Teleomeres
What Do Your Telomeres Say About You?
09/05/11 14:43 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Nobel laureate Elizabeth Blackburn has launched a company called Telome Health to provide a commercial genetic test for less than $200 to measure telomere shortening, to give people insight on their aging process. It would entail taking a blood or saliva sample, and measuring the telomere length in white blood cells, to determine if people need to change their lifestyles, such as reducing stress and cessation of smoking. S. Pelech is dubious about using telomere length to assess one's current health status considering all of the variables including one's age, and suggests focusing on more accute and dynamic biomarkers such as stress protein levels and protein phosphorylation. Read More...
The Long and Short of It
04/10/11 13:12 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Elizabeth Blackburn at the University of California, San Francisco started a company that will measure telomere shortness to predict risk for conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's, certain cancers, and even for mortality. S. Pelech outlines the problems associated with interpretation of what a shortened telomer means and suggests that it would be naive to relate telomere length to one's current health status. It would make a lot more sense to focus on better immediate acute biomarkers of pathology such as stress protein levels and protein phosphorylation. Read More...