Recent News on Longevity and Health

2014-07-05 00:00:00

IEET Contributor Maria Konovalenko goes over some recent developments in Genome Sequencing Costs, Results of Aging Research According to the Washington Post, and Why Personalized Cancer Genome Sequencing is a Good Idea.





Full Genome Sequencing Costs

For those who are interested how much it costs to get your full genome sequenced – the prices are below. This table comes from a great review article on cancer genome sequencing that I have written before. The table clearly illustrates the promise of next generation sequencing in terms of pricing. It’s getting more and more affordable. I think we will see full genome sequencing in the clinic as a routine diagnostic tool quite soon. This will mean more accurate diagnoses, hence better treatment for various diseases.



Of course the application to cancer is the most obvious one when we can identify the genome mutations and changes in expression that lead to progression of the disease. More accurate diagnoses and treatments will increase health and longevity of millions of people.





Successful Results of Aging Research According to the Washington Post



It is always nice to see articles about fighting aging in the major press sources. This article in Washington Post sums the most promising results in aging research so far. The most successful interventions include caloric restriction, metformin, acarbose, rapamycin, genetic modification and GDF11/parabiosis. I would say that the author has left out some things like melatonin and aspirin, for example.

Also I wouldn’t suggest parabiosis as an intervention, sure it’s good for the old, but what about the young organisms? Some of their biological parameters become worse as a result of parabiosis. We wouldn’t want that effect in people, would we?)) However, pharmacological intervention based on the GDF11 is another thing that may work.

I was very pleased to see that gene therapy was among the proposed solutions. In my opinion it has enormous potential. We now know about 100 longevity-associated genes.

Why not use gene therapy to either bring these genes into the organism, or increase their efficiency if they already exist. We could try various combinations of those genes and maybe the combinations can lead to synergistic rather than additive effect. But who am I kidding, additive effect would also be amazing if proven safe and efficient in humans.





Why Personalized Cancer Genome Sequencing is a Good Idea



I have just read a very interesting paper on personalized cancer genome sequencing. I think this is a crucial topic in fighting cancer at the moment. There is more and more research data that can be translated into clinic and more and more papers talk about the relevance of personalized oncology. This review is called “Harnessing Massively Parallel sequencing in Personalized head and neck Oncology“.

It has a nice picture that explains why it is a good idea to sequence your cancer genome and compare it to the genome of normal tissue. The article gives examples when next generation sequencing provided very useful data to the patients. Anyway, here is the abstract:




Advances in the management of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) have not significantly changed the prognosis of this tumor over the past five decades. Molecular heterogeneity of HNSCC and its association with HPV, in addition to the increase in the number of cancers arising in traditionally low-risk patients, are among some of the obstacles to the successful management of this group of tumors.

Massively parallel sequencing, otherwise known as next-generation sequencing (NGS), is rapidly changing conventional patient management by providing detailed information about each patient’s genome and transcriptome. Despite major advances in technology and a significant reduction in the cost of sequencing, NGS remains mainly limited to research facilities. In addition, there are only a few published studies that have utilized this technology in HNSCC.

This paper aims to report briefly on current commercially available NGS platforms and discuss their clinical applications, ethical considerations, and utilization in personalized patient care, particularly as this relates to head and neck cancer.




IEET Contributor Maria Konovalenko goes over some recent developments in Genome Sequencing Costs, Results of Aging Research According to the Washington Post, and Why Personalized Cancer Genome Sequencing is a Good Idea.





Full Genome Sequencing Costs

For those who are interested how much it costs to get your full genome sequenced – the prices are below. This table comes from a great review article on cancer genome sequencing that I have written before. The table clearly illustrates the promise of next generation sequencing in terms of pricing. It’s getting more and more affordable. I think we will see full genome sequencing in the clinic as a routine diagnostic tool quite soon. This will mean more accurate diagnoses, hence better treatment for various diseases.



Of course the application to cancer is the most obvious one when we can identify the genome mutations and changes in expression that lead to progression of the disease. More accurate diagnoses and treatments will increase health and longevity of millions of people.





Successful Results of Aging Research According to the Washington Post



It is always nice to see articles about fighting aging in the major press sources. This article in Washington Post sums the most promising results in aging research so far. The most successful interventions include caloric restriction, metformin, acarbose, rapamycin, genetic modification and GDF11/parabiosis. I would say that the author has left out some things like melatonin and aspirin, for example.

Also I wouldn’t suggest parabiosis as an intervention, sure it’s good for the old, but what about the young organisms? Some of their biological parameters become worse as a result of parabiosis. We wouldn’t want that effect in people, would we?)) However, pharmacological intervention based on the GDF11 is another thing that may work.

I was very pleased to see that gene therapy was among the proposed solutions. In my opinion it has enormous potential. We now know about 100 longevity-associated genes.

Why not use gene therapy to either bring these genes into the organism, or increase their efficiency if they already exist. We could try various combinations of those genes and maybe the combinations can lead to synergistic rather than additive effect. But who am I kidding, additive effect would also be amazing if proven safe and efficient in humans.





Why Personalized Cancer Genome Sequencing is a Good Idea



I have just read a very interesting paper on personalized cancer genome sequencing. I think this is a crucial topic in fighting cancer at the moment. There is more and more research data that can be translated into clinic and more and more papers talk about the relevance of personalized oncology. This review is called “Harnessing Massively Parallel sequencing in Personalized head and neck Oncology“.

It has a nice picture that explains why it is a good idea to sequence your cancer genome and compare it to the genome of normal tissue. The article gives examples when next generation sequencing provided very useful data to the patients. Anyway, here is the abstract:




Advances in the management of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) have not significantly changed the prognosis of this tumor over the past five decades. Molecular heterogeneity of HNSCC and its association with HPV, in addition to the increase in the number of cancers arising in traditionally low-risk patients, are among some of the obstacles to the successful management of this group of tumors.

Massively parallel sequencing, otherwise known as next-generation sequencing (NGS), is rapidly changing conventional patient management by providing detailed information about each patient’s genome and transcriptome. Despite major advances in technology and a significant reduction in the cost of sequencing, NGS remains mainly limited to research facilities. In addition, there are only a few published studies that have utilized this technology in HNSCC.

This paper aims to report briefly on current commercially available NGS platforms and discuss their clinical applications, ethical considerations, and utilization in personalized patient care, particularly as this relates to head and neck cancer.




http://mariakonovalenko.wordpress.com/2014/07/03/successful-results-of-aging-research-according-to-the-washington-post/