Search Results for: telomeres

Long telomeres link to disease suggests caution on anti-aging push

long telomeres

Are long telomeres better than short ones? What about older folks lengthening their telomeres somewhat or stabilizing the length? Could this counter aging? As with many things, the story is far more complicated than we might hope. For background, telomeres are special structures protecting the ends of chromosomes. I remember as a young student that …

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I found something Elon Musk & I agree on: pushing back on anti-aging bluster

Elon Musk

Would you guess that Elon Musk might be into using biotechnology in a high-profile way to try to live far longer than usual, say to age 150? That would have been my assumption. There are countless things about Elon Musk that I really don’t like. I also don’t see many issues on which we are …

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Weekly reads: AL embryos ruling, blasting cancer, marrow organoids, beef inside rice plants

Multipotent & totipotent vs pluripotent stem cells, very early human embryos totipotent stem cells

Are small clusters of cells that make up 5-day-old human embryos equivalent to children? Biologically and in terms of just common sense, the answer is “no.” These tiny spheres have around 100 cells and no organs. Actual people have many trillions of cells, brains, and other organs. Alabama law on embryos may block IVF About …

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Can trying to cheat death paradoxically kill you sooner?

anti-aging, Dorian Gray

Can you paradoxically kill yourself early by trying to cheat Death? For example, die through risky anti-aging approaches? The question came to mind because such longevity efforts have become more extreme. They also get more hype in the media. I’ve been following the anti-aging space mainly because many interventions involve risky stem cell injections. Those …

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Biological age, health flexing, & stabs at rejuvenation

health flexing, biological age

We all know people who seem far younger than their age, which feeds into the idea of biological age. It’s often in the news these days and all over social media. Some people who are fighting high-profile battles with aging are also doing something I call “health flexing.” I also called these folks by another …

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Recommended reads: stem cells on the brain, heart, COVID

ascl1 brain stem cells harris et al cell stem cell 2021 fig. 6

There are weeks when it seems like papers on stem cells keep popping up. It can be a challenge to keep up with reading all the papers you want to read. Other times it is cell biology news that keeps breaking. The big news of the past week or so was unfortunately the concerning development …

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Weekly pubs & 2 stem cell clinics get bad news

markiewicz potoczny nature 2020 trf2 es cells

Even in COVID times the FDA continues its stepped-up efforts against stem cell clinics and patients are suing clinics more too, which I cover in today’s post along with recommended stem cell research pubs. One of the papers at the top of my to-read list is on 3D chromatin in stem cells. FDA Warning Letter …

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