Re: [DIYbio] Fwd: [tt] Geneticists Discover a Way to Extend Lifespans to 800 Years

In one sense, I would say 'yes': Senescence is complicated, and
sometimes a deliberate trait, but much of senescence in multicellular
organisms comes down to processes that are common to all cells,
single-or-multicellular, such as mitochondrial maintenance and telomere
extension.

Sometimes, there's a clear disconnect, where a thing is easy to achieve
safely in single cells to extend "lifespan" but not in multicellular
organisms. For example, single-celled organisms don't have a Hayflick
Limit, because that would be stupid; they keep their Telomeres nice and
long, thank you. However, multicellular organisms do have a Hayflick
Limit because it is one of many strategies to prevent cancer; borrowing
this "trait" from single-celled organisms would be a bad move, unless
strict controls could be implemented to prevent cancer or deactivate the
telomere elongation system if needed.

The article discusses genes that play a role in cell cycles etc.: while
this isn't directly likely to be relevant, it will nevertheless feed
into our understanding of how cells grow, replicate and age, and will
therefore have some relevance to human ageing. But it's definitely not
as simple as "if we knock these out, we'll live forever!", so the
headline is definitely a case of rogue-editorialism.

On 30/01/13 15:48, Michael Turner wrote:
> Um ... I don't mean to intrude on what might be a most excellent
> thread that goes off on any number of fascinating speculative
> tangents, but my original intention in forwarding this article was to
> spur some technical discussion about whether synthetic biology
> experimentation on microbes at DIYbio scale could contribute to this
> line of research (or nip it in the bud, if that's what it actually
> deserves; I wouldn't know.)
>
> So, in that (belated) spirit: IS something like that possible?
>
> Regards,
> Michael Turner
> Project Persephone
> 1-25-33 Takadanobaba
> Shinjuku-ku Tokyo 169-0075
> (+81) 90-5203-8682
> turner@projectpersephone.org
> http://www.projectpersephone.org/
>
> "Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward
> together in the same direction." -- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
>
>
>
> On Wed, Jan 30, 2013 at 11:47 PM, Eugen Leitl <eugen@leitl.org> wrote:
>> On Tue, Jan 29, 2013 at 06:43:45PM +0000, Cathal Garvey wrote:
>>
>>> Without context, older memories would probably be inaccessible to this
>>> process of "wildcard recall"; what would this mean for Methuselahs of
>>> the future? Would they succumb to the stereotypical stasis of ancient
>>> fictional characters like the vampires in Anne Rice's novels?
>>
>> If you have enough control at molecular scale to halt and reverse
>> senescence or use vitrified patients in the dewar as blueprints
>> who would want to keep wearing that stupid man suit longer than
>> necessary?
>>
>> Humanity as is is far from being optimal. It's just a passing phase.
>>
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