Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
Science: Delicious Young Blood Contains The Elixir Of Life
By
Christopher Robbins
Published May 4, 2014
Modified May 4, 2014
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
By
Christopher Robbins
Published May 4, 2014
Modified May 4, 2014
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Grandchildren beware! According to two different, delightfully macabre studies, the elixir of life is in blood. Young blood.
The Times' report on this news might as well carry Bram Stoker's byline.
The research builds on centuries of speculation that the blood of young people contains substances that might rejuvenate older adults.
Centuries! The story doesn't specify as to who exactly was doing the speculating, but presumably it concerned pale people with long fingernails and high cheekbones who star in Jim Jarmusch movies.
The speculation continued in dark, frigid little towns named after the hometowns of ancient heros.
In the 1950s, Clive M. McCay of Cornell University and his colleagues tested the notion by delivering the blood of young rats into old ones. To do so, they joined rats in pairs by stitching together the skin on their flanks. After this procedure, called parabiosis, blood vessels grew and joined the rats’ circulatory systems. The blood from the young rat flowed into the old one, and vice versa.
Dr. McCay's delightful research fell by the wayside until we gained a greater understanding of stem cells and the role they play in maintaining vitality in human tissue.
Then one day, Dr. Thomas Rando and his colleagues were sitting on a pile of human skulls inside the crypt at Stanford University, when suddenly
Dr. Rando and his colleagues wondered what signals the old stem cells would receive if they were bathed in young blood. To find out, they revived Dr. McCay’s experiments.
The older mice became stronger and looked younger. They had finally destroyed Death! Ha ha!
But the younger mice, oh, those poor little younger mice!
The young mice, on the other hand, had effectively grown prematurely old. Their muscles healed more slowly, and their stem cells did not turn into new cells as quickly as before the procedure.
Dr. Amy Wagers and Dr. Saul Villeda both built on Rando's findings—Wagers isolated a protein found in young mice that revived the hearts and bones of old mice, while Villeda found that old mice with young blood performed better in memory tests. Tests on humans are sure to follow.
Villeda shares your opinion of his research: “To be honest, it’s still pretty insane for me."
Another doctor who heads the Neuroinflammation Research Center at the Cleveland Clinic summarized the research thusly: "It sounds terribly, terribly weird, I have to say. But it’s a good way to go.”
Wait, what's "a good way to go?" For the old to perpetually stave off death—is this "a good way to go?" Or is it "a good way to go" to sacrifice your budding life for an elder who won't squander youth?
Tagged
blood
Elixir of Life
Fountain of You
science
those poor poor little mice
Twilight
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Police are still investigating bike crash that killed dad of 2 in Central Park
The family is raising money for the wife and two daughters he leaves behind.
By
Brittany Kriegstein
Published Sep 29, 2026 at 9:31 a.m. ET
NYC has a plan to stop homeless people from cycling between hospitals and the streets
The Bridge to Home program, which began last year, will officially expand to Brooklyn on Tuesday.
By
Karen Yi
News
NYC has a plan to stop homeless people from cycling between hospitals and the streets
The Bridge to Home program, which began last year, will officially expand to Brooklyn on Tuesday.
By
Karen Yi
Early Addition: Billy Joel is auctioning off 70 of his motorcycles
By
James Ramsay
Man dragged to death by subway in Brooklyn after getting caught on closing doors
By
Brittany Kriegstein
Upper East Side braces for affordable housing fast track, and backlash from residents
By
David Brand
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .