Harvard’s George Church has been involved in starting many successful biotech companies. In 1984, he developed the first direct genomic sequencing method, which resulted in the first genome sequence (the human pathogen, H. pylori). He helped initiate the Human Genome Project in 1984 and the Personal Genome Project in 2005. George invented the broadly applied concepts of molecular multiplexing and tags, homologous recombination methods, and array DNA synthesizers. His many innovations have been the basis for a number of companies including Editas (Gene therapy); Gen9bio (Synthetic DNA); and Veritas Genetics (full human genome sequencing).
Rejuvenate Bio is one his companies that has completed some clinical trials of combination gene therapy to treat age related diseases in dogs. They will soon start human clinical trials for combination gene therapy to treat age related diseases.
George Church is also leading an effort to develop and scale human genome engineering to 20,000 targeted genes at time as a process in about 6 years. It would be a lab proven capability at that time and then worked through the clinical trials. Large scale gene modification for adults that fixes all seven biological pathways for aging is what George believes will enable extreme longevity in humans. He thinks we can go beyond the 200 year lifespans of the bowhale.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
Yep, need to start counting pennies. Wonder how much this will cost (and when) it will be on the market at a nice clinic near you (or on Easter Island–that part hardly matters).
it’ll be cheap as EVERYONE suffers from aging.
that means this class of drugs/treatments will be one of the most mass produced medicines in human history.
Yeah, cheap would be good, but how cheap is cheap? My thought, often expressed, is that, suppose they can make it no more expensive than a fancy daily shot of caffeine at Starbucks? That’s great, I would buy it, heck I’d buy it for the whole extended family. A lot of people in a lot of countries would. Perhaps even a majority would buy it in some countries. But only in relatively wealthy, industrialized, countries because, even at that price, it would only reach a relatively small minority of the worlds folks (even supposing all governments allowed it for the masses).
Consider that, even in the US, that Choco Latte everyday would be a stretch for some people already, and when you look worldwide you only find six countries with higher average incomes: Monaco, Bermuda, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Norway, Ireland (not even getting into medians and such). Anyone have a figure for what percentage of the human race those six countries represent? (Hint: at less than 20 million, total, it’s roughly .0025% of the human race.) Then toss in the US at 4% and the European Union at 5.6%, Japan at 1.6%, Canada at one-half of 1%, keep going with a few more and you might get to 15%. And of course, various elites in poor countries would get it but that doesn’t really change the numbers. And, even in that 15% you’ve got various religious sects, as well as a lot of people set on “growing old gracefully” (although their ain’t nothing graceful about it), as well as folks who will just keep procrastinating, no matter how good it is for them (heck, we still have lots of people that smoke, if you can imagine that).
So we might get just under a billion long-lifers if long-life costs no more than a daily caffeine drink at Starbucks–and that would be pretty cheap for a cutting edge medical technology. That will also help a bit with depopulation not getting totally out of control, but it won’t be the cure by itself.
That’s okay, most of us could probably handle a few hundred years on a nice estate in the country where almost all the manual work is done by robots and other automation, and the thinking work is done by AIs.
On the one hand, I’d dearly love to be part of that clinical trail.
On the other hand, the reason I probably can’t is that I’m still pretty healthy for my age. (Going on 65)
Best of luck, I need somebody like these guys to succeed, stat.