By Gretchen Reynolds – The Washington Post –
For those hoping to cure death, and they are legion, a 2016 experiment at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego has become liminal — the moment that changed everything. The experiment involved mice born to live fast and die young, bred with a rodent version of progeria, a condition that causes premature aging. Left alone, the animals grow gray and frail and then die about seven months later, compared to a lifespan of about two years for typical lab mice.
But the Salk scientists had a plan to change the aging animals’ fate. They injected them with a virus carrying four genes that can reshape DNA and, in effect, make every cell in the rodents’ bodies young again. The scientists could even control the genes from outside the mice, turning them on and off to manage the safety and potency of the genetic changes.
The experiment worked: The animals lived 30 percent longer afterward, a marked improvement, if not quite a normal mouse lifespan.
