For over a decade, Conboy and her colleagues at UC Berkeley have been searching for ways to slow down or even reverse aging. Their latest discovery—a small-molecule drug that restored brain and muscle tissues to youthful levels in old mice through stem cells—signalled that the prospect of anti-aging therapy for humans may be on the horizon. 

Published in the latest issue of the scientific journal Oncotarget this May, the discovery has been called "fountain of youth" or the "secret to eternal youth" by the media. 

Comfortably clad in an oversized hoodie, Conboy burst the bubble in her high-pitch, Eastern European accent: Sorry, the drug won't keep us young forever, and we will all eventually die.

But what her research hopes to accomplish, Conboy said, is a painless, cost-effective way to live when we are old.