JimBowie1958
Old Fogey
- Sep 25, 2011
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Part of the response to the Robotics Revolution could be the enhancement of human beings to new abilities and longer life spans.
Here Dr. George Church discusses the increase of human life spans through improvements in adult genetic engingeering techniques we already have.
Next Big Future: George Church indicates reversal of aging will be a reality within ten years
The future isnt what she used to be.
Here Dr. George Church discusses the increase of human life spans through improvements in adult genetic engingeering techniques we already have.
Next Big Future: George Church indicates reversal of aging will be a reality within ten years
Fahy: If aging is driven by changes in gene expression, then the ability to control gene expression using CRISPR technology could have profound implications for the future of human aging. Why do you think aging may be at least partly driven by changes in gene expression?
Church: We know that there are cells that deteriorate with age in the human body and that we have the ability to turn those back into young cells again. This means we can effectively reset the clock to zero and keep those cells proliferating as long as we want. For example, we can take old skin cells, which have a limited lifetime, and turn them into stem cells (stem cells are cells that can turn into other kinds of cells) and then back into skin cells. This roundtrip results in the skin cells being like baby skin cells. It's as if my 60-year-old cells become 1-year-old cells. There are a variety of markers that are associated with aging, and those all get reset to the younger age.
Fahy: That's fantastic. Does this mean that reversing skin cell aging in your face would allow you to rejuvenate your entire face?
Church: If you rejuvenate at a molecular level, it doesn't necessarily mean that everything else rejuvenates. So, for example, if my face has a scar on it, it's not going to necessarily reverse that (although theoretically it's not out of the question). But we can reverse the tendency of your cells (and therefore of your whole body) to deconstruct when you reach your life expectancy.
Fahy: If aging is driven by changes in gene expression and those changes in gene expression can be reversed, then we need to be able to find all of the important age-related changes in gene expression as quickly as possible. How can this be done?
Church: Gene expression results in each cell having specific RNAs and proteins, and these can be surveyed. You don't necessarily have to define every single RNA in a particular cell to understand that cell, but you can, and we have in fact developed a new method to do this that allows us to see all of the tens of thousands of RNAs in a single cell at one time, and to see the RNAs in neighboring cells as well. So now we can see how different cells relate to one another in context. This new method, called fluorescent in situ sequencing, or FISSEQ, allows us to count all the RNAs in a cell while simultaneously counting all of the RNAs in all of the cells it touches. Plus, we get the 3D coordinates for every RNA molecule in every cell.
Fahy: That's unbelievable. How can you use this method to search for changes that are related to aging?
Church: Suppose there are two different kinds of cell, and we want to know what gene expression states make them different from one another. We can first compare the two cells using FISSEQ in order to determine the differences in gene expression between them. Next, we can pick specific differences we think cause the cells to be different cell types, and change the expression of those particular genes in either or both cells using, for example, CRISPR, and see if we can change one kind of cell into the other. Even if we don't get it right the first time, we can take many guesses as to what the important RNAs are and just how much to tweak them until we do get it right.
The same principle can be applied to any pair of cells. By comparing old cells to young cells, we can find out what makes an old cell an old cell, and how to turn an old cell into a young one.
Church: We know that there are cells that deteriorate with age in the human body and that we have the ability to turn those back into young cells again. This means we can effectively reset the clock to zero and keep those cells proliferating as long as we want. For example, we can take old skin cells, which have a limited lifetime, and turn them into stem cells (stem cells are cells that can turn into other kinds of cells) and then back into skin cells. This roundtrip results in the skin cells being like baby skin cells. It's as if my 60-year-old cells become 1-year-old cells. There are a variety of markers that are associated with aging, and those all get reset to the younger age.
Fahy: That's fantastic. Does this mean that reversing skin cell aging in your face would allow you to rejuvenate your entire face?
Church: If you rejuvenate at a molecular level, it doesn't necessarily mean that everything else rejuvenates. So, for example, if my face has a scar on it, it's not going to necessarily reverse that (although theoretically it's not out of the question). But we can reverse the tendency of your cells (and therefore of your whole body) to deconstruct when you reach your life expectancy.
Fahy: If aging is driven by changes in gene expression and those changes in gene expression can be reversed, then we need to be able to find all of the important age-related changes in gene expression as quickly as possible. How can this be done?
Church: Gene expression results in each cell having specific RNAs and proteins, and these can be surveyed. You don't necessarily have to define every single RNA in a particular cell to understand that cell, but you can, and we have in fact developed a new method to do this that allows us to see all of the tens of thousands of RNAs in a single cell at one time, and to see the RNAs in neighboring cells as well. So now we can see how different cells relate to one another in context. This new method, called fluorescent in situ sequencing, or FISSEQ, allows us to count all the RNAs in a cell while simultaneously counting all of the RNAs in all of the cells it touches. Plus, we get the 3D coordinates for every RNA molecule in every cell.
Fahy: That's unbelievable. How can you use this method to search for changes that are related to aging?
Church: Suppose there are two different kinds of cell, and we want to know what gene expression states make them different from one another. We can first compare the two cells using FISSEQ in order to determine the differences in gene expression between them. Next, we can pick specific differences we think cause the cells to be different cell types, and change the expression of those particular genes in either or both cells using, for example, CRISPR, and see if we can change one kind of cell into the other. Even if we don't get it right the first time, we can take many guesses as to what the important RNAs are and just how much to tweak them until we do get it right.
The same principle can be applied to any pair of cells. By comparing old cells to young cells, we can find out what makes an old cell an old cell, and how to turn an old cell into a young one.
The future isnt what she used to be.
