Healthy Life Extension

Easily Live to 120-150 Years Says Prominent Researcher

posted on October 12th, 2011

Dear Future Centenarian,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14919539

Harvard genetics professor Professor George Church explains his vision for the future of genetics:

His brain works like almost no one else's. Some ideas, some technologies may sound like science fiction, but they are fast becoming science fact.

About 30 years ago, Prof Church was one of a handful of people who dreamed up the idea of sequencing the entire human genome - every letter in the code that separates us from fruit flies as well as our parents. His lab was the first to come up with a machine to break that code, and he's been working to improve it ever since.

Once the first genome was sequenced, he pushed the idea that it wasn't enough to have one sequence, we needed everyone's. When people pointed to the nearly $3 Billion price tag for that first one, he built another machine. Now, the cost is down to below $5,000 per genome, and Prof Church says we're quickly heading toward roughly the cost of a blood test.

To Prof Church, routine whole-genome sequencing will herald the beginning of a new era as transformative and full of possibilities as the Internet Age.

He's pointing to at a bigger goal: Now that reading DNA code is almost simple, he wants to write and edit it, too. He envisions a day when a device implanted in your body will be able to identify the first mutations of a potential tumor, or the genes of an invading bacteria. You'll be able to pop an antibiotic targeted at the invader, or a cancer pill aimed at those few renegade cells.

Another device will monitor your outside environment, warning you away from sites that pose a health risk.

A range of genetic disorders will be identified at birth, or even conception, and tiny, preprogrammed viruses will be sent into the body to penetrate compromised cells and correct the damage. Changing the adult body at the first signs of illness will be just as easy, he predicts.

There's no reason, Prof Church says, why people won't be able to live to be 120, and then 150.

"There used to be this attitude: here's your genetic destiny, get used to it," Prof Church says. "Now the attitude is: genetics is really about the environmental changes you can make to change your destiny."

Once thousands of people with diverse backgrounds have made their genomes and health status public, researchers will be able to delve into a wide range of diseases and disorders, from schizophrenia to heart disease, diabetes to learning disabilities, looking for patterns.

"You bring down the price and many blossoms bloom," he says.

Church's lab is at the forefront of synthetic biology, a burgeoning new field that aims to make things Mother Nature never thought of, like high efficiency, non-polluting fuels, and viruses that can carry cancer drugs safely to a tumor.

"You could think of this as driving evolution to very rapid rates," Church said. "Sort of evolution on steroids."

Long Life,
David Kekich

P.S. Don’t forget to mark 11/11/11 on your calendar if you’ll be in S. Calif. then. Contact Kat Cotter at katcotter@gmail.com for details on this century’s Longevity Party.
____________________________

LATEST HEADLINES FROM FIGHT AGING!

SARDINIAN LONGEVITY AND THE ROLE OF EXERCISE Friday, October  7, 2011 http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2011/10/sardinian-longevity-and-the-role-of-exercise.php
Extreme Longevity notes an Italian study: "Sardinia [is] especially rich in male centenarians. The present study was undertaken to quantify and determine which particular lifestyle and nutritional variables endemic to Sardinia males accounted for their extreme longevity. The authors point out that no genetic differences have been found between Sardinian males and less long-lived males found elsewhere in Italy so they reasoned lifestyle choices were more likely causative of their longevity than genetic factors.

The researchers specifically compared the frequency of several dietary choices and lifestyle factors between men of Sardinia and Italian men not from Sardinia. It was particularly surprising that diet alone didn't account for the differences. The frequency of meat, cheese, wine, grain and nut consumption was identical in the two groups. Total daily caloric intake was slightly but insignificantly lower in the Sardinian men. The most significant difference found was in the distance to work and average slope of the terrain between the men of Sardinia and those from other regions. The researchers conclude it is likely the large amount of daily physical exercise required to walk long distances up steep mountain climbs that has led to the increased longevity of Sardinian males. They point out the effect of physical exercise on extending longevity is becoming widely recognized, appearing at the conclusion of many scientific articles."

INVESTIGATING STEM CELLS AND SPINAL CORD REPAIR Thursday, October  6, 2011 http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2011/10/investigating-stem-cells-and-spinal-cord-repair.php
Researchers continue to explore what stem cells might be able to achieve for the regeneration of serious injuries: "adult human mesenchymal stem cells may have an important role in the treatment and repair of spinal cord injuries. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are found mainly in the bone marrow and are the focus of many clinical trials that investigate potential methods of neurological repair and other regenerative applications. Although mesenchymal stem cells are widely known to be used in replacing damaged tissue, these stem cells may also recruit endogenous cells (those made within the body) to help accelerate the repair process.

 For the first time, [researchers] examined the use of human MSCs to prompt repair of spinal cord injuries in transgenic (genetically engineered or altered) zebrafish embryos. Zebrafish are especially valuable to researchers due to invertebrate characteristics that are similar to those of humans, the transparency of their bodies and their ability to initiate regeneration of damaged tissue. The study demonstrates that human MSCs affix to the injury site and influence spinal cord cells to accelerate the repair process. Our results indicate that MSC therapy not only augments recovery after spinal cord injury, but also accelerates the recovery time."

TARGETED NANOPARTICLES VERSUS BRAIN CANCER Thursday, October  6, 2011 http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2011/10/targeted-nanoparticles-versus-brain-cancer.php
Via ScienceDaily: "Glioblastoma is one of the most aggressive forms of brain cancer. Rather than presenting as a well-defined tumor, glioblastoma will often infiltrate the surrounding brain tissue, making it extremely difficult to treat surgically or with chemotherapy or radiation. [scientists] developed a method to combine a tumor-homing peptide, a cell-killing peptide, and a nanoparticle that both enhances tumor cell death and allows the researchers to image the tumors. When used to treat mice with glioblastoma, this new nanosystem eradicated most tumors in one model and significantly delayed tumor development in another.

This is a unique nanosystem for two reasons. First, linking the cell-killing peptide to nanoparticles made it possible for us to deliver it specifically to tumors, virtually eliminating the killer peptide's toxicity to normal tissues. Second, ordinarily researchers and clinicians are happy if they are able to deliver more drugs to a tumor than to normal tissues. We not only accomplished that, but were able to design our nanoparticles to deliver the killer peptide right where it acts - the mitochondria, the cell's energy-generating center. In this study, our patients were mice that developed glioblastomas with the same characteristics as observed in humans with the disease. We treated them systemically with the nanoparticles. Once the nanoparticles reached the tumors' blood vessels, they delivered their payload (a drug) directly to the cell's power producer, the mitochondria. By destroying the blood vessels and also some surrounding tumor cells, we were able to cure some mice and extend the lifespan of the rest."

HEALTHIER AND WEALTHIER Wednesday, October  5, 2011 http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2011/10/healthier-and-wealthier.php
The Volokh Conspiracy on the correlations between health and wealth in a region, a connection with compelling evidence both before and after the Industrial Revolution: "for most of history, gains in human life expectancy were made at the beginning, not the end of life. It is true that older people have always been part of society, but they were less numerous and more weathered than today's seniors. But that is not the end of the story. Rather, it is the beginning of a new chapter where humanity takes on ill health and death at later ages. Indeed, those efforts have already had an impact on the growth of life expectancy. For many years, it's been clear that there is a positive correlation between health and wealth, but it was most commonly thought that wealth creates health.

While it is certainly true that the rich can afford to take better care of themselves, it is now known that health also begets wealth. Put another way, poor health causes a decline in productivity for the simple reason that it's very difficult to work effectively when you're in ill health, thereby increasing the chances of falling into poverty. Based on the available research, if there are 'two countries that are identical in all respects, except that one has a 5 year advantage in life expectancy,' then the 'real income per capita in the healthier country will grow 0.3-0.5% per year faster than in its less healthy counterpart.' While these percentages might look small, they are actually quite significant, especially when one considers that between the years of 1965 to 1990, countries experienced an average per capita income growth of 2% per year. When countries only have an average growth of 2%, an advantage of 0.5% is quite the boost. Now, those numbers are based only on a 5 year longevity advantage. What if a country had a 10, 20, or 30 year advantage? The growth may not continue on a linear basis, but if the general rule holds - a jump in life expectancy causes an increase in economic growth per capita - then having a longer-lived population would facilitate enormous differences in economic prosperity."

MAKING MYELIN Tuesday, October  4, 2011 http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2011/10/making-myelin.php
From FuturePundit: "Myelin is insulation around nerves and is essential for the conduction of impulses along nerves. The ability to grow pure populations of cells that make myelin brings us closer to effective treatments for multiple sclerosis and other diseases characterized by the loss of myelin. Scientists [found] a way to rapidly produce pure populations of cells that grow into the protective myelin coating on nerves in mice. Their process opens a door to research and potential treatments for multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy and other demyelinating diseases afflicting millions of people worldwide.

These results matter to us all. Why? We all suffer from a demyelinating disease called aging. One of the reason older folks have harder times with memory recall, coordination, and other mental tasks is that myelin deteriorates with age. The ability to restore myelin is an essential rejuvenation therapy. Therefore the pursuit of effective treatments for MS and other demyelinating diseases will yield useful therapies for brain rejuvenation. Just about any therapy aimed at repairing damage caused by a specific disease will also be useful for rejuvenation. Aging causes very diffuse damage to all the tissues in the body. When enough of that damage accumulates in a single organ or structural element disease emanating from a specific location emerges. But the localized disease is really just part of a bigger pattern of damage accumulation. So therapies aimed at repair of specific locations in the body will have a great deal of overlap with therapies aimed at full body rejuvenation."

THE POPULAR PRESS ON ACTUARIAL ESCAPE VELOCITY Monday, October  3, 2011 http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2011/10/the-popular-press-on-actuarial-escape-velocity.php
Here's a popular press article that discusses the concept of actuarial escape velocity: "Someone you know could live to be 1,000 years old, according to Aubrey de Grey. Even for people in good health, cells become damaged through the course of a human life, de Grey said. It's a solvable problem, he said, by providing maintenance to damaged cells. He cited stem cell research and using bacteria as possible means of restoring cells to their youthful state, which would lengthen life - perhaps infinitely. 'It's all about restoring organs and tissue to the way it was before it suffered some sort of damage,' he said, comparing the process to the maintenance that can keep cars running for decades.

The research that could lead to these techniques is further along than most people realize, de Grey said, and could begin providing therapies within the next 25 years. Or not, he added, but the possibility exists that today's 20-somethings could be alive in 3011. Not only would they be alive, but they'd be able to live well, he said. The progress toward treatments that can provide such longevity will be incremental, though. The therapies that might exist in 25 years may restore a 90-year-old's body to a 60-year-old's health, but would not extend life indefinitely, he said. The key is reaching what de Grey called 'longevity escape velocity' - the rate of aging combined with the rate of the medical advancements that will prolong life to before-unthinkable lengths. An 80-year-old in 2011 hasn't much hope of living forever, he said, but the younger a person is, the better their chances of living in an age when drastically age-prolonging therapies exist."

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