The mice sprouted tumors called teratomas, blobs of renegade embryonic tissue. In , researchers at the Salk Institute in California, headed by Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, reported that the answer might be yes.

They genetically engineered mice afflicted with progeria, a condition that causes extremely rapid aging, so that all their cells would make the Yamanaka factors, but only when they were fed a special supplement in their food.

That allowed the scientists to turn on the factors for a limited period—just a few hours at a time. Leave the genes on for too long, and the mice got cancer. And this has [now] been done with many animals. Exactly how this partial-reprogramming phenomenon works is now a major focus of Altos and other research organizations.

To Klausner, the fact that cells can regain a youthful epigenetic state is remarkable and likely a gateway to important new biology. To Charles Brenner, a senior researcher at the City of Hope National Medical Center, people may even be falling victim to circular reasoning when they celebrate those epigenetic changes.

People should not be assuming more youthful scores on an epigenetic clock equate to better health or longer life expectancy.

To answer that question, more researchers are applying bursts of the reprogramming factors to mice in bids to reverse specific diseases, or just to see what happens.

In , researchers at Harvard led by Sinclair reported that mice exposed to three reprogramming factors could regenerate their optic nerve and regain sight after it was crushed, something usually only a newborn rodent can do. And in unblinded studies where the researchers know which animals were treated , wishful thinking can play a role, perhaps especially if billions in venture capital dollars ride on the result.

Nakauchi says he also created mice with Yamanaka factors, but he never saw any sign they got younger. It sounded as if they were describing a drug ready for market, not an exploratory form of genetic engineering.

In reality, the results were less definitive than advertised. The researchers had not seen tumors, but they had significantly changed the epigenetic age of cells in just two organs: kidneys and skin. And something else about the result jumped out as puzzling to researchers like Brenner, as well as others who reviewed the paper.

Indeed, so far no research group or company has reported normal mice living longer after being exposed to partial reprogramming. Altos seeks to align itself with a concept called health span, which means extending the number of years that people spend in good health as they age.

In an email, Klausner even said that the company will not try to determine whether reprogramming generally extends life. He noted that an experiment would be impractical—such a test in humans could take too long. And rejuvenation, if we achieve it, would be the best way of doing that.

That means there are plenty of healthy years to be gained before anyone reaches an unnatural birthday. Nor are gains in average life expectancy unusual—that figure has roughly doubled since , thanks mostly to vaccines, antibiotics, and public health advances.

Faults in a certain part of the immune system might be at the root of some long covid cases, new research suggests.

A neural network trained on the experiences of a single young child managed to learn one of the core components of language: how to match words to the objects they represent. Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

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Skip to Content. How it works. Four proteins can "reprogram" a skin cell into a youthful stem cell. Apply these proteins to mice … but only in limited doses.

Try to make the mice young, without causing cancer. NYT News Service A study conducted by scientists at Harvard Medical School showed that a combination of drugs administered to mice could reverse the ageing process.

The treatment not only rejuvenated the skin but also revitalized muscles and vital organs in a remarkably short span of time. The quest to defy ageing has captivated humanity for centuries, sparking innovation and unorthodox methods in the pursuit of the elusive fountain of youth.

From ancient remedies to modern scientific breakthroughs, the desire to reverse the clock on the ageing process has remained unwavering. Recent developments in medical science have given rise to promising treatments that claim to hold the key to rejuvenation.

Entrepreneurs and researchers alike are capitalizing on the growing market for anti-ageing solutions, reshaping the landscape of cosmetic interventions and revitalization.

While ageing is a natural phenomenon, various environmental and lifestyle factors accelerate the deterioration of cells, leading to wrinkles, sagging skin, and a loss of vitality. Dermatologist Latika Arya told ToI that intrinsic and extrinsic factors collectively contribute to the degradation of skin's structural integrity and physiological function.

These visible signs of ageing have driven the demand for interventions that aim to restore a youthful appearance. Read More News on anti aging methods ageing look young how to look young stop looking old. Catch all the Business News , Breaking News , Budget News , Budget Live Coverage , Events and Latest News Updates on The Economic Times.

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Despite centuries of research and progress in medicine, there are still many mysteries that remain unresolved, chief among them being an understanding of what causes ageing and how can we slow it down or reverse it.

But a new study by a team of scientists in Germany, published in the scientific journal Nature, may finally have found the answers to these questions. Researchers from the University of Cologne in Germany have not only discovered that gene transcription - the process in which a cell makes an RNA copy of a strand of DNA - becomes faster with age but less precise and more error-prone; they also found that certain processes could help us reverse this decline.

I mean, this is a type of discovery that you don't make every other day," said Dr Andreas Beyer, the lead researcher, calling the findings "a major discovery".

Before Beyer and his team started their investigative project 10 years ago, the typical ageing study would "just look at differential gene expression," says Beyer. Previous studies, he explains, were asking questions like "When you age, which genes are getting turned on and which genes are getting turned off?

But nobody was asking how the transcription process itself changes as we age, a line of inquiry that could yield insights to ultimately help us reverse, or stop, decline.

Transcription is fundamental to Beyer's research as it is the process in which a cell makes an RNA copy of a piece of DNA. This copy is important because it carries the genetic information needed to make new proteins in a cell.

Proteins determine the health and function of the cells, and cells then structure all living things. Throughout our lives, our cells regenerate, "but each cell is different, and what makes them different are the different genes that are activated in it," explains Beyer.

There are many different types of cells in the human body: nerve cells, muscle cells, blood cells, skin cells, and so on. He eats a vegan-based diet, consumes less than 2, calories a day and stops eating by noon. He admits he's hungry most of the time but powers through customized daily exercise routines and undergoes painful treatments to improve the condition of his skin.

Like the teenage blood transfusions that he hoped would enhance his cognitive health but proved to have no real benefit, examining what's working and what's not is why Johnson calls himself "the most measured person in human history. He undergoes regular scans, ultrasounds and blood tests.

The data is critical, he says, to prove a hypothesis that age is just a number — or in his case right now, a bunch of them. So some of my biological ages are in great shape, some are not," he said, "but if you're looking at my DNA methylation patterns, which you cannot see with the naked eye, that's telling you that I'm aging slower than the average year-old.

It may sound fantastical, definitely futuristic, but there could be a bigger lesson for those who don't have the time or resources to follow Johnson's plan, even if they wanted to.

It turns out that relying on data to reverse the aging process is critical to a longer and healthier life, says renowned biologist Dr. Leroy "Lee" Hood, a best-selling author and biotech entrepreneur who is known for inventing revolutionary biological instruments that paved the way for the Human Genome Project.

He doesn't believe that the point of living longer is to prove you can, and says old age is the biggest risk factor for chronic disease — but only if you let it. Hood is almost 85 years old but says his biological age is 70, thanks in part to his daily exercise routine that includes pushups, sit ups, and stretching and balancing exercises.

He also practises intermittent fasting and takes several supplements. He says all of those efforts are based on his own personalized genetic profile and mean he's been able to ward off illness. That big project is taking what he's doing to the masses, and Hood says it would be nothing short of a revolutionary shift away from the treatment of disease to the avoidance of it altogether.

He believes that data-driven personalized approach to wellness could delay the disease process for years or even decades and has the potential to banish illnesses like Alzheimer's disease and diabetes.

Hood says he envisions a health system that keeps people well until they die naturally at a very old age — and it's based on research that he says proves it's possible. Over the past five years, Hood and his team have been conducting a series of data-driven experiments based on the genome sequence, gut microbiome, blood plasma proteins and lifestyle information of up to 5, people.

The goal is to understand how these data points connect to determine an individual's predisposition to disease and identify early signals — or what Hood calls "transitions" to disease — and act before illness progresses.

Exactly how this partial-reprogramming phenomenon works is now a major focus of Altos and other research organizations. To Klausner, the fact that cells can regain a youthful epigenetic state is remarkable and likely a gateway to important new biology. To Charles Brenner, a senior researcher at the City of Hope National Medical Center, people may even be falling victim to circular reasoning when they celebrate those epigenetic changes.

People should not be assuming more youthful scores on an epigenetic clock equate to better health or longer life expectancy. To answer that question, more researchers are applying bursts of the reprogramming factors to mice in bids to reverse specific diseases, or just to see what happens.

In , researchers at Harvard led by Sinclair reported that mice exposed to three reprogramming factors could regenerate their optic nerve and regain sight after it was crushed, something usually only a newborn rodent can do. And in unblinded studies where the researchers know which animals were treated , wishful thinking can play a role, perhaps especially if billions in venture capital dollars ride on the result.

Nakauchi says he also created mice with Yamanaka factors, but he never saw any sign they got younger. It sounded as if they were describing a drug ready for market, not an exploratory form of genetic engineering. In reality, the results were less definitive than advertised.

The researchers had not seen tumors, but they had significantly changed the epigenetic age of cells in just two organs: kidneys and skin. And something else about the result jumped out as puzzling to researchers like Brenner, as well as others who reviewed the paper.

Indeed, so far no research group or company has reported normal mice living longer after being exposed to partial reprogramming. Altos seeks to align itself with a concept called health span, which means extending the number of years that people spend in good health as they age.

In an email, Klausner even said that the company will not try to determine whether reprogramming generally extends life. He noted that an experiment would be impractical—such a test in humans could take too long.

And rejuvenation, if we achieve it, would be the best way of doing that. That means there are plenty of healthy years to be gained before anyone reaches an unnatural birthday. Nor are gains in average life expectancy unusual—that figure has roughly doubled since , thanks mostly to vaccines, antibiotics, and public health advances.

Faults in a certain part of the immune system might be at the root of some long covid cases, new research suggests. A neural network trained on the experiences of a single young child managed to learn one of the core components of language: how to match words to the objects they represent.

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more. Thank you for submitting your email! It looks like something went wrong.