Telomolecular
Phoenix Biomolecular isn't the only company digging into aging and the manipulation of telomere length, it seems. "Telomolecular develops nanotechnologies capable of delivering large-molecule proteins across human cell membranes. The corporation's primary focus is on the delivery of therapeutic agents that lengthen and repair chromosomal telomeres in living animals. Successful therapies based on this tactic may offset, and potentially reverse, many devastating age-related diseases and perhaps address the symptoms and signs recognized as human aging. ... the coporation intends to develop pharmaceutical products that deliver in vivo variant of telomerase reverse transcriptase (vTERT), and other agents known to lengthen chromosomal telomeres." Clever stuff. The old-style telomere theory of aging - that telomere shortening alone causes aging - has largely been abandoned, but it seems clear that shortened telomeres cause or are correlated with a number of common age-related diseases. The ability to manipulate telomeres is likely to be very important in tackling cancer and some other age-related conditions.