Peter Diamandis Wants You to Bank Your Stem Cells

July 28, 2015 – If you are a regular reader of this blog then you have read about the importance of our research into stem cells and their therapeutic value. I’m even contemplating having my stem cells harvested to inject into my osteoarthritic left knee to help restore the cartilage I have lost over the years. But in reading Peter’s latest email on this subject I just had to share it with you. He’s laid out a rationale for all of us banking our stem cells. Your comments, as always, whether on the blog site, on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook, I welcomed.

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You are a collection of over 30 trillion human cells. Every one of these cells, those in your brain, lungs, liver, skin, and everywhere else, derives from a single pluripotent type of cell called a stem cell. This blog is about how stem cells are going to change medicine forever, extend life, and potentially save your life in the years ahead. In this blog we talk about why it’s important to bank the cells of your newborn children or grandchildren – and potentially your own (no matter how old you are).

In a recent webinar I had the chance to interview Dr. Robert (Bob) Hariri, one of the world’s foremost experts on stem cells. He’s the Founder, Chairman and Chief Science Officer of  Celgene Cellular Therapeutics, and the Co-founder and Vice-Chairman of Human Longevity Inc. (HLI). Here is what we discussed.

What are stem cells?

Stem cells have the remarkable ability to “differentiate” into any other type of cell in the body. Dr. Hariri explains, “At the beginning of life, a single nondescript cell with a giant nucleus, cytoplasm, and a cell membrane, goes on to replicate and create every cell in our body. This single cell contains within it the entire genetic code – the biological software – necessary to produce everything that ultimately defines each and every specialized cell type in the body.”

After our body has developed, among our tens of trillions of fully differentiated human cells (skin, heart, muscle, kidney) remain a population of quiescent stem cells waiting to be called into action to help repair damaged tissue. These stem cells reside everywhere: in our bone marrow, in our fat, and in every single tissue compartment. And, as Dr. Hariri describes them, “they are nature’s perfect repair kit – ready to be mobilized and facilitate repair when needed.”

So why don’t we live forever?

If we have the ability to constantly repair ourselves, what goes wrong? Why do we age?

Current theory says two things:

1. We deplete our reserves of stem cells during the course of our lives.
2. Our stem cells undergo various epigenetic changes (insertions, deletions, mutations) over the course of life, making them less accurate and less adaptable. Basically, the repairmen of our body die off and go senile.

How do stem cells work?

Normally during our youth, when we experience damage, stem cells are mobilized to the site of damage to effect repair. However, as mentioned above, this capability slows with aging. But what if you could supplement or rejuvenate your supply of stem cells? Today, in various locations around the world, researchers and physicians inject stem cells into areas of damage, and explore stem cell therapeutics around heart disease, brain disease, diabetes, cancer treatment, arthritis, spinal cord injuries, burns, macular degeneration, and much more. The implications of this are staggering.

Of course, the challenge is getting the stem cells to inject in the first place. So where might they come from?

Three options:

1. Many children today are having their stem cells banked or preserved at their birth (see below).
2. You can actually have your own stem cells isolated from fat, bone marrow or your blood supply. The challenge here is that they may have already undergone epigenetic changes/mutations.
3. Some companies, like Hariri’s Celgene, have begun pioneering the use of placental-derived stem cells, which (for many reasons) do not cause an autoimmune reaction.

Why and when to bank stem cells

“At your moment of birth, you are probably at the point of biological perfection. Your system hasn’t been exposed to all of those injurious stimuli, like electromagnetic radiation, chemicals, etc., and your biological software is uncorrupted.”

What if we could capture stem cells with our original, uncorrupted DNA at birth and then replicate them into a large number of future dosages and then freeze those doses, making them available for future injection to facilitate repair over the course of our lives? This is one of the primary concepts that Hariri has been pioneering for some time. Hariri discovered that in addition to cord blood (the blood found in the umbilical cord of a newborn), the placenta of a newborn is an organ very rich in stem cells. And rather than discard the leftovers of birth, placentas, if saved, may hold the key to a longer and healthier life.

Hariri has created a business called LifeBank USA, which provides private cell banking (FYI, this is where we banked our children’s stem cells). Lifebank (now part of Celgene) isolates, processes and cryo-preserves cells (putting them into a deep freeze at about minus 180 degrees Celsius), keeping them in suspended animation at the most pristine state of their existence.

Where is this all heading?

There’s no question about the promise of stem cells. The question is, how can you rejuvenate the body’s natural reparative engine?

This is one of the key areas of research at HLI. In principle, there are three approaches:

1. For those lucky enough to have had their stem cells banked at birth, cells can be replicated and reintroduced later in life.
2. Ongoing research on the use of FDA-approved placenta stem cell lines as generic cellular medicine.
3. The Holy Grail to be able to isolate an individual’s stem cells (at whatever age he or she is) and then repair the DNA to rejuvenate stem cells back to their original software. As Dr. Hariri explains, “At HLI, we will create a model upon which cells are interrogated, their genomes are read, abnormalities are identified, and then strategies are developed to fix those abnormalities and give those cells back.”

What should we do now?

1. Get your children or grandchildren’s stem cells banked when they are born. There are a number of different companies doing this, one of which is Life Bank USA. The cost (between $2,000 – $5,000) is insignificant if it could save or extend their lives in the future.
2. Get your own genome sequenced and get your own stem cells extracted and stored. Your DNA today is in better shape than your DNA 10 years from now. At HLI the sequencing is available today, and stem cell isolation for our members is something planned down the road, so stay tuned for more information.

In conclusion

As humans, we’ve just come to accept the notion that we are going to die. One hundred years ago, we accepted that most people lived to age 50 or 60. A couple of decades ago, if you made it to 75 or 80, good for you. Today, if you’re in your 30s, 40s or 50s (maybe even 60s), you have the chance to make it to 100.

In this and the decade ahead we will begin to develop tools to understand how to extend the healthy human lifespan even further, and stem cells will be one important key in helping us get there.

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You may recall that in a previous blog I wrote that we are close to that moment in time when we will have “appropriate delivery systems for restoration and repair” that will allow a human to live 1,000 years. Stem cells represent one of many tools in that delivery system. Peter Diamandis has clearly indicated that we have the capacity to preserve ourselves in a healthy state well past a century. In my previous writing on the subject I speculated on whether we will see someone born in the 21st century living to become the first millenarian. Think of it. Experiencing life for 1,000 years. Looking back a thousand years may give you some sense of just how dramatic such a life would be. In 1,000 CE Europe was a backwater of feudal states. The Vikings were making the first forays westward to Iceland, Greenland and Vinland (Newfoundland and Labrador). China’s Middle Kingdom, the Spanish Umayyad Caliphate,  and the Abbasid Caliphate centered on Baghdad, represented the three most technologically advanced civilizations on the planet. What will a thousand years in the future look like? Will a girl or boy born today who lives to age 1,000 see humanity reach the first exoplanets seeding the galaxy with our DNA? Considering the exponential nature of technological advancement it is very likely.