David Deutsch Speaks With Aubrey de Grey
May 09 2008   |   Permanent Link
Via Thoughtware.TV, a video interview on the science of the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS), a path to repairing the biochemical damage of aging and greatly extending the healthy human life span: "Renowned Quantum Physicist, and father of the Quantum Computer, David Deutsch [speaks] with Aubrey de Grey about the scientific details, and feasability of life extension technology SENS ... Filmed in the Natural History Museum, Oxford, with kind permission of the trustees." Beneath the dinosaur skeletons, in fact. SENS is far more than just research and medical technology, just as the challenge in engineering longevity is far more than a matter of science. SENS is also very much about educating the public of the potential of today's science, raising support for directed funding in longevity science, and forging a new research community enthused to intervene in the aging process as soon as possible rather than just passively documenting it.

The Future of Regeneration
May 09 2008   |   Permanent Link
If only the future of longevity science was as widely supported, understood and acclaimed as the future of regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. The Times Online notes that "within decades stem-cell technology will make it possible to grow replacements for virtually any part of the human body ... the emerging field of regenerative medicine would enable a patient's own cells to be used to build hearts, livers and kidneys, complete with their own blood supply, to replace diseased organs. The advance could make many transplants unnecessary and allow the regeneration of brain tissue and limb parts. ... We know the human genes that can do this do exist, because human foetuses can do it. If a finger is lost before three months' gestation in the womb, it will grow back. The genes are there; we just need to know how to reactivate them. When we started on this work in the 1960s, we knew all these things would become possible . . . it will not be far off. The biggest stumbling block has been money, but now there is huge investment in the field and things are moving rapidly."

Improving Targeted Nanoparticles
May 08 2008   |   Permanent Link
A great deal of tomorrow's better, more effective medicine will rest on targeting nanosystems that can deliver therapies to specific cell populations in the body. Much of this development is taking place in the cancer research community, but you can be sure there are a thousand and one other uses: "Using nanoworms, doctors should eventually be able to target and reveal the location of developing tumors that are too small to detect by conventional methods. Carrying payloads targeted to specific features on tumors, these microscopic vehicles could also one day provide the means to more effectively deliver toxic anti-cancer drugs to these tumors in high concentrations without negatively impacting other parts of the body. ... Most nanoparticles are recognized by the body's protective mechanisms, which capture and remove them from the bloodstream within a few minutes. The reason these worms work so well is due to a combination of their shape and to a polymer coating on their surfaces that allows the nanoworms to evade these natural elimination processes. As a result, our nanoworms can circulate in the body of a mouse for many hours. ... We are now using nanoworms to construct the next generation of smart tumor-targeting nanodevices."

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