Michael West at Aging 2008
Another Aging 2008 transcript from Future Current: "I have been entranced by the immortality of the species and how it's accomplished. A simple way of putting it: we are made of cells, trillions of them, that have been proliferating backward in time all the way through hundreds of millions of years to the beginning of life on the planet, leaving no dead ancestors in their wake ever - or we would not be here. It is our somatic cells that are destined to die. All the cells in our body have this immortal legacy going backward in time millions of years and will face death for the first time ever in our lifetime. What can we learn about the immortality of the species to transport those observations and discoveries of modern technologies into something that will really do something about human aging? ... How could these cells be used in the next ten years? There are numerous examples I could give you, but one hopeful one - macular degeneration. This is the leading cause of blindness, due to the aging of our retina. These cells have now been made in a form that is appropriate to begin human clinical trials. ... When they become lost or dysfunctional in the back of the retina, they cause this cascade of pathology that is a leading cause of blindness in the elderly. ... It is at least one of the top targets for how we hope these cells will eventually be used in medicine."