Xanya Sofra-Weiss. Ph.D, (2008)
Ionic Currents: The Spark of Life and Directional Force in Cellular Metabolism and Energetics.
The aging process cannot be conceptualized by examining a single gene or a single pathway, but can best be addressed at the systems level. Aging is not only the sum total of shortened telomeres, denatured proteins and DNA molecules, or oxidative damage in the mitochondria. Aging attacks key regulatory nodes crucial for the biological network stability. It is the dynamic process of increasing imbalances in the systemic organization of degenerating biological processes. DNA and stem cells engineering have successfully reversed certain individual components of time attrition resulting in rejuvenation and aging delay. So far, research has merely followed a sequential process that goes from the part to the whole, identifying aging genes and engineering stem cells, etc. However, discovering pieces of the puzzle still requires identification of the interconnections between matching pieces before the solution emerges. The old, the ill, and the injured all suffer from misarranged patterns of atoms. A single substitution an A for a G in a DNA molecule can cause a significant change in the conductance of the molecule leading to cancer. Such research findings demonstrate how the sequence and interrelations of amino acids in a protein, or the sequence of base pairs in a DNA molecule can become determining factors between health and disease, aging and youth. Gene expression is stronger when the gene is attached to the nuclear envelope (the membrane that surrounds the nucleus) than when it moves away from the nuclear envelope (see image). In other words, cells make use of the nuclear architecture to code epigenetic information. The DNA sequence alone doesn’t determine everything. The importance of the spatial organization or nuclear architecture in regulating gene expression begs for scientific observation that does not merely focus on the study of atoms and molecules, (the basic components of a Gestalt); but on the interrelations, sequence, orientation and spatial organization of these atoms and molecules (the dynamic whole or Gestalt). Recent research has shown that DNA, proteins, cells, including stem cells, appear to be electrical in that they demonstrate conductivity or the presence of ionic currents. Since electricity is a dynamic entity emerging out of the interactions of atoms and molecules, we propose that perhaps the simplest way of focusing on the entire system is by decoding the complex electrical signals that map biological interactions with respect to spatial organization. Biological signals must be analyzed in terms of their amperage, frequency, voltage, interactions, orientation, spatial organization. Next will be their translation into electronic signals that comply with the specifications of amperage, frequency, voltage or biological signals. Electronic signals will then be intertwined to orchestrate a Gestalt waveform built on the basis of information attained from observations of biological interactions and architecture – a process similar to that done in Pollock’s lab (1990-2004). This Gestalt waveform will act as an electronic diplomat to awaken biological processes that have diminished with aging or disease by signaling the recuperation and activation of biological reparative mechanisms leading to extended longevity.