Thomas Rando

At a glance

• Neurologist and stem cell biologist, director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA; previously spent many years at Stanford University.
• Studies why stem cells in muscle and other tissues repair less well with age, and whether that process can be reversed.
• Senior author of a well-known Nature study (2005) on parabiosis in mice: when the circulation of a young and an old mouse was joined, the old mouse’s muscle stem cells repaired better.
• That work launched the search for ‘rejuvenating’ factors in blood — and also commercial young-plasma infusions, which the US FDA warned against in 2019.
• Also described how resting stem cells ‘prime’ themselves for repair after injury, a mechanism that sheds light on tissue repair in ageing.
• He also publishes reviews on what ‘rejuvenation’ means biologically and how to measure it reliably.
• Takeaway: the rejuvenation results come from animal studies; paid ‘young blood’ treatments have no proven benefit in humans.