Articles

Abstract Telomere elongation is protective of genomic stability, whereas telomere shortening increases genomic instability and thereby increases cancer risk. Long telomeres lower the risk of clinical cancer, while short telomeres are part of a causal cascade of intracellular events that result in oncogenesis and, ultimately, clinical cancer. Telomerase therapy is not only unlikely to result […]

Those working with Alzheimer’s and other dementias have been frustrated by the implacability of these diseases. Regardless of limited symptomatic treatment, there are no proven disease-modifying interventions. Despite huge and growing costs of care, a pipeline of candidate drugs, >400 registered trials, tens of thousands of patients, billions of dollars in both US federal and […]

The notion that all aging is ultimately cell aging is a novel hypothesis and one with growing support. Recent studies in genetics and cell biology are consistent with this view. Criticism of the model is largely reflective of inadequate understanding of both the model itself and human pathology. Hutchinson-Gilford progeria is a segmental progeria that […]

Current Translational Geriatrics and Experimental Gerontology Reports. 1: 121-127, 2012.

Rejuvenation Research 12:333-340, 2009.

The most common causes of death and suffering, even in most underdeveloped nations, are age-related diseases. These diseases share fundamental and often unappreciated pathology at the cellular and genetic levels, through cell senescence. In cancer, enforcing cell senescence permits us to kill cancer cells without significantly harming normal cells. In other age-related diseases, cell senescence […]

Cells, Aging, and Human Disease is the first book to explore aging all the way from genes to clinical application, analyzing the fundamental cellular changes which underlie human age-related disease. With over 4,000 references, this text explores both the fundamental processes of human aging and the tissue-by-tissue pathology, detailing both breaking research and current state-of-the-art […]

CRITICAL REVIEWS OXIDATIVE STRESS AND AGINGAdvances in Basic Science, Diagnostics and Intervention

The promise and potential of human embryonic stem cell research evoke profound clinical enthusiasm1-3; the embryonic human origins of such cells warrants an equally profound ethical concern. The ethical issues are not primarily matters of scientific fact nor of political belief. Consequently, these issues cannot adequately be addressed simply by reference to the biology of […]

Cell senescence limits cell divisions in normal somatic cells and may play a central role in age-related diseases. In this review, we examine the theory that cell senescence underlies and is a pivotal event in human aging and age-related diseases. The model remains completely consistent with what we currently know of cell biology, cell senescence, […]

Recent research has shown that inserting a gene for the protein component of telomerase into senescent human cells reextends their telomeres to lengths typical of young cells, and the cells then display all the other identifiable characteristics of young, healthy cells. This advance not only suggests that telomeres are the central timing mechanism for cellular […]

Population projections of the aging global society and its fiscal and social impact have depended on assumptions regarding the human life span. Until now, the assumption that the maximum human life span is fixed has been justified. Recent advances in cell biology, genetics, and our understanding of the cellular processes that underlie aging, however, have […]

Science may soon be able to slow, stop, or even reverse the aging process in humans. What will happen when people can live on and on for centuries? Within the next two decades we will extend the healthy human life-span indefinitely and, in doing so, alter human culture forever. Our maximum life-spans will not have […]