# A scientific Fountain of Youth? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 3, 2020, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-scientific-fountain-of-youth/850930 "2020-04-03T03:57:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-scientific-fountain-of-youth/850930/1 "2020-04-03T03:57:34Z")
Did the most significant news story of all time just slip quietly by during the furor over the pandemic? Or is this cold fusion redux? > **[Turning Back the Clock on Aging Cells (Published 2020)](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/24/science/aging-dna-epigenetics-cells.html?algo=identity&fellback=false&imp_id=435400664&imp_id=131128537&action=click&module=Science%20%20Technology&pgtype=Homepage)** > > Researchers report that they can rejuvenate human cells by reprogramming them to a youthful state. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-scientific-fountain-of-youth/850930/2 "2020-04-03T05:31:42Z")
I saw that news on [Science Daily](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200324090007.htm). Yes, this may be the real thing, but there’s likely to be a lot more work before we know for sure. For one thing, it works in mice and in _in vitro_ human cells, but the big question is: will it work in humans? ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-scientific-fountain-of-youth/850930/3 "2020-04-03T07:20:38Z")
Have there been a lot of experiments that work _in vitro_ but not _in vivo_? Honest question: I have no idea. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-scientific-fountain-of-youth/850930/4 "2020-04-03T09:43:10Z")
If your comparison to cold fusion is meant to say that, like cold fusion, we hear news stories of that sort on a regular basis, then I can relate to that. Which is not to say that I doubt these researchers have made a significant progress in their work; but it’s certainly a long, _long_ way before any practical application of these results hits the market (and even when it does, the application will not be some gadget that simply rejuvenates people; more likely it will be a therapy to target and repair organ damage). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-scientific-fountain-of-youth/850930/5 "2020-04-03T13:38:46Z")
Things working in vitro but not in vivo happens all the friggin’ time in biology research. It’s by far the most common outcome of any given investigation. Probably makes it hard for biology researchers to keep their hopes up. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-scientific-fountain-of-youth/850930/6 "2020-04-03T13:54:12Z")
I thought that the size of telomeres dictated how many times cells could divide. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-scientific-fountain-of-youth/850930/7 "2020-04-03T16:20:25Z")
> [@](#): > > The Stanford team, led by Tapash Jay Sarkar, Dr. Thomas A. Rando and Vittorio Sebastiano, say their method, designed to reverse these errors and walk back the cells to their youthful state, does indeed restore the cells’ vigor and eliminate signs of aging… Members of the Stanford team have formed a company, Turn Biotechnologies, to develop therapies for osteoarthritis and other diseases. Um. :dubious: > [@SlackerInc](#): > > Have there been a lot of experiments that work in vitro but not in vivo? By conservative estimate there have been a zillion drugs that worked in vitro (i.e. in cells in a test tube) and either did not work in living organisms or had severe side effects that made their use untenable (the report that one version of these “factors” caused fatal cancers in their rodent hosts might be a wee cause for concern). Also, there have been many many treatments that looked highly promising based on results in mice and rats, and never translated successfully to humans. I dunno though. In the Pendergast novels, Constance Greene is kept youthful and living for well over 100 years by Dr. Leng’s elixir, originally compounded with the aid of human cauda equina extract and later synthesized in a lab. Maybe Yamanaka factors will not only be a real-life Fountain of Youth but cure coronavirus too.