The Telomerase Revolution: The Story of the Scientific Breakthrough that Holds the Key to Human Ageing - Softcover

Fossel, Dr Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1782399127 ISBN 13: 9781782399124

Publisher: Atlantic Books, 2017

Synopsis

Science is on the cusp of a revolutionary breakthrough. We now understand more about aging—and how to prevent and reverse it—than ever before.

In recent years, our understanding of the nature of aging has grown exponentially, and dramatic life extension—even age reversal—has moved from science fiction to real possibility.

Dr. Michael Fossel has been in the forefront of aging research for decades and is the author of the definitive textbook on human aging. In The Telomerase Revolution, he takes us on a detailed but highly accessible scientific journey, providing startling insights into the nature of human aging.

On first examination, aging appears inevitable and straight-forward. Everything, after all, from mountains and galaxies, to plants and animals, ages, doesn’t it? Not exactly. With deeper consideration, aging turns out to be complex, and surprising questions emerge:

Is aging something that happens within our cells or in the organism as a whole?
Why do some cells age every time they reproduce, while others can reproduce indefinitely, without signs of aging?
How close are we to being able to dramatically extend life-spans and cure age-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s, dementia, and strokes?

Instead of the common idea that “we accumulate damage, therefore we age,” the reality is the opposite: our cells age and so we begin to accumulate damage. The latest research shows so-called “ageless” cells contain “telomerase”—an enzyme that maintains telomeres and adds back segments lost during replication. Essentially, it is the telomere that controls how well our cells repair themselves over time.

The Telomerase Revolution explains simply how we came to understand the ways aging and age-related diseases work, what we can do about them now, what we will be able to do to cure and prevent these diseases—and why we are now on the brink of a revolution in human medicine.

About this title

About the Author

Dr Michael Fossel earned both his PhD and MD from Stanford University, where he taught neurobiology and research methods. Winner of a National Science Foundation fellowship, he was a clinical professor of medicine for almost three decades, the executive director of the American Aging Association, and the founding editor of Rejuvenation Research. In 1996, he wrote the first book on the telomerase theory of ageing, Reversing Human Aging. He is also the author of Cells, Aging, and Human Disease and co-author of The Immortality Edge. He currently teaches The Biology of Aging at Grand Valley State University and is working to bring telomerase to human trials for Alzheimer's disease.

Review

Michael Fossel's compelling argument for the telomere approach to reversing aging isn't just worth a look - it's like reading the words of Virgil as he leads us along the mysteries of aging. * Alexey Olovnikov, PhD, Institute of Biochemical Physics and Russian Academy of Sciences * Dr Fossel's exciting book is opening doors to extended healthspan that can change human history, and it's all grounded in solid scientific research. * Noel Patton, founder and chairman of TA Sciences * The Telomerase Revolution is a remarkable book, telling a fascinating story that pulls together at last a single coherent theory of how and why growing old leads to so many different forms of illness. * Matt Ridley, author of Genome and The Rational Optimist *

Edition details

• Publisher: Atlantic Books
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1782399127
• ISBN 13: 9781782399124
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240