Aged liver cells accumulate far more damage than young ones. Introducing specific transcription factors can dramatically lower that damage. Researchers compare the potential breakthrough to the invention of antibiotics, though the work is still early.
Old liver cells get way more damage than young cells do. Like, it's so dramatic, you don't even need statistics. Many of us probably believe that because we've run the experiment in our own lives. So, you know, some personal— distributed replication, I should say, has been performed in this case. And we can put some of these sets of transcription factors in and dramatically reduce the amount of damage these cells experience.
If you think back to something like antibiotics or penicillin being invented, if these guys get this right, the equivalent of that is happening in this lab right here in South San Francisco. So, early days, long way to go, but if you're into this and you believe in it, this could be some pretty historic stuff.
