Optimism on the Timeline for Extending Human Lifespans by 20 Years or More

In the interview noted here, Aubrey de Grey of the Longevity Escape Velocity (LEV) Foundation makes a bold prediction of 12-15 years as to when we might see the advent of the first therapies capable of extending the healthy human life span by a few decades, allowing older people to live long enough to benefit from following improvements to further extend their healthy life spans. It is worth bearing in mind that the creation of novel therapies doesn't mean widespread use or even easy availability of those therapies. Further, it is unlikely that we'll know the effects on human life span of any given combination of novel rejuvenation therapies until at least ten to twenty years have passed, particularly if the therapies are not widely used. As they say, it is hard to make predictions, particularly about the future. Is 12-15 years an unreasonable prediction? If we think that senolytics are going to be effective rejuvenation therapies in humans, and we believe that one or two of the other more advanced lines of work will be equally effective, then maybe this will pan out, subject to the caveats above. Those other lines of work might include partial epigenetic reprogramming, mitochondrial transplantation, telomerase gene therapies, that sort of thing. But expect surprises and delay! Biotech as a field tends to excel in the production of those two line items. We'll have to look back 30-40 years from now to see where the first rejuvenation therapies worthy of the name actuall...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Healthy Life Extension Community Source Type: blogs