Ouroboros at the Cold Spring Harbor Labs Conference

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Chris Patil of Ouroboros is blogging this year's Cold Spring Harbor Labs conference on the molecular genetics of aging. You might recall his coverage of the 2006 meeting as well. This time round:

I’m going to try to blog the sessions a bit more than I did last time, though I’m not sure how that will work out. Actually taking notes at the same time as I make blog entries sounds pretty hard. Still, though, I’ll try.

The first conference post is up:

This first session focused on the smaller model organisms that led the first wave of modern biogerontology: yeast, worm, and fly. The talks covered a wide range of systems and techniques, but they held together nicely because they (mostly) converged on common themes: control of calorie-restriction-mediated lifespan extension, and the genetics of the insulin-like growth factor pathway that governs lifespan in many organisms.

A lot of interesting detail follows, so take a look.

UPDATE: The rest of the session posts:

Stephen Spindler (current Mprize record holder for mouse rejuvenation) started off with the refreshing title "Searching for longevity therapeutics." He discussed a variety of strategies to identifying lifespan extension drugs, as well as some of their shortcomings, and then proceeded to describe aging-intervention studies currently ongoing in his lab. The project is testing a variety of CR mimetics as well as orally bioavailable rapamycin, green tea flavonoids (which inhibit fatty acid synthase), a histone deacetylase inhibitor, and microencapsulated curcumin. Also on the list are statins, AGE breakers, omega 3 fatty acids, and old standbys of the life-extension movement like DHA, Juvenon (cartinine/lipoate), and resveratrol. No results yet, but we’ll be eagerly awaiting the outcome of these studies.