Computational Aging

Cellular reprogramming via transcription factors is one of the most promising avenues towards lifespan extension. If you can reset your cells back in time, then your tissue function and health can improve.

Janine, one of my co-founders at Junevity, and I wrote a perspective in GEN about why transcription factors, once dismissed as “undruggable” and “too risky,” are now within reach.

The article traces how advances in siRNA, omics, and AI/ML are converging to unlock transcription factors as one of the most powerful and overlooked target classes in medicine.

Resetting transcription factors could lead to a wave of FDA approvals, give new hope for treating our biggest diseases, and open the door to extending healthspan and lifespan.

Read here: https://www.genengnews.com/topics/drug-discovery/unlocking-the-potential-of-transcription-factors/

Now published in PNAS, check out my work from UCSF: Unsupervised pattern identification in spatial gene expression atlas reveals mouse brain regions beyond established ontology: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2319804121https://lnkd.in/dEB37EkQ

We combine stability-driven nonnegative matrix factorization with spatial correlation analysis to explore brain regions and ontology in 3D spatial gene expression profiles.

Our findings reveal a gene expression-defined anatomical ontology and interpretable region-specific genetic architecture captured by the marker genes and spatial co-expression networks in the mouse brain.

This shows the power of genomics + machine learning to create biological maps. As the datasets grow and the algorithms improve, I expect this kind of work will lead to a whole generation of medical breakthroughs.

Code available here: https://github.com/abbasilab/osNMFhttps://lnkd.in/dtymd4gC

Great collaboration with Yu Wang, R. Patrick Xian, Alex Lee in collaboration with the Allen Institute for Brain Science's Hongkui Zeng and Bosiljka Tasic and University of California, Berkeley's Bin Yu. Special thanks to Weill Neurohub and and Sandler Program for Breakthrough Biomedical Research for funding our research.

Many of us are figuring out how to have max impact towards curing aging.

Where are we towards this goal? Generally, humanity has good tactics to live to 70-80 or so in a healthy way. At that point, diseases of age take over, including neurodegeneration, cancer, heart disease, aches and pains, frailty, and much more. There’s a long way to go.

What’s on the horizon? There are 100s/1000s of labs and 100s of companies working directly on aging. These will bring new ideas and medicines to approval. There are far more teams and companies working on enabling tech: genomics, AI, drug delivery, pharma. These will bring new tools to bear on the problem.

What should we do to have max impact in our lifetimes? My answer is to take a big swing on an exciting new technology (non-Yamanaka transcription factors for tissue-specific rejuvenation) and see where it goes. That’s what I’m doing at Junevity, putting all my professional effort and resources to make it happen.

A general answer is to put your time and money in this field, and see where it leads.