Lifeboat Foundation

Aging is a complex and inevitable process that affects all organisms – and it is associated with tissue dysfunction, susceptibility to various diseases, and death [1]. The development of strategies like cellular reprogramming for increasing the duration of healthy life and promoting healthy aging is difficult since the mechanism of aging is not understood clearly. Aging is known to be associated with several hallmarks of aging – such as epigenetic alterations, genomic instability, cellular senescence, telomere shortening, mitochondrial dysfunction and altered intercellular communication.

Aging can be divided into two major phases: healthy aging and pathological aging. Healthy aging is the phase where the accumulation of minor alterations takes place, but pathological aging is the phase where clinical diseases and disabilities predominate along with the impairment of physiological functions [2].

Longevity. Technology: Notions regarding cells undergoing a unidirectional differentiation process during development existed previously [3]. However, in recent years cellular reprogramming using transcription factors has emerged as an important strategy for the rejuvenation of aging cells, erasing markers of cell damage and restoring epigenetic markers. These transcription factors also known as Yamanaka factors include Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc (OSKM). They can convert terminally differentiated somatic cells into pluripotent stem cells which are capable of dividing into any cell type of the body and thus can improve the health and longevity of individuals.

Scientists have long sought to untangle the mystery of how aging links to increased risk of heart disease, a predominant killer of our time. It’s a tough problem: many biological aspects, spanning nature to nurture, can subtly influence heart health. To untangle the mystery, some experiments have lasted over half a century and scaled to hundreds of thousands of people.

The good news? We’ve got clues. With age, heart cells drastically change their function, eventually struggling to contract and release. A new study published in Nature Aging looked deep into genetic code to unravel why this happens.

Starting with a dozen volunteers spanning 0 to 82 years old, the team sequenced the entire genome of 56 heart muscle cells, or cardiomyocytes. The result is the first landscape painting of genetic changes in the aging heart. As we age, the heart gets hit with a double whammy at the DNA level. Cells’ genetic code physically breaks down, while their ability to repair DNA erodes.

We recently caught up with Dr. Aubrey de Grey and talked to him about the upcoming Dublin Longevity Summit and how things are looking on the advocacy landscape.

The return of face-to-face conferences means a great deal to me, because ever since my first one in 2003, I have found that they are the absolute most effective way to (a) bring capable newcomers into the field and (b) connect established people in synergistic ways.

The COVID-driven demise of the Berlin Undoing Aging series, which had been a revival of the Cambridge series, was a tragedy that I am delighted to be consigning to history.

The early-stage development of many age-targeting compounds often involves studies of their effects on the lifespan of the transparent nematode (worm) model Caenorhabditis elegans. A highly manual process, this exercise is time-consuming and only produces data on one endpoint – lifespan.

Durham University associate professors David Weinkove and Chris Saunter invented a technology that automates measurements of movement in many large populations of worms simultaneously. Crucially, this technology goes beyond measuring lifespan, also capturing information about how worms’ health declines as they age – their healthspan.

Longevity. Technology: Together, Weinkove and Saunter have co-founded a spinout company called Magnitude Biosciences, leveraging their innovative platform to test drugs and other interventions for their capacity to prolong healthspan. We caught up with Weinkove to learn more about the background to the company and where it goes from here.

Remedium Bio has announced that it has closed more than $2.3m in its expanded seed round financing. Funding from the raise is being used to study Remedium’s lead product, a single-injection gene therapy potentially capable of reversing cartilage loss; this research is being conducted in collaboration with scientists from Tufts University School of Medicine who are engaged in researching rheumatic disorders.

The financing was led by Sherwood Ventures and included participation from, LongevityTech. Fund, Primo Medical Group, Angel Star Ventures, Apis Health Angels, MicroVentures, and Guindy Alumni Angels.

Longevity. Technology: Remedium’s pipeline includes therapeutic indications in osteoarthritis, diabetes, stroke and other large unmet clinical needs.

A biotech firm wants to create “synthetic” human embryos that would be used to harvest organs in order to facilitate transplants and treat conditions such as infertility, genetic disease, and aging, according to researchers.

The Israel-based company, Renewal Bio, claimed that it successfully used advanced stem cell technology and artificial wombs in order to grow mouse embryos which continued to develop for several days.

We all age. But the process of aging may be different in the year 2050 thanks to advances in medical tech.

Star Scientific invents a catalyst that in the presence of hydrogen and oxygen heats to 700 Celsius. That’s enough heat to drive a steam turbine for power generation.

Star Scientific is a 25-year-old research laboratory north of Sydney, Australia. The company is one of many trying to make existing power plants carbon-free. This includes old coal-fired thermal power stations which remain among the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions on the planet. Star has invented a patented non-polluting catalyst which it calls HERO® which is an acronym for Hydrogen Energy Release Optimizer. It uses hydrogen without producing combustion.

Mars Food Australia, the subsidiary of the global food giant, is using HERO® to help decarbonize its processes. The 18-month pilot project is the first step in developing alternative heat sources for the food industry. Bill Heague who is General Manager of Mars in Australia states, “Thermal energy is crucial to the business of cooking food and this technology has the capability to create limitless heat without any combustion and zero emissions.”

Continue reading “Can We Adapt Old Power Plants to Run on Green Hydrogen?” »

“We took skin biopsies from patients living with Huntington’s disease and reprogrammed the skin biopsies into neurons. We then compared these neurons with reprogrammed neurons from healthy people. The results are very interesting. We have found several defects that explain some of the disease mechanisms in neurons from patients with Huntington’s disease. Among other things, we observed that neurons from patients with Huntington’s disease show problems in breaking down and recycling a particular kind of protein – which can lead to a lack of energy in these cells”, says Johan Jakobsson, professor of neuroscience at Lund University.

The researchers have also measured the biological age of the cells and observed that the reprogrammed neurons retain their biological age, which is significant if they are to be used for research in the new model system.