BioTime shares soar as researchers reverse cell aging

Shares of BioTime shot up more than 33 percent this morning after investors got a whiff of a newly published scientific paper in which the biotech company says it was able to reverse the aging process in cells. And scientists for the company say the work has big implications for the development of a new generation of cell-based therapies that can target age-related degenerative diseases.

"Normal human cells were induced to reverse both the "clock" of differentiation (the process by which an embryonic stem cell becomes the many specialized differentiated cell types of the body), and the "clock" of cellular aging (telomere length)," BioTime reports. "As a result, aged differentiated cells became young stem cells capable of regeneration."

"This is just the beginning of some really fascinating new possibilities for intervening in age-related disease," says BioTime CEO Michael West. "We believe that these technologies will have a significant impact on the future of medicine. However, it is important to underscore that much work needs to be done to translate these findings into safe and efficacious therapies."

- check out the BioTime press release

Related Articles:
ACT says it has found key to limitless blood supply
Protein therapies could delay aging process