Miller's Crossing

With typical zeal, Quarles versed himself in the biology of aging. He learned that the human body is composed of trillions of cells, each of which is programmed to divide a certain number of times in a person's lifetime. When cells cease to divide, the body decays, and a person eventually dies.

Quarles believed that immortality was a matter of identifying and changing the genetic instruction that told cells how many times to divide. As he saw it, his mission was to find scientists who could locate this gene. He set out to rally seniors, scientists and policy-makers to rage with him against the dying of the light.

Quarles founded a nonprofit organization called the Curing Old Age Disease Society (COADS) to trumpet the theme that old age is a curable epidemic, and to secure funds for scientists blazing trails to the fountain of youth. He wrote to a slew of world leaders, corporate CEOs and media magnates to enlist their support in the war on aging.

The letter-writing blitz bore little fruit, but Quarles notched successes in other areas. Starting with the $100,000 fatwa he pronounced on death in 1990, he proved extremely savvy at drumming up media attention. He routinely offers himself as a poster child for a new generation of fabulously fit, life-loving seniors -- and the international media has gobbled him up. The London Sunday Times, 20/20, CNN and news organizations in Europe, Australia and elsewhere have featured Quarles.

He has become something of an old hand at dealing with reporters, often suggesting ideas for the story or a novel picture. Articles almost invariably refer to him as a "Texas oilman millionaire." He admits that may be misleading, since in his own rough appraisal his assets barely hit the million-dollar mark. Still, he does little to dispel the notion. He chuckles at how once, for a BBC documentary, he agreed to ride around in a limo while wearing a Stetson.

Quarles himself dabbles in journalism. He pens columns for COADS and a pair of California seniors publications. But Quarles has said his single greatest achievement came during a cryonics meeting in 1990, when he "found" his kindred spirit, innovative cell biologist Michael West.

Though only half Quarles's age, West admits to being obsessed with aging and death. He, too, considers old age a disease, regardless of how "natural" it is.

"There is a biology of aging. And that biology is not to the benefit of human beings and their individual health," he says. "Whatever you want to call it, it's killing people."

West was fresh out of Baylor College of Medicine when he founded Geron Corporation, a company that has become a leader in age-related medical research. Quarles invested $50,000 in the fledgling firm. When West left Geron in 1997 to become CEO of another biotech company, Advanced Cell Technology, Quarles cashed in his Geron stocks and invested in West's new company.

"To Miller's credit, I came to him in the early days of Geron," West says. "I've heard him say he was Geron's first investor -- he was not the first. But he was among the first."

West recruited a coterie of scientists to study the biology of aging. In 1998 Geron-backed researchers hit pay dirt. They succeeded in isolating embryonic stem cells.

Researchers believe that these cells, obtained from very young human embryos, can be coaxed into becoming any cell, organ, tissue or bone in the body -- brain cells for Alzheimer's sufferers, neurons for people with spinal cord injuries, heart muscles for victims of cardiac disease. In short, stem cells hold the promise of a potentially endless cache of replacement body parts.

Furthermore, because stem cells can be derived through cloning, a person could obtain a body part that is a perfect immunological match.

But for all their promise, West says, stem cell therapies will not significantly impact human longevity. The method is more like treating the symptoms of a disease rather than its cause.

"Aging is a brick wall," West says. "All the tissues in our body are aging. So if I solve one problem, especially just the symptoms of those problems, something else is going to hit you."

But Advanced Cell Technology scientists think they may have found a way over the wall.

In April, West and colleagues published a paper in the journal Science that detailed how, using old cells from cows, they succeeded in cloning six calves that appeared capable of living far longer than naturally conceived calves. The secret lay in their telomeres, the strand of DNA at the end of every cell. Like the fuse of a bomb, these strands get shorter with each cell division and ultimately disappear, causing cells to die.

West says the scientists succeeded in activating the gene for the enzyme telomerase, causing the telomeres in the cloned calves' cells to become longer than those of a normal animal.

"Cloning was like a time machine -- it literally made an old cell young again," West says.

West is not alone in seeing revolutionary potential in these breakthroughs.

Michael Fossel is a professor of clinical medicine at Michigan State University and the author of Reversing Human Aging, a book that earned him a $10,000 prize from Quarles. He believes scientists are close to turning back the clock for the entire body.