On Wednesday, one scientist described how he’d been testing potential longevity medicine on the tiny nematode worm C. elegans. These worms reside for under about 15 to 40 days, and his staff can carry out tens of 1000’s of experiments with them. About 40% of the medicine that reach lifespan in C. elegans additionally assist mice reside longer, he instructed us.
To me, that’s not a tremendous hit price. And we don’t know what number of of these medicine will work in folks. Most likely lower than 40% of that 40%.
Different scientists offered work on chemical reactions taking place on the mobile degree. It was deep, fundamental science, and my takeaway was that there’s so much growing old researchers nonetheless don’t totally perceive.
It would take years—if not many years—to get the complete image of growing old on the molecular degree. And if we depend on a sequence of experiments in worms, after which mice, after which people, we’re unlikely to make progress for a actually very long time. In that context, the concept of alternative remedy seems like a shortcut.
“Alternative is a very thrilling avenue since you don’t have to know the biology of growing old as a lot,” says Sierra Lore, who research growing old on the College of Copenhagen in Denmark and the Buck Institute for Analysis on Growing old in Novato, California.
Lore says she began her analysis profession finding out growing old on the molecular degree, however she quickly modified course. She now plans to focus her consideration on alternative therapies. “I in a short time realized we’re many years away [from understanding the molecular processes that underlie aging],” she says. “Why don’t we simply take what we already know—alternative—and attempt to perceive and apply it higher?”
So maybe Putin’s easy strategy to delaying growing old holds some advantage. Whether or not it’ll grant him immortality is one other matter.
This text first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Expertise Evaluate’s weekly biotech publication. To obtain it in your inbox each Thursday, and skim articles like this primary, join right here.