An open access review paper: "In tissue engineering fields, recent interest has been focused on stem cell therapy to replace or repair damaged or worn-out tissues due to congenital abnormalities, disease, or injury. In particular, the repair of articular cartilage degeneration by stem cell-based tissue engineering could be of enormous therapeutic and economic benefit for an aging population. ... Many people over the age of 40 suffer from degeneration or injury of their cartilage, leading to a reduced workforce and increased medical expenses. Thus, improvements in cartilage repair using a cell-based tissue engineering approach will greatly benefit public health and the economy. Personalised cell therapy for cartilage repair using cell-based tissue engineering technologies would provide clinically practical methods for producing a cartilage tissue equivalent. A number of biomaterials are available as scaffolds, and research continues to help us understand more details about how tissues develop and which cell type should be applied. These studies have provided details of how tissues grow in vitro and in vivo, but clinical applications depend on working with surgeons and the translation of these materials and technologies to in vivo models that are more relevant to patients. When cell-based cartilage tissue engineering technologies are applied to new animal models, we attempted to find better functional compositions for successful applications than were observed in previous studies. Although stem cell-based cartilage tissue engineering systems may demonstrate success even in animal models, there are a number of new challenges when the technologies are applied to humans. Further research on in vivo application must address immunological issues, integration of host and stem cell-based engineered cartilage, and the variability of tissue development in an in vivo environment, depending on surrounding disease processes, age, or physical activity. Therefore, interdisciplinary studies are not only necessary but crucial before cell-based cartilage tissue engineering can reach its full potential in cartilage repair and regeneration."

Link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3191858/

Source:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/newsletter/latest_rss_feed.cfm

Much as none of us like to think about it, we all have an ongoing, changing mortality risk - the flip side of the statistics of life expectancy at any given age. This largely involves cars in younger years, but then goes on to be dominated by the unpleasant and varied consequences of aging to death. I have no sage advice when it comes to cars, but I can point out the science that backs up the idea that we have a modest degree of control over our risk of death at any given age, and hence over our life expectancy.

There are three line items here:

• Exercise
• Calorie restriction
• Working to speed development of rejuvenation biotechnology

I don't expect to see significant additions to this list become widely available for another twenty years or so. Aside from the fact that we can do a great deal to speed up the advent of ways to repair the cellular and molecular damage of aging - which is a very big deal - the healthy person interested in putting a thumb on the scales of mortality risk is presently stuck with much the same narrow array of methods as our immediate ancestors. There's an anti-aging marketplace shouting loudly that they have plenty of new things to try, but their marketing folk are largely lying through their teeth, hyping things with no scientific basis, or selling goods that have statistically negligible effects in comparison to exercise and calorie restriction.

But so it goes - there are always people who want answers now, and never mind whether they are the right answers, and so there will always be other people selling immediate answers. Fools and their money, and so forth.

By way of following on from yesterday's post on exercise, mortality, and medical costs, I thought I'd point out a couple of other recent items that clearly point to the obvious ways in which the vast majority of us can adjust our own life expectancy.

Early mortality risk reduced up to 40 percent through increased physical activity and sports:

The researchers identified about 7,000 potentially relevant reports, of which a total of 80 cohort studies with more than 1.3 million study participants from Europe, Canada, United States, and Asia fulfilled the strict inclusion criteria. At study onset participants had to be free of cardiovascular disease, cancer and other chronic conditions. Study participants were followed up by a median of 11 years. 'The results of the included studies were combined and controlled for other potential influential factors, e.g. cigarette smoking, alcohol uptake, body mass index, blood pressure, nutrition, education and social factors,' explained Guenther Samitz.

...

For light- to moderate intensity activities of daily living, e.g. housework, gardening, stair climbing, walking and bicycling for transportation, an increase of one hour per week compared to no physical activity was associated with a reduction in mortality of four percent. Dr. Samitz said that with moderate-intensity leisure activities (e.g. Nordic walking, hiking, social dance) the risk reduction increased to six percent, and with vigorous-intensity aerobic activity or sports (e.g. jogging, bicycling (>10 miles per hour), tennis, ball sport), the reduction in all-cause mortality was even nine percent per one hour increment per week. Meeting the WHO´s recommended level of 150 minutes per week of moderate physical activity of daily life or during leisure was associated with a reduction in mortality risk by ten percent. For vigorous exercise and sports the reduction in mortality risk was more than twofold higher (22 %).

High to moderate levels of stress lead to a higher mortality rate:

A new study concludes that men who experience persistently moderate or high levels of stressful life events over a number of years have a 50 percent higher mortality rate. ... This is the first study to show a direct link between stress trajectories and mortality in an aging population. Unlike previous studies that were conducted in a relatively short term with smaller sample sizes, this study was modified to document major stressors - such as death of a spouse or a putting a parent into a retirement home - that specifically affect middle-aged and older people.

You might look back in the Fight Aging! archives for more on the material links between psychological stress and biomarkers of health, such as telomere length in immune cells.

Source:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/newsletter/latest_rss_feed.cfm

The Methuselah Foundation invests in a variety of companies, and one of them is Silverstone Solutions. Here the Foundation notes a demonstration of the company's product: "In what is the largest single-hospital kidney swap in the history of California, five patients received five kidneys from healthy donors in a marathon series of operations on Friday, April 1st 2011 ... 'Paired donation' is the procedure that makes it possible, a relatively new phenomenon in transplantation surgery that allows for a live kidney going to someone who has a friend or relative willing to donate an organ not compatible for them but a match for someone else. The donor matches one who needs a kidney and that patient's incompatible donor matches someone else and so on, like a chain. ... Imagine that - multiple lives being extended in one fell swoop! This is one of many reasons why Methuselah Foundation has proudly invested in Silverstone Matchmaker, a break-through computer software that makes the pairings possible. It quickly computes the myriad of possible matches in a pool of prospective donors and recipients, minimizing time and effort that the transplant center needs to reach this goal. ... That is why we proudly extend an angel financing arm, funding the development of the bleeding-edge improvements to the Silverstone technology called MatchGrid. This event is in keeping with Methuselah Foundation's strategy of making investments in life-extending technologies that work RIGHT NOW (dangit!) and that also have long term positive implications for general life extension in the tissue engineering realm. Our long term vision for this technology? We hope that its massive and super performance data management system will eventually play a role in the an envisioned 'Postscript' language that can send printing instructions for creating new tissues and eventually organs to be used by tissue printers such as Organovo's sci-fi worthy 3D tissue printer, another founding angel investment by you, the donors of Methuselah Foundation."

http://blog.methuselahfoundation.org/2011/04/hot_dog_a_record-breaking_5-transplant_kidney_swap.html

The latest grants made by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM): "The Governing Board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the State Stem Cell Agency, approved a $25 million award to support the first FDA-approved clinical trial based on cells derived from human embryonic stem cells. The award to Menlo Park-based Geron, Corp, will support the company's on-going early phase trial for people with spinal cord injury. This is the first time the agency, which was created by the passage of proposition 71 in 2004, has funded a human clinical trial testing a stem cell-derived therapy. ... The initial phase of the trial will include just a small number of people with recent spinal cord injuries who will receive injections of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells derived from embryonic stem cells into the site of the injury. In animal models, those cells mature into oligodendrocytes, which produce the insulating layer surrounding neurons. The initial phase of the three-year project is designed to test whether the cells are safe. Later phases will include different levels of spinal cord injury and will test increasing doses of the cells. ... At the same meeting, the Governing Board approved 27 Basic Biology III Awards worth $37.7 million. The awards to nine institutions will support research that leads to new insights in stem cell biology and disease origins. This work feeds the pipeline of new discoveries and also informs the work of research groups working on new disease therapies."

Link: http://cirm.ca.gov/pressrelease_2011-05-04

You might recall that studies of centenarians turned up an association between reaching that age and levels of HDL, high density lipoprotein, a form of cholesterol transport mechanism. Here is another study demonstrating the same correlation for younger old people: "No previous researchers have sought to determine whether high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels are associated with survival to 85 years of age in a prospective cohort of aging men. We selected 652 men (mean age 65 years) enrolled in the VA Normative Aging Study who had [at least one] HDL cholesterol level documented during the study and who were old enough on the date of HDL cholesterol measurement to reach 85 years of age by [2008]. ... We used proportional hazards to determine hazard ratios (HRs) for mortality before age 85 years for each category of initial HDL cholesterol compared to the reference adjusting for co-morbidities, calculated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, medications, smoking, body mass index, and alcohol consumption. Treating HDL cholesterol as a continuous predictor, we also determined the HR for each 10-mg/dl increment in HDL cholesterol. ... Each 10-mg/dl increment in HDL cholesterol was associated with a 14% [decrease] in risk of mortality before 85 years of age. In conclusion, after adjusting for other factors associated with longevity, higher HDL cholesterol levels were significantly associated with survival to 85 years of age." Which leads to the thought that if HDL is so good, why not test to see if artificially creating more of it in the body is beneficial?

Link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21296318

The iLabs Singularity Summit was held this past weekend in Milan, Italy - it's always good to see more of this sort of event happening on that side of the Atlantic. There was a strong focus on longevity science:

Biological ageing is a progressive, degenerative process. As a side-effect of the everyday metabolic activities, cells in our body are damaged: year after year, the cumulative effect of this micro-damages considerably diminishes the overall efficiency of the system, leading eventually to death. ... We die mainly because of ignorance: we do not know how to measure our health, we do not understand completely the side-effects of our therapies and we can't explain the complex interplay between mind and body.

Doing something about these technological and scientific inadequacies should be far higher on most people's to-do lists than it in fact is - we all age, we all suffer the degenerations caused by low-level biological damage. We should all be highly motivated to deal with the problem before it sucks away our ability to live, and then kills us. Alas, the present state of affairs is far from this ideal, and most people do not know or believe that the defeat of aging really is within reach. But it won't happen soon enough unless a great many more people work hard to make it happen.

Amongst the presenters at the summit was the familiar face of Aubrey de Grey, biomedical gerontologist, SENS Foundation cofounder, and outspoken advocate for the development of rejuvenation biotechnology. Here is a video interview made by David Orban and thoughtfully uploaded to YouTube:

Don't become fat: "Individuals with a large waist circumference appear to have a greater risk of dying from any cause over a nine-year period ... Having a large waist circumference has previously been associated with inflammation, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, abnormal cholesterol levels and heart disease ... This may be because waist circumference is strongly correlated with fat tissue in the viscera - surrounding the organs in the abdomen - which is thought to be more dangerous than fat tissue under the skin. ... [researchers] examined the association between waist circumference and risk of death among 48,500 men and 56,343 women age 50 and older (median or midpoint age, 69 years in men and 67 years in women). All had participated in the Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort, for which they completed a mailed questionnaire about demographic, medical and behavioral factors in 1992 or 1993 and provided information about weight and waist circumference in 1997. Deaths and their causes were tracked through the National Death Index until Dec. 31, 2006; a total of 9,315 men and 5,332 women died during this timeframe. ... After adjusting for body mass index (BMI) and other risk factors, very large waists (120 centimeters or 47 inches or larger in men, and 110 centimeters or 42 inches or larger in women) were associated with approximately twice the risk of death during the study period. A larger waist was associated with higher risk of death across all categories of BMI, including normal weight, overweight and obese."

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-08/jaaj-lwa080510.php

Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/

Via EurekAlert! a reminder that we can think of most age-related conditions as resulting from one or more forms of damage that everyone suffers to some degree - but has progressed further in those who have the condition: "In many neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Huntington's, clumps of proteins known as aggregates appear in the patients' brains as the degeneration progresses. Those clumps contain some proteins that are unique to the specific disease (such as Abeta in Alzheimer's), intertwined with many others that are common in healthy individuals. For years, those common proteins were thought to be accidental inclusions in the aggregates ... In fact, they may not be innocent bystanders at all, but instead their presence may influence the course of neurodegenerative disease. ... in the presence of proteins specific to Huntington's disease, these aggregators actually sped up the course of the disease, indicating that they could be fundamental to its progression. These findings indicate that widespread protein insolubility and aggregation is an inherent part of aging and that it may influence both lifespan and neurodegenerative disease. The presence of insoluble protein aggregates has long been a hallmark of protein aggregation diseases such as Alzheimer's, Huntington's and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) disease. The team [asked] a simple question that had never been asked before: do normal proteins form insoluble clumps when normal, healthy individuals age?" Those "normal, health individuals" are on their way to the same end destination of neurodegeneration, just not as fast.

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-08/plos-np080610.php

Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/

We'd like to see the research community persuaded to work on the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence rather than focusing on merely slowing aging via traditional drug development. So persuasion is important. Equally, the time frame is long, so another viable path is to guide the next generation of researchers in the right direction. This second approach is the purpose of the SENS Foundation's Academic Initiative (SENSFAI) program, which has been running for a few years now. Here's one of the young researchers to benefit from it: "Kamil Pabis is in his second year of university and has been working with the SENSFAI since 2009. He is currently studying biology at the University of Vienna. After completing his degree, Kamil plans to pursue his PhD and eventually a career in Molecular Biology or Biogerontology. ... I research vascular (and in part general) calcification and their relation to aging and age-related tissue decline. The impact of calcification could be major and under-appreciated, but unfortunately we do not have definitive data. This basic research lays the ground work for future projects. A relatively thorough understanding is required to distinguish the most promising therapies for actual reversal of the pathology. Eventually I plan to help facilitate and do research under a 'regression first' paradigm."

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.sens.org/ai/blog/featured-student-2010-august

Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/

Steady progress in medicine has led to an ongoing reduction in many age-related conditions over the past few decades. Such as this, for example: "Today's senior citizens are reporting fewer visual impairment problems than their counterparts from a generation ago, according to a new [study]. Improved techniques for cataract surgery and a reduction in the prevalence of macular degeneration may be the driving forces behind this change, the researchers said. ... From 1984 until 2010, the decrease in visual impairment in those 65 and older was highly statistically significant. There was little change in visual impairments in adults under the age of 65. ... The [ study] shows that in 1984, 23 percent of elderly adults had difficulty reading or seeing newspaper print because of poor eyesight. By 2010, there was an age-adjusted 58 percent decrease in this kind of visual impairment, with only 9.7 percent of elderly reporting the problem. There was also a substantial decline in eyesight problems that limited elderly Americans from taking part in daily activities, such as bathing, dressing or getting around inside or outside of the home ... there are three likely reasons for the decline: (a) Improved techniques and outcomes for cataract surgery. (b) Less smoking, resulting in a drop in the prevalence of macular degeneration. (c) Treatments for diabetic eye diseases are more readily available and improved, despite the fact that the prevalence of diabetes has increased "

Link: http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2012/06/seniors-eyesight.html

Source:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/newsletter/latest_rss_feed.cfm

Lifelong exposure to air pollution can increase a person's risk for type 2 diabetes.

In a new study that will appear in the journal Environment Health Perspectives, air pollution was linked to increased incidence of diabetes 2 or adult-onset diabetes.  The study involved respondents in Germany who lived in heavily polluted industrial areas.

The study was first initiated in the eighties.  After sixteen years, researchers made a follow-up study and found out that many of their original respondents (many aged fifty and up) now have type-2 diabetes.  Out of 1,775 of the total number of respondents in the long-term study, it was found that 187 of the respondents (all women) developed the degenerative condition by late 2006.

How did it happen?  Researchers are still non-conclusive, but there are many solid theories surrounding the phenomena.  Many doctors agree that lifelong exposure to pollutants can set off a biological chain reaction in the body, which produces chronic inflammation that affects many of the body’s organs and functions.

Many doctors agree that inflammation is a significant contributing factor to the development of type 2 diabetes.  According to Rashmi Gulati MD of New York City, breathing in polluted air does not help prevent type 2 diabetes.  Couple this with the Couch Potato syndrome and unhealthy eating patterns and a person is at higher risk for many health conditions, not just diabetes 2.

Type 2 diabetes

What is type 2 diabetes? Type 2 diabetes occurs when one or both of these happen: the body does not produce enough insulin to break down the blood sugar or the body’s cells are no longer sensitive to the natural insulin produced by the body.

When either of these happen, the sugar in the body accumulates, leading to damage to many of the body’s organs over the long term.  Diabetics are at higher risk for heart diseases and stroke, as well.  Slow wound healing and gangrene are also potential risks that face the type 2 diabetic.  Type 2 diabetes is not limited to adults.  Increasingly, this disease has manifested in overweight children.

The most common treatment for type 2 diabetes is insulin shots and medication like metformin, which is used to control blood sugar levels and bring down blood sugar levels to normal.  If left untreated, diabetics can suffer from neuropathies and even vision loss as well.

Protect yourself from air pollution

There are several steps to avoid the hazards of air pollution:

1. Air pollution can adversely affect your respiratory tract.  If you live in a heavily polluted area, make sure that you get more than enough water everyday.  Water helps carry away toxins and also keeps your respiratory system working efficiently.
2. Avoid areas that have declared high ozone levels.
3. If you have to go out near heavily polluted areas, wait until sunset before going out.  The higher the sun is up in the sky, the higher the ozone content of the air.
4. If there is a wildfire near your neighborhood, close your doors and windows and seal any cracks or openings with tape.  This will create a limited ‘clean zone’ that prevents most of the smoke from outside from entering your home.
5. Invest in vitamin supplements – especially those that are high in easily-absorbed vitamin C.  Vitamin C strengthens the lungs and protects you from the harsh effects of air pollution.
6. Exercise regularly so your body can naturally detoxify. Many toxins are stored in the body’s tissues.  When you exercise, these toxins are transported outside of the body.  With regular exercise, you will feel lighter and more energized because you have less toxin load in your body.
7. If you live in a highly polluted area and you need to use your bike or motorcycle, do wear a dust mask.

Sources:
aolhealth.com
sixwise.com
fitness.ygoy.com
iqair.com

Discuss this post in Frank Mangano’s forum!

From Depressed Metabolism, a look at the folk who are trying to ensure that cryonics patients can preserve their resources as well as the fine structure of their brains: "On the weekend of April 23-25 I attended a meeting of the cryonics Asset Preservation Group held [near] Gloucester, Massachusetts. I will try to give a few brief summaries without going into detail about every presentation. ... A central problem for cryonicists wanting revival trusts is that Cryopreserved Persons (CPs) are legally dead and are not ascertainable beneficiaries under trust law. My solution to this problem has been to have cryonics organizations (rather than the legal system) recognize the reanimated CP as the beneficiary. But finding the right cryonics organization to do this is not always easy. ... the best presentation at this meeting of the Asset Preservation Group was the one on 'Personal Revival Trusts' by Igor Levenberg. I have been working with the thorny problems associated with cryonics reanimation trusts for years and I have never seen such careful and persuasive legal analyses."

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.depressedmetabolism.com/2010/06/02/fourth-asset-preservation-group-meeting/

Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/

Cryonics provider Alcor is holding a 40th anniversary conference in October, and the presently announced program looks much like this: "Sebastian Seung on testing how well cryopreservation (and alternatives) preserves the connectome. Todd Huffman on brain scanning. Panel discussion on long-term financial planning, including investing strategies, inflation protection, and personal trusts. Aschwin and Chana de Wolf from Advanced Neural Biosciences on advances in cryonics-relevant research. Greg Fahy from 21st Century Medicine on advances in cryoprotection. Aubrey de Grey from the SENS Foundation. Joshua Mitteldorf on programmed aging. Anders Sandberg on 'Handling the unknowable and undecidable: rational decision making about future technology.' Catherine Baldwin on advances at Suspended Animation. Panel on medical monitoring devices for improving your chances of a quick response in case of a critical physiological failure. Max More on how to improve your prospects for an optimal cryopreservation."

Link: http://www.alcor.org/conferences/2012/

Source:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/newsletter/latest_rss_feed.cfm

A piece by author David Stipp gives an overview of the past few years of research into the effects of rapamycin: "The first strong evidence that a drug could slow aging in mammals came out in 2009 when scientists reported that chronically feeding doses of rapamycin to mice significantly extended their average and maximum lifespans. Yet rapamycin, a drug used to help prevent rejection of transplanted organs, causes multiple side effects in people, including elevated triglycerides and cholesterol, increasing the risk of heart disease; moderate immune suppression, perhaps increasing infection risks; and low blood platelet levels, which raises the specter of dangerous bleeding. In recent years another especially surprising and troubling side effect has come to the fore: Chronically taking large doses of rapamycin induces 'insulin insensitivity' in both rodents and humans, leading to rising blood sugar and potentially to type 2 diabetes. How do we reconcile such adverse effects with the drug's unprecedented ability to boost healthy aging and longevity, at least in mice? Some telling insights on this burning issue were recently published in two reports on rapamycin's effect on insulin and blood sugar: a mouse study that revealed a probable mechanism behind the effect and a theory paper suggesting that the purported diabetes risk has been overblown."

Link: http://www.davidstipp.com/rapamycins-anti-aging-promise-mirage-or-not/

Source:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/newsletter/latest_rss_feed.cfm

Researchers interested in finding genetic contributions to longevity generally start with some form of correlation study: trying to find commonalities between the genomes and epigenomes of long-lived individuals. So far, this has produced a great deal of data, much of which is unique to particular study populations - which suggests that there are many, many contributions to longevity buried in human genetic variations, and most are not all that important when considered in isolation. The odds of finding anything resembling a master switch for additional life span look remote at this point.

So the situation is complex, quite aside from the fact that it would still be a troublesome field of research even if the hunt was for one or more master switches. Researchers face an uphill struggle, as noted in a recent open access commentary, and thus have to be more inventive in their research:

It is a stroke of irony that lifespan - the principal phenotype used to search for aging genes - is a terrible phenotype for genetic analysis. Lifespan has relatively low heritability under most conditions, and it is affected by chronic, age-related diseases that confound its use as a biomarker of aging.

If the majority of aging genes are pleiotropic, as proposed by the evolutionary theory of aging, an opportunity is provided to identify these genes through the "back door," using phenotypes that are more amenable to genetic analysis.

To choose the pleiotropic phenotype for our studies, we went back more than 50 years to Williams, who, in his seminal paper, specified four "physiological expectations that follow from the theory," two of which we applied: "Rapid individual development should be correlated with rapid senescence," and, to specify a particular developmental phenotype, "The time of reproductive maturation should mark the onset of senescence." Therefore, to search for genes that regulate lifespan, we looked in the other direction - for genes that govern reproductive maturation.

The researchers then outline some of their investigations; when it produces candidate genetic variants, those variants still have to be confirmed in the same old standard, slow, and laborious way - animal studies of life span. In general the work of building a catalog of aging-related gene variants is slow going, and in the end will have far less practical application than other approaches to longevity science. This isn't to say that it shouldn't be done; all life science knowledge has value. But if the goal is to do something about the terrible cost of human aging, and do it as soon as possible, then approaches other than genetic investigation must have priority in the field.

Source:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/newsletter/latest_rss_feed.cfm

This interview, machine-translated from the Russian, will be of interest to those who look into the history of transhumanist thought on the defeat of aging and radical life extension. It has deep roots back into the early 20th century, and one thread of these ideas was evolving through the ongoing disaster that was Russia of that century - the Russian cosmists are thought of as important predecessors to modern transhumanism, for example. These are some thoughts and recollections of someone who was publishing and thinking on the topic in the 1960s and later; note that the Russian end of the longevity science community are far from shy when it comes to talking about physical immortality as the end goal of medicine: "Meanwhile, today, in the [21st] century, when we talk about the necessity of victory over death, of making real the possibility of personal immortality and resurrection [of cryopreserved] people - people often do not even bother to think about it, but with some, or even masochistic pleasure begin to look for rebuttal. One would think, what to look for them? Why create additional obstacles? Chance of dying there at all. So there is nothing to lose. Is not it better to try to work together and find ways to avoid it? ... But, oddly enough, and sadly, no modern humanity, nor any single country (maybe with the exception of Japan, as far as I know), even such a purpose not intended. It's still pretty amazing! After all, people continue to die today, but no action is [taken]. How so? ... And yet ... There is no doubt the science over the past half century has leaped forward. Scientific and technological progress has radically changed many things in our lives. And the inspirational process is irreversible. You ask ... where the source of my optimism. He is in me and outside me. This is my inner conviction, supported by all the progressive tradition of Russian philosophical thought and [unstoppable] scientific thought."

Link: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fm-batin.livejournal.com%2F144701.html

Source:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/newsletter/latest_rss_feed.cfm

If I mention medical nanorobotics, you might think of the designs put forward by Robert Freitas and others: molecular machines constructed largely from carbon that bear little relation to the cells and cellular system they are intended to interact with. Or you might think of the crude forerunners of those designs presently being tested in the laboratory, such as targeted nanoparticles and nanocontainers used to deliver drug compounds more precisely to where they are needed.

But you and I are built out of nanorobots: each of our cells is effectively a structured collection of cooperating, programmable nanoscale robots. They are evolved rather than designed, but still represent a vast preexisting parts library for researchers interested in building the first generation of medical nanorobots. While it is true that there are good reasons for reinventing this wheel, such as gaining far greater performance than is possible from anything similar to our present biology, given that time is of critical importance in developing the next generation of medicine, why not use these existing designs?

It seems likely that the first medical nanorobots (well, microrobots in this case) will be highly modified or even completely artificial cells. Why ignore the working blueprint that's right in front of you, after all?

Researchers are already building the prototypes, far more advanced than simple targeted nanoparticles. Here, for example, is news of progress towards nanofactories. These are programmable, artificial bacteria-like entities that can be set up to manufacture specific drug compounds in response to their local environment, or to signals from outside the body such as light or ingested chemicals.

Scientists are reporting an advance toward treating disease with minute capsules containing not drugs - but the DNA and other biological machinery for making the drug. ... development of nanoscale production units for protein-based drugs in the human body may provide a new approach for treating disease. These production units could be turned on when needed, producing medicines that cannot be taken orally or are toxic and would harm other parts of the body. Until now, researchers have only done this with live bacteria that were designed to make proteins at disease sites. But unlike bacterial systems, artificial ones are modular, and it is easier to modify them. That's why [this research group] developed an artificial, remotely activated nanoparticle system containing DNA and the other "parts" necessary to make proteins, which are the workhorses of the human cell and are often used as drugs.

They describe the nanoscale production units, which are tiny spheres encapsulating protein-making machinery like that found in living cells. The resulting nanoparticles produced active proteins on demand when the researchers shined a laser light on them. The nanoparticles even worked when they were injected into mice, which are stand-ins for humans in the laboratory, producing proteins when a laser was shone onto the animals.

The sky is the limit once biotechnology really takes off - and we're still in the early stages of this phase of progress. Much more is yet to come.

Source:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/newsletter/latest_rss_feed.cfm

Another review of Sonia Arrison's 100+: "I have to congratulate Sonia Arrison on putting together a book that is both highly accessible to newbies with no prior background in transhumanist thinking or longevity research, and also richly interesting to those of us who have playing in these regions of conceptual space for a long time. The main concepts in the book are indeed things I've been familiar with for a long time: (a) There is a host of rapidly accelerating technologies with the apparent capability of dramatically extending human healthspan, (b) Most likely, human psychology and society will adapt to dramatically increased human healthspan as it occurs, so that it will be experienced primarily as a Good Thing rather than as something traumatic or troublesome However, the book is packed with a sufficient number of interesting informational tidbits, that I found it well worth reading in spite of my general familiarity with the biology, psychology and sociology of radical longevity. ... Arrison reviews the key technological streams leading us toward radically increased healthspan - including gene therapy, stem cell therapy, Aubrey de Grey's SENS concept, artificial organs, tissue regeneration, the potential application of advanced AI to longevity research, and so forth. Both current research and envisioned future advances are considered. Then, in what is probably the greatest strength of the book, she considers the potential psychological and social impact of progressively increasing healthspan: the effects, as the book's subtitle indicates, on personal life, family relationships, marriage, careers and the economy etc. Combining common sense with appropriate invocations of rigorous research and statistics, Arrison provides the most systematic refutations I've seen of the standard anti-longevity arguments - 'death gives life meaning', 'overpopulation will starve or bankrupt us all', and so forth. Step by step, and in an invariably good-natured and friendly way, she demolishes these arguments, making a solid case that increased healthspan is likely improve rather than degrade our emotional health and family lives and enhance our careers and economies."

Link: http://hplusmagazine.com/2011/10/26/sonia-arrisons-100-plus-book-review/

Source:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/newsletter/latest_rss_feed.cfm

The opening up of information, communication, and organization brought by the internet is changing business as normal in every field, making it far easier for ideas on the edge to gain support and activity. This is important for the development of rejuvenation biotechnology, as the changing nature of scientific work can speed the move to the mainstream, and allow for far more useful progress to be achieved while the flow of funding is still comparatively small: "our entire model of education and what it means to be a 'trained professional' is shifting. There's a hell of a lot of resistance from the status quo - which makes it difficult and inconvenient for rapid progress - but it isn't enough to stop it from happening. ... When the university system and the current PhD paradigm was invented, it was a different time. ... If you wanted to study advanced topics, or apprentice under someone famous to learn from their expertise, you needed to go to a university. But things are different now. Technology allows us access to some of the leading minds of our age [making] proximity to a university campus nearly irrelevant in order to meet other students and benefit from valuable peer-to-peer discussions. With the world's information available on the web, and with all of these advances in technology allowing for rapid data sharing and collaboration, how much value is there in the Ivory Tower? We are becoming a society of autodidacts, with information at our fingertips 24/7. Citizen Science is a natural consequence of that. Have an interesting scientific inquiry? Get on the web and investigate it. Learn from the millions of sources out there. Crowdsource some ideas, generate some hypotheses. Have discussions with others. Make a plan. Get your equipment. The scientific method is in-progress. Science is free for all to explore. Why waste time jumping through bureaucratic hoops when you can begin investigating what you want, when you want? Need to fund your research? Crowdsourced methods of funding, such as Kickstarter, are becoming more popular for these types of endeavors. Instead of 100 scientists chasing the same grant, why not go to the public and let them fund what they think is valuable? I think we'll be seeing a lot more of this in the future."

Link: http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/4935

Source:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/newsletter/latest_rss_feed.cfm