Key points from article :
Scientists are edging closer to drugs that could do something once thought impossible: reverse aspects of biological ageing rather than just slow it down. The article explains that ageing is driven in part by changes in the epigenome—the chemical tags that switch genes on and off. While our DNA sequence stays mostly the same, these regulatory instructions become increasingly scrambled with age, causing cells to function less effectively. Remarkably, nature already knows how to reset this process: when an embryo forms, cellular “age” is wiped clean, returning biological age to zero.
This natural reset inspired Nobel Prize–winning work by Shinya Yamanaka, who identified four key proteins—now known as Yamanaka factors—that can rewind adult cells back to a youthful, stem-cell-like state. Researchers now see this as a kind of biological “cheat code.” The challenge has been learning how to use it safely. Fully resetting cells would erase their identity and be fatal, but newer approaches use only three of the four factors, achieving what’s called partial epigenetic reprogramming—making cells younger without stripping away their function.
One of the leaders in this space is Life Biosciences, which plans to begin human trials in 2026, starting with treatments for the eye. In animal studies, the therapy restored vision and regenerated damaged optic nerves. The treatment is designed to be tightly controlled, switched on temporarily with the antibiotic doxycycline and then turned off once the cells are reset. While the eye is the first target, similar approaches are being developed for organs like the liver.
The article stresses that this is not a cure-all for ageing. Epigenetic reprogramming cannot fix DNA mutations or address every hallmark of ageing, and whole-body rejuvenation remains a major technical challenge. Still, this marks a shift from treating age-related diseases one by one to targeting ageing itself. For the first time, drugs are entering trials that aim to rewind part of the ageing process at its biological roots.
