Telluride Technology Festival 2006 - David Sinclair

(random comments are bolded)
(all quotes and ideas expressed in this post are intellectual property of David Sinclair)
David Sinclair begins his presentation with talking about how humbled he is with his introduction and being "famed" per say. Sinclair got a PhD in molecular biology and got interested in aging. Sinclair was interested in aging pioneers, already working on understanding the aging process. Sinclair says that he's an associate professor at a Harvard Medical school. This research isn't not just going to benefits rich old white people, it can change the way we do medicine. There are genetic pathways in our bodies that defend ourselves from disease. If you activate these, you can reverse negative effect of diseases.

Sinclair was, early on, challenged with people who thought that aging wasn't a true science and that it shouldn't be studied. Sinclair says, though, that we are now at the breakthrough cutting edge of science. Sinclair says that his job today is to convince people that topical cream isn't science, and he can make a difference with molecular biology.

What Sinclair wants us to put aside is our skepticism about aging science. Aging has undergone a revolution in how we understand it. If an age associated illness occurs in less than 50% of people, it's a disease. If it's more than 50%, it's "aging". Sinclair feels this is very arbitrary. Sinclair feels that aging is a set of horrible diseases, and he feels that we should get rid of them. He feels we can extend the lifespan into 120s and 130s. He thinks it would be a nice world, with some social impact (obviously). Some people are disposed to live a long time, Sinclair says, giving an example of father and son (100 and 70 respectively). Sinclair claims that there are genes we can track down to increase age, and study simpler organisms to begin this aging study. The old view of aging was that our bodies are like automobiles, we wear out and die. By this analogy, it's almost possible to thing of an aging-fixing pill. Even if you had a pill, it would be hard to convince the public.

The goal of the research of the past couple years has been to find these aging genes, to locate what makes people actually age. If you restrict the calories you give rats, they live dramatically longer. You restrict the calories, the longer you extend the lifespan. Can we eat things that would restrict the appetite? It works on Yeast, Nematodes, Flies, Mice and probably (heh) Humans and primates. Our bodies have innate defenses against aging and multiple diseases, they're governed by the same genes too. Some people are not going to wait for this technology and are just restricting their calories now. It doesn't affect mental acuity, it improves it.

In this fasting diet, you're protected much better than eating a lot. One of the things Sinclair is worrying about is that you may be sterile after taking his pill, but so far, no side effects. SIR2 is one of the genes Sinclair is interested in. It taught him that the pace of aging is regulated by a few key genes, not thousands.

Yeast cells are perfect to study because their genetics are very similar to our genetic structure. Yeast cells only produce 20 offspring before they die, and Sinclair wanted to study this relationship with aging. Was this true with other organisms? Sinclair found that SIR2 controlled aging in very complex organisms, so they'd live 30-50% longer with extra SIR2 genes. Sinclair thought that they had an awesome learning experience with this SIR2 gene. SIR2 is an enzyme, and it tells things in the cell when to do things. Sinclair wanted to find a molecule so that we could eat something rather than using gene therapy. Sinclair thinks that the SIR2 is almost absolutely in the human structure, and SIRT1 is a very similar gene in us. We don't yet know that SIRT1 will extend our lifespan. Sinclair is confident that we can extend our lifespan with SIRT1 genes. SIRT1, says Sinclair, is very key in solving the diabetes problem. Sinclair shows us studies done with mice, very interesting experiments into genes and transgenic mice. What Sinclair has just discovered is that SIRT1 prevents Cancer in mice. It keeps cells alive, and cancer is proliferation, SIRT1 can give you better protection against Cancer in addition to various other diseases. If we switch on the SIRT1 gene, the mice that didn't have it had a ton of tumors (in Cancer prone mice). The ones with the excessive SIRT1 genes have little to no tumors, it can supress Cancer. This is huge, says Sinclair. Sinclair wants to know if we can make drugs that can treat old age Sinclair can now create the SIRT1 enzyme artificially and looked for molecules that would hyperactivate the enzyme. They found a whole class of molecules that did this and prolonged life in the yeast cells. Rezveratrol, says Sinclair, is a great molecule for exciting the SIR2 and SIRT1 enzymes. It's produced by plants when they're under stress, interestingly enough. The plants are presumably using this molecule to help it survive in harsh conditions. Merely eating this molecule prolongs lifespan by at least 10% and increased proliferation.

Sinclair is now talking about more, harder to blog topics. I can assure you that it's an interesting talk, one I'm glad to attend.