Lifeboat Foundation

Altos Labs just redefined big in biotech. Where to start? The $3 billion in investor support? The C-suite staffed by storied leaders—Barron, Bishop, Klausner—identifiable by one name? Or the wildly ambitious plan to reverse disease for patients of any age? Altos is all that and more.

Early details of Altos leaked out last year when MIT Technology Review reported Jeff Bezos had invested to support development of technology that could “revitalize entire animal bodies, ultimately prolonging human life.” The official reveal fleshes out the vision and grounds the technology in the context of the nearer-term opportunities it presents to improve human health.

“It’s clear from work by Shinya Yamanaka, and many others since his initial discoveries, that cells have the ability to rejuvenate, resetting their epigenetic clocks and erasing damage from a myriad of stressors. These insights, combined with major advances in a number of transformative technologies, inspired Altos to reimagine medical treatments where reversing disease for patients of any age is possible,” Hal Barron, M.D., said in a statement.

Summary: Study finds a link between poor hydration in adults and an increased risk of chronic health conditions and advanced biological aging.

Source: NIH

Adults who stay well-hydrated appear to be healthier, develop fewer chronic conditions, such as heart and lung disease, and live longer than those who may not get sufficient fluids, according to a National Institutes of Health study published in eBioMedicine. .

Psychedelic drugs were a hot topic at this year’s Society for Neuroscience meeting. Researchers hope the drugs can help people with disorders like depression and PTSD.

Viruses impact host cells and have indirect effects on ecosystem processes. Plankton such as ciliates can reduce the abundance of virions in water, but whether virus consumption translates into demographic consequences for the grazers is unknown. Here, we show that small protists not only can consume viruses they also can grow and divide given only viruses to eat. Moreover, the ciliate Halteria sp. foraging on chloroviruses displays dynamics and interaction parameters that are similar to other microbial trophic interactions. These results suggest that the effect of viruses on ecosystems extends beyond (and in contrast to) the viral shunt by redirecting energy up food chains.

Unprecedented views of the interior of cells and other nanoscale structures are now possible thanks to innovations in expansion microscopy. The advancements could help provide future insight into neuroscience, pathology, and many other biological and medical fields.

In the paper “Magnify is a universal molecular anchoring strategy for expansion microscopy,” published Jan. 2 in the journal Nature Biotechnology, collaborators from Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh and Brown University describe new protocols for dubbed Magnify.

Continue reading “New expansion microscopy methods magnify research’s impact” »

New research in the journal Nature Aging takes a page from the field of renewable energy and shows that genetically engineered mitochondria can convert light energy into chemical energy that cells can use, ultimately extending the life of the roundworm C. elegans. While the prospect of sunlight-charged cells in humans is more science fiction than science, the findings shed light on important mechanisms in the aging process.

“We know that mitochondrial dysfunction is a consequence of aging,” said Andrew Wojtovich, Ph.D., associate professor of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine and Pharmacology & Physiology at the University of Rochester Medical Center and senior author of the study.

“This study found that simply boosting metabolism using light-powered mitochondria gave laboratory worms longer, healthier lives. These findings and new research tools will enable us to further study mitochondria and identify new ways to treat age-related diseases and age healthier.”

Findings underline the importance of a strength-based rather than a deficit-based focus on aging and older adults.

What are the keys to “successful” or optimal aging? A new study followed more than 7,000 middle-aged and older Canadians for approximately three years to identify the factors linked to well-being as we age.

They found that those who were female, married, physically active, and not obese and those who had never smoked, had higher incomes, and who did not have insomnia, heart disease or arthritis, were more likely to maintain excellent health across the study period and less likely to develop disabling cognitive, physical, or emotional problems.

Year 2011 face_with_colon_three

It was only a year ago that ACell’s “miracle powder” was sprinkled on amputated fingers and shown to stimulate the regeneration of fingertips. The world was both awed and skeptical of the powder’s regenerative power, touting that it would revolutionize regenerative medicine or calling it was quack science.

A fingertip is one thing. A thigh, quite another.

Continue reading “Miracle Powder Regrows Fingers, Now Thigh Muscle for Marine” »

Year 2022 face_with_colon_three

One day, humans might be able to regrow body parts, regenerate tissue damaged due to disease, and even sprout missing limbs.

While it’s still in the realm of science fiction today, advanced tissue and limb regeneration might be our future thanks to the foundation being laid by scientists like assistant professor James Godwin of Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory in Maine.

Continue reading “Regeneration of human limbs and organs — science fact or science fiction?” »