The tree · The cell's settings
A person receives cell-resetting genes in a registered trial
The genes that can partially reset a cell's age had been tried only in animals until 2026. On 9 June 2026 the company Life Biosciences said the first participant had been dosed in its early-stage trial of ER-100, three of the four resetting genes carried into the nerve cells at the back of the eye by a harmless virus, in people with glaucoma or a sudden loss of blood supply to the optic nerve. The trial is a safety study of about eighteen people, followed for up to five years. This leaf counts the dose; whether it reversed anything is the test of the leaf it sits beside, because a company announcing a dose and a journal reporting a reversal are different events and the tree should say so.
What would count
A person is given a treatment that delivers one or more of the cell-resetting (Yamanaka) genes, or a drug built to do the same, inside a registered clinical trial, with a public record of the dose from the sponsor or the registry. For the clinic rung: a regulator approves such a treatment for any condition, so a doctor can give it outside a trial.
Who settles it: The trial registry entry and the sponsor's dated notice of the dose for the first-human rung; the peer-reviewed report when it comes; the regulator's approval record for the clinic rung.
Where it stands
First human. Reached 9 June 2026, on the record of Inc., 9 June 2026 (lifebiosciences.com). Next rung within 5 to 20 years.
When it reaches the clinic: the project's estimate
This is the one thing on this page that is a judgment rather than a record. The project's estimate of the year it reaches the clinic is 2040, no earlier than 2033 and no later than 2075; the model draws from that range every run, with the likely year the most probable draw. Set 16 October 2026, a first pass awaiting an outside review.
| Rung | No earlier than | Most likely | No later than | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| In clinical use | 2033 | 2040 | 2075 | feeds the year at the top |
Why. The clinic rung is an approval, which for a first-in-class gene therapy to the eye means a late-stage trial after this safety study: the likely year assumes the safety study reports by 2028, a late-stage trial runs to the mid 2030s, and approval follows around 2040; the earliest assumes a striking early result and an accelerated route; the latest allows for a safety stop in the first trial and a decade before anyone tries again.
Changes to this record
- 17 October 2026, notes: (nothing; text added at the end of the notes) became Added 2026-10-17, from the weekly reading of that date: on 2026-10-08 the company announced interim results from the first three people with glaucoma (life-biosciences-2026-interim): no serious adverse events by day 56, a safety board's recommendation to move to the second dose level, and a preliminary improvement in the visual field in two of the three. It is a company announcement of an open-label safety trial; this entry counts the dose, which was already on the record, so the stage does not change.. [reading 2026-10-17] Notes the interim data of 2026-10-08, which the record of 2026-10-16 did not mention. Source: Inc., 8 October 2026.
The last readings
- 17 October 2026 Left for the author
On 2026-10-08, two days before the window opened, Life Biosciences announced interim first-in-human data from the ER-100 trial (presented at Eyecelerator at the American Academy of Ophthalmology meeting): a single eye injection plus daily oral doxycycline was tolerated through Day 56 in all three open-angle glaucoma participants, and the safety board recommended escalating to the second dose level. This leaf counts the dose, already recorded at the first-human rung from the 2026-06-09 release, and its next rung is a regulator's approval, which the interim data does not touch, so nothing moves. It is flagged because the record, written 2026-10-16, predates and does not acknowledge this dated sponsor development about the same trial it tracks. Left for the author, resolved on 17 October 2026: The dose leaf consciously delegates results to its companion leaf, so the 2026-10-08 interim readout is logged in full under partially-resetting-cells-reverses-ageing-in-an-animal; you may want this leaf's record to note that interim data exists as of 2026-10-08. It does not move this leaf (the next rung is a regulator's approval), and correcting a record written 2026-10-16 is the author's call.source 1, source 2
What the story so far says about it
Promised, in public
- 15 December 2016Salk Institute (Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte's laboratory): A first human trial of a treatment based on partial reprogramming (resetting the chemical marks that tell a cell which genes to read) by 2026 at the latest, hedged as may and up to.
- 21 October 2024Life Biosciences: A first human trial of ER-100 started between 2025-07 and 2025-12.
On the record
- 9 June 2026Life Biosciences Announces First Patient Dosed in Phase 1 Trial of ER-100 for Optic Neuropathies
- 8 October 2026Life Biosciences Announces First-in-Human Data from Ongoing Phase 1 Trial Evaluating ER-100 in Optic Neuropathies
- 2 December 2020Reprogramming to recover youthful epigenetic information and restore vision
Notes
The companion leaf, partially resetting cells reverses ageing in a living animal, is the one shared with The Upgrade Tree and the one that needs a measured result in a person; this leaf exists so that the June 2026 dose is on the record at the rung it earned. A press release is not normally a settler on this site; for the bare fact of a dose, the sponsor's dated notice and the registry are the only records there are, and the test says so. The trial's ClinicalTrials.gov entry (NCT07290244) gives a study start of 2026-03-02 and an estimated enrolment of 18. Added 2026-10-17, from the weekly reading of that date: on 2026-10-08 the company announced interim results from the first three people with glaucoma (life-biosciences-2026-interim): no serious adverse events by day 56, a safety board's recommendation to move to the second dose level, and a preliminary improvement in the visual field in two of the three. It is a company announcement of an open-label safety trial; this entry counts the dose, which was already on the record, so the stage does not change.
Not yet verified
These facts in the record were written from memory or from a secondary source and have not yet been checked against the paper, the regulator's record or the registry. Nothing here is presented as settled until it is cleared, by checking it and either deleting the line or correcting the record.
- No earlier stage is recorded: the animal rung for this leaf is the same 2016 and 2020 work that the companion leaf carries, and is not repeated here.