For example, ordinary baker’s yeast cells normally produce a lot of alcohol, a biofuel, when fed sugar extracted from the edible kernels of corn plants. NetSurgeon designed genetic surgeries that convinced the cells to make more alcohol when fed a type of sugar found in the inedible leaves and stalks.
The research is published in PNAS Early Edition.
One of the highlights this year was the SENS RB2016 conference which was live streamed and is available to watch right now if you missed if the first time around. Three days of exciting biotechnology smile
Although the event itself was invitation-only, our free live stream allowed viewers from 62 countries to enjoy a broad range of presentations on the emerging rejuvenation biotechnology industry and SRF’s critical role in driving forward the clinical translation of truly effective medicine for age-related disease.
Don’t worry if you missed it, though — the streamed videos remain available here!
Mike Kope, CEO, SENS Research Foundation
Mitochondria — the structures within cells mostly known for converting nutrients into usable energy — may play a larger and more direct role in the aging process than previously thought, according to USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology Assistant Professor David Lee.
In addition to powering cells, mitochondria serve important roles in coordinating metabolism, Lee said. And evidence has shown that mitochondria — which have their own smaller genome separate from the larger collection of genes in a cell’s nucleus — lose function and accrue DNA damage during the aging process, reflecting a role in aging.
In trying to determine how the mitochondria are involved in aging, many researchers have studied the signals sent from the nucleus to the mitochondria and how they change with age. However, Lee theorizes that communication between the cell’s powerhouse and its control center may be taking place in both directions, with signaling molecules originally coded in the mitochondrial DNA regulating the nucleus and causing changes that affect key cellular factors of aging, such as metabolism.
Scientists have struggled for millennia to understand human consciousness — the awareness of one’s existence. Despite advances in neuroscience, we still don’t really know where it comes from, and how it arises.
But researchers think they might have finally figured out its physical origins, after pinpointing a network of three specific regions in the brain that appear to be crucial to consciousness.
It’s a pretty huge deal for our understanding of what it means to be human, and it could also help researchers find new treatments for patients in vegetative states.
If you were to compare yourself to a neutron star, you probably wouldn’t find very many things in common. After all, neutron stars – celestial bodies with super strong magnetic fields – are made from collapsed star cores, lie light-years away from Earth, and don’t even watch Netflix.
But, according to new research, we share at least one similarity: the geometry of the matter that makes us.
Researchers have found that the ‘crust’ (or outer layers) of a neutron star has the same shape as our cellular membranes. This could mean that, despite being fundamentally different, both humans and neutron stars are constrained by the same geometry.
Hey folks, great news! The Patrons Challenge is going really well and we have already passed the halfway mark for new Patrons which is superb. Thanks to Reason and Josh Triplett who are doubling all new pledges made this year. So if you are interested in being a Patron this is a great time to join us.
Our Winter fundraiser has also reached almost 25k and is going great guns. The more we can raise the more research we can do and as this year has shown, some truly great results are starting to arrive for the SENS approach to treating age-related diseases.
Our guest for this show is Aubrey de Grey, Ph.D., and he refuses to accept aging as something we can not change. Aubrey is a Biomedical Gerontologist and Chief Scientific Officer of The SENS Research Foundation. I talk more about his background and the SENS Foundation in the interview. Aubrey has put forth a model for aging based on seven types of damage that occur as a product of aging. We discuss this model and the techniques the possibly address each category of damage. This interview is longer than the other thus far but it had me gripped the entire time so enjoy!
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Image Credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey_de_Grey
Transplanted embryonic neurons can properly connect into the developed visual cortex of adult mice and improve the animals’ sensitivities to visual cues over time, scientists reported today (October 26) in Nature. By demonstrating that added neurons can become fully functional in circuits that normally do not rewire in adulthood, the team’s results suggest that the brain may be more plastic than previously thought.
“Calorie restriction has been known to extend lifespan for a long time.” said Dr. Kennedy. “The DNA damage response is linked to aging as well. LOS1 may be connecting these different processes.”
A number of the age-extending genes the team identified are also found in C. elegans roundworms, indicating these mechanisms are conserved in higher organisms. In fact, many of the anti-aging pathways associated with yeast genes are maintained all the way to humans.
The research produced another positive result: exposing emerging scientists to advanced lab techniques, many for the first time.
