The originator of the theory is Olovnikov AM. In 1973, Olovnikov proposed that cells lose a small amount of DNA following each round of replication due to the inability of DNA polymerase to fully replicate chromosome ends (telomeres) and that eventually a critical deletion causes cell death.
Later this theory was supported and developed by a number of scientists and researchers.
Washington University (in St. Louis, MO) has a reference database on telomeres, TelDB. Collected references involve telomeres and aging and telomeres and cancer
Recent articles discussing telomeres are here .