Lecture 5

Question 1

Trajectory

Answer 1

• Growth, development, and aging
• Years, decades

Question 2

Rhythms

Answer 2

• Maintenance/repair, other processes
• Days, weeks, months

Question 3

Homeostasis or balance

Answer 3

• Maintenance of steady state
  -Seconds, minutes, hours

Question 4

Energy and information flow

Answer 4

• Action potentials, enzymatic reactions
• Milliseconds, microseconds

Question 5

Maximizing health span v.s lifespan

Answer 5

ie a cancer patient choosing to live for 2 years with aggressive treatment (cant live a normal life) or choosing to live 6 months happily

Question 6

How do we track disease processes

Answer 6

• We can find things to measure objectively, then track the aging/disease process
• These are called “biomarkers”, or indicators of the biological state of the organism

Question 7

Requirements of biomarkers

Answer 7

• Reflect normal (healthy) function or disease processes or predict the risk of future development of disease
• Have a predictable rage across an identifiable category of individuals or must be routinely monitored overtime within each individual
• Have methods available for accurate and precise measurement

Question 8

Will there be a new era in biomarkers

Answer 8

1. Networks within organs are perturbed during disease states
2. Panels of blood markers (proteins, RNA’s metabolites) provide assessment of perturbed networks and the organs