Humans are closer than ever to finding the proverbial fountain of youth — at least according to Harvard genetics professor David Sinclair.
“I’m one of hundreds of scientists around the world that believe this is going to happen within the next few years,” said Sinclair, who joined Jim Braude on “Greater Boston” to speak about his research. “Certainly, within ten years, there will be medicines you can be prescribed to extend your lifespan and slow down the aging process.”
Sinclair’s confidence stems from the work he’s done over the past several years with mice. But human trials are just around the corner.
“We’ve found genes that control the aging process — and they exist in all of us — and we’ve found molecules that regulate those things,” he explained. “We’ve put this little molecule in the water of the mice, they drink it … they run almost twice as far and they feel younger.”
Sinclair has noted similar effects in his own body since he himself began taking the experimental drug a year ago.
“I do feel like I can run farther, I think better, I don’t get tired, I can speak faster,” said Sinclair, adding, “I don’t get jetlag anymore, thank goodness.” The findings of his subjective analyses have been reinforced by blood test results. “According to those, I’m younger … about ten years.”
The physical and mental ameliorations listed by Sinclair, who co-directs Harvard’s Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging, highlight what he hopes to achieve with this research: to improve the quality of the aging process.
“Often, people think that I’m just trying to keep people alive in nursing homes; it’s the complete opposite,” said Sinclair. “There’s going to be a future where we can look forward to being in our eighties and nineties, not worry about getting cancer in our fifties or sixties … and that’s keeping people out of nursing homes.”
When asked whether the public should be at all skeptical, Sinclair responded, “I think that we should be more optimistic than ever… I was a pioneer early on, but now there are dozens of companies and scientists working towards this goal.” He does acknowledge that that optimism must be tempered, given the typically slow developments of FDA-approved, prescribable drugs.
“The fastest drug ever approved was four years, so we’re look at probably that timeframe,” said Sinclair, “but four years is not long to wait, considering humanity’s waited ten thousand years or more.”
