enhancement. Artificial immune systems, blood cells far better than the real thing, and tools capable of repairing the biochemical damage of aging, cell by cell. Plausibly, this will all happen while most of us remain alive to see it, even without allowing for major advances in human longevity taking place over the next few decades. If you have an eye for long term trends in medicine, you should be watching for progress towards molecular manufacturing and dry nanotechnology. Much of what currently goes on under the heading of nanotechno... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3111381 Mon, 21 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3111381 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3100768&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2FBObcd_Vr5dg%2F Lots of big drug companies are busy diversifying, trying to get away from the old blockbuster-drug model. (We’re looking at you, Pfizer.) But Amgen, one of the world’s biggest stand-alone biotech shops, is betting its future on a single bone drug that the cool kids call D-mab. The drug just cleared a big hurdle in Europe, where a key committee recommended approval of the drug to treat osteoporosis in certain postmenopausal women at risk of fractures, as well as bone loss in certain men being treated for prostate cancer. This will probably lead to approval in Europe in the “next month or two,” Morgan Stanley analyst Steven Harr said in a note today. The drug will be sold under the brand name Prolia; the generic name is denosumab. The FDA declined to approve the drug... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3100768 Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:23:24 +0100 3100768 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3100772&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2F4DDUfUVC108%2F You want deals? We’ve got a couple, plus one that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. The dead deal is Biogen Idec’s $420 million bid for Facet Biotech; Facet which said this morning that Biogen’s hostile tender offer for the company had failed to attract a majority of Facet shares. Facet had opposed the deal, claiming Biogen was trying to underpay for the full rights to daclizumab, a multiple-sclerosis treatment in development by the companies. “We are moving on,” Biogen spokeswoman Amy Reilly told the WSJ. Facet said it was continuing to solicit interest from third-party suitors, including Biogen if it would make “a materially increased offer.” On the friendly deal front, Merck said this morning that it was set to buy Avecia Biol... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3100772 Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:18:38 +0100 3100772 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3092932&cid=t_112104_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2F5-WhGv78uDo%2F Rise and shine, everyone, another day has begun. And as the Morning Mayor used to say, every brand new day should be unwrapped like a precious gift. As you can tell, we like comforting thoughts. So as you unwrap your proverbial ribbon, we have assembled a few items to help you along. Whatever you do today, we hope you accomplish your goals. Catch you later… Sanofi Buys Rights To Syntiron’s MRSA Vaccine (Bloomberg News) USPTO OKs Alnylam, Isis RNAi Claims (OutsourcingPharma) Roche Licenses Pain Treatment To Afferent (MarketWatch) FDA Panel Backs Wider Use Of AstraZeneca’s Crestor (Reuters) Biogen Threatens Proxy Fight For Facet (San Diego Business Journal) Sanofi’s Dehecq To Be Replaced By Weinberg (Bloomberg News) (Source: Pharmalot) Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3092932 Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:01:18 +0100 3092932 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3096817&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F12%2Fanother-run-at-artificial-red-blood.php It seems reasonable to expect artificial red blood cells to be widely available in the not too far future. A variety of methodologies have been tried with some success or are presently under development. As the capabilities of nanoscale engineering improve, artificial substitutes for blood cells will only become better. Here is an example of the present cutting edge: Real red blood cells owe their astonishing agility to their "biconcave" or tyre-like shape. To create synthetic particles with the same agility, Samir Mitragotri of the University of California and his team got their inspiration from the way real red blood cells acquire their final shape in the body. They start out as spherical cells which then collapse into mature red blood cells following exposure to various substances. Si... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3096817 Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3096817 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3092660&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F12%2Fmethuselahs-zoo.php Is the research community doing as much as it might to extract value from the diversity in life span amongst mammals? Certainly there are those scientist who would like to be engaged in a great deal more sequencing and biochemical deciphering of long-lived animals. But on the whole, I think that less is taking place in this area of study than might be. See this paper from a noted gerontologist, for example: As impressive as the accomplishments of modern molecular biologists have been in finding genetic alterations that lengthen life in short-lived model organisms, they pale in comparison to the remarkable diversity of lifespans produced by evolution. Some animal species are now firmly documented to live for more than four centuries and even some mammals, like the bowhead whale, appear to ... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3092660 Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3092660 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3082384&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F12%2Fare-cells-from-old-people-still-good-for-therapeutic-use.php We examined telomere lengths in human skin fibroblasts isolated from younger and older subjects ... While these results reveal some heterogeneity in the reprogramming process with respect to telomere length, human somatic cells reprogrammed to pluripotency generally displayed elongated telomeres that suggest that they will not age prematurely when isolated from subjects of essentially any age. Good to know. Again, though, this is all a non-issue in the long term. In the long term, cells, genomes, and cellular components will be built entirely from scratch and altered in any arbitrary way to accomplish the task at hand. In the long term, we'll all be man-made machines. The real issue is how things go in the near term: whether those of us who will have to benefit from the therapies availabl... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3082384 Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3082384 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3079307&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F12%2Fsimply-slowing-the-aging-process.php In this study, we went directly to the root cause of Alzheimer's disease and asked whether we could influence the onset of the disease by modulating the aging process," says first author Ehud Cohen, Ph.D., formerly a postdoctoral researcher in Dillin's lab and now an assistant professor at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem, Israel. To answer this intriguing question, he slowed the aging process in a mouse model for Alzheimer's by lowering the activity of the IGF-1 signaling pathway. "This highly conserved pathway plays a crucial role in the regulation of lifespan and youthfulness across many species, including worms, flies, and mice and is linked to extreme longevity in humans," he explains. As a result, mice with reduced IGF-1 signaling live up to 35 percent long... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3079307 Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3079307 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3075465&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F12%2Fgrow-fat-and-lazy-and-vascular-dementia-awaits.php Metabolic syndrome is a shorthand for the unfavorable changes that result from eating too much, exercising too little, and packing on the pounds of visceral fat. These lifestyle choices alter the operation of your biology for the worse: in most people they will cut short life expectancy, boost chronic inflammation, and raise the risk of suffering all of the common disabling and fatal age-related conditions, such as dementia, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and so forth. If you let things rust, don't be surprised when they fail and fall apart more readily. Degeneration of the mind is perhaps the worst consequence of a lifestyle of fat and indolence. Metabolic syndrome brings with it fat-induced chronic inflammation that significantly increases the risk of suffering a range of neurodegener... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3075465 Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3075465 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3071119&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006769.html Stem cells injected a heart artery after a heart attack cut the risk of heart attack recurrence in humans. DALLAS, Dec. 8, 2009 — Cells from heart attack survivors’ own bone marrow reduced the risk of death or another heart attack when they were infused into the affected artery after successful stent placement, according to research reported in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Heart Failure. Benefits found early in the Reinfusion of Enriched Progenitor Cells And Infarct Remodeling in Acute Myocardial Infarction (REPAIR-AMI) trial could last for at least two years, researchers said. “More research is needed, but this gives us a hint of what might be possible with this new treatment — prevention of another heart attack and... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3071119 Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3071119 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3071120&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F12%2Famyloid-junk-that-builds-up-between-the-cells.php As we get older, many different types of errant and unwanted proteins, the chemical byproducts of metabolism, build up and accumulate between our cells. Collectively these are known as forms of amyloid, a term that might be familiar to you in connection with Alzheimer's disease, but there are many other types of amyloid beyond that implicated in the destruction that Alzheimer's brings to the brain. For example, the work of the Supercentenarian Research Foundation implicates a different form of amyloid in the deaths of the oldest old. Those people who - though good genes, good lifestyle choices, and good luck - manage to evade heart disease, cancer, and all the other common forms of age-related death are done in by amyloid in the end. In TTR Amyloidosis, the protein amasses in and clogs bl... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3071120 Tue, 08 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3071120 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3056883&cid=t_112104_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FDs60YIKgPgg%2F Good morning again and nice to see you. A busy day is expected and so we are studying our to-do list as another deadline looms. Meanwhile, we are also looking ahead to the weekend. Our leaves are finally gone, which means there will be more time to cavort with the short and not-so-short people. And we look forward to catching up on some reading. What about you? While you ponder, here are a few items to jumpstart the day. Whatever you decide, have a great weekend, everyone… AstraZeneca Wins Partial FDA Approval For Seroquel XR (Associated Press) ZymoGenetics Axes Jobs, Quits Immunology Drugs (Xconomy.com) FDA Staff Suggests Liver Warning On Merck’s Cancidas (Reuters) Abbott Lays Off 80 Temp Workers (North County Times) Biogen Boosts Offer For Facet Biotech (Bloomberg News) FDA ... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3056883 Fri, 04 Dec 2009 13:18:15 +0100 3056883 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3056598&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006762.html Pluripotent stem cells improved eyesight in rats. (Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– An international team of scientists has rescued visual function in laboratory rats with eye disease by using cells similar to stem cells. The research shows the potential for stem cell-based therapies to treat age-related macular degeneration in humans. A team led by Dennis Clegg, of UC Santa Barbara, and Pete Coffey, of University College London (UCL), published their work in two papers, including one published this week in the journal PloS One. The first paper was published in the October 27 issue of the journal Stem Cells. The scientists worked with rats that have a mutation which causes a defect in retinal pigmented epithelial (RPE) cells and leads to... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3056598 Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3056598 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3056600&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F12%2Fexercise-boosts-telomerase-reduces-erosion-of-telomeres.php Regular exercise is good for you, and a great weight of scientific studies back up that statement. Insofar as the degenerations of aging go, the present consensus appears to be that exercise in humans slows aging to around the same degree as calorie restriction in humans. Where else could you go to find a fairly cost-effective way of extending your healthy life expectancy by a decade or so? (Or from the glass half empty perspective, we might add lack of exercise and eating too much to the list of ways to shorten your healthy life expectancy by a decade or so - like smoking, for example). The multiple mechanisms involved in producing the benefits of calorie restriction and exercise are incompletely understood but known to overlap to some degree: hormesis, for example, heat shock proteins, a... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3056600 Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3056600 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3052107&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006759.html A start-up is aiming a genetic testing machine at hospitals and doctors offices. A desktop instrument recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration might finally bring pharmacogenomic testing--the use of a patient's genetic information for drug prescription decisions--to the mainstream. The device, made by Nanosphere, a startup based in Northbrook, IL, can, in a matter of hours, detect genetic variations in blood that modulate the effectiveness of some drugs. Dubbed Verigene, the technology employs a combination of microfluidics and nanotechnology, housed in a single plastic cartridge, to pull DNA from a blood sample and then screen it for the relevant sequences. Microfluidics and nanotechnology moving into the marketplace. Genetic variations affect how we respond to drugs in ... FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3052107 Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3052107 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3048074&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F12%2Fa-new-method-of-extending-life-span-by-a-third-in-mice.php There is no shortage of theorizing as to the root cause of the difference between male and female life expectancy in humans. Is it genetic, the influence of hormones on known longevity genes, or dietary (such as via a lower calorie intake in women on average). Or perhaps it is related to other lifestyle choices that differ in the aggregate between genders, such as risky behavior or smoking? Does this difference in longevity involve modification of any of the known mechanisms that contribute to differing rates of biological aging between individuals, or is it something else? It's all up in the air and still open for some researcher to make his or her name by developing a definitive answer. This, of course, remains true for so much of human biology - there is a lot of work left to do. But h... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3048074 Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3048074 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3033576&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F11%2Fthe-latest-rejuvenation-research-volume-12-number-5.php The latest issue of Rejuvenation Research, the journal chaired by biomedical gerontologist Aubrey de Grey, is available online. In this issue, Michael Fossel lays out the case for a focus on telomere biology: In 1990, telomere length was shown to correlate with cellular senescence; this discovery was followed by a series of papers affirming a causal relationship between telomere length and cell senescence. Further work demonstrated that telomere elongation reverses cellular senescnce in both cells and reconstituted human tissues. Since telomerase, the enzyme that elongates telomeres, is absent (or only transiently active) in normal human somatic cells, the result is a gradual decrease in telomere length with age in most human tissues. The implied potential for in vivo human telomere enlon... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3033576 Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3033576 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3023078&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006736.html A person's own purified adult stem cells can reduce pain from a form of heart disease. CHICAGO --- The largest national stem cell study for heart disease showed the first evidence that transplanting a potent form of adult stem cells into the heart muscle of subjects with severe angina results in less pain and an improved ability to walk. The transplant subjects also experienced fewer deaths than those who didn't receive stem cells. In the 12-month Phase II, double-blind trial, subjects' own purified stem cells, called CD34+ cells, were injected into their hearts in an effort to spur the growth of small blood vessels that make up the microcirculation of the heart muscle. Researchers believe the loss of these blood... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3023078 Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3023078 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3015261&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006730.html An MIT press release about the use of nanoparticles to deliver gene therapy contains an interesting statistic about the size of the overall effort to develop clinically useful gene therapies: In the United States alone almost 1000 gene therapy clinical trials are underway. That's a surprisingly large number. Is it true? Seems too high to be possible. There are nearly 1,000 clinical trials under way in the United States involving gene therapy, for diseases including cancer, cardiovascular disease and neurological disorders. However, no gene therapy treatments have been approved in the United States. This is an example of why it is hard to predict the future. It is hard to predict the success rate of those many attempts. Once some... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3015261 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3015261 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3015263&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F11%2Fa-little-intermittent-fasting-research.php The dominant topic for this past week of posts was the beneficial biochemistry of eating less; changes to gene expression and metabolism, enhanced health and extended longevity. That wasn't an intentional choice - it just worked out that way as various items caught my eye. All the same, why not round it off with an paper on intermittent fasting research, noticed by the folk who keep sci.life-extension stocked. Intermittent fasting and calorie restriction are two ways of reducing your calorie intake to obtain health benefits. Intermittant fasting might be accomplished by eating every other day, for example, while calorie restriction means eating every day, but eating less. In both cases, you have to make sure your intake of micronutrients is optimal, and your physician agrees, as for any s... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3015263 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3015263 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3012347&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F11%2Fanother-candidate-for-lynchpin-gene-controlling-calorie-restriction.php One of the better research outcomes a biologist can hope for is to find that a particular mechanism, disease, or benefit has a single point of control somewhere in its web of interlinked genes and feedback loops. A single gene or protein that acts as a switch or a dial, and has no or few entanglements with other biological systems. That lack of entanglements is important - a switch that turns one thing off and three other things on isn't of much use, at least for those of us who like our medicine without potentially lethal side-effects, but human biochemistry contains far more multi-switches than examples of any simpler construction. Evolution is based upon the promiscuous reuse of components, and almost any protein of note involved in regulating metabolism has more than one duty to perfor... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3012347 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3012347 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3008061&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2FXVDqElkP2ps%2F The bad news is coming in clumps for biotech company Genzyme. The company today said it has scrapped development plans for a stronger version of its Renvela kidney-failure product after a later-stage trial showed the proposed drug wasn’t more effective than Renvela. Sales of Renvela and its predecessor Renagel rose 6% in the third quarter to $181.7 million. Here’s the company’s statement and a Reuters story. The company has been plagued by a string of manufacturing-related problems of late. On Monday, Genzyme said the FDA wouldn’t approve its application for a drug to treat the muscle disorder Pompe disease until the Cambridge, Mass., company resolved manufacturing deficiencies at a plant in Boston. And last week, the FDA said it had found foreign particles — ... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3008061 Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:30:32 +0100 3008061 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3008052&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F11%2Fthe-benefits-of-increased-pgc1alpha-expression.php A short introduction to the gene PGC-1alpha: this is one of a number of genes of interest involved in the biochemical changes, resistance to age-related disease, and extended healthy life span brought about by calorie restriction (CR). It favorably changes the operation of mitochondria, and based on the effects of other genes and proteins involved in these mechanisms, I would expect enhanced expression of PCG-1alpha to have at least some modest beneficial effect on life span. That said, I'm not aware of any life span studies involving PCG-1alpha manipulation, but there is a fair amount of published research out there on its more immediate effects. For a longer introduction, including some explanation as to why mitochondria are so important to aging and longevity, you might look back in th... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3008052 Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100 3008052 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2999488&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F11%2Fhuman-calorie-restriction-studies-continue-apace.php In this study we evaluated body composition, glucose, and insulin responses to an oral glucose tolerance test and serum adipokines levels in 28 volunteers, who had been eating a CR diet for an average of 6.9 +/- 5.5 years, (mean age 53.0 +/- 11 years), in 28 age-, sex-, and body fat-matched endurance runners (EX), and 28 age- and sex-matched sedentary controls eating Western diets (WD). We found that the CR and EX volunteers were significantly leaner than the WD volunteers. Insulin sensitivity [was] significantly higher in the CR and EX groups than in the WD group (P = 0.001). Nonetheless, despite high serum adiponectin and low inflammation, approximately 40% of CR individuals exhibited an exaggerated hyperglycemic response to a glucose load. This impaired glucose tolerance is associated... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2999488 Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100 2999488 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2995710&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006718.html Out of the 60,000 vertebrate species still in existence an international group of scientists wants to sequence 10,000 of them. Scientists have an ambitious new strategy for untangling the evolutionary history of humans and their biological relatives: a genetic menagerie made of the DNA of more than 10,000 vertebrate species. The plan, proposed by an international consortium of scientists, is to obtain, preserve, and sequence the DNA of approximately one species for each genus of living mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. A bigger effort is needed to collect samples from many individual animals of each species so that their genetic diversity can be preserved in the face of declining numbers. Habitat loss is cutting into the numbers of many... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2995710 Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100 2995710 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2989122&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F11%2Fmyostatin-muscle-loss-and-patching-the-symptoms.php In conclusion, a lack of myostatin appears to reduce age-related sarcopenia and loss of muscle regenerative capacity. Satellite cells are progenitor cells that build muscle when activated, and their activity declines with age. There is an ongoing debate as to whether this decline - and resulting loss of muscle mass and strength - is due to a reduction in the size of the satellite cell population, or whether the population is still large and capable of action, but other age-related changes in biochemistry block the activation of these progenitor cells. Or both. If the latter situation is largely the case, then manipulation of myostatin starts to look a little less like a patch, and a little more like aiming at root causes - boosting the activity of a cell population that is being recalcitr... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2989122 Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100 2989122 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2984760&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F11%2Fdigging-deeper-into-p66shc-and-enhanced-longevity.php Mitochondria, you will recall, are the power plants of our cells, churning out stored energy in the form of ATP molecules, and pollution in the form of damaging free radicals or reactive oxygen species (ROS). Mitochondria have their own DNA, separate from the DNA in the nucleus of our cells, a legacy of their origin as free-roaming bacteria. Free radicals are very reactive, which means that they can tear apart the biochemical machinery of cells by reacting with crucial components. This free radical pollution is at the heart of the mitochondrial free radical theory of aging, which presents a large component of the aging process as essentially a runaway feedback loop: mitochondria damage themselves via their own free radicals, making them produce even more free radicals. This in turn leads t... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2984760 Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100 2984760 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2981045&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F11%2Fthe-prospects-for-engineering-enhanced-memory.php As researchers uncover the mechanisms by which memories are formed and the structures within which they are stored, the day on which memory can be artificially enhanced grows nearer. Just as important as increasing the ability to remember in healthy, young people, however, is the ability to halt and reverse the decline of memory in the old and the frail. Some earlier posts from this year's archive illustrate the sort of investigations and theorizing presently taking place: Failing Memory and the Failing Immune System: Reversible? Stem Cell Transplants Can Restore Lost Memory For my money, some of the most interesting results turning up these days involve the identification of single genes - and the proteins produced from their blueprint - that are crucial to the formation of memory. The ... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2981045 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100 2981045 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2970207&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FDisruptiveWomenInHealthCare%2F%7E3%2FVbmPZlSqcW4%2F This month, Disruptive Women welcomes Patrick F. Terry, a self-proclaimed “JAD” (Just A Dad), as our Man of the Month. Q: So, where should we start? You have been involved with founding a number of ground breaking biotechnology companies, life science research foundations, trade associations, philanthropic groups, and a whole host of public policy organizations. A: I enjoy thinking ahead and trying to do the next new thing to advance science, biomedical research, and the business of patient-centered health care. I’m very impatient for change. I consider myself an unrepentant insurgent, renegade, and rabble rouser. I think that is the most powerful disruptive technology there is. That’s why I love the Disruptive Women in Health Care Blog. But honestly, everything I do is i... Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2970207 Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:44:25 +0100 2970207 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2970182&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F11%2Fthe-search-for-genetic-polymorphisms-of-human-longevity.php Some people have better genes than other people; such is the luck of the draw. The effects of most genetic differences on human longevity appear to be small in comparison to the effects produced by lifestyle choices, however. You are still the master of your own destiny in that regard. Time wasted in wishing you had a better variant of FOXO3A would be better spent exercising. A great deal of modern life science research is focused on deciphering the operation of our genes and metabolism. Along the way, researchers are digging up many statistical associations between human life span and specific genetic polymorphisms, such as different alleles of a single gene. This is happening rapidly enough that individual results are no longer newsworthy; this is a data gathering phase in the broader r... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2970182 Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100 2970182 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2967253&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006693.html Futuristic speculative questions sometimes become present day practical questions. Have you asked yourself what price you'd be willing to pay to get your genome fully sequenced? Complete Genomics, a start-up based in Mountain View, CA, has again lowered the stick in the financial limbo dance of human genome sequencing, announcing in the journal Science that it has sequenced three human genomes for an average cost of $4,400. The most recently sequenced genome--which happens to be that of genomics pioneer George Church--cost just $1,500 in chemicals, the cheapest published yet. This doesn't mean you can get your genome sequenced for $4400. They also had labor, equipment, and lab space costs as well as data post-processing costs. But the overall costs are... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2967253 Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100 2967253 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2963062&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F11%2Fmatters-dietary.php On the whole, a good 99% of discussion on the topic of the human diet is nonsense - that marketplace of ideas and goods is just as bad as the anti-aging marketplace. If you pick out a group at random, the odds are very good that you'll be pointing to a coven of fools who have found ways to make money from ignorance and hope. There are always potential customers whose desire for immediate solutions and answers overwhelms their desire for actually working solutions and correct answers. The areas where science has robust things to say about diet, advice proven beyond any reasonable doubt, largely revolve around levels of calorie intake and recommended levels of micronutrients. Calorie restriction, for example, is undeniably good for you. Keeping your micronutrient intake up to scratch is als... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2963062 Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100 2963062 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2958805&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F11%2Fa-glance-at-recent-autologous-transplant-research-and-applications.php Much of modern stem cell research and clinical application is focuses on autologous therapies: extracting useful cells from the patient, such as stem cells, culturing the cells to multiply their numbers, potentially altering or reprogramming them for better therapeutic effect, and then returning them to the body to spur regeneration. The use of the patient's own cells circumvents almost all of the biggest issues surrounding transplants between people - such as rejection by the immune system, and the need for potentially dangerous drugs to suppress that rejection. This is all foundation work that may later become important to engineered longevity. One thing that may prove useful is the ability to take important types of cell from the patient (such as stem cells, or long-lived cell types th... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2958805 Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100 2958805 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2950996&cid=t_112104_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FLRtHKZAGaF8%2F Such a busy pharma world and so little time to keep up, yes? Like you, we always poke around for items of interest, and so we thought we would point out a few you may enjoy from the past week. Think of it as a little bit of catching up. Meanwhile, we hope your weekend is enjoyable and look forward to seeing you again tomorrow… Amylin Pharmaceuticals and Lilly announced Byetta was approved as a stand-alone med, along with diet and exercise, for type 2 diabetes. Until now, the drug was approved only for patients taking other common diabetes treatments. Tucked away in their statement, they disclosed safety warnings relating to pancreatitis risks and use by patients with severe kidney disease. Six patients taking Byetta died in August 2008 from pancreatitis, prompting an FDA safety alert. P... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2950996 Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:44:39 +0100 2950996 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2943754&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2FHUr7ALCLVeY%2F When Congress added prescription drug coverage to Medicare a few years back, the drug industry won a huge victory: The new law barred the federal government from negotiating on the prices Medicare pays for prescription drugs. The big House health-care bill that landed yesterday would reverse that, and give the HHS secretary the authority to haggle for a better deal. That’s just one of several ways in which the House bill would be tougher than the Senate Finance bill on the drug industry, the WSJ reports this morning. The House bill would also mandate rebates from the industry for drugs sold to elderly people eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. Those would total about $60 billion over a decade. The subtext here is that the House wasn’t party to the high-profile deal that ph... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2943754 Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:19:39 +0100 2943754 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2939267&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2FxjnHAV6LwC0%2F What is it with bone-growth products? Over the past year, we’ve seen the federal probe into Medtronic’s Infuse implant, and allegations of faked research on the product by an Army doc. Then, yesterday, the feds said that Stryker’s biotech unit, along with the unit’s former president and current sales managers, had been indicted on charges of fraud for off-label marketing of OP-1, Stryker’s own bone-growth product. OP-1 was approved by the FDA for a very narrow use. But the feds say the company encouraged unapproved use by giving surgeons “recipies” for combining OP-1 with another product, and molding the combination into “cigars,” “tootsie rolls” or “vienna sausages.” The feds also say that “serious medic... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2939267 Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:03:36 +0100 2939267 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2943745&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F10%2Fmanipulation-of-heat-shock-proteins-as-the-next-big-thing.php The biotechnology that spirals out from the study of calorie restriction and metabolic determinants of longevity is growing in breadth. Sirtuins and companies like Sirtris are (unfairly or not) yesterday's news already - the big deals are done, and now it's down to the very unromantic grind of pushing an incrementally better drug for an age-related disease through the horror show that is FDA approval. Beyond sirtuins lie investigations of autophagy, of fat metabolism, and of course the heat shock proteins (HSPs), amongst other items. Looking ahead, I think there's a fair case to be made for the next Sirtris to be a company in the business of manipulating heat shock proteins, aiming to extend life and add healthy years - at least at the outset. Heat shock proteins are molecular chaperones,... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2943745 Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0100 2943745 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2931010&cid=t_112104_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F10%2F27%2Flab-toys-on-display-please%2F Laboratory equipment for rats or mice have begun to fascinate me more and more. Not in the way the rat guillotine was fascinating, but more in the way of how lab equipment can show so many things about biomedical practices, contexts and knowledge production. The picture above is from an article in the October issue of The Scientist, which Thomas has referred me to, called ‘Lab Toys – How does cage enrichment affect rodents?’. It is a really interesting article (as he knew I would think) about, well, lab toys – and their consequences for lab practices. For instance the article illustrates one of the aspects about the use of laboratory animals that you seldom think about: the everyday life in the lab where humans and animals interact. Rats, for example, are not only i... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2931010 Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:00:45 +0100 2931010 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2912222&cid=t_112104_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F10%2F21%2Fmedical-museums-and-the-janus-faced-future-of-synthetic-biology%2F Part of the fun of being involved in a medical museum these days is that the notion of ‘biomedicine’ is so much broader than traditional medicine and health care taught in faculties of medicine and health science. As a university institution for biomedical science communication we are, by default as it were, confronted with some of the most fundamental issues in the world today. Financial crisis, atomic weapon threats and global warming  aside — the rapid technical development in biology and biomedicine raises some pretty hefty social, political and ethical questions which we, as a museum, can hardly avoid dealing with if we want to stay just minimally atuned to the world around us. Take the issue of synthetic biology. Forget about the potentials benefits ... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2912222 Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:40:19 +0100 2912222 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2916067&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F10%2Fparkinsons-disease-and-the-way-exercise-slows-degeneration.php This study was aimed at investigating this possibility and at examining how exercise protects neural mitochondria." ... At the end of the study, the exercise-trained Parkinson's mice had significantly higher brain dopamine content and exhibited greater brain mitochondrial activity than the sedentary mice. They also performed better in a test that assessed their balancing abilities. "This research provides scientific evidence that long-term endurance exercise protects brain mitochondria and dopamine-producing neurons from undergoing progressive degeneration as demonstrated in the chronic mice model of Parkinson's disease," says Lau. A thought to finish with: investors are presently pouring billions into research intended to capture some fraction of the benefits of exercise or calorie re... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2916067 Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2916067 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2912148&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F10%2Flongevity-advocacy-at-tedmed-2009-and-bil-pil.php TEDMED 2009 and the BIL:PIL unconference will be held at the end of this month in San Diego, California: The fifth in a series created by Marc Hodosh and Richard Saul Wurman, TEDMED celebrates conversations that demonstrate the intersection and connections between all things medical and healthcare related: from personal health to public health, devices to design and Hollywood to the hospital. ... The BIL:PIL 2009 Healthcare Innovation Conference will bring together over 200 entrepreneurs, health professionals, technologists, and laypeople to describe the future of healthcare. BIL:PIL will be held in the unconference format. For those unfamiliar, unconferences are free of charge, with no sponsored presentations, and the proceedings are open to all who wish to present. To ensure that the... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2912148 Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2912148 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2908555&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F10%2Fattacking-cytomegalovirus-with-rnai.php Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is one of the herpesvirus group, viruses that are extremely hard or impossible for the body to clear. They lurk and return time after time. CMV doesn't cause immediate issues in healthy people, but over time it becomes one of the principle causes of the characteristic failure of the immune system with aging: Your immune system is capped in its use of resources; it can only have a set number of T cells in operation at one time. ... chronic infections by the likes of cytomegalovirus (CMV) cause too many of your immune cells to be - uselessly - specialized. ... because you cannot clear it from your system, its presence chews up more and more of your limited immune resources with time. Immune cells dedicated to remembering and attacking the many biochemical signatures o... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2908555 Sun, 18 Oct 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2908555 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2902922&cid=t_112104_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FcPTuTvAqaHI%2F In a post called Banning Biotech Paul Kedrosky points to a slide from a presentation he gave last week. The slide compares the number of approved New Molecular Entities (NME’s) to pharma spending over a period of time. As you can see, the chart shows that all that spending has not necessarily resulted in new drugs. I don’t know the gist of the entire presentation, but he writes In short, the mapping of the genome, and other such inflection points in this failure-prone industry, has done nothing to accelerate news drugs, while causing costs to escalate dramatically. That’s success? I would have expected better from Paul. I’ve seen that argument made a lot and you can’t really deny that we haven’t had a lot of success to show for the progress we’ve mad... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2902922 Sat, 17 Oct 2009 18:21:10 +0100 2902922 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2898914&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2FdAJS7mbQPz0%2F When Roche bought the balance of Genentech for nearly $50 billion, sentimental souls lamented that the Genentech name, which went way back to the 1970s and dawn of the biotech era, might disappear. Instead, it’s the name “Roche” that will start to vanish, at least in the U.S. — to be replaced with a blue Genentech logo. Roche is rebranding all its medicines in the U.S. as Genentech. That includes non-biotech drugs like Boniva, the osteoporosis drug pitched by Sally Field. The drugs’ individual Web sites will eventually transfer over as well. The move excludes Tamiflu until after the flu season, Genentech says, in order to avoid creating confusion as the threat of swine flu looms. Over the next year, product packaging will be shifted to remove the Roche logo an... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2898914 Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:44:21 +0100 2898914 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2901611&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F10%2Frussian-metabolic-manipulation-research-in-a-nutshell.php The community of Russian researchers interested in engineered longevity bears many resemblances to the English-speaking longevity research community more familiar to you or I. You'll find ties to transhumanist pro-longevity advocacy groups and cryonics organizations, for example. Both communities have been largely working on metabolic manipulation to slow aging for the past ten years, and the older scientists have been involved in the field of aging research for decades - well back into the depths of the cold war, in fact. These days - days in which a great deal of investment is flowing into metabolic manipulation research and development in the US - I am seeing more English language publications from the Russian longevity science community. Here, for example, is a review that aptly summa... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2901611 Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2901611 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2898901&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006634.html Scientists have begun doing complete genome sequencing of tumor cells from cancer patients. Scientists have sequenced the genomes of two tumors from the same breast cancer patient--a primary tumor and... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2898901 Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2898901 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2894474&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F10%2Fis-epigenetic-disarray-a-cause-of-aging.php Your DNA is a blueprint for the protein components of the machinery of your metabolism and structure as a living organism. Gene expression is the process by which a part of the DNA blueprint is interpreted into instructions to build a protein, and epigenetics is the study of ways in which things other than changes in DNA can cause changes in gene expression. The blueprint may be the blueprint, but the execution of that blueprint is a shifting and very complicated process. Epigenetics, it has to be said, is an unfolding and early-stage field. It's poorly understood. People are still arguing over whether accumulated nuclear DNA damage is significant in human aging, so of course it should be taken as read that there are also debates over whether epigenetic changes are significant in aging. Y... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2894474 Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2894474 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2886403&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F10%2Fthe-prospects-for-liver-tissue-created-on-demand.php It is interesting that heart and bladder tissue engineering have been consistently ahead of work on liver tissue these past years, because the liver is the vital organ most capable of regeneration in humans - as much as three quarters of a lost liver can grow back. In theory, then, the additional effort needed to spur full liver regrowth is less than for other internal organs. From a position of knowledge a decade ago, one might have wagered money on progress in liver tissue engineering leading the pack - but that was not to be. The advent of induced pluripotency is in the process of leveling the tissue engineering playing field, however. In the past year research groups have demonstrated the creation of all sorts of tissue through genetic reprogramming of commonly available cells. The la... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2886403 Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2886403 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2882998&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006621.html We keep getting closer to being able to make needed replacement parts.Researchers converted human skin cells into induced pluripotent stem cells and then converted the stem cells into liver cells... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2882998 Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2882998 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2879383&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F10%2Fsteady-advances-in-tissue-engineering.php Tissue engineers are, as one might expect, steadily becoming better at building comparatively simple forms of human tissue - not that any tissue is actually simple. Even straightforward muscle like heart tissue is formed of layered types and laced with tiny blood vessels. A great deal of money and expertise is involved these days, however, and challenges will be overcome step by step: University of Washington (UW) researchers have succeeded in engineering human tissue patches free of some problems that have stymied stem-cell repair for damaged hearts. The disk-shaped patches can be fabricated in sizes ranging from less than a millimeter to a half-inch in diameter. Until now, engineering tissue for heart repair has been hampered by cells dying at the transplant core, because nutrients and ... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2879383 Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2879383 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2871536&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006605.html The reason cars can keep running indefinitely is because their worn out parts can be replaced. By contrast, we have very limited abilities to replace worn out human parts. The... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2871536 Wed, 07 Oct 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2871536 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2865701&cid=t_112104_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F10%2F06%2Fnanotech-health-and-longevity-who-makes-the-predictions%2F Last week, Computerworld carried an interview with futurist Ray Kurzweil, who predicts that in 30 or 40 years from now nanomachines will travel through our bodies, repairing damaged cells and organs, effectively wiping out diseases: The full realization of nanobots will basically eliminate biological disease and aging. I think we’ll see widespread use in 20 years of [nanotech] devices that perform certain functions for us. In 30 or 40 years, we will overcome disease and aging. The nanobots will scout out organs and cells that need repairs and simply fix them. It will lead to profound extensions of our health and longevity What’s interesting is not whether the prognosis is right or wrong, naïve or realistic. Like all med-tech forecasts it probably reflects our own time better�... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2865701 Tue, 06 Oct 2009 07:00:51 +0100 2865701 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2871548&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F10%2Fattention-paid-to-autophagy.php Autophagy is good for you. You should be doing more of it. Autophagy is, put simply, the process by which cells recycle damaged components. Of course like all cellular processes the reality on the ground is anything but simple, and autophagy interacts with all sorts of other processes in ways that can produce counter-intuitive results. But the weight of evidence points to more and better autophagy as beneficial overall, most likely because it leads to fewer lingering damaged components inside a cell. Repeated throughout all your cells, this should result in better functioning tissue, fewer errant biological systems, and a longer life - remember that aging itself is nothing more than accumulated damage and the thrashing of systems trying to adapt to that damage. Research into autophagy an... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2871548 Mon, 05 Oct 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2871548 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2865620&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006599.html Blood vessel growth at sites of injury can be stimulated with stem cells combined with genes that stimulate blood vessel growth. Results: MIT engineers have boosted stem cells' ability to... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2865620 Mon, 05 Oct 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2865620 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2855531&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F10%2Fa-very-safe-prediction.php This, I think, is a very safe prediction by Vaupel et al.: If the pace of increase in life expectancy in developed countries over the past two centuries continues through the 21st century, most babies born since 2000 in France, Germany, Italy, the UK, the USA, Canada, Japan, and other countries with long life expectancies will celebrate their 100th birthdays. Although trends differ between countries, populations of nearly all such countries are ageing as a result of low fertility, low immigration, and long lives. A key question is: are increases in life expectancy accompanied by a concurrent postponement of functional limitations and disability? The answer is still open, but research suggests that ageing processes are modifiable and that people are living longer without severe disabilit... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2855531 Thu, 01 Oct 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2855531 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2855528&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006588.html As we age changes in factors excreted by muscle cells suppress stem cells to make them do less repair. So our muscles decay. A change in biochemical signaling can activate... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2855528 Thu, 01 Oct 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2855528 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2855532&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F10%2Fand-now-a-femaleonly-longevity-mutation-in-mice.php Back in June, I pointed out a longevity mutation that only extends healthy life span in male mice. By way of a bookend to that discovery, here is a mutation that extends healthy life span by 20% or so in female mice only. Researchers have identified a genetic tweak that can slow aging in mice: Caloric restriction has long been known to extend lifespan and reduce the incidence of age-related diseases in a wide variety of organisms, from yeast and roundworms to rodents and primates. Exactly how a nutritionally complete but radically restricted diet achieves these benefits has remained unclear. But recently several studies have offered evidence that a particular signaling pathway, involving a protein called target of rapamycin (TOR), may play a pivotal role. This pathway acts as a sort of f... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2855532 Wed, 30 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2855532 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2851729&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F09%2Ffat-death-and-other-correlated-items.php Humans are not laboratory mice, whose lives can be styled to best eliminate confounding factors from studies aiming to demonstrate a nice, neat correlation between cause A and result B. So when you study humans for decades, living their complicated and individualistic lives, you get all the confounding factors you can handle and then some. Take studies of fat, for example, and the strong correlation between extra body fat carried over the years, age-related illness, and a shorter life: American researchers observed more than 17,000 female nurses with an average age of 50 in the U.S. All of the women were healthy when the study began in 1976. Researchers then monitored the women's weight, along with other health changes, every two years until 2000. For every one-point increase in their Bo... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2851729 Tue, 29 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2851729 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2842494&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2FdsKr7_qXqbc%2F In the shorthand of the drug business, biotech is sexy and vaccines are boring. But both fields, broadly considered, are “biologicals” — products created with living organisms, as opposed to the mere chemicals that make up traditional drugs. Manufacturing biologicals is much more complicated than manufacturing traditional drugs. That can sometimes be a headache for manufacturers (as Merck’s rash of vaccine manufacturing troubles reminded us a while back). But for those already in the business, it can also be a useful barrier to entry against new competition — particularly in an era when aggressive generics shops crank out traditional drugs at a cost that hovers somewhere around a dime a dozen. That’s part of the reason why several big pharma shops have ... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2842494 Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:20:32 +0100 2842494 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2832192&cid=t_112104_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F09%2F25%2F2067%2F Later today, the art exhibition SK-INTERFACES — originally displayed in Liverpool in 2008 (see earlier post here) — opens in “extended continuation” form (what others would call perpetual beta :-) at Casino Luxembourg in Luxembourg. The opening event features Kira O’Reilly (inthewrongplaceness), Yann Marussich (Bleu Remix), Paul Vanouse (Relative Velocity Inscription Device) and Jun Takita (Light, only light!). The show, which is curated by Jens Hauser, is running until January 10, 2010. Contributing artists include: Art Orienté objet, Maurice Benayoun, Zane Berzina, Critical Art Ensemble, Wim Delvoye, Olivier Goulet, Eduardo Kac, Antal Lakner, Yann Marussich, Kira O’Reilly, Zbigniew Oksiuta, ORLAN, Philippe Rahm, Julia Reodica, Stelarc, Jun Takita, The Office ... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2832192 Fri, 25 Sep 2009 07:00:09 +0100 2832192 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2832117&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F09%2Fheat-shock-proteins-and-exercise-in-humans.php Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are increasingly seen as important players in the response of our biochemistry to stresses and damage. HSPs are fundamentally chaperones and monitors: they look for damaged proteins that can compromise cellular functions and help to ensure that those proteins are rapidly recycled. When events - such as exposure to heat, hence the name - cause damage in our cells, HSP activity increases for a while to compensate. This is one basis for the phenomenon of hormesis, wherein a little damage applied regularly results in a better, longer lasting biological system: the HSPs are overcompensating. Since aging is an accumulation of biochemical damage - or, looked at another way, all forms of unrepaired damage lead to loss of function and degeneration - we would expect that ... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2832117 Wed, 23 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2832117 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2828164&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F09%2Faccelerated-immune-system-aging-that-illustrates-normal-immune-system-aging.php The study of forms of accelerated aging often provides insight into the biochemical processes of normal (and equally undesirable) degenerative aging. Here, we'll look at the aging of the immune system, a comparatively structured form of degeneration that might be viewed as the natural consequence of evolutionary selection: Evolution is a harsh but efficient mistress; you can consider yourself surprisingly well optimised as a piece of machinery, but your warranty only goes so far as the number of years in which your recent ancestors contributed to the success of their offspring. After that, you're on your own - biochemical processes unwind and break down free from any past selective pressure to do better. Take the immune system, for example, one of many absolutely vital components in the ... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2828164 Tue, 22 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2828164 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2820179&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F09%2Fthe-failure-to-account-for-progress.php Much of what passes for debate over organization and policy these days completely ignores progress. It is, in effect, debate over what to do if nothing ever changed - if all availabilities remained constant, if prices never changed, if new resources where not developed, if existing technologies where not improved. This is completely irrational - everyone knows that this is an age of change and progress - but yet it is commonplace, yet another aspect of the phobia of change that seems hardwired into human nature. Take this op-ed, for example: Imagine that someone invented a pill even better than the one I take. Let’s call it the Dorian Gray pill, after the Oscar Wilde character. Every day that you take the Dorian Gray, you will not die, get sick, or even age. Absolutely guaranteed. The ... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2820179 Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2820179 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2812528&cid=t_112104_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FxNomfpW_kkQ%2F Anyone who reads bbgm knows that I am not a fan of bureaucratic big companies and the current pharma model. So this bit from a talk by Stefan Loren and reported by In the Pipeline piqued my interest Break up large pharma into therapeutic areas and build shared networks between distinct entities. Small organizations can operate far more efficiently in decision making about research directions – use the network to maintain manufacturing efficiencies. Small focused companies will revitalize the industry and offer opportunities for scientists coming out of academia. This is not dissimilar to the model I have thought about, although I do like the idea of an entity that orchestrates the network, since you do need direction. While there is some innovation going on in the biotech industry to... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2812528 Sun, 20 Sep 2009 05:07:45 +0100 2812528 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2812375&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006548.html A continuing series of improvements in how to make cells revert to pluripotent (highly flexible) state open up the possibility of stem cell therapies for a large assortment of disorders... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2812375 Sat, 19 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2812375 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2807560&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F09%2Fsarcopenia-is-an-inflammationrelated-issue.php In conclusion, the observations made in this study have identified low grade inflammation as an important target for pharmacological, nutrition and lifestyle interventions that aim to limit sarcopenia and muscle weakness in the rapidly growing elderly population in Europe and North America. Turning back to calorie restriction once again, you might recall that reduced calorie intake does in fact reduce the level of inflammation suffered with advancing age, an effect possibly achieved though loss of visceral fat tissue. Taken together, all of this is one more reason to take better care of your health, and keep up with those practices known to reduce inflammation - such as not letting yourself get fat. Rieu I, Magne H, Savary-Auzeloux I, Averous J, Bos C, Peyron MA, Combaret L, & Dardevet ... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2807560 Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2807560 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2803858&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006540.html All male squirrel monkeys are naturally red-green color blind. Gene therapy has successfully restored vision of 2 male squirrel monkeys. Researchers have used gene therapy to restore colour vision in... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2803858 Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2803858 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2793126&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F09%2Fthe-methuselarity.php A recent issue of Studies in Health Technology and Informatics includes a number of interesting papers on longevity science, or that relate to developing the tools and research community to enable engineered longevity. You might start with an essay by Aubrey de Grey, in which he coins a new term for an aspect what has in the past been called actuarial escape velocity - the point at which steadily increasing life expectancy rises by more than one year with each passing year: Aging, being a composite of innumerable types of molecular and cellular decay, will be defeated incrementally. I have for some time predicted that this succession of advances will feature a threshold, which I here christen the 'Methuselarity,' following which there will actually be a progressive decline in the rate of ... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2793126 Sun, 13 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2793126 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2785885&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006527.html Just a month ago Stephen Quake sequenced his genome for $50000. That represents a drop of 80% from the $250k cost of a year ago and orders of magnitude lower... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2785885 Thu, 10 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2785885 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2781997&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F09%2Fsens4-notes-at-ouroboros-part-2.php You'll find a few more posts on SENS4 conference sessions at the group science of aging blog Ouroboros, to go along with the other coverage from previous days: SENS4 Conference Converage From Ouroboros More SENS4 Conference Coverage Links to the latest Ouroboros posts follow, starting with a clever use of modern abilities in nanotechnology: if you can somehow tag cells (such as age-damaged immune cells) with a magnetic nanoparticle, then you can use a magnetic field to selectively remove them from a fluid environment: SENS4, Session 15: Rejuvenating the immune system Justin Rebo spoke about some initial experiments that show it’s feasible to selectively remove anergic T cells from old mice. The basic idea: remove some blood from a mouse; mix it with some selective superparamagnetic ... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2781997 Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2781997 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2778379&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F09%2Falcor-cryopreservation-case-summaries.php The details of organizing the final few days or hours of your transition from alive-but-fading to the low temperature preservation of your body and mind (stored in the fine structure of your brain) are not much dwelled upon, but they are very important. The step, taken years earlier, where you arranged with a cryonics provider to be cryopreserved on clinical death is not the crucial part of the process: you were active and healthy enough to see it through, it could always be redone if there were issues, and you had plenty of time. No, the critical point is the process of dying and being preserved. The laws surrounding end of life matters - as in most areas of law these days - put you at a great disadvantage. You cannot choose the time of your death in most jurisdictions and you will have... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2778379 Tue, 08 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2778379 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2765987&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F09%2Fmitochondrially-targeted-plastoquinone-derivatives-as-antisenescence-drugs.php One of the many lines of longevity research I've watched over the past couple of years is the work of Vladimir Skulachev on chemicals that target mitochondria when ingested and work as antioxidants to soak up the free radicals that mitochondria produce in the course of their role as the cell's power plants. Preventing the damage that those mitochondrial free radicals would have caused has the effect of extending life - aging is nothing more than the accumulation of damage, after all. Skulachev's laboratory has demonstrated a 30% healthy life extension in mice through this methodology, while US research groups have used the naturally produced antioxidant catalase and gene engineering to achieve much the same sort of end result: antioxidants localized to mitochondria, and extension of heal... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2765987 Wed, 02 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2765987 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2761829&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F09%2Fyet-another-reason-not-to-be-obese-it-accelerates-immune-system-aging.php By now, I would hope, the life science horror stories that turn up here on a regular basis will have convinced you that excess body fat is not good for your long term health and longevity. Some of that is the result of the biochemistry of fat tissue en mass, and some of that is the reaction of your metabolism to the sedentary, high-calorie lifestyle required to gain that fat tissue, but the end result isn't pretty. More fat means a lowered life expectancy and a greater risk of all the common age-related diseases - and the decades of suffering in health and wallet that come with them. Being overweight is a choice for 99.9% of people. A seductive, easy choice to slip into in a wealthy society whilst surrounded by an adundance of food, but a choice nonetheless. You might think of doing somet... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2761829 Tue, 01 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2761829 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2757703&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006502.html Higher levels of volatile organic compounds in the breath serve as markers for lung cancer. Lung cancer is a brutal disease, often not caught until it's too late for treatment... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2757703 Tue, 01 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2757703 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2757711&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F09%2Fprospects-for-immune-system-rejuvenation.php One of the reasons that the immune system degenerates with age is, and I greatly simplify the reality on the ground in saying this, that only a limited number of immune cells can be supported at once. As the years roll on more and more of the immune cells known as T cells become memory T cells, dedicated to remembering specific threats. That leaves less and less room for naive T cells that can go out and stomp on new threats. Thus as your immune system becomes ever more knowledgable, it also becomes less and less effective at its primary missions - including destroying pathogens, destroying senescent cells, and destroying early stage cancers. Now in theory, an old immune system that is top-heavy in memory T cells could be at least partially restored (remember that there are other issues a... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2757711 Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2757711 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2748094&cid=t_112104_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FNKxsTDxjOqw%2F Image by Getty Images via Daylife When _why disappeared from the web, there was an effort to come up with a distributed _why, by hosting his works on github and similar repositories.  There are other examples of open source projects continuing when the original developer moves on to other things.  The whole idea of distributed content, with each person acting as their own hub came up when Facebook acquired Friendfeed.  I couldn’t held draw an analogy when I read about DeCODE looking for someone to take over their biobank due to their financial troubles. From the link in Science Iceland’s deCODE Genetics announced earlier this month that it has enough cash to keep going for only a few more weeks. The genomics company’s troubles are raising questions abo... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2748094 Sun, 30 Aug 2009 21:51:29 +0100 2748094 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2744062&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F08%2Fan-introduction-to-the-importance-of-autophagy.php Autophagy is, put simply, the process by which cells recycle damaged components. Of course like all cellular processes the reality on the ground is anything but simple, and autophagy interacts with all sorts of other processes in ways that can produce counter-intuitive results. But the weight of evidence points to more and better autophagy as beneficial overall, most likely because it leads to fewer lingering damaged components inside a cell. Repeated throughout all your cells, this should result in better functioning tissue, fewer errant biological systems, and a longer life - remember that aging itself is nothing more than accumulated damage and the thrashing of systems trying to adapt to that damage. I've discussed the importance of autophagy numerous times in the past; you might look ... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2744062 Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2744062 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2741368&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F08%2Fmitochondrial-gene-replacement-now-in-primates.php Mitochondria are the cell's power plants, important in the operation of metabolism, how that metabolism determines life span, and many age-related diseases. As described in the mitochondrial free radical theory of aging, a small number of mitochondrial genes are known to be crucial to its operation as the cell's power plant. Damage to those genes is a natural consequence of the operation of a mitochondrion, and leads to a Rube Goldberg sequence of events in which is a healthy cell is turned into a damaged cell that spews forth damaging biochemicals into your body. As those errant cells accumulate, their actions collectively give rise to many of the unwelcome forms of change and damage that come with age: systems failing, organs shutting down, and important biochemical processes running awr... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2741368 Wed, 26 Aug 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2741368 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2730061&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006480.html Gene therapy to replace a protein that declines with age reverses high blood pressure in lab animals. Researchers, led by principal investigator Zhongjie Sun, tested the effect of an anti-aging... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2730061 Sun, 23 Aug 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2730061 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2727095&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F08%2Fa-list-of-interesting-longevity-enhancement-methods-in-mice.php Researchers have discovered a large - and continually growing - number of ways to significantly extend healthy and maximum life span in mice. Here I'll list a selection of twelve of the most interesting methods I've seen in past years. Note that I'm omitting a number of studies that show only small (less than 10%) increases in maximum mouse life span, and also leaving out some work in progress that looks likely to enhance life span. For example, Cuervo's work on enhancing autophagy where we're waiting on formal publication of mortality rate data, or enhanced uncoupling protein studies that show median life span increases but not maximum life span increases. But on with the list: 1) Calorie Restriction, Intermittent Fasting, and Methionine Restriction Imposition of calorie restriction i... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2727095 Sun, 23 Aug 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2727095 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2725175&cid=t_112104_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2Fc1PboRaN40k%2F Image via Wikipedia I am as big a supporter and believer in the importance of genetic engineering and synthetic biology, and even more so of the importance, potential and near term availability of personal sequencing, but sometimes I think we get ahead of ourselves. …Genetic engineering is now at a point where computer science was around the mid-eighties. The early PCs were limited as to purpose and network. In two and a half decades, the computer has led us into a digial world in which every aspect of lives has been affected. According to Moore’s Law, the performance of computers doubles every 18 months. Genetic engineering is following a similar growth. That blurb is from an article in Edge about The Walkman of Genetic Engineering. The computer is a terrible analogy. Even... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2725175 Sat, 22 Aug 2009 02:50:53 +0100 2725175 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2709128&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=34980&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightaging.org%2Farchives%2F2009%2F08%2Fthe-agebreaker-trc4186-from-torrent-pharmaceuticals.php Back in late 2006, a lifetime ago in Internet Time, I briefly mentioned the efforts of Torrent Pharmaceuticals. They are one of the few groups doing any sort of serious work on AGE-breakers, compounds aimed at breaking down the advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) that build up with age and cause all sorts of havoc in our biochemistry. One of the ways in which normal metabolic processes degrade important components in your body (such as kidneys, heart, skin and blood vessels) is through the generation of advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs). 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 i... Fight Aging! blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2709128 Sun, 16 Aug 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2709128 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2702300&cid=t_112104_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2FvFY6wrHwQrI%2F Denosumab, the experimental bone drug that’s key to Amgen’s future, got a mixed review from an FDA advisory committee yesterday. The panel voted in favor of using the drug to treat certain post-menopausal women with osteoporosis. And it said the drug could be used for some men being treated for prostate cancer. But the panel voted against using the drug to treat certain breast cancer patients, and against using it to treat post-menopausal women who are at risk for developing osteoporosis, the WSJ reports. Wall Street analysts seemed a bit surprised by denosumab’s so-so showing, but most said the drug fared well enough to stay on track. “We see little impact on denosumab’s commercial potential from less-than-expected panel outcome,” wrote Eun K. Yang of... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2702300 Fri, 14 Aug 2009 13:06:03 +0100 2702300