“But the story’s much weirder than we think,” Fink said. In a recent paper, he used math to demonstrate that “aging can be favored by natural selection.” That’s a shocking insight: It means that the first forms of life, which started billions of years ago, likely didn’t die…..
In Fink’s memorable phrase, “immortality — not mortality — is the natural state of affairs.” So how can we get back to this natural state? That’s where cell programming comes in…..
Several companies are trying to do this work, such as bit.bio, which recodes cells to attempt to find cures to diseases such as Alzheimer’s. In the long run, this revolutionary biotechnology might well enable scientists to reset cells for immortality.
“If the aging process is a mechanism inside the cell controlled by a transcription program, then we’ll be able to influence it,” hypothesized Forrest Sheldon, a LIMS junior fellow who collaborates with bit.bio.
But Fink and Sheldon cautioned that we’re still a long way from becoming immortal. Don’t book your vacation for the summer of 4500 just yet.
