Blog Comments

Kinetica Online is pleased to provide direct links to commentaries from our senior editor Dr. Steven Pelech has posted on other blogs sites. Most of these comments appear on the GenomeWeb Daily Scan website, which in turn highlight interesting blogs that have been posted at numerous sites in the blogosphere since the beginning of 2010. A wide variety of topical subjects are covered ranging from the latest scientific breakthroughs, research trends, politics and career advice. The original blogs and Dr. Pelech’s comments are summarized here under the title of the original blog. Should viewers wish to add to these discussions, they should add their comments at the original blog sites.

The views expressed by Dr. Pelech do not necessarily reflect those of the other management and staff at Kinexus Bioinformatics Corporation. However, we wish to encourage healthy debate that might spur improvements in how biomedical research is supported and conducted.

Elizabeth Blackburn

What Do Your Telomeres Say About You?

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

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...