#10: 🍄 Colorado Legalizes Psilocybin
Colorado becomes the second state to legalize use of psychedelic mushrooms
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🎯 Targeting Epigenetics to Reverse Aging
🍄 Colorado Legalizes Facilitated Psilocybin sessions & Decriminalizes Personal Use of Psychedelics
💻 AlphaFold and ESMFold have collectively modeled 800 million proteins
📚 Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
🎯 Targeting Epigenetics to Reverse Aging
Over 15 years ago, a team of scientists at Kyoto University in Japan, led by Dr. Shinya Yamanaka, effectively turned back the clock on aging cells using four proteins, called the Yamanaka Factors. In doing so, the group created the first-ever induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPSCs. iPSCs are a blank slate, similar to embryonic stem cells, which have the ability to become different cell types.
iPSCs are now widely used in labs around the world to study everything from cancer to Alzheimer’s disease, and have even been used to create personalized cell therapies. With this groundbreaking discovery, Dr. Shinya Yamanaka won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2012.
Now, many research groups are applying this science to aging. They are using the Yamanaka factors, plus other novel anti-aging compounds, to manipulate the epigenetics of cells to make them younger, but not completely turn them to iPSCs. Completely turning back the clock is harmful because the Yamanaka factors promote cell division, which when uncontrolled can lead to cancer.
Therefore, the desired result is a semi-reversal of the age of the cell, rather than a complete epigenetic clean slate. Scientists are calling this ‘epigenetic rejuvenation’ or ‘partial reprogramming’.
A recent study demonstrated some success in partial reprogramming in an animal model. The researchers used mice which were genetically modified to reach old age 3x faster than a normal mouse. The mice also included genetic alterations which allowed the researchers to control the expression of the Yamanaka factors when the drug doxycycline is added to the mouse’s drinking water.
The scientists induced expression of the Yamanaka factors by starting with a normal dose of doxycycline and slowly adding less and less, in order to prevent a complete epigenetic reprogramming.
The mice with induced Yamanaka Factors were healthier than the controls and lived longer. Indicating that partial epigenetic reprogramming extends healthspan and lifespan.
Who is trying to commercialize this?
1️⃣ YouthBio Therapeutics, plans to experiment with injecting gene therapies, like the Yamanaka Factors, into target organs to rejuvenate those organs.
2️⃣ Altos Labs, with more than $3 Billion (!!!) in Series A funding and Dr. Shinya Yamanaka (yes, the Yamanaka factors & Nobel-Prize winning Yamanaka) on their Scientific Advisory Board, is focused on cellular rejuvenation programming to restore cell health with the goals of reversing diseases and the human aging process. Their website is vague, but some presentations have claimed that overweight mice recovered from diabetes with their treatments, and they claim they can turn back the epigenetic clock.
3️⃣ NewLimit, founded by Crypto billionaire & Co-founder of Coinbase, Brain Armstrong, is on the mission to radically extend human healthspan by targeting epigenetics.
🍄 Colorado Legalizes Facilitated Psilocybin Sessions & Decriminalizes Personal Use Of Psychedelics
On November 8, Colorado voters passed Proposition 122, the Natural Medicine Health Act. It passed by a narrow margin of 51% allowing Colorado to be the second state in the U.S to legalize the use of psilocybin mushrooms.
The measure will allow people 21 and older to grow and share psychedelic mushrooms without the legal repercussions, as well as create state-regulated centers where people can take psilocybin in a supervised setting. However for now, the measure does not include the option for retail sale of psilocybin, and sale of psychedelics is still illegal.
Proposition 122 will also allow state-regulated facilities to expand to three plant-based psychedelics in 2026, including ibogaine, mescaline and DMT. Mental health centers and substance abuse treatment clinics could seek licenses to offer psychedelic treatment.
This proposition follows a decade of gradual drug policy reform in Colorado. Ten years ago, Colorado legalized the use and sale of marijuana, and three years ago Denver residents voted to decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms.
Regulated access to psilocybin is planned to become available in late 2024, with expansion to other plant-based psychedelics in 2026.
💻 AlphaFold and ESMFold have collectively modeled 800 million proteins
After the human genome was cracked, the next code to crack was protein folding.
Our DNA codes for RNA which then codes for amino acid sequences which make proteins. Proteins do not exist as a long string of amino acids, but rather they fold in specific ways, and the dynamics of how that protein is folded contributes to its functionality.
Earlier this year, Google-owned London-based artificial intelligence (AI) company, DeepMind, announced it could predict the structures of 200 million proteins using the tool AlphaFold. Boasting that the AI could predict the shape of “the entire protein universe.”
Now, Meta (formerly Facebook), announced on November 1, 2022 that they used AI to predict structures of 600 million proteins from microorganisms.
The way scientists describe sequences of proteins is by using letters to represent each of the 20 amino acids (i.e. K = Lys = Lysine). Meta’s AI uses a type of AI that can predict text from a few letters or words. The AI was trained on sequences of proteins and then learnt where to fill in the blanks, essentially working as a protein ‘autocorrect’.
Meta’s AI is called ESMFold and it is 60x faster at structure prediction than AlphaFold, but it lacks the accuracy of AlphaFold.
Meta used ESMFold on DNA from environmental samples, such as soil and seawater, which is filled with DNA from microorganisms. With these so called ‘metagenomic’ samples, they were able to model 600 million proteins, many that are new and previously unknown.
📚 Book of the Week
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. Another book where you wish the story wasn’t fiction.
The main character is a chemist in the 1960s who finds herself kicked out of her academic laboratory by a senior scientist who took credit for her work, and suddenly the host of a live TV cooking show where she teaches America the chemistry of cooking.
It’s hilarious, inspiring and joyful. I particularly loved that the main character is a woman in STEM.
⚡️ Check this out
LEX the AI-Content Generator. Watch the demo video. I just got off the waitlist last week and have been using the tool to spark ideas when I hit writer’s block. It is incredible.
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The company I work for and Altos Lab are in the same complex in Redwood City!!