Curiosity-Driven Science: Q & A With Saad Bhamla
What do worm blobs and insect pee have to do with human health? We talked to Saad Bhamla, Ph.D., assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in Atlanta, to find out.
Q: What did your path to becoming a scientist look like?
Credit: Rob Felt, Georgia Tech.
A: I grew up in Dubai and did my undergraduate work in India, which is where I was first introduced to science. The science faculty members seemed to be having so much fun and would say things like “for the love of science,” but I couldn’t figure out what joy they were getting until I got a ta...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - November 15, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Being a Scientist Tools and Techniques Cool Tools/Techniques Profiles Research Organisms Source Type: blogs
A Path to Increasing Glutathione Levels in Mitochondria
Glutathione is an interesting cellular antioxidant, as increased levels can improve health in humans and slow aging in animal models. You might recall recent small human trials of high dose supplementation of glutathione precursors in order to achieve upregulation of glutathione, and corresponding studies in mice. It is thought that glutathione upregulation may largely improve health via mitochondrial function, as mitochondria are a prominent source of oxidative stress in aging cells. Here, researchers find a mechanism that regulates the amount of glutathione that enters the mitochondria, and thus a possible target to incr...
Source: Fight Aging! - November 15, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
State of the lab 10 and 11 - the first years at ETH Zurich
Yet another lake by a mountain in SwitzerlandThis blog post is part of a(nearly) yearly series on running a research group in academia. This post summarizes years 10 and 11, the first 2 years after moving to ETH Zurich. It also marks the end of the first decade as a research group leader, which is meaningful only because we have ten fingers and use 10 as a base for counting but I digress. There has been a lot to adapt to in moving to a new country including all the basics of moving, re-building the group and starting teaching. It was a lot easier than the first time around since I didn ' t have to set up the group from zer...
Source: Evolution of Cellular Networks - November 13, 2023 Category: Cytology Tags: academia state of the lab Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, November 13th 2023
This study investigated the correlation among muscle strength, working memory (WM), and cortical hemodynamics during the N-back task of memory performance, and further explored whether cortical hemodynamics during N-back task mediated the relationship between muscle strength and WM performance. We observed that muscle strength (particularly grip strength) predicted WM of older adults in this cross-sectional study, which validated our hypothesis and expanded on previous research findings. Studies demonstrated that grip strength predicted executive function decline in patients with mild cognitive impairment. Other cross-sect...
Source: Fight Aging! - November 12, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Mitochondrial Dysfunction is a Contributing Cause of T Cell Exhaustion
T cell exhaustion occurs in aging, but also in circumstances in which the adaptive immune system is constantly stimulated over time, such as in cases of persistent HIV infection, or the presence of solid tumors. An exhausted T cell has adopted a state in which it is functionally incapable, no longer responsive to antigens. Ways to reverse T cell exhaustion would be very beneficial, and so the research community has made some inroads in understanding the mechanisms of exhaustion, enough to produce proof of concept approaches, such as those involving epigenetic reprogramming, BAFT upregulation, TIGIT knockdown, and various s...
Source: Fight Aging! - November 9, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
The Role of Senescent Cells in Age-Related Skeletal Diseases
Compelling evidence obtained from many studies in mice show that the accumulation of senescent cells with age is a major contributing factor in all of the common, inflammatory age-related conditions: cardiovascular disease, dementia, degeneration of bone tissue, and so forth. Senescent cells are created throughout life, mostly as somatic cells reach the Hayflick limit on replication, but accumulate in later life in large part because the immune system falters in its clearance of senescent cells. It still performs this function, but less efficiently, and the balance between creation and destruction of senescent cells tips t...
Source: Fight Aging! - November 8, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
The Study of Chromatin in the Context of Aging
Chromatin is the bundled, packaged form of DNA found in the cell nucleus. The behavior of a cell depends on the precise details of the structure adopted by chromatin, because only exposed sequences of DNA can be used to produce proteins - the rest is hidden from the machinery of gene expression. The produced proteins can then lead to adjustments to chromatin structure, and thus a cell is in a constant state of change and feedback between chromatin structure, gene expression, protein activities, and the surrounding environment. Talking about chromatin structure in the context of aging is a very broad topic, much akin to tal...
Source: Fight Aging! - November 7, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Provoking Greater Stem Cell Activity to Reverse Cartilage Loss in Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease characterized by loss of cartilage and associated bone tissue. It is a major, widespread issue in old age. A promising study in mice here suggests that osteoarthritis might be reversed via suitable manipulation of stem cell and progenitor cell populations capable of producing cartilage regrowth. In this model, the known contributing factors, such as chronic inflammation in and around joint tissues, are contributing factors because they suppress the activity of the small population of cells responsible for maintenance of cartilage.
Osteoarthritis is the degeneration of...
Source: Fight Aging! - November 7, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, November 6th 2023
This study aimed to gather valuable insights from pharmaceutical experts and healthcare practitioners regarding the potential and challenges of translating senolytic drugs for treatment of vascular aging-related disorders. This study employed a qualitative approach by conducting in-depth interviews with healthcare practitioners and pharmaceutical experts. Participants were selected through purposeful sampling. Thematic analysis was used to identify themes from the interview transcripts. A total of six individuals were interviewed, with three being pharmaceutical experts and the remaining three healthcare practitioners.
...
Source: Fight Aging! - November 5, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Small Molecule Induction of Stem Cell Behavior Applied to Tendon Aging
In this study, we employed the newly developed system, DLEPS, which is an efficacy prediction system using transcriptional profiles with deep learning, to identify potential drugs to stimulate stemness.
In our study, we found that the top-ranked candidate compound prim-O-glucosylcimifugin (POG) could efficiently inhibit TSPC senescence and promote their tenogenic differentiation potential in an in vitro serial passaging cell senescence model. We also found that the top-ranked POG potently rejuvenated the proliferation and tenogenic potential of TSPCs from both aged rats and middle-aged humans by maintaining stemnes...
Source: Fight Aging! - November 1, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Senescent Schwann Cells Impair Nerve Regeneration in Older Individuals
Senescent cells of many types accumulate in tissues throughout the body with age due to an imbalance between the pace of creation and pace of destruction, the immune system progressively losing its ability to destroy these senescent cells in a timely manner. Senescent cells cease to replicate and secrete a potent mix of pro-inflammatory signals, harmful to surrounding tissue when sustained over the long term. Here, researchers note one of the many specific ways in which senescent cells can impair function; this one example is multiplied a thousand times across locations, tissue types, and cell types throughout the aging bo...
Source: Fight Aging! - November 1, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Engineered Gut Bacteria as a Form of Therapy
In this study, we tested the potential of Lactobacillus paracasei, genetically engineered to produce and deliver human angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (Lacto-hACE2), to regulate blood pressure in a rat model of hypertension with genetic ablation of endogenous Ace2 (Ace2-/- and Ace2-/y).
Our findings reveal a sex-specific reduction in blood pressure in female (Ace2-/-) but not male (Ace2-/y) rats following colonization with the Lacto-hACE2. This beneficial effect of lowering blood pressure was aligned with a specific reduction in colonic angiotensin II, but not renal angiotensin II, suggesting the importance of colon...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 31, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Glial Cell Mitochondrial Stress Can Indirectly Signal to the Whole Organism
Glia of various sorts are supporting cells in the brain, assisting the function of neurons. Dysfunction and stress in glial cells is nonetheless important. A growing body of evidence suggests that cellular senescence in astrocytes and microglia contribute to age-related neurodegenerative conditions, for example. Further, stress of various forms in these cells may be provoking both inflammation and altered signaling throughout the brain and body. Overly active, pro-inflammatory astrocytes and microglia are implicated in neurodegeneration, even when these cells are not senescent. It isn't clear as to how much of this is a re...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 30, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Exploring promising breakthroughs in Alzheimer ’ s research [PODCAST]
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! Join Ken Blaker, a health care and technology consultant, and Cuong Do, a health care executive, as they shed light on the latest developments in combating these challenging conditions. From the recent FDA approval of Leqembi to promising anti-neuroinflammation drugs and genetic approaches, we
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Exploring promising breakthroughs in Alzheimer’s research [PODCAST] originally appeared in KevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - October 29, 2023 Category: General Medicine Authors: The Podcast by KevinMD Tags: Podcast Neurology Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, October 30th 2023
In conclusion, reported adherence to a healthy lifestyle is associated with reduced risk of all-cause and cause-specific mortality. Adherence to all four lifestyle factors resulted in the strongest protection.
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Source: Fight Aging! - October 29, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
