The molecular biologist George Church and the colleague Noah Davidson from Harvard University have started a startup, the Rejuvenate bio, which develops solutions against aging with extraordinary results: the first makes old dogs look young again.
The genetic therapies already activated on beagles have reached goals beyond the rosier forecasts and are now also focused on dogs of other breeds, but it is only the beginning: the two researchers have identified many objectives of as many targeted interventions, and compiled a large database of genes linked to aging.
The idea of starting a business came from a previous one, important phase of tests that extended life expectancy in mice by threefold: 6 years older than 2 years older than calorie restriction based treatments.
Current treatments
Working on dogs, Rejuvenate Bio has identified 9 different pathways for cellular rejuvenation, one of which goes through the elimination of senescent cells, those who they stopped to divide and cause inflammatory processes in other healthy cells.
Church is enthusiastic about the results obtained first on mice and then on dogs: he hopes that the effects may be general and independent of the species treated. They will also use the same gene therapy on humans.
The type of work that they are adopting it's very interesting because it leads to a rapid spread mass: focusing on the reversal of aging rather than longevity avoids excessive waits for studies related to lifespan (how many decades to wait before verifying that thanks to these treatments there are those who will live 20, 30, 40 years longer?) makes it easier for the FDA to approve treatments, and therefore theirs marketing.
