Senolytics to remove senescent cells will deliver the first “repair” based approach to treat the aging process. This is the arrival of true rejuvenation biotechnology in the SENS model of damage repair.
Senescent cell removal with companies such as Unity, entering human clinical trials in the next 18 months will deliver the first true damage repair rejuevenation biotechnology. This will be the first “repair” approach to the aging process and one the SENS Research Foundation has been advocating for over a decade.
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have discovered a protein that fine-tunes the cellular clock involved in aging.
This novel protein, named TZAP, binds the ends of chromosomes and determines how long telomeres, the segments of DNA that protect chromosome ends, can be. Understanding telomere length is crucial because telomeres set the lifespan of cells in the body, dictating critical processes such as aging and the incidence of cancer.
“Telomeres represent the clock of a cell,” said TSRI Associate Professor Eros Lazzerini Denchi, corresponding author of the new study, published online today in the journal Science. “You are born with telomeres of a certain length, and every time a cell divides, it loses a little bit of the telomere. Once the telomere is too short, the cell cannot divide anymore.”
J. Craig Venter, Ph.D. was one of the leading scientists in the sequencing the human genome. Now, he is working to extend the human lifespan long beyond what it is today.
Epigenetic changes are not all reset with iPS thankfully science has recently demonstrated a technique for reversing that too. The future is looking bright for stem cell quality improvements.
Reprogramming stem cells back to a functionally younger state is not a pefect process and epigenetic changes and mutations remain in place tainting the cells and reducing their quality.
Scientists working in the stem cell field will no doubt be finding ways to work around this and indeed recent work at SALK could reset epigenetic changes in these cells so solutions are within reach in the next few years.
“When adult cells are reprogrammed into induced pluripotent stem cells (IPSCs), they appear to carry marks of their age.”
This two-armed, teleoperated robot can precisely move in a 10 mm space, giving it the ability to operate on eyes more accurately and with less potential for error than human surgeons.
Axsis is just one of a growing number of robot surgeons that are changing how doctors treat patients.
Motor neurons are vital cells that facilitate muscle contraction and also affect sensation. In diseases like ALS and spinal muscular atrophy, motor cells are plagued with mutations that cause degrees of paralysis and pain in patients. In a study detailed in Cell Stem Cell, scientists developed a mechanism to directly reprogram stem cells into motor neurons.
Cell reprogramming is a novel exploration in medical studies that could treat numerous diseases by growing the body’s own stem cells into healthy cells. The mechanism of reprogramming, however, has just begun to be understood.
The researchers elucidated a new pathway for cell reprogramming by analyzing gene transcription in mice. As established by previous studies, reprogramming is brought about by a series of transcriptions, AKA, how the genes control the expression of other genes.
NASA’s Technology Transfer Program may have given us the future of wound care with its electroactive polymer which speeds up healing time.
NASA continues to fuel scientific progress across many disciplines, continued investment in the sciences will lead to more unexpected technology with untold applications.
A process using human stem cells can generate the cells that cover the external surface of a human heart — epicardium cells — according to a multidisciplinary team of researchers.
“In 2012, we discovered that if we treated human stem cells with chemicals that sequentially activate and inhibit Wnt signaling pathway, they become myocardium muscle cells,” said Xiaojun Lance Lian, assistant professor of biomedical engineering and biology, who is leading the study at Penn State. Myocardium, the middle of the heart’s three layers, is the thick, muscular part that contracts to drive blood through the body.
The Wnt signaling pathway is a group of signal transduction pathways made of proteins that pass signals into a cell using cell-surface receptors.
Researchers were able to prevent immune system rejection of stem cells, blocking the usual immune responses that trigger rejection of the stem cells by the recipient’s body.
Using this technique, they were able to restore vision in mice as far out as nine months following the injection of these cells.
Part 2 of the immune system explained in this easy going pop culture style series.
In the penultimate episode of Crash Course Anatomy & Physiology, Hank explains your adaptive immune system. The adaptive immune system’s humoral response guards extracellular terrain against pathogens. Hank also explains B cells, antibodies, and how vaccines work.
Table of Contents Adaptive Immune System’s Humoral Response 1:19. How B Cells Mature, Identify Antigens, and Make Antibodies 2:42. How Antibodies Warm Pathogens and Mark Them for Death 5:22. Active and Passive Humoral Immunity 6:03. How Vaccines Work 6:27
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