Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: life extension

The National Institutes of Health has launched a program to study a rare type of cells, called “senescent” cells, that play both positive and negative roles in biological processes. The NIH Common Fund’s Cellular Senescence Network (SenNet) program will leverage recent advances in studying individual cells, or single-cell analysis, to comprehensively identify and characterize the differences in senescent cells across the body, across various states of human health, and across the lifespan. The rarity and diversity of these cells previously made them difficult to identify and study; therefore, a deeper understanding will help researchers develop therapies that encourage beneficial effects of senescent cells while suppressing their tissue-damaging effects.

“The number of senescent cells in a person’s body increases with age, which may reflect both an increase in the generation of these cells and a decreased ability of the aging immune system to regulate or eliminate these cells. This age-related accumulation of senescent cells leads to production of inflammatory molecules and corruption of healthy cells,” said Richard J. Hodes, M.D., director of the National Institute on Aging, part of NIH. “This can affect a person’s ability to withstand stress or illness, recuperate from injuries, and maintain normal brain function. The aim of NIH’s strengthened focus on this field of science is to one day conquer these and other challenges.”

A cell dividing into two cells is a hallmark of human development. Over time, our bodies accumulate a small number of cells that no longer divide. These “senescent” cells can play important roles in health, either directly or through the release of molecules that affect neighboring cells. Senescent cells can play positive roles, such as aiding wound repair or preventing tumor growth in some cancers. However, they can also contribute to chronic diseases of aging such as cardiovascular disease and neurodegeneration. For this reason, therapeutics called “senolytics” are being developed to target senescent cells and remove them from the body.

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I am a huge fan of reading. So much so that I’m beginning to think it’s having a negative impact on my social life, but we’ll save that for another time… The point is that I read a LOT. And for the past seven years, I’ve been stuck on one genre: Science Fiction. From space operas and apocalyptic disasters, to robot revolts and galaxy-spanning quests — I’m down for it all.

The best sci fi authors can n o t only see how innovation might progress, but how humanity might evolve as a result. For a genre so heavily focused on science and technology, it’s surprisingly human.

So I get really excited when I see a headline like Meet Altos Labs, Silicon Valley’s Latest Wild Bet on Living Forever. It makes me feel like I’m living in the future. The rate of scientific advancement over the past 50 years has been increasingly mind boggling and it’s impossible to keep up with all the discoveries. First CRISPR, then private space travel, now immortality? It’s insane. Completely terrifying. And I love it.

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https://www.youtube.com/c/MakingTomorrowBetter

I have a small YouTube channel which I create videos on clean energy and the environment. I have under 600 subs and many videos have not even hit 100 views but I am being increasingly targeted by fossil fuel activists and supporters, with personal attacks and misinformation.
I do respond to misinformation, and remove the worst comments but if anyone would like to help support me, nipping over to my channel, watching some videos and subscribing to the channel would be most appreciated.
We can show them that they are the minority, not us, and the wider the information spreads the quicker the change will be and the better life will be for everyone.
Thanks in advance and have an awesome day.

It is very likely that treatments to address the issues that cause aging & its related conditions & diseases will be within our reach in 15 to 20 years.

It is highly likely that a general realisation that these treatments are not only scientifically possible but within our reach will start to become increasingly apparent to the wider population in as little as maybe 5 years.

On this channel I will seek to hasten this realisation, & provide answers to the most common questions & concerns. I will also seek to distil the current scientific knowledge base into an easy to use action plan for those wishing to take measures to make sure they see this in good health.

To raise awareness of how close longevity treatments are.

To debate and dispute arguments against it happening.

To show the pathway (diet/exercise/mental health/current medications and supplements) to make sure you live long enough to see it.

To present technologies & ideas to show what it may look like in the future.

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😳! Circa 2018

Some animals live fast and die young. That means they need to grow up fast, too. This week, researchers crowned a new record holder for quick growth: Susan Milius at Science News reports that the turquoise killifish, Nothobranchius furzeri, found in Mozambique, can reach maturity in just 14 days, the fastest of any known vertebrate animal.

That rapid maturation is an adaptation to the killifish’s habitat, according to the study published this week in the journal Current Biology. The fish spend most of their lives as tiny embryos that have been deposited in sediment in small depressions across the savannah. When rain fills the ephemeral pools, the embryos mature rapidly reaching sexual maturity and depositing their own embryos before the pool once again dries up. Not only do they make babies quickly, they bulk up fast, too—typically growing from about 5 millimeters to 54 millimeters in their lifespan.

Researchers have been aware of the turquoise killifish’s super-fast maturation for a while. In fact, the fish is used as a model animal in aging studies because of this trait. In the lab, where the fish live a relatively leisurely lifestyle, the average rate of maturation is 18 days.

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For the last decade and more, Stem Cell research and regenerative medicine have been the rave of the healthcare industry, a delicate area that has seen steady advancements over the last few years.

The promise of regenerative medicine is simple but profound that one day medical experts will be able to diagnose a problem, remove some of our body cells called stem cells and use them to grow a cure for our ailment. Using our body cells will create a highly personalized therapy attuned to our genes and systems.

The terminologies often used in this field of medicine can get a bit fuzzy for the uninitiated, so in this article, I have relied heavily on the insights of Christian Drapeau, a neurophysiologist and stem cell expert.

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Eliminating old, dysfunctional cells in human fat also alleviates signs of diabetes, researchers from UConn Health report. The discovery could lead to new treatments for Type 2 diabetes and other metabolic diseases.

The cells in your body are constantly renewing themselves, with older cells aging and dying as new ones are being born. But sometimes that process goes awry. Occasionally damaged cells linger. Called senescent cells, they hang around, acting as a bad influence on other cells nearby. Their bad influence changes how the neighboring cells handle sugars or proteins and so causes metabolic problems.

Type 2 diabetes is the most common metabolic disease in the US. About 34 million people, or one out of every 10 inhabitants of the US, suffers from it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Most people with diabetes have insulin resistance, which is associated with obesity, lack of exercise and poor diet. But it also has a lot to do with senescent cells in people’s body fat, according to new findings by UConn Health School of Medicine’s Ming Xu and colleagues. And clearing away those senescent cells seems to stop diabetic behavior in obese mice, they report in the 22 November issue of Cell Metabolism. Ming Xu, assistant professor in the UConn Center on Aging and the department of Genetics and Genome Sciences at UConn Health, led the research, along with UConn Health researchers Lichao Wang and Binsheng Wang as major contributors. Alleviating the negative effects of fat on metabolism was a dramatic result, the researchers said.

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“Fountain is an example of a biotech company emerging as a direct result of basic research, in this case the biology of aging,” said Dr Rando, founder and chairman of Fountain. “The company’s screening and discovery platform is built upon foundational research showing that the age of a cell can be modulated by factors in the cell’s environment. By identifying compounds that work through these pathways, we seek to restore youthful resilience to cells and tissues, leading to therapies that treat or even prevent chronic diseases of aging.”

Longevity funding: Eli Lilly and R42 Group join the party as Khosla-backed biopharma brings total Series A to $26 million.

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Incredible new videos show stem cells escaping from hair follicles, which could provide insight on a new, potentially reversible mechanism of hair loss.

Stem cells contribute to tissue regeneration, and they are thought to play an important role in age-related decline — so much so that stem cell exhaustion is one of the hallmarks of aging. These stem cells reside in “compartments” in various tissues. In the hair, the stem cell compartment, known as the bulge, is adjacent to the hair follicle.

It is extremely hard to monitor stem cell activity in live animals over time, yet this is exactly what the researchers of this study have achieved using noninvasive imaging techniques based on lasers. By anesthetizing mice and putting them inside the imaging device, they were able to observe and record the process of stem cells escaping their compartment.

Researchers watched as escaping stem cells changed their shape and shot out of the compartment as if squeezing through invisible holes, which are most likely structural abnormalities in the membrane. The researchers hypothesize that aging somehow harms the structural integrity of the membrane, but this phenomenon demands further examination. The “rogue” stem cells escape to the dermis, which is the lower layer of the skin. Once there they remained stem cells, and seemed to be doing quite well in the new environment. However, this may not be a good sign, since stem cells are known to contribute heavily to tumorigenesis, and the authors call for more research into the role that escaping stem cells might play in the development of cancer.

The researchers studied both young and old mice. In young animals, the stem cell compartment was well defined, and cells were restricted to their rightful place. In many older mice, however, the researchers noticed the shrinkage of the hair follicle and compartment. The shrinkage was even more pronounced when the compartment showed signs of stem cell escape.

The researchers looked for proteins that were downregulated in the follicles that experienced stem cell escape, zeroing in on two transcription factors (FOXC1 and NFATC1). These identified proteins are indeed known to regulate cellular adhesion and extracellular matrix integrity.

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In this videoclip, Professor David Sinclair from Harvard University addresses one of the most promising technologies his lab is working on to slow and reverse aging.

To watch the entire video from which this videoclip was made, please click here: https://youtu.be/9rB89ydZoRo

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This month, the UW team upped their game.

Tapping into both AlphaFold and RoseTTAFold, they tweaked the programs to predict which proteins are likely to tag-team and sketched up the resulting complexes into a 3D models.

Using AI, the team predicted hundreds of complexes—many of which are entirely new—that regulate DNA repair, govern the cell’s digestive system, and perform other critical biological functions. These under-the-hood insights could impact the next generation of DNA editors and spur new treatments for neurodegenerative disorders or anti-aging therapies.

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