Future of Telomerase Medicine

Guest Bio: Michael Fossel, MD

Dr. Michael Fossel is president of Telocyte, a biotech firm targeting Alzheimer's disease, intending to begin FDA-sponsored human trials aimed at curing the underlying disease process using telomerase therapy. His latest book, The Telomerase Revolution, discusses prospective FDA clinical trials of telomerase therapy as an effective intervention for Alzheimer's disease.

Born in 1950, Michael Fossel grew up New York, and lived in London, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Portland, and Denver. He graduated cum laude from Phillips Exeter Academy, received a joint BA and MA in psychology in four years from Wesleyan University in Connecticut, and, after completing a PhD in Neurobiology at Stanford University in 1978, went on to finish his MD at Stanford Medical School in two-and-a-half years. He was awarded a National Science Foundation Fellowship and taught neuroanatomy and other courses at Stanford University, where he began studying aging, emphasizing premature aging syndromes.

Dr. Fossel was a Clinical Professor of Medicine at Michigan State University for almost three decades and currently teaches the Biology of Aging at Grand Valley State University.

He has been a member of numerous scientific organizations including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Aging Association (he was their Executive Director and served on their board of directors), the American Gerontological Society, the American Society on Aging, the American Geriatrics Society, and the Alzheimer's Association ISTAART, among others.

He has lectured at NIH and the Smithsonian Institute, and still lectures internationally. He was founding editor of the Journal of Anti-Aging Medicine (now the Rejuvenation Research). His numerous articles on aging and ethics in the Journal of the American Medical Association, In Vivo, and other academic journals have sparked frequent calls for him to speak worldwide to both medical groups and the general public. He featured prominently at IdeaCity in Toronto in June of 2014 and been interviewed by Singularity 1-on-1 regarding Alzheimer's therapy.