The Breakthrough
By combining two therapies that were developed outside of the US, BioViva USA, Inc. has begun treating an individual using gene therapy intended to reverse the aging process, becoming the first company to do so. The CEO of BioViva, Elizabeth Parrish, made an announcement that the subject has already resumed their normal routines and is doing well. The patient is going to be evaluated routinely, with the full outcome expected to be revealed after 1 year.
The Implications
The notion that "aging" is actually a curable disease is radical and one that wasn't even being considered 20 years ago. But slowly, the tide is turning. Thought leaders like Craig Venter, the man responsible for sequencing the first genome, recently founded Human Longevity Inc, an anti-aging startup with an initial $70 million in funding. Google has also been pouring money (over $1.5 billion) into its internal and highly secretive anti-aging startup Calico.
When it comes to BioViva, the objective of this experiment is to find an alternative approach to avoid cellular aging, which is considered the leading cause of death in developed countries. Parrish and those in BioViva are leading the charge, and the announcement that the first human trials are underway signifies a powerful step in the right direction.
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