Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte Believes Aging May Come Down to a Cell's Identity Crisis

It’s in the embryo that the 20,000 or so genes in the human genome start organizing to mature into the more than 200 different cell types in the body—similar to the way young people start discovering their talents and deciding on a career. In other words, like teens, cells develop an identity. Over time, however, this cellular identity gets challenged—by molecular processes, inflammation, environmental exposures including pollutants, and behaviors like a lack of physical activity, poor diet, and smoking. The cumulative effects of these assaults, Izpisua Belmonte and other developmental experts believe, drive a significant portion of aging and disease. Restoring this lost cellular identity could help cells to function as they did when they were younger, Izpisua Belmonte believes.This concept opens up clever ways to confront the deterioration of cells, tissues, and organs. Izpisua Belmonte has found, for example, that as people age, their cells drift toward a certain state that leads to stiffer tissues and greater production of inflammatory factors that can stress and age cells—and that there might be a way to forestall it.Izpisua Belmonte founded Altos to test his idea. Rather than ...