>Sometimes I wonder why I bother trying to raise the standard of scientific
>analysis here. Tom provides no references for his assertion, then William
>accepts it utterly uncritically, yet Tom makes no further comment. If such
>seasoned participants in the group remain so unable to learn how science
>works, I have very little hope for the lurkers.
First of all, it feels good to be called a seasoned participant! :-)
Ok. Thanks for the comments. Even though Tom always seems to have
abstracts to back up his statements, I will ask him if he has any
references for the immortalization of mouse cells by the insertion of
the telomerase gene.
(Tom, do you have any references for the immortalization of mouse
cells by the insertion of the telomerase gene?)
>As it happens, the mouse telomerase catalytic component was cloned much
>more recently than the human one (Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1998 Sep 1;
>95(18):10471-10476). It has not, to my knowledge, yet been shown to
>immortalise mouse cells of any kind. Such a result would be extremely
>interesting, since mice's long telomeres but rapid cellular senescence
>predict otherwise; thus I would have thought that Tom would have told
>us where it was reported if he knows.
Hopefully, Tom will be able to provide us with an abstract that
clearly indicates that the insertion of the telomerase gene into mice
cells immortalizes them.
If it has not been proven that the mouse version of the telomerase
gene can immortalize their cells, then I think we need to some
research IMMEDIATELY to find out whether or not the telomerase gene
can immortalize the cells of mice.
In my opinion, if we can prove that the telomerase gene can indeed
immortalize mouse cells even though they already have long telomeres,
it would be a boost for the telomeric theory of aging (or at least
that telomere shortening is SOMEHOW involved in the aging process, at
least in mice).
>Tom and William: please reflect on the above as a basis for my repeated
>entreaties to be only as authoritative as one can rigorously justify.
Thanks for the suggestion, but I am quite confident that Tom will be
able to provide us with documentation for his statement.
I will try to be more scientific from now on.
Thanks for all of you recent posts to this board, I really like
discussion.
Live Long and Prosper and have a great day.
Best Regards,
William
>>Aubrey de Grey
