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this work she was awarded the 2009 Nobel The role of telomeres in ageing and disease

Prize in Physiology of Medicine, shared is now scientifically validated, and advances

with Carol Greder and Jack Szoskak. Since in this field are of importance to medical

them our picture of human telomeres and researchers who are attempting to find

telomerase has sharpened considerably solutions to disease prevention as well as

bringing us closer to answers in our quest longevity.

for preventing and reversing disease and the

ageing process itself. Traditional medicine tends to look at bodily

decline through the prism of diseases of

ageing and the body's increasing

susceptibility over time to killers like Telomeres are enzymes that maintain the diabetes, heart disease and cancer. ends of our cells' chromosomes. Each time

a cell divides telomeres get shorter and It was not until the 1950s that research when they get too short the cell can no biologists began to view ageing itself as the longer make fresh copies of itself. If we disease. Later refinement of this theory live long enough the tissues and organ emphasised the role of mitochondria, the systems that depend on continued cell cellular power plant that helps convert replication begin to falter, the skin sags and glucose into energy. As the mitochondria the internal organs go slack. Furthermore, age, they spew out increasing amounts of our immune system response weakens so free radicals that hamper energy production progressively we notice that when we get and damage the entire cell, accelerating the sick we don't bounce back as quickly. decline of all our systems. Among cell biologists, these mechanisms

remain to this day the most accepted ways of explaining what's We also need to understand that telomeres are made of repeating happening and the reason that ageing manifestations happen to our sequences of six DNA bases – two thymine, one adenine, three face and body. guanine that serve to “cap” chromosomes, preventing potentially

cancerous breaks. The common analogy used to explain telomere The spotlight to this interesting field of molecular biology attracted a activity is liken to the plastic tip at the end of a shoelace that holds the lot of media attention when Professor Elizabeth Helen Blackburn, an shoelace together and prevents it from fraying and falling apart. Australian-American biological researcher at the University of Telomeres also assist cell division. Every time a cell splits, the ends of California, San Francisco who was studying telomere since 1984 its chromosome fail to get fully copied into the two new daughter discovered telomerase, the enzyme that replenishes the telomere. cells, thus a bit of telomeric DNA gets lost. No harm is done to the rest Blackburn and her colleague Carol Greder discovered the telomerase of the chromosome, but in cells that divide frequently the telomeres enzyme in a pond-scum protozoan. They noted that telomerase shorten with each replication. Telomerase's job is to synthesise new enzyme that the pond-scum was rich in were able to re-length the DNA to add to the shrinking telomeres, slowing down the decline. telomeres. This was identified as contributing to their longevity. For

WHAT ARE TELOMERES?

MAN ON A MISSIONUnlocking the molecular mechanism of ageing

By Tina Viney

scientificresearch

Dr Bill Andrews

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APJ Q2: I am familiar with Dr Elizabeth Blackburn’s

findings on telomeres and telomerase. Are you continuing

on the basis of her findings and how is your work different?

A MAN WITH A MISSION

APJ Q1: Dr Andrews, when did you start studying the

molecular mechanisms of telomeres and why?

In 1993 I heard Calvin Harley, pioneering telomere biologist, lecture

on the relevance of telomere shortening and its impact on our lifespan

and I became very excited. His theory pointed to the fact that if we

understand the rate at which telomeres shorten we can determine

fairly accurately what age we can live to. What that meant was if we

could find a solution for inducing telomere expression and

lengthening we could possibly find the cure to ageing. For as long as I

can remember I have always been interested in the cure for ageing, but

I didn't like the theories that ageing was basically affected by our

environment. What concerned me with those theories is that people

who lived in the North Pole lived as long as people in the Equator. If

environment was the determining factor how come they lived similar

length of years? However, understanding the role of telomeres gave

me hope to pursue that path in search of answers to longevity and

disease prevention and even reversal.

Yes, her work was very important. She discovered that telomeres in a

pond scum did not shorten because of the enzymatic activity of

telomerase, which re-lengthened them, so that lengthened their

lifespan. At the time her team worked with Geron Corporation and I

joined and worked with them. I led a team of scientists with the focus

on cancer, as we were looking at ways of inhibiting the enzyme that

would cure cancer. I eventually left and set up my own company,

Sierra Science, as my focus was slightly different – the cure ageing

and diseases, not just cancer. With cancer the mechanism is different.

We need to first inhibit the cancer cells so that they can die. Then we

can look at lengthening telomeres to boost the immune system to

continue to fight the cancer. Telomeres are like shoe laces – if the cap

Picking up the baton from Professor Elizabeth Helen Blackburn’s

findings, macular biologist Bill Andrews, PhD, founder of Sierra

Sciences, has committed his life to the pursuit of discovering the most

effective telomere-extending chemicals that would not only offer

solutions to disease prevention and reversal, but ultimately his aim is

to find the mechanism to extending the human lifespan. Dr Andrews

is himself a living case study, a work-in-progress and the art and

science of staying young. He runs ultra-marathons and beats other

men half his age. Committed to living out his own research findings,

human life, which stands at 125 years, to live beyond this limit for at

least another two decades. If you wish to gain some of his concepts

you can find them in his book, Curing Aging which you can access

from http://www.sierrasci.com/?p=book, which is already a best-

seller.

In February this year Dr Andrews began a series of media and live

appearances in Australia and New Zealand. In Australia he was

hosted by InSkin Cosmedics and in March he was hosted by Isagenix,

where he presenting some of views and findings.

Wishing to speak to him before the media frenzy hit him I chose to

speak to him via phone while still in his home town in Nevada, USA.

Here are some of the highlights of our conversation.

at the end gets short the laces will fall apart. One simple way to isolated 37 natural substances with significant activating capabilities

illustrate this– short kills, and long prevents. without having to purify the chemical out of the plants.

A

We were approached by a nutritional supplement company called Isagenix, who have accessed this combination of the best chemicals Not just telomeres affect ageing. Other facts such as diet, lack of from us under licence and they have produced a product called B exercise, depression, obesity and stress all contribute to free-radical IsaGenesis in supplement form, which contains our natural blend that increase and inflammation. It is interesting to note that three different has been demonstrated effective in telomerase activation. I believe studies have come out that show that we currently have a maximum the product is available in Australia.lifespan of 125. In the past we did not know why, but now we do.

What we also know is that telomeres play a great part in our health and While we are not involved in the skincare and the supplements, our longevity and the issue of telomere shortening, however, absolutely company does receive 10% royalties that goes directly to support our has to be fixed. A study in the July 7, 2010, Journal of the American on-going research. My only involvement with these companies is as Medical Association highlighted the correlation between cancer and an expert telomere biologist.short telomeres. People with shorter-than-average telomeres have

three times the risk of developing cancer and 11 times the risk of dying

from it. Unless we restore their lengthening by identifying ways to

introduce telomere-inducing substances, once our telomeres decrease

to low numbers it means for you and me we are heading for death. Imagine that your telomeres are a long rope and there is a tug-of-war

going on. There are 100 bad guys on one side and no- one on the other.

At the moment we have come up with 16 good guys pulling on the

other end. While this may not guarantee to win the battle we are At conception, telomeres have roughly 15,000 DNA base pairs. starting to make a difference. My mission is to identify and isolate Because telomerase can't keep up with rapid cell division in uteri, they

shrink to about 10,000 DNA base pairs at birth.

At that point the telomerase gene is mostly

turned off. Without the enzyme, we continue to

lose telomeric DNA – once we're out of our

teens, usually we lose at a rate of 50 base pairs a

year. By the time some of our telomeres drop

below 5000 base pairs, typically well into our

golden years, our cells may have lost their ability

to divide. They become senescent, bad at doing

the work they were designed to do, but good at

doing things like releasing inflammatory

chemicals that harm their neighbours, or they

may be targeted for cell death.

I am not a skin expert, however, in my search for

chemicals and natural substances that can be chemicals and natural substances to add to the 16 and reach 100 so that added to human cells we identified some that help induce telomerase. we can win the tug-of-war against ageing and disease by successfully We found natural products that gave us a level of success in extending lengthening our telomeres. This has been achieved in mice. We want telomerase of say 5%, but chemicals do a better job, up to 16% in the it to now happen for the benefit of humans. When we do we will be lengthening process. We were approached by a New Zealand able to help people get younger, decline and reverse their health issues skincare manufacturing company called CLEF and Rewind Youth. and even live up to 150 years. Meanwhile, the race is still on, and I am CLEF is the company in New Zealand that licensed our best chemical passionately committed to continuing my research. I believe by 2016 from us, and then modified it to make TAM-818. In 2009 they we will have a drug like this.developed a skincare product and modified it through their own

additional research apparently resulting in a fantastic product that is

reversing the signs of ageing. The product was further tested in Italy

through an independent laboratory, ABICH, who were contracted to Having just finalised his new documentary. The Immortalists, Dr Bill do the chemical study on the skin. They reported amazing results and Andrews is in high demand as a conference speaker and on chat shows currently that formula is distributed in Australia exclusively through across the globe. While in the past some of his views were considered InSkin Cosmetics and is known as TAM-818. laughable by some in the scientific community, he is slowly gaining

the respect and recognition of his peers. If nothing else they marvel at

his tenacity and respect his perseverance, awaiting with bated breath

for the outcome of his discoveries on his quest for immortality. As he

stated “The mission won't die, unless I die”.

Most definitely! We tested over 10,000 herbs and natural chemicals For details on TAM818 visit www.onetruth818.com.aufor their telomerase-activating properties and we identified and

PJ Q3: Do you believe that the length of our life is APJ Q7. Is this herbal combination available through any

telomere gene determined and can we support telomeres current product?

activation through lifestyle choices?

APJ Q8. What are your current research goals and what is

your mission?

APJ Q4: How many telomeres do we have?

APJ Q5: Tell us about the molecule TAM-

818. What is it and how can it benefit the

skin in its current serum formulation?

IN CONCLUSION

APJ Q6: Does nature have answers to this issue and are

their herbs that have been proven to have an impact on

telomerase activation?

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