Shinya Yamanaka, a stem-cell biologist then at Kyoto University in Japan, led a team of scientists to successfully test a 2006 reverse aging discovery. Now, major companies are prepared to bring the testing to the next level after other researchers have shown more evidence to support the 2006 claim. Billions are now being flooded into the emerging technology.
This method to reverse cellular aging is about to be tested in humans – scientificamerican.com
Yuancheng Ryan Lu could barely breathe while he waited for his labmate to adjust the microscope focus.
On the slide in front of them were the results of Lu’s latest attempt to turn back time for ageing retinal nerve cells. If it worked, the method he was using could help to restore eyesight to older adults with glaucoma, an age-related condition that damages the optic nerve. And perhaps some day it could be used to rejuvenate organs such as the kidneys or liver — maybe even the brain.
Lu had spent three years trying different approaches — and had failed. But this time looked different. Lu had introduced three genes into mouse eyes that should revert cells to a younger developmental state. And there under the microscope he thought he could see signs of new growth. Now, he was asking his labmate to confirm his suspicions. “I was so nervous,” says Lu, now a geneticist at the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
