The Bewilderness

Roll up for the fantastic, stupendous, out of this world face bra

There are some positive ways of fighting the effects of aging: exercise is foremost amongst them. And then there is the Hourei Lift Bra, also known as the "face bra".  You wear it across your face to prevent wrinkles and undertake disturbing mouth exercises. The name is based on marketing since the device could be used by a man or a woman if they were so inclined to wear this monstrosity. 

#fail for rejuvenation but the credulous will pay for the privilege.  

Soon we may all be timelords (so long as you always pass Go)

This was picked up from the John Mauldin newsletter: a low-key announcement by Biotime for the commercialisation of regenerative technologies.

On March 16, 2010 BioTime and its collaborators announced the publication of a scientific paper titled "Spontaneous Reversal of Developmental Aging in Normal Human Cells Following Transcriptional Reprogramming." The article, which was released online in the peer-reviewed journal Regenerative Medicine demonstrated that the aging of human cells can be reversed with potentially significant implications for the development of new classes of iPS cell-based therapies targeting age-related degenerative disease. The on-line version of the article can be found at http://www.futuremedicine.com/doi/abs/10.2217/rme.10.21.

Is this how Dr Who regenerates? Not so much a Time Lord as a Stem Cell Queen. This is a first step on our route to Gallifrey.

The age of falling in cheeks may soon be over

You know when stem cells start to provide solutions to our clinical problems. The latest breakthrough is the ability to grow a tooth in situ removing the need for dental implants or fillings. I will not wax gratis on this but one of the joys of my old age is, hopefully, a full set of teeth.

The Girl who never grew up

Imagine that there is a girl who never grew up: who remains forever a child: trapped in her body, never growing older, except for genetic damage. The girl is aware and has a happy fife in her own limitations.

But for the rest of us, she may be a signal of why we age as we do.

“We think that Brooke’s condition presents us with a unique opportunity to understand the process of ageing,” said Richard Walker, a professor at the University of South Florida School of Medicine, who is leading the research team.

Only the unusual breaks that nature provides: the different, the defective, those who die young, can give us answers to the system that builds us.

Telomere tolerance

Catching up with the news on aging, I learn that an article in Nature Genetics provides additional evidence of genetic variation in telomere length influences biological aging. Not sure how far this is an advance or a confirmation, and the latter can sometimes be more important:

The researchers found that those individuals carrying a particular genetic variant had shorter telomeres, ie they looked biologically older.

"Given the association of shorter telomeres with age-associated diseases, the finding raises the question whether individuals carrying the variant are at greater risk of developing such diseases," said Samani.

Now we need to reverse the effect. Faster please!