Category Archives: Transhuman News

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

25-Aug-2014

Contact: Nuria Noriega nnoriega@cnio.es Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncologicas (CNIO)

In a recent report in Aging Cell, a multidisciplinary team of Spanish scientists, led by Tim Cash and Manuel Serrano at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), identify rare variants in the APOB gene in several families where exceptional longevity (>100 years of age) appears to cluster. Investigators identified three Spanish families with at least two siblings of around 100 years of age and they sequenced their genes in the hope of finding rare variants that could be associated with extreme longevity. Remarkably, only one gene was found carrying rare variants in all the long-lived siblings of the three families, namely, APOB.

APOB is an attractive longevity gene because of its previous link to hypobetalipoproteinemia, a putative "longevity syndrome" and also because the protein encoded by APOB works in lipid transport together with the related protein APOE, which has common genetic variants with undisputed assocations with longevity.

This work is a first step in the identification of the genetic basis of familial extreme longevity and it points to cholesterol and lipid metabolism as an important determinant of human longevity.

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Reference article:

Exome sequencing of three cases of familial exceptional longevity.

Cash TP, Pita G, Domnguez O, Alonso MR, Moreno LT, Borrs C, Rodrguez-Maas L, Santiago C, Garatachea N, Lucia A, Avellana JA, Via J, Gonzlez-Neira A, Serrano M.

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APOB, a gene involved in lipid transport, linked to cases of familial extreme longevity

Aug 27, 2014

Researchers analyzing human, fly, and worm genomes have found that these species have a number of key genomic processes in common, reflecting their shared ancestry. The findings, appearing Aug. 28, 2014, in the journal Nature, offer insights into embryonic development, gene regulation and other biological processes vital to understanding human biology and disease.

The studies highlight the data generated by the modENCODE Project and the ENCODE Project, both supported by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health. Integrating data from the three species, the model organism ENCyclopedia Of DNA Elements (modENCODE) Consortium studied how gene expression patterns and regulatory proteins that help determine cell fate often share common features. Investigators also detailed the similar ways in which the three species use protein packaging to compact DNA into the cell nucleus and to regulate genome function by controlling access to DNA.

Launched in 2007, the goal of modENCODE is to create a comprehensive catalog of functional elements in the fruit fly and roundworm genomes for use by the research community. Such elements include genes that code for proteins, non-protein-coding genes and regulatory elements that control gene expression. The current work builds on initial catalogs published in 2010. The modENCODE projects complement the work being done by the ENCyclopedia Of DNA Elements (ENCODE) Project, which is building a comprehensive catalog of functional elements in the human and mouse genomes.

"The modENCODE investigators have provided a valuable resource for researchers worldwide," said NHGRI Director Eric Green, M.D., Ph.D. "The insights gained about the workings of model organisms' genomes greatly help to inform our understanding of human biology."

"One way to describe and understand the human genome is through comparative genomics and studying model organisms," said Mark Gerstein, Ph.D., Albert L. Williams Professor of Biomedical Informatics at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and the lead author on one of the papers. "The special thing about the worm and fly is that they are very distant from humans evolutionarily, so finding something conserved across all three human, fly and worm tells us it is a very ancient, fundamental process."

In one study, scientists led by Dr. Gerstein and others, analyzed human, fly and worm transcriptomes, the collection of gene transcripts (or readouts) in a genome. They used large amounts of gene expression data generated in the ENCODE and modENCODE projects including more than 67 billion gene sequence readouts to discover gene expression patterns shared by all three species, particularly for developmental genes.

Investigators showed that the ways in which DNA is packaged in the cell are similar in many respects, and, in many cases, the species share programs for turning on and off genes in a coordinated manner. More specifically, they used gene expression patterns to match the stages of worm and fly development and found sets of genes that parallel each other in their usage. They also found the genes specifically expressed in the worm and fly embryos are re-expressed in the fly pupae, the stage between larva and adult.

The researchers found that in all three organisms, the gene expression levels for both protein-coding and non-protein-coding genes could be quantitatively predicted from chromatin features at the promoters of genes. A gene's promoter tells the cell's machinery where to begin copying DNA into RNA, which can be used to make proteins. DNA is packaged into chromatin in cells, and changes in this packaging can regulate gene function.

"Our findings open whole new worlds for understanding gene expression and how we think about the role of transcription," said co-senior author Susan Celniker, Ph.D., Head, Department of Genome Dynamics, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California. "modENCODE has been transformative," she added. "It has helped set the standard for the types of data that should be generated and catalogued."

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Scientists looking across human, fly and worm genomes find shared biology

Aug 27, 2014 The individual on the right hand side pulls the board for its group mates. Credit: Judith Burkart

Scientists have long been searching for the factor that determines why humans often behave so selflessly. It was known that humans share this tendency with species of small Latin American primates of the family Callitrichidae (tamarins and marmosets), leading some to suggest that cooperative care for the young, which is ubiquitous in this family, was responsible for spontaneous helping behavior. But it was not so clear what other primate species do in this regard, because most studies were not comparable.

A group of researchers from Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy and Great Britain, headed by anthropologist Judith Burkart from the University of Zurich, therefore developed a novel approach they systematically applied to a great number of primate species. The results of the study have now been published in Nature Communications.

For their study, Burkart and her colleagues developed the new paradigm of group service, which examines spontaneous helping behavior in a standardized way. With the aid of a simple test apparatus, the researchers studied whether individuals from a particular primate species were prepared to provide other group members with a treat, even if this meant missing out themselves (see box). The scientists applied this standardized test to 24 social groups of 15 different primate species. They also examined whether and how kindergarten children aged between four and seven acted altruistically.

The researchers found that the willingness to provision others varies greatly from one primate species to the next. But there was a clear pattern, as summarized by Burkart: "Humans and callitrichid monkeys acted highly altruistically and almost always produced the treats for the other group members. Chimpanzees, one of our closest relatives, however, only did so sporadically." Similarly, most other primate species, including capuchins and macaques, only rarely pulled the lever to give another group member food, if at all even though they have considerable cognitive skills.

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Until now, many researchers assumed that spontaneous altruistic behavior in primates could be attributed to factors they would share with humans: advanced cognitive skills, large brains, high social tolerance, collective foraging or the presence of pair bonds or other strong social bonds. As Burkart's new data now reveal, however, none of these factors reliably predicts whether a primate species will be spontaneously altruistic or not. Instead, another factor that sets us humans apart from the great apes appears to be responsible. Says Burkart: "Spontaneous, altruistic behavior is exclusively found among species where the young are not only cared for by the mother, but also other group members such as siblings, fathers, grandmothers, aunts and uncles." This behavior is referred to technically as the "cooperative breeding" or "allomaternal care."

The significance of this study goes beyond identifying the roots of our altruism. Cooperative behavior also favored the evolution of our exceptional cognitive abilities. During development, human children gradually construct their cognitive skills based on extensive selfless social inputs from caring parents and other helpers, and the researchers believe that it is this new mode of caring that also put our ancestors on the road to our cognitive excellence. This study may, therefore, have just identified the foundation for the process that made us human. As Burkart suggests: "When our hominin ancestors began to raise their offspring cooperatively, they laid the foundation for both our altruism and our exceptional cognition."

Test set-up for the altruism study

A treat is placed on a moving board outside the cage and out of the animal's reach. With the aid of a handle, an animal can pull the board closer and bring the food within reach. However, the handle attached to the board is so far from the food that the individual operating it cannot grab the food itself. Moreover, the board instantly rolls back when the handle is released, moving the food out of reach again, which guarantees that only the other members of the group present are able to get at the snack. In this way, the researchers ensure that the animal operating the handle acts purely altruistically.

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The roots of human altruism

Want to become a billionaire? Then help a billion people.

The worlds biggest problems are the worlds biggest business opportunities.

Thats the premise for companies launching out of Singularity University (SU).

Allow me to explain.

In 2008, Ray Kurzweil and I co-founded SU to enable brilliant graduate students to work on solving humanitys grand challenges using exponential technologies.

This week we graduated our sixth Graduate Studies Program (GSP) class.

During the GSP, we ask our students to build a company that positively impacts the lives of 1 billion people within 10 years (we call these 10^9+ companies).

Historically if you wanted to touch a billion people, you had to be Coca Cola, GE or Siemens SiemensToday you can be a guy and gal in a garage.

Id love to share with you some of SUs most interesting 10^9+ companies from the past six summers and some of the new ideas presented from the latest class.

Some great SU 10^9+ Companies

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Turning Big Problems Into Big Business Opportunities