Lifeboat Foundation

Down syndrome is the most common genetic disorder, impacting about 1 in 700 newborns around the world. At some point during their first hours and days of embryonic development, their dividing cells fail to properly wriggle a chromosome pair away from each other, leaving an extra copy where it shouldn’t be. Although scientists have known for more than six decades that this extra copy of chromosome 21 causes the cognitive impairment people with Down syndrome experience, exactly how it happens remains a matter of debate.

But in recent years, scientists using new RNA sequencing techniques to study cells from pairs of twins — one with Down syndrome and one without — have repeatedly turned up a curious pattern. It wasn’t just the genes on chromosome 21 that had been cranked way up in individuals with Down syndrome. Across every chromosome, gene expression had gone haywire. Something else was going on.

On Thursday, a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported in Cell Stem Cell that it may have found a surprising culprit: senescent cells, the same types implicated in many diseases of aging. The study was small and preliminary, and some experts want to see it replicated in samples from more individuals before buying into its interpretations. But they are nevertheless intriguing.

Continue reading “Provocative new findings suggest a surprising cause of Down syndrome: cells linked to aging” »

They say ‘I believe in nature. Nature is harmonious’. Every big fish is eating every smaller fish. Every organ is fighting constantly invading bacteria. Is that what you mean by harmony? There are planets that are exploding out there. Meteorites that hit another and blow up. What’s the purpose of that? What’s the purpose of floods? To drown people? In other words, if you start looking for purpose, you gotta look all over, take in the whole picture. So, man projects his own values into nature. — Jacque Fresco (March 13, 1916 — May 18, 2017)

When most of us use the word ‘nature‘, we really don’t know much about it in reality. — Ursa.

Unlocking The Secrets Of Salamander Regeneration For Regenerative Therapies — Dr. Maximina Yun, Ph.D., CRTD / Center for Regenerative Therapies TU Dresden, Technische Universität Dresden.

Dr. Maximina Yun, Ph.D. (https://tu-dresden.de/cmcb/crtd/forschungsgruppen/crtd-forsc…oup-leader) is Research Group Leader at the Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden (CRTD), Technical University Dresden, jointly affiliated with Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG).

Continue reading “Dr. Maximina Yun, Ph.D. — Unlocking Secrets Of Salamander Regeneration For Regenerative Therapies” »

The University of Copenhagen in Denmark is a very unique place. Apart from being one of the oldest universities in Scandinavia, it is also one of the top universities in the world. So far, 39 Nobel laureates have been affiliated with the University and it sports a spectacular center for healthy aging which hosts the Biology of Aging lab. In September 2021 the University of Copenhagen hosted the 8th annual Aging Research and Drug Discovery (ARDD) meeting.

This year’s ARDD meeting, held at the Ceremonial Hall of the University, was the largest conference on aging and biopharma in the world for the second consecutive year.

Continue reading “Can The Pharmaceutical Companies Use Basic Aging Biology To Develop Drugs For Age-Related Diseases?” »

If you thought the Hubble Space Telescope was about to be surpassed by the new James Webb Space Telescope (Webb), think again.

Now on its way to its observing position a million miles from Earth, Webb has a 6.6 meter mirror–compared to the 2.4-meter mirror inside Hubble–so six times more collecting power.

Should we compare Webb with Hubble? No–Webb is an infrared telescope while Hubble deals mainly in optical (visible) light.

Continue reading “In Photos: Hubble Isn’t Done Yet As Ageing Space Telescope Sends Back Stunning New ‘Galactic Collision’ Images” »

Our reluctance to think, talk or communicate about death is even more pronounced when we deal with others’ loss compared to our own, new research finds, but either way we tend to frame attitudes and emotions in a sad and negative way.

Teaching new more positive ways to address these difficult conversations is the focus of a new paper in PLOS ONE journal by palliative care specialists across Australia.

Led by Flinders University’s Research Centre for Palliative Care, Death and Dying (RePaDD) and Palliative and Supportive Services, researchers from Flinders, CQUniversity Australia, NT Palliative Care Central Australia and University of Technology Sydney, surveyed 1,491 people about the use of language to express their feelings and insights into death and dying.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) study proven to reverse aging in humans. This unique oxygen treatment is available at Aviv Clinics.

Researchers at Human Longevity have developed technology that can generate images of individuals face using only their genetic information. But not all are convinced.

And calls out to collaborating agencies to do their part.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson revealed on Friday that the Biden administration has committed to extend the operations of the International Space Station (ISS) through 2030, and to continue cooperating with international partners in Europe (ESA, European Space Agency), Japan (JAXA, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), Canada (CSA, Canadian Space Agency), and Russia (State Space Corporation Roscosmos) for research endeavors.

“The International Space Station is a beacon of peaceful international scientific collaboration and for more than 20 years has returned enormous scientific, educational, and technological developments to benefit humanity. I’m pleased that the Biden-Harris Administration has committed to continuing station operations through 2030,” Nelson said.

Continue reading “NASA Bids to Extend the Life of ISS Through 2030” »