Researchers from Children’s Hospital Boston found that reprogramming skin cells from patients with a premature aging disease (dyskeratosis congenita) to an embryonic state lengthened the telomeres* in the cells.

The researchers found that the induced pluripotent cell reprogramming appeared to activate a specific component of the telomerase enzyme, a discovery that they hope to use to develop new treatments for this and other telomerase-related diseases.

* A region of repetitive DNA at the end of a chromosome that protects it from destruction