[boris]

"3. Mutations in chromosomes. The most damaging consequence of cell mutation is the development of cancer. The immortality of cancer cells is related to the behavior of the telomere, the caplike structure found on the end of every chromosome, which decreases in length each time the cell divides and therefore seems to be involved with the cell’s mortality. If we could eliminate the gene that makes telomerase—the enzyme that maintains and lengthens telomeres—the cancer cell would die. De Grey’s solution for this problem is to replace a person’s stem cells every 10 or so years with ones engineered not to carry that gene."

Why are babies born young? If a 40-year-old couple have a child, why is it not born 40 years old? Because--aside from cancer cells--the only body cells which express telomerase are sperm and ova. Be careful. 40-year-old babies would not be a good idea.

Now. If one could somehow "switch ON" the telomerase in all of the bodies' cells WITHOUT making them cancerous, would they not "rejuvenate"?

So why does he want to turn it off?

--Boris

[snarks_when_bored]

I think he wants to be able to switch off the telomerase in order to prevent cancer cells from being 'immortal', so they'll die.

Here's an interesting page on telomeres, telomerase, cancer cells, longevity, etc:

Telomeres

[Doctor Stochastic]

Be careful. 40-year-old babies would not be a good idea.

Observation seems to indicate that you are correct.