Eternal life could be achieved by procedure to lengthen chromosomes

Procedure helps cells grow and could be used to treat a range of diseases associated with ageing

ANDREW GRIFFIN

Tuesday 03 February 2015

The key to eternal life could be a procedure to lengthen chromosomes.

The procedure would allow scientists to lengthen telomeres, the protective caps that are on the end of chromosomes and shorten with age.

The telomeres protect chromosomes from getting damage as cells divide and grow. But as they do, they slowly become shorter and eventually are unable to protect the chromosomes. When that happens, they are liable to deteriorate — thought to be a key part of the ageing process.

The new process allows scientists to lengthen the telomeres, effectively turning back the biological clock and making the chromosomes — and the people that are made out of them — younger.

When the cells have been treated, they behave as if they are younger and multiply quickly rather than stagnating or dying.

The procedure could eventually be used to treat patients with genetic diseases that lead to the telomere being shortened before it should be, such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy. It could also be used to treat more general symptoms of ageing, like diabetes and heart disease.

“This new approach paves the way toward preventing or treating diseases of ageing,” said one of the researchers on the study. “There are also highly debilitating genetic diseases associated with telomere shortening that could benefit from such a potential treatment.”

The researchers behind the study hope that the procedure will be able to allow scientists to generate large numbers of cells to study or use to develop drugs.

The process has been discovered by Helen Blau of Stanford University, who was senior author on a paper describing the procedure with John Ramunas of Stanford and Eduard Yakubov from the Houston Methodist Research Institute.

“Now we have found a way to lengthen human telomeres by as much as 1,000 nucleotides, turning back the internal clock in these cells by the equivalent of many years of human life,” said Helen Blau, who is also professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford and director of the university’s Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology. “This greatly increases the number of cells available for studies such as drug testing or disease modeling.

The Moshiach Tsunami

This is an excerpt from an address by R. Adin Steinsaltz on the occasion of the Rebbe's  centennial in 2002. It mentions tsunami and is dated  March 11.  March 11, 2011 is, of course,  when a devastating tsunami hit Japan.

The full article is here.

"...When we speak about the coming of Moshiach, we speak about a mega-event, a major phenomenon that changes everything. We may not be fully prepared and we don't know the how, what, or when of this event, but we are talking about major changes. One of the consequences of this statement is that, if we are expecting things to change in a major way, we will have to make major changes, too. Next to the truly momentous changes we are anticipating, all of our trivial arguments shrink into trifles; our disputes are comic, not just painful. Many of the things that people fight about are the sheerest, shallowest nonsense, especially if we compare these quarrels to the establishment of an entirely different order. ... Who will remember all these foolish people who were fighting about such things? When the tsunami is about to envelop the world...everything will be moved..."

Cain - the first B.T.

 Kayin (Cain) was the first person to do teshuvah and he is as an example for all future Ba’alei Teshuvah. Kayin’s teshuvah consisted of three phases:

a) Confession. Kayin declared to God, “My sin is too great to
bear”. The Torah then states that, “Kayin left God’s presence” (v. 16), on which the Midrash comments that Kayin was rejoicing that his confession had been accepted by God.

b) Exile. Rambam writes that one of the routes of teshuvah is for
a person to send himself into exile, for this generates a spirit of
humility within a person (Hilchos Teshuvah, 2:4). Thus we find that Kayin, “dwelt in the land of the wanderers”.

Happy New Year !

יְה'—יִסְפֹּר, בִּכְתוֹב עַמִּים

“G-d will count in the register (calendar) of nations… " (Psalms 87:6)

A New Year Greeting with Deeper Roots

Rabbi Sholom Hecht of Hecht’s bookstore on Coney Island Avenue in Flatbush, Brooklyn, was privileged to have had many private talks with the Lubavitcher Rebbe.

On one such occasion, Rabbi Hecht spoke with the Rebbe on the morning of January 1. At some point during the talk, the Rebbe wished him a “Happy New Year.” Rabbi Hecht was taken aback.

The Rebbe then told him that Rabbi Levi Yitzchok of Berdichev used to tell his congregants “Happy New Year”—and that it is rooted in Tehillim 87:6, where it says: “Hashem Yispor Bichsov Amim…” — “Hashem will count in the register (calendar) of nations…”

Takeaway

Even a “secular” date can become a moment of avodah—when it’s connected to a pasuk and used as a reminder that Hashem “counts” time, people, and purpose.

Think good

Whatever good we do to others is ALSO done to us ... Some persons claim, that the whole world is a kind of a "wish-fulfilling-place", adding an interesting word of warning : "therefore we should be very careful about what we wish or strive for here in life, because it COULD become a reality" Surely, it's the law of Karma stated in a positive way, yet there is also more to that - WE are the active doers and responsible of the causes of every action in life having the potentiality to shape and create the future reality.

Having good intentions, thoughts and actions toward others will bear wonderful spiritual (and material) fruits sooner than we might think ! Indeed the entire secret of Ve-Ahavta is predicated on the law of cause and effect. One teaching that really resonated with me was - Why does the law say LE-RE'ECHA - and not ET? It is because we basically *gift* our love. i.e. the best of all things that we would most desire for ourselves - health, wealth, happiness, peace of mind etc. we are told to ask that these things be done for our ~fellow~ as an altruistic (no strings, just enjoy!) gift from us to them.

The Baal Shem Tov and later the Tzemach Tzedek (the third Lubavitcher Rebbe) said "Tracht Goot v' zein goot." - Think good and it will be good. Unfortunately, people didn't know how to think good when faced with such adverse conditions. More recently, the last Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of blessed memory said "Tracht Goot V'zicher Zein Goot", Think good and it will surely be good. This is a sacred promise and instruction from the Rebbe. Since he was a Tzaddik (a Jewish saint) and did innumerable miracles, we take his promises and instructions seriously. But the Jewish people are still overcome with their living conditions and just don't know how to "think" good.

There is only one way to live with a joyful attitude and that is to have good thoughts, those that make us feel good. Our heart, which is directly connected to our soul, knows if our thoughts are in accordance with our soul's desire. If our thoughts are in accordance with our soul's desire, we feel good. And if not, we feel bad. The heart is a sixth sense for knowing if we are on our own personal path of our souls desire or not. The only good feelings that last are those that are in accordance with the Holy Torah. In addition to the Baal Shem Tov and the Rebbeim of Chabad, Rebbe Nachman of Breslov also concurred with the reality of this concept.

The Power of Thought--Sichos HaRan 62

Human beings possess wondrous powers. Through thought you can actualize what you concentrate upon. Even the inflation of a country's economy is a consequence of people's thoughts. Your power of thought must be focused upon one thing - that is, all aspects of consciousness, internal, external, and all other aspects, must be focused upon one point. When you have eliminated all mental diffusion and nullified any inclination toward other thoughts, you will be able to bind your mind entirely to the idea that a certain thing should take place. Thus, you actually can make it happen. However, this requires that you conceive the object of concentration in all its details. If you do so only in a general way, you will create "incomplete vessels" (cf. Keilim 12:6). Thus, you may go astray, as did Nevat. This practice can help you in your Torah study. If your power of thought is strong, it surely will produce the desired result.

All this requires is intense concentration. For example, you may bind your thought to the idea of completing all four sections of the Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law) with its major commentaries. You must vividly imagine how you will go about accomplishing this task, and how long it will take; e.g., you must study five folio pages per day in order to finish the entire project in one year. You must channel your thoughts into this very well, until your mind is strongly bound to this idea. Similarly, you may apply this technique to all other areas of Torah study: the Gemara with the commentaries of the Rif and the Rosh, the Arba'ah Turim, or Tanach (Torah, Prophets, and Writings), etc.

You should long to accomplish your goal, binding your mind to it strongly, and then you will accomplish everything. There is a hint to this in the Talmudic dictum: "Thought helps, even for the study of Torah" (Sanhedrin 26b). Even though Rashi explains this remark in a different context, nevertheless, this allusion is also true… The Rebbe did not explain this further. However, "both these and these are the words of the Living G-d" (Gittin 7b). http://www.nachalnovea.com/breslovcenter/articles/article_thought1.html 

Living the Dream

 

PARSHAS MIKEITZ SUNDAY, DECEMBER 14 22 KISLEV, 5775 ב"ה וַיְהִי מִקֵּץ שְׁנָתַיִם יָמִים וּפַרְעֹה חֹלֵם (בראשית מ"א, א) AT THE END OF TWO YEARS, IT CAME TO PASS THAT PHARAOH WAS DREAMING... (BERAISHIS 41:1) Living the Dream Yaakov's move to Egypt with his family was brought about by a series of dreams. Yosef's dreams caused his brothers to hate him and sell him as a slave, and his eventual owners brought him to Egypt. In jail in Egypt, Yosef earned fame as an interpreter of dreams, and ultimately his interpretation of Pharaoh's dreams landed him the powerful position of viceroy of Egypt. Yaakov and his family came to join him—a visit that resulted in the Jews becoming enslaved to the Egyptians for some two hundred years. The Arizal taught that all of the later exiles of the Jewish people are rooted in the original exile and servitude in Egypt. In light of the significant role that dreams played in the Egyptian exile, it follows that our current exile too is characterized by dreams. Chassidus (Torah Ohr, Vayeishev) explains that in a spiritual sense, that is exactly what galus, our exile, is: a dream. As we say in Tehillim (126:1), "היינו כחולמים—we have been like dreamers." In a dream, even obvious contradictions seem plausible. We dream about things that we've actually seen or thought about, but they appear in a context that would be contradictory in real life. Similarly, the spiritual effect of galus is that our lives are filled with contradictions. We may feel a selfless love for G-d while we pray, but all the meanwhile harbor a lust for selfish pleasures, even those contrary to G-d's will as expressed in the Torah. A life filled with such inconsistencies is but a dream... By the same token, however, we should not be discouraged by the contradictory nature of our spiritual lives while in galus, for galus shares another—and even more significant—characteristic with dreams as well. We wake from our dreams when it becomes light around us, and the same is true of galus. When we capitalize on the dreamlike nature of galus to determinedly add in the lightof Torah and mitzvos notwithstanding our flaws, we will force ourselves awake from the dream of galus to the bright world of Moshiach. —Likutei Sichos vol. 1, pp. 85-88 Sponsor a Lightpoints email ביוזמת ולזכות הרה״ח הרה״ת ר‘ ישעי‘ זושא ווילהעלם שליט״א להצלחה רבה לו ולכל משפחתו בגו״ר A project of Or Hachassidus

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These are the descendants of Yaakov

 

וַיֵּשֶׁב יַעֲקֹב . . אֵלֶּה תֹּלְדוֹת יַעֲקֹב  בראשית ל"ז, א

 Yaakov dwelt... These are the descendants of Yaakov.

 (Beraishis 37:1) 

The Torah describes Eisav's settlements and his descendants only briefly, since these were neither prized nor important enough to elaborate upon… It describes in detail Yaakov's settlements and his descendants, and all the events that brought these about, since their importance before G-d warrants dwelling upon them at length. …

This can be compared to a pearl that falls into the sand: A person searches in the sand and sifts it with a sieve until he finds the pearl. Upon finding it, he casts the pebbles from his hand and keeps the pearl. —Rashi Between Pebbles and Pearls Rashi's parable of a person searching for a pearl lost in the sand also alludes to the Jewish people's task in the lands to where we have been exiled: to sift through "the settlements of Eisav."

The search for the pearl symbolizes our mission to find the holiness—the G-dly meaning and potential—hidden within the mundane world with which we are engaged. This explains why Rashi includes a detail in the parable that seems otherwise superfluous. To illustrate that the surrounding stuff is of little value in comparison to the object of the searcher's desire, why was it necessary to note that upon finding the pearl one "casts away the pebbles"?

It is self-evident that once one has a pearl in his hands, he loses all interest in the pebbles and sand he was sifting through to find it! By mentioning this detail, however, Rashi teaches us that "casting away the pebbles" is a crucial part of our mission in Exile. In order to elevate (and be elevated by) the sparks of G-dliness found in the material world, we must be certain that what appeals to us is not "the pebbles"—the setting of physicality in which those sparks lie hidden.

Otherwise, we will be drawn in to the material world instead of drawing out its good. Only after we cast away any personal interest in "the settlements of Eisav" can we successfully extract and benefit from "the pearls," the spiritual wealth hidden therein.

 —Likkutei Sichos, vol. 15, pp. 306-307