Recent news, events and blog posts
28/08/10 by Mike Kope from Founders
Research Prize: Breaking the Toughest AGE
On behalf of SENS Foundation, I'm pleased to announce the launch of a competitive research prize for "Breaking Advanced Glycation Endproduct Glucosepane, a Protein Cross-link" through Innocentive, a global leader in open innovation.
03/09/10 by Michael Rae from Chief Science Officer's Team
A New TALE for Targeting Genes
In addition to its widely-anticipated potential to provide highly-effective therapies for genetic disorders, somatic gene therapy is an essential enabling technology for the repair or obviation of several of the cellular and molecular lesions driving age-related disease and dysfunction (notably the accumulations of mutations in mitochondrial and nuclear DNA).
23/08/10 by Michael Rae from Chief Science Officer's Team
Optimizing Abeta Clearance with Catalytic Immunoglobulins
A comprehensive suite of rejuvenation biotechnologies must include the removal of extracellular aggregates from aging cells and tissues. The most clinically-advanced such biotechnology is immunotherapy against aggregated beta-amyloid protein (Aβ), a characteristic neuropathological lesion that accumulates in the brain in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients and as part of "normal" brain aging.(1)
14/08/10 by Michael Rae from Chief Science Officer's Team
Early Advance Toward Allotopically-Expressed Mitochondrial RNA
Age-related accumulation of mutations in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) are widely suspected to play an important role in the degenerative aging process, albeit that controversy remains as to the mechanism(s) linking the two.
05/08/10 by David Vorriccelli from Academic Initiative
August 2010 Featured Student
Kamil Pabis is in his second year of university and has been working with the SENSFAI since 2009. He is currently studying biology at the University of Vienna.
04/08/10 by Rob OCallahan from Clearing cells of age-related wastes
Proving the Principle
I am working on a new experiment with nonspecific peroxidase enzymes and ALE-modified proteins. I am reacting BSA with malondialdehyde (MDA) to modify it with fluorescent crosslinks, which I can measure using ELISA. I will then react common, non-specific enzymes like horseradish peroxidase (HRP) with the modified BSA and measure if any of the crosslink was degraded. If I can show that an enzyme like HRP is able to access ALE modifications on a protein surface, this would show some promise for using enzymes to degrade damaged proteins in vivo.
03/08/10 by Jacques Mathieu from Clearing cells of age-related wastes
LysoSENS Progress and Prospects
The 7KC-degrading bacterium I’ve been studying, Rhodococcus jostii RHA1, has two large gene clusters that are up-regulated by 7KC, but not cholesterol. In these two gene clusters lie a number of enzymes we believe are involved in 7KC degradation, including an enzyme that could reduce the 7-keto group to a hydroxyl. What makes this interesting to us is that while 7KC is highly cytotoxic, 7α-hydroxycholesterol (7αOH) is relatively harmless. So I am now methodically going through suspected candidates, searching for reductase activity against 7KC.
29/07/10 by Michael Rae from Chief Science Officer's Team
Aged Stem Cells and Niches Rejuvenated by Systemic Factors; Implications for WILT
Haematopoietic stem cells (HSC) and their progeny from exhibit a range of functional declines during biological aging. Most research probing the reasons for these declines have focused on aging damage accumulating in the HSCs themselves, such as the rising burden of oxidative stress and DNA damage (and, as a result, senescent cells) in the compartment.
16/07/10 by Michael Rae from Chief Science Officer's Team
Scientists Call for a Biomedical Apollo Project to Avert Global Aging Crisis
Last summer, California-based LifeStar Institute assembled a panel of leaders in the science of aging to ask them the question at the core of their research. How far can the potential of new biomedical therapies to slow, arrest, or even reverse the damage of aging be brought to bear against the challenge of global graying?
09/07/10 by Michael Rae from Chief Science Officer's Team
Functional Lung Tissue-Engineered in Rat Model
Tissue engineering and cell therapy are an essential plank in the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) platform of regenerative engineering. These biotechnologies are most obviously central for direct clinical use in repairing and replacing cells and tissues "injured by trauma, damaged by disease or worn by time" (as William Haseltine first defined regenerative
