Longevity research is a growing part of the overall regenerative medicine field.
Rewinding, when I first started blogging here on The Niche in 2010, longevity was more of a fringe field. In just 15 years, it has become a generally legit area, even if one often filled with hype. It has its share of scammers too. So what’s the difference between the good versus more hypeful stuff? Navigating this area requires care.
Let’s look at some of this week’s news related to legitimate research in this area. Over the years, I’ve drawn illustrations for various posts and one of my favorites is on so-called senolytics, which I’ve included here.
Longevity news: Retro Biosciences, Altos Labs, and more
The first new article this week touches on a favorite of the anti-agers: the idea of lopping a decade off of one’s chronological age. We’ve seen many longevity influencers like Bryan Johnson and David Sinclair as well as others talk about how certain things supposedly drop their biological age.
The folks out there saying they are de-aging by years could be considered health flexing.
Here’s news that caught my eye: Sam Altman-Backed Startup Aims to Add 10 Years to Human Life Through Stem Cell Tech in something called Observer. This headline sounds like the longevity influencers talking. The article is about Retro Biosciences. The challenge is that there’s no evidence that stem cells can extend life beyond bone marrow/hematopoietic stem cell transplants helping cancer patients survive after chemo. The idea with Retro seems to be “sustaining a healthy blood system through life.” From the article,
“Founded in 2021, Retro Biosciences is developing biotechnology to combat aging and age-related diseases, using approaches like cellular reprogramming and protein engineering. Its bold aim to turn back the biological clock by a decade caught the attention of Altman, who initially invested $180 million in the startup. Retro is now seeking to raise an additional $1 billion from Altman, along with support from family offices, venture capital firms and sovereign wealth funds.”
This also brings to mind Altos Labs and their cellular rejuvenation research. Speaking of which there was also this Altos Labs snaps up Dorian Therapeutics over at an outlet called Longevity Technology.
More recommended reads
- Outcomes of Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant in Monogenic Inflammatory Bowel Disease, CGH.
- Sauk Prairie HS students grow stem cells, turn them to cardiac cells, WMTV. I hope we can see more high schools doing this kind of hands-on learning about stem cells. Very cool.
- Cord blood banking is not living up to its promise, The New Scientist. I’m going to write a whole article on a big cord blood development that quotes one part of this piece so stay tuned.
- ISSCR and Harvard launch free online course on stem cell medicine, MSN. This is a great new resource.