In Other Words: The Measure of a Mole
When we encounter the word mole, some of us might think of a small, fuzzy animal that burrows in gardens, or perhaps the common, pigmented marks on our skin. But in chemistry, the mole is a key unit of measurement; its name is derived from the word molecule. Similar to how “dozen” is another way of saying 12, “mole” is another way of saying 602,214,076,000,000,000,000,000 (that’s about 602 billion trillion), specifically for elementary entities such as molecules and atoms. Scientists sometimes abbreviate this number as 6.02 x 1023, which is why Mole Day is celebrated from 6:02 a.m. to 6:02 p.m. on October 23 each...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - October 19, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmacology In Other Words Source Type: blogs
An Update on Senolytics Company Cleara Biotech
Senescent cells accumulate with age, and that accumulation is responsible for a meaningful fraction of degenerative aging. Many groups are working on ways to remove these cells and thereby reverse aspects of aging. Among their number, Cleara Biotech was founded four years ago on to advance initially promising work on the FOXO4-p53 interaction in cellular senescence, a possible targeted way to destroy senescent cells. This approach will join the numerous other mechanisms already being exploited as the basis for potential rejuvenation therapies.
A couple of companies have been looking into FOXO4 biochemistry in the co...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 17, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
National Chemistry Week: Recent Interviews With NIGMS-Funded Chemists
Credit: ACS Website.
It’s almost National Chemistry Week (NCW)! Each year, the American Chemical Society (ACS) unites scientists, undergraduate students, high school chemistry clubs, and other groups through this community-based program to reach the public—especially elementary and middle school students—with positive chemistry messages.
Local groups plan and coordinate NCW events, so while they vary across the country, they often present chemistry education through hands-on science activities to local schools, museums, scouting groups, or Saturday Science events. Lily Raines, Ph.D., manager at the ACS Office of ...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - October 12, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Being a Scientist Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmacology Profiles Research Roundup Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, October 10th 2022
Fight Aging! publishes news and commentary relevant to the goal of ending all age-related disease, to be achieved by bringing the mechanisms of aging under the control of modern medicine. This weekly newsletter is sent to thousands of interested subscribers. To subscribe or unsubscribe from the newsletter,
please visit:
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Longevity Industry Consulting Services
Reason, the founder of Fight Aging! and Repair Biotechnologies, offers strategic consulting services to investors, entrepreneurs, and others interested in the longevity industry and its complexities. To find out m...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 9, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Air Pollution Correlates with Risk and Outcome of Stroke
Exposure to air pollution tends to inversely correlate with wealth and socioeconomic status, both of which clearly correlate with health in epidemiological studies. More careful studies of similar populations with differing exposure, and what is known of the biochemistry of tissue interaction with particulate matter, make it reasonable to think that the effects of particulate air pollution on chronic inflammation - and thus pace of development of atherosclerosis - play a role in the comparatively poor health of those people in regions of greater pollution. One of the outcomes of atherosclerosis is stroke, and as noted here...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 7, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
About That Cancer Moonshot
BY KIM BELLARD
Joe Biden hates cancer. He led the Cancer Moonshot in the Obama Administration, and, as President, he reignited it, vowing to cut death rates in half over the next 25 years. Last month, on the 60th anniversary of President Kennedy’s historic call for an actual moonshot, he vowed “to end cancer as we know it. And even cure cancers once and for all.”
But, as several recent studies show, cancer is still surprising us.
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Our body has its own defenses against cancer, such as T-cells, and great strides have been made in cancer therapies, including ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - October 6, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Health Policy Research Cancer Cancer Progression Fungi John F. Kennedy Moonshot Source Type: blogs
About that Cancer Moonshot
By KIM BELLARD
Joe Biden hates cancer. He led the Cancer Moonshot in the Obama Administration, and, as President, he reignited it, vowing to cut death rates in half over the next 25 years. Last month, on the 60th anniversary of President Kennedy’s historic call for an actual moonshot, he vowed “to end cancer as we know it. And even cure cancers once and for all.”
But, as several recent studies show, cancer is still surprising us.
—————
Our body has its own defenses against cancer, such as T-cells, and great strides have been made in cancer therapies, includi...
Source: The Health Care Blog - October 6, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Health Policy Public Health Biden Cancer Cancer Moonshot Source Type: blogs
NALCN is a Regulator of Cancer Metastasis
If cancers were not metastatic, did not spread themselves throughout the body, then cancer would be a much less dangerous medical condition. Tumors would be largely amenable to surgical removal, and long-term control and suppression of cancer, even at late stages, would be a feasible goal. Thus research into the biochemistry of metastasis is important. If commonalities exist in the regulation of metastasis across many cancers, interventions to suppress metastasis could lead to a sizable reduction in cancer mortality. The research here shows that cancers may hijack an existing regulatory mechanism controlling cell motility ...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 6, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Magnetic Fields Modestly Extend Life in Nematode Worms via Effects on Mitochondrial Function
Electromagnetic effects on cellular biochemistry, and their potential use as interventions, are little studied in comparison to the use of pharmaceutical agents. That state of affairs shows little sign of changing in the near future, despite the existence of interesting studies on regeneration, or this one on the longevity of nematodes. Researchers pin down a potential mechanism to explain how a magnetic field can alter the activities of cells in ways that modestly extend life in this short-lived species. It is worth noting that nematode life span is very plastic in response to circumstances and interventions. Approaches t...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 6, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
DNA Damage and Inflammation in Aging
Both stochastic DNA damage and chronic inflammation are characteristic of aging. DNA damage can contribute to inflammatory signaling via a range of mechanisms, but, as noted here, it is challenging in a system as complex as our cellular biochemistry to pick apart the relative importance of these mechanisms. It is nonetheless reasonable to think that some fraction of the unresolved inflammation of aging, disruptive to tissue function throughout the body, results from the increased amount of DNA damage in later life.
Persistent DNA lesions build up with aging triggering inflammation, the body's first line of immune ...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 5, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, October 3rd 2022
In conclusion, based on the analysis of proteomics and transcriptome, we identified four SRMs that may affect aging and speculated their possible mechanisms, which provides a new target for preventing aging, especially skin aging.
A Popular Science Article on the State of Epigenetic Clocks
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2022/09/a-popular-science-article-on-the-state-of-epigenetic-clocks/
This popular science article is a good view of the present state of development and use of epigenetic clocks, covering the issues as well as the promise. Epigenetic age can be measured, with many different clocks...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 2, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
A Mechanism by Which Herpesvirus May Accelerate Amyloid- β Aggregation Leading to Alzheimer's Disease
There is some debate over whether persistent viral infection, such as by herpesvirus, contributes meaningfully to the onset and development of Alzheimer's disease. It would be a convenient explanation, given that many people with all of the lifestyle risk factors for neurodegeneration, such as being overweight and sedentary, do not in fact go on to develop Alzheimer's. The epidemiology is mixed, however, with some studies suggesting yes, some no. Some of the positive data suggests that use of antiviral drugs lowers the risk of Alzheimer's. More recent work argues that multiple different viral infections are required for a ...
Source: Fight Aging! - September 29, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Studying and Sharing the Big Questions of Biology
Dr. Pedro Márquez-Zacarías. Credit: Courtesy of Dr. Pedro Márquez-Zacarías.
When he started high school in Mexico, Pedro Márquez-Zacarías, Ph.D., wanted to be a politician. However, as he became aware of issues like corruption, he began looking into other fields. Chemistry fascinated him, so he enrolled in a class at his school that was later canceled partway through the year. He then joined a biology class because it included a unit on biochemistry, and through that experience, found that he enjoyed other aspects of biology as well—so much so that he went on to compete in the International Biology Olympiad, a co...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - September 28, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Being a Scientist Evolutionary Biology Profiles Training Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, September 26th 2022
This study examined the dose-response association between daily step count and intensity and incidence of all-cause dementia among adults in the UK. This was a UK Biobank prospective population-based cohort study (February 2013 to December 2015) with 6.9 years of follow-up (data analysis conducted May 2022). A total of 78,430 of 103,684 eligible adults aged 40 to 79 years with valid wrist accelerometer data were included. Registry-based dementia was ascertained through October 2021.
We found no minimal threshold for the beneficial association of step counts with incident dementia. Our findings suggest that approxima...
Source: Fight Aging! - September 25, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Continued Hope that Amyloid- β is the Cause of Alzheimer's Disease, an Amyloid Cascade Hypothesis 2.0
Is the slow amyloid-β aggregation, occurring for years prior to the onset of evident symptoms, really the cause of Alzheimer's disease? The amyloid cascade hypothesis suggests that this accumulation of misfolded amyloid-β, and the toxic biochemistry surrounding its aggregates, set the stage for the much more severe later stage of Alzheimer's disease, in which neuroinflammation and tau aggregation kill neurons - and ultimately the patient. The hypothesis makes sense given what is known of the relevant biochemistry, but has been strongly challenged by (a) the great difficulty in clearing amyloid-β from the brain, a projec...
Source: Fight Aging! - September 23, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
