A California biotech company has deciphered not only the genetic code that stops and then reverses aging... It has also patented a technology enabling it to flip a genetic switch within our DNA, the
"God Switch".
This may ignite a fireball of controversy — possibly worldwide protests that could make the violence in the Islamic world over portrayals of Muhammad seem genteel by comparison.
Because, it too, has tremendous religious implications:
Some will say it’s blasphemous and sacrilegious — that it discredits the importance and power of God.
No doubt major health care corporations and pharmaceutical giants, here and abroad, will start a bidding war — competing for the right to license this revolutionary technology, if not purchase these biotech companies outright.
The Biotech world is on the verge of a miracle of scientific discovery — proof that scientists could accomplish what was previously thought impossible… what many in the world will believe is
a violation of God’s will.
A chance to live forever and remain forever young: practical, real immortality.
Let me first quote a headline that appeared in the Los Angeles Times in 1998 when early test results were first revealed:
"Scientists Give Cell Apparent Immortality."
Another newspaper wrote:
“Firm Finds Fountain of Youth for Human Cells”
And the
Oakland Tribune wrote:
“Researchers Immortalize Human Cells.”
That was then, of course, when the science was still, for lack of a better word, immature, and not ready to be commercialized.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent and President Obama’s nominee for surgeon general in 2009 said, “I think in the next couple of decades, we’re going to get to a point of practical immortality.”
Little did he realize then how the decades could be compressed into a few short years?
Today, the laboratory doors have swung open again!
And now we can see how far the science has evolved.
A biotech company,
BioTime, has deciphered not only the genetic code that stops, and then reverses aging… It has also patented a technology enabling it to flip a genetic switch within our DNA, what many now call the “God Switch”…Which may make human cells immortal.
They do not — will not die.
Indeed, it appears that every time the God Switch is flipped, it returns the aged, tired, worn-out cells of your body to the biologically pristine state they were on day one — the day you were born. One company has already been granted hundreds of patents related to the
God Switch. Nevertheless, FDA approval is a near certainty, as no drugs are involved. As you will see, to flip the God Switch, no foreign or unnatural substance is used or introduced into the body.
Indeed, the remarkable thing about stem cell therapeutics is that it doesn’t require the invention of new drugs with unknown side effects. This new technology can lead us to products and therapies that could free us from many diseases and afflictions that plague or kill us. These include heart disease, cancer, and arthritis, to name just a few.
Today, in the United States, it’s estimated that 73% of the population — more than 200 million people — will die of heart failure, cancer or stroke. In fact, 2,000 Americans die of heart disease every day. But what if, starting tomorrow, the number could be brought down closer to zero.
One company owns the technology that could make it possible.
The scientists working at this company, and one scientist in particular, think they have, in essence, discovered how to regenerate the human body — to make it heal and renew itself — quickly, painlessly and naturally. They have harnessed the power that exists within all of us to cure disease, prevent disease and, ultimately, eliminate aging.
It’s the biggest discovery in the history of modern medicine, if not medicine itself.
The scientists working for and collaborating with
BioTime are some of the most respected names in the field of regenerative medicine. In fact, the owner of BioTime, Dr. Michael West who is also its lead scientist, is often referred to as the
father of regenerative medicine.
His area of focus: stem cell therapeutics.
Unlike all the other cells in your body: skin cells, heart cells, brain cells… stem cells are, for the most part, blanks. In scientific terms, they are unpotentiated. In other words, their fate has not yet been determined.
They are waiting to be programmed by your DNA to become heart cells, skin cells, bone cells and all the other thousands of cell types that exist in your body.
And that ability to be programmed… can now be directed and manipulated in this company’s laboratory. This is a miraculous breakthrough. Once, it was only theoretically possible. Today, it’s not only possible — it’s actually being done.
Imagine… stem cells that can be programmed to replace aged, damaged or diseased hearts, brains and lungs, and even limbs, joints and skin.
Yet ironically, the greatest strides in stem cell research made by BioTime and other biotech companies came only after “human embryonic” stem cell research was banned.
At the time, it was believed only embryonic stem cells could cure the tens of millions of people suffering from devastating and deadly diseases, such as heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Embryonic stem cell therapy is actually a false messiah — and a dead end.
It has two flaws, two existential barriers that cannot be overcome.
The first barrier is supply and demand.
If embryonic stem cell therapies were actually developed and proven successful, where would all those 100 million human embryos come from?
The second barrier is our immune system.
Because embryonic stem cells are, in effect, foreign bodies, our immune system will, in most cases, reject them.
The cure, then, would be worse than the disease.
A raft of new companies arose, seeking to use non-embryonic “adult” stem cells for their research. The sort found in bone marrow and skin. It made sense.
If you cut your skin, stem cells immediately kick in and fix the damage. Similarly, if you donate a pint of blood, you have stem cells in your marrow that crank up the production of new blood cells.
This is actual proof of the regenerative capability of our bodies.
Only a limited number of adult stem cell types exist. Your heart, eyes, brain, knee cartilage and kidneys, for example, don’t possess stem cells.
The passing of our DNA from one generation to the next is proof that a part of us can continue on forever.
What if there was a mechanism within our DNA, a genetic code that could reverse-engineer any adult cell in our body into an embryonic-like stem cell?
In a few short years, after countless twists and turns, scientists have actually found that very mechanism!
Four genes within our DNA were found that can be manipulated to turn any adult cells — skin cells, for example — into embryonic-like stem cells.
In 2007, Japanese researcher Dr. Shinya Yamanaka, and a researcher from the University of Wisconsin, James Thomson, published papers showing that these
four genes could actually transform adult human cells into an embryonic-like state.
They were awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries.
Because the cells used did not come from discarded embryos, the reprogrammed cells were not called “embryonic stem cells” but were, instead, named “
induced pluripotent stem cells,” or iPS cells for short.
iPS cells immediately lit a fire under the scientific community.
Like embryonic stem cells, they have the potential to make all the cells of the human body.
But, unlike embryonic stem cells, they won’t be rejected.
Because, they’re the patient’s own cells.
Moreover, because they’re the patient’s own cells — neither embryo nor egg cells — iPS cells are also noncontroversial.
Nevertheless, there was a problem with this approach as well, and it was a big one…
To turn adult cells into iPS cells, the four genes had to be inserted into the adult cells. But, they couldn’t merely be dropped in. They had to be carried in.
And the carrier vehicle Dr. Yamanaka used to introduce these genes into the adult cells was a virus.
Though the type of virus used was dormant, it was obvious the FDA would never allow an unstable and unpredictable biological agent, a virus associated with cancer, no less, to be used in human therapies.
It was determined, too, that the process by which the virus and the four genes were inserted is destructive to the cell on a submicroscopic level.
And over time, it usually resulted in the cell’s death.
It was another dead end.
Ironically, Dr. Yamanaka was just awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize in medicine for his work — work that, in fact, doesn’t work.
And what does that prove?
Stem cell research has now earned the respect it richly deserves. It’s no longer controversial or morally reprehensible. Therefore, interest in stem cell research will be renewed.
Regenerative medicine, and stem cell companies, in particular, will again become the darlings of Wall Street.
Because Dr. Yamanaka’s process of inserting the four genes into an adult cell to create iPS cells appeared to be another dead end…
If there was one way to create an iPS cell, there had to be another.
And soon enough, it was Dr. West’s team at
BioTime who found it — and far quicker than anyone could’ve imagined.
The research team realized that if other animals (certain mammals, fish and reptiles, for example) could self-regenerate — grow new limbs or tails and repair damaged internal organs — it wasn’t impossible.
And we should, therefore, given the right conditions, be able to do the same.
Enter the one gene that rules them all — the God Switch!
Making this as non-technical as possible:
Our DNA is, in a very real sense, a software program. It is also locked and encrypted. Otherwise, the genes that make up our DNA could be manipulated and even corrupted by unintended outside forces or influences — viruses, for example. Yet, we know the encryption code protecting our DNA can be turned off.
And, we know this because when cells multiply — when we grow taller or build muscle, for example — our cells are dividing and making exact replicas of themselves. This means the DNA is also dividing and replicating itself so it can be passed into the new cell, as this diagram illustrates:
But, for the DNA to replicate and pass into a new cell,
encryption must be turned off.
Finding the encryption key — in other words, the gene or genes responsible for encryption — could unlock the cell and instruct it to return to its embryonic state — just as
Yamanaka did using a virus.
Easier said than done, of course.
The human genome contains approximately 20,000 genes; not all of which are understood, much less their millions of possible combinations. Basically, this is finding “a needle in a haystack” — a haystack the size of Mount Everest.
After analyzing gene “expressions” from numerous cancerous and healthy cells, this scientific team noticed that one particular gene, named SP100, was not activated in cancer cells.
There is now found evidence in various studies that the author / researchers had clearly failed to understand — that SP100 is indeed the encryption key for the human cell.
In other words, when the SP100 gene is deactivated, the human cell is unencrypted.
DNA is then available for genetic modification, good or ill.
Meaning if SP100 is deactivated, cells could mutate and become cancerous.
But it also means…
Cancerous cells might be cured when SP100 is reactivated!
And, of course, by deactivating SP100, Dr. West and his team at
BioTime could now take any adult cell in your body and return it to its embryonic-like state — make it a pure and healthy stem cell, an iPS cell.
A quick side note:
BioTime is now on the threshold of using gene SP100 to screen patients for cancer before they actually develop cancer, and even cure cancer if they already have it.
What still had to be accomplished was successfully directing an iPS cell to become any one of the 200-plus types of cells within the human body.
And, now that too has been done.
In other words, biologically, their age was the same as that of the patient.
And, that’s a problem — a big problem.
Because if we were to take skin cells from a 65-year-old patient who had suffered a heart attack — in which heart muscle had been damaged or destroyed — and turned those skin cells into iPS heart cells...
Those iPS heart cells would be 65 years old.
In essence, researchers needed to reverse cellular aging — to make an iPS cell as young as a newborn baby.
Many in the scientific community felt that this final hurdle was trying to accomplish the impossible.
What is impossible today can be possible tomorrow.
Based on previous scientific studies, there must also be a gene that controls aging — and if scientists could crack its genetic code, they could stop, and even reverse, aging. And, the proof that this was, indeed, possible was cancer.
Cancer cells do not age. They are, in medical terms, immortal. They continue to replicate without end; they do not die. The only way they will die is if they’re killed or the host body dies.
Following the breadcrumbs left behind by previous research, it took Dr. West and BioTime a few years to find this “immortalizing gene” and crack its code.
But, find it and crack it they did.
The research team successfully immortalized an iPS cell — it became ageless and continued to replicate without end.
After published these findings,
CNBC immediately asked to interview Dr. West so he could explain why his company’s stock had more than doubled overnight.
The rest of the world’s press was also quick to pick up on this impossible breakthrough…
A Bloomberg headline read: “Stock Soars as Firm Clones ‘Immortality’ Gene.”
Time Magazine titled its coverage “The Immortality Enzyme.”
The San Jose Mercury News wrote a story titled “Endless Youth?”
The biggest challenge still lies ahead
That challenge is to take an immortal iPS cell and direct it to become any one of the hundreds of cell types in the human body so that when those cells are ready to be injected back into the donor’s body, they would be no older than the day the donor was born.
Only after being programmed to become adult cells of a specific type would their biological clock start ticking.
In theory, by injecting age-zero Endothelial Precursor Cells (EPCs) into your body, derived from your own iPS cells, they would have the power to completely rejuvenate your entire cardiovascular system — thereby extending the warranty on your cardiovascular system— EACH TIME IT’S DONE!
It could also be the equivalent of a complete vascular transplant without surgery — and without the possibility of rejection.
This, my friend, could be the key to true IMMORTALITY.
Note: from Cryonics Asia, Ltd.
You can do what you want with any investment suggestions derived from other web site page links attached to this web site. Cryonics Asia, Ltd. does not give investment recommendations nor do we profit from any involvement with any commercial biotech company. It is not our intension to start peddling money making opportunities. But, according to our due diligence, this company is real and what they are doing has great implications for all Crayonists. Things that make Cryonic resuscitation feasible could be changing very fast. Whole body or just a neuropreservation choice may now take on a whole new dimension.
I don’t know of anyone getting a customized stem cell DNA targeted injection, of late, but this new stem cell research sure sounds exciting.
To date, Dr. West and his team at BioTime have developed proprietary processes to develop over 200 different cell types from iPS cells. Endothelial Precursor Cells (EPCs) discussed above are just one of these cell types.
It should be noted that, as far as we know, Dr. West’s company was the first publicly traded stem cell company to partner with Big Pharma.
BioTime’s neuroscience subsidiary will supply stem cells to Teva Pharmaceutical Industries for the purpose of developing treatments for retinal and neural degenerative diseases. Israel-based Teva, as you might know, is one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world, with annual revenues in excess of $16 billion. Together, BioTime and Teva will develop and commercialize BioTime’s treatment for age-related macular degeneration, which is a growing concern for aging baby boomers.
BioTime (BTX)
The key part of the scientific advancement — largely related to telomerase, the aging enzyme first cloned 20 years ago. The company that headlined those advances was
Geron (GERN), which was the standard-bearer for stem cell research among publicly traded companies for a long time.
BioTime (BTX) helmed by Dr. Michael West, and was a founder of Geron and has been described as a pioneer of stem cell research.
This company’s strategy of pursuing multiple products and technologies using a set of seven subsidiaries, or that’s what BioTime had until they added an eighth subsidiary (
BioTime Acquisition Corp) to
buy some of the stem cell intellectual property from Geron.
Dr. Michael West has described a few of BioTime’s key products, which include a new cancer diagnostic test that could become a huge seller pending final FDA approval.
BioTime is a small company but not a ridiculously teensy one, with a market cap of close to $200 million, and the shares were recently up by a good 15-20% on their pending deal with Geron.
The 52 week range:
$2.67 - $5.07
Current trading price
$3.68
Related Tickers 4/5/2013 -- 4:00 PM
Some of the companies in this Stem Cell therapeutics space include:
BTX,
GERN,
BCLI.OB,
ACTC.OB,
CUR,
ISCC,
MKGAY.PK,
PSTI,
STEM,
TEVA,
UTHR
Two Scientists have been recognized for a Stem Cell discovery and awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. In 2007, Japanese researcher Dr. Shinya Yamanaka, and a researcher from the University of Wisconsin, James Thomson, published papers showing that four genes could actually transform adult human cells into an embryonic-like state. The prize was awarded for the scientists’ "discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become
pluripotent."
Four genes, within our DNA, were found that can be manipulated to turn any adult cells — skin cells, for example — into embryonic-like stem cells capable of developing into any cell in the human body.
Continuing this line of discovery,
BioTime now has eight subsidiaries that are involved in a lot of different things, and each one is apparently a joint venture that helps to get outside funding. That, and BioTime’s work to expand cell lines that are available for researchers at low cost (but with royalties due on future products) gives quite a few ways for the science to “work” in a business sense (ie, to make money).
In terms of substantial new products from BioTime, it looks like they’re targeting late 2014/early 2015 as a key time period, that’s when they hope to get European approval for a their new cancer blood screening test, which would be a big deal (identifying genetic markers of cancer in the blood might be more effective and catch cancer much earlier than conventional screening like mammography or colonoscopy), and for a plastic surgery product called Renevia … and before that they hope to have launched clinical trials for an Age-related Macular Degeneration drug called OpReven that’s partnered with
Teva (TEVA).
So, there are some potential catalysts out there, though from a look at the BioTime balance sheet it appears they’ll probably have to bring in some cash from a new partnership or raise money over the next couple quarters in some other way.
Reading their latest investor presentation, it sounds like they’re on the verge of some products that are large, real and addressable. Whether they have now “cracked the code” to repair and rejuvenate human cells that is yet to be fully reveled.
BioTime could make enough money licensing their cell lines and selling research materials to turn them into a steady cash generator who could push that cash into developing these really breakthrough rejuvenating cell product lines.
Would the real prospect of stem cell triggered immortality be a “Godsend”, financially or otherwise?
Maybe immortality would lead to the Earth being such a festering, overpopulated cesspool that none of us would want to live forever, I expect… but I can see that developments along the way to that hypothetical future, like all of the advancements in
regenerative medicine to help your body repair itself from specific injuries or diseases, would certainly be welcomed by the marketplace … not least because the largest and wealthiest generation (the baby boomers) of the wealthiest country on earth is starting to face its own mortality.
In a recent article, on page 54 of the Feb 2013 issue of Life Extension magazine, Dr. West describes how he obtained $2,000,000 from the
Life Extension Foundation to found
ReCyte for the purpose of pursuing the use of pluripotent stem cells for the rejuvenation of heart and circulatory system tissue. ReCyte is a subsidiary of
BioTime. It is significant that the
LE Foundation was willing to invest big time for this endeavor.
