Lifeboat Foundation

A treatment that can stop patients from going blind is poised to be the first gene therapy for an inherited condition approved in the U.S., in what would be a major scientific milestone — and also open the door for record-breaking drug prices and novel ways to pay for them.

Spark Therapeutics Inc.’s Luxturna therapy crossed a key hurdle Thursday when it won backing from a group of advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. After discussing the trial design, treatment procedure and safety profile, the panel of 16 experts voted unanimously that the drug’s benefits outweighed its risks.

We are doing a series of articles that discuss the Hallmarks of Aging. Published in 2013, this paper is highly regarded in academia and is one of the most cited papers in biology, with an average of being cited once every two days. The paper divides aging into distinct categories (“hallmarks”) of damage to explain how the aging process works and how it causes age-related diseases[1].

Today, we will be looking at one of the primary hallmarks, genomic instability.

Biohacker Josiah Zayner wants to create a world where anyone is free and able to experiment on their own DNA.

Recorded Oct 4th, 2017

Link to the interview, goo.gl/8rQ6YS

Continue reading “Aubrey de Grey, Ph.D.: Rejuvenation biotechnology: Why Age May Soon Not Mean Aging” »

A new study suggests that cancer cells trick normal cells to produce virus-like particles that help tumor cells to grow and spread.

The work, published in the March 8 issue of Science, finally proves that a single anti-aging enzyme in the body can be targeted, with the potential to prevent age-related diseases and extend lifespans.

The paper shows all of the 117 drugs tested work on the single enzyme through a common mechanism. This means that a whole new class of anti-aging drugs is now viable, which could ultimately prevent cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and type 2 diabetes.

“Ultimately, these drugs would treat one disease, but unlike drugs of today, they would prevent 20 others,” says the lead author of the paper, Professor David Sinclair, from UNSW Medicine, who is based at Harvard University. “In effect, they would slow aging.”

Continue reading “Anti-aging drug breakthrough” »

There’s no doubt that Dr. Ilia Stambler’s Longevity promotion: multidisciplinary perspective is a great book for the advocate and keen supporter of healthy life extension. Check out our review by Nicola Bagalà.

There’s no doubt that Dr. Ilia Stambler’s Longevity promotion: multidisciplinary perspective is a thorough book that all kinds of advocates of healthy longevity may find very useful. The book reads pretty much like a collection of academics papers, each dealing with a different aspect of the matter, including science, history, social and moral implications, legislation, and advocacy. Just like you would expect from an academic work, each section of this book is complete with exhaustive sources that will indubitably prove helpful should you wish to dig deeper into the topic being discussed.

The first section of the book focuses on advocacy, discussing typical concerns raised in the context of life extension, outreach material, and initiatives, and it offers suggestions for effective policies to promote aging and longevity research. The latter part of this section was one of the hardest for me to read since policies and legislation are not at all my strongest suit, but I do believe that professional lobbyists and advocates who have legal and regulatory backgrounds and wish to take action will find numerous ideas in it.

Continue reading “Book Review: Longevity Promotion a Multidisciplinary Perspective” »

Summary: Funding bias is junk science used by industry to hoodwink consumers. This report shows you how to protect yourself against the problem.

The funding bias scandal made headlines recently when the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) broke the news that the sugar industry had paid-off Harvard scientists to down-play sugars role in heart disease. JAMA reported that the sugar industry trade group called the Sugar Research Foundation instructed Harvard researchers to publish reports that down-played sugar’s connection to heart disease, and instead cast doubts on saturated fat.

And in another study, after examining over 200 research studies paid for by a food or beverage organization, researchers from Children’s Hospital Boston found that industry-funded studies were four to eight times more likely to report positive health benefits from consuming those products.