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Fighting Father Time: Finding the Cure to the Disease of Aging
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Would you have guessed that those two mice are siblings, born of the same litter? At Harvard Medical School, molecular biologist David Sinclair, Ph.D. is putting Father Time to the test, and competing against world-renowned illusionists David Blaine and Criss Angel with scientific magic of his own by reversing aging in mice, with serious aspirations and genuine belief in translating this medical phenomenon to humans in our lifetime.
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His research introduces a philosophical shift to how should we approach aging: to treat it as the root of all our illnesses and ailments, and the disease that slowly kills us all. By delaying and reversing aging, he feels that he would rid the world of a previously inescapable plague. Dr. Sinclair is battling the force of entropy itself and waging chronological warfare on both sides of the lifespan spectrum.
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- With a system termed "ICE" (inducible changes to the epigenome) the Sinclair Lab genetically alters the epigenetic function of the mice and accelerates their biological aging process, as illustrated in the picture above.
- The hallmarks of aging created by ICE, which include “erosion of the epigenetic landscape, cellular exdifferentiation, senescence, and advancement of the DNA methylation clock” are willfully reversed by the Sinclair Lab by utilizing OSK-mediated rejuvenation.
- Sinclair’s information theory of aging describes aging as a loss of information and communication between hardware (genome) and software (epigenome). Aging cells not only forget how to properly function, but they also forget their role and identity as well. By creating a great reset epigenetically, the cell can restore its youthful form and function simply by gaining access to correctly reading the genome once again.
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What the author of the study is saying: "It’s a permanent reset, as far as we can tell, and we think it may be a universal process that could be applied across the body to reset our age," David Sinclair stated. “If we reverse aging, these diseases should not happen. We have the technology today to be able to go into your hundreds without worrying about getting cancer in your 70s, heart disease in your 80s and Alzheimer’s in your 90s,” he added.
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