Seeking an end to ageing

IT’S NOT WHAT IT USED TO BE

“Immortalists” say they’ve discovered how to slow and perhaps even reverse the ageing process — but is that really a good thing?

“Biological immortality is not something that belongs to the field of science fiction,” says Dr Marco Ruggiero, a 63-year-old retired professor of biology, who claims a protein found in the guts of long-living humans could be the answer to ageing. But at R150,000 a shot, it doesn’t come cheap.

It is one of several proposed ageing interventions that wealthy investors are putting their money behind.