Immortality and eternal youth have been the stuff of myths and legends from ancient times on. Now, in the 21st century, real studies of current medicine could be applied to repair tissues and organs damaged by age. During the 11th Aging Research & Drug Discovery (ARDD) Meeting held at the University of Copenhagen at the end of August, scientists explained the molecular keys of rejuvenation, as many artists imagined in the past.

Aging is part of the life cycle and, although the effects are not manifest until after adulthood, it actually occurs from birth. The concept of senescence has traditionally been associated with aging. However, an embryo has senescent cells. In that case, what is aging, how can it be measured, and from what point in the life cycle?

Since the publication of The Hallmarks of Aging in 2013, aging research has exploded. The field now has more than 300,000 articles on the biological signals of the effect of time on the body. What would Marty McFly, the legendary character from the Back to the Future saga who traveled with his DeLorean time machine from the ‘80s to the ‘50s, think if he visited 2024 and saw laboratories experimenting with techniques to turn back the biological clocks of cells or increase the lifespan of rejuvenated mice?

The word “niche” implies a specialized environment. But to Fiona Doetsch, the stem cell niche is anything but. For brain stem cells, “the whole organism is the niche,” Doetsch told the audience at the third plenary session of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) annual meeting in Hamburg this week.

Astrazeneca plc’s blockbuster Enhertu continued to garner attention as new data released at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting show the antibody-drug conjugate demonstrated strong progression-free survival in metastatic breast cancer patients. Puma Biotechnology Inc. had advances of its own at ASCO with new biomarker findings from a phase II study of alisertib, an aurora protein kinase 2 inhibitor, in endocrine-resistant metastatic breast cancer.

Data from the transcatheter valve and vessel trial showed that percutaneous interventions in patients with aortic stenosis and coronary disease resulted in significantly lower mortality rates than those receiving surgical treatment.

As with most common diseases of the developed world, aging is the major risk factor for developing cancer. Most of the half-dozen hallmarks of precancer that were published last week by investigators from Vanderbilt University and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center are also hallmarks of aging. Unfortunately, scientists reported at the American Association for Cancer Research’s (AACR) 2024 annual meeting this week that accelerated aging is increasing, and may be driving an increase in early-onset cancers.

Medical Korea 2024 opened to a large audience in Seoul, South Korea for a two-day run to highlight advances in the medical field, including those in radiotherapy.

The U.S. FDA’s recent warning letter to Danvers, Mass.-based Abiomed Inc., may have come across as an enforcement outlier in the context of the agency’s controversial final guidance for clinical decision support (CDS) products.

The unique device identifier (UDI) might not be the most exciting U.S. FDA enforcement mandate for most of regulated industry, but the FDA’s Keisha Thomas indicated that compliance is less than adequate in the agency’s view.