{"id":9739,"date":"2026-06-12T12:01:40","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T12:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/?p=9739"},"modified":"2026-06-12T12:01:40","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T12:01:40","slug":"why-reprogramming-is-the-buzziest-approach-to-reversing-aging-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/?p=9739","title":{"rendered":"Why \u201creprogramming\u201d is the buzziest approach to reversing aging right now"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nJessica Hamzelou<\/strong>
\n •
\nJune 12, 2026\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/div>\n

Earlier this week, Life Biosciences, a biotech company focused on reversing age-related diseases, announced that it had dosed its first volunteer. A person with glaucoma has had an experimental treatment injected straight into their eyeball<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The idea is to try to treat the disease\u2014which can cause vision loss\u2014by regenerating healthy nerves in the eye. But David Sinclair, the chairman and cofounder of the company behind the trial, hopes to go further. If the treatment can reverse glaucoma, perhaps similar treatments can reverse other diseases of aging. Maybe, just maybe, they can reverse aging altogether.<\/p>\n

The approach is designed to work by \u201creprogramming\u201d cells to a younger state. It\u2019s one of many strategies being explored by biotech companies looking to slow and reverse the process of aging. But of all of them, it seems to be the one that is truly taking off.<\/em><\/p>\n

Aging is complicated. As we get older, we experience so many<\/em> changes across pretty much all our biological systems. Scientists have tried to categorize these effects. In 2013, one team published a seminal paper describing nine \u201challmarks of aging<\/a>.\u201d That list features many of the processes scientists have attempted to target. But some of those targets have fallen in and out of fashion over the years.<\/p>\n

Take telomere attrition, for example. Telomeres are DNA sequences at the ends of our chromosomes, often likened to the plastic caps that stop the ends of our shoelaces from fraying. When cells divide, telomeres shorten until, eventually, the DNA is vulnerable to damage.<\/p>\n

When I started reporting on aging, telomere shortening was all the rage. Shrinking telomeres had been linked to age-related diseases of the heart and brain. Shortened telomeres were considered a sign of premature aging<\/a>. In 2017 Liz Parrish, CEO of the biotech company BioViva, injected herself with an experimental gene therapy<\/a> that she hoped might lengthen her telomeres.<\/p>\n

Then it suddenly seemed to go out of style. Research continued<\/a>, but all the excitement within the aging and longevity community seemed to move on to another hallmark. (Parrish also continued with self-experimentation; she calls herself<\/a> \u201cthe most genetically modified person on Earth.\u201d)<\/p>\n

That hallmark was cellular senescence. This happens when cells stop dividing but don\u2019t die, instead entering a \u201czombie\u201d state in which they churn out chemicals that can cause harmful inflammation.<\/p>\n

Senescent cells gradually accumulate in pretty much every organ studied, where they are thought to contribute to age-related damage. Why not just periodically clear them out? When a team of scientists took that approach in mice in 2011<\/a>, they found they could delay the onset of age-related conditions like cataracts and hunchback. The treated mice even looked<\/em> younger.<\/p>\n

But when scientists at Unity Biotechnology trialed a similar approach in people with osteoarthritis and an age-related eye condition in the late 2010s and early 2020s, the results were disappointing<\/a>. The company laid off every employee<\/a> in May last year and has since shuttered entirely.<\/p>\n

Again, that doesn\u2019t mean senolytic drugs that target \u201czombie cells\u201d won\u2019t work. But it feels as if many in the field have moved on. These days, the buzz is all about \"\u2728\"reprogramming\"\u2728\".<\/p>\n

The idea here is to essentially return cells to a young state. It\u2019s based on the Nobel Prize\u2013winning discovery that four genetic factors can turn an adult cell into a stem cell, which can be encouraged to develop into pretty much any other cell type.<\/p>\n

Some promising studies in mice suggest that this approach might help wind back the clock. It seems to improve tissue healing<\/a>, restore vision<\/a>, and even improve learning and memory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Running parallel to all this research are repeated injections of hundreds of millions of dollars in funding. In 2021, my colleague Antonio Regalado reported on the founding of the biotech company Altos Labs<\/a> to pursue reprogramming for rejuvenation.<\/p>\n

Altos was funded by the billionaire Yuri Milner\u2014reportedly along with Jeff Bezos, among others\u2014to the tune of $3 billion<\/a>, a previously unheard-of figure for a biotech startup. Other well-funded companies have since sprung up in this space.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s Retro Biosciences, for instance, which is pursuing reprogramming (among other approaches) in an effort to add 10 years of healthy life to human lifespans. Retro\u2019s launch was supported by $180 million from OpenAI\u2019s Sam Altman<\/a>. Last month, the company announced a valuation of $1.8 billion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

NewLimit, another billionaire-backed biotech exploring reprogramming, says it has promising results from research in mice. It plans to trial a drug designed to rejuvenate the liver in people next year. Last week, the company announced<\/a> it had raised $435 million toward reaching that goal, among others.<\/p>\n

Life Biosciences, which was founded by the Harvard biologist David Sinclair, most recently secured $80 million to support its research. The eye trial is now officially underway, but Sinclair also has plans for whole-body rejuvenation. Earlier this week, he told my colleague Antonio that he plans to test a \u201chighly, highly confidential\u201d oral reprogramming drug as part of a $101 million competition<\/a> organized by the XPrize Foundation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reprogramming has certainly caught the attention of scientists, biotech companies, and investors. Studies in mice are hugely promising. Human trials are launching. And research in the field has billions of dollars\u2019 worth of support.A lot of people in the field are really<\/em> excited about reprogramming. But it comes with risks. And we still don\u2019t know if it will work. The question now is: Do we finally have a rejuvenation drug within reach? And if not, what will the next research trend look like?<\/p>\n

This article first appeared in The Checkup,\u00a0<\/em>MIT Technology Review\u2019s\u00a0weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first,\u00a0<\/em>sign up here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read the full article →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jessica Hamzelou • June 12, 2026 Earlier this week, Life Biosciences, a biotech company focused on reversing age-related diseases, announced that it had dosed its first volunteer. A person with glaucoma has had an experimental treatment injected straight into their eyeball. The idea is to try to treat the disease\u2014which can cause vision loss\u2014by regenerating<\/p>\n

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