229 replies to this topic

[Mind]

If you are shipping from within the U.S. to Arizona, I don't think there will be much trouble. Shipping international may have more regulations.

[JonesGuy]

I put my sample in the mail on November 28, 2005. The post office looked through the regulations, and I had to attest that the soil sample was not suspected to contain anything harmful. I also had to mark on the envelope that it contained soil. I expect no trouble.

US Customs, OTOH ... I don't know how that will work.

[kali_ma]

Congratulations on the $50,000 dollar donation to Lyso-SENS. I can only imagine how this will help the cause, heres to many more donations.

[Da55id]

you can go to Aubrey de Grey SENS website and satisfy your imagination :-)

[olaf.larsson]

My Congratulations!!!!! [lol] [lol] [lol]

[randolfe]

What about the age of graveyards? There are a lot of abandoned ones all over the place. Would an old abandoned graveyard be as good as one more recent?

Also, have you considered getting samples where there were lots of human remains--like in the killing fields of Cambodia of near the mass graves of Iraq?

I guess I don't understand the way bacteria or whatever move around. Wouldn't dirt from near shallow recent graves be the best?

[Mind]

Recent graves would have a lot of bacteria that feed off of easily digestible parts of the body. The bacteria that are coveted are ones that would digest the leftover junk/plaques/aggragates that more common bacteria do not. It would be best to avoid all gravesites. It would be very bad publicity.

[JonesGuy]

As well, I am quite sure that bodies rot underground due to contamination from before they're buried. It's gotta be quite sterile down there, relatively.

[John Schloendorn]

Thanks for sending, I'll let you know when I get something.

Oh they do move around with water, wind or sometimes nobody even knows how or why and suddenly you find a clone on the other side of the planet.

Also, I don't think living people are contaminated with many specialized degraders of age-related aggregates, or we would not have the problem in the first place. (Though possibly with potential ones that prefer feed on something more juicy while in the body)

Mass graves - like I said above, we don't know when the things we are interested in get degraded, so I prefer sites with continous or regular decomposition.

But in general, these things have not been tested, and so your intuition is as good as mine. Let's try as many diverse sources as we possibly can. There is indeed no compelling reason to over-represent graveyards.

[John Schloendorn]

Also, if you like to collaborate in other ways, please get in touch with me. There are opportunities to put skills in sequence bioinformatics and/or synthetic organic chemistry to good use.

[olaf.larsson]

The identification of the organism degrading the substance could be important for the evaluation of what possibilites there are to identify the gene. There could for example be a possibility that a close relative of the microorganism allready has been sequenced which would make the genehunt allot more easy.

Specialy to John Schloendorn: I see that I got a mail from you, thank you. I will respond when I have read it in details.

Edited by wolfram, 04 December 2005 - 11:44 PM.

[John Schloendorn]

I completely agree, and we are working on that. Which is just another reason I sent you that email ;-)

[guybryant]

Hello John,
I'm a cave diver in the south Georgia, North Florida area. When scuba diving in caves I see many areas of bacterial mats in some of the caves I dive. Many of the systems also have sink holes tied to them that allow organic matter to seep into the caves. There are lots of areas of silt which may contain bacteria of interest. If you have any interest in samples from underwater caves I'll be happy to send them to you. Is there any particular packaging requirements for underwater samples? Let me know and I'll do what I can.

[John Schloendorn]

Hey Guybryant,
Sounds great, I was waiting for someone to come up with underwater samples to add more diversity. I think such a sink hole thingy should definitely be worth going for. You might not want to take whole chunks of a mat though, since these mats tend to be dominated by single species and one cell of a kind is in theory sufficient. So you might get more diversity by including some of the better mixed creatures floating freely in the cave water, or small solid samples from different locations.

Just put them in some screwcap bottle or just anything that keeps them from leaking really.

Have a great time down there!

[John Schloendorn]

I just got the first sample from QJones (Canada). It's in great shape and no customs problems whatsoever. Many thanks! Everyone here looks at me like I'm crazy being so happy about a piece of dirt in the mail...

[JonesGuy]

And I didn't even send chocolates! (Didn't want to tempt customs)

[John Schloendorn]

Bah, excuses... ;-)

[JonesGuy]

How many total samples are you looking for?

[John Schloendorn]

Like I said above, I can process at least several dozens as soon as I get them. I will of course let you all know, if that should become anywhere near satisfied.

[JonesGuy]

John, I just had a crazy idea, and I don't have any idea regarding it's validity or viability. But ehn, people can think about it using spare thought-time.

These compounds you describe: are they unique to brain plaques (in the brain)?

If so: might there be a radiative wavelength that would destroy these compounds, with a low incidence of affecting other brain molecules?

I have no idea, and it certainly isn't a cure (since it actually would affect other molecules, but hopefully in lesser degrees), but it could be a stop-gap while researching for an actual cure.

[John Schloendorn]

I'm afraid no... There is just so incredibly much different stuff in the body that you will always find something important that absorbs a the same wavelength. We will need enzyme specificity there. But thanks for thinking about it!

[John Schloendorn]

Just a brief status update -- we gratefully acknowledge the receipt of a small number of donated samples and they are now shaking in 7KC cultures, which are being monitored for bacterial growth and 7KC degradation every other day. It is too early to tell the result though.

It is now clear that we can scale these processes up much more, so you still have the chance to contribute the unique microbial ecology of your area. Without your help, there is no way we could ever incorporate your local bacterial strains in this project. So please continue to send us samples, they will be most gratefully received at any time during the next couple of months. If we find something you all will get proper credit in a publication and in fact I would love to demonstrate to the science world just how great the public support for SENS projects is with a long list of soil donors. So everyone who has not done so, please do contribute.

[guybryant]

John,
I went cave diving yesterday in north Florida in a Spring called Devil's Eye Spring. It is near the town of High Springs, FL. I went back about 2200ft in the cave system and took a water and a soil sample. On the way out of the cave I lost the soil sample. I mailed the water sample to you today. I'll be diving again in a couple of weeks or so (at a different location) and will try collecting water and soil samples again. Hope you receive the sample soon and find something in it worthwhile.
Guy

[John Schloendorn]

Awesome, despite the losses, the water sample will be a great asset. Many thanks Guy!

[jrhall]

Hi John,

Sorry it took so long, but I finally sent off three soil samples for you. They should arrive next week.

Jeff

[John Schloendorn]

Great, thanks Jeff! They will be put into screening at once.

[Bruce Klein]

John,

I've just mailed you two samples from N. Bethesda, MD.

Best of luck,

Bruce

[John Schloendorn]

Thanks Bruce! I would never have thought that
- I would get so many christmas presents
- nearly all would be dirt
- I would be completely happy about it

[guybryant]

John,
I will be diving 3 seperate cave systems this week. Are you still collecting samples for bacteria? For some reason I seem to remember there was a cut off date. If you still want water/silt samples from underwater caves I'll collect them and send them your way this week.
Guy

[John Schloendorn]

Guy, and All,
There is no cutoff anytime soon. I will be adding new target substances as I go, and also occasionally try to surpass previous findings if sufficient samples are available. So new samples are most welcome and will be productively used throughout this project (i.e. at least until summer this year).