Senolytics meets Synthetic biology so come along and ask them anything!
Hey folks, We are excited to announce that the CellAge longform AMA opens Friday for questions and the CellAge team will answer them from Monday 11am PST/2pm EST/6pm GMT. We will update the link to the Futurology AMA once it is ready.
CellAge are using synthetic biology to create new biomarkers for senescent cell detection, developing a new therapy to remove senescent cells which drive the aging process using custom synthetic biology. Come along and ask them all about it.
Great news for SENS Research and Rejuvenation Biotechnology.
One of the biggest highlights of the year for us has got to be Internet Entrepreneur Michael Greve committing $10 million to SENS-related research and startups. A list of some of the projects he is supporting can be found at the Forever Healthy Foundation. We are so pleased to have the support of Michael and his team in the mission to bring rejuvenation biotechnology to the world.
“In order to accelerate the access to healthy longevity for all of us we directly fund cutting-edge research on molecular and cellular repair to combat the root causes of aging and support the creation of startups turning that research into therapies for human application.” — Michael Greve.
More progress with cancer and using a similar approach to senolytics, no surprise really as cancer and senescent cell share a lot of common ground and approach that work with one may well work with the other if they are aimed at inducing apoptosis.
Apoptosis, or programmed cell death, is a rapid and irreversible process to efficiently eliminate dysfunctional cells. A hallmark of cancer is the ability of malignant cells to evade apoptosis.
Dr Luminita Paraoan, from the University’s Department of Eye and Vision Science in the Institute of Ageing and Chronic Disease, has published new findings in the British Journal of Cancer that identify the requirement of a protein called p63 for the initiation of apoptosis in UM.
Chromosome 3 is one of the 23 pairs of chromosomes in humans. People normally have two copies of each chromosome. One part of chromosome 3 contains the gene for the protein p63. Unfortunately people with aggressive (resistant to apoptosis) UM do not have this part and therefore do not have the p63 protein.
The Goldilocks zone with telomere length is the key.
Ever since researchers connected the shortening of telomeres—the protective structures on the ends of chromosomes—to aging and disease, the race has been on to understand the factors that govern telomere length. Now, scientists at the Salk Institute have found that a balance of elongation and trimming in stem cells results in telomeres that are, as Goldilocks would say, not too short and not too long, but just right.
The finding, which appears in the December 5, 2016, issue of Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, deepens our understanding of stem cell biology and could help advance stem cell-based therapies, especially related to aging and regenerative medicine.
“This work shows that the optimal length for telomeres is a carefully regulated range between two extremes,” says Jan Karlseder, a professor in Salk’s Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory and senior author of the work. “It was known that very short telomeres cause harm to a cell. But what was totally unexpected was our finding that damage also occurs when telomeres are very long.”
The fourth Lifespan.io campaign and CellAge are using synthetic biology to create an accurate aging biomarker for senescent cells and a new therapy for precision targeting of those problem cells. Senescent cells are one of the processes of aging and this could change the way we age.
Lifespan.io is proud to present our fourth rejuvenation biotechnology project!
As we age our bodies accumulate damage in the form of dysfunctional cells that have entered a state called “senescence”, which secrete toxic signals that can lead to chronic inflammation, higher rates of cancer and additional aging-related conditions.
In order to address this CellAge, an Edinburgh based startup, has just launched a new Lifespan.io campaign to develop methods that will help researchers target, and eventually remove, these cells from the body and thereby assist in restoring it to youthful functionality.
Central to their project is the development of new synthetic DNA promoters which are specific to senescent cells, as promoters that are currently being used to track them, such as the p16 gene promoter, have various limitations. If successful, they will follow this up by validating gene therapies for senescent cell removal, initially for patients with progeroid syndromes, those who have undergone radiotherapy, and eventually those with age-related disease.
By observing the transparent cells of roundworms, researchers have uncovered a link between lifespan and the natural cellular process of RNA splicing.
This research could lead to new breakthroughs in anti-aging treatments that would allow humans to indefinitely keep ourselves healthy, stalling death for as long as possible.
Though aging seems like one of the most natural things, an affair common to all living creatures, the process is actually poorly understood by scientists. A new study detailed in Nature aims to shed light on the phenomenon as a research team led by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has uncovered a relationship between lifespan and RNA splicing, a core function of cells that allows a single gene to produce a variety of proteins.
The researchers already knew that mutations in RNA splicing could lead to disease, but they wanted to find out if the act of splicing itself had an impact on the aging process. To find out, they designed experimental setups using the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans, which show visible signs of aging during their short three-week lifespan.
Infertile women have been offered new hope after scientists found that a common cancer drug triggers the development of new eggs, an outcome which was previously thought to be impossible.
In a discovery hailed as “astonishing”, researchers at the University of Edinburgh proved it is possible to reverse the clock and coax the ovaries back into a pre-pubescent state where they begin to produce new eggs.
Women are born with all their eggs, which is why conceiving becomes harder with age, because the eggs grow old, become damaged and eventually run out entirely.
The full antiaging rejuvenation toolkit of the next few decades will consist of a range of different treatments, each targeting a different type of molecular damage in cells and tissues. Fightaging predicts the likely order of arrival of some of these therapies, based on what is presently going on in research, funding, and for-profit development.
1) Clearance of Senescent Cells
Everon Biosciences, Oisin Biotechnologies, SIWA Therapeutics, and UNITY Biotechnology are all forging ahead with various different approaches to the selective destruction of senescent cells. No doubt many groups within established Big Pharma entities are also taking a stab at this, more quietly, and with less press attention. UNITY Biotechnology has raised more than $100 million to date, demonstrating that there is broad enthusiasm for this approach to the treatment of aging and age-related disease.
