Telomere shortening is associated with increased risk of disease and decreased lifespan. Various nutrients have been shown to support the length and health of telomeres in clinical and preclinical studies.
Scientifically reviewed by: Gary Gonzalez, MD, in May 2026. Written by: Richard Ross.
In 2015, Liz Parrish flew to Colombia and let someone inject an untested gene therapy into her body 150 times. She texted her kids that she loved them before it started. When it was over, she went for nachos.
Ten years later, her telomeres are longer than when she started, and she has taken 12 gene therapies in total.
Her decade of self-experimentation has produced peer-reviewed data, a growing protocol of gene therapies, and a company training its sights on making biological aging optional. Our conversation goes over what it took to become patient zero and what gene therapy for aging looks like in practice today, among other things.
Mayo Clinic researchers have identified a protein that cancer cells use to shut down the body’s immune response, a discovery that could help scientists develop new treatments that make cancer immunotherapies more effective.
Published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, the study identifies a previously unknown role for a protein called TRAILshort, which acts like an immune “off switch.” The researchers found that TRAILshort prevents T cells — the immune system’s primary cancer-fighting cells — from recognizing and destroying cancer and virus-infected cells. In preclinical models, blocking the protein restored T-cell activity and improved immune response.
The researchers also found that TRAILshort reduces the effectiveness of chimeric antigen receptor-T cell therapy (CAR-T cell therapy), one of the most advanced forms of cancer immunotherapy. Their findings suggest that therapies designed to block TRAILshort could improve CAR-T treatment and potentially benefit other immune-based cancer therapies.
Researchers have developed an implant that could deliver next-generation therapies for ovarian cancer precisely where they are needed while simultaneously monitoring how the disease responds.
The project was carried out by a team at CÚRAM, the Research Ireland Centre for Medical Devices based at the University of Galway, along with collaborators from the University of Minnesota, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Wyss Institute.
The research was published in the journal Device. It showed how the team developed a flexible, porous implant designed to sit inside the peritoneal cavity—the space surrounding the abdominal organs in a woman’s body where ovarian cancer predominantly occurs. The device is designed to connect to an external port through the skin so it can be replenished with therapeutic agents as often as needed without requiring further surgery.
Dr. Norman Lepor, MD — Founder and Director of the National Heart Institute, Clinical Professor of Medicine at UCLA, and Attending Cardiologist at Cedars-Sinai.
Heart disease remains the leading cause of death worldwide, and one of its most important modifiable risk factors is elevated LDL cholesterol — the so-called \.
TAMPA, Fla. — Neuraspace, the Portuguese space traffic management startup, announced 15.6 million euros ($18 million) in fresh funding Aug. 5 to expand European space domain awareness (SDA) and defense capabilities.
The financing comprises a six million euro Series B round from venture capitalists and 9.6 million euros from Portugal’s Recovery and Resilience Plan, an EU-backed national program created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Neuraspace spokesperson said the public funding will directly support NeuraspaceDEF, an AI-powered, SDA platform for civil and defense users.
An immune pathway has been discovered that prevents a normally harmless fungus from developing into a fatal infection. The King’s College London study, published in Nature Microbiology, provides the first potential clue as to why only certain patients with weakened immune systems, including those undergoing chemotherapy or living with HIV, are at risk of life-threatening Candida albicans infections.
Candida albicans is a fungus that normally lives harmlessly in areas such as the mouth and gut but can sometimes spread through the body and cause fatal disease.
If the results are confirmed in humans, they could provide a test to identify who is at risk of developing fatal fungal infections and represent a potential therapeutic target to reduce the risk of developing the disease.
However, Carpenter was not entirely convinced that hyposalivation drives periodontitis. “I don’t think there’s much evidence for that in…literature about human studies,” he said. Instead, he said that inflammation—which is present in Dp16 salivary glands—could cause hyposalivation. “There’s lots of literature that shows that inflammatory cells can affect salivary secretion,” he noted.
According to Yule, next steps could include looking at whether dysregulated calcium signaling—which is linked with several other diseases—also underlies other Down syndrome-related complications like Alzheimer’s disease. While drugs targeting calcium signaling could potentially help, there is a complexity to it, he noted. “Knowing what the target is [is] good, but the fact that the target is almost universal in cells, then that makes you think about whether it’s something that could be targeted,” explained Yule.
Lacruz agreed that disrupted calcium signaling occurs in other tissues as well. “Understanding why calcium is dysregulated is an important part of what we need to do [next],” he said. More work needs to be done to translate the findings to the clinic, “but we see that as a way forward to potentially impacting the lives of individuals with Down syndrome,” said Lacruz.