Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a disease associated with critically short telomeres, and it currently lacks a reliable and effective treatment. Researchers at the Telomere and Telomerase Group at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) have cured the disease in mice using telomerase therapy to lengthen short telomeres.

A proof of concept for an effective treatment against pulmonary fibrosis

The authors of this study have stated that this is a “proof of concept that telomerase activation represents an effective treatment against pulmonary fibrosis” in their publication[1].

Read more

This revolutionary gene modified T cell therapy is bearing fruit in treating a type of lymphoma, a resistant form of cancer.

---

Summary: After years of effort, this revolutionary gene-modified T cell therapy is bearing fruit in treating a type of lymphoma, a resistant form of cancer. [This article first appeared on the website LongevityFacts.com. Author: Brady Hartman. ]

Thirty-seven-year-old Nick Asoian of Denver unsuccessfully fought Hodgkin’s Lymphoma using conventional cancer treatments for two years. In 2008, while in New Zealand for a ski race, Nick was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Two bone marrow transplants and two years of chemotherapy combined with radiation therapy didn’t bring his cancer to heel.

Then, a few years ago the avid skier got wind of clinical trial using T cell therapy at the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas. After speaking with Dr. Bollard and Vicky Torrano, the physicians conducting the trial, Asoian decided to give it a shot.

Read more

The debate over telomeres length is now back in the spotlight… Here is a brief review of the top articles on telomere length, telomerase and human diseases such as cancer…

---

A review of the top articles on telomerase and telomere length which play a role in the chronic diseases of aging, such as cancer.

Read more

As we age, our bodily functions begin to deteriorate. To some extent, our bodies can cope with these unwelcome changes, but after age 35, some of them become visible. For us living in a world where youth and physical attractiveness are considered an advantage, this gradual loss of young looks can be painful – or maybe even scary, if we don’t know a way to slow down or reverse it.

It is not that physical attractiveness is a value per se for me, but I often hear people say that someone promoting longevity technologies should set a good example; wrinkles, dull skin and hair, and a bloated figure discredit not only the activist but the movement as a whole.

So, I keep an eye on what is going on in the field of aesthetic medicine – especially when it comes close to and crosses with rejuvenation biotechnologies. Last week, I went to one of the flagship research organizations in Moscow – the Human Stem Cells Institute – to interview Dr. Vadim Zorin, the head of the SPRS-therapy project and the developer of a unique approach to skin rejuvenation.

Read more

Would you like to live forever? Some billionaires, already invincible in every other way, have decided that they also deserve not to die. Today several biotech companies, fueled by Silicon Valley fortunes, are devoted to “life extension” — or as some put it, to solving “the problem of death.”

---

Some very wealthy people are serious about outsmarting mortality.

Read more

Summary: Google’s ultra-secretive Calico Labs announces a significant discovery – the naked mole rat is the first and only non-aging mammal and shows little signs of aging as it gets older. [This article first appeared on the website LongevityFacts.com. Author: Brady Hartman. ]

With wrinkly skin and completely bald, the naked mole rat is one of the ugliest creatures around but lives an exceptionally long life for a small mammal. It rarely develops the chronic diseases of aging such as cancer and lives 10 times longer than regular rats.

The First Non-Aging Mammal

Read more