Lifeboat Foundation

The search for youthfulness typically turns to lotions, supplements, serums and diets, but there may soon be a new option joining the fray. Rapamycin, a FDA-approved drug normally used to prevent organ rejection after transplant surgery, may also slow aging in human skin, according to a study from Drexel University College of Medicine researchers published in Geroscience.

Basic science studies have previously used the drug to slow aging in mice, flies, and worms, but the current study is the first to show an effect on aging in human tissue, specifically skin – in which signs of aging were reduced. Changes include decreases in wrinkles, reduced sagging and more even skin tone — when delivered topically to humans.

“As researchers continue to seek out the elusive ‘fountain of youth’ and ways to live longer, we’re seeing growing potential for use of this drug,” said senior author Christian Sell, PhD, an associate professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the College of Medicine. “So, we said, let’s try skin. It’s a complex organism with immune, nerve cells, stem cells – you can learn a lot about the biology of a drug and the aging process by looking at skin.”

Cyrus Biotechnology has teamed up with the Broad Institute to optimize CRISPR for use in humans. Feng Zhang, who had a hand in developing CRISPR, will serve as the Broad’s principal investigator for the collaboration.

One concern with using CRISPR-Cas9 to perform in vivo genome editing stems from the risk that the body will mount an immune response against the system. Those concerns have grown as researchers have shown that many people have antibodies against Cas9, reflecting the fact that the homologs of the protein used in genome editing systems are derived from bacteria that commonly infect people.

Cyrus, which lists Johnson & Johnson among its customers, thinks its technology can mitigate the risk of an immune reaction. That confidence reflects Cyrus’ experience of using software to identify and work around the epitopes in protein therapeutics that cause immunogenicity.

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The University of Cambridge’s Dr. William Bains provides a thorough overview of extracellular cross-links in this lecture. He explains that advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) can irreversibly link proteins together, and cross-linking AGEs appear to play an important role in aging. They are particularly problematic in the cardiovascular system, where cross-links cause our arteries to stiffen with age, raising blood pressure and making a patient more likely to suffer from a heart attack or stroke. Cross-links are also implicated in complications from diabetes. Dr. Bains explains the structure and nature of cross-links, where they accumulate in the body, and even what their surprising role is in cooking. He ends by discussing a major AGE-breaking drug that has been tested on humans and touches on potential future therapies.

Visit www.sens.org/videos to view the rest of our course lecture videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCOODjrJhRQ&feature=share

Diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, Joe was told he had about 3 months to live. A veterinarian friend of his in western Oklahoma called him and told him about a cancer research experiment he had learned about in which a dog-deworming medicine had cured cancer in the experimental mice… and when the researcher developed cancer, she used the same medicine on herself and her glioblastoma was gone in about 12 weeks.

With nothing to lose and everything to gain, Joe ordered the veterinary product, Fenbendazole, and began taking it. He added a few other things to his regimen such as curcumin and Vitamin E, now known as the “Joe Tippens Protocol”. Three and a half months later, he went in for a scan and he was totally clear!

Continue reading “How Joe Tippens Beat Terminal Cancer with $7 Dog Medicine — Interviewed by James Templeton” »

Understanding the economic implications of changing demographics is essential for investors, said Aubrey de Grey, a biomedical gerontologist speaking at the Fiduciary Investors’ Symposium at Harvard University. De Grey, who is also the chief science officer of SENS Research Foundation, a California-based biomedical research charity, warned gathered delegates that they need to urgently position for people living much longer.

“The implications will change your outlook on the future. You need to understand and believe the actual logic of what is coming,” he said.

He noted that medical advancement has eliminated many of the problems that used to kill people when they were young. For example, better hygiene saves lives the world over. In contrast, health problems in later life are still killing many of us in an enduring ageing process. Simply defined, this sees our metabolism generate damage over the years that cause accumulative changes over time. We can only tolerate so much change; inevitably we go down hill until we die, he said. Today the majority of medical effort is concentrated on geriatric medicine and managing the consequences of this ageing process. Yet attacking the consequences of something that is accumulating is the wrong way to approach the problem.

Scientists aim to tackle diseases hurting Kiwis by building NZ’s first genomic database.

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Red wine has been known to be healthy for many reasons, but some recent studies show that antioxidants in red wine can actually kill cancer.

Not only is it helpful in preventing cancer, but it can also help to fight it once it has been detected.

Cancer is a life-threatening disease that can kill people of any age.