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A review of the discoveries in lifespan extension reported in 2017.

Summary: a review of the discoveries in lifespan extension reported in 2017. [Author: Brady Hartman. This article first appeared on the LongevityFacts.com website. The article has been updated, and the title has been changed.]

Another year is over. Here’s a look back at the discoveries and articles covering lifespan extension science in 2017.

Continue reading “Reviewing the Lifespan Extension Discoveries of 2017” »

Summary: Biomarkers of aging would be a breakthrough that slashes the time and cost it currently takes to develop lifespan-extension drugs. [Author: Brady Hartman. This article first appeared on the LongevityFacts.com website. ]

Biomarkers of aging would revolutionize the development of lifespan-extension drugs, helping to bring them out of the laboratory and into the clinic in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost. The first scientist to come up with an effective biomarker of aging would produce a true breakthrough for the field of life extension.

Imagine that geroscientists have just developed a miraculous compound called Regulus that promises to extend human lifespans by a significant amount. Unfortunately, the researchers would not have an easy time testing Regulus because humans live a long time. Testing Regulus in mice, would help, but researchers would still have to test the drug’s lifespan-extending effects in humans. Before anti-aging physicians could prescribe Regulus, it would need to undergo an expensive and lengthy clinical trial.

Continue reading “We Need Breakthrough Biomarkers of Aging to Revolutionize Lifespan Extension” »

Summary: These breakthroughs in stem cell therapy could potentially rejuvenate our damaged organs with induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Moreover, biotech firms are rushing to bring organ-rejuvenating cell therapies to the marketplace. [This article first appeared on the LongevityFacts.com website. Author: Brady Hartman. ]

Recent advances in stem cell therapies could translate into effective treatments for intractable diseases.

Stem cells are the repairmen of our bodies. Unlike our ordinary cells, stem cells can divide without limit and create fresh copies of nearly any tissue type to repair damaged organs. While we have an abundance of these repairmen in our youth, we experience stem cell decline as we age.

Continue reading “Breakthroughs Set To Revolutionize Stem Cell Therapy” »

Summary: New findings on maximum human lifespan shows that we have an upper limit due to the construction of our bodies and genetic constraints. However, anti-aging scientists may have discovered ways to overcome this limitation. [This article first appeared on the LongevityFacts website. Author: Brady Hartman. ]

Three new studies show that maximum human lifespan is limited to about 115 – 120 years due to genetic constraints, the construction of our bodies and an increasingly toxic environment.

These studies are hardly the first to conclude there is a maximum human lifespan. However, there may be a way to overcome this limitation.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are one of the most thoroughly studied and understood stem cell types. They are used in a wide range of therapies, and the many studies using MSCs have enjoyed varied levels of success, depending on delivery methods, patients, co-therapies and other factors.

Today, we will be taking a look at MSCs and a new human clinical trial focused on treating osteoarthritis, an age-related inflammatory condition that leads to the breakdown of bone and cartilage.

Victor Björk, biologist and member of the LEAF teama report about a recent aging research conference that he attended in Germany. Victor is one of our more well-traveled writers, and he has the fortune to attend many interesting shows, events, and conferences in Europe. Today Victor reports on the DGfA Aging Conference and also interviews James Peyer from Apollo Ventures, an early-stage life science investor and company builder focused on translational research for age-related diseases.

An annual aging research conference

I took part in the yearly DGfA conference at the Max Planck Institute for Aging Research in Cologne on December 1–2, 2017. The event was organized by the German association for aging research, an interdisciplinary non-profit organization based in Nürnberg. Established in 1990, it conducts research on aging, including research on developing therapeutic options to treat age-related diseases.

Cold plasma looks like the glow from the “Star Wars” blue lightsaber but this beam of energy, made of electrons that change polarity at micro-second or nanosecond speeds, could help bones heal faster, according to a study published August 11th in the Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine.

Most people interact with plasma every day. It’s in our TVs, fluorescent lights, lightning, the aurora borealis, and the sun. However, these are all examples of hot or “thermal” plasmas. Since the discovery of cold plasma, about 20 years ago, it has been used in agriculture to sterilize the surface of fruit without damaging the delicate edibles. More recently, scientists have been performing experiments treating living animal cells and tissues with cold plasma to learn more about its potential applications in medicine.

“We’ve previously studied how different applications of cold plasma can either directly kill cells, such as in skin cancer, or help them grow, as in developing bones. In this study, we asked how cold plasma would affect the area surrounding cells, known as the extracellular matrix,” says lead author Theresa Freeman, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery in the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University. The extracellular matrix around cells is made of collagen and other proteins that interact with the cells and can influence their growth and behavior. For example, the extracellular matrix can either promote or inhibit bone formation or cancer cell growth and metastasis.

Continue reading “The fourth state of matter, plasma: A technology to improve bone healing?” »

Shermer’s journey into the present-day search for human domination over death and society’s ills introduces readers to all forms of what he calls “techno-optimism,” meaning the belief that technological progress means an end to death — or, at the very least, to aging and social decay. There are the cryonicists who want to freeze us, and those who want simply to freeze our brains, with all their neural connections and associated memories (the connectome). The transhumanists want to enhance us so thoroughly — through means both natural and artificial — that we become godlike, “taking control of evolution and transforming the species into something stronger, faster, sexier, healthier and with vastly superior cognitive abilities the likes of which we mere mortals cannot conceive”; the Omega Point theorists think we will all one day be brought back to life in a virtual reality. Believers in “the singularity” contend that it is possible to upload the human brain to a server without losing the essence of what makes you you. And, of course, there are those who try to cure us of aging, so that our bodies and minds will cease to deteriorate and our life spans will increase ad infinitum. Shermer visits each of these and other utopian theories with detail and considered analysis, drawing readers along increasingly unrealistic (or are they?) possibilities for our future evolution. It’s a journey as boggling as it is engrossing.

In “Heavens on Earth,” Michael Shermer explores the lengths to which mankind will go to ensure our souls’ survival beyond existence on this mortal coil.