TheOptimist

Just because one of your cells is having a good day doesn't mean the rest of them will be. Cancer is exactly that, one cell having become effectively immortal and duplicating constantly, disrupting the function of your other cells until you die. In case its not clear, in the context of telomerase cellular immortality doesn't mean that the cell lasts forever, it means that the cell can duplicate itself indefinitely. You can put a bunch of your cells in a petri dish and grow them indefinitely by activating the telomerase gene, but do the same in your body and you will just have removed one of the blocks to cancer.

Telomerase only gives your cells immortality not yourself. From what I have read the telomerase gene is one of the key genes needed for cancer to proliferate, so this makes telomerase inhibition actually quite a potent anti-cancer technique (Geron is heavily studying this) and over expression of telomerase potentially a life shortening therapy. Though I think there is a correlation between longer tolemere length and age so potentially expressing it transiently might give an extension, though I would feel safer coupling this with increased dna repair mechanism. Have a look at the following link for some techniques which could potentially extend life span. http://www.gen.cam.ac.uk/sens/