Category Biology/Biotechnology

Heterochronic blood exchange effects on muscle regeneration and performance.

A new study from UC Berkeley found that tissue health and repair dramatically decline in young mice when half of their blood is replaced with blood from old mice. The study argues against the rejuvenating properties of young blood and points to old blood, or molecules within, as driving the aging process. “Our study suggests that young blood by itself will not work as effective medicine,” said A/Prof Irina Conboy, Dept of Bioengineering at UC Berkeley. “It’s more accurate to say that there are inhibitors in old blood that we need to target to reverse aging.”

In 2005, Conboy et al published a study in Nature that found evidence for tissue rejuvenation in older mice when they are surgically joined to younger mice so...

Mitochondrial DNA is the small circular chromosome found inside mitochondria. The mitochondria are organelles found in cells that are the sites of energy production. Credit: http://www.genome.gov/ (CC0)

Researchers from Caltech and UCLA have developed a new approach to removing cellular damage that accumulates with age. The technique can potentially help slow or reverse an important cause of aging. The team developed a technique to remove mutated DNA from mitochondria. There are hundreds to thousands of mitochondria per cell, each of which carries its own small circular DNA genome, mtDNA, the products of which are required for energy production...

Cutter Lindbergh, left, a doctoral candidate in the psychology department, and Stephen Miller, director of the Bio-Imaging Research Center, used fMRI technology to see how different levels of carotenoids, chemical compounds derived from fruits and vegetables, affected brain functioning in older adults. Credit: UGA

The same compounds that give plants and vegetables their vibrant colors might be able to bolster brain functioning in older adults, according to a recent study from University of Georgia. The research is the first to use fMRI technology to investigate how levels of those compounds affect brain activity and showed that study participants with lower levels had to rely on more brain power to complete memory-oriented tasks...

A femtosecond X-ray pulse from an X-ray free electron laser intersecting a droplet that contains photosystem II crystals, the protein extracted and crystallized from cyanobacteria. Credit: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

The living machinery of photosynthesis is still not fully understood. One of its molecular mysteries involves how a protein complex, photosystem II, harvests energy from sunlight and uses it to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. This process generates the oxygen in the air that we all breathe. New X-ray methods at the DOE SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have captured the highest resolution room-temperature images of this protein complex, which allows scientists to closely watch how water is split during photosynthesis at ambient temperature...