Two quarter-century long studies on the effects of Calorie restriction in nonhuman primates have come to opposing results. What do these results mean for the human translatability of CR, and the future of therapies to prevent and cure the diseases and disabilities of aging?

“Reprogramming” of adult differentiated cells into pluripotent stem cells is an exciting method in biology that holds enormous promise for rejuvenation biotechnology. Now, for the first time, Dr. Su-Chun Zhang and coworkers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have successfully generated neurons from reprogrammed nonhuman primate cells, transplanted them back into the same animal’s brain, and seen them successfully and cleanly integrate into the local tissue.

The preliminary results of a clinical trial for a disease of “premature aging” – Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS) – are hopeful and inspiring. However, they cannot directly inform the development of rejuvenation biotechnologies; although the symptoms of HGPS are similar to those observed in aging, there is no evidence to suggest that the underlying mechanism is pathologically significant in those not afflicted with the disease.

Aging laboratory rodents are the foundation of our ability to study the degenerative aging process, and develop the rejuvenation biotechnologies that will arrest and reverse it. They’re also expensive, logistically intensive, and in short supply. A new UK initiative has been establish to greatly expand what we can learn from the aging animals in our collective care, and to get a fuller picture of aging and its deceleration and reversal than has hitherto been possible.