Aging Matters
Gary Ruvkun was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine today for establishing the importance of RNA as a signal molecule, independent of its role in transcribing nuclear DNA. Before he worked on RNA, Ruvkun made important contributions to theoretical understanding of aging in lab worms, C. elegans. In 1993, Cynthia Kenyon had found that incapacitating … Read more
This new video introduces my work in the context of a hundred years of evolutionary theory and the breakthrough rejuvenation science in the present.
In Darwinian terms, sex is good for the community, bad for the individual. If this statement doesn’t make sense to you, perhaps you are thinking that sex is a part of reproduction, and reproduction is the very definition of Darwinian fitness. But sex is the sharing of genes. Reproduction is the process of creating new … Read more
Methylation clocks have found their way into the community of aging research as a way to test anti-aging interventions without having to wait for mortality statistics. But methylation clocks are only useful for this purpose if aging is an epigenetic program, and most aging researchers still resist this paradigm. Just this year, some researchers have … Read more
My title is taken from a well-known but less-well-authenticated quote from Max Planck: “Science progresses funeral by funeral.” Planck discovered the quantum principle in 1899, before the the physics world was ready for it. Eventually he was hailed as a visionary; but we can imagine his frustration when the smartest physicists in the world were … Read more
Do populations in nature self-regulate? I believe so, and have adduced evidence from field studies and from computer simulations. Indigenous human societies, too, effectively kept our numbers in check for our first million years during which people were part of nature. Now people have moved on from nature, and we’ve lost the intuitions that helped … Read more
Vaccines are all designed to immunize against a specific disease. But vaccines also have important non-specific effects. Danish epidemiologist Christine Stabell Benn, MD has devoted her career to studying these effects. Link to TED talk Last week, Dr Stabell Benn was interviewed for DrJay Bhattacharya’s podcast. Everything below (except where signed by my initials) is sourced … Read more
A study out of Nanjing University last month brings exosome rejuvenation to the mainstream of researchers with broad new evidence and some speculations on mechanisms. The prominent publication in Nature Aging corroborates and greatly expands results from Harold Katcher’s Mumbai lab. Massive infusions of exosomes from young mice into old improve cognition, endurance, fertility, energy metabolism, heart … Read more
Of the many species that outlive their fertility, lab worms (C elegans) take the cake. They stop laying eggs after two days, but they can go on to live for two more weeks. Did they miss school the day that the teacher was lecturing on Darwinian fitness? Or perhaps do the elders of their community … Read more
Spermidine is found naturally in many foods. Blood levels decline with age. Supplementation extends lifespan and healthspan in various species, and lowers mortality in human trials. I have been unable to find toxicity data or any downside to spermidine supplementation, except that the effective dosage may be impractical. “Consistently across species, extra supply of spermidine … Read more