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Harvard Prof. Says Cure For Aging Could Emerge Within 5 Years (washingtonpost.com)

Posted by timothy on from the ok-but-those-are-long-years dept.

trbdavies writes: Reporting from the CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) gene-editing summit in D.C., the Washington Post quotes Harvard genetics professor George Church as expressing "confidence that in just five or six years he will be able to reverse the aging process in human beings." He says: "A scenario is, everyone takes gene therapy — not just curing rare diseases like cystic fibrosis, but diseases that everyone has, like aging," CRISPR is a powerful technology, but many at the summit have expressed caution about both the ethics and the feasibility of using it to cure disease. The story quotes Klaus Rajewsky, of the Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine saying "We have become masters in the art of manipulating genes, but our understanding of their function and interaction is far more limited."

5 of 385 comments (clear)

  1. Fantastic! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    That should coincide with the perfection of nuclear fusion reactors and the release of Hurd 1.0.

    1. Re:Fantastic! by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 3, Funny

      With the difference being that unlike nuclear fusion and HURD, a lot of old, rich people have a vested interest in a cure for aging.

      Fine with me - as long as I get my frickin' flying car.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    2. Re:Fantastic! by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 3, Funny

      That should coincide with the perfection of nuclear fusion reactors and the release of Hurd 1.0.

      Stranger things have happened. Duke Nukem Forever actually got released ...

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  2. Re: ca. 1563 by jhoger · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm tempted to real your English for you

  3. SIde effects may include... by GrBear · · Score: 5, Funny

    Side effects may include:

    - Profuse rectal bleeding
    - Projectile vomiting
    - Sterility
    - Excessive Gas
    - Delusions of Grandeur
    - Suicidal Thoughts
    - Death