Career Conversations: Q & A with Bioengineer C ésar de la Fuente
Dr. César de la Fuente. Credit: Martí E. Berenguer.
“Science provides adventure and excitement every single day. When you’re pushing boundaries, you get to jump into the abyss of new areas. It can be scary, but it’s an incredible opportunity to try to improve our world and people’s lives,” says César de la Fuente, Ph.D., a Presidential Assistant Professor in the Perelman School of Medicine and School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Our interview with Dr. de la Fuente highlights his journey of becoming a scientist and his research using artificial intelligen...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - September 21, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Being a Scientist Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmacology Bacteria Computational Biology Drug Resistance Medicines Profiles Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, September 5th 2022
Conclusion
Coupled with the animal data, and the existing human trial data for safety, the results here suggests that someone should run a formal, controlled trial of flagellin immunization in older people, 65 and over. The goal would be to see whether (a) this sort of outcome holds up in a larger group of people, and (b) there is a meaningful impact on chronic inflammation and other parameters of health that are known to be affected by the aging of the gut microbiome.
The most interesting part of the data is perhaps the decline in microbial diversity, when considered against the gains elsewhere. Microbial dive...
Source: Fight Aging! - September 4, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Two Year Update on a Study of One with Flagellin Immunization to Adjust the Gut Microbiome
Conclusion
Coupled with the animal data, and the existing human trial data for safety, the results here suggests that someone should run a formal, controlled trial of flagellin immunization in older people, 65 and over. The goal would be to see whether (a) this sort of outcome holds up in a larger group of people, and (b) there is a meaningful impact on chronic inflammation and other parameters of health that are known to be affected by the aging of the gut microbiome.
The most interesting part of the data is perhaps the decline in microbial diversity, when considered against the gains elsewhere. Microbial dive...
Source: Fight Aging! - September 1, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Self-Experimentation Source Type: blogs
Lifelong Exercise Considerably Reduces Sarcopenia in Mice
In today's study, researchers report on a comparison between mice undergoing life-long exercise (a wheel in their cage) versus more sedentary mice (no wheel). The authors note that the age-related onset of sarcopenia is much reduced in the exercising mice, which we could perhaps take as more of an indication of the harms of a lack of exercise than of the benefits of exercise per se. This is perhaps the least interesting part of the data and discussion, however. One of the points being made by the researchers is that the effects of life-long exercise are underestimated by the research community, because this intervention is...
Source: Fight Aging! - August 31, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Training Students and Communicating Science on Capitol Hill
Dr. Mikhail Bobylev. Credit: Minot State University.
“I’ve been infected with this enthusiasm for science, and I think that carries over to my students. Essentially, I lead by example,” says Mikhail Bobylev, Ph.D., a professor of chemistry at Minot State University in Minot, North Dakota. He researches ways to improve the chemical synthesis of medicinal molecules, and since 2004, he’s has mentored more than 70 undergraduate researchers in his lab with support from the NIGMS-funded North Dakota IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE).
Dr. Bobylev focuses on training students to conduct rigorous,...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - August 31, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Being a Scientist Profiles Training Source Type: blogs
Engineering an Increase in Retrotransposon Activity Accelerates Aspects of Aging in Flies
One has to be somewhat careful when declaring that an intervention produces accelerated aging. Interventions that reduce health and life span in ways that mimic aspects of aging tend to be narrow in effect, causing elevated levels of a specific form of molecular damage, often one of those thought to be involved in natural aging. DNA repair deficiencies cause what looks a lot like accelerated aging, but should really be thought of as an excess of only one type of age-related damage, nuclear DNA damage. It might be possible to learn things from this type of malfunction, but given that it is very unlike natural aging, it is m...
Source: Fight Aging! - August 30, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, August 29th 2022
This study demonstrates that adoptive astrocytic Mt transfer enhances neuronal Mn-SOD-mediated anti-oxidative defense and neuroplasticity in the brain, which potentiate functional recovery following ICH.
First Generation Stem Cell Therapies Remain Comparatively Poorly Understood
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2022/08/first-generation-stem-cell-therapies-remain-comparatively-poorly-understood/
We are something like thirty years into the increasingly widespread use of first generation stem cell therapies. Cells are derived from a variety of sources, processed, and transplanted into patients. Near all...
Source: Fight Aging! - August 28, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Educating Physicians About Firearm Safety and Injury Prevention
On this episode of the Academic Medicine Podcast, guests Katherine Hoops, MD, MPH, Andra Blomkalns, MD, MBA, and Allison Augustus-Wallace, PhD, MS, MNS, join host Toni Gallo to talk about firearm safety and injury prevention education. They discuss the role of physicians in engaging patients and communities in firearm injury risk reduction, the current state of firearm injury prevention education, and where the academic medicine community needs to go from here.
This episode is now available through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and anywhere else podcasts are available.
A transcript is below.
Read the articles d...
Source: Academic Medicine Blog - August 22, 2022 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: amrounds Tags: AM Podcast AM Podcast Transcript Academic Medicine podcast firearm injury prevention firearm safety medical education Source Type: blogs
Suggesting that the Unguarded X Chromosome is not Important in Gender Longevity Differences
Researchers here discuss the unguarded X hypothesis in the context of gender differences in life span. That these differences exist across species strongly suggests evolutionary, biological origins, rather than the lifestyle and behavioral origins sometimes suggested to explain life span differences in our species. It seems likely that the interaction between evolutionary pressures and mating strategies drives a great deal of the differences between genders, and life span may be included in that list, but exactly how that difference in longevity is produced at the level of cellular biochemistry remains up for discussion, a...
Source: Fight Aging! - August 22, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, August 22nd 2022
In conclusion, application of a multi-species bat epigenetic clock provides strong evidence that hibernation is associated with slower epigenetic ageing. The multi-species clock explains 94% of the variation in the chronological ages of both hibernating and non-hibernating big brown bats; however, the clock estimates are equal to or greater than the chronological age, suggesting big brown bats age slightly faster than a 'typical' bat, especially during the active period. (Source: Fight Aging!)
Source: Fight Aging! - August 21, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Epigenetic Aging Slows During Hiberation in a Common Bat Species
In conclusion, application of a multi-species bat epigenetic clock provides strong evidence that hibernation is associated with slower epigenetic ageing. The multi-species clock explains 94% of the variation in the chronological ages of both hibernating and non-hibernating big brown bats; however, the clock estimates are equal to or greater than the chronological age, suggesting big brown bats age slightly faster than a 'typical' bat, especially during the active period.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0635 (Source: Fight Aging!)
Source: Fight Aging! - August 19, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Combining BCL-2 Family Inhibitors May Yield More Effective Senolytic Therapies
In this study, we aimed to search for synergistic selective senolytic effects. We found that combining selective MCL-1 inhibitors with non-MCL1 BCL-2 inhibitors results in marked synergistic effects with higher sensitivity of senescent compared to proliferating cells. These findings indicate that a combination of drugs targeting different BCL-2 family members can benefit for senolytic therapies. (Source: Fight Aging!)
Source: Fight Aging! - August 17, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Career Conversations: Q & A with Organic Chemist Elizabeth Parkinson
Dr. Elizabeth Parkinson. Credit: Courtesy of Dr. Elizabeth Parkinson.
“Being able to discover new, unexpected things is why you wake up every day and go to work as a scientist. The other part is hopefully to have a positive impact on human health—through combatting conditions ranging from antibiotic resistance to cancer,” says Elizabeth Parkinson, Ph.D., an assistant professor of organic chemistry at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. In an interview, Dr. Parkinson shared with us her path to a scientific career, research on natural products made by soil-dwelling bacteria, and advice for students.
Q: W...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - August 17, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Being a Scientist Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmacology Bacteria Medicines Microbes Profiles Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, August 8th 2022
In conclusion, aging research will benefit from a better definition of how specific regulators map onto age-dependent change, considered on a phenotype-by-phenotype basis. Resolving some of these key questions will shed more light on how tractable (or intractable) the biology of aging is.
Does Acarbose Extend Life in Short Lived Species via Gut Microbiome Changes?
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2022/08/does-acarbose-extend-life-in-short-lived-species-via-gut-microbiome-changes/
Acarbose is one of a few diabetes medications shown to modestly slow aging in short-lived species. Researchers here take a...
Source: Fight Aging! - August 7, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Continuing the Debate Over Viral Contributions to Alzheimer's Disease
Persistent viral infection may be an important contributing cause of Alzheimer's disease, either because the amyloid-β associated with Alzheimer's disease is a part of the innate immune response, and infection thereby increases production, or because persistent infection drives the chronic inflammation that disrupts the biochemistry of brain tissue. If viral infection does drive Alzheimer's disease, it may go some way towards explaining why the disease doesn't correlate with lifestyle factors such as weight, activity, and so forth, anywhere near as well as is the case for other common age-related conditions. It all sounds...
Source: Fight Aging! - August 5, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
