Medical Tourists Go to Honduras for a Supposed Fountain of Youth

About a million tourists descend upon Roatán each year. The island, just off the coast of Honduras, boasts a large barrier reef ideal for scuba diving and snorkeling, and it has the beaches, jungles and slow pace of life prized by cruise ship types. One group of visitors, however, recently visited Roatán with a less conventional goal in mind: They’ve opted to become some of the first genetically enhanced humans.

These medical tourists came to receive a homegrown gene therapy made by Minicircle Inc., a small US startup. The therapy, delivered via injection, turbocharges the body’s production of follistatin ...