Sable Systems International 🐭🐀🧝🏼‍♀️

Thoughts, visions & revisions from John Lighton PhD, president & CIO of Sable Systems International (=the world's most advanced metabolic measurement systems)

[Norn Group @NornGroup]

Some ideas that could transform longevity go unfunded because they’re too early for government funding or VC.

Through @impetusgrants, we give scientists fast grants of up to $500,000 to pursue these breakthrough projects.

We’ve deployed $34M across 146 projects, with just 1.1% overhead. We make funding decisions within three weeks, at least 14× faster than the NIH’s award timeline.

So far: 240+ Impetus-supported publications, from aging clocks to clinical trials. A few examples:

Biomarkers for faster aging drugs
We’ve supported multiple projects on what we believe is longevity’s top priority: speeding up the cycle of drug discovery and testing. These include Raghav Sehgal and colleagues’ “Systems Age,” a single blood test capturing how 11 physiological systems age at different rates, and TranslAGE, a platform for the systematic validation of epigenetic clocks. https://t.co/YQtPPdGGDg https://t.co/pBNifUHBsN

CAR-T immunotherapies: from cancer to aging
Corina Amor’s team used CAR-T therapies to clear senescent cells, a major contributor to age-related dysfunction. Her team’s CAR-T cells improved glucose control, exercise capacity and intestinal regeneration in mice. Impetus was the lab’s first grant. https://t.co/pGO772Xxcz https://t.co/lPqzgxT4dU

DNA repair in the world’s longest-lived mammal
Bowhead whales can live for over 200 years. We supported Vera Gorbunova’s team, which found that increasing the whale protein CIRBP in cultured human cells improved DNA repair and reduced chromosome damage. In fruit flies, it extended lifespan and increased resistance to radiation damage. https://t.co/uvlWqnpfMD

Large open datasets mapping how the body ages
Junyue Cao’s team built PanSci, which profiles 21.8 million mouse cells across 14 organs, revealing which cell populations expand or decline with age. It was the largest single-cell atlas of mammalian aging at publication. A follow-up atlas spans 21 mouse tissues, mapping changes in cell populations and gene regulation. https://t.co/cAEBrT29Qu https://t.co/UeoinlcHSn

Genetic clues to disease vulnerability
Ryan Dhindsa’s team identified rare variants disrupting ITSN1 that were associated with roughly tenfold higher odds of Parkinson’s disease. Follow-up experiments in a fly model showed that loss of the gene worsened neuronal damage and movement problems. The team also identified genetic variants associated with persistent Epstein–Barr virus DNA in the blood, pointing to differences in how the immune system recognises the virus. https://t.co/HCWfe7zyzi https://t.co/XwhkjU0uZ2

We aim to seed ideas that grow into new research areas and paths toward treatments, and bring exceptional scientists into aging who might otherwise work elsewhere.

https://t.co/Sm9272AzdY

[Sable Systems International 🐭🐀🧝🏼‍♀️ @SableSys]

@EduOrtegaIbarra Aaaaaaarrrrrggghhhhhh 💀

[Lakota Man @LakotaMan1]

Canada and Mexico sent water dropping aircraft to help fight fires raging in California.

Our bordering friends coming to our rescue despite Trump’s attempt to vilify them.

Thank you Canada and Mexico. 🇨🇦🇲🇽

[ꜱᴄʜʀᴏᴅɪɴɢᴇʀ'ꜱ ᴄᴀᴛ @IsTheCatAlive]

1.Women in Afghanistan are only allowed to see female doctors.

2.Women are banned from education beyond the 5th grade.

3.Women cannot become doctors and are banned from medical institutes.

Now read 1 again.

[Doris Tsao @doristsao]

1/ We discovered something totally unexpected about the neural structure of consciousness that overturns decades of thinking on its biological basis and brings us significantly closer to the recipe for generating conscious awareness.
New preprint: https://t.co/K8BwiHXvXg (led by @HesseJanis, with @FrankLanfranchi, @_conor_mcgrory, @Yuelin_Shi, and @EngelTatiana)

[Sable Systems International 🐭🐀🧝🏼‍♀️ @SableSys]

@parmita Oh my, an aquatic Tesla Roadster 🧐

[Steven Sinofsky @stevesi]

@andrewmccalip @prasincs

[Martin Picard @MitoPsychoBio]

Look at these gorgeous, dynamic, orange mitochondria surrounding the blue nucleus.

A view of life from beneath a cell monolayer in a parti dish. Whatever angle you look at it, life is always dynamic and pretty special.

[Buck Institute @BuckInstitute]

Buck scientist Taylor Valentino is helping advance research that could change how we understand aging. But changes in NIH funding are putting important scientific discoveries at risk. Stand with Buck science! Give today!
https://t.co/gxiDXxGSAK

[Sable Systems Int'l @SableSysInt]

How is #adipocyte #thermogenesis regulated by #CircadianRhythm, temperature & diet? With help from Promethion Core #Metabolic Cages, a Science paper revealed the integrative role of mitochondrial metabolite transporter SLC25A34.

https://t.co/qDaHwjmujC

#Physiology #Metabolism

[Matthew Herper @matthewherper]

Live from #STATSummit

[Greg Madisᯅn @GregMadison]

New follower? I’m Greg Madison. I’ve been pioneering tangible interfaces in XR for decades: making digital illusions part of the physical world, keeping us grounded in it.
A thread on the ideas behind my work. 🧵
Here’s an early exploration from 2009.
https://t.co/6tNPYwHQsH

[Sable Systems International 🐭🐀🧝🏼‍♀️ @SableSys]

@peterrhague My guy has never enjoyed a Castle Lager after climbing Table Mountain

[Sable Systems International 🐭🐀🧝🏼‍♀️ @SableSys]

@WKCosmo Remind me not to annoy you

[Sable Systems Int'l @SableSysInt]

Going to AALAS this year? We'll be at Booth #1110 & would love to chat!

Plus, join our special Teach & Chat session on:

🐀 Scalable Rodent Metabolic & Behavioral Phenotyping
📅 Weds, Oct 28, 10:10–10:30 AM
📍 Section 1760

https://t.co/gVFBUfnSvz

#Metabolism #Physiology

[Neil Stone @DrNeilStone]

Mentions of the word "Fauci" on X have fallen off a cliff since the data centres in Russia were hit

Makes you wonder...

[Sable Systems International 🐭🐀🧝🏼‍♀️ @SableSys]

@Brady_H Yikes! Those look amazeballs

[Valeria Marasco @V_Marasco]

Excited to share our OA ms in BioEssays! When does stress build resilience rather than vulnerability? We explore how stress physiology, life experiences & wildlife research can address this https://t.co/OBsuzCoWZL @FAngelier @HoudelierC @DavidZool #StressResilience #Ecophysiology

[Itai Yanai @ItaiYanai]

1. CRISPR came from basic research on bacteria.
2. Optogenetics started with a discovery in algae.
3. The GFP protein comes from jellyfish.
The biggest breakthroughs all trace to scientists follow their curiosity. This is one huge reason why we must keep funding basic research!

[Martin Picard @MitoPsychoBio]

The most actionable knowledge with the potential to transform human health often lies at the intersection of traditional scientific disciplines, rather than within any one field. By design, each discipline can only capture a piece of the whole.

As members of the scientific process, we each have a piece of the puzzle. My diverse training in the lab and in clinics has brough me to feel increasingly compelled and equipped to focus on the connections between the body, mind, biology, and human experience. That's brought us to study the energetic processes that scale from genes to the whole person—from organelle to organism.

For our group and the developing field of mitochondrial psychobiology, studying mitochondria has served as a productive lens to bring into view the role of energy in the complex processes that sustain health or falter in diseases.

Scientific integration often begins with the uncomfortable position at the fuzzy intersection of disciplines. But it's also what allows us to build a more complete scientific framework for some of the toughest problems, like understand the healing process and what allows each person to flourish.

More on this topic on Substack:
• Science is a Social Behaviour… That's the Problem and the Solution
https://t.co/BFLbhOz5Kt

• Lessons From Metabolism on Energy Sustainability
https://t.co/MnvwsvJOPt