Over at Sentient Developments, George Dvorksy has a couple of posts up on the Convergence 08 unconference recently held in Silicon Valley.

Convergence08 examines the world-changing possibilities of nanotech and the life-changing promises of biotech.

A number of well known names from the healthy life extension community were there to present and exchange views.

Tanya Jones discusses Alcor, present and future:

Whole body vitrification: largely depends on the fluid which is a cryopreservant that prevents the formation of ice crystals in the body. Works particularly well for organs, which was its intended application. Automated systems are being built that are dramatically improving the perfusing process. Large animal tests are planned before it's used on a patient, giving unprecedented control over the perfusion process. It's build on bypass operations used in hospitals.

Day 2 closing panel on longevity

Gregory Benford: Benford talks about his research and its implications -- working to augment their genes in the defense of aging. Diabetes is a predictor of Alzheimer's; we share 75% of our genome with fruit flies. Fruit flies get diabetes and Alzheimer's.

Aubrey de Grey: Describes himself as being the most ambitious of the group. But he qualifies that by saying it's because he's the most pessimistic. We need a new approach that's more preventative than the geriatric approach. This has led Aubrey to the belief that we need to apply regenerative medicine to the problem of aging. He said that Terry Grossman and Ray Kurzweil recapitulated many of his views in their book."

Day 2 opening panel on synthetic biology

Benford sees benefits in the medical sciences and talks about advances in Alzheimer's and diabates -- in those fields that are somewhat stuck and not thinking about evolutionary biology in their research and development.

Benford says the European version of the precautionary principle is nothing more than, "never do anything for the first time." But if we're to make any progress about longevity, argues Benford, we need to exploit the entire suite of biology and what it has to offer.

An article on a successful transplant of a recellularized organ is doing the rounds in the mainstream press:

First a section of trachea was taken from a donor and stripped of cells that could cause an immune reaction, leaving a grey trunk of connective tissue. Stem cells were then taken from Ms Castillo’s bone marrow and grown in Professor Birchall’s laboratory. Stem cells can develop into different kinds of tissue, given the right chemical instructions, enabling researchers to cultivate cartilage and epithelial cells to cover the 7cm graft. It was then “seeded” with the new cells using a process developed in Milan. Finally the trachea, covered in cartilage and lined with epithelial cells, was cut to shape and fitted.

Professor Macchiarini said: “The probability that this lady will have rejection is almost zero. She is enjoying a normal life, which for us clinicians is the most beautiful gift.”

You might recall other news from past months on this technique for converting a donor organ into an organ built with the patient's own cells. In essence this is a clever way around the present inability to construct nanoscale scaffolds that have both the right structure and can provide the right biochemical signals to guide cell growth. The extracellular matrix left behind after the old cells are removed becomes that scaffold:

• A Recellularization Update
• A Look at More Recellularization Work

As you might guess from those two posts, much of the published recellularization work to date has focused on building new heart valves - or even complete hearts. It seems that any comparatively simple tissue structures are well within reach of present day tissue engineering, however. A decade from now, this sort of replacement for damaged organs will be commonplace.

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xx,

b

image credit: benefit cosmetics

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image credit: Lancome

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A recent review paper on calorie restriction (CR) research makes the case that using smaller, short-lived animals has made it hard to see the detailed picture of CR biochemistry. Only now that larger animals - such as humans and other primates - are in longer-term CR studies is the biochemistry becoming clear.

Endocrine alterations in response to calorie restriction in humans

Prolonged CR has been shown to extend both the median and maximal lifespan in a variety of lower species such as yeast, worms, fish, rats and mice. The biological mechanisms of this lifespan extension via CR are not fully elucidated, but possibly involve significant alterations in energy metabolism, oxidative damage, insulin sensitivity and functional changes in both neuroendocrine and sympathetic nervous systems.

Most of the difficulty in characterizing the systemic endocrine and neuroendocrine changes with aging and CR is due to the limited capability to collect large and multiple blood samples from small animals, which are usually shorter lived, and hence the most studied.

Ongoing studies of prolonged CR in humans are now making it possible to analyze changes in the "biomarkers of aging" to unravel some of the mechanisms of its anti-aging phenomenon. With the incremental expansion of research endeavors in the area of energy restriction, data on the effects of CR in non-human primates and human subjects are becoming more accessible. Detailed analyses from controlled human trials involving long-term CR will allow investigators to link observed alterations from body composition and endocrine systems down to changes in molecular pathways and gene expression, with their possible effects on aging.

It is interesting to consider that some degree of advances in CR knowledge stem from increasing the size of laboratory animals (and slowing down the pace of data collection) rather than the rapid advances in the tools of biotechnology taking place across the past decade.