Russia is developing what officials have described as a “vaccine against aging,” a gene therapy drug aimed at slowing cellular aging by blocking a receptor linked to age-related changes in the body, the deputy science minister said Thursday.

Denis Sekirinsky, Russia’s deputy science and higher education minister, said the experimental treatment would target the RAGE receptor, which he said triggers cellular aging when activated.

“The RAGE gene is a receptor whose activation launches the aging of the cell. Blocking this gene, on the contrary, can prolong its youth,” Sekirinsky said at a healthy longevity conference in the Volga city of Saransk, according to the state-run TASS news agency.