Somewhat serious question: They’ve found how/why removing this gene accelerates the aging process. But, as I read it, this interesting research doesn’t cast light on how to do better than the undamaged/unremoved gene does, and DEcelerate the aging process. Or am I missing something?
You aren't missing anything. They found out why people with that particular aberrant gene seem to age so fast, but they did not find out anything about how to keep cells from aging.
Actually, in the lab, we "immortalize" cells quite a bit for research. The process has no bearing on how to increase human life span.