Neurobiologist Dr. Michael Fossel of Ada says his bio-tech company, Telocyte, is seeking FDA approval for human clinical trials for a treatment that will cure Alzheimer’s Disease. He plans to cure Alzheimer’s Disease.

Fossel, a neurobiologist who has studied the science of aging for decades, says there’s enough scientific knowledge and research about aging to put together the pieces and cure one of the most tragic age-related diseases in our culture.

“It looks like we can finally begin to address age-related diseases and do something about them,” said Fossel, the co-founder of Telocyte, a bio-tech company that hopes to start human trials of its Alzheimer’s cure within the next year.

“I think we what we can do is finally show it’s not a matter of perhaps slowing and treating the symptoms, but we can do something to reverse the problems of Alzheimer’s Disease,” said Fossel, a former emergency room physician at Mercy Health St. Mary’s and lecturer at Grand Valley State University’s bio-medical program.

It’s the culmination of 30 years of research Fossel has conducted into the causes of aging. In 1996, he published “Reversing Human Aging,” the first of several books he has published about the causes of and research surrounding the aging process.

In his most recent book, “The Telomerase Revolution,” Fossel that explains how an enzyme in part of the chromosome holds the key to aging. The book has been well-received by scientists. The Wall Street Journal named it one of 2015’s five best books for science lovers.

Telocyte, which Fossel co-founded with British tech-entrepreneur Peter Rayson, is in the process of raising money to support the clinical trial process and get permission for human trials from the Food and Drug Administration

Unlike much of the medical research and treatment surrounding Alzheimer’s Disease, Fossel said his company is going for a cure for the cell-aging process that causes the disease, instead of a treatment that might alleviate the symptoms.

“I don’t want people to spend 20 years longer in a nursing home,” he said. “I want them to spend 20 years wrestling with their grandkids.”

Rather that starting with a drug that will modify the course of the disease, Fossel said his approach is to change the cells that trigger the disease. It’s an approach that challenges the assumptions surrounding Alzheimer’s and its treatment, he said.

While medical industry has created an infrastructure to deal with and treat Alzheimer’s, Fossel said his approach would eliminate the need for treatment, just as the polio vaccine eliminated the need for iron lungs in the 1950s.

Connecticut-born Fossel came to West Michigan in 1984 after graduating from Stanford University with a doctorate and medical degree in neurobiology and research methods.

His bride, Joy, was a Southeast Michigan native whose family had spent their summers in Castle Park, a resort along Lake Michigan near Holland. He and Joy, a partner at the Varnum law firm in downtown Grand Rapids, settled on an 180-year-old farmstead in Ada.

While practicing emergency medicine at St. Mary’s, Fossel kept abreast on the research associated with aging. He taught at Michigan State University’s Medical School and Grand Valley State University and wrote text books on the topic.

In recent months, Fossel has focused on getting Telocyte funded and its “telomerase” treatment approved for human clinical trials.

Fossel compares medical research into aging to the fable of the blind-folded men describing an elephant – one focusing on the tail, another on the leg and another on the trunk.

While all of the researchers may be correct in their analysis, Fossel he said hopes his latest book will encourage a more holistic approach to the causes of aging on a cellular level rather than the symptoms.