X-Message-Number: 8142
Date: Sat, 26 Apr 1997 09:42:49 -0700 (PDT)
From: Doug Skrecky <>
Subject: CRYONICS fly talk

In  Message #8137  wrote:
> 
> Thanks for Doug Skrecky's work with the flies.
> 
> If his work would be speeded by financial help for facilities/labor, some of
> us would be glad to help, with minimal red tape.
> 
Thanks for the offer. At present I am well able to finance my own fly
experiments. However there is at least one other person who intends to
start his own fly experiments later this year, who being a student is not
so well endowed. I will talk to him and get back to you on this matter. 

In  Message #8140, Pedro <> wrote:
> Hi!
> I'm new to this mailing list and I was wondering, exacly what are you
> doing Mr. or Dr. Doug Skrecky? 
>        Goodbye and thank you for your attention...
> 
  It's just plain Mr. I'm trying to do my little bit to help kick start
the life extension movement. As things stand now we all stand a good
chance of missing out on the future medical advances which will
dramatically extend human life span. These breakthroughs will likely occur
too late to help us much if at all. It doesn't need to be this way. I'm
going to prove it by doubling fly life span for starters.
  Traditionally mice and rats have been used to test various anti-aging
supplements. The assumption made is that what helps rodents live longer
might help humans live longer. However experiments with mice and rats are
very expensive. A cheap screening procedure to narrow down the thousands
of supplements available to a few dozen of the most promising ones would
be helpful. For example when my fly experiments find some supplements
that can double fly life span, these could then all be tested in rodents.
If even ONE of these is then found to double rodent life span as well,
this would be to quote Spock, "fascinating".
  Speculation: There's at least a slim chance that melatonin might be one
of these. Melatonin has modestly extended life span in the 6 strains of
rodents it has been tested in. However only small doses were used and no
dose/response data is available. In the May 1997 issue of Life extension
magasine it was reported that Dr. Roman Rozencwaig doubled the life span
of rotifiers using melatonin. This is by far the most extreme extension
even obtained with rotifiers. In my next (third) run I will be testing
various dosages of melatonin in my flies. I will have more to say on this
later.

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