Weekly reads: longevity hype vs. cool research, losing your Y, FDA maelstrom

The stream of longevity hype can be exhausting, but there’s exciting research in this space too.

This week there was some of both. It was also a wild week in the news for the FDA and its CBER branch too.

Longevity hype vs. data from new research

• Can humans reverse aging? Harvard scientist predict revolutionary breakthrough. The supposed predictions here on aging, attributed to David Sinclair, are quite something. How about this one, “At the 2026 Dubai summit, Dr David Sinclair has explained the aging as a treatable medical condition, not inevitable. He predicts biotech will make modern healthcare obsolete in 10–20 years, shifting from symptom management to full reversal of biological aging” Did this media piece get the statements right from the meeting?
• Human hippocampal neurogenesis in adulthood, ageing and Alzheimer’s disease, Nature. Intriguing work. How could some aging people exhibit so much neurogenesis? I appreciated the intersection of chromatin research and Super Agers here in this paper.
• Men lose their Y chromosome as they age. Scientists thought it didn’t matter – but now we’re learning more, The Conversation.

FDA zigzagging

• Who’s in Charge at the FDA? Commissioner Marty Makary talks about accelerated cures while biologics chief Vinay Prasad quietly scuttles them, WSJ. As I’ve written before, WSJ seems to have a never-ending axe to grind with Prasad.
• CNBC interview with FDA Commissioner Marty Makary. This was one of the most astonishing interviews with an FDA commissioner that I’ve ever seen. For example, there was the claim by Makary of a “fatwa” (presumably, in part, referring to WSJ) against Prasad. The use of that term seems inflammatory.
• A rare disease drug was approvable, then it wasn’t. Inside a surprise rejection by the FDA, STAT News. The drug is a cell therapy that is going through a rollercoaster at the agency. This is just more evidence of chaos at CBER and the FDA more generally, which some are blaming on Prasad.
• FDA unveils rules for bespoke gene therapies, predicting flood of rare disease applications, STAT News. I wrote about the flexibility on cell and gene therapies before when there were fewer details. Here’s the flexible FDA bespoke gene therapy rules. It seems the draft guidance applies to cell therapies too, but that’s not totally clear.