From: James Swayze (swayzej@home.com)
Date: Tue Apr 11 2000 - 15:14:50 MDT
Robert,
Today CNN carried a story about an aging gene called p-21 that is responsible
for expressing aging related disease genes--parkinsons being among them long
with Alzheimers and more. This was interesting enough but what I wanted to tell
you about was the commentator's and CNN's shortsightedness in how they
presented
the information. She moronically said we would never cure aging. We would all
grow old and die but the study of this gene might help us live better up to our
120 year age limit. Then the grey hair smiling guy chimed in that we should all
be lucky enough to grow old.
I was wondering if you had the clout to introduce them to the myriad efforts
made towards defeating aging such as telemere research and the rest I know you
have knowledge of. They need to know they've missed a scoop. Is this mainstream
ignorance of immortalism simply oversight or by design?
James
P.S. My email address has changed to swayzej@home.com. I'm not on the list
right
now, too busy to keep up, so if you respond you may do so directly please.
"Robert J. Bradbury" wrote:
>
> Harvard Researchers have a model for Parkinson's in Drosophila.
> See:
>
>
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/parkinsonsflies000322.html
>
> Now, this is good because it sets the stage for putting genes
> that are involved in other pathologies of aging into flies.
> There are some limits to this. For example, genes involved
> in skeletal structure, joints, arthritis, etc. couldn't
> be tested in a Drosophila model.
>
> So here is a question (that I actually don't know the answer to...),
> What is the shortest lived mammal? Or other short lived species
> that you could use as models for some aspects of aging in humans?
> I seem to recall vaguely there were some unusual animals from Australia
> that had short lifespans. What about up there in Alaska, got any
> seasonal species John?
>
> This isn't just a theoretical question, I've got a conference coming
> up this summer where we will be discussing a "Roadmap for Lifespan
> Extension" and one of the things we want to discuss is what genomes
> should be sequenced next. Short-lived organisms allow scientists
> to do experiments and intervention tests more quickly.
>
> Robert
-- "Quod de futuris non est determinata omnino veritas" NOSTRADAMUS 15TH Century
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