Discover the Science of Health
Contrary to the widely held belief that cognitive function starts to decline in the mid-forties, a new study finds that aging does not correlate with a decrease in the ability to make logically consistent decisions. That’s the conclusion of Healthy Brain, Healthy Decisions: The MetLife Study of Decision-Making Potential [1].
Biomarker Bulletin is an occasionally recurring update of news focused on biomarkers aggregated at BiomarkerCommons.org. Biomarkers are physical, functional or biochemical indicators of normal physiological or disease processes. The individualization of disease management — personalized medicine — is dependent on developing biomarkers that promote specific clinical domains, including early detection, risk, diagnosis, prognosis and predicted response to therapy.
An old disease is making a comeback, possibly due to a bacterial mutation. Seventeen states and Washington D.C. are reporting an increase in whooping cough this year. It’s an epidemic in Texas, on pace to be the worst in half a century [1]. The very young are most at risk.
Project Violet is a philanthropic effort to build a citizen science community and drive early drug discovery at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center [1]. Launched last month, the project combines aspects of crowdfunding, social media, and video game-style engagement to raise capital from thousands of donors and engage them in a drug discovery journey over the next few years.
By lowering the expression of a single gene, researchers at the National Institutes of Health have extended the average lifespan of a group of mice by about 20 percent — the equivalent of raising the average human lifespan by 16 years, from 79 to 95. This study appears in the August 29th edition of Cell Reports [1].
