This geneticist’s age-reversal tech could help restore sight

Yuancheng Lu, a 34-year-old geneticist, is focused on the subject of aging and vision. His lineage is plagued by blindness, with a great-aunt in China losing her life due to a lack of sight and Lu himself carrying a genetic mutation for macular degeneration, a leading cause of vision loss in the elderly. To shield himself from harmful sunlight, Lu dons aviator glasses.

As the head researcher at the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Lu is pioneering gene therapies aimed at preventing age-related vision loss. He believes the eye provides an ideal model for studying aging and rejuvenation. One of Lu's most significant achievements was in 2018 when, during his PhD studies at Harvard Medical School, he employed an age-reversal technique called reprogramming to rejuvenate the optic nerves of mice.

By crushing the nerves and injecting them with a gene therapy designed to restore them to a youthful state, Lu observed the nerves regrowing and their axons appearing as orange filaments under a microscope. After sixteen days, the mice regained their sight as demonstrated through tests involving rotating light bars. More recently, Lu's groundbreaking gene therapy entered human clinical trials this year, with the startup Life Biosciences, co-founded by longevity scientist David Sinclair, injecting the treatment into a patient with glaucoma on June 9.

The news of this trial has caused quite a stir, with the New York Times dubbing the technology as potentially "changing humanity." Online, the reaction has been equally enthusiastic, with some comparing it to the legendary "fountain of youth." Lu's groundbreaking work has earned him a small stake in Life Biosciences and the admiration of his mentor.

Despite the hype, Lu remains focused on his lab, working on the development of "the next generation of rejuvenation therapies."