Guess Who I Am. #17. I kill zombies to extend the lives of mice and, one day, people. My name is synonymous with Costco. lifespanbook.com #aging #longevity 
,@cpannetie is correct! This is the Mayo Clinic’s James Kirkland, whose research focuses on the impact of cellular aging, or senescence, on age-related dysfunction and chronic diseases.
Kirkland is working to develop methods to remove senescent cells to slow, stop or ever reverse age-related chronic diseases—and he's having a lot of success.
He showed, for instance, that it only takes a quick course of two senolytic molecules—quercetin and dasatinib—to eliminate the senescent cells in lab mice.
When he did this, he extended their lifespan by 36 percent!
There's a long way to go before we know if this will work in humans, but the implications are profound. If senolytics work, you could potentially take a course of a medicine for a week, be rejuvenated, and come back ten years later for another course.
Could the same medicines be injected into an osteoarthritic joint? Or in an eye going blind? Or in fibrotic lungs?
The first human trials of senolytics were started in 2018 to treat osteoarthritis and glaucoma. It will be a few more years before we know enough about the effects and safety of these drugs to provide them to everyone, but if they work... wow.
