"Longevity is possible. At least that's what scientists
from startups and technology companies such as Altos Labs, Calico, AbbVie or
Unity Biotechnology are trying to prove. In practice, they are extremely
advanced research centers, mainly from Silicon Valley, behind which there is a
lot of money from powerful investors - Google concern, one of the richest
people in the world, Jeff Bezos, Yuri Milner, a Russian-Israeli entrepreneur,
the founder of Mail.ru, or Peter Thiel, the creator of PayPal.
The ideas vary from fiddling with genes to swapping organs
to transferring consciousness.
People like nematodes
A team of scientists from the University of California at
Berkeley, looking for inspiration in nature for research on human longevity,
analyzed the genomes of 88 species of scorpionfish sebastes. Some of these
creatures swimming in the Pacific Ocean are among the longest-lived vertebrates
known to us - they can survive up to 200 years. The researchers managed to
isolate as many as 137 genes responsible for this phenomenon. This includes the
genes that give these organisms exceptional immunity or the ability to
"repair" DNA. This is an important step in research into extending
human life. As is the discovery of unusual abilities in nematodes. These
invertebrates live for about 20 days in a Petri dish. Several years ago,
experts from the Buck Institute for Research on Aging (Buck) tested in an
experiment whether it was possible to delay this aging process by
"silencing" the relevant genes. The performed mutation was to make
the nematodes extend their lives twice. To the surprise of the researchers, the
experiment led to the fact that some of the tested specimens survived more than
100 days. "It's as if people lived to be 400," - concluded Francis Collins,
director of the National Institutes of Health, renowned geneticist and last
year's Templeton Prize winner, who financed Buck's experiments.
Now it's time to use this knowledge. Scientists have already
selected dozens of genes in humans, the modification of which is able to
increase life expectancy by 20 percent. But as Peter Diamandis, co-founder of
Human Longevity, which works on longevity, writes in his book "The Future is
closer than we think", genetics are not everything. Pharmacological and even
surgical measures are also needed.
In the first case, it concerns, for example, drugs that are
able to remove senescent cells. Here Unity Biotechnology has promising results.
Bezos, Thiel and the late Paul Allen (who together with Bill Gates founded
Microsoft) invested in the company. The therapy developed by the company
extends the life of mice by 35 percent. But Diamandis believes it is vital to
ensure "an unlimited supply of human spare parts". Replacing old
organs with new ones is one of the missions of the outstanding scientist and
multi-millionaire Martine Rothblatt, whose goal is to provide organs for
transplantation based on tissue engineering and 3D bio-printing.
Scientists from Calico are also working on rejuvenating
technologies. A startup owned by Google, it is said unofficially, is secretly
working on a biotechnology version of the Manhattan project (one of its few so
far disclosed projects involves research on the aging of yeast). The company
has billions of dollars of financing not only from the parent company, but also
thanks to the financing concluded this year in partnership with AbbVie (a
pharmaceutical giant with capitalization of over $ 220 billion).
Silicon Valley Altos Labs is also working on immortality,
behind the fortunes of Jeff Bezos and Yuri Milner. At a private theater on the
latter's Californian estate, a closed science conference was held last year
with the strongest heads in the life extension research sector. On their basis,
Altos was created, which hired an elite of researchers and provided them with
generous budgets. The controversial biologist Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte, who
is famous for "mixing" human and monkey embryos, and claims that
science can extend our lives by an additional half a century is also reported
to have been on board.
When can such a breakthrough happen? Ray Kurzweil, one of
the most famous American futurologists, and the British bioinformatist Aubrey
de Gray are supporters of the "escape into longevity" theory, which
assumes that every year scientists will be able to extend our lives by one
year. When we cross this threshold, we will always be one step before death.
But when will it happen? Until recently Kurzweil believed that it was a matter
of just over a decade, while de Gray - who promotes the idea of biogerontology
(the science that is supposed to prevent aging of cells) - believes that the
perspective is still several times longer.
Perhaps, however, such death-cheating activities will become
unnecessary when the futuristic vision of the transfer of consciousness is
realized. The bodies will then be merely humanoid vessels that can be replaced.
It's a long way to go. So far - as part of the OpenWorm project - It was hard
to map and replicate a 1.5-mm roundworm brain. It was installed in a Lego robot
as software."
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