Coleen Murphy in Nature:
Super Agers, by clinician Eric Topol, has just been published, but it was almost surreal for me as a US scientist to read the book now, with its optimistic take on the state of the medical field. Despite their extreme promise, many of the lines of research that Topol describes have been subject to funding cuts by the Trump administration since the book was written. For example, although Super Agers argues that we are on the verge of treating a host of diseases — from viral infections, such as influenza, HIV and rabies, to tuberculosis and several types of cancer — using the mRNA technology underlying COVID-19 vaccines, that sort of research is now on the chopping block in the United States.
Nevertheless, Topol has assembled an admirable and comprehensive review of cutting-edge approaches to tackling many illnesses that cut human lives short. He explains each disease and the current state of treatments — including an impressive overview of ongoing and recently completed clinical trials — and explores future possibilities. These include advances in CRISPR gene editing and stem-cell techniques aimed at treating blood disorders, cancers, Alzheimer’s disease and more. He covers an immense amount of material in an accessible manner, and has well-supported recommendations for readers.
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