|
Science
Friday > Archives
> 1999
> May
> May 14, 1999:
Hour One: Telemedicine / Aging Research
As data networks become faster and more powerful, an increasing number of health care professionals are looking into a field called telemedicine, which involves monitoring patients -- and perhaps someday even treating them -- from remote locations. We'll start out this hour of Science Friday by talking to some researchers who are testing how to monitor patients in a very remote location: Mount Everest. They hope that NASA and the military may be interested in their methods.
| Plus, we'll talk about new research into aging. Last year, we told you about research into telomerase, an enzyme that keeps the ends of aging chromosomes from unraveling as they duplicate. By supplying cells with telomerase, researchers found, they could rebuild the telomeres (tiny caps on the ends of the chromosomes) -- and cells with rebuilt telomeres lived much, much longer than ordinary cells. We also told you about research into the roundworm C. elegans that had located a gene that seemed to slow the worm's metabolism, allowing it to live longer. Now, researchers studying the same roundworm at Columbia University have found that a lack of another enzyme, called a catalase, can greatly shorten a worm's lifespan. | 
4 C. elegans worms (image courtesy Genetics) | The catalase, coded for by a gene named ctl-1, seems to clean up reactive "free radicals" that might otherwise react with and damage genetic material. The researchers think that perhaps it is the production of the catalase that allows some worms to live much longer through the "dauer" stage, a phase of slower metabolism. The group reports its findings in this week's Nature. We'll talk to one of the researchers about his findings, and take a look at other forms of aging research as well.
Guests:
Major Dr. Christian Macedonia
U.S. Army Medical Corps Officer
Guest Researcher, National Institutes of Health
Alexandria, Virginia
Martin Chalfie
Professor, Biological Science
Columbia University
New York, New York
Steven Austad
Author, "Why We Age: What Science Is Discovering About the Body's Journey Through Life" (Wiley)
Associate Professor, Zoology
Gerontologist
University of Idaho
Moscow, Idaho
Books/Articles Discussed:
| "A cytosolic catalase is needed
to extend adult lifespan in C. elegans daf-C and clk-1 mutants,
" by James Taub, Joe F. Lau, Charles Ma, Jang Hee Hahn, Rafaz
Hoque, Jonathan Rothblatt and Martin Chalfie. Nature, May 13,
1999.
"Why
We Age: What Science Is Discovering About the Body's Journey
Through Life, by Steven Austad. John Wiley, 1999.
| | Related Links:
Science
Friday: High altitude physiology
Science
Friday: Aging Research
Science
Friday 2: Aging Research
Telomeres and Aging
The Telomere Club
C. elegans Aging Sites
General Aging Science Info
The National Institute on Aging
The Administration on Aging
The Aging Research Centre
GeroWeb
This segment produced by:
Annette Heist
Web producer:
Charles Bergquist
|