All posts tagged: Senescent Cells

1 million XPRIZE Healthspan competition advances 20 teams to finals with UCSD named as testing hub

$101 million XPRIZE Healthspan competition advances 20 teams to finals with UCSD named as testing hub

Published by Jenni Sidey

Twenty finalist teams have advanced in the $101 million XPRIZE Healthspan competition, including groups developing treatments aimed at slowing age-related decline. Ten Milestone 2 Awardees will each receive $1 million and testing support as they prepare clinical trials focused on muscle, brain and immune function. The competition runs through 2030, when a grand prize of up to $81 million will go to teams that can demonstrate major gains in healthy human aging. Salt Lake City became the center of a global race against age-related decline as XPRIZE announced 20 finalist teams pursuing treatments designed to help people stay stronger, sharper and healthier for longer. Ten of those finalists, spanning the United States, South Korea, Japan and China, were named Milestone 2 Awardees. Each receives $1 million, along with access to clinical testing resources, as the $101 million XPRIZE Healthspan competition moves toward human trials and its 2030 finale. The seven-year competition began in 2023 with more than 600 applicants. Teams are being challenged to develop treatments that restore muscle, cognitive and immune function in adults …

UCLA researchers discover key driver of fatty liver disease, inflammation and aging

UCLA researchers discover key driver of fatty liver disease, inflammation and aging

Published by Jenni Sidey

A small cluster of damaged immune cells can do outsized harm. That is the picture emerging from new research at UCLA, where scientists identified a rogue population of macrophages, the tissue-patrolling immune cells that normally clean up debris and help maintain order. In aging livers, and in livers damaged by fatty liver disease, those cells can slip into a senescent state. They stop dividing, refuse to die and begin sending out inflammatory signals that disturb the tissue around them. “Senescent cells are fairly rare, but think of them like a broken-down car on the 405,” said Anthony Covarrubias, senior author of the study and a member of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA. “Just one stalled car can back up traffic for miles. Now imagine five or ten of them slowly accumulating. That’s what these cells do to a tissue: even a small number causes enormous disruption.” For years, scientists argued over whether macrophages could truly become senescent at all. Part of the problem was that …