The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is funding basic research on non-genetic drugs that can temporarily enhance the human body’s ability to endure extreme cold exposure.
The human body’s response to cold involves two biological processes known as thermogenesis. Shivering is something everyone has experienced, it raises your body temperature in a direct fashion, with movement. The second uses brown adipose tissue, brown fat, which regulates body temperature by breaking down blood sugar and other fat molecules The first is physical and the second chemical, but the second happens first. It just doesn't generate as much heat.
Rice University bioengineer Jerzy Szablowski won a Young Faculty Award from DARPA to screen for a drug that boosts BAT response. If found, it could help first responders treat victims of hypothermia and even lower the cost of arctic exploration. Instead of brown fat thermogenesis needing weeks it could be hours
This is a long haul, forget politicians and their rhetoric about Moonshots and Manhattan Projects, so it need to start with a computer. The road from computer to human is long; so long there would be 10,000 cures for cancer if computer models translated well to even mice, much less people.
A Drug To Burn Brown Fat And Keep You Warm
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