Immortalization

There are those who say nowadays that Gibbs s papers, including his immortal paper on heterogeneous equilibria, present no particular difficulties to the reader. 

ITowever, most normal somatic cells lack telomerase. Consequently, upon every cycle of cell division when the cell replicates its DNA, about 50-nucleotide portions are lost from the end of each telomere. Thus, over time, the telomeres of somatic cells in animals become shorter and shorter, eventually leading to chromosome instability and cell death. This phenomenon has led some scientists to espouse a telomere theory of aging that implicates telomere shortening as the principal factor in cell, tissue, and even organism aging. Interestingly, cancer cells appear immortal because they continue to reproduce indefinitely. A survey of 20 different tumor types by Geron Corporation of Menlo Park, California, revealed that all contained telomerase activity. 

None of Einstein s first four papers published between 1901 and 1904 foreshadowed his explosive creativity of 1905, his annus mirabilis, in which he produced in March, his proposal of the existence of light quanta and the photoelectric effect, work for which in 1922 he received the Nobel Prize in April, a paper on the determination of molecular dimensions, which earned him his Ph.D. m Zurich m May, his theory of special relativity in September, a sequel to the preceding paper containing the relation E = mc. Any one of these papers would have made him greatly renowned their totality made him immortal. 

What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry ... 

Monoclonal antibodies are derived from a single, monospecific B cell clone. Monoclonal antibodies can be obtained from hybridoma cells that result from the fusion of antibody-producing B cells with immortal cells of a myeloma cell line. 

For Further Reading D. Harman, The aging process, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 78 (2004), 7124. C. Goldberg, The quest for immortality Science at the frontiers of aging, Science News, 162 (August 31, 2002), 143. 

Fig. 14 Effect of the molecular weight of tamarind seed xyloglucan depolymerized by ( ) 7-irradiation, ( ) ultrasonication, and ( ) endo-glucanase treatment on the production of various cytokines (Tumor necrosis factor a, TNE-a Interleukin 8, IL-8 Interleukin 10, IL-10 and Interleukin 12, IL-12) in HaCaT cells (Immortalized keratinocytes line) [301]...

Figure 3. Growth phases of short-term cultures. Upon initiation of short-term cultures, growth rapidly increases (Phase 1). A stable growth rate is maintained for a defined number of passages (Phase 2). Finally, most cells undergo a crisis of senescence and ultimately die (Phase 3). In some cases immortal cell lines are established.

Occasionally, some of the animal cells in short-term cultures do not die, but instead survive indefinitely. These types of animal cell cultures, which can divide indefinitely, are called established cell lines. Established animal cell lines have been obtained from both normal and tumorigenic cells. Immortalized animal cell lines have also been successfully obtained from short-term cultures following their transformation with appropriate oncogenes. 

Shammas M.A., Simmons C.G., Corey D.R., Reis R.J.S. Telomerase inhibition by peptide nucleic acids reverses immortality of transformed human cells. Oncogene 1999 18 6191-6200... 

Herbert B. S., Pitts A. E., Baker S. I., Hamilton S. E., Wright W. E., Shay J.W., Corey D.R. Inhibition of human telomerase in immortal human cells leads to progressive telomere shortening and cell death. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 1999 96 14276-14281. 

A porphinatoaluminum alkoxide is reported to be a superior initiator of c-caprolactone polymerization (44,45). A living polymer with a narrow molecular weight distribution (M /Mjj = 1.08) is ob-tmned under conditions of high conversion, in part because steric hindrance at the catalyst site reduces intra- and intermolecular transesterification. Treatment with alcohols does not quench the catalytic activity although methanol serves as a coinitiator in the presence of the aluminum species. The immortal nature of the system has been demonstrated by preparation of an AB block copolymer with ethylene oxide. The order of reactivity is e-lactone > p-lactone. 

Endo, M., Aida, T., and Inoue, S., Immortal polymerization of e-caprolactone initiated by aluminum porphyrin in the presence of alcohol. Macromolecules, 20, 2982-2988, 1987. 

Christ in glory was the proto-type for perfected human flesh. This idea parallels the Galenic theory of balancing the bodily humours in a perfectly tempered body. Schwenckfeld, however, did not envisage perfection in these medical terms, but in that of an immortal body, divinely illuminated by Christ s sacrifice. The existence of Christ s glorified, but human body on earth testified that humans are not in essence natural bodies, but that their true form is that of Christ. In this argument, Schwenckfeld was relying on Paul s problematic account of the risen body. ... 

Michelspacher s title-page is not, in fact, a monument to empirical learning, but takes the form of a memento mori. Far from applauding the new Renaissance humanism, on the contrary, he employs the science of anatomy as a metaphor to demonstrate the futility of rational knowledge in the face of death and decay.The prospect of immortality is available only to those who seek an intuitive Gnosis, a divine epiphany concerning God s work in Nature. 

The major advances in crystallographic methods were both experimental and theoretical. In experimental terms, there was widespread availability of synchrotron data collection resources and the emergence of CCD detectors that dramatically increased the speed at which data could be collected. A particularly important advance was the development of cryocrystallography methods [39] that revolutionized crystallography by making crystals essentially immortal. 

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