How Science is Making Immortality a Reality
RECAP OF PAST SCIENTIFIC EFFORTS
Aging,
at a molecular level, makes very little sense. Our bodies are
constantly creating new cells and restoring our natural defenses, yet we
still grow old. Entropy gets the best of us and we accept it as
inevitable, even though science has made enormous strides in elongating
our lifespans. Life expectancy has risen in
the last century, and people in developed countries can expect to live
to about 80 now, which is a marked increase from about 47 in 1900. That
increase is largely due to advances in curing childhood diseases, but
has resulted in a tradeoff of chronic diseases generated by old age —
and the body’s entropic response to it. Heart disease, cancer, and
Alzheimer’s are the biggest offenders, and treating them individually
rather than taking a pill to prevent aging in the first place takes up
more of our body’s resources.
Scientists
are well aware of all these problems, and have tried lots of different
methods to restore vitality to the human body. Restoring homeostatic
capacity — or, the body’s capability to self-stabilize its systems in
response to stressors like physical exertion, hot or cold weather, and
bright or low light — is chief among them. At its essence, one could
argue that the human body is essentially a complex biological machine,
and as a machine, its advancing age is simply a mechanical problem to be
treated instead of an inevitability.
And
if treating that problem is as simple as keeping people healthier and
free from disease as long as possible, then science has a very good
chance of making that happen.
The biggest culprit keeping us from an extended lifespan is the telomerase enzyme. Discovered by Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn (who won a Nobel Prize for
it), telomerase is a repeating DNA sequence at the end of a chain of
chromosomes that caps each strand and tells the next one where to begin.
It is responsible for telling our cells when to stop growing, and every
time it caps a strand, a little part of that cell’s information on how
to rebuild itself is lost. As a result, scientists are finding ways to
either prevent that loss or revitalizetelomerase when it is lost in order to combat aging at the molecular level.
That
said, science didn’t always know telomerase was the problem, and lots
of other solutions have cropped up over time. Aviator Charles Lindbergh
tried to cheat death by finding a way to replace our organs with
machines, creating a machine that became the prototype for the
heart-lung machine doctors utilize in modern open-heart surgery.
Cloning, cyborgs, nanotech cellular repairs, and 3D printing organs from
a transplant recipient’s own cells are just the latest in that line of
thinking, but they still rely on replacing parts rather than stopping
aging in the first place.
Science
fiction writers have frequently proposed uploading the human brain into
a computer to achieve immortality, and real-world science is making
that possible. Known as “whole brain emulation,” scientists have taken
large steps toward achieving this method of immortality, including engineering neural devices that interface with the human immune system the same ways our brain does, and creating simulated animal brains. Science fiction also gave us the idea of cryogenics,
preserving the human body by lowering its metabolism to preserve
resources — effectively freezing it in time — which is more a protective
measure against aging than a solution. But real-world science continues
providing advancements.
CURRENT SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
Scientists at UC San Francisco have successfully reversed the effects of old age and disease in mice by infusing blood from young mice into
old ones. Specifically, researchers found that blood from 3-month-old
mice reversed age-related declines in memory, learning, and brain
function in the brains of 18-month-old mice (the equivalent of a
70-year-old person). Researchers also found that when they injected just
plasma into the old mice, they had increased stamina and motor
function, and performed just like their 3-month-old peers. Scientists
were even able to identify a single chemical — a protein called Creb —
that acts as a master regulator in the brain and is made more active by
young blood. There have actually been several drugs that reverse age-related
conditions in mice. The key is that there isn’t any single drug that
reverses everything about aging… and that’s what scientists are hoping
to find once they begin testing with humans.
Silicon Valley is the latest hub for scientific achievement over aging. Google created Calico Labs, the California Life Company, to create age-defying drugs reversing the biology controlling our lifespan. Human Longevity Inc. is focused on creating a database of 1 million human genome sequences by 2020 to better combat diseases worsened by aging. The Palo Alto Longevity Prize awards
two $500,000 prizes to “innovations that restore the body’s homeostatic
capacity” and “promoting the extension of a sustained and healthy
lifespan.” The stated goal of all these companies is to alleviate the
complications aging wreaks on the human body in terms of disease, but
the implied goal — and the one earning all the funding — is to figure
out immortality.
Why
is Silicon Valley involved? Successful anti-aging medicine and
technology have the potential to be “the biggest industry that’s ever
existed by some huge margin,” according toAubrey de Grey,
Chief Scientific Officer at the Strategies for Engineered Negligible
Senescence Research Foundation. While the charity is self-funded, and de
Grey is considered somewhat dubious by the scientific community, he
funds $5 million worth of anti-aging research every year.
