Immortality through genetics?

[Lattima]

Hello all,

 

I've been thinking: Would it be possible to make a human immortal by cancelling/modifying genes? As far as I know, it's possible in theory but would be absurdly difficult in practice. Could anyone confirm this?

 

[CharonY]

For now we do not have a good idea how to do it without causing other problems. One target are e.g. telomers, which shorten with the lifetime of a cell. However, if they are allowed to persist it appears that abnormal cell growth may occur, potentially leading to tumors or cancer.

As it stands, our bodies are constant change with a lot of trade-offs being made on the way. For complex organisms there does not appear to be a stable state (as imaginable for simple things like cells).

From a mechanistic viewpoint we do not even have a theoretical approach.

[Lattima]

Interesting... However if the threat of cancer could be counteracted, one could use a viral vector to distribute the telomere-rejuvenating gene(s) from the Turritopsis nutricula jellyfish or from the hydra protozoan. As long as apoptosis continues, there shouldn't be too much of a problem concerning tumorous growths, should there?

 

Thanks for your input!