"which increase muscle mass" - look at the trial done at Nationwide Children's Hospital here in Columbus, OH. The study prove the findings in previous studies in mice and primates that folistatin "improve muscle mass and strength" and has an "anti-fibrotic effect"
Here is something from that study:
"The choice
was between two isoforms generated by alternative splicing. The
FS344 variant includes a C-terminal acidic region that undergoes
peptide cleavage to generate the serum circulating, nontissue
binding, FS315 isoform. This isoform avoids off-target effects
especially affecting sites within the pituitary-gonadal axis.56–59 Our
initial gene transfer experiments using AAV1.CMV.FS344 in the
mdx mouse demonstrated enhanced muscle mass and strength for
more than 2 years without adverse effects.18 We extended these
studies to nonhuman primates for up to 15 months without histologic
or functional adverse events to any key organ systems.19
The intramuscular injection of AAV1.CMV.FS344 to BMD
subjects in this clinical trial represents a successful proof-of-principle
study with an excellent safety profile that mirrored preclinical
findings."
Some people do not read the clinical studies and they just move ahead with their initial assumption ... one individual from this forum totally misunderstood the study and went on pooh-pooh-ing the study on a different blog.
Anyway, you can look at the study here:
A phase 1/2a follistatin gene therapy trial for becker muscular dystrophy.
http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/25322757
Dr. Jerry Mendell Discusses Phase 1/2a Follistatin Gene Therapy Trial for Becker Muscular Dystrophy :: March 2015
http://www.nationwid...cular-dystrophy
http://www.nationwid...ontentid=136200
... but main idea is: "Researchers observed substantial increases in 6MWT (6-minute walk test), above those that would be predicted over the course of one year in untreated BMD patients. Pituitary-gonadal hormone levels remained normal throughout the trial. Additionally, patients did not experience any significant adverse effects related to follistatin gene therapy or abnormalities in the liver, kidneys or bone marrow."
... you cannot substantial improve in 6MWT if only the "mass" of muscle was increased without increasing the strength ... as some of the pooh-pooh-ers (miss)understood.
The question is: is the same technology doing the same thing in Liz Parish? We need to wait and see.
btw Dr. Jerry Mendell now runs Milo Biotech that "The company’s technology, a gene therapy-based up-regulation of the muscle-strengthening follistatin protein, was developed at and is exclusively licensed from Nationwide Children’s Hospital (Ohio, U.S.A.)." ... according to some individuals this is a "conflict of interest", since they developed a technology and then they tried to put in practice.
http://milobiotechnology.com/
... as far as as your comparison between "H" guy military campaign and George Church, I'll keep my comments ... they are light-years apart and there is no even comparison in what they were/are tryind to do... but I do have a hint for you to look a bit on what these "geneticists" like George Church are trying to do: if you want you can do a search for reverse dna-methylation to address reverse aging ... see what a simple Google search can do ...