<Quote> A HeLa cell (also Hela or hela cell) is an immortal cell line used in scientific research. The cell line was derived from cervical cancer cells taken from Henrietta Lacks, who died from her cancer on October 4, 1951. The remarkable durability of this cell line is illustrated by its contamination of many other cell lines used in research. <End Quote> This is quite old news actually, and was very surprised when I read about it on a science web site. Basically, Hela cells do not have a limit cap on there dividing rate, meaning they do not have the built in degrading characteristic, found in normal cells. They can divide indefinitely, provided optimum cell environment remains(i.e. heat, water, that stuff). They grow so rapid in fact, that the people working on them have to quarantine them away from other cell strains. Quite fascinating really, and might prove useful for life extension. Here is a wikipedia link to it if you want to check it out. HeLa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Most definitely. Though trying to emulate them in making the human body do the same would not work for human immortality, as this is basically humans being a cancerous life form. We could, however, use them in unison with some other genetic type cell extension.
I can't give any references, but I've heard that some genetecists believe that there is either a specific gene or a sequence of genes that control the limit for cell division (I forget the term for this limit, but its somebody's name, lol) and that if these genes were to be "shut-off" then the possibility of reducing or removing aging is present. Whether or not this would result in cancer-blob people, I don't know.
It WOULD result in cancer blob people if we were to just shut off the cap for cell division. Cells would start dividing like crazy. No, what we need to do is remove the cap while also controlling the speed at which cell divide.
Many simple organisms like bacteria also are theoretically immortal. There's a theory that the reason why we age is partially because high reproduction would be a selective trait in evolution. An organism that focuses on reproduction at the expense of its own cellular division and repair would have an advantage. There was more to it, but thats all I remember at this point in time...
Damn I don't believe that I didn't comment on this thread! Good find and I also posted it up on Facebook. This definitely sheds some light on the idea of life extension, which I am VERY interested in. If this species can be genetically modified over time, they would definitely serve as a good model to study because of their rapid growth and abundance of telomerase and their inability to die after replicating so many times. GOD I love biology and genetics.
You don't really want them to divid as fast as a hela cell, they are out of control. You do, however, want to take the division limit off of a cell. Also, three quotes up is right, our bodys put more energy into reproduction then bodily repair.