Blogs

Timing of onset of cognitive decline: results from Whitehall II prospective cohort study | BMJ - [Papers of Interest]

I’m pretty sure, anecdotally speaking, that if one was to ask a room full of 65 year olds if they had noticed any change in their memory over the past few years most would say they had. I’m equally sure that if one asked a room of 45 year olds the same question the answer would be quite different. The findings of a recent study have however radically suggested that there are significant decreases in cognitive function seen in men as early as 45-49 years of age.

Members who are also members of the AAAS might like to look at a blog article there entitled "Can Aging be Overcome", featuring links to TED presentations by Dan Buettner, Aubrey de Grey and Cynthia Kenyon.

Transposon-Mediated Transgenesis in the Short-Lived African Killifish Nothobranchius furzeri, a Vertebrate Model for Aging [Papers of Interest]

According to wikipedia, there are over 1200 species of killifish - these species are distributed through the Americas, southern Europe, Africa and eastern Asia. Nothobranchius furzeri  is an African species with quite diverse colouration patterns (which presumably explains the apparent contradiction between the image here and the species' common name: the Turquoise killifish), and is quite popular as an aquarium fish.  Killifish are particularly short-lived fish, an adaptation to their habitat in transient water bodies.  For the same reason, their eggs are quite resistent to drying out - killiish can be exchanged between labs quite readily as eggs (without water) through the post.  This paper desribes a technique for transgenic modification in killifish, an essential development if killifish is to acquire widespread acceptance as an experimental model organism.

From Papers of Interest - Jennifer Couzin-Frankel (2011) Aging Genes: The Sirtuin Story Unravels Science Vol. 334 no. 6060 pp. 1194-1198 DOI: 10.1126/science.334.6060.1194

From the perspective of a relative outsider to the sirtuin field, this News Item in a recent issue of Science is quite timely, bringing a concise overview of the state of play in the field of Sir2 and its role in the modulation of lifespan. It's an intriguing tale of scientific investigation.  And from a more personal perspective, avoiding complications due to genetic background when analysing the impact of genetic interventions using transgenic Drosophila has been important in my ow research.

From The Observer, 20/11/11:

Leading scientists have warned that Age UK, the country's leading charity for older people, risks letting future generations down by abandoning fundamental research into the biology of ageing, instead only bankrolling studies that deliver short-term payoffs.

Professor Richard Faragher, chair of the British Society for Research on Ageing, said that the move was especially unwelcome when scientists are tantalisingly close to cracking the secrets of how cells and bodies age.

Read the article at The Observer (external link)