There are many different definitions of aging, but scientists generally agree upon some common features: Aging is a time-dependent process that results in increased vulnerability to disease, injury and death. This process is both intrinsic, when your own body causes new problems, and extrinsic, when environmental insults damage your tissues.

Your body is comprised of trillions of cells, and each one is not only responsible for one or more functions specific to the tissue it resides in, but must also do all the work of keeping itself alive. This includes metabolizing nutrients, getting rid of waste, exchanging signals with other cells and adapting to stress.

The trouble is that every single process and component in each of your cells can be interrupted or damaged. So your cells spend a lot of energy each day preventing, recognizing and fixing those problems.

Each time our cells divide, the protective caps that keep our chromosomes from fraying, called telomeres, lose a bit of their DNA. Telomeres shorten steadily as we age, but in certain medical conditions like dyskeratosis congenita, the process is accelerated.

“Your telomeres determine your lifeline; how long they are determines how old your body is,” says Becca Hudson, who was diagnosed with dyskeratosis congenita at age 14. “My telomere length was below the first percentile for my age.”

Trying out for cheerleading, 14-year-old Becca was pulled when testing found something amiss with her blood work. She had very low counts of platelets, red cells, and white cells. Her doctor called later that day and said she should be admitted that night to Boston Children’s Hospital.

DISCLOSURE: Longevity. Technology (a brand of First Longevity Limited) has been contracted by the company featured in this article to support its current funding round. Qualifying investors can find out more via the Longevity. Technology investor portal.

British regenerative medicine company Videregen is on a mission to cure chronic diseases and is targeting the human immune system through its work to regenerate the thymus. Building on groundbreaking work conducted at the Francis Crick Institute, Videregen believes its technology holds the potential to restore the function of the aging immune system. The company is already approved for initial clinical trials of its technology in respiratory disease and is working towards trials of its regenerative thymus technology within three years.

Longevity Technology: The thymus is a small but important organ in the immune system and is responsible for the development and maturation of critical T cells. It plays a key role in our early development, but declines significantly as we age, along with the functionality of our immune system, and its decline is linked to several age-related and chronic diseases. Videregen is betting that its technology can help restore the thymus, potentially rejuvenating our immune system in the process. To learn more, we spoke to the company’s CEO, Dr Steve Bloor.

A stem cell therapy treatment developed by Duke-NUS Medical School researchers for heart failure has shown promising results in preclinical trials. These cells, when transplanted into an injured heart, are able to repair damaged tissue and improve heart function, according to a study published in the journal npj Regenerative Medicine.

Longevity. Technology: The most common cause of death worldwide is ischemic heart disease, which is caused by diminished blood flow to the heart. When blood flow to the heart is blocked, the heart muscle cells die – a condition termed myocardial infarction or heart attack, something that happens to 805,000 people a year in the US [1].

In the Duke-NUS study, a unique new protocol was used where pluripotent stem cells were cultivated in the laboratory in order to grow into heart muscle precursor cells – these cardiomyocyte progenitors can develop into various types of heart cells, through a process called cell differentiation in which dividing cells gain specialised functions. During preclinical trials, the precursor cells were injected into the area of the heart damaged by myocardial infarction, where they were able to grow into new heart muscle cells, restoring damaged tissue and improving heart function.