The 1999 Crafoord Prize lectures. The Tithonus error in modern gerontology

Tithonus asked Aurora for eternal life, when he meant eternal youth. Modern gerontological research makes the same mistake in its preoccupation with death, as if it were a programmed event in an organism's life history. Gerontology ought instead to investigate senescence, the decreasing effectiveness of mechanisms by which adult organisms avoid death or loss of fitness. Such studies should measure rates of decline in a diversity of adaptations and compare them within and between individuals and relate these rates and their correlations to genetic and environmental factors. The death of a studied organism must necessarily end its usefulness in providing valuable data. It is of little scientific significance.     

Rejuvenating exhausted T cells during chronic viral infection

In a recent paper in Nature, show that the immunoreceptor PD-1 is upregulated by "exhausted" T cells during the chronic phase of viral infection in mice. Remarkably, blocking the interaction between PD-1 and its ligand, PD-L1, reactivates these T cells and reduces viral load.     

Rejuvenating regeneration: Metformin activates endogenous adult stem cells

Comment on: Wang J, et al. Cell Stem Cell 2012; 11:23-35.     

Rejuvenating rice proteomics: facts, challenges, and visions

Proteomics is progressing at an unprecedented pace, as can be exemplified by the progress in model organisms such as yeast, bacteria, and mammals. Proteomics research in plants, however, has not progressed at the same pace. Unscrambling of the genome sequences of the dicotyledoneous Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) and monocotyledoneous rice (Oryza sativa L.) plant species, respectively, has made them accessible reference organisms to study plant proteomics. Study of these two reference plants is expected to unravel the mystery of plant biology. Rice, a critically important food crop on the earth, has been termed a "cornerstone" and the "Rosetta stone" for functional genomics of cereal crops. Here, we look at the progress in unraveling rice proteomes and present the facts, challenges, and vision. The text is divided into two major parts: the first part presents the facts and the second part discusses the challenges and vision. The facts include the technology and its use in developing proteomes, which have been critically and constructively reviewed. The challenges and vision deal with the establishment of technologies to exhaustively investigate the protein components of a proteome, to generate high-resolution gel-based reference maps, and to give rice proteomics a functional dimension by studying PTMs and isolation of multiprotein complexes. Finally, we direct a vision on rice proteomics. This is our third review in series on rice proteomics, which aims to stimulate an objective discussion among rice researchers and to understand the necessity and impact of unraveling rice proteomes to their full potential.