Bill Andrews and longevity
Bill Andrews Ph.D. one of the world’s leading geneticists and longevity experts believes greater investment in curing aging could deliver a solution for telomere shortening in under three years. In the field of longevity, Dr. Bill Andrews is widely recognized for his work to understand and overcome aging, particularly in the area of telomere shortening.
The founder of Sierra Sciences, who led the research to discover the genetic components of telomerase and subsequently developed a gene therapy based on the enzyme, has long been one of the leading voices calling for aging to be treated as a curable disease. Longevity. Technology: Andrews has developed a “strategic plan” that he believes will enable humanity to conquer aging. While still a work in progress, it is the development of this plan that guides the direction of Sierra Sciences. We caught up with Andrews to discuss his views on how to make curing aging a reality.
While Andrews remains a strong proponent of the potential of telomerase therapies to target aging, he acknowledges that the answers may come from a range of areas. “I think there’s a good chance that telomere shortening is not the only problem, we need to work on the other problems too,” he says. “I focused on telomeres, not because I believe that’s the only cause of aging, but because I believe we will never really cure aging until we’ve also solved the telomere shortening problem.” More longevity funding needed Andrews is enthused by the scientific research that has been conducted on aging to date, but he believes more could be done with more resources. “A lot of very smart people have been leading the way in antiaging research, and have built up and done a lot of the pioneering work to set the background for what’s going on now,” he says. “I don’t think anybody has any real solutions yet, but we have all the strategies on how to attack all the possible explanations for aging. The big problem is the funding. “The scientists know exactly what to do. We’ve got the most brilliant minds in the world working on this right now. They don’t know how to cure aging yet, but they know all the different things they need to do to fill in the gaps to answer all the unanswered questions. It just needs funding.”
