An interview with a researcher: "Advances in the study of stem cells have fueled hopes that someday, via regenerative medicine, doctors could restore aging people's hearts, livers, brains and other organs and tissues to a more youthful state. A key to reaching this goal - to be able to provide stem cells that will differentiate into other types of cells a patient needs - appears to lie in understanding 'epigenetics,' which involves chemical marks stapled onto DNA and its surrounding protein husk by specialized enzyme complexes inside a cell's nucleus. These markings produce long-lasting changes in genes' activity levels within the cell - locking genes into an 'on' or 'off' position. Epigenetic processes enable cells to remain true to type (a neuron, for instance, never suddenly morphs into a fat cell) even though all our cells, regardless of type, share the same genetic code. But epigenetic processes also appear to play a critical role in reducing cells' vitality as they age. ... Aging seems to involve a gradual deterioration of function as cells and tissues are exposed to stresses either from outside the body, such as chemicals we ingest or irradiation from the sun, or from inside the body, such as free radicals, produced every moment when cells are making energy. These myriad insults can, among other things, alter a cell's epigenetic settings, resulting in changed patterns of gene activity that diminish the cell's overall ability to function. ... Although some aspects of cellular aging - DNA mutations, for instance - would be difficult to 'reset,' we and others have done experiments suggesting that many of the characteristics of old cells and tissues can indeed be reversed, restoring them to a more youthful state. Much of our work has focused on stem cells, and in particular on the changes that occur with age and that reduce stem cells' ability to maintain or repair tissues. Our findings fit nicely with the idea that some of the causes of aging are epigenetic in character, as opposed to actual damage to genes. Most importantly, our data suggest that cells and tissues can be rejuvenated without losing their specific characteristics - old muscle stem cells, when rejuvenated, remain muscle stem cells rather than become some more generic, undifferentiated cell."

Link: http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2012/january/5q-rando-0123.html

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

A study of markers of oxidative stress in centenarians: "Human longevity is a complex phenotype that is determined by environment, genetics, and chance. Understanding the mechanisms by which aging leads to longevity, particularly healthy longevity would be of enormous benefit to our aging population. Unfortunately, most research on human aging has focused on phenomenological description of age-related diseases, and much less is known about the mechanisms of aging itself. Among the most promising theories about how and why we age is the Free Radical Theory, initially proposed by Denham Harman in 1956. Harman proposed that oxygen radicals produced during aerobic respiration induce oxidative damage in DNA, cells, tissues, and organisms that lead to aging and death. ... Harman hypothesized, based on observations of enzymatic redox chemistry, that oxygen radical generation occurs in vivo and that mechanisms exist to protect against such damage. Mitochondria were later found to be a principal source of these oxygen radicals ... Okinawa has among the world's longest-lived populations but oxidative stress in this population has not been well characterized. ... The low plasma level of [oxidized lipids] in Okinawan centenarians, compared to younger controls, argues for protection against oxidative stress in the centenarian population and is consistent with the predictions of the Free Radical Theory of Aging."

Link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3068305/

The process of understanding how to manipulate stem cells goes hand in hand with being able to coax them into forming more complex structures, recapitulating the path taken during the original development of the body when young. The state of the art at the present time is crude in comparison to what takes place in our bodies: the only way that researchers can presently obtain complex tissues is by using the extracellular matrix extracted from donor tissue as a guide for new growth. That guidance is as much chemical as structural, which is illustrated in the following recently announced research.

'Retina in a Dish' is the Most Complex Tissue Ever Engineered in the Lab:

Researchers in Japan have grown a retina from mouse embryonic stem cells in a lab, but this isn't just another incremental advance in tissue engineering. Scientists claim their "retina in a dish" is by no small degree the most complex biological tissue yet engineered.

If the breakthrough can be adapted to work with human cells, it could provide a retina that is safe for transplantation into human eyes, providing a potential cure for many kinds of blindness. That's still years away, but in the meantime the lab-grown mouse tissue could provide researchers with a wealth of information on eye diseases and potential treatments for them.

Cultured mouse embryonic stem cells self-organize into a complex retinal structure:

Starting with the culture conditions they had established for retinal differentiation, the researchers added matrix proteins that they hoped would encourage the formation of the more rigid retinal epithelial structures. They then seeded the culture with mouse [embryonic stem] cells. Within a week, the cells began to form small vesicles and differentiate into two different tissue types: Cells on one side of the vesicles formed the mechanically rigid pigment epithelium, while cells on the other side differentiated into a more flexible tissue that folded inward in the shape of an embryonic optic cup - the retina's precursor.

As you can see, researchers remain a long way away from growing a transplant-ready human retina from cells alone - but this is still an important step forward in the path towards producing such a thing. What is learned here will also inform efforts to build the thousand other tissue types we'd like to be able to produce from scratch.

The evidence points toward mitochondrial structure and function being very important in the progression of aging within a species and differences in life span between species. Here researchers review some of the mechanisms involved: "Mitochondria are considered major regulators of longevity, although their exact role in aging is not fully understood. Data from different laboratories show a negative correlation between reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated by complex I and lifespan. This suggests that complex I has a central role in the regulation of longevity. Here, we review data that both support and refute the role of complex I as a pacemaker of aging. We include data from our laboratory, where we have manipulated ROS production by the electron transport chain (ETC) in Drosophila melanogaster. The by-pass of complex I increases the lifespan of the fruit fly, but it is not clear if this is caused by a reduction in ROS or by a change in the NAD+ to NADH ratio. We propose that complex I regulates aging through at least two mechanisms: (1) an ROS-dependent mechanism that leads to mitochondrial DNA damage and (2) an ROS-independent mechanism through the control of the NAD+ to NADH ratio. Control of the relative levels of NAD+ and NADH would allow the regulation of (1) glyco- and (2) lipoxidative-damage and (3) the activation of sirtuins." Amongst other things, the NAD+ / NADH ratio determines how much in the way of damaging free radicals a cell exports into the surrounding environment.

Link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21471732

Sulforaphane, an active compound extracted from broccoli, offers hope to breast cancer sufferers as it is capable of killing off cancer stem cells.

According to new research from the US, a compound found in the popular vegetable broccoli is capable of targeting and killing off cancer stem cells.  According to the research, which was published recently in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, the compound sulforaphane was capable of killing off cancer stem cells and prevented new cancerous growths from emerging.

Broccoli vs. cancerous tumors

Collating their data with other earlier studies on the subject, the US researchers noted that sulforaphane was able to reduce the resistance of cancerous tumors to conventional treatment.  Since the compound reduces tumor resistance, a second theory arose: the compound may be the key to solving the problem with relapses, or recurring cancer.

The researchers further noted that people who consumed more broccoli tend to have less risk of breast cancer.  Since the compound is derived naturally from the vegetable, it has very low toxicity and can be utilized by the body easily (high bioavailability).

Bioavailability is an important concept in medical treatments because if a drug has low bioavailability, it becomes less effective and the patient would eventually need to take higher doses of the drug to get the desired results.  To date, sulforaphane has already been marketed as a food supplement.  However, the amount of sulforaphane in supplements is not being regulated.

Broccoli vs. diabetes

It seems that like a few other organic compounds like resveratrol, sulforaphane is enjoying widespread popularity because it provides so many benefits.  In another study published in the medical journal Diabetes, it was found that the same compound may be helpful in reducing the vascular damage associated with long-term diabetes.

As you may know, diabetes causes a lot of problems to diabetics, including damage to blood vessels.  This damage to blood vessels may even cause blindness if the diabetes is not treated and monitored correctly.

Sulforaphane, according to the study in Diabetes, was capable of reducing the damage to body’s blood vessels by activating enzyme production.  The enzyme produced protects the blood vessels from the ravages of diabetes.

The compound also helped the body by helping produce enzymes that disabled free radicals in the body.  In yet another study, the compound offered hope to family lines with histories of cancer.

It appears that the compound was also capable of preventing cells from passing on damaged or corrupted genetic information to the next generation of cells.  In another study (this is the fourth!) sulforaphane was also linked to reducing the chances of aggressive prostate cancer in men by more than forty-five percent.

Sources:
mayoclinic.com
nutraingredients.com

Discuss this post in Frank Mangano’s forum!

More data from primate studies: "Caloric restriction (CR) reduces the pathological effects of aging and extends the lifespan in many species, including nonhuman primates, although the effect on the brain is less well characterized. We used two common indicators of aging, motor performance speed and brain iron deposition measured in vivo using MRI, to determine the potential effect of CR on elderly rhesus macaques eating restricted and standard diets. Both the CR and control monkeys showed age-related increases in iron concentrations in globus pallidus (GP) and substantia nigra (SN), although the CR group had significantly less iron deposition in the GP, SN, red nucleus, and temporal cortex. A diet x age interaction revealed that CR modified age-related brain changes, evidenced as attenuation in the rate of iron accumulation in basal ganglia and parietal, temporal, and perirhinal cortex. Additionally, control monkeys had significantly slower fine motor performance on the Movement Assessment Panel, which was negatively correlated with iron accumulation in left SN and parietal lobe, although CR animals did not show this relationship. Our observations suggest that the CR-induced benefit of reduced iron deposition and preserved motor function may indicate neural protection similar to effects described previously in aging rodent and primate species." You might recall that iron buildup is associated with lipofuscin accumulation in our cells, which damages the process of autophagy, which in turn leads to degeneration.

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20534842

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

In a recent post at Depressed Metabolism Aschwin de Wolf discusses arguments against cryonics - the low temperature storage of the deceased that aims to preserve the data contained in the brain. For example, what would be needed to make a rational, scientific case against cryonics?

What is striking about cryonics is that those who have taken serious efforts to understand the arguments in favor of its technical feasibility generally endorse the idea. Those who have not made cryonics arrangements usually give non-technical arguments (anxiety about the future, loss of family and friends, etc), lack funding or life insurance, or are (self-identified) procrastinators. In contrast, those who reject cryonics are almost invariably uninformed. They do not understand what happens to cells when they freeze, they are not aware of vitrification (solidification without ice formation), they think that brain cells "disappear" five minutes after cardiac arrest, they demand proof of suspended animation as a condition for endorsing cryonics, etc.

his does not mean that no serious arguments could be presented. [For example, it could be argued that] memory and identity are encoded in such a fragile and delicate manner that cerebral ischemia, ice formation or cryoprotectant toxicity irreversibly destroy it. Considering our limited understanding of the nature of consciousness, and the biochemical and molecular basis of memory, this cannot be ruled out.

Cryonics advocates can respond to such a challenge by producing an argument that pairs our current understanding of the neuroanatomical basis of identity and memory to a cryobiological argument in order to argue that existing cryonics procedures are expected to preserve it. An excellent, knowledgeable, response of this kind is offered in Mike Darwin's Does Personal Identity Survive Cryopreservation? Cryonics skeptics in turn could produce evidence that existing cryonics procedures fall short of this goal.

To my eyes, the weight of evidence presently favors low temperature vitrification being an adequate methodology to preserve the data of the brain. The practice could be greatly improved upon in many ways, such as by eliminating the toxicity of chemicals that must presently be used. There is always room for revolutionary improvement in any technology, but vitrification as it stands seems to be up to the bare essentials of the job: preserve the data sufficiently well for later restoration of a human mind.

Sadly most of the arguments made against cryonics are far from scientific and rational, and in this it is in a similar position to research into the biotechnologies of engineered human longevity. Most people argue against radical life extension from the gut, not the head, when they are first introduced to the concept. It is an instinctive rejection of anything that looks like change: one of the less helpful aspects of human nature at work. People are fiercely defensive of the norm, whatever the norm might happen to be, even when it involves ongoing preventable deaths on a massive, staggering scale.

The human death toll in the Year 2001 from all 227 nations on Earth was nearly 55 million people, of which about 52 million were not directly caused by human action, that is, not accidents, or suicides, or war. They were "natural" deaths.

It will be possible to replace the functions of some organs with machines in the near future, this advance accomplished on much the same timescale as the creation of tissue engineered replacement organs: "An artificial pancreas system that closely mimics the body's blood sugar control mechanism was able to maintain near-normal glucose levels without causing hypoglycemia in a small group of patients. The system, combining a blood glucose monitor and insulin pump technology with software that directs administration of insulin and the blood-sugar-raising hormone glucagon, was developed at Boston University (BU). The first clinical trial of the system was conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and confirmed the feasibility of an approach utilizing doses of both hormones ... Large doses of glucagon are used as a rescue drug for people with severely low blood sugar. Our system is designed to counteract moderate drops in blood sugar with minute doses of glucagon spread out throughout the day, just as the body does in people without diabetes." The future for this sort of technology is one of miniaturization, falling cost, and the possibility of incorporation into the body as an implanted device.

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-04/mgh-nap041210.php

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

Via EurekAlert!: "excess abdominal fat places otherwise healthy, middle-aged people at risk for dementia later in life. ... [The study] included 733 community participants who had a mean age of 60 years with roughly 70% of the study group comprised of women. Researchers examined the association between Body Mass Index (BMI), waist circumference, waist to hip ratio, CT-based measures of abdominal fat, with MRI measures of total brain volume (TCBV), temporal horn volume (THV), white matter hyperintensity volume (WMHV) and brain infarcts in the middle-aged participants. ... Our results confirm the inverse association of increasing BMI with lower brain volumes in older adults and with younger, middle-aged adults and extends the findings to a much larger study sample. ... Prior studies were conducted in cohorts with less than 300 participants and the current study includes over 700 individuals. ... More importantly our data suggests a stronger connection between central obesity, particularly the visceral fat component of abdominal obesity, and risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease ... the association between VAT and TCBV was most robust and was also independent of BMI and insulin resistance. Researchers did not observe a statistically significant correlation between CT-based abdominal fat measures and THV, WMHV or BI."

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-05/w-afa051910.php

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

From the SENS Foundation: "Aggregates of beta-amyloid (Abeta) and other malformed proteins accumulate in brain aging and neurodegenerative disease, leading progressively to neuronal dysfunction and/or loss. The regenerative engineering solution to these insults is therapeutic clearance of aggregates, extracellular (such as Abeta plaques) and intracellular (such as soluble, oligomeric Abeta). Immunotherapeutic Abeta clearance from the brain is a very active field of Alzheimer's research, with at least seven passive, and several second-generation active, Abeta vaccines currently in human clinical trials ... One challenge to optimal vaccine design is matching the specificity of antibodies the range of Abeta aggregates that form in vivo ... agents that sequester one Abeta species may leave other species intact, and in some cases a shift in assembly dynamics can actually promote the formation of one species while clearing or reducing the formation of others ... Although in very early in vivo testing, a new approach has emerged that may offer that promise. This is the use of an Abeta-targeting affibody, i.e., a novel non-immunoglobulin binding protein generated through combinatorial protein engineering."

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.sens.org/node/785

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

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is one of the reasons our immune systems decay with aging: too many immune cells become specialized to deal with CMV, leaving too few to deal with everything else. New research "explains how a virus that has already infected up to 80 percent of the American population can repeatedly re-infect individuals despite the presence of a strong and long-lasting immune response. The research involves cytomegalovirus (CMV), which infects 50 percent to 80 percent of the U.S. population before age 40. ... For most people, CMV infection goes undetected and they do not become seriously ill. ... When most viruses infect a host, the immune system remembers the disease and protects against re-infection. This is the case with smallpox, seasonal strains of flu and several other viruses. This immune system reaction is also the reason why vaccines made with weakened or dead viruses work against these pathogens. In the case of CMV, the body's immune system is continuously stimulated by ongoing, low-level persistent infection, but yet CMV is still able to re-infect. This research explains how CMV is able to overcome this immune response so that re-infection occurs. ... The results of this study primarily illustrate the significant barriers to creating a vaccine that will prevent CMV infection." But a vaccine won't do much for people already burdened by an CMV-focused immune system. What we want is a way to use targeted cell killing strategies to destroy CMV-related immune cells and free up space for more useful immune cells.

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-04/ohs-ore033010.php

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

A good review paper: "Our understanding of autophagy has expanded greatly in recent years, largely due to the identification of the many genes involved in the process, and to the development of better methods to monitor the process, such as GFP-LC3 to visualize autophagosomes in vivo. A number of groups have demonstrated a tight connection between autophagy and mitochondrial turnover. Mitochondrial quality control is the process whereby mitochondria undergo successive rounds of fusion and fission with a dynamic exchange of components in order to segregate functional and damaged elements. Removal of the mitochondrion that contains damaged components is accomplished via autophagy (mitophagy). Mitophagy also serves to eliminate the subset of mitochondria producing the most reactive oxygen species, and episodic removal of mitochondria will reduce the oxidative burden, thus linking the mitochondrial free radical theory of aging with longevity achieved through caloric restriction. Mitophagy must be balanced by biogenesis to meet tissue energy needs, but the system is tunable and highly dynamic. This process is of greatest importance in long-lived cells such as cardiomyocytes, neurons, and memory T cells. Autophagy is known to decrease with age, and the failure to maintain mitochondrial quality control through mitophagy may explain why the heart, brain, and components of the immune system are most vulnerable to dysfunction as organisms age."

View the Article Under Discussion: http://pmid.us/20357180

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

I posted not so long ago on the topic of foundational work in artificial sight:

The present mainstream approach involves building a grid of electrodes in place of the retinal cells lost to forms of degenerative blindness; images captured by a worn camera are analyzed and the electrodes stimulated appropriately. ... Progress in this model is at present a matter of making implantation safer and more reliable, greatly increasing the density of electrodes, and improving the ability to translate a camera's view into a helpful picture - a combination of medicine, electrical engineering, and computer vision research. The end result of this form of technology will never produce anything more than a detailed, glowing sketch of dots and lines for the patient: it is not true vision as experienced by those of us fortune enough to retain our sight. Nonetheless it works - already providing a great improvement for patients over being blind - and it will serve as a foundation for later forms of artificial sight technology.

Today, let me point your attention to a refinement of this technology under development by a German company:

researchers based in Germany have developed a retinal implant that has allowed three blind people to see shapes and objects within days of the implant being installed. ... The device - known as a subretinal implant - sits underneath the retina, directly replacing light receptors lost in retinal degeneration. As such, it uses the eyes' natural image processing capabilities beyond the light detection stage to produce a visual perception in the patient that is stable and follows their eye movements. Other types of retinal implants - known as epiretinal implants - sit outside the retina and because they bypass the intact light-sensitive structures in the eyes they require the user to wear an external camera and processor unit.

...

"The present study...presents proof-of-concept that such devices can restore useful vision in blind human subjects, even though the ultimate goal of broad clinical application will take time to develop."

This seems like a natural evolution if it can be made to work in a practical fashion - cut out the aspects of the system that were awkward to manage in favor of an implant that can stand alone. The obvious path for incremental improvement is still to increase the number and density of electrodes, and thus the resolution of the glowing grids and images seen by the patient. Work on that area will likely benefit numerous similar lines of development in the artificial sight community.

There remains a big difference between "vision" and "useful vision" - but I imagine that the gap will close as this technology evolves further. An implant that replaces one part of an eye is an invitation to build a second implant that attaches to it and replaces a neighboring feature...and so forth. This research and development community will give the tissue engineers a run for their money.

ABINGDON, Va. A local business owner is hoping to ring in the new year with less stress and more focus on well-being.

Angie Cvetkovski, co-owner of Balkan Bakery in Abingdon, has signed up to take tai chi classes beginning Monday, Jan. 6, at Western Masters Martial Arts in Abingdon.

Ive just turned 50, and I can tell I need more flexibility. Ive read about the benefits of tai chi, and I felt like this was the perfect time to learn, said Cvetkovski, who has a workload that is filled to capacity with obligations and tasks.

My plate is full. I have three kids and operate a family-owned business. Im also an esthetician on top of having a full-time job.

Cvetkovski is among many people who are searching for the secret to balancing stress in their lives.

According to Dane Harden, owner of Western Masters Martial Arts, tai chi offers a variety of physical and mental benefits for dealing with stress and anxiety in a modern world.

Stress in general can be extremely harmful to your overall health, said Harden, who is a primary care provider at the Veterans Affairs medical center in Bristol, Virginia.

Tai chi is an ancient Chinese form of medicine that is practiced as a grace form of exercise. A series of slow movements are accompanied by deep breathing and stretching. The exercises are performed in constant flowing movements.

When we think of tai chi in this country, we think about the slow-moving hand movements, but its really an energy exercise, and its incredibly good for your health, said Harden, an accomplished martial artist who was admitted into the Martial Arts Masters Hall of Fame in 2010, an honor he shares with martial artist celebrities including Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bill Superfoot Wallace and Michael Jai White.

Tai chi is basically standing meditation and breathing exercises. Its terrific for helping to control breathing and releasing stress.

According to the instructor, tai chi increases longevity, improves muscle strength, balance and flexibility, boosts cognitive function and helps aid in sleep. It can improve symptoms of fibromyalgia and COPD, promote weight loss, reduce fall risks and decrease pain from arthritis.

The tai chi classes are appropriate for all age levels. My tai chi class will focus more on the health value instead of the martial arts applications. Students will learn the physical application, meditation and theory of tai chi, he said.

The ongoing classes will be rather informal. We will focus on tai chi for fitness. The idea is to get people on the mats, get them moving and understanding the whole process of tai chi. Well also have a few reading assignments to help people understand the relationships between the body and mind.

Cvetkovski jumped at the chance to enroll in the local tai chi classes. I dont think there is anyone better to teach this class than Dane Harden. He is a hidden treasure in Southwest Virginia, said the mother, who became familiar with the studio after her children enrolled in Hardens martial arts classes.

Harden started the Western Masters Martial Arts business in 1979 in Maryland, eventually opening dojos or schools in Tennessee, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.

He had a vision of a martial arts school dedicated to making the world a safer place one student at a time. Our primary goal here is to train our students to deal with real-world problems, both mentally and physically, he said.

Harden, 62, has excelled at martial arts most of his life. He began studying aikido, a modern Japanese martial arts, in 1969 at the age of 10.

He trained in taekwondo with the Jhoon Rhee Institute in Cumberland, Maryland, before enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1976. Most of his 35 years in the service were spent as a flight surgeon. Harden retired as a colonel in the Army in 2018 as a highly decorated combat veteran with several operational deployments to his credit.

His last military assignment was as the deputy commander for the U.S. Army Medical Command (MEDCOM) in Nashville, Tennessee.

Hardens combat service was in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Kosovo. He served with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Romania, Bulgaria and the Republic of Georgia and completed missions in South America. Stateside, at Hurricane Katrina, he completed search and rescue missions and also served in medical response during the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996.

Martial arts study and practice accompanied me on all of this and kept me safe in mind and body, said the retired soldier.

His military awards are too numerous to list, but one of his most prestigious honors was the Order of Military Medical Merit, which is awarded to less than 10% of career military medicine professionals. His stellar medical career is mentioned in the book, Rush to Danger: Medics in the Line of Fire, by bestselling author Ted Barris.

Harden continued to practice martial arts even while he was in the service, earning black belt ranks in aikido and Isshin-Ryu Karate-do and, most notably, an eighth-degree black belt in taekwondo.

He has competed in tournaments on the U.S. National Karate Circuit for more than 30 years, winning awards for forms, fighting and weapons competitions at state, regional and national levels.

The tai chi classes will be held 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Mondays at Western Masters Martial Arts studio at 1948 Lee Highway in Abingdon.

Gym clothing is recommended. The cost of the classes is $60 per month.

For more information about the classes and other martial arts offered, call the studio at 276-356-3196.

Carolyn R. Wilson is a freelance writer in Glade Spring, Virginia. Contact her at news@washconews.com.

Go here to see the original:
Local tai chi courses offer balance and benefits for stress-filled lives - Southwest Virginia Today

The Durst Organization and The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey today announced that DADA Holdings LLC has signed a five-year lease for 4,786 square feet on the 71st floor of One World Trade Center. Princeton Longevity Center signed a 10-year lease for 11,075 square feet on the 71st floor. This will be both DADA and Princeton Longevitys first offices in New York City. Ichnos Science Inc., moving its offices to New York City from Paramus, New Jersey signed a seven-year and five-month lease for 10,847 square feet on the 76th floor. Pison Stream Solutions signed a three-year lease for 10,804 square feet on the 49th floor of OWTC, making the building their global headquarters.

Also signed at the One World Trade Center were two expansion deals. Symphony Communications Services has signed a one-year lease for 3,510 square feet on the 45th floor, bringing their total square footage on the floor to 12,100 square feet. Additionally, Augustus Intelligence signed a five-year lease for 6,475 on the 77th floor of OWTC, doubling their footprint with a move from the 45th floor.

We are extremely pleased with the leasing activity at One World Trade Center, said Jonathan (Jody) Durst, President of The Durst Organization. We are beginning the year by welcoming our newest tenants DADA Holdings, Ichnos, Princeton Longevity and Pison and celebrating the success of Symphony and Augustus with their office expansions at One WTC.

Princeton Longevity Center was represented by Steven Rotter, Blake Goodman and Justin Haber of JLL. Ichnos Sciences was represented by Cushman & Wakefields Drew Braver and Mark Zaziski. Michael Thomas and Aidan Campbell of Colliers represented Pison. Symphony Communications Services was represented by Christopher Foerch of Savills. And Augustus was represented by Carol Engel of CS Engel and Associates. The landlord was represented by Senior Managing Director Eric Engelhardt and Managing Director Karen Kuznick of The Durst Organization and the Newmark Knight Frank team of David Falk, Jason Greenstein, Peter Shimkin, Hal Stein and Travis Wilson.

Augustus Intelligence builds artificial intelligence products and secure infrastructure services to help enterprise clients reinvent themselves.

Pison Stream Solutions is a global leader in the research and development of chemical coatings platforms for niche markets. They implement their systems across defense, aerospace, automotive, antimicrobial, renewable energy applications, and additive platforms.

Princeton Longevity Center is a next-generation medical facility combining the most advanced technology with an integrated and individually tailored Preventive Medicine program. Princeton Longevity Centers Preventive Medicine and Executive Health programs give you the ability to take control of your future health before the onset of symptoms or other indications of a problem.

A fully integrated, global biotechnology company with the spirit of a start-up, Ichnos Sciences is shifting the way the world thinks about innovation in medicine through its research and development of transformative, disease-centric treatments in oncology, autoimmune disease and pain. The Company, with headquarters in Paramus, N.J., is rapidly advancing a clinical-stage pipeline of novel, first-in-class candidates designed to address complex diseases and treat patients holistically. With a patented BEAT technology platform along with pioneering teams in Switzerland and India, Ichnos Sciences has a mission to provide breakthrough, curative therapies that will hopefully extend and improve lives, writing a new chapter in healthcare.

Symphony offers a secure team collaboration platform that transforms the way users communicate effectively and securely with a single workflow application. Symphony is designed to help individuals, teams, and organizations of all sizes improve productivity while meeting complex data security and regulatory compliance needs. Symphony was founded in October 2014 and is headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, with offices in Hong Kong, London, New York, Paris, Singapore, Sophia-Antipolis, Stockholm and Tokyo.

Dominating the Lower Manhattan skyline, One World Trade Center is the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere and home to the largest community of media and tech innovators. The 3.1 million-square-foot LEED Gold Certified skyscraper features premier office space and some of the most spectacular views in the world.

The state-of-the-art architectural, environmental, and structural enhancements of One World Trade Center incorporate the latest technologies and innovations at the cutting edge of efficient skyscraper design. On the 64th floor, One World Commons offers 25,000 square feet of outstanding tenant amenities including a world-class business and social hub fostering workplace creativity, collaboration, and community.

Built by The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and The Durst Organization in a unique public-private partnership, One World Trade Center sets a new standard of design, construction, and prestige. Bringing a wealth of private sector experience to One World Trade Center, The Durst Organization is responsible for marketing, leasing, and managing the property.

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Durst Organization inks 47000 s/f of leases at One WTC - Real Estate Weekly

It is good that scientists are now more willing than in past years to talk about human longevity and the prospects for reversing aging through medical science. That change in attitudes is a necessary part of creating an environment in which rejuvenation research programs like SENS can thrive.

This particular group of researchers holds a different view as to which of the known changes in old cells and tissues are fundamental and thus cause aging: in the SENS outline telomere shortening is a secondary effect and nuclear DNA damage is only a cause of cancer rather than aging, but this paper puts them front and center as primary causes of aging. These researchers are also as yet unwilling to explicitly talk about rejuvenation rather than simply slowing aging, but a rising tide floats all boats.

All in all I’m very pleased to see scientists independently following the SENS model by producing a work that combines (a) specific descriptions of the changes proposed to cause aging and (b) specific proposals on how to use this information to build therapies that will address aging. The paper is open access for the moment at least, so you might take a look:

For some species, living twice as long in good health depends on no more than a few genes. When this fact was revealed by studies on worms three decades ago, it ushered in a golden age of ageing studies that has delivered numerous results, but also sown some confusion. [Researchers are now] publishing an exhaustive review of the subject that aims to set things straight and “serve as a framework for future studies.” All the molecular indicators of ageing in mammals – the nine signatures that mark the advance of time – are set out in its pages. And the authors also indicate which can be acted upon in order to prolong life, while debunking a few myths like the belief that antioxidants can delay aging.

The authors are Spanish scientists Maria Blasco (Spanish National Cancer Research Centre, CNIO), Carlos López-Otín (University of Oviedo), and Manuel Serrano (CNIO), along with Linda Partridge (Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing) and Guido Kroemer (Paris Descartes University). Their inspiration came from a classic 2000 paper, The Hallmarks of Cancer, [which] marked a watershed in cancer research.

[This] removes the “frivolity” with which aging research is often approached: “It’s not about not having wrinkles or living to be a hundred at any cost, but about prolonging disease-free life.” [The] scientists are explicit about their final goal, which is “to identify pharmaceutical targets to improve human health during aging.”

Another milestone of the paper is that it not only defines the nine molecular hallmarks of aging but orders them into primary hallmarks – the triggers; those that make up the organism’s response to these triggers; and the functional defects resulting. This hierarchy is important, because different effects can be achieved by acting on one or other of these processes. By acting on just one mechanism, if it numbers among the primaries, we can delay the aging of many organs and tissues.

There are four primary causes of aging: genomic instability; the shortening of telomeres; epigenetic alterations; and loss of proteostasis.

Genomic instability refers to the defects the genes accumulate over time, due to intrinsic or extrinsic causes. The shortening of telomeres – the protective caps over the ends of chromosomes – is one such defect, but so important a one that it stands as a hallmark in its own right. Epigenetic alterations are the result of lived experience – our exposure to the environment.

Loss of proteostasis has to do with the non-elimination of defective proteins, whose accumulation promotes age-related diseases. With Alzheimer’s, for instance, neurons die because plaques form of a protein that should have been eliminated.

The organism responds to these triggers with mechanisms that try to correct the damage, but which can themselves turn deleterious if they become exacerbated or chronic. This is the case of cellular senescence: the cell is induced to stop dividing, and thus prevent cancer, when too many defects are built up, but if the effect is overdone, the tissues – and the body – age.

One therapeutic strategy tested successfully in mice is to stop the telomeres from shortening. “The process can be halted and even reversed in mice,” remarks Blasco, an expert in the area, who is convinced that, by and large, “we still have ample room for manoeuver to combat aging and enjoy more years of both life and health.”

For López-Otín, “We have diverse opportunities to extend longevity in the not too distant future. Treatments aimed at reducing or correcting the genomic damage that occurs with time are still a distant prospect, but those focusing on metabolic regulation systems may be much more achievable. We don’t aspire to immortality, just to the possibility of making life a little better for us all.”

Link: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-06/cndi-srw060313.php

Source:
http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2013/06/a-good-scientific-polemic-on-aging.php

Source:
http://www.longevitymedicine.tv/a-good-scientific-polemic-on-aging/

In the near future it will be possible to build artificial bodies, and some decades after that it will become possible to gradually replace the biology of our brains with more durable and capable nanomachinery. A diverse industry of brain-computer interfaces and artificial intelligences will arise and come to maturity along the way. Will we in fact largely become a species of intelligent machines within the next few centuries? By this I mean designed machines, as opposed to the evolved machines we presently are: entities that are human, but very distant from our present forms, functions, and limitations. When you design the machinery, rather than just working with what you have been given, an enormous range of possibilities open up. For one thing, even very complex machines can be designed to be far more robust and easily maintained than our biology, allowing a person-turned-machine-intelligence the option of an extremely long life expectancy.

Will there be a population-scale rush away from biology towards the new and better options for bodies and brains as soon as they become a practical concern? Some people think so, and I believe it is an inevitable transition given the far greater capabilities that could be provided by being more than merely biological. Perhaps not a rush, but a transition over time, leaving behind a disparate collection of Amish-like groups and poor communities that coexist and trade with the transitioned human societies. On the large scale people follow incentives: they buy the new tools that improve life, boost economic output, and add new options at an affordable price. Those groups with the greatest economic output grow to become the cultural mainstream over time. There’s no reason to think that any of this will change, no matter whether society is running on silicon or neurons. Here is an interesting thought, though:

Aubrey de Grey on Ending Aging and the Human Future

I spoke with Aubrey briefly on the topic of the future of humanity, and the potential scenarios (often discussed in the world of transhumanism and futurism) that might involve moving our human conscious into other substrates, giving us long-lasting silicon bodies and potentially moving our minds into computers that are more durable and reliable that our current biological grey matter.

It is Aubrey’s belief that the desire to leave our biological substrate will diminish as the “down-sides” of remaining purely biological go down. In other words, when we can more-or-less live forever in our present bodies, Aubrey believes that we will likely not wish to remove ourselves from them. The negative aspects of “being made of meat” – as he aptly put it – would be mitigated by an absence of disease and an absence of the recurring damage which is the origin of aging itself.

Another way of looking at the incentives of moving from biology to machinery is that it is not just a matter of chasing something better, but also a matter of leaving something undesirable. Discomfort is a great motivator, and evading the terrible suffering and death caused by aging is important to many of those who look with hope to a transhumanist future. Given an industry of rejuvenation medicine and complete control over aging, disease, and pain, however, being a standard issue biological human begins to look like an indefinitely comfortable existence – barring rare fatal accidents, of course, but who goes through life thinking that will happen to them?

So the argument here is that medicine, and specifically the defeat of degenerative aging, will alter the incentive landscape in a way that leads more people to choose to remain biological, even when it is possible to become a machine intelligence with greater capabilities and durability. My estimate of the timelines is that rejuvenation will be a going concern a long way prior to the point at which slow, safe replacement of the brain’s neurons with nanomachinery is possible. It’s possible that the increased comfort provided by the removal of age-related suffering and death will slow down progress towards ways to move biology to machinery.

But we shall see. It is interesting to think about these things, but important not to lose sight of the fact that researchers still need to build the means to reverse degenerative aging. There are detailed plans to show what needs to be done in order to rejuvenate the old, there are plenty of researchers ready to jump in and perform the work if given funding, but resources and public interest are – as ever – lacking. The future only stays fascinating if you remain alive to see it, so consider helping to speed progress towards the means of human life extension.

Source:
http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2013/06/the-incentives-associated-with-becoming-a-machine-entity.php

Source:
http://www.longevitymedicine.tv/the-incentives-associated-with-becoming-a-machine-entity/

It was once thought that the brain did not generate new neurons in adult life, but the evidence for ongoing neurogenesis was found a few decades ago. Levels of neurogenesis in humans have been hard to pin down, but knowing the degree to which it happens naturally has some relevance to attempts to induce a higher rate of neuron creation with the aim of reversing age-related loss of cognitive function. Here researchers find a way to quantify the level of cell turnover in at least one part of the brain:

The birth of new neurons in the adult brain sharpens memory in rodents, but whether the same holds true for humans has long been debated. A [study] reveals that a significant number of new neurons in the hippocampus – a brain region crucial for memory and learning – are generated in adult humans. The researchers used a unique strategy based on the amount of carbon-14 found in humans as a result of above-ground nuclear testing more than half a century ago. The findings suggest that new neurons are born daily in the human hippocampus, offering the tantalizing possibility that they may support cognitive functions in adulthood.

Due to technical limitations, until now it was not possible to quantify the amount of neurogenesis in humans. To overcome this hurdle, [researchers] developed an innovative method for dating the birth of neurons. This strategy takes advantage of the elevated atmospheric levels of carbon-14, a nonradioactive form of carbon, caused by above-ground nuclear bomb testing more than 50 years ago. Since the 1963 nuclear test ban treaty, atmospheric levels of “heavy” carbon-14 have declined at a known rate. When we eat plants or animal products, we absorb both normal and heavy carbon at the atmospheric ratios present at that time, and the exact atmospheric concentration at any point in time is stamped into DNA every time a new neuron is born. Thus, neurons can be “carbon dated” in a similar way to that used by archaeologists.

By measuring the carbon-14 concentration in DNA from hippocampal neurons of deceased humans, the researchers found that more than one-third of these cells are regularly renewed throughout life. About 1,400 new neurons are added each day during adulthood, and this rate declines only modestly with age.

Link: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-06/cp-ntf053113.php

Source:
http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2013/06/quantifying-neurogenesis-in-adult-humans.php

Source:
http://www.longevitymedicine.tv/quantifying-neurogenesis-in-adult-humans/

Mikhail Blagosklonny might be, to my eyes, a little too focused on mTOR as the be-all and end-all of aging, but he certainly writes a good paper when he puts his mind to it. This one is a thought-provoking look at similarities and differences in mechanisms that come into play at the opposite ends of the calorie intake spectrum. Differences in dietary habits lead, on average, to a longer, healthier life when eating less and a shorter, more unhealthy life when eating more. Naturally, the mechanisms underlying these changes are of interest to researchers who work on calorie restriction mimetic drugs, seeking to understand and then recreate the health benefits through medical technology:

Once again on rapamycin-induced insulin resistance and longevity: despite of or owing to:

Calorie restriction (CR), which deactivates the nutrient-sensing mTOR pathway, slows down aging and prevents age-related diseases such as type II diabetes. Compared with CR, rapamycin more efficiently inhibits mTOR. Noteworthy, severe CR and starvation cause a reversible condition known as "starvation diabetes." [and] chronic administration of rapamycin can cause a similar condition in some animal models. ... Here I introduce the notion of benevolent diabetes and discuss whether starvation-like effects of chronic high dose treatment with rapamycin are an obstacle for its use as an anti-aging drug.

...

[You] might wonder whether rapamycin extends lifespan despite or because of "starvation-like diabetes". ... Rapamycin, which inhibits mTOR, is a "starvation-mimetic", making the organism "think" that food is in a short supply. The most starvation-sensitive organ is the brain. The brain consumes only glucose and ketones. Therefore, to feed the brain during starvation, the liver produces glucose from amino acids (gluconeogenesis) and ketones from fatty acids (ketogenesis). Since insulin blocks both processes, the liver needs to become resistant to insulin. Also secretion of insulin by beta-cells is decreased. And adipocytes release fatty acids (lipolysis) to fuel ketogenesis by the liver. Thus, there are five noticeable metabolic alterations of starvation: gluconeogenesis, ketogenesis, insulin resistance, low insulin levels and increased lipolysis. This metabolic switch is known as starvation diabetes, a reversible condition, described 160 years ago.

...

Starvation-diabetes is not a true type II diabetes. Type II diabetes is a consequence of insulin-resistance in part due to excessive nutrients and obesity. ... Type II diabetes and starvation diabetes seem to be the two opposite conditions: the first is associated with activation of nutrient-sensing pathways, whereas the second is associated with deactivation of nutrient sensing pathways such as mTOR. Type II diabetes is dangerous by its complications such as retinopathy, neuropathy and accelerated atherosclerosis and cancer. Long-term effects of prolonged "starvation diabetes" is not known of course: it could not last for a long time, otherwise an animal (or human) would die from starvation. Or would not? ... Among individuals who had been practicing severe CR for an average of 7 years, 40% of CR individuals exhibited "diabetic-like" glucose intolerance, despite low levels of fasting glucose, insulin and inflammatory cytokines as well as excellent other metabolic profiles. In comparison with the rest CR individuals, they had lower BMI, leptin, circulating IGF-I, testosterone, and high levels of adiponectin, which are key adoptations to CR in rodents, suggesting severe CR.

The authors speculated that the "insulin resistance" in this severe CR group might have the effect of slowing aging, also based on the finding that a number of insulin-resistant strains of mice are long-lived. The same conclusion could be reached from the mTOR perspective

Metabolism is a complex thing, is it not? The benefits of calorie restriction in humans are legion, per the research to date, and it's well worth your time to look into it and give it a try. Heart health vastly improved, near every measure of aging slowed, greater resistance to age-related diseases, and much more - far more than any medical technology can yet accomplish for a basically healthy individual, in fact.

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

Of the billions presently alive, some fraction will go on to live for thousands of years. The age of rejuvenation therapies is just around the corner, and new approaches to medicine will enable the old to be made young again. This will happen within a few decades, perhaps soon enough for those in middle age today in wealthier regions, perhaps not. Whatever the timeline turns out to be – and we have the opportunity to accelerate it – the fundamental forms of cellular and molecular damage that cause aging will become just another set of chronic medical conditions that are kept under control with regular treatments: periodically repaired, so as to maintain youth and indefinitely postpone age related disease.

In this future people will still die, however. The current mortality rate due to fatal accidents, if maintained, would give an ageless, disease-free person a life expectancy of a few thousand years. If you want to live longer than that, then you require either (a) the means of greatly reducing the occurrence and severity of accidents, or (b) to ability to change yourself to be less vulnerable. Those people alive today who are still alive ten thousand years from now, and some will be, will most likely have altered themselves dramatically, abandoning flesh and the human form in favor of far more robust machinery.

It should not be terribly controversial to suggest that a hundred years from now replacing your body with an artificial chassis will be a very feasible, cost-effective option. The manufacturing and design technologies of that era will involve mature artificial intelligence and precise atomic construction. An artificial body should be a simple undertaking by that point, and there’s more than enough time to wait for that technology if you survive today’s first hurdle of living long enough to benefit from the first wave of rejuvenation biotechnologies.

When it comes to transforming yourself into an entity likely to survive for longer than recorded human history to date, the body is a trivial matter, however, hardly worth putting much thought into at this point. Almost any easily replaceable, mobile, and very robust machinery will do. The more interesting questions relate to the brain and the self: how can you switch out the intricate biology of the brain for more durable machines without killing yourself in the process? All that is you is encoded as data in the fine structure of brain tissue. Making a copy of your mind to run as software seems like a feasible undertaking, something that can be envisaged even today: it’s possible to speculate in a useful fashion as to how that might be accomplished within the next few decades. But a copy of you is its own entity, not you, and there are many other questions and doubts relating to the continuity of the self associated with an intelligence running as software.

The best approach to replacing the brain while retaining your self is a slow process of replacing each neuron with machinery that serves exactly the same purpose and integrates with the rest of the brain in exactly the same way as the neuron did. The brain creates and loses neurons on an ongoing basis already – though a plausible replacement methodology would run many times faster than that process, and would replace neurons that are normally never replaced. Some of those cells last a lifetime.

This gradual neural replacement is a fine thing to talk about in abstract, but how would it even work in practice? How would a neuron machine be constructed? How do you assure continuity of the self when doing this for real? Some people have put a fair amount of thought into this topic, even though it is a far future prospect and we still have to sort out the first step of not aging to death in the bodies and brains we have now. Over at the Rational Argumentator you’ll find an eleven part series on the important parts of the path to replacing the brain with machinery. There’s quite a lot of reading material there, and I make no warranty as to the quality and rigor of the work, but I think you’ll find it interesting.

1. The Moral Imperative and Technical Feasibility of Defeating Death
2. Immortality: Material or Ethereal? Nanotech Does Both!
3. Concepts for Functional Replication of Biological Neurons
4. Gradual Neuron Replacement for the Preservation of Subjective-Continuity
5. Wireless Synapses, Artificial Plasticity, and Neuromodulation
6. Mind as Interference with Itself: A New Approach to Immediate Subjective-Continuity
7. Neuronal ‘Scanning’ and NRU Integration
8. Squishy Machines: Bio-Cybernetic Neuron Hybrids
9. Choosing the Right Scale for Brain Emulation
10. Maintaining the Operational Continuity of Replicated Neurons
11. Immortality: Bio or Techno?

If we seek to replace biological neurons with artificial equivalents, once we have a simulation of a given neuron in a computer outside the body, how is that simulated neuron to communicate with the biological neurons still inside that biological body, and vice versa? My solution was the use of initially MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical systems) but later NEMS (nano-electro-mechanical-systems) to detect biophysical properties via sensors and translate them into computational inputs, and likewise to translate computational output into biophysical properties via electrical actuators and the programmed release of chemical stores (essentially stored quantities of indexed chemicals to be released upon command). While the computational hardware could hypothetically be located outside the body, communicating wirelessly to corresponding in-vivo sensors and actuators, I saw the replacement of neurons with enclosed in-vivo computational hardware in direct operative connection with its corresponding sensors and actuators as preferable.

I didn’t realize until 2010 that this approach – the use of NEMS to computationally model the neurons, to integrate (i.e., construct and place) the artificial neurons and translate to biophysical signals into computational signals and vice versa – was already suggested by Kurzweil and conceptually developed more formally by Robert Freitas, and when I did, I felt that I didn’t really have much to present that hadn’t already been conceived and developed.

However, since then I’ve come to realize some significant distinctions between my approach and Brain-Emulation, and that besides being an interesting story that helps validate the naturality of Immortalism’s premises (that indefinite longevity is a physically realizable state, and thus technologically realizable – and what can be considered the “strong Immortalist” claim: that providing people the choice of indefinite longevity if it were realizable is a moral imperative), I had several novel notions and conceptions which might prove useful to the larger community working and thinking on these topics.

Source:
http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2013/06/considering-the-details-of-replacing-the-brain.php

Source:
http://www.longevitymedicine.tv/considering-the-details-of-replacing-the-brain/