ASTANA — Scientists are exploring whether the human body can function as if it were younger by reversing aging at the cellular level, as research led by Nazarbayev University Professor Prim Singh advances “partial reprogramming,” a method that restores how aging cells work.
The field is gaining global attention and investment as it moves toward clinical trials. “We not only had the idea that partial reprogramming can turn back the aging clock. But we also proved it experimentally in human cells. We actually did the ‘proof-of-principle’ as well.
We had the idea and we proved it. This is a settled matter in the scientific community,” Singh told The Astana Times. The idea that cells could be reset emerged from decades of research in regenerative medicine. The field traces back to 1962, when Sir John Gurdon demonstrated that a mature cell could be reprogrammed to an embryonic state, a discovery that later earned him the Nobel Prize.
Gurdon was at Cambridge University, where Professor Singh was a student. Nazarbayev University Professor Prim Singh. Photo credit: Professor’s personal archives This scientific path also includes Dolly the sheep, the first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell in 1996, a project Singh contributed to in Edinburgh.
In 2006, Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka identified four factors capable of reprogramming adult cells into a stem-cell-like state, transforming the field. Yamanaka was awarded the Nobel Prize along with Gurdon. Building on this, Singh and his colleague Fred Zacouto proposed a different approach in 2010: instead of fully reprogramming cells, they suggested stopping the process midway so cells could regain youthful function.
This concept, known as partial reprogramming, was later experimentally confirmed in human cells by Maria Manukyan and Singh in 2014. The work has since gained international recognition, including a front-cover feature in Nature on April 9, reflecting growing global interest in the field.
“Our method has been shown to be a robust way in which to make old cells young in various experimental models. This has been shown by scientists at Cambridge University, Stanford University and Harvard University. They’re some of the best-known universities in the world,” said Singh.
“But, as the Nature article says, the person who started off is here in Astana at Nazarbayev University,” he added. Building on these findings, Singh outlined the next areas of focus in the research. “One, is that we show that rejuvenation of tissues from very old people, of 80-year-old people, is as efficient as rejuvenating tissues from 60-year-old people.
We have to have technology to ensure that very old people become rejuvenated to the same degree as old people. That’s very important clinically,” said Singh. Another area he highlighted is the study of brain rejuvenation in age-related neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s, noting that restoring brain function has already been demonstrated in mice.