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Senescent cell therapy for treating age-related diseases could also help people after chemotherapy.

Senescent cell removal therapies could help reduce the damaging impact chemotherapy has on patients as well as being used to address one of the aging processes to treat diseases.

#aging #cancer

Continue reading “Senescent cell removal could help chemotherapy patients” »

The last of the fun videos about the immune system and how it works.

THE FINAL SHOWDOWN! This is the last episode on the immune system and also the very last episode of Crash Course Anatomy & Physiology. In it, Hank explains how the cellular immune response uses helper, cytotoxic, and regulatory T cells to attack body cells compromised by pathogens. He also explores how cytokines activate B and T cells, and what happens if your immune system goes rogue and starts causing autoimmune trouble.

Continue reading “Immune System, part 3: Crash Course A&P #47” »

Looks like hacking might be alot older then we thought lmao.

Biologists at UC San Diego have documented for the first time how very large viruses reprogram the cellular machinery of bacteria during infection to more closely resemble an animal or human cell—a process that allows these alien invaders to trick cells into producing hundreds of new viruses, which eventually explode from and kill the cells they infect.

In a paper published in the January 13 issue of Science, the researchers conducted a series of experiments that allowed them to view in detail what happens inside bacterial cells as the invading viruses replicate.

Continue reading “Biologists discover how viruses hijack cell’s machinery” »

Over millions of years retroviruses have been incorporated into our human DNA, where they today make up almost 10 per cent of the total genome. A research group at Lund University in Sweden has now discovered a mechanism through which these retroviruses may have an impact on gene expression. This means that they may have played a significant role in the development of the human brain as well as in various neurological diseases.

Retroviruses are a special group of viruses including some which are dangerous, such as HIV, while others are believed to be harmless. The viruses studied by Johan Jakobsson and his colleagues in Lund are called endogenous retroviruses (ERV) as they have existed in the human genome for millions of years. They can be found in a part of DNA that was previously considered unimportant, so called junk-DNA — a notion that researchers have now started to reconsider.

“The genes that control the production of various proteins in the body represent a smaller proportion of our DNA than endogenous retroviruses. They account for approximately 2 per cent, while retroviruses account for 8–10 per cent of the total genome. If it turns out that they are able to influence the production of proteins, this will provide us with a huge new source of information about the human brain,” says Johan Jakobsson.

Continue reading “Salmonella Could Be Used To Fight Brain Tumors” »

Over millions of years retroviruses have been incorporated into our human DNA, where they today make up almost 10 per cent of the total genome. A research group at Lund University in Sweden has now discovered a mechanism through which these retroviruses may have an impact on gene expression. This means that they may have played a significant role in the development of the human brain as well as in various neurological diseases.

Retroviruses are a special group of viruses including some which are dangerous, such as HIV, while others are believed to be harmless. The viruses studied by Johan Jakobsson and his colleagues in Lund are called endogenous retroviruses (ERV) as they have existed in the human genome for millions of years. They can be found in a part of DNA that was previously considered unimportant, so called junk-DNA — a notion that researchers have now started to reconsider.

“The genes that control the production of various proteins in the body represent a smaller proportion of our DNA than endogenous retroviruses. They account for approximately 2 per cent, while retroviruses account for 8–10 per cent of the total genome. If it turns out that they are able to influence the production of proteins, this will provide us with a huge new source of information about the human brain,” says Johan Jakobsson.

In Brief

• Illumina claims its new NovaSeq sequencing machine will one day be able to sequence an entire genome for less than $100, a process that currently costs about $1,000.
• Cheaper genome sequencing could revolutionize healthcare, allowing doctors to prescribe individualized treatment options for patients.

There are an estimated 25,000 genes in the human genome, comprised of approximately 3 billion nucleotide base pairs. It took the Human Genome Project (HGP) approximately 15 years and $2.7 billion to sequence the entire human genome (minus about 1 percent) using the DNA of several volunteers.

Now, San Diego-based sequencing company Illumina has debuted a new sequencing machine, the NovaSeq (NovaSeq 5000 and NovaSeq 6000), that it says will one day be able to sequence an entire genome for less than $100 in fewer than 60 minutes. This is a steep difference in both cost and time compared to that first sequenced genome, but it follows the trend. In 2006, Illumina released their first machine, which could sequence a genome for $300,000, but by last year, that price had dropped to $1,000.

Continue reading “Soon, You Could Have Your Genome Sequenced in 60 Minutes for $100” »

Senolytics to remove senescent cells will deliver the first “repair” based approach to treat the aging process. This is the arrival of true rejuvenation biotechnology in the SENS model of damage repair.

Senescent cell removal with companies such as Unity, entering human clinical trials in the next 18 months will deliver the first true damage repair rejuevenation biotechnology. This will be the first “repair” approach to the aging process and one the SENS Research Foundation has been advocating for over a decade.

#aging #crowdfundthecure

Continue reading “Is An Anti-Aging Serum In Your Future? Science-Backed Therapy Targeting Senescent Cells May Be The Answer” »

This is probably important.

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have discovered a protein that fine-tunes the cellular clock involved in aging.

This novel protein, named TZAP, binds the ends of chromosomes and determines how long telomeres, the segments of DNA that protect chromosome ends, can be. Understanding telomere length is crucial because telomeres set the lifespan of cells in the body, dictating critical processes such as aging and the incidence of cancer.

Continue reading “Scientists discover master regulator of cellular aging” »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6m2tmKlJWQ

A genome sequenced every 15 minutes.

Filmed November 2016.

Continue reading “Craig Venter — How Genome Sequencing Can Fight Aging” »