EL PAÍS

100 experts were unable to agree on whether aging is an illness, or when it begins

Jesús Méndez González — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 04:00:00 +0000

What exactly is aging? The question seems obvious, but perhaps it’s not, given that the organizers of a large scientific conference on the subject decided to pose the query to participating experts. After a week of dozens of presentations and talks during the Gordon Research Conference in Newry, Maine, 103 attendees responded to this and eight other questions that looked to gauge consensus within the industry. They received up to 10 different kinds of answers, of which the most popular was returned by just 30% of respondents. In reality, none of their study’s nine questions — which included what causes aging, when it starts and what constitutes rejuvenation — received an answer with more than 50% support from respondents. Consensus proved so elusive that respondents weren’t even in agreement on whether it was necessary in the first place.

Seguir leyendo

New inheritance mechanism unrelated to DNA is discovered by chance

Jesús Méndez González — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 15:26:04 +0000

Many of the greatest discoveries have come through chance, although serendipity generally goes to those who work for it. Matthew Eroglu and his research group at the University of Toronto were beginning to study cancer signalling pathways when something strange happened that turned the whole focus of the research on its head. The worms they were using, normally hermaphrodites that reproduce without difficulty, began to become more feminine with each generation until they ended up being sterile. Surprised at something they had never seen before, they shifted all their efforts “to investigate what was causing this inherited effect,” explains Eroglu.

Seguir leyendo

Nicholas McGranahan, researcher: ‘If we don’t consider the theory of evolution when it comes to cancer, we’re bound to fail’

Jesús Méndez González — Sun, 15 Dec 2024 04:30:00 +0000

When Darwin wrote On the Origin of Species, he wasn’t thinking about cancer, but in a way, his theory of evolution does take it into account. At the end of the day, cellular tumors, just like living beings, also fight to survive, undergo changes and pass them onto their offspring. Beginning a few years ago, many studies have been dedicated to exploring tumors as an evolutionary process, and have produced explanations for why no two tumors are alike, how they can transform to the point of metastasis, and why they generate mutations that can make them resistant to treatment. These investigations attempt to reconstruct the tumor’s past to predict their future, and in so doing, improve prognoses and design more effective treatments.

Seguir leyendo

A million-dollar project against familial cancer aims to take thousands of people out of the ‘genetic purgatory’

Jesús Méndez González — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 23:28:53 +0000

“‘Fear’ is not the word I’d use to describe my feelings,” says Carlos Róspide, “but there is an anxiety. You’re always on the watch for something. You hope it doesn’t happen, but you know it can.” At the age of 60, two months before retiring, Róspide was diagnosed with breast cancer. That was the first in a list of bad news. Shortly afterward, he was diagnosed with kidney cancer. Then, prostate. Meanwhile, three of his five siblings were facing similar situations: one of his brothers was treated for a tumor in his appendix, another developed prostate cancer and his sister was found to have breast cancer.

Seguir leyendo

Sheena Josselyn, neuroscientist: ‘Eliminating a memory is fairly simple, once you have the right tools’

Jesús Méndez González — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 06:30:00 +0000

She thought she wanted to be like the FBI agent played by Jodie Foster in The Silence of the Lambs. Instead, she has spent decades in a laboratory, studying how memories are made. Sheena Josselyn is a researcher at The Hospital for Sick Children, a professor at the University of Toronto and holds a Canada Research Chair in Brain Mechanisms Underlying Memory, among other positions. She was recently in Barcelona, Spain, where she presented the keynote lecture of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology congress before more than a thousand people. Her talk was titled “Making and breaking memories,” something her research group has managed to do in mice.

Seguir leyendo