Lifeboat Foundation

Today, we are going to take a look at the topic of NAD+, its precursor, nicotinamide mononucleotide, and the debate surrounding the ability of these molecules to pass through the cell membrane.

NAD+ is critical for cellular function

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) is a redox cofactor, but it is also a critical signaling molecule that regulates cell function and survival in response to environmental changes such as nutrient intake and cellular damage. Age-related changes to the level of NAD+ in the cell impacts mitochondrial function, nutrient sensing and metabolism, redox reactions, circadian rhythm, immune and inflammatory responses, DNA repair, cell division, protein-to-protein signaling, chromatin, and epigenetics.

Why the spike? For years, doctors doled out antibiotics willy-nilly. Even today, up to half of all prescribed antibiotics are unnecessary or used ineffectively.

Whenever antibiotics are used, some mutant bacteria survive. But the more an antibiotic is used, the more rapidly bacteria become resistant, reducing the effectiveness of the drug.

New treatments for superbugs are needed, but there have been no major novel antibiotic developments since the 1960s. That’s largely because pharmaceutical companies are abandoning antibiotic research. It’s time-consuming and expensive to bring a new drug to market — it takes about ten years and $2.9 billion, on average. So companies develop drugs that will make as much money as possible. Since drugs for chronic diseases make people life-long subscribers, and antibiotics are “one and done,” developers opt to make the former. Moreover, growing antibiotic resistance reduces the effective lifespan of new drugs, further limiting profits.

Continue reading “Antibiotic-Resistant Superbugs Are Getting Deadlier” »

A team of experts has conducted tests in mice for a potent new vaccine against melanoma. So far, the researchers have observed a 100 percent success rate.

An interesting article in Forbes on GDF11, anti-aging drugs and companies:

For an example of how hard it is to develop an anti-aging medicine, check this out. It’s some of the coolest and creepiest science to have been published in major academic journals. But is it ready to form the basis of a pharmaceutical company?

A detailed analysis of Alzheimer’s disease.

Alzheimer’s disease was first discovered in 1907 in a 51 year old woman by the German physician Alzheimer. One of the first changes noticed was an eruption of jealous feelings towards her husband. It wasn’t long before symptoms of rapid memory impairment were observed. The impairments prevented her from finding her way out of her home, She hid herself, she would drag objects to and fro, and occasionally screamed because she believed people were out to kill her.

When she was institutionalized her gestures would show a complete helplessness. As common in most Alzheimer’s patients, she was disoriented as to time and place. At times she would state that she didn’t understand anything, felt confused, and totally lost. When the doctor came in to see her she would consider it as an official visit and would apologize for not having finished her work. Other times she would be terrified and start to yell that the doctor wanted to operate on her. Other times she would send him away in complete indignation uttering phrases indicating that she was afraid that the doctor wanted to damage her woman’s honor. At times she would become completely delirious, dragging her blankets and to and fro, calling for her husband and daughter, and seeming to experience auditory hallucinations. She would often scream for hours and hours in a horrible voice. Mental regression advanced quite steadily. After four and a half years of illness the patient finally died.

Continue reading “The Alzheimer’s Hypothesis” »

David Gobel was the first to put forward the concept of longevity escape velocity, or LEV. How far are we from LEV, assuming the current pace of research and no serious showstoppers?

Twelve years, or 2030, is David’s best guess based on what is known today.

David Gobel cofounded the Methuselah Foundation with Aubrey de Grey and continues to run the Methuselah Foundation today.

Continue reading “Methuselah Foundation Cofounder thinks Longevity Escape Velocity could be here by 2030” »

Data centers are the new oil refineries, argues The Economist. Where black sludge and steam once marked the beating heart of the economy, now blinking servers laced with fiber optic cables indicate where the action is.

Biotechnology — like all other industries — must adapt. Synthetic biology teams that embrace modern tools like cloud computing, professionally built software, and laboratory automation will save time, reduce errors, streamline complex workflows, and maintain their agility in the digital economy. Those who fail to adopt new tools will be primed for disruption.

Software is already an integral part of biological research, but most scientific apps lag far behind the rest of the digital frontier. As the software giant Autodesk puts it:

This 50-year-old NASA invention could kill cancer (via The Verge)

Cystic fibrosis is the most common genetic disease among Caucasians. Now scientists believe they have discovered the origin of this often lethal genetic mutation and how it spread throughout Europe.