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Nanomaterial Promotes Cartilage GrowthEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 o...
Source: FuturePundit - February 8, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Randall Parker Tags: Biotech Repair Joints Source Type: blogs

Teva, Amgen Duke It Out Over Generic BiotechEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 m...
Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog - February 3, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Jacob Goldstein Tags: Biotech Drugs Generics Source Type: blogs

Looking Ahead to Mitochondrial DNA Replacement TherapiesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 3, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

Spermidine and Another Vote For AutophagyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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: Spermidi...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 2, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

Counsyl Genetic Tests For Prospective ParentsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 scre...
Source: FuturePundit - February 2, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Randall Parker Tags: Biotech Reproduction Source Type: blogs

Most Eggs Gone For Women By Age 30Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 loo...
Source: FuturePundit - February 1, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Randall Parker Tags: Biotech Reproduction Source Type: blogs

Biogen Idec, Genzyme and the Struggles of Big BiotechEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 Biogens 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 ...
Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog - January 29, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: James A. White Tags: Biotech Drugs M&A Source Type: blogs

An Intriguing View of Alzheimer's DiseaseEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 bu...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 28, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

Another Run at Making Old Stem Cells Act As Though YoungEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 27, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

A Little More Heat Shock Protein Manipulation WorkEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 pa...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 26, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

Osteoarthritis Costs And Cell TherapiesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 dam...
Source: FuturePundit - January 24, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Randall Parker Tags: Biotech Repair Joints Source Type: blogs

Extraordinary Measures: Biotech Goes to HollywoodEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 ra...
Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog - January 22, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Jacob Goldstein Tags: Biotech Source Type: blogs

Venture Capital, ‘09: Health Care Got Big Piece of Smaller PieEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 ...
Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog - January 22, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Jacob Goldstein Tags: Biotech Medical devices Source Type: blogs

A genealogical study of the concept of successful aging — III: ’Successful aging’ in the neurosciences and the link to ‘cognitive enhancement’Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 i...
Source: Biomedicine on Display - January 22, 2010 Category: Medical Scientists Authors: Morten Tags: biotech draft papers etc general history of medicine history of science history of technology medical technology philosophy of medicine recent biomed Source Type: blogs

A Small Selection of Calorie Restriction Mimetic Drug ResearchEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 res...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 22, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

Experimental Drug Update: Multiple Sclerosis, HIV, C. DifficileEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 a...
Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog - January 21, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Jacob Goldstein Tags: AIDS Biotech Drugs Infectious disease Mulitple Sclerosis Source Type: blogs

Stem Cells Converted Into Endothelial CellsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 sm...
Source: FuturePundit - January 21, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Randall Parker Tags: Biotech Stem Cells Source Type: blogs

A genealogical study of the concept of successful aging — II: The relation between ’successful aging’ and ‘human enhancement’Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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’ — i...
Source: Biomedicine on Display - January 20, 2010 Category: Medical Scientists Authors: Morten Tags: biotech draft papers etc general history of medicine history of science history of technology medical technology philosophy of medicine recent biomed Source Type: blogs

Rapamycin Longevity May Stack With Calorie Restriction LongevityEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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-d...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 19, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

New Diabetes Genetic Variants FoundEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 relea...
Source: FuturePundit - January 19, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Randall Parker Tags: Biotech Advance Rates Source Type: blogs

A genealogical study of the concept of successful aging — IEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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...
Source: Biomedicine on Display - January 18, 2010 Category: Medical Scientists Authors: Morten Tags: biotech draft papers etc history of medicine history of science history of technology medical technology philosophy of medicine recent biomed Source Type: blogs

Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres: ALT 101Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 a...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 13, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

Nanowires Poke Molecules Into CellsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 o...
Source: FuturePundit - January 13, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Randall Parker Tags: Biotech Manipulations Source Type: blogs

Biotech News: Provenge for Prostate Cancer, Tysabri for M.S.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 tra...
Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog - January 12, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Jacob Goldstein Tags: Biotech Cancer Drugs Source Type: blogs

Lower Gene Methylation In IVF BabiesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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...
Source: FuturePundit - January 11, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Randall Parker Tags: Biotech Reproduction Source Type: blogs

FDA Drug Approvals in 2009: Up (a Little) from 2008Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 po...
Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog - January 5, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Jacob Goldstein Tags: Biotech Drugs FDA Source Type: blogs

Methionine Restriction as the Cause of Calorie Restriction BenefitsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 ...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 4, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

Carbon Nanotubes For DNA SequencingEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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, ...
Source: FuturePundit - January 3, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Randall Parker Tags: Biotech Assay Tools Source Type: blogs

New Technique Sequences Old DNAEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 specie...
Source: FuturePundit - January 3, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Randall Parker Tags: Biotech Assay Tools Source Type: blogs

An Update on Medical Bioremediation in the Latest Rejuvenation ResearchEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 1, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

Considering the Outer Limits of Organ BioprintingEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 mor...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 31, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

Lysosomal Activity Declines With AgingEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 30, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

Tengion to Hold IPOEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 v...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 29, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

Antipodean Pharmaceuticals and their Mitochondrially Targeted AntioxidantEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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, th...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 28, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

Video From the Manhattan Beach Project Longevity SummitEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 Brid...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 24, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

Longevity Tends to Change Economic Behavior for the BetterEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 o...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 22, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

Stem Cell Dangers Expected To DecreaseEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 on...
Source: FuturePundit - December 22, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Randall Parker Tags: Biotech Stem Cells Source Type: blogs

Futures in Biotech 50: More biotech stories videoEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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)
Source: virology blog - December 21, 2009 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Information CFS chronic fatigue syndrome future in biotech prostate cancer viral virology virus xmrv Source Type: blogs

Half an Eye on the Progression of NanotechnologyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 tren...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 21, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

Amgen’s Next Big Thing Gets a Thumbs Up in EuropeEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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,” Morga...
Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog - December 18, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Jacob Goldstein Tags: Biotech Drugs FDA Source Type: blogs

Merck and J&J Land Deals; Biogen Idec, Not So MuchEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 suit...
Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog - December 17, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: James A. White Tags: Biotech Drugs M&A Source Type: blogs

Pharmalot… Pharmalittle… Good MorningEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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...
Source: Pharmalot - December 16, 2009 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Ed Silverman Tags: Uncategorized Afferent AstraZeneca Biogen Idec Crestor Facet Biotech Roche Sanofi Aventis Source Type: blogs

Another Run At Artificial Red BloodEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 ce...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 16, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

Methuselah's ZooEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 lif...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 15, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

Are Cells From Old People Still Good For Therapeutic Use?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 11, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

"Simply Slowing the Aging Process"Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 speci...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 10, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

Grow Fat and Lazy, and Vascular Dementia AwaitsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 lif...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 9, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

Stem Cells Cut Heart Attack Recurrence RiskEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 n...
Source: FuturePundit - December 9, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Randall Parker Tags: Biotech Stem Cells Source Type: blogs

Amyloid: Junk That Builds Up Between the CellsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 ev...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 8, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

Pharmalot… Pharmalittle… The Weekend NearsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
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 Su...
Source: Pharmalot - December 4, 2009 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Ed Silverman Tags: Uncategorized Abbott Laboratories AstraZeneca Biogen Idec Endo Pharmaceuticals Facet Biotech jobs Seroquel ZymoGenetics Source Type: blogs