Do our aging cells necessitate that we age overall as people?
Flipping it around, if we can stop or reverse enough cellular aging, will our overall aging be positively affected?
It’s clear that people age very differently from each other and so do our cells and organs. Interestingly, intramurally in a sense the cells and tissues in our bodies can also age at different rates from each other. You might have the liver of someone a decade younger than you but the heart of someone 20 years older. Or vice versa.
Let’s start today’s weekly news discussion with new research on aging cells. It’s no surprise that aging of our stem cells could be particularly important.
Before I start, remember that each year in December I give out science hype awards called The Screamers. If you want to nominate any instance of science hype as particularly bad or risky, please let me know by email or in the comments. Last year media coverage of hypeful anti-aging stuff won. Who or what will win this year?
Aging cells and human aging
- What’s the secret to living to 100? Centenarian stem cells could offer clues, Nature.
- Inside your body, aging unfolds at remarkably different rates, WaPo.
- A Study Says Gray Hair May Be Reversible, Popular Mechanics.
More reads
- Stem Cells Grown in Space Turn Out to Have a Surprise Advantage, Science Alert.
- How many scientists are using AI like ChatGPT to help with their papers, grants, reviews, etc.? Nature. Many researchers are turning to AI for all kinds of applications, some more ethically complex than others.
- NIST Awards Up to $1.5 Million to Support Development of Regenerative Medicine Standards Curricula, NIST.
- Letter to Congress: US FDA cited animal lab at Musk’s Neuralink for ‘objectionable conditions’ Reuters. I’ve written before about problems with Neuralink, Elon Musk’s brain implant firm. Brain-computer interface (BCI) technology is cool but it comes with big risks and the research has to be done properly. That hasn’t always been the case for Neuralink.
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Elusive Stem Cell Population Finally Identified in Sea Anemones,The Scientist. Speaking of the stem cells of sea creatures, do you think so-called immortal jellyfish really live forever? I don’t.
Blast from the past: stem cells for vision loss in 2010…
Great news: FDA gives ACT the green light bringing hope to millions of people with blindness. This one from 14 years ago feels like a gut punch in a way. This clinical pipeline from Advanced Cell Technology or ACT hasn’t come to any clear endpoint. The biotech changed its name to Ocata and then Astellas acquired Ocata.
For a time, ACT leader Bob Lanza was a leader at Astellas on regenerative medicine but no more. It’s unclear where the macular degeneration work stands now. There was talk of a reboot to the Astellas AMD efforts two years ago. Around that time Lanza left that company.