Category Archives: Human Longevity

Where do you see San Diego's biotech/life sciences tech sector headed in 2017?

2017 will bring us skyrocketing advancements in genomics. In fact, it is already happening on several fronts. We know that Illumina is the behemoth in sequencing, and is a company that has put San Diego on the world map. Now, we are considered the global epicenter in sequencing. With Illumina's additional focus on oncology, we have the perfect pairing with another of San Diego's strengths: big data computation. Companies like Helix have recently begun operations in mass-sample sequencing, Edico Genomics and others are revolutionizing the way genetic data is analyzed, and Human Longevity is using genetic data to deliver personalized health solutions. There are dozens of such companies in the region that are fueling innovation for the coming year.

Additionally, the field of personalized medicine, especially as it relates to the device and wireless health side, is well positioned for continued growth. We are fortunate to have a telecommunications sector that evolved here alongside our medical device sector. That pairing is paying off today in the form of transformative companies such as Dexcom, with its advanced continuous glucose monitoring and dosing technology, and Qualcomm Life, with its platform that enhances clinical workflows and operational efficiencies in the hospital; both are widely recognized global leaders. I am eager to hear from companies on the continued development in this promising sector as it provides tangible results in terms of greater efficiency and lower cost of health care.

Where do you see biggest growth?

We have more than 120 oncology research and development companies working here in nearly every type of known cancer. We recently created an Oncology Committee within Biocom, much the same way we did seven or eight years ago with contract research organizations, or CROs. Back then, we recognized that San Diego had enormous strength in the contract research arena and brought those members together to promote their success. Recognizing San Diego's strength in oncology, we partnered on two Cancer Moonshot Summit meetings here last year in which researchers, patients and biopharma companies discussed how to more quickly develop therapies and move them into the hands of physicians.

The strengths of the larger pharma companies focused on oncology research and development here, including Celgene, Takeda and Lilly, contribute in a big way to growing the workforce as well. And our research institutes, including Salk, Moores Cancer Center and Sanford Burnham Prebys all three NCI-designated cancer centers contribute a pipeline of both basic and clinical research that is world-class.

What types of jobs will be in demand? (Conversely are there any jobs that are not as hot?)

Based on the results from a workforce trends report the Biocom Institute worked on with CLSI, in the life science industry, we will continue to see growing demand for research scientists, particularly in the pharmaceutical sector, as well as in medical devices and equipment. Notably, disruptive advancements in big data and personalized medicine are spiking demand for skills in collecting, managing, analyzing and interpreting data. The push toward value-based health care is creating need for expanded skill sets for understanding reimbursement and the health care system.

On the device side, we will see growth in the number of engineering jobs of all types from electrical to computer engineering. In fact, the shortage of engineers has enticed the San Diego Venture Group to go to San Francisco to lure talent here.

Is there anything the Trump administration is doing or contemplating that is cause for excitement or concern in this sector?

It is too early to tell. We don't have a new FDA commissioner yet, but I am hopeful that members of the Trump administration will appreciate that the 21st Century Cures Act, which was passed by a bipartisan vote in both chambers of Congress, can only be effectively implemented if the allotted funding is received by the FDA.

Also, we would like to see the current freeze on federal employment be lifted, or see an exception for jobs such as those at the FDA that involve the health and safety of our population. I am encouraged by the reports on the recent meeting that President Trump had with PhRMA and its member executives recently in which he mentioned bringing more manufacturing jobs to the U.S., supporting innovation and looking for ways to streamline regulation. If the Trump administration is united with the industry in these areas, it will have a positive impact on biotech and medical technology in San Diego.

Anything else you'd like to add?

We're now entering a different dimension in the evolution of this industry one in which large pharma companies will depend even more on biotechnology companies to drive innovation. San Diego is known as a powerhouse of life science company formation and early stage growth, with many of these companies' cutting edge technologies positioning them for acquisition. Global biotech giants are making investments in San Diego companies and that's a great thing for our town moving forward. Even Johnson & Johnson, which has been here for more than 20 years, created an innovation center with its J-Labs containing some 40 incubated companies. It's refreshing and generous, as those companies have no direct tie back into J&J, contributing to their ability to innovate on their own.

We're seeing more incubators being created here, such as the partnership that Biocom is engaged in with another newcomer, BioLabs San Diego. I expect San Diego to grow in visibility because of this strength, along with demographic and economic advances, including the increased ease of international travelers coming to San Diego as a result of the launch of international flights this year to Frankfurt and Zurich, as well as the ability to fly directly into the Tijuana airport and cross the pedestrian bridge to the U.S.

Joe Panetta, President & CEO of Biocom

Go here to see the original:
Biotech: Full steam ahead on several scientific fronts - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Mumbai, February 19:

Ratan Tatas personal investment firm RNT Associates had invested up to 80 crore in about 30 start-ups in fiscal 2016. This is 30 per cent higher than the 61-crore the company invested in FY-15.

According to the companys latest filings with the RoC, accessed by BusinessLine via business research platform Tofler, the Mumbai-based investment firm, set up by Ratan Tata in March 2009, made small ticket-size investments in the range of 25 lakh to about 5 crore on an average. However, in 2015-2016, RNT's highest investment of about 31 crore was made in a company called Human Longevity.

The San Diego-based company is creating the world's largest and comprehensive database of whole genome, phenotype and clinical data. RNT also made a small investment of 3.25 crore in the world's largest community driven hospitality start-up Airbnb. Besides, RNT Associates has also invested in venture and seed funds, including Kay Capital, Charme II and Charme III, Lets Venture, Online Pte and Seedplus Singapore.

The 79-year-old former chairman of Tata Sons has made some early stage investments in Indian unicorns such as Snapdeal, Ola and Paytm, through RNT Associates in which he holds about 99.9 per cent stake.

His close aide Krishna Kumar Kuttambally (aka KK), who was earlier his right hand man in Tata Sons, holds a very minority stake of 0.01 per cent. R Venkataramanan or Venky is also a Director on the board but has no shareholding in the company. The company has a subsidiary in Singapore, according to the RoC filing.

However, it seems that the valuations of RNT's investee companies have eroded given that the revenues and profits of the company has declined in FY-16.

RNT's consolidated revenues in 2016 stood at 6.9 crore, down by 175 per cent from 19 crore in 2015, the RoC data shows. The profits have also come down by 25 per cent at 2.7 crore in 2016 against 11 crore in the year-ago period. There is usually a lag of six months to nine months when it comes to unlisted companies filing their annual numbers with the RoC, hence fiscal numbers are available only in December to February period.

Compared to 2015, the year 2016 had remained a very challenging one for the Indian start-up ecosystem as the valuations of several heavily funded companies such as Flipkart and Snapdeal came down following markdowns by their respective investors. Many well-funded start-ups shut down and a few merged with other bigger start-ups at lower valuations, thus marking the start of consolidation period in that segment.

Many of Tata's investee companies such as Zivame, Snapdeal and Ola have seen major restructuring and reshuffle at the top management level and are facing severe cash crunch as global investors have tightened their purses. Meanwhile, a few like Bluestone and Urban Ladder are restructuring their businesses and reworking on their strategies.

(This article was published on February 19, 2017)

Please enter your email. Thank You.

Newsletter has been successfully subscribed.

See the article here:
Ratan Tata's investment in start-ups rises 30 per cent in fiscal 2016 - Hindu Business Line

Posted on Feb. 17, 2017, 6 a.m. in Stress Longevity

New study reveals why brief periods of bodily stress are good for health and longevity.

"What does not kill you makes you stronger." It's not just a saying. It is a scientific truth. Researchers have pinpointed a cell recycling process tied to the positive effects of moderate stress. This means people shouldn't necessarily fret over those mild stresses. Anything from going for a jog to spending some time in the sauna is beneficial for health as well as longevity Study Details

Researchers found that the cellular process important for boosting lifespan, known as autophagy, is also important for obtaining benefits from stress. Biologists have known for quite a long time that temporary episodes of moderate stress empower simple organisms as well as cells within human beings to better survive stress at later points in life. The recent research conducted by scientists at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute has shed new light on this truth. These researchers found that autophagy really does benefit the body when stress occurs. Their study was recently published in Nature Communications. The study will likely establish new paths to pursue treatment for various neurological disorders like Huntington's disease. A Word About Autophagy

Autophagy is best described as a way to recycle cells' broken, aged and unnecessary parts so components can be used to create new molecules or even burned to create energy. Scientists previously linked this process to longevity. The results of the new research connect stress resistance and long life on a cellular level. The study's lead author, staff scientist Caroline Kumsta, Ph.D., states her team made use of C. elegans or diminutive roundworms to analyze fundamental biology.

Roundworms were used to gauge the importance of autophagy for stress resistance. Part of the reason why they were used is the fact that they are translucent so scientists can see exactly what occurs inside of them. Furthermore, the majority of roundworms' molecular signaling pathways and genes are similar to those in human beings. They live a couple of weeks which makes it easier to gauge their lifespans. These worms were incubated at 36 degrees Celsius for a full hour. After this exposure to heat (mild stress), the rate of autophagy heightened across the worms' tissues. The researchers then exposed these heated worms to a lengthy heat source a couple of days later. The worms that were autophagy-deficient did not obtain benefit from the first mild heat shock. Heated worms with intact autophagy obtained benefit from the heat shock. What It Means

Researchers concluded that a mild source of heat heightens worms' ability to endure another condition that gets worse during the aging process: the accumulation of aggregated proteins. Such a buildup is quite stressful for cells. Kumsta made use of worms that replicate Huntington's disease that causes degeneration in the brain. Exposing worms with sticky neuronal proteins (like those found in patients with Huntington's disease) to a moderate heat shock decreased protein aggregates. This suggests a moderate mount of heat stress can minimize the toxic accumulation of proteins.

The study is a massive breakthrough as it sets the stage for new approaches to mitigating the onset of neurodegenerative diseases like Huntington's. These results might also pertain to Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease as they are also induced by the accumulation of proteins prone to clumping.

Perhaps the induction of autophagy as a result of moderate heat stress at an early stage allows cells to better survive heat exposure at a later point in time. Questions regarding cellular memory must be explored. In the end, it can be said that heading to the sauna, going for a jog or doing hot yoga might not be a bad idea at all.

Continue reading here:
Short Stresses Promote Longevity - Anti Aging News

Isabella Connelley and Bethan Mooney for TIMEIsabella Connelley and Bethan Mooney for TIME

The titans of the tech industry are known for their confidence that they can solve any problem--even, as it turns out, the one that's defeated every other attempt so far. That's why the most far-out strategies to cheat death are being tested in America's playground for the young, deep-pocketed and brilliant: Silicon Valley.

Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle, has given more than $330 million to research about aging and age-related diseases. Alphabet CEO and co-founder Larry Page launched Calico, a research company that targets ways to improve the human lifespan. Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal , has also invested millions in the cause, including over $7 million to the Methuselah Foundation, a nonprofit focused on life-extension therapies.

Rather than wait years for treatments to be approved by federal officials, many of them are testing ways to modify human biology that fall somewhere on the spectrum between science and entrepreneurialism. It's called biohacking, and it's one of the biggest things happening in the Bay Area.

"My goal is to live beyond 180 years," says Dave Asprey, CEO of the supplement company Bulletproof, most famous for its popularization of coffee with organic butter mixed in. "I am doing every single thing I can to make it happen for myself."

For some, that means daily pill regimens and fasting once a week. For others, it means having the blood of a young person pumped into their veins. "I see biohacking as a populist movement within health care," says Geoffrey Woo, the CEO of a company called Nootrobox that sells supplements that promise to enhance brain function.

Many scientists are skeptical. Here's what's known--and what isn't--about the latest front of humanity's fight against the inevitable.

THE HACK: It may sound vampiresque, but 50 people in the U.S. have paid $8,000 for a transfusion of plasma from someone between the ages of 16 to 25. The study is run by Ambrosia, a company based in Monterey, Calif.

THE HYPE: The transfusions are based on the idea that two-liter injections of blood from the young may confer longevity benefits. Now, in the first known human clinical trial of its kind, Ambrosia is enlisting people willing to pay the hefty price to give it a shot.

Ambrosia's founder, Jesse Karmazin, who has a medical degree but is not a licensed physician, says that after the transfusions, his team looks for changes in the recipient's blood, including markers of inflammation, cholesterol and neuron growth. "When we are young, we produce a lot of factors that are important for cellular health," he says. "As we get older, we don't produce enough of these factors. Young blood gives your body a break to repair and regenerate itself."

THE DEBATE: Scientists are roundly critical of this study, in large part because of the way it has been designed: there's no control group, it's costly to participate in, and the people enrolled don't share key characteristics that make them appropriate candidates to be looked at side by side.

"What Ambrosia is doing is not useful and could be harmful," says Irina Conboy, an associate professor of bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley, who is also studying blood as a potential target for aging.

The concept stems from mouse research by Conboy and others. In 2005, she and her research partner and husband Michael Conboy showed that when older mice were surgically sutured to younger mice, their tissues got healthier. The takeaway was not that young blood is a cure-all, but some entrepreneurs ran with the idea. "The story has switched into a highly exaggerated search of young blood as a silver bullet to combat aging," Irina says.

In a recent follow-up study, the Conboys developed a way to exchange the blood of young and old mice without surgically joining them. They found that old mice had some improvements but that young mice experienced rapid declines.

"The big result is that a single exchange hurts the young partner more than it helps the old partner," says Michael. Ambrosia says plasma transfusions are safe and, if proven effective, should be made available.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Blood-based therapies for longevity could still be in our future, but the science isn't there yet. "Donor blood can save lives, but using it to rejuvenate oneself is counterproductive," says Irina.

THE HACK: If you could learn your risks for the most-feared diseases years before you'd actually get sick, would you? For the curious (and the brave), there's Health Nucleus, an eight-hour, $25,000 head-to-toe, inside-and-out physical exam that includes whole-genome sequencing, high-tech scanning and early diagnostics. The goal is to paint a granular picture of an individual's health and disease risk, which could then inform lifestyle and medical choices that keep you healthier, longer.

THE HYPE: Health Nucleus bills the elite program as "a genomic-powered clinical research project that has the potential to transform health care." It was founded in 2015 by J. Craig Venter, the scientist widely credited with being one of the first to sequence the human genome, and it doesn't come cheap. The Health Nucleus price tag is for a single session, during which patients get a sequencing of their genome and microbiome, a full-body MRI and an array of blood tests. When the results come in, doctors translate the findings into measurements that patients can understand--and advice they can act upon.

The Health Nucleus team believes this deluge of information can help doctors flag problems that could lead to premature death for their patients down the line. "Right now medicine is a reactionary system where if you get pain or other symptoms, then you go see your doctor and they see if they can fix it," says Venter. "It's totally different from trying to predict your risk or identifying problems early, before they cause fatal disease. If you have the right knowledge, you can save your life."

THE DEBATE: Genome sequencing can indeed pinpoint genetic risk for some cancers and other diseases. And microbiome profiles--which look at the makeup of bacteria in the gut--can provide clues about the presence of some chronic diseases. Changes in cholesterol and blood sugar can also signal illness, though that kind of blood work is routinely tested by primary-care physicians.

About 400 people ages 30 to 95 have had the physical so far, and the test has identified significant medical problems in 40% of them, according to Venter, who says they've found cancer, aneurysms and heart disease in several people without symptoms.

Still, it raises questions among its skeptics about whether or not patients can actually use most (or any) of the data they receive. It also highlights some doctors' concerns about the negative consequences of overscreening, where there is always a risk for false positive results. "When healthy people undergo scanning, it can backfire," says Dr. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute, who has studied data-driven medicine. "It can find abnormalities and lead to more tests and procedures, many of them unnecessary. It can cause harm, not to mention anxiety and expense."

This isn't news to Venter. "The criticism people throw out is 'How dare you screen healthy people?'" he says. "My response is, 'How do you know they're healthy?' We are finding pretty good evidence that many are not."

Topol says a rigorous study of the program by independent researchers could help settle the score. "If validated for benefit in this way," Topol says, "my outlook would be more positive."

THE BOTTOM LINE: Venter acknowledges that while costs may come down, the battery of tests is so far too expensive to be realistic for most. Whether it adds years to a person's life is also an open question. For now, looking into the crystal ball requires a whole lot of money--and a comfort with uncertainty.

THE HACK: Biohackers in Silicon Valley and beyond have long experimented with the idea that a fistful of supplements, taken in just the right combination, may be the antidote to aging. Now, scientists and businesspeople are experimenting with the idea that just one or two pills, taken daily, may also get the job done.

THE HYPE: Many companies sell supplements with suspected longevity benefits, but one of the more talked-about new businesses is Elysium Health, co-founded by entrepreneurs and an MIT antiaging researcher named Leonard Guarente. Elysium has created a daily supplement, called Basis, that is "designed to support long-term well-being at the cellular level." The pill isn't marketed as a cure for aging, but Elysium Health cites evidence that the ingredients in the pill increase a compound called NAD+ that the company says is "essential to hundreds of biological processes that sustain human life." Basis costs $50 for a monthly supply, and the company, which doesn't release official sales numbers, says it has tens of thousands of customers so far.

THE DEBATE: Basis contains two main ingredients: nicotinamide riboside (NR) and pterostilbene, both of which have been shown in animal studies to fight aging at the cellular level. NR creates NAD+, which is believed to spur cell rejuvenation but which declines naturally in animals as they age. In a trial of 120 healthy people from ages 60 to 80, Guarente found that people taking Basis increased their NAD+ levels by 40%. "We are trying to be rigorously based on science," he says.

Studies have shown that supplementing with the compound extends life in mice, but whether it increases human longevity is unknown. To find out if it does--and to request FDA approval for the pill's clearance as a drug--long, rigorous clinical trials would need to be done. Instead, Elysium Health has released Basis as a supplement. That prevents the company from making specific medical claims about the pills--something that's prohibited by law in the marketing of supplements.

"I think the pathway Guarente is targeting is interesting"--meaning the idea that increasing NAD+ may also slow aging--"but clinical evidence is crucial," says Dr. Nir Barzilai, a researcher at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, who also studies drugs for aging.

Other scientists question the supplement approach altogether. "There is no evidence whatsoever that [Basis] produces health benefits in humans," says Dr. Jeffrey Flier, former dean of Harvard Medical School. "Many molecules that have some apparent benefits in mice or other organisms have no benefit when studied in humans."

The company has seven Nobel Prize--winning scientists on its advisory board, a fact that has also raised some eyebrows. Flier cautions that the company's association with lauded researchers cannot replace the science required to prove that the supplements combat aging and are safe to use.

THE BOTTOM LINE: It's too early to tell whether supplements can have any life-extending effects in humans.

THE HACK: These supplements, called nootropics or sometimes "smart drugs," promise to sharpen your thinking and enhance mental abilities. Many common nootropic ingredients--including the sleep-enhancing hormone melatonin, energy-boosting B vitamins as well as caffeine--are already present in the foods and pills that people consume on a daily basis.

THE HYPE: Nootrobox, one company that makes nootropics, combines ingredients like B vitamins and caffeine with a bouquet of other ingredients to create capsules with different purposes. "Rise" pills claim to enhance memory and stamina, "Sprint" pills promise an immediate boost of clarity and energy, "Kado-3" pills offer "daily protection of brain and body," and "Yawn" pills offer what you'd expect. A combo pack of 190 capsules retails for about $135.

Nootrobox is one of the more popular nootropic startups, with more than $2 million in funding from private investors like Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer and the venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. "I think nootropics will become things we consume on a daily basis," says the company's CEO, Geoffrey Woo.

THE DEBATE: The ingredients in nootropic supplements have a "generally recognized as safe," or GRAS, designation from the FDA, and some of them have been studied for their cognitive-enhancing effects. But the unique combinations in the pills themselves haven't been proven to heighten people's mental capacity. Nootrobox says it is currently conducting clinical trials of its products.

The FDA is notoriously hands-off when it comes to the regulation of dietary supplements. In the U.S., vitamins are not required to undergo rigorous testing for effectiveness or safety before they're sold.

Many doctors are also skeptical that they make a difference in mental performance. "There's probably a lot of placebo effect," says Kimberly Urban, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia who has studied the effects of nootropics on the brain. "I think people should use some caution, especially young people." She adds that while these supplements may in fact be safe, there's no scientific research to prove it.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Many nootropics on the market are probably less sugary and lower in caffeine than most energy drinks, which often contain similar ingredients to those in the pills. Still, the notion that they make people sharper is largely unproven. So until independent clinical trials prove otherwise, it's buyer beware.

THE HACK: Calorie restriction--the practice of consuming nothing but water for a day at a time or drastically slashing calories a few days per week--has been popular for decades among eternal-youth seekers and health nuts alike. Now some companies are taking the guesswork out of it with fasting-diet meal-delivery kits.

THE HYPE: Not eating on a regular basis certainly sounds unpleasant, but proponents say that doing so comes with the benefits of better health, a stronger immune system and possibly even a longer life.

To help people get closer to this goal, L-Nutra, a Los Angeles--based company, offers a five-day, ultra-low-calorie meal kit called ProLon, which is designed to mimic fasting and promote health and longevity.

The meal kit includes energy bars, plant-based snacks, vegetable soups and algal-oil supplements that add up to a total of 770 to 1,100 calories a day. A five-day kit that must be ordered by a doctor costs $299.

THE DEBATE: Studies do show that calorie-restricted diets are linked to longer life expectancy. It's not clear why, exactly, but some scientists suspect that stressing the body kicks it into a temporary mode that leads to the creation of healthy new cells. Other research suggests that a very-low-calorie diet may make the body more responsive to cancer treatment and can slow the progression of multiple sclerosis.

A recent two-year study found that people who cut their calorie intake by 25% lost an average of 10% of their body weight, slept better and were even cheerier compared with those who didn't diet.

"Doctors can offer patients this as an alternative to drugs," says Valter Longo, director of the University of Southern California Longevity Institute and founder of L-Nutra. (Longo says he doesn't receive a salary from his work with L-Nutra.)

Still, not everyone agrees that the evidence is strong enough to support the price tag--or the effort required. "I certainly wouldn't do it," says Rozalyn Anderson, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin--Madison, who studies calorie restriction in monkeys. "Life is too short, even if calorie restriction extends it."

The real promise of this kind of research is identifying cell pathways that are involved in aging and activated during fasting, she says. Ultimately this could lead to the development of a drug that could trigger those same pathways without requiring people to eat less.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Occasional calorie restriction does appear to have health benefits, but how much comes from weight loss and how much comes from healthy cell changes needs to be further explored. Widely agreed upon is that any version of a fasting diet should be done under a physician's supervision.

Read more here:
How Silicon Valley Is Trying to Hack Its Way Into a Longer Life - TIME

Zi Ran looks into the exciting biology surrounding telomeres and their potential impact

The thread of never-ending life has always been a part of the canvas of myths and religion subsequently morphed seamlessly into everyday culture. Every religion and culture has their own telling of the tale. The Abrahamic religions have heaven, the Norse gods ate Iunns apples, the Greek gods ate ambrosia and drank nectar, the Taoists sought the elixir of life, and the medieval alchemists sought the philosophers stone. Though these ancient symbols may have been metaphoric, with current technology eternal youth feels to be almost within our grasp. With organisations like Google Calico, A4M (American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine), Human Longevity Inc and sponsors like Peter Thiel and Mark Zuckerberg, it seems as though humanity may finally taste that fountain of life.

To find immortality, one must understand mortality. Cells seemingly repair and divide without end, but they exhibit signs of ageing as well. The crux of the issue lies in the inherent structure of our genetic material, DNA. Human DNA is linear, so there must be two ends to the double helix. Every time DNA is replicated, information on the ends of the strands are lost. With increasing divisions, more and more information is lost to the point where the cell is no longer able to function cells senescence. Cells with this kind of DNA structure must have an extra layer of molecular protection which ensure many healthy divisions before their eventual death. These protective elements are called telomeres. Telomere research has been a hot topic within the anti-ageing community, as its length is directly correlated to longevity. These DNA aglets are extra pieces of DNA which cap on to the ends of the double helix strand and tightly wraps itself together to protect the genetic material both from chemical and mechanical damage. However, this method is not fool-proof. Telomeres also run out, and with time all cells eventually die.

The miracle of the fountain of life, if it exists at all, can only be found in the moment of conception. In embryos, the DNA is refreshed, and old used telomeres are extended. Embryonic cells are a rare type of cells which express telomerase, the only protein capable of extending the length of telomeres. These little molecular machines use RNA as a template to extend the depleted telomeres, elongating the lifespan of the cell. Telomerases are also expressed in some stem cells, which supply the body with red blood cells and repair large damages. As attractive as telomerases sound as a solution to age, their over-expression can also become a problem. Many tumours and cancer types use telomerase as a tool to extend their lifespan indefinitely, outliving their healthy counterparts and taking over the body. To fine-tune the activity of this protein such that humans achieve eternal life while escaping the potential over-proliferation of cells is something that has yet to be achieved.

The most important breakthrough of 2016?

Telomeres, all in all, may only be one piece of the longevity biochemical puzzle. Many other biological processes are affected by age, although the precise mechanisms remain shrouded in mystery. Mitochondria become less efficient, transport to and from the nucleus becomes much less regulated, proteins are misshapen more often, and the DNA racks up too many mutations to efficiently repair them. It looks as though humanity still has so much to learn in terms of mortality that the seemingly tiny gap to eternal life may actually be a journey of a thousand miles.

Once we understand the essentials of life, will eternity still be attractive? The underlying basis of all living things is maintenance of a dynamic equilibrium, meaning that balance is maintained through constant life and death. The confusion of age for life has been recorded since the time of the ancient Greeks. When Eos mistakenly asked on Tithonus behalf for immortality and not eternal youth, what she really obtained from Zeus was eternal torture. The ancient Homeric hymns only remember Tithonus as a withered old man with no strength to even sit up, certainly an anecdote to keep us grounded in our search

Read the rest here:
Telomeres nature's anti-ageing scheme - Varsity Online

OVER THE PAST thousand years of medical progress, the human race has seen a slow but steady increase in human longevity. Although the occasional plague, famine or war will lead to a mortality peak in a generation, by and large each new wave of humanity is healthier than the last. But it seems that this encouraging trend is about to change.

image: wikipedia commons

A study published in 2015 revealed that middle-aged white Americans are dying at younger ages than their parents for the first time in decades, and as with all trends, where the US leads, the UK and Europe are certain to follow soon after. In fact, there are many similar studies suggesting that todays children may go on to lead shorter lives than their parents.

To explain these trends, experts have looked at two main factors firstly deaths of despair such as opioid overdoses, suicides and complications from long-term alcohol abuse. In 2015, 52 000 Americans died of drug overdoses alone, more than those who died per annum of HIV/AIDS during the epidemics peak years in the mid 90s. Almost half of these deaths were due to opioid-based drugs, such as heroin or the much stronger synthetic opioid fentanyl. Secondly, a more recent study has linked diabetes to the increase in American mortality. Whilst in 1958 only 0.93 per cent of the US population was diagnosed diabetic, now 7.02 per cent (nearly 30 million people) of the country live with the disease. The number has grown three-fold since the early 1990s, rising with the ever-increasing obesity rates.

Approximately 368 million people on Earth were living with the disease in 2013. Most of these cases are diabetes mellitus type 2. This is what used to be known as adult onset diabetes, to differentiate it from type 1 diabetes, which involves the autoimmune destruction of the insulin producing beta cells in the pancreas and usually begins in childhood. Type 2 diabetes now makes up 90 per cent of all diabetes diagnoses in Europe and is seen increasingly in young adults and children.

Type 2 diabetes is associated with a ten-year reduction in life expectancy, and is thought to be an under-reported cause of death, likely affecting life expectancy trends. People with diabetes often have multiple co-morbidities which can include obesity, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, an

Image: Pixabay

d even cancer. In 1936, the two types of diabetes were made distinct. In 1944 a standard insulin syringe was developed. The structure of insulin was first determined in 1951 and the first genetically engineered, synthetic human insulin for use in patients was produced using E. coli recombinant expression in 1978.

Since then, huge progress has been made in the treatment of diabetes, both type 1 and type 2, including the introduction of the blood glucose meter and the insulin pump. Short and long-acting insulin derivatives that stem from work done within the York Structural Biology Laboratory at the University of York are now the standard treatment for many type 1 diabetes patients worldwide. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania looked at the prevalence of type 2 diabetes in the US population and looked at the increased risk of death among adults ages 30-84. They calculated that, while diabetes was listed as the cause of death in 3.7 per cent of cases, it was more likely to be the underlying cause in almost 12 per cent of all deaths.

Amongst the obese cohort alone, the death rate from diabetes was closer to 19 per cent. Annually, the NHS currently spends 8.8bn (over 8 per cent of its budget) treating type 2 diabetes and its complications, which range from outpatient services to amputations. On a societal level, too, type 2 diabetes has a huge impact on levels of absenteeism and early retirement as the various complications of the disease affect the sufferers lives.

Prevention of the onset of type 2 diabetes is the ideal solution from a healthcare perspective, and it can be achieved with both lifestyle changes and medication. Patients with prediabetes who go through lifestyle changes alone can reduce their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 50 to 60 per cent. Simple ways to combat the onset of diabetes include methods such as losing weight, substantially increasing physical activity and quitting smoking. Although it has been known for some time that obesity and its assortment of associated co-morbidities are a leading factor in reduced life expectancy, researchers are hopeful that a focus on treating diabetes, and specifically the control of blood sugar, might help both healthcare workers and policy makers combat the trends in mortality statistics

See the rest here:
Diabetes in numbers: the worrying statistics - Nouse

Scientists from Mail.Ru Group, Insilico Medicine and MIPT have for the first time applied a generative neural network to create new pharmaceutical medicines with the desired characteristics. By using Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) developed and trained to "invent" new molecular structures, there may soon be a dramatic reduction in the time and cost of searching for substances with potential medicinal properties. The researchers intend to use these technologies in the search for new medications within various areas from oncology to CVDs and even anti-infectives. The first results were submitted toOncotargetin June 2016 and spent several months in review. Since that time, the group has made many improvements to the system and engaged with some of the leading pharmaceutical companies.

Currently, the inorganic molecule base contains hundreds of millions of substances, and only a small fraction of them are used in medicinal drugs. The pharmacological methods of making drugs generally have a hereditary nature. For example, pharmacologists might continue to research aspirin that has already been in use for many years, perhaps adding something into the compound to reduce side effects or increase efficiency, yet the substance still remains the same. Earlier this year, the scientists at Insilico Medicine demonstrated that it is possible to substantially narrow the search using deep neural networks. But now they have focused on a much more challenging question: Is there a chance to create conceptually new molecules with medicinal properties using the novel flavor of deep neural networks trained on millions of molecular structures?

Generative Adversarial Autoencoder (AAE) architecture, an extension of Generative Adversarial Networks, was taken as the basis, and compounds with known medicinal properties and efficient concentrations were used to train the system. Information on these types of compounds was input into the network, which was then adjusted so that the same data was acquired in the output. The network itself was made up of three structural elements: an encoder, decoder and discriminator, each of which had its own specific role in "cooperating" with the other two. The encoder worked with the decoder to compress and then restore information on the parent compound, while the discriminator helped make the compressed presentation more suitable for subsequent recovery. Once the network learned a wide swath of known molecules, the encoder and discriminator "switched off", and the network generated descriptions of the molecules on its own using the decoder.

Developing Generative Adversarial Networks that produce high-quality images based on textual inputs requires substantial expertise and lengthy training time on high-performance computing equipment. But with images and videos, humans can quickly perform quality control of the output. In biology, quality control cannot be performed by the human eye and a considerable number of validation experiments will be required to produce great molecules.

All the molecules are represented as "SMILEs", or graphical annotations of chemical substances that allow their structure to be restored. The standard registration taught in schools does not fit for network processing, but SMILEs do not do the job very well either, as they have a random length from one symbol to 200. Neural network training requires an equal description length for the vector. The "fingerprint" of a molecule will solve this task, as it contains complete information on the molecule. There are a lot of methods out there for making these fingerprints, but the researchers used the simplest binary one available consisting of 166 digits. They converted SMILEs into fingerprints and taught the network with them, after which the fingerprints of known medicinal compounds were input into the network. The network's job was to allocate inner neuron parameter weights so that the specified input created the specified output. This operation was then repeated many times, as this is how training with large quantities of data is performed. As a result, a "black box" capable of producing a specified output for the specified input was created, after which the developers removed the first layers, and the network generated the fingerprints by itself when the information was run through again. The scientists thus built "fingerprints" for all 72 million molecules, and then compared the network-generated fingerprints with the base. The molecules selected must potentially possess the specified qualities.

Andrei Kazennov, one of the authors of the study and an MIPT postgraduate who works at Insilico Medicine, comments, "We've created a neuronal network of the reproductive type, i.e. capable of producing objects similar to what it was trained on. We ultimately taught this network model to create new fingerprints based on specified properties."

The anticancer drug database was used to check the network. First the network was trained on one half of the medicinal compounds, and then checked on the other part. The purpose was to predict the compounds already known but not included in the training set. A total of 69 predicted compounds have been identified, and hundreds of molecules developed using a more powerful extension of the method are on the way.

According to one of the authors of the research, Alex Zhavoronkov, the founder of Insilico Medicine and international adjunct professor at MIPT, "Unlike the many other popular methods in deep learning, Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) were proposed only recently, in 2014, by Ian Goodfellow and Yoshua Bengio's group and scientists are still exploring its power in generating meaningful images, videos, works of art and even music. The pace of progress is accelerating and soon we are likely to see tremendous advances stemming from combinations of GANs with other methods. But everything that my groups are working on relates to extending human longevity, durability and increasing performance. When humans go to Mars, they will need the tools to be more resilient to all kinds of stress and be able to generate targeted medicine on demand. We will be the ones supplying these tools."

"GANs are very much the frontline of neuroscience. It is quite clear that they can be used for a much broader variety of tasks than the simple generation of images and music. We tried out this approach with bioinformatics and obtained great results," concludes Artur Kadurin, Mail.Ru Group lead programmer of the search optimizing team and Insilico Medicine independent science advisor.

Read the rest here:
Neural Network Learns to Select Potential Anticancer Drugs - Drug Discovery & Development

The battle of the sexes has been raging on earth for millions of years, and its all down to sexual antagonism, the evolutionary genetic variants that are good for one sex but bad for the other.

An obvious one is longevity no matter how advanced medicine becomes, on average women still live longer than men.

It is important to remember that evolution maximises Darwinian fitness rather than longevity, explained Dr Alexei Maklakov, at the Department of Animal Ecology of Uppsala Universitys Evolutionary Biology Centre in Sweden.

He explained that this meant that one sex can live longer than the other.Males and females have very different reproductive strategies, meaning that the trade-off between reproduction and longevity can be optimised differently between the sexes.

Those aged 65 years or over are projected to account for 28.7 % of the EUs population by 2080, compared with 18.9 % in 2015, according to EU data. As the global population ages,it is more important than ever to study this subject.

There is a massive research effort underway to find treatments that can improve the human condition in late life, said Dr Maklakov. However, because of the fundamental biological differences between the sexes, men and women are likely to respond differently to the same treatments.

Because of the fundamental biological differences between the sexes, men and women are likely to respond differently to the same treatments.

Dr Alexei Maklakov, Uppsala University, Sweden

As part of the EU-funded AGINGSEXDIFFproject, he has done tests on roundworms and fruit flies - organisms commonly used by biologists - to look at the factors which affect longevity.

The project also analysed human data to help explain the variation in longevity between species, populations, sexes and individuals.

Dr Maklakov gives the example of female beetles, where longevity is positively associated with fitness, meaning longer-lived females produce more offspring. In male beetles its a different story, successful males invest a lot in early-life reproduction and die young.

The same principle explains how shifts in demographics are giving human females longer average lifespans than males.

In the past, women paid a higher cost than men in terms of longevity for having children. A historical shift to smaller families has therefore increased longevity among women but not among men, Dr Maklakov explains.

The project has helped to explain the link between evolutionary biology and biogerontology the science of why and how we age.

Sex-specific

For biogerontologists, our results imply that lifespan- and healthspan-extending treatments in humans will likely always affect men and women differently, suggesting that we need more research on sex-specific effects of the new treatments, saidDr Maklakov.

Sexual antagonism may also help to explain a longstanding paradox for evolutionary biologists why there is so much genetic variation in many natural populations.

Any gene variants that are good should spread throughout the population, and any bad ones should be lost, said Dr Jessica Abbott at Lund Universitys Department of Biology in Sweden. So why do we see so much variation?

She has selected successive generations of fruit flies and flatworms in a sex-specific manner and is now setting about genetic and genomic analysis of the changes she has observed in the subjects as part of the EU-funded ComplexSex project.

Sexual antagonism can explain how sex chromosomes evolve, how males and females evolve to be different from one another, and how genetic conflicts shape evolution, Dr Abbott adds.

The findings of the ComplexSex project will apply specifically to flatworms and fruit flies, but Dr Abbott believes the broader evolutionary mechanisms the research highlights should be relevant to many species, including humans.

Lots of diseases with a genetic component have different prevalence in men and women. My colleagues and I have speculated that this might be partially due to sexual antagonism, she said.

The better we understand sexual antagonism as a phenomenon, the more we might be able to understand the reasons for these differences between men and women in disease and ageing.

If you liked this article, please consider sharing it on social media.

Originally posted here:
The battle of the sexes can show us how to live longer, say researchers - Horizon magazine

data courtesy of Verve

Cornell University ranked in the top ten worldwide for producing the most number of founders of unicorns a term for a billion-dollar start-up according to a recent study conducted by Verve, a creative search engine optimization company.

The five unicorns founded by Cornell alumni are Lyft, Wayfair, Illumio, Eventbrite, and Human Longevity, which rank 29th, 85th, 150th, 183rd, and 238th respectively in valuation, according to the study.

John Zimmer 06, the co-founder of Lyft, a billion-dollar taxi service company based in San Francisco, told Cornell Alumni Magazine that he found inspiration for his company from a city planning class that he took as an undergraduate student in the College of Architecture, Art and Planning.

During a particular lecture on the evolution of U.S. transportation, Zimmer recalled thinking If those are the first three slides in the presentation, what would be the fourth slide ten years from now? Eleven years after Zimmer took the course, Lyft is a now $5.5 billion private company, according to Barnes.

The second unicorn founded by Cornell alumni is Wayfair, a $2 billion online home store founded by Niraj Shah 95 and Steve Conine 95, Barnes added. Shah and Conine called themselves Cornell entrepreneurs at the second Cornell Entrepreneurship Summit in 2013 and also said they found inspiration from their undergraduate courses.

We were three doors apart on our freshmen dorm floor at Cornell and then without really planning it, we ended up starting a company right out of Cornell, Shah said at the summit. The reason we did that [is] we were Cornell engineers. One of the elective courses we took our very last semester was the entrepreneurship course in the Johnson School.

As an assignment for the course, they created a consulting business which quickly paved their career into commercial internet and eventually to their founding Wayfair.

The three remaining unicorns founded by Cornell alumni are valued around $1 billion, according to the research by Verve. Illumio, founded by PJ Kirner 15, is valued at $1 billion; Eventbrite, founded by Renaud Visage 94, M. Eng., is valued at $1.06 billion; and Human Longevity, founded by Robert Hariri 87, M.D. and Ph.D., is valued at $1.2 billion.

The billion-dollar start-up was once the stuff of myth, which is why private companies worth in excess of $1 billion have come to be dubbed unicorns, said James Barnes, Creative Writer and Researcher for Verve.

We are an independent, student newspaper. Help keep us reporting with a tax-deductible donation to the Cornell Sun Alumni Association, a non-profit dedicated to aiding The Sun.

Follow this link:
Cornell Ranks 9th in Producing Unicorn Founders - Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun

There are several prime reasons why Worcester could have significant bioscience industry growth. A main one certainly is the Downtown Grid District housing and new walkable city market. Also consider the increasing reliance of the nearby medical industry on biochemical solutions. This would be an attraction for Alexandria Partners, developers of real estate for biotech lab construction.

The main partners in growth will be the universities and hospitals as game makers. Worcester is the center of a rail and interstate network and the regional bioscience industry is showing vitality with mergers and acquisitions. Worcester is motivated to welcome this growth as a comeback city.

Here is certainly the attractive approach of Alexandria Partners with a huge presence in East Cambridge and Silicon Valley. They are a true leader of the nationwide bioscience surge of lab construction. Consider the rewards, that all this life science research is improving human longevity and happiness to benefit all.

Let's celebrate Worcester as a new science product generation center of Massachusetts because of the startup real estate prices. They certainly should attract Alexandria Partners and other developers of bioscience labs.

Robert O'Neil

Framingham

Read the original:
Letter: Worcester's emergence in growing bioscience industry - Worcester Telegram