Michael D. West (born in Niles, Michigan on 28 April 1953) 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 wit ...

, and a pioneer in

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

s, cellular aging and telomerase. 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 subsidi ...

, a startup focused on the field of

experimental gerontology ''Experimental Gerontology'' is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal covering biogerontology. It was established in 1964 and is published by Elsevier. The editor-in-chief is Christiaan Leeuwenburgh (University of Florida College of Medicine). Ac ...

Early life and education

West was born in Niles, Michigan, 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 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 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 flagship universit ...

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) is a public research university in Little Rock, Arkansas. Established as Little Rock Junior College by the Little Rock School District in 1927, the institution became a private four-yea ...

, 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 Cell most often refers to: * Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life Cell may also refer to: Locations * Monastic cell, a small room, hut, or cave in which a religious recluse lives, alternatively the small precursor of a monastery w ...

'' were experimental artifacts, he transferred to the

Baylor College of Medicine Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) is a medical school and research center in Houston, Texas, within the Texas Medical Center, the world's largest medical center. BCM is composed of four academic components: the School of Medicine, the Graduate Sc ...

, 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.

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 Ad ...

(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 is a Japanese multinational pharmaceutical company, formed on 1 April 2005 from the merger of and . On February 5, 2020, the company announced management changes effective from April 1, 2020. Astellas is a member of the Mitsubishi UFJ Finan ...

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 investment from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers,

Venrock Venrock (portmanteau of Venture and Rockefeller) is a venture capital firm formed in 1969 to build upon the successful investing activities of the Rockefeller family that began in the late 1930s. It has offices in Palo Alto, California, New York ...

and Domain Associates. At Geron, West initiated and managed programs in telomere biology relating to aging, cancer and

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

technology. West organized the first collaborative effort to isolate human

pluripotent Pluripotency: These are the cells that can generate into any of the three Germ layers which imply Endodermal, Mesodermal, and Ectodermal cells except tissues like the placenta. According to Latin terms, Pluripotentia means the ability for many thin ...

(embryonic) stem cells for the purpose of manufacturing products in regenerative medicine in collaboration with James Thomson at the

University of Wisconsin at Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

, John Gearhart at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and Roger Pedersen at the University of California, San Francisco. 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 Carolyn Widney Greider (born April 15, 1961) is an American molecular biologist and Nobel laureate. She joined the University of California, Santa Cruz as a Distinguished Professor in the department of molecular, cell, and developmental biology ...

, then at

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) is a private, non-profit institution with research programs focusing on cancer, neuroscience, plant biology, genomics, and quantitative biology. It is one of 68 institutions supported by the Cancer Centers ...

. 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 in Physiology),

Leonard Hayflick Leonard Hayflick (born 20 May 1928) is a Professor of Anatomy at the UCSF School of Medicine, and was Professor of Medical Microbiology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He is a past president of the Gerontological Society of America and ...

(winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine), James Watson (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.

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