Lifeboat Foundation

I was at HudsonAlpha’s spinoff clinic for rare diseases, the Smith Family Clinic for Genomic Medicine. Most people don’t know this, but the second largest biomedical research campus in the USA and the fourth in the entire world is in Alabama. Long-read genome sequencing is essential for aging research because it is able to detect methylation and acetylation very conveniently, as well as major structural changes to the genome that are associated with both rare disease AND aging. This is an explanation of how long-read sequencing is able to fill in sequence gaps caused by Illumina short-read technology.

In 2020, Chromosome X and 8 were finished end-to-end with long-read sequencing, for the first time. And now in 2021, a complete gapless human genome is on the horizon. The Human Genome Project may finally, truly become complete.

February 3, 2021 (Huntsville, Ala.) – Researchers at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology used a new, cutting-edge genomic sequencing technology to help physicians make diagnoses for two pediatric patients who had been on long diagnostic journeys.

Continue reading “HudsonAlpha researchers use highly accurate long-read sequencing technology to help diagnose rare disease” »

Short of ceasing your grilling activity, there’s no way to completely avoid AGEs, PAH, and HCA when enjoying a summer barbecue. That said, there’s plenty you can do to reduce your carcinogen risk while enjoying smokey flavors over the summer.

Affiliate Disclaimer: Longevity Advice is reader-supported. When you buy something using links on our site, we may earn a few bucks.

Hickory and oak wood and charcoal are the scents of summer. I associate that campfire smell with fireworks, screaming with neighborhood kids while jumping through a lawn sprinkler, and Dad at the grill with a Blue Moon in hand. Barbeque is a wonderful pastime. So help me, nothing will pry it out of my red-blooded American hands, especially not on the Fourth of July.

Continue reading “6 Tips to Reduce Carcinogenic Barbecue Health Risks” »

In this video, Drs Irina and Mike Conboy talk about the procedure of Neutral Blood Exchange. How it is done and how much blood of the blood is exchanged.

Our guests today are Drs. Irina and Michael Conboy of the Department of Bioengineering at the University of California Berkeley. their discovery of the rejuvenating effects of young blood through parabiosis in a seminal paper published in Nature in 2005 paved the way for a thriving field of rejuvenation biology. The Conboy lab currently focuses on broad rejuvenation of tissue maintenance and repair, stem cell niche engineering, elucidating the mechanisms underlying muscle stem cell aging, directed organogenesis, and making CRISPR a therapeutic reality.

Continue reading “Blood Plasma Dilution w/Saline-Albumin | Drs. Irina & Mike Conboy Interview Series Ep 2” »

In 2016, researchers at the Salk Institute showed that activating certain genes associated with embryonic development could “reprogram” the age of cells and boost the age of mice. Last year, they even managed to use the process to restore vision in old mice.

But the natural “reprogramming” described in the new Harvard study is unlikely to be exactly the same and may be far more comprehensive as it resets cellular age to ground zero, rather than simply reversing it by a few years.

Now that they know when this process happens, the researchers hope they can discover what the actual mechanism is, how similar it is to artificial cellular programming, and whether it can be induced in normal adult cells to rejuvenate them. That’s likely to be a long road, but could eventually lead to major breakthroughs in longevity science.

Changes in epigenetic age acceleration (EAA) were significant over time, with the biggest increase — 4.9 years — seen immediately after the completion of radiotherapy (PChanges in epigenetic age acceleration (EAA) were significant over time, with the biggest increase — 4.9 years — seen immediately after the completion of radiotherapy (P0.001), reported Canhua Xiao, RN, PhD, of Emory University School of Nursing in Atlanta, and colleagues.

The study also demonstrated that EAA was associated with greater inflammation and fatigue, even up to a year after treatment, they noted in Cancer.

While chronological age is a strong risk factor for chronic health problems, Xiao and colleagues said that it often differs from epigenetic age and may be a limited predictor of age-associated disorders. On the other hand, they noted that epigenetic clocks, based on blood DNA methylation measures, have become reliable aging biomarkers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS8lYst2iRU

Rapamycin consistently shows lifespan extension in mice and in my opinion, is the most exciting molecule to possibly extend healthspan in humans. This video dives into the data.

Thanks for watching, I hope you enjoyed the content and found it genuinely useful.
Please consider supporting the channel by signing up to Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/drbradstanfield.

Continue reading “Rapamycin Extends Lifespan” »

AgomAb Therapeutics have announced the successful acquisition of a second round of funding ($74M) for research into the applications of antibodies for use in the field of regenerative medicine. Antibodies have already received a large amount of attention for their ability to positively effect numerous conditions such as inflammation, metabolic disorders, and non-healing wounds.

Antibodies are small protein molecules which are used by the body to ‘tag’ foreign pathogens in order for the immune system to identify and destroy them. What is unique about these antibodies is that due to their structure they will only attach themselves to a particular pathogen (at a particular site known as an antigen). In many cases, the binding of an antibody to a pathogen such as a virus is enough to completely inactive the pathogen, making it effectively harmless.

Where does all the blood for a young blood plasma transfusion come from? Young blood transfusions have been making waves in the media lately, with several different experiments providing exciting evidence that ‘young blood’ can rejuvenate the body and reverse the effects of ageing.

Caenorhabditis elegans is a nematode worm which is commonly utilised in longevity research due to their genetic similarity to humans and their extremely short lifespans (often no more than 4 weeks). Previous research into improving the lifespan of these worms has yielded several interesting results, with modifications to their insulin and rapamycin signalling pathways resulting in a 100% and 30% increase in lifespan respectively. These successes prompted the obvious question, what would happen if both of these pathways were modified at the same time?

Photograph of the Caenorhabditis elegans adult hermaphrodite. Scale bar, 100 μm. Credit: ResearchGate, Nobuyuki Hamada.