THE LIFE AFTER LIFE CONSPIRACY

"Boomers Will Be Pumping Billions Into Anti-Aging Industry," headlines AOL-Huffpost

Anti-aging is a natural for boomers, of course.  Maybe boomers don't (yet at least) think about living forever, but they do think about eternal youth --- extending youthfulness, health, fitness and mindset, and about slowing the aging process.

Though this article doesn't touch on the unique approaches used at the Hauenfelder Clinic and described in my thriller, The Life After Death Conspiracy, still it does give a useful overview of some of the anti-aging and life-extending  processes being tested.  No doubt, the anti-aging industry (of whatever stripe) is going to be growing . . . for our lifetimes and beyond.

Article: "Boomers will be pumping billions into the anti-aging industry."

"Researchers on the verge of growing human hearts"-- Independent UK (blogs)

 

"Growing human hearts"--- great headline. And for a great first line, how about this? "As I type, 17 human hearts are currently forming and there is much anticipation as to whether they will beat."

This from a blog put out in the framework of the Independent, in the UK, and the author is Siva Nagararajah.

The work uses what's termed "whole organ decellularisation," which means taking an actual heart from a deceased donor, then washing out the original heart cells to "leave only a pale fibrous matrix--'a ghost heart.'  That forms a scaffold on which stem cells are placed and left to --- hopefully--- grow and then beat.

The work was led by Dr. Doris Taylor.  Commenting on other break-through research her team performed, she said --- very memorably, I think: “A member of the media asked me: ‘If it’s so simple, why someone hasn’t done it before?’ And what I realised was that no one had done it before because no one had believed it was possible.”

". . .no one had done it before because no one had believed it was possible.”

Which echoes The Life After Life Conspiracy.  What comes to be in the fictional Hauenfelder Clinic is, I am convinced, not so very far ahead of what will be actual--- maybe not in mainstream labs, but likely in obscure labs in dictatorships, where legal and medical ethics are of no concern . . . as at Hauenfelder.

Actually, Dr. Taylor's work is one aspect of the larger field of regenerative medicine.  As we've noted in other posts here, stem cells are being used in a variety of regenerative medicine labs, with other organs and human body parts under development.  Also, in Dr. Taylor's lab in Wisconsin, and in others around the country and the world, chimeras (blends of human and other animals including chimps, rats, pigs and others) are being grown and tested.

Independent blogs: "Researchers on the verge of growing human hearts."

 

 

"Drugs could cleanse brain of bad memories" --- Independent (UK)

From article: "Fears about how drugs manipulate a person's memory are overblown, claims law professor Adam Kolber.

 "Millions of people who suffer from post-traumatic stress after a harrowing experience could benefit from mind-altering drugs that can rid the brain of bad memories, a legal scholar has suggested.

"Yet the prospect of using drugs to dampen the memory of a distressing episode in someone's life is being thwarted by unfounded concerns about their misuse, according to Adam Kolber, professor of law at Brooklyn Law School in New York."

Why am I including a reference to this article here: Because my thriller, The Life After Life Conspiracy, is in part about memories--- where they are "stored" and how they can be manipulated or moved.  This article (and the underlying paper published in the prestigious science journal Nature) touch on that related issue, of howand whether factual recall can be altered . . . and when and if it should be done, legally or ethically.

 

"Drugs could cleanse brain of bad memories" --- Steve Connor article in Independent (UK)

Slowed aging is becoming the "new normal"

My medical-techno thriller, The Life After Life Conspiracy, is about how some will go to unethical lengths to get another shot at youth--- by slowing the aging process, but even more by using today's emerging technologies as a potential tool toward eternal youth, if not renewed life.

At least somewhat apropos is an article in USA Today of August 15, 2011 on  what is emerging as "the whole new normal" of extending sports competitiveness years and decades beyond what had been assumed were the limits. (That phrase from Dr. Michael Joyner of the Mayo Clinic,a specialist in exercise science.)

The article, by Janice Lloyd, focuses on Janet Evans, a four-time Olympic gold medalist swimmer,soon to be 40, who is working toward a comeback after being retired 15 years.

Most people, whether they're weekend warriors or professional athletes, peak in their 20s and early 30s. Then they start to lose muscle, the body begins to slow down — and regenerating muscle and healing from strenuous workouts take longer.

From the article:

""People will say, 'I can't seem to push as hard as I used to,'" says sports medicine physician Mary Otis. "It's like, 'What's this? What's going on?' Most people start to notice it in their mid-30s."

"What's going on are changes programmed into our DNA, Otis says. Muscular performances decrease because of the loss of elasticity in blood vessels, heart muscle and lung tissue. There is decreased maximum heart rate, decreased amount of blood pumped with each beat and thus, a decreased cardiac output.

"But decades of research, Joyner says, show there are good reasons to stick it out even when it gets harder. Active people age more slowly. Studies, begun by A.V. Hill at Harvard in the 1920s, show how an athlete with high aerobic capacity outperforms others.

"Later studies show strenuous exercise could be an age preserver. For instance, a 1990 study comparing masters athletes and sedentary people shows the decrease in maximal aerobic capacity in people who continue to engage in regular vigorous exercise training is one-half the rate of decline seen among the sedentary subjects."

Exercise--- a real and ethical age-extender.

Regenerative medical technology, used wrongly --- not ethical, but nonetheless an intriguing plot device for my The Life After Life Conspiracy.

 USA Today article: Older and back in the swim

"Charting brain growth in humans and chimps"-- article in NYTimes

As my techno-thriller The Life After Life Conspiracy begins with a segment on human and chimp brains, I thought this article might be of interest to you, particularly after you've read the book.

Charting brain growth in human and chimp babies

 

Synthetic windpipes, and kidneys "printed" in 3-D

Matt Ridley's article in the Wall Street Journal (July 16, 2011) begins with a mention of a synthetic windpipe grown with the patient's own cells. It was then successfully implanted in the patient, and he went home. (I've seen other accounts of this particular operation, and will include them here another time.)

Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony Atala at Wake Forest University is experimenting with "printing" whole kidneys, using something akin to an ink-jet printer.  The procedure is still experimental and not able to turn out actual usable human kidneys, just replicas.  But the time will come.

As I've written elsewhere on this blog, the concepts I put forth in the early version of my sci-fi thriller, THE LIFE AFTER LIFE CONSPIRACY, were rejected by the publishing powers-that-be (rather "powers-that-were") as, paraphrasing, "too far out, impossible, just not ever going to happen."  Well, that was then, and a lot of it is happening around us now . . . though not yet the "Vehicles."

Here's the link to the Matt Ridley article:

WSJ article: How close are we to "printing" new organs?

Chimp Donnie and "Category Three" experiments.

When I wrote Chimp Donnie into The Life After Life Conspiracy, I thought I was  going really far out onto the far side of what was likely to come about in the reasonable future.

As with a lot of the other elements in the book, reality is moving very fast, and what seemed far-out is now approaching. 

Now (July 2011) a group of scientists have developed a report proposing new rules on "humanising animals." (The scientists---not the humanised animals--- are mostly British, hence I'm using the British spelling.)

One of their areas of prime concern is "Category Three" experiments, which raise "very strong ethical concerns."  Dr. Doug Dalby --- who's one of the good guys in my book --- pushed the then-limits and did just that. Tsk, tsk, shame on him.  From whence came the story.

---------------

Here's the link to one of several articles on that topic that came out in July 2011, most from British newspapers:

Independent, UK: "Experts warn over humanising apes"

 

 

Sensory deprivation experiments

Sensory deprivation experiments

Content to be added

Regenerative medicine / growing body parts

Regenerative medicine / growing body parts

Author's background comments:

If a salamander loses a leg, another grows back to take its place. Some studies are finding that if a child loses part of a finger, and certain non-traditional therapies are used, the end of that finger will grow back, complete with the nail.

Thus, the question that has long been asked — Given that salamanders (and other species) and children can regenerate lost limbs, why can’t we all do the same?— seems to be on the cusp of having a positive answer.

Interest is there, and funding is becoming increasingly available through foundations, businesses and the American government via DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency )  AFIRM Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine), Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and other military medical centers. More may be, likely is, being done in other countries in studies that haven’t been reporeted.

My point is that a lot of what seemed impossible not so many decades ago, is now happoening, or set to happen . . . In the real world, and even more so in my thriller, THE LIFE AFTER LIFE CONSPIRACY.

Without spoiling the plot for you, I’d like to give you an accessible overview of what has been done already, just in the past few years. Most of these relate to clippings that are online, many from popular newspapers, magazines and respected television series. I’m including those that are recent and that can be pulled up via an easy on-line search.

SOME RELEVANT STUDIES, ARTICLES, AND DOCUMENTARIES

• “How to grow new organs: Pioneers in building living tissue report important advances over the past decade.” Ali Khademhosseini, Joseph P. Vacanti and Richard Langer. Scientific American Magazine. May 4, 2009

• “Growing body parts. Morley Safer reports on the amazing science of regenerative medicine growing body parts.” 60 Minutes. Updated and aired July 25, 2010

• “Building artificial organs using ‘biological legos’ Darren Quick. Bloomberg Business Week. May 22, 2010

• “The race to grow new organs.” Anthony L Komaroff, MD. Newsweek. December 7, 2010.

• “War on wounds.” Anne Underwood. Newsweek. May 19, 2008. References to Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

• “The amazing ‘pixie dust’ made from pigs bladder that regrew a severed finger in four weeks.” Michael Hanlon. Mail Online (London). May 1, 2010. Includes photos.

• “Pigs could grow human organs in stem cell breakthrough.” Richard Gray. Telegraph. (London). June 19, 2011

• “Humans could regrow their own body parts like some amphibians, claim scientists.” Richard Alleyne. Telegraph (London). March 18, 2010

• “Discovery could help humans regrow limbs.” AOL News. March 17, 2010. Report on the research at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia. Mention of DARPA’s funding of tissue regeneration research for nearly a decade.

• “Grow-your-own to replace false teeth.” Ian Sample. Guardian (London). December 29, 2009

• “Japanese create stem cells from wisdom teeth.: No author credited. AFP. August 22, 2008

• “Gel that can help decayed teeth grow back could end fillings.” Pat Hagan. London Daily Mail. July 27, 2010

• “Made-to-measure lungs grown in laboratory a step closer.” Richard Alleyne. Telegraph. (London) June 24, 2010

• “Scientists grow ‘embryonic eye’ in test tube.” Richard Alleyne. Telegraph. (London) April 6, 2011

• “Simple eye grown from stem cells.” Ian Sample. Guardian. (London) April 6, 2011.

• “Scientists create human kidneys from stem cells.” No author cited. Telegraph. (London). April 12, 2011

• “British scientists create first pure brain stem cells.” Alok Jha. Guardian (London) August 17, 2005

• “Live human heart grown in lab using stem cells in potential transplant breakthrough.” David Derbyshire. Daily Mail, Mail Online. April 4, 2011

• “Seeding hearts with healing cells, doctors hope to grow muscle.” Rob Stein. Washington Post. November 6, 2003

• “Could cotton candy build blood vessels?” Malcolm Ritter. Associated Press, in USA Today. February 12, 2009

• “British scientists to create ‘synthetic blood.’ Steve Connor, Science editor. The Independent (London) March 23, 2009`

• “U.S. scientists grow beating mice heart muscle strip.” Lauran Neergaard. Associated Press. Posted October4 15, 2009.

• “‘Injectable bone’ made to heal breaks in a hurry. Eric Bland, Discovery News, in Discovery. Posted December 21, 2008.

• “Custom-made bones to be grown within hours.” Julian Ryall. Telegraph (London) November 25, 2008.

• “Mimicking human cartilage to repair a knee.” Anne Eisenberg. New York Times. June 28, 2011.

• “Hopes of custom-built organs as scientists create beating heart.” Times Online from Sunday Times (London) Sarah-Kate Templeton. January 15, 2008.

• “First bioartificial heart may signal end of organ shortage.” Roger Highfield. Telegraph (London). Updated January 13, 2008. (This did, may still, link to a video.)

• “It was horrible to see Sarah lying in that hospital bed without any skin.” Martin Fricker. Telegraph (London) November 1, 2004. Woman lost all skin as result of allergic reaction to common antibiotic (Bactrim). Artificial skin TransCyte was used, and she is now expected to make a full recovery.

• “Stem cell ‘fabrics’ promise universal tissue.” Colin Barras. New Scientist (England) February 26, 2009

• “Infusion of young blood revives old muscles.” Robert Roy Britt. LiveScience in AOL. February 16, 2005.

• “Skin cells turned into brain cells in stem cell breakthrough. Skin cells have been turned directly into nerve cells in research that could be a ‘huge leap forward’ for the treatment of dementia.” Richard Alleyne. Telegraph. (London) January 27, 2010

• “Stem cells could be used to repair brain damage.” Steve Connor. Independent. (London) April 14, 2010.

• “Fetal tissue heals burns: tests show treatment led to normal skin regrowth.” David Brown. Washington Post. August 18, 2005. In a preview of what was to be published in the prestigious medical journal, The Lancet, a Swiss team used skin cells grown from an aborted fetus to grow skin patches to cover other childrens’ second and third degree burns. From that one “donation,”which was smaller than a postage stamp, the team expected to be able to grow more than two million 3.5x5 inch pieces. Other researchers have successfully used foreskins of circumcised newborns and large pieces of skin removed from cadavers.

• “Scientists use ‘biological alchemy’ to convert one cell type into another.” Roger Highfield. Telegraph. (London) June 23, 2008. “...a new front has opened in regenerative medicine: the direct conversion of one cell type, say a skin cell, into another, say a brain cell.”

• Related: “Stem cell technique is ‘significant advance.’ Roger Highfield. Telegraph (London) August 1, 2008. Researchers have taken skin cells from a patient with a “genetic condition and transformed them into nerve cells . . . so they could study the cause of the nerve degeneration.” This could be useful in developing drugs. Even better, they hope that “if they can find a way of altering tyhe cell to make it healthy they will be able to grow a patient’s cells and tissue, free of disease, to transplant back into their body and fight the condition.” Study related to ALS, and related motor neuron disease

• Related: “Patient’s own cells mass produced for first time in lab.” Roger Highfield. Telegraph (London) July 31, 2008. Same patients etc as in article above.

Persistent vegetative state. PVS. Coma

Persistent vegetative state. PVS. Coma

PERSISTENT VEGETATIVE STATE / COMA

• “The mystery of consciousness.” Stephen Pinker. Time. January 19, 2007 Lot of intriguing points, too many to get into here. This also gets into PVS.etc.

• “In ‘vegetative state’ patients, brain scanners show some alert minds. “Rob Stein. Washington Post. February 4, 2010

• “Waking the dead— one day ‘deep coma’ victims will be able to talk and move around.” Richard Alleyne. Telegraph (London) September 20, 2010

• “Doctors work to understand vegetative states. Criteria used to gauge patients’ responsiveness/.” Rita Rubin. USA Today. March 21, 2005

• Related article: “Differences between conditions” Persistent vegetative state v minimal consciousness. Kathleen Fackelman USA Today. March 24, 2005.

• “Brain-injured fireman’s recovery takes science into a murky area.” Anahad O’Connor. Washington Post. May 4, 2005 Sadly, Donald Herbert died about 10 months later, of pneumonia.

• “The puzzle of Donald Herbert: the latest brain injury case to make news.” Neurology Today. An official publication of the American Academy of Neurology. Multiple contributors. July 2005.

• “Do we want brain scanners to read our minds? As ‘vegetative’ patients ‘talk’ to scientists, Professor Colin Blakemore assesses the profound implications this has for the sick — and the healthty.” Colin Blakemore. Telegraph (London) February 4, 2010.