Category Archives: Transhuman News

In Brief In a recent interview, researcher Alex Zhavoronkov talked about how he believes AI will help humanity defeat aging. His company, Insilico Medicine, is already at the forefront of using AI as a tool to facilitate the development of drugs that combat age-related diseases. Anti-Aging Research

More and more scientists are convinced that aging, while a natural phenomenon experienced by all living creatures, is a disease that can be treated or even cured. Scientists, generally, have taken different approaches to aging in that regard. Somewant to slow down the process, while others seek to put a stop to it altogether. Those in the latter group see no limit in our potential toextend human life.

These efforts are fueled by the latest technologies science has to offer. Among theseisthe use of stem cellscombined with genetic and cellular manipulation. More recently, researchers have been testing the rejuvenating effects of proteins found in human blood. Still others propose using a certain type of bacteriato keep old age at bay.

Then theres Alex Zhavoronkov. Hes the director of both the International Aging Research Portfolio (IARP) and theBiogerontology Research Foundation, as well as the CEO of bioinformatics company Insilico Medicine. His idea seems straight out of science fiction. Instead of fearing artificial intelligence (AI) asthe harbinger of humanitys demise, Zhavoronkov wants to use AI to defeat aging.

Is human immortalityto be found in the hands of AI? Zhavoronkov thinks it may be, and he explained why in an interview withthe Life Extension Advocacy Foundation (LEAF).

Zhavoronkov highlighted the work Insilico is doing to combat aging and age-related illnesses. One project is an algorithm called OncoFinder, which analyzes the molecular pathways associated with the growth and development of cancer and aging. I think that applying AI to aging is the only way to bring it under the comprehensive medical control, Zhavoronkov said. Our long-term goal is to continuously improve human performance and prevent and cure the age-related diseases.

He explained further:

In 5 years, we want to build a comprehensive system to model and monitor the human health status and rapidly correct any deviations from the ideal healthy state with lifestyle or therapeutic interventions. Considering what we already have, I hope that we will be able to do it sooner than in 5 years [] One of our major contributions to the field was the application of deep neural networks for predicting the age of the person. People are very different and have different diseases. I think that this approach is novel and will result in many breakthroughs.

Zhavoronkov also explained the important role AI has in facilitating the development of drugs that could treat aging and age-related diseases. Our AI ecosystem is comprised of multiple pipelines, he said. With our drug discovery and biomarker development pipelines, we can go after almost every disease [] And since we are considering aging as a form of disease, many of the same algorithms are used to develop biomarkers and drugs to prevent and possibly even restore aging-associated damage.

For Zhavoronkov, AIs potential impact on humankindgoes far beyond the possibility that it could cause a singularity apocalypse it could actually be the very thing that saves us from death.

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Expert: Human Immortality Could Be Acquired Through AI - Futurism

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is Emmy bait. No need to describe it otherwise. HBO is skilled in the ways of positive attraction when it comes to industry awards, and the channel is likely banking on multiple nominations for its adaptation of Rebecca Skloots extraordinary book.

The deadline for Emmy entries is May 31; as such, April is when the floodgates open and our DVR and streaming service watchlists bloat with must-watch, absolutely-cannot-miss series and specials.

And The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, debuting Saturday at 8 p.m., merely falls into the category of should watch. Not must watch, not cannot miss, but should and not due to George C. Wolfes workmanlike direction of the overall piece, but to witness what Oprah Winfrey does with her role.

Granted, the title has a built-in appeal that should guarantee decent tune-in; Skloots nonfiction work spent 75 weeks on the New York Times paperback bestseller list, riveting readers with the story of the woman behind the cell line known as HeLa, the first to survive and reproduce apart from its donor.

Since it was first discovered in 1951, HeLas cell strain has been given to labs around the world for research and experimentation. In 1954, a company began selling HeLa cells, giving birth to the multibillion-dollar biomedical industry. HeLa enabled Jonas Salk to create his polio vaccine, and it has since been used by scientists to aid in the battles against tuberculosis, cancer and countless viruses. In-vitro fertilization, treatments for Parkinsons disease, HPV and flu inoculations all of these life-saving advances are thanks to HeLa and Henrietta Lacks, whose cancer cells gave rise to the strain.

Only a handful of people knew of Henrietta Lacks game-changing contribution to medicine namely the doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore who harvested her tissue as she lay dying, without her knowledge or her consent, and without offering compensation to her family. Lacks relatives only found out when a doctor let that information slip while taking samples of their blood years after HeLas discovery. Much later Skloot would share this information with the world.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is not a story about reconciliation or justice, but resolution, revelation and legacy moving ideas but, as shown in the film, lacking in dramatic tension. HBOs movie condenses Skloots work into a winding and somewhat facile tale of unconventional friendship, following the author (played by Rose Byrne) as she sorts through frayed threads of the Lacks familys memories about Henrietta.

The family has been taken advantage of by outsiders many times over the years, so they are hesitant to help Rebecca until Henriettas daughter Deborah Lacks (Winfrey) insists. Deborahs decades-long yearning to stitch together a more complete memory of a mother she pines for drives her, clutching at her heart; Henriettas medical records are all that she has, and Deborah guards them with an explosive fierceness.

Byrne plays Skloot and does an able job of capturing the determined and friendly curiosity of a journalist while believably conveying a muddle of unease and fear in the moments that Deborahs moods take a darker turn. But Winfreys realistic portrayal of Deborahs frequent and unpredictable shifts between manic optimism, blind rage and quavering despair eclipse everything around her.

Simply put, Winfrey has more colors to paint with in Deborah than Byrne gets with her character. It must be said, Byrne does a fine job. But Winfreys performance is a physical and temperamental whirlwind. Her Deborah walks with an unsteady imbalance, yet Rebecca struggles mightily to keep up and meet her energy. Curbing her changing moods, Rebecca finds, is all but impossible.

As telefilms go, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is solid and perhaps a bit too economic in its execution, and this makes it fall short of creatively soaring. That takes nothing away from its performances, which are the reason to tune in and the hook that may keep you watching. Henrietta looms large in Deborahs life, and Rene Elise Goldsberrys luminous presence, seen in flashbacks, more than does justice to her memory.

Rocky Carroll, Reg E. Cathey and Leslie Uggams deliver portrayals that grant Henriettas loved ones a share of benediction in spite of the emotional impoverishment and misery they suffered after her loss. Winfrey, though, is the magnetic center in a piece held together by its performances. The film itself may not achieve Emmy immortality, but Winfrey has a powerful shot.

Originally posted here:
Aside from Oprah, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks leaves us wanting - Salon

Review Quantrell Colbert/HBO

Oprah Winfrey and Rose Byrne in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Surely Oprah Winfrey knows a thing or two about immortality. Never one to play it safe, the pop-culture icon and industry mogul once again demonstrates her range by channeling emotional authenticity into the demanding role of Deborah Lacks, a woman of unstable temperament yearning to find out more about Henrietta, the mother she never knew but who was known to science as a once-anonymous medical legend.

In tackling the tricky task of adapting the nonfiction bestseller The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks into a prestige HBO movie, director and co-writer George C. Wolfe turns the story into a moving road trip of discovery, not just for Deborah but for the viewer, who may be just as unaware of Henrietta's posthumous contributions to medicine. Only decades after Henrietta's premature death from cancer in 1951 did her family learn that her rare immortal cells (code named "HeLa"), harvested without her consent, astonishingly lived on and were reproduced, continuing to this day to be used as an invaluable tool of research in developing vaccines and treating diseases.

Enter journalist/author Rebecca Skloot (an overeager Rose Byrne), who's obsessed with the goal of rescuing Henrietta from obscurity, but first must win over the wary and embittered Lacks family that a perky, giggly white freelance reporter can do justice to her story. As Deborah and Rebecca embark on a journey into Henrietta's past, unearthing demons that unsettle the possibly bipolar Deborah, theirs is an often testy and tested relationship.

Sometimes learning is just as painful as not knowing, one observer warns, and there is traumatic yet necessary catharsis along the way as Henrietta (a luminous Rene Elise Goldsberry) comes into focus, finally getting the respect and thanks she deserves. You might wish the movie spent as much time with Henrietta as it does with her daughter and the intrepid writer, but even if it sends you to the book to learn more, The Immortal Life will have done its job.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Premieres Saturday, April 22, 8/7c, HBO

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Roush Review: Oprah Winfrey in 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks' - TVInsider