The scientific team of biotech company Gero recently published a study in the Journal of Theoretical Biology that debunks a long-held misconception regarding two parameters of the Gompertz mortality law — a mortality model that represents human death as the sum of two components that exponentially increases with age. The Gero team studied what’s called…
The startup fighting cancer with AI
In November 2013, more than 100 patients with cancer – including pancreatic, breast, liver and brain tumours – embarked on clinical trials involving BPM 31510, a drug discovered by an algorithm. The story of BPM 31510 begins with the extraction of biological data from healthy and cancerous tissue samples from over 1,000 patients. This data…
Cellular reprogramming reverses signs of aging
Graying hair, crow’s feet, an injury that’s taking longer to heal than when we were 20—faced with the unmistakable signs of aging, most of us have had a least one fantasy of turning back time. Now, scientists at the Salk Institute have found that intermittent expression of genes normally associated with an embryonic state can…
NAD+ Update: Pathway linked to slower aging also fuels brain cancer
While a particular metabolic pathway shows potential to slow down the aging process, new research indicates a downside: That same pathway may drive brain cancer. The pathway, known as the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) pathway, is overactive in a deadly form of brain cancer known as glioblastoma, according to a study by researchers at Washington…
As science advances, will living to 150 become the new normal?
There is a universal desire in all socio-economic groups in the world’s 196 countries to live good lives for longer. But what is a simple mission statement raises some of the world’s most thought-provoking questions: at what point do our ethics stop pushing our biological limits through experimental science? How much is too much? Medical…
New Gene Therapy Could Eradicate Harmful Mutations Being Passed From Mother to Child
At birth, a child can inherit mutations of the mitochondria from his or her mother. Some women are genetically predisposed to pass on these mutations, giving rise to potentially fatal disorders that affect organs with high energy demand, like the heart and brain. A new gene therapy technique offers treatment for this problematic inheritance using…
Scientists Target Protein Imbalance In Blood To Slow Aging
The Secret is in Protein Levels More and more scientists have been focusing on the battle against aging. Some of them are looking into the blood of young people for solutions. Recently, we covered ongoing human trials of blood plasma transfusions from young people into Alzheimer’s patients. This process was found to improve physical performance…
Living Forever: What it Means to Have an “Indefinite Lifespan”
Can science really enable us stick around on Earth forever? Experts haven’t developed ways to make us invincible, immortal beings who are unsusceptible to physical trauma or starvation. However, studies have been going on to make aging just another preventable disease. Effectively stalling the deterioration of our bodies would then mean humans could live indefinitely….
For the first time, researchers reveal a causal link between RNA splicing and aging
Aging is a key risk factor for a variety of devastating, chronic diseases, yet the biological factors that influence when and how rapidly cells deteriorate over time remain largely unknown. Now, for the first time, a research team led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has linked the function of a core component…
More Scientists Are Pushing to Have Aging Classified as a Disease
CAN AGING BE STOPPED? Many diseases come with old age. But the idea of pathologizing aging in itself and as a whole has been gaining attention the past few years. Some argue that aging is just damage that the body has sustained throughout life—that these natural wear-and-tear effects can be stopped and ultimately undone. This…
Researchers aim for first human eye transplant within the decade
(N)ever has a whole-eye transplant been successfully done in a living person. The eye’s complex web of muscles, blood vessels, and nerves — connected directly to the brain — has doomed past experiments to failure. Now a team of Pittsburgh transplant surgeons aims to turn that tide, and they’re hopeful they can do so in…
New approach to removing cellular damage that accumulates with age.
Turning Back the Aging Clock Researchers from Caltech and UCLA have developed a new approach to removing cellular damage that accumulates with age. The technique can potentially help slow or reverse an important cause of aging. Led by Nikolay Kandul, senior postdoctoral scholar in biology and biological engineering in the laboratory of Professor of Biology…