Michael D. West (born 28 April 1953 in

Niles, Michigan Niles is a city in Berrien County, Michigan, Berrien and Cass County, Michigan, Cass counties in the U.S. state of Michigan, near the Indiana state line city of South Bend, Indiana, South Bend. The population was 11,988 according to the 2020 Unit ...

) is an American

biogerontologist Biogerontology is the sub-field of gerontology concerned with the biological aging process, its evolutionary origins, and potential means to intervene in the process. The term "biogerontology" was coined by S. Rattan, and came in regular use wi ...

, and a pioneer in

stem cell In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can change into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type of cell ...

s, cellular aging and

telomerase Telomerase, also called terminal transferase, is a ribonucleoprotein that adds a species-dependent telomere repeat sequence to the 3' end of telomeres. A telomere is a region of repetitive sequences at each end of the chromosomes of most euka ...

. He is the founder and CEO of

AgeX Therapeutics AgeX Therapeutics, Inc. (commonly abbreviated as AgeX Therapeutics or simply AgeX) is an American biotechnology company developing medical therapeutics related to human longevity. It was founded in 2017 by Michael D. West, initially as a subsidia ...

, a startup focused on the field of experimental gerontology.

Early life and education

West was born in

, to a wealthy family which ran an automobile leasing business. After graduating from Niles Senior High School, West earned a BS in psychology from the

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (; RPI) is a private university, private research university in Troy, New York, United States. It is the oldest technological university in the English-speaking world and the Western Hemisphere. It was establishe ...

in 1976. He then returned to Niles to help run the family business before resuming academic studies. He earned an MS in biology from

Andrews University Andrews University (Andrews) is a private Seventh-day Adventist university in Berrien Springs, Michigan. Founded in 1874 as Battle Creek College, it was the first higher education facility started by Seventh-day Adventists and is the flag ...

in 1982. That same year, he joined the laboratory of Samuel Goldstein, a molecular gerontologist at the

University of Arkansas at Little Rock The University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UA Little Rock, UALR) is a Public university, public research university in Little Rock, Arkansas, United States. Established as Little Rock Junior College by the Little Rock School District in 1927, the ...

, and began to research the molecular biology of aging. Following a clash with Goldstein over a series of experiments in which he demonstrated that results which Goldstein had published in '' Cell'' were experimental artifacts, he transferred to the

Baylor College of Medicine The Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) is a private medical school in Houston, Texas, United States. Originally as the Baylor University College of Medicine from 1903 to 1969, the college became independent with the current name and has been se ...

, where he worked in the laboratory of another molecular gerontologist, James Smith, and graduated with a PhD in cell biology in 1989. He did postdoctoral research at the

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern or UTSW) is a public academic health science center in Dallas, Texas. With approximately 23,000 employees, more than 3,000 full-time faculty, and nearly 4 million outpatient ...

Career

Prior to joining BioTime, West was chairman of the board, chief scientific officer and CEO of

Advanced Cell Technology Astellas Institute for Regenerative Medicine is a subsidiary of Astellas Pharma located in Marlborough, Massachusetts, US, developing stem cell therapies with a focus on diseases that cause blindness. It was formed in 1994 as a company named ...

(ACT), another biotechnology company focused on stem cell research. ACT later changed its name to Ocata Therapeutics, and was acquired by Japanese pharmaceutical company Astellas Pharma for US$379M or $8.50 per share in February 2016. Prior that, West was founder, director, and chief scientific officer of Geron, for which he secured

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

investment from

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Kleiner Perkins, formerly Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), is an American venture capital firm which specializes in investing in incubation, early stage and growth companies. Since its founding in 1972, the firm has backed entrepreneur ...

, Venrock and Domain Associates. At Geron, West initiated and managed programs in telomere biology relating to aging, cancer and human embryonic stem cell technology. West organized the first collaborative effort to isolate human

pluripotent Cell potency is a cell's ability to differentiate into other cell types. The more cell types a cell can differentiate into, the greater its potency. Potency is also described as the gene activation potential within a cell, which like a continuum ...

(embryonic) stem cells for the purpose of manufacturing products in regenerative medicine in collaboration with James Thomson at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, John Gearhart at

Johns Hopkins School of Medicine The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM) is the medical school of Johns Hopkins University, a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Established in 1893 following the construction of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, th ...

, and Roger Pedersen at the

University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It is part of the University of California system and is dedic ...

. In their telomerase research, West and colleagues at Geron cloned the RNA component of telomerase and collaborated with Thomas Cech (winner of 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry), with whom they cloned the catalytic component of the enzyme telomerase, and sponsored collaborative research in the laboratory of Carol Greider, then at

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) is a private, non-profit institution with research programs focusing on cancer, neuroscience, botany, genomics, and quantitative biology. It is located in Laurel Hollow, New York, in Nassau County, on ...

. Geron published evidence of the role of telomerase in cancer and cell immortalization in collaboration with Woodring Wright and Jerry Shay at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. For the company's Scientific and Clinical Advisory Board, he recruited Günter Blobel (winner of the 1999

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

Physiology Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...

), Leonard Hayflick, Carol Greider (winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine),

James Watson James Dewey Watson (born April 6, 1928) is an American molecular biology, molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist. In 1953, he co-authored with Francis Crick the academic paper in ''Nature (journal), Nature'' proposing the Nucleic acid ...

(winner of the 1962 Nobel Prize in medicine), and others. West has been a keynote speaker at events including World Stem Cell and is associated with 146 patents in the United States, Australia, Japan, and elsewhere. West is a member of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation's scientific advisory board. He is a signatory of the Scientists’ Open Letter on

Cryonics Cryonics (from ''kryos'', meaning "cold") is the low-temperature freezing (usually at ) and storage of human remains in the hope that resurrection may be possible in the future. Cryonics is regarded with skepticism by the mainstream scien ...

Bibliography

Books

West has authored and co-edited books on topics including animal cloning, aging, biogerontology, stem cells, stem cell biology, and regenerative medicine. * 2002 ''Principles of Cloning'' * 2003 ''The Immortal Cell'', by Michael D. West, Doubleday * 2004 ''Handbook of Stem Cells: Volume 1 Embryonic Stem Cells'' * 2004 ''Handbook of Stem Cells: Volume 2 Adult and Fetal Stem Cells'' * 2006 ''Essentials of Stem Cell Biology'' * 2010 ''The Future of Aging'' * 2010 ''The Future of Aging: Pathways to Human Life Extension''

References

External links