Interview with William Haseltine from HGSI1

The following is an excerpt2 from a recent interview that the Life Extension Foundation ( LEF ) conducted with William Haseltine.

LEF; We're very interested in your viewpoint about human immortality3. Could you please tell us what your view is on this subject?

WH: In the past few years it has become possible for the first time to construct a scenario4 in which humans may become immortal : by the systematic replacement of stem5 cells. Death is not an intrinsic6 property of life. Life is intrinsically immortal. Our germ7 cells IWC Replica Watches are the decedents of a four-billion-year old, unbroken chain of cell divisions. The molecule8 that de-termines our structure and function, our DNA9 , has conveyed the basis of life continuously. There is no reason why DNA cannot continue to convey the ba- sis of life for another four billion years. Nothing about life necessitates10 death.

One theory of aging is that the stem cells in an individual age and eventually fail to reproduce. If stem cell death is the predominant" driver of aging, then the solution is to replace old stem cells with young. That hypothesis12 will be tested, first in animals, and if results are positive, in humans.

LEF; Are you familiar with research being done at Advanced Cell Technology?

WH: I am familiar with some of the work that company is doing.

LEF : Are you familiar with their demonstration that they can use therapeu-tic13 cloning to reverse the aging clock?

WH: They recently published a paper in the journal I edit showing that this does not yet work in the case of humans.

Development proceeds to a certain point-to about six cells-but not further. Until such time as it can be shown that the cloned embryo14 can develop past the 6-cell stage to the blastocyst15 stage, I think the jury is still out. It may be possible some day. That is one of the reasons we need many groups active in this area.

LEF: Going back to how stem cells might be used to eliminate aging, have you considered that there may be old cells around that are not dead, and therefore cannot simply be replaced , but are nevertheless misbehaving?

WH; That is possible. One way to address that possibility would be to intro-duce drug resistance markers into the new stem cells. Once those stem cells have displaced enough of the previous ones, the old cells could be killed.

LEF: Yes, that could be done.

WH : The strategy would depend on a very thorough and systematic replacement of the existing cells. However, we do not know enough about the fundamental processes Bulgari Replica of aging. The process of stem cell death may be only part of the answer.

LEF: Right.

WH; For the first time, though, it is conceptually16 possible to chart a path to human immortality. Whether that path will lead to success, nobody yet knows.

LEF : Has anyone criticized you for even thinking about things like that?

WH: I do not believe people should be criticized for thinking.

LEF: Very good. Thank you for a refreshing and forthright17 interview.

WH: Thank you.