A Conservative View of Aging Research and Development of Treatments Targeting Mechanisms of Aging

A present, the conservative scientific viewpoint on aging is that significant progress has been made in understanding how to produce therapies that might target mechanisms of aging, but these are still very early days in both (a) understanding in detail how those mechanisms give rise to the observed outcomes in aging, and (b) the development of age-slowing and rejuvenating therapies. It is most likely the case that more could be accomplished than is presently being accomplished, given greater will and funding. But the creation of a new field of medicine is a slow process, proceeding incrementally, taking years to convince each new larger and more conservative audience of the merits of the work. A small number of people were convinced by the SENS proposals for rejuvenation biotechnology twenty years ago, which included a synthesis of the evidence for senescent cells to contribute to degenerative aging. A larger group of people were convinced a decade ago by concrete demonstrations in which clearing senescent cells produced rejuvenation in mice. Since then, bootstrapping of a longevity industry and a greater focus on aging in the research community has proceeded, but the largest and most conservative groups still remain to be convinced. The majority of decision makers in the pharmaceutical industry won't act on the potential for the treatment of aging until a fair number of therapies are approved by regulators, find a large market, and are proven useful in humans, for ex...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs