quotes

Telomerase seems to behave like the elixir of eternal life for cells. Geron Corporation, a company devoted to telomerase research, was founded by the scientist who first showed that telomeres shrink in dividing cells, Cal Harley. Geron hit the headlines in August 1997 for for cloning part of telomerase. It's share price promptly doubled, not so much on the hope that it could give us eternal youth as on the prospect of making anti-cancer drugs: tumors require telomerase to keep them growing. But Geron went on to immortalize cells with telomerase. In one experiment, Geron scientists took two cell types grown in the laboratory, both of which lacked natural telomerase, and equipped them with a gene for telomerase. The cells continued to dividing, vigorous and youthful, far beyond the point when they would normally senesce and die. At the time the result was published the cells that had had the telomerase gene introduced had exceeded their lifespan by more than 20 doublings, and they showed no sign of slowing down.

Matt Ridley
Genome: The Autobiography Of A Species In 23 Chapters