Word: smith
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...work. For many years the biggest debate was whether the aging of cells, or senescence, is driven by hostile elements in the environment or is dictated by genes. Nowadays there is little doubt that both elements are at play. "You have genetics overlaid by environmental factors," says Dr. James Smith, co-chairman of the Huffington Center on Aging at Houston's Baylor College of Medicine. "There's something going on inside the human body to determine a maximum possible life-span of 115 to 120 years. There's a limit--but we have no idea what defines...
...process is disrupted, as commonly happens in old cells, problems like osteoporosis and immunological failure set in. Conversely, so-called immortal cells that continue to divide past their allotted count turn cancerous and can proliferate indefinitely. "We'd be in worse shape if cells didn't undergo senescence," says Smith, who studies the aging of cells. "In that case, we might have cancers earlier and more frequently...
...place at the cellular level, and if cells did not grow old, biological aging might be slowed. But what drives the process? Why do some cells accumulate dysfunction with time? And can that dysfunction be prevented or slowed? Before those questions can be answered, cautions Baylor professor Olivia Pereira-Smith, who researches the genetics of aging, "we have to find the genes first...
...esoteric and complicated as some of this may be at this stage of exploration, the end goal is abundantly clear: intervening sufficiently in the aging process to improve the quality of the later years and perhaps even extend them. "Ultimately," says Smith, "we'd like to be able to design drugs that have an effect on disabling processes...
...ADAM SMITH Democrat--Washington 9th A moderate candidate in a centrist district, Smith was the third Democratic pickup in Washington this fall. He did it by painting incumbent Randy Tate as a Gingrich crony...