biology

Michael D. West

Michael D. West is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Michael D. West rather than just read about it. In short: Michael D. West (born 28 April 1953 in Niles, Michigan) is an American biogerontologist.

Key takeaways

Michael D. West belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Michael D. West to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Michael D. West from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Michael D. West (born 28 April 1953 in Niles, Michigan) is an American biogerontologist. His research focuses, on stem cells, cellular aging and telomerase. He is the CEO of AgeX Therapeutics.

Early life and education West was born in Niles, Michigan. He graduated from Niles Senior High School and received a BS in psychology from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1976. He then received a PhD in cell biology in 1989 from the Baylor College of Medicine. He did postdoctoral research at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

Career West was founder, director, and chief scientific officer of Geron, for which he secured venture capital investment from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Venrock and Domain Associates. At Geron, West initiated and managed programs in telomere biology relating to aging, cancer and human embryonic stem cell technology. West was chairman of the board, chief scientific officer and CEO of Advanced Cell Technology (ACT), another biotechnology company focused on stem cell research. ACT later changed its name to Ocata Therapeutics, and was acquired by Japanese pharmaceutical company Astellas Pharma in February 2016. West was a CEO of BioTime, Inc. (NYSE: BTX), later renamed Lineage Cell Therapeutics (NYSE: LCTX). With them, he acquired the stem cell assets of Geron Corporation in a subsidiary of BioTime called Asterias Therapeutics (NYSE: AST), which was later merged with Lineage Cell Therapeutics. While at BioTime, he also founded and took public Oncocyte (NYSE: OCX), which was later renamed Insight Molecular Diagnostics, Inc. (NYSE: IMDX). West was CEO and founder of AgeX Therapeutics, acquired by Serina Therapeutics in 2024. West organized the first collaborative effort to isolate human pluripotent (embryonic) stem cells for the purpose of manufacturing products in regenerative medicine in collaboration with James Thomson at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, John Gearhart at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and Roger Pedersen at the University of California, San Francisco. In their telomerase research, West and colleagues at Geron cloned the RNA component of telomerase and collaborated with Thomas Cech (winner of 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry), with whom they cloned the catalytic component of the enzyme telomerase, and sponsored collaborative research in the laboratory of Carol Greider, then at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Geron published evidence of the role of telomerase in cancer and cell immortalization in collaboration with Woodring Wright and Jerry Shay at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. For the company's Scientific and Clinical Advisory Board, he recruited Günter Blobel (winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Physiology), Leonard Hayflick, Carol Greider (winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine), James Watson (winner of the 1962 Nobel Prize in medicine), and others. West has been a keynote speaker at events including World Stem Cell and is associated with 146 patents in the United States, Australia, Japan, and elsewhere. West is a member of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation's scientific advisory board. He is a signatory of the Scientists’ Open Letter on Cryonics.

Bibliography

Books West has authored and co-edited books on topics including animal cloning, aging, biogerontology, stem cells, stem cell biology, and regenerative medicine.

2002 Principles of Cloning ISBN 0-12-174597-X 2003 The Immortal Cell, by Michael D. West, Doubleday ISBN 978-0-385-50928-2 2004 Handbook of Stem Cells: Volume 1 Embryonic Stem Cells ISBN 0-12-436642-2 2004 Handbook of Stem Cells: Volume 2 Adult and Fetal Stem Cells ISBN 0-12-436644-9 2006 Essentials of Stem Cell Biology ISBN 0-12-088442-9 2010 The Future of Aging ISBN 9048139988 2010 The Future of Aging: Pathways to Human Life Extension ISBN 978-90-481-3998-9

See also Tissue engineering Somatic cell nuclear transfer

References

External links Dr. West's webpage Audio: Dr. West interviewed on Bloomberg Radio's "The Hays Advantage" February 11, 2010

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Michael D. West

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Michael D. West claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Michael D. West before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Michael D. West ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Michael D. West

In research: Michael D. West appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Michael D. West in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Michael D. West is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1953 births, 21st-century American biologists, American chief executives in technology, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Michael D. West outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Michael D. West in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Michael D. West means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Michael D. West out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Michael D. West in simple terms?

Michael D. West (born 28 April 1953 in Niles, Michigan) is an American biogerontologist.

Why does Michael D. West matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Michael D. West?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Michael D. West.