Life Lines by Dr. Dolittle

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Archive for March 2022

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Hurray for Experimental Biology 2022!!

It is that time of the year again…I am so excited to be attending the upcoming Experimental Biology conference! This year’s program is packed with interesting Comparative Physiology sessions including the August Krogh Distinguished Lecture which will be given by Dr. Patricia Schulte from the University of British Columbia. Her lecture is titled, “Physiology in the Anthropocene: Insights from Intraspecific Variation in Response to Environmental Stressors.” Other seminars will include […]

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Hibernation slows down aging

I don’t know about you, but when I see an article claiming to be able to explain “The Biology of Beauty Sleep”, I simply have to read it. Clicking on the title brought me to a news article from the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution that featured a recent study examining the idea of how sleep impacts aging. The burning question of course is whether or not there is any […]

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Understanding genetic factors contributing to COPD

According to a study published in the American Journal of Physiology – Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, we have a lot in common with fruit flies when it comes to the layer of cells that line our airways. So much so, that researchers claim Drosophila melanogaster are important models for lung diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). COPD is a debilitating disease that claimed the lives of over […]

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Tips to avoiding blood clots and improving blood storage for transfusions

Hibernating mammals are amazing! How in the world do they prevent blood clots when they not only reduce their body temperature but also their blood flow during hibernation? That question is precisely what a new study published in Physiological Genomics examined.   Typically, cold temperatures are known to activate the process of blood clotting by stimulating platelets. Platelets are sticky cells without a nucleus that circulate in the blood. When […]

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