Slow walking speed is a common feature of frailty Gordon Scammell/Loop Images/Universal Images/Getty Images An experimental stem cell therapy could treat frailty by targeting the condition at its biological roots. Frailty – which raises the risk of falls and infections – is typically only mitigated through lifestyle changes, like doing strength training and balance exercises. But now, it seems that a novel infusion of stem cells from young, healthy people into older individuals significantly improved their mobility. “Frailty is a major source of disability and diminished quality of life in older individuals,” says Joshua Hare at Longeveron, a biotechnology company in Miami, Florida. “There is a major unmet need to find biological treatments.” Hare and his colleagues at Longeveron are developing a therapy that they hope will target some of the underlying mechanisms of ageing, such as inflammation and impairment of the metabolic processes that make muscles contract. The therapy – called laromestrocel – is made up of mesenchymal stem cells that can develop into many different types of cells, including muscle and cartilage, taken …