Lifeboat Foundation

KANSAS CITY, MO — Researchers at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research have captured the one cell that is capable of regenerating an entire organism. For over a century, scientists have witnessed the effects of this cellular marvel, which enables creatures such as the planarian flatworm to perform death-defying feats like regrowing a severed head. But until recently, they lacked the tools necessary to target and track this cell, so they could watch it in action and discover its secrets.

Now, by pioneering a technique that combines genomics, single-cell analysis, flow cytometry and imaging, scientists have isolated this amazing regenerative cell – a subtype of the long-studied adult pluripotent stem cell – before it performs its remarkable act. The findings, published in the June 14, 2018, issue of the journal Cell, will likely propel biological studies on highly regenerative organisms like planarians and also inform regenerative medicine efforts for other organisms like humans that have less regenerative capacity.

“This is the first time that an adult pluripotent stem cell has been isolated prospectively,” says Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado, Ph.D., an investigator at the Stowers Institute and Howard Hughes Medical Institute and senior author of the study. “Our finding essentially says that this is no longer an abstraction, that there truly is a cellular entity that can restore regenerative capacities to animals that have lost it and that such entity can now be purified alive and studied in detail.”

In case we needed more evidence that staying fit is good for you…

A study to be published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease shows a correlation between low fitness, aortic stiffness, and the cognitive decline typically observed during brain aging [1].

Study abstract

Continue reading “Brain Aging Correlates with Aortic Stiffness and Low Fitness” »

July 12th sees us launch our first conference in New York City dedicated to the field of rejuvenation biotechnology, the science that seeks to end age-related diseases forever.

At the Frederick P. Rose Auditorium, Cooper Union in New York City, we will be hosting a special one-day conference focused on aging research and biotech investment. Developing therapies from initial concepts, through clinical testing, and ultimately to market takes a pipeline, and right now, that p…

Hypertension is an increasingly encountered condition in modern society, as sedentary lifestyles, poor diet, and other unhealthy lifestyle choices are becoming more prevalent.

The aging processes generally cause our blood pressure to rise, as they steadily clog our arteries, stiffen blood vessels, and cause our hearts to work harder to get blood to all our tissues. However, the rate at which this happens is subject to a great deal of variation, and diet and lifestyle are two big influences on this. At least initially, hypertension is frequently self-inflicted and something that we can reverse to a certain extent, as a new study shows.

Researchers have recently demonstrated that a program seeking to help people change their lifestyles through diet and exercise was almost as effective as some medications for reducing blood pressure.

The idea of “healthy ageing” is a contradiction in terms.

Suppose you read the following sentence in an article about company management: “This factor is central in achieving successful bankruptcy.” It sounds rather weird, doesn’t it? What if you read this about football team training? “Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to lose a game in a successful way.” These are so-called oxymorons—by Oxford’s definition, “figures of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction.”

The contradictory nature of the statements above is more than just apparent—bankruptcy is the exact opposite of “success” for a company, and the same goes for losing a game for a football team. One can get very creative with these: “a blockbuster fiasco”; “the façade of the building deteriorated nicely”; and so on. Examples closer to home would be “healthy aging” or “aging gracefully”.

Continue reading “Getting sick in a healthy way” »

Really excited to announce our new initiative to make early-stage rejuvenation therapies more accessible.

Our mission is to enable people to vastly extend their healthy lifespan and be part of the first generation to cure aging.

We support the development of rejuvenation therapies that undo the damage of aging by funding basic research, bringing together the world’s leading scientists at our annual Undoing Aging conference and helping startups that work on actual therapies for human use.

Continue reading “Review current and up-coming rejuvenation therapies” »

We were interested to learn that Juvenescence Limited, a biotech and development company involved in the development of therapies that target the aging processes, has successfully raised $50 million in a series A financing round.

Jim Mellon, the chairman of Juvenescence Limited, said, “We are delighted with the progress we have made and the faith that investors have placed in us to build a world-class company, one that we hope will lead the field in longevity science for the benefit of humanity as well as yield superb returns for our shareholders. Our company ethos is to advance the science that will add years of healthy life to every human being, and that is exactly what we are executing on at record speed.”

Juvenescence has raised $63 million from various international investors since its creation in October 2016 and is now moving forward with a number of key projects. The company is comprised of a number of industry leaders in business as well as a solid scientific team led by Dr. Declan Doogan and Dr. Annalisa Jenkins.

Continue reading “Juvenescence Completes $50 Million Series A Financing Round” »

Today we are going to take a look at the emerging theory that inflammaging, a chronic, age-related background of inflammation, is caused by alterations to the populations of intestinal microbes.

What is inflammaging?

Inflammaging is a term coined to describe the chronic, smoldering background of inflammation that accompanies the aging process. It is constant, low-grade inflammation that interferes with stem cell mobility, cellular communication, and the immune system’s ability to operate correctly.