Monthly Archives: October 2009

This post reviews some key research findings regarding liver regeneration and discusses what is known about the mechanisms involved.   It turns out that a bunch of my favorite blog topics are involved: telomerase, stem/progenitor cells, mTOR signaling, MAPK signaling, NOTCH … Continue reading →

A research report that appeared a few days ago suggests that birth control pills are having a profound effect on our programmed biological mechanisms for selecting sex partners and for the evolutionary selection of sex and perhaps other human characteristics. … Continue reading →

The stream of stem cell research seems to be turning into a river with cascades, waterfalls, whirlpools and even stem-cell treatment resorts.  I comment here on just one small part of the river, which is research on generating induced pluripotent … Continue reading →

When I first learned about computers in 1950, there were probably less than a three dozen people in the world doing computer programming, and I soon joined their ranks.  At that time, to suggest that computer programming would become an … Continue reading →

It is now official; telomerase is really for-real.  A Nobel Prize was just granted to Carol Greider, Elizabeth Blackburn and Jack Szostak, for discovery of the telomerase enzyme 25 years ago.  Greider was a 23-year-old first-year graduate student back then.  … Continue reading →

A team at the Whitehead Institute has taken a step towards finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease (PD) following an approach similar to but falling short of the approach outlined in my blog post Treating genetic diseases with corrected induced … Continue reading →

Conventional wisdom says that you will live healthier as you reach an advanced age if you live with a partner. A Scandinavian study published in July 2009 confirms that wisdom with respect to cognitive capability. The study, Association between mid-life … Continue reading →

Regular readers of this blog are familiar with the crucial importance of signaling molecules and transcription factors in life-related biological processes.  However, traditional mass spectrometry may have difficulty detecting such molecules which are produced in low numbers.  Although mass spectrometry … Continue reading →

I love reporting on research that supports my favorite theories, and also on research that challenges them.  In the post The anti-antioxidant side of the story I reported on research suggesting a couple of possible downsides to antioxidant supplementation.  A … Continue reading →

This post relates to the Stem Cell Supply Chain Breakdown theory of aging, and is about getting somatic stem cells in mature individuals to keep up their rate of differentiation with aging.  The central issue is how safely to nudge … Continue reading →