After experiencing financial issues, DNA testing company Veritas Genetics has announced the suspension of its U.S. operations in an unexpected announcement on December 4th 2019. The company is perhaps best known for being co-founded by renowned Harvard University geneticist George Church and has been working towards reducing the costs of genome sequencing so that it…
A type of artificial intelligence technique is now being used to develop new drugs and therapies and could perhaps even help to solve aging. An urgent need for aging biomarkers There has long been an urgent need in our field to develop increasingly accurate biomarkers of aging so that the efficacy of interventions can be…
If humans ever reach an average lifespan of well over 100 years, what is going to happen? Are we going to be bored with such long lives? “Well,” says Prof. Brian Kennedy of the National University of Singapore, “If you ask me: ‘Do I want to have cancer at 75? Do I want have Alzheimer’s…
For the December edition of the Journal Club hosted by Dr. Oliver Medvedik, we are joined by Dr. Matthew O’ Connor (Oki) formerly of SENS Research Foundation and now the head researcher at Underdog Pharma, a spun-off biotech company that is developing research conducted at SENS into a hopefully viable solution for heart disease. Dr….
A new study suggests that harmful changes to the population and diversity of our gut bacteria may occur when we are as young as our mid 30s, which can have serious implications for health and longevity. The microbiome The gut microbiome is a complex and ever-changing ecosystem populated by a myriad of archaea, eukarya, viruses,…
Researcher Dr. Michael Lustgarten has recently published a compact and very readable review that focuses on the role of the gut microbiome and its influence on skeletal muscle mass. The gut microbiome The microbiome describes a varied community of bacteria, archaea, eukarya, and viruses that inhabit our gut. The four bacterial phyla of Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes,…
A team of researchers, including Drs. Vadim Gladyshev and Steve Horvath, recently published a review of DNA methylation aging clocks, which use biomarkers to determine the biological age of a person. Aging causes epigenetic alterations to occur, including changes to DNA methylation, histone modification, transcriptional alterations (variance in gene expression), and remodeling of chromatin (a…
As many of you recover from enjoying Thanksgiving, we want to give a small update to the people we are most thankful to: our monthly patrons, the Lifespan Heroes. Without the continued support of the Heroes, quite simply, we could not continue to do the work we do; we could not report on the latest…
For the November episode of the Journal Club, Dr. Oliver Medvedik reviewed a new study from a team of researchers including Professor George Church. The study saw the deployment of a multiple target gene therapy focused on 3 known longevity genes delivered via an adeno-associated virus. The focus was on mitigating T2 diabetes, heart failure, and kidney failure…
The results of a small human clinical trial focused on skin aging have been published, and they are positive. A topical application of rapamycin, an FDA-approved drug that is used to combat organ rejection during donor transplants and targets the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway, was tested to see if it had any effect…