Noel Thomas Patton

Noel Thomas Patton, founder of T.A. SCIENCES®, was born and
raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana. His boyhood upbringing was a far cry
from the breakthrough Biotech business he is engaged in today. Just as
T.A. Sciences® is a hybrid of Traditional Chinese Culture and modern
science, so is Noel Patton’s life which has included impressive business
success both in America and China.
A graduate of Indiana University (1969) with an Honors Degree in
Philosophy, Noel furthered his studies on the East Coast and is an
alumnus of the Harvard Business School. He maintains an ongoing
involvement with Young Presidents Organization (YPO) through its
CEO and WPO graduate organizations.
In 1972 Noel purchased Patton Electric Company, the family appliance manufacturing business
started by his father in 1945. By the mid 80’s Patton Electric and many other US manufactures
were facing fierce competition from low cost imports. In 1987 he moved with his family to Hong
Kong, China, which was just opening up after Mao’s Cultural Revolution. As always a pioneer,
Noel was a presence even in rural China at a time when no small American company had yet
ventured into that territory.
As Noel and his family thrived in the adrenalin-charged culture and sophistication of Hong Kong
and China, the business flourished. In 1995 Patton Electric Company was sold to a large publicly
traded appliance firm. At this time, Noel began to indulge his passion for knowledge of new
developments in age management and the latest breakthroughs in biotechnology. In particular, he
began to explore the intersection between Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Western
medical science.
In 1999 Noel heard Professor Jerry Shay of the University of Texas Southwest give a speech
about a naturally occurring enzyme called telomerase that made human cells “young” again.
Meeting Dr. Shay was Noel Patton’s introduction to the newly evolving scientific world of
Telomere Biology. Noel immediately followed through and contacted leading edge California
biotech company Geron Corporation, the industry leader in developing this new scientific
frontier. And so began a tremendously positive and rewarding business relationship. Noel and his
wife Eve invested in Geron and began helping this California-based firm to expand into Hong
Kong. The Pattons were on hand when Geron and the University of Science and Technology in
Hong Kong discovered the cellular rejuvenation properties of the single molecule which we now
call TA-65. TA-65 is a naturally occurring, but very rare, molecule found in the well known
Astragalus plant.
In 2002 Noel and Eve secured exclusive worldwide rights to Geron’s Telomerase Activation
(TA) technology for non-prescription nutraceutical and cosmeceutical products and in 2007, after
5 years of development and safety testing, opened the T.A. Sciences office in New York City.

In 2005 the Pattons facilitated a joint venture between Geron and the University of Science and
Technology in Hong Kong. This company, TA Therapeutics (TAT), is developing Geron’s
Telomerase Activation (TA) technology for therapeutic prescription drug applications. While
TAT’s first drug candidate has the potential to cure a number of serious diseases, TAT hopes to
file an application with the United States FDA by the end of 2008 with their first indication
being a drug for rebuilding the weakened immune system of HIV/AIDS patients.
Noel and Eve currently travel between Hong Kong, California, and New York. The T.A.
Sciences CenterTM, located on the Upper East Side in Manhattan markets telomerase activating
nutraceutical and cosmeceutical age defying products derived from Geron’s technology.

Telomere Biology: The Emerging Paradigm Shift

In the last three decades, there has been a tremendous surge of scientific knowledge of how and why we age. Many scientists are now searching for the cure for aging and are examining technologies that could dramatically extend human healthspan and lifespan.  By curing infectious diseases and improvements in sanitation, life expectancy has increased tremendously over the last century. However since the discovery of the Hayflick limit which postulated a theoretical 125-year limit on our lifespan, only one medical therapy shows potential to be able to break through this barrier. That technology is Telomere Biology.

There is a clock that ticks inside every dividing cell of our bodies.  This clock is found at the tips of our chromosomes, in a region called the telomere.  When human cells divide, telomeres shorten, and the length of the telomeres correlates with the age of these cells.  We know that when telomeres get too short that cells either become senescent or die. This telomere clock is postulated to be the clock of aging.

The 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded jointly to Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak for the discovery of “how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase”.  These three scientists have solved a major problem in biology: how the chromosomes can be copied in a complete way during cell divisions and how they are protected against degradation.

Inside every one of our cells is a gene that when turned on produces an enzyme called telomerase.  Telomerase stops the telomere clock from ticking, and if it gets turned on permanently, it gives cells the ability to divide forever.  Normally the gene for telomerase is turned on only in our reproductive cells; it is turned off in almost all other cells.  A small-molecule compound that activates telomerase could possibly turn it back on and prevent the shortening of telomeres.

Control of telomere length is necessary if we hope to ever be able to eliminate the 125-year limit on our lifespan. And even if we don’t live that long, it is the first crucial step toward allowing us to seriously extend our ability to live a vigorous, healthy life.
“…telomere shortening could be the reason for ageing, not only in the individual cells but also in the organism as a whole… These discoveries have added a new dimension to our understanding of the cell, shed light on disease mechanisms, and stimulated the development of potential new therapies”. (Nobel Prize Committee Press Release)

The first product to emerge from this new science is TA-65®, a single small molecule derived from the Chinese herb astragalus.  In laboratory studies using human cell lines including fibroblast cells which normally do not express any telomerase, TA-65® was shown to unequivocally lengthen telomeres.  TA-65® is the first and only commercially available telomerase activator that is safe for human consumption.

Each batch of TA-65® starts with 3 tons of astragalus root grown in a specific region of Inner Mongolia. Through a closely guarded proprietary process, a single molecule (TA-65®) is separated out from over 2,000 other molecules and purified to a drug-like quality. There are no other similar products available on the market.

Currently, TA-65 is the only scientifically-proven Telomerase Activator in the world available to the public. The molecule was discovered in 2000 by leading biotech company, the Geron Corporation in Menlo Park, California, and was exclusively licensed to TA Sciences in 2002.

TA-65 has been proven to activate telomerase by two independent research laboratories.
Geron Chief Researcher Calvin Harley demonstrated that TA-65 induced Telomerase Activity transiently in neonatal keratinocytes. Bill Andrews and his lab at Sierra Sciences showed telomerase transiently activated by TA-65 in fetal lung fibroblasts. Most scientists who have worked with TA-65 are taking it.

These findings establish conclusively that TA-65 transiently activates telomerase. It is widely accepted in the scientific community that the only way to lengthen telomeres is through the activation of telomerase. It is also widely accepted that individuals with long telomeres are healthier and live longer.

TA-65’s ability to activate telomerase and increase telomere length in humans has led to the following:

Human trial results substantiating these claims are to be published very soon in a peer-reviewed scientific journal .
Short Telomeres have been associated with maladies in these tissues:

The Safety and Efficacy Record for TA-65 is powerful.

CONCLUSIONS

View .pdf of Presentation here!