“Clues to keeping the brain’s regenerative cells youthful and energetic into old age have emerged by applying CRISPR gene editing to mice.

Age impedes the ability of the brain’s stem cells to churn out new cells, but the study’s authors found that reducing the activity of a particular gene rejuvenated these stem cells, allowing them to proliferate and provide the brain with a supply of fresh neurons.

That gene regulates stem cells’ consumption of glucose, a sugar that is key to cellular metabolism. The results in mice fit well with an emerging picture from studies of postmortem human brains. These efforts, too, have found that age affects metabolism in the brain.”

From Nature.