4 replies to this topic

[thelongevityrevolution.tv]

Can anyone please help advise where I can find equipment for telomere measurement and what qualifications the personnel that I need to recruit would need to do this.

I wish to fund and set up a service (professional to professional not for consumers) in the UK but so far I can only find this service in the USA.

I understand that real time qPCR is the best and most up to date method. Any advice welcome.

[Elus]

Can anyone please help advise where I can find equipment for telomere measurement and what qualifications the personnel that I need to recruit would need to do this.

I wish to fund and set up a service (professional to professional not for consumers) in the UK but so far I can only find this service in the USA.

I understand that real time qPCR is the best and most up to date method. Any advice welcome.

If I'm not mistaken telomere length has not been shown to reflect age in any study I've seen. Lengthening telomeres has also not been shown to reverse any signs of aging.

Any studies that say otherwise may be posted here, but I am not aware of them.

[niner]

If I'm not mistaken telomere length has not been shown to reflect age in any study I've seen. Lengthening telomeres has also not been shown to reverse any signs of aging.

Any studies that say otherwise may be posted here, but I am not aware of them.

There is a wealth of evidence that telomere length is important in aging and various diseases. There has been some great work done in this area, and a very exciting paper just came out. We've been discussing this for ages in this thread.

[Elus]

If I'm not mistaken telomere length has not been shown to reflect age in any study I've seen. Lengthening telomeres has also not been shown to reverse any signs of aging.

Any studies that say otherwise may be posted here, but I am not aware of them.

There is a wealth of evidence that telomere length is important in aging and various diseases. There has been some great work done in this area, and a very exciting paper just came out. We've been discussing this for ages in this thread.

Thanks, Niner! I will check it out.

[1101]

@Elus
The 2009 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine was awarded for relating age and telomeres:
http://nobelprize.or...laureates/2009/

So it is safe to say the two are related.

@improvelifespan

qPCR stands for quantitative polymerase chain reaction (usually just called PCR). It does not "measure" telomere length or telomerase activity. PCR essentially allows you to copy a gene several times over. This way you can take a small sample of the gene and get as many samples of it as you could possibly need. Also I don't think there is such a thing as real-time PCR. I mean you can do it fairly quickly depending on the length of DNA you want to copy (it usually it takes between 1-2 hours for single genes or simple plasmids) but I wouldn't call it "real-time". Now to measure telomere length you would probably need an electron microscope and someone who knows how to use it. You might also be able to use the Sanger method of DNA sequencing and simply count the repeating sequences of TTAGGG. You would need A LOT of equipment to do this on any sort of reasonable timescale though, but then again you wouldn't need to sequence the entire genome either. If you want to measure telomerase activity you would simply need someone skilled in electrophoresis and chromatography. Such a person could compare activity in the test organism with the control. They would basically break open both organisms cells run it through chromatography to purify it and compare the concentrations. Really any kind of degree in biochemistry, biology, biophysics, or just about bio anything and some lab experience would qualify people for this kind of work. Though it might be harder to find people who know how to use an electron microscope.

Edited by 1101, 16 November 2010 - 07:50 AM.