Interesting research

Today Benjamin Kile was awarded the Science Minister's prize for Life Scientist of the Year (Aust.) for his work at the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research, Melbourne.

He discovered why platelets have such a short life - they are actually programmed to die, with a molecular clock counting down, which is able to be sped up or down in mice.

mj

That is interesting! Has a paper been published? I'd love to read it!

Found it!

Blood. 2010 Sep 9;116(10):1776-8. Epub 2010 Jun 7.

Platelet senescence is regulated by an internal timer, not damage inflicted by hits.
Dowling MR, Josefsson EC, Henley KJ, Hodgkin PD, Kile BT.

Immunology Division, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Parkville, Australia.

Abstract
The mechanisms responsible for the brief life span of blood platelets have been a subject of speculation since the 1950s. The most popular hypothesis to date has been the "multiple-hit" model, whereby damage inflicted by external "hits" triggers recognition and clearance by the reticuloendothelial system. Recently, it was demonstrated that platelets contain an apoptotic pathway that mediates their survival in vivo. Using a novel labeling technique to measure population and cohort survival in mice carrying mutations in this pathway, combined with mathematical modeling, we have studied the internal and external control of platelet fate. Our results cast doubt on the veracity of the multiple-hit model. An alternative model, under which platelets are born with an internal "timer," provides a more parsimonious interpretation of the data. Thus, at steady state, platelet senescence is probably the product of internal processes rather than external hits.

Wow!

Very reticuloendothelial apoptotic cohort veracity parsimonious interpretation senescence!

wow..that's gonna take some research!

Tad - say that 3 times real fast!

Don't you love academese? Why use a short word when you can use a long one?

Lily