Rejuvenation breakthrough: Scientists reverse 60 years of aging in human cells — SkimNews
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- University Hospital of Bonn researchers reprogrammed blood cells from an 80-year-old individual into neural stem cells, cutting the cells' molecular age to under 20 — reversing more than 60 years of cellular aging, per the team's epigenetic clock measurements.
- Prof. Dr. Oliver Brüstle's team achieved the result via direct conversion, bypassing the pluripotent stem cell stage used in earlier two-step methods, allowing gradual rejuvenation trackable over more than 100 days with roughly 60 years of age reversal measured after 50 days.
- Epigenetic clocks — chemical modifications to DNA that accumulate predictably with age but do not change the underlying sequence — confirmed the molecular age drop, and Brüstle said the reset cells 'actually behave like young cells.'
- The direct conversion technique uses transcription factors to redirect which genetic instructions a cell follows; earlier mouse transplant work from the Bonn group showed nerve cells produced this way successfully connected with existing neurons in the brain.
- The protracted rejuvenation timeline is 'ideal as an experimental model' for testing substances that accelerate or slow age-resetting, Brüstle said — with specific relevance to Alzheimer's, which the professor identified as having age as its 'most important risk factor.'
- Findings were published in Aging Cell (2026, DOI: 10.1111/acel.70751) with co-authors from RWTH Aachen University and funding from the EU's Horizon 2020 program, the German Research Foundation (DFG), and the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space (BMFRT).
Why it matters: The Bonn method skips the pluripotent stem cell stage that earlier rejuvenation protocols required, giving researchers a 100-day window to watch epigenetic age reversal in real time rather than measure it only at the end. That extended observation window turns the protocol into a screening platform for compounds that accelerate or slow the rejuvenation process — relevant to every age-driven disease, with Alzheimer's as the most prominent target.
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