Decentralized AI + science


Longevity Research

Foresight

If we don't find a way to prevent age-related diseases, we're just setting ourselves up for a lot of unnecessary suffering. The current medical paradigm waits until you get an age-related disease to treat it, rather than prevent it from happening in the first place. Longevity research matters, as it tries to solve the underlying cause of age-related-diseases and thus may lead to interventions that improve human health- and lifespan.

Introductions

“The Science of Aging” Seminar with Martin Borch Jensen

 

Longevity: what we know so far by José Ricon

 

 

 

Essentials of Cell Biology

Cells

 

Molecular Biology

Molecular biology is the branch of biology that studies the molecular basis of biological activity. Living things are made of chemicals just as non-living things are, so a molecular biologist studies how molecules interact with one another in living organisms to perform the functions of life.

Molecular biologists conduct experiments to investigate the structure, function, processing, regulation and evolution of biological molecules and their interactions with one another — providing micro-level insights into how life works.

Although there are many kinds of molecules in every living thing, most molecular biologists focus on genes and proteins. Proteins perform a huge diversity of functions within living cells and genes contain the information required to make more proteins.

In order to understand how cells work, it is essential to understand the basics of genes, transcription, translation, and gene expression regulation. Additionally, epigenetics, chromosomes, and telomeres are important concepts that help to explain how the genome is organized and how it can change over time.

Finally, pathways, genome instability, sirtuins, reactive oxygen species (ROS), mitochondria, cellular senescence, autophagy, and the role of the brain and gut in inflammation are all important topics that can help to explain how the body works at a molecular level.

 

Central dogma of molecular biology

 

 

Mechanisms of Aging

Aging is a major contributor to cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases, and other causes of death and impairment.

The possible research interventions that could address this problem include: preventing the accumulation of epigenetic errors associated with aging, or restoring more youthful epigenetic states in cells; solving the problem of senescent cell accumulation; reversing stem cell exhaustion; and learning how to use induced pluripotent stem cells (IPSCs) to regenerate and/or replace tissues and organs damaged by aging and aging-related diseases.

Substantial progress on many of the themes mentioned above is likely to require decades of work, OpenPhil’s intuition is that long-term, basic research (with an emphasis on tool development) in areas like neuroscience, selective delivery of agents to cells and/or organelles, and epigenetics is likely to be the most important work for making the greatest possible progress relevant to age-related disease and impairment in the long run.

Aging is a process of accumulating damage. This damage can be at the cellular level, at the tissue level, or at the organismal level. Reprogramming can be said to rejuvenate cells because it leads to a cell that is indistinguishable from a young cell. This is not the same as saying that reprogramming solves aging, or that it can be used to rejuvenate tissues, or that it can be used to rejuvenate an organism. Reprogramming does not address the issue of DNA mutations, which is one form of cellular damage that accumulates with age.

   

Graphics

 

Hallmarks of aging

Foresight

 

The seven pillars of aging

Foresight

“Adaptation to Stress

Epigenetics

Inflammation

Macromolecular Damage

Metabolism

Proteostasis

Stem Cells and Regeneration

 

Foresight Longevity Tech Tree

Foresight

 

Bottlenecks of Aging

This amazing document by the Amaranth Foundation outlines several priorities:

 

Get started

 

 

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Recommended materials

Overviews and lists

Books

Aging is already solved in vitro

Great podcasts

   

Appendix

Common misconceptions

One concern about increasing healthy human longevity is that society would become stagnant and innovation would cease. This concern is based on the idea that older people are more resistant to change and that they would drag society down with them.

“old people aren’t automatically closed-minded and opposed to change. Factors such as education, socio-cultural context, and access to learning opportunities play a big role in this sense. If you’ve been brought up in a progressive, open environment, and have been taught to listen to others, maintain a healthy skepticism even about your own convictions, never stop learning, and never let your gut take your brain’s place when considering a new idea, so why would you suddenly forget all of that and become the exact opposite of yourself in your old age?”

Is extending healthy human age morally ethical?

Will aging therapies only be available to the wealthy?

 

 

“The social effects of life extension are highly uncertain, and more research in this area is needed to try to determine the magnitude of these effects and whether they are likely to be positive, negative, or neutral from a longtermist perspective. Even if life extension causes a slowdown in technological progress, this may not be a bad thing from a longtermist perspective, as long as technological progress does not stop. I am tentatively optimistic about the social effects of life extension, but this is mainly due to my optimism about the ability of strong democratic institutions to withstand any negative side-effects.” — Great comment by Will Bradshaw on Effects of anti-aging research on the long-term future