A single eye just became ground zero for one of science's biggest bets on turning back the clock on aging. Boston-based Life Biosciences says it has delivered what it calls the first cellular "reprogramming" injection into a human, aiming to make old cells behave more like young ones, per Business Insider. The experimental shot was administered in the eyeball to one glaucoma patient as part of an early FDA trial of ER-100, with fewer than 20 people expected to enroll in such locations as Boston, New York, Los Angeles, and Charleston, South Carolina. Wired reports that, according to Life Biosciences, ER-100 has already been found to address vision loss in monkeys.
Researchers will track the patient's eye for six months, watching for both vision changes and red flags like cancer, a long-standing concern due to the fact that some reprogramming factors are tied to tumor growth, per Business Insider. To limit risk, the therapy uses just three of the four so-called "Yamanaka factors," the specific proteins that carry out the reprogramming, leaving out the one tied more closely to cancer popping up. The therapy is controlled by a daily doxycycline pill that activates the reprogramming therapy—meaning the process can be halted if any safety concerns emerge by simply having participants stop taking the pill.
The overall concept has been backed by big money from figures like Jeff Bezos and Sam Altman, and buoyed by interest from pharma players like Eli Lilly and Merck. Life Biosciences' trial is being framed as a cautious first step toward future whole-body treatments that could, in theory, extend our healthy lifespan—if they prove both safe and effective. "This is an important moment for Life Bio and for the field of aging biology," David Sinclair, one of the biotech company's founders, says in a release.
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