George Church: Learn from COVID and fast-track therapies that reverse aging
Top aging scientist says that many more people die from aging than in pandemics, and the benefits of reversing aging are too beneficial for governments to ignore.
All eyes are on the Emerald Isle this week as the?Longevity Summit Dublin?brings together a host of speakers covering the spectrum of this booming sector. Delegates have been hearing from some of the leading entrepreneurs, companies, investors, and researchers in the field as they address many of the hot-button topics affecting longevity. One of those speakers is the so-called “father of genomics” – Harvard professor of genetics, George Church – who closes the conference later today with a keynote on?Gene, cell and organ therapies for de-aging.
My take on this: In addition to his Harvard professorship, Church heads up synthetic biology at the?Wyss Institute, where he oversees development of new tools with applications in regenerative medicine. Much of his focus more recently has been on the development of gene therapies targeting age-related disease, a passion that led him to co-found?Rejuvenate Bio, with the goal of creating “full age reversal gene therapies.” Longevity.Technology caught up with Church ahead of his Dublin presentation for a brief conversation on longevity.
Dr Church’s name is synonymous with genomic science, and he was a key contributor to the Human Genome Project and technologies including next-generation fluorescent and nanopore sequencing, aimed at understanding genetic contributions to human disease. However, he doesn’t feel that those initiatives did a huge amount to move the aging field forward.
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“They have provided aging researchers with useful reference points to go back and check their work, but the key advances in aging have really been made through the fundamental research on key pathways and drivers of aging,” says Church. “However, what we can take from those projects was their contribution towards technology improvements that have reduced the cost of DNA sequencing from three billion dollars in 2004 to just three hundred dollars today.”
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Theoretical Biologist | PhD, Bioinformatics, Life Sciences
2 年Yes fasttracking is what I'm talking about!!!! Greetings to all.
Future-focused Senior Sales Exec working with clients to define goals, develop and execute sales plans to grow revenue in Online Education, AWS Cloud Services, Web Design & Development, Manufacturing, and more.
2 年Now, this is exciting news - that someone like Dr. Church is making public statements connecting the fast-track strategies developed and successfully implemented during the pandemic with the need to accelerate progress in human aging research! IMO, the potential of saving countless lives and generating substantial profits will drive this transition from aging research moving at mostly an academic pace to moving at an urgent, fast-as-safely-possible pace.