WEBVTT - Making 100 the New 60 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.200 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:14.960 Forward Thinking. Hey there, everybody, and welcome to Forward Thinking, 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:17.680 the podcast that looks at the future and says, may 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:22.079 you stay forever young. I'm Joe McCormick and I'm Lauren 0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:25.200 bock Obama. Our other co host of Jonathan Strickland is 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:27.880 out on vacation this week. So Joe and I are 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:31.640 forging bravely ahead by ourselves into the future, into the 0:00:31.640 --> 0:00:34.880 future where we will all be immortal. Uh wait, wait, 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:38.000 wait wait immortal. I mean really, we've talked about this, 0:00:38.080 --> 0:00:40.760 the future. Everybody knows that in the future, everybody's gonna 0:00:40.760 --> 0:00:44.120 live forever. Forever sounds like a really long time, and 0:00:44.159 --> 0:00:46.080 also like we might have to be vampires. And I'm 0:00:46.080 --> 0:00:49.000 not entirely sure that I'm into that, but but there 0:00:49.040 --> 0:00:51.879 are some some researchers who are planning some slightly more 0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:57.000 concrete ways of creating greater longevity in the human population. Yeah. 0:00:57.040 --> 0:01:01.200 I'm skeptical about the living forever, but I'm I'm into 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:04.959 the living longer. That seems kind of doable, longer and 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:08.200 also healthier. Right, that's a big one. Yeah. Yeah, And 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:11.000 there's a specific group of researchers who have started up 0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:14.800 a company called Human Longevity, inc. Um that that has 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:18.240 has a whole plan for this. Right. They have just 0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:21.319 announced launch about a month ago, and that's what we 0:01:21.360 --> 0:01:24.240 wanted to talk about today was Human Longevity Inc. There 0:01:24.680 --> 0:01:27.640 sort of plan for the future and what it means 0:01:27.720 --> 0:01:33.120 for longevity, uh and the idea of staying healthy, not 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:38.040 just living longer, but but preventing the diseases of aging. Right. 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:41.280 Their specific plan is to create a business that consequences 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:44.720 many as a hundred thousand people's genomes, microbiomes, and like 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:48.880 bloodstream biochemicals every year um. All of this in order 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:53.080 to create a for profit database for research, thus help 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:55.920 helping people live longer and healthier and making some money 0:01:55.920 --> 0:01:58.680 while they're at it. Okay, yeah, so we wanted to 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:01.480 talk about their plans. But before we get to their plan, 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:03.720 I think we should talk about some of the big 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:07.400 wigs behind this launch. Yeah yeah, because the founders, although 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:09.960 you may not have heard their names, you've definitely heard 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:11.639 about some of their projects. So who are we dealing 0:02:11.680 --> 0:02:14.040 with your job? Well, the big one, the main founder 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:17.880 is J. Craig Venter uh known to some as Darth 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:21.919 Ventor some of his His less adoring contemporaries would probably 0:02:21.960 --> 0:02:25.440 refer to him that way on the internet. But he's 0:02:25.520 --> 0:02:29.720 a he's a big influencer. Yeah yeah, And he's been 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:32.080 working in this for a few decades now. He was 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:36.760 the leader of the private sector venture to sequence the 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:40.240 human genome back in the I guess it started maybe 0:02:40.280 --> 0:02:45.519 like late eighties, early nineties, but ranging through the early ops. 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:49.000 While the Human Genome Project was heading forward to map 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:53.120 the human genome with public funding, uh, ventor was coming 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:55.679 in on the side saying, let's race them to the 0:02:55.720 --> 0:02:59.400 finish line, basically from the private sector side. Right. He 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:02.639 was doing this through a company called cela Um, which, 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:04.080 as much as we want it to be, is not 0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:06.639 the celery mafia, right. Whenever I hear that, I think 0:03:06.639 --> 0:03:10.239 it's some big agribusiness thing where they you know, all 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:12.800 the celery in the world comes through us. We're the 0:03:12.840 --> 0:03:15.799 only game in town for celery. But no, they were 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:20.000 for genetics and genomics, yes um and and this entire 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:23.960 race caused a lot of controversy in the genetics community 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:27.120 because they started out holding their data for for profit 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:30.440 instead of sharing it publicly, all the while using public 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:34.160 data from the Human Genome Project in order to complete 0:03:34.200 --> 0:03:37.520 this work UM so, so they they experienced a lot 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:40.640 of kind of nasty pressure from other genetics and funding companies, 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:44.360 and eventually released their findings, albeit with a download per 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:50.360 time period maximum, to the public for use. But you know, whatever, 0:03:50.480 --> 0:03:54.080 whatever your opinion about Seller's motivations and policies, they did 0:03:54.200 --> 0:03:57.120 pioneer and approach to sequencing that the Human Genome Project 0:03:57.360 --> 0:04:00.360 wound up using UM because of its its terrific speed 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:04.480 and accuracy. So so that's awesome. Yeah. Absolutely. Vnor himself 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:06.720 has a whole lot of critics you'll find on the internet, 0:04:06.760 --> 0:04:10.040 as we mentioned with his other cute little moniker earlier, 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:14.800 but he he's somebody who you kind of can't ignore, like, uh, 0:04:15.400 --> 0:04:18.200 whatever criticisms you might have of him. Some people think 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:20.960 he's an egomaniac, some people, you know, they're all kinds 0:04:20.960 --> 0:04:24.800 of things. People say, he's definitely done some really important 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:30.040 pioneering work. Absolutely. Yeah. So after that, we have Peter Diamandis. 0:04:30.080 --> 0:04:32.800 He is somebody who you may have heard about from 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:37.159 us with reference to space tourism, right, yeah, we did 0:04:37.320 --> 0:04:41.799 that that whole series of space tourism space travel episodes 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:46.520 in January, and that is because he founded Space Adventures, 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:49.559 which is one of those space tourism companies. He's also 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:52.240 the chairman and CEO of the X Prize Um, which 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:54.720 is that that thing that awards funds to ventures and 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:57.320 awesome stuff like a like private space flight and a 0:04:57.400 --> 0:05:01.159 hundred mile per gallant equivalent cars. He's also a co 0:05:01.279 --> 0:05:04.720 founder and chairman of Singularity University, along with no less 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:08.920 than Ray Kurtzweil. Um of course, Singularity University being an 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:13.920 uncredited extra weird stuff Silicon Valley educational institution. So who 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:17.200 is our third co founder here? It is Robert Herreri. 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:21.000 That's right. He's the founder of um anthrow Genesis, which 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:23.760 is aging therapy company that was purchased by cell gene 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:26.919 also not about celery, and no, it is they study 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:30.520 the genetics of celery. I cannot tell if you're messing 0:05:30.520 --> 0:05:34.680 with me right now. I'm totally kidding, excellent. It was 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:37.359 purchased by celging in two thousand three, and uh, and 0:05:37.400 --> 0:05:41.800 they focus on stem cell research and specifically placental stem 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:45.239 cell research for for treatment of debilitating diseases and also 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:48.680 like organ and tissue degenerations. So so all of these 0:05:48.880 --> 0:05:54.120 have very practical applications in the study of aging and longevity. Okay, 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:56.640 so we got our big wigs together, and what do 0:05:56.720 --> 0:05:59.160 they do. Let's tell the story of the launch of 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:03.799 Human longevi the inc. Okay, in early March, of Human 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:08.440 Longevity announced UM that they existed, a UM and and 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:12.000 and be, that they had generated seventy million dollars in 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:15.320 startup funds, and furthermore that they are working in partnership 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:20.440 with several organizations right now, mainly UM University of California, 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:24.120 San Diego's Mores Cancer Center. They are planning on starting 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:28.400 with a relatively conservative forty thou genome sequences per year, 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:32.279 which is what the two Ilumina high s x ten 0:06:32.320 --> 0:06:35.080 machines that they bought can handle. I have no idea 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:37.560 if if that string of words that I just said 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:40.120 is how you actually pronounce that machines name. Apparently they 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:43.240 are really fancy schmancy genetics machines. I I don't. I 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:46.520 haven't used one personally. Yeah, apparently they cost about ten 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:50.159 million dollars apiece. But they can reduce the cost of 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:54.039 sequencing a person's genome too. This is predicted now about 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:58.360 a thousand bucks now let's compare that to how much 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:02.560 it has cost in the past. Um, the Human Genome project, 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:05.880 I believe was just under three billion dollars. It was 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:08.919 like two point seven billion dollars, which it was was 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:11.760 under budget, So that's impressive. Um, I mean it was 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:13.960 it was like point three billion dollars under budget, which 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:17.400 is terrific, but still each Yeah, Venor cites his first 0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:20.960 sequence costead of around a hundred million, he brings that 0:07:21.040 --> 0:07:25.600 number up. Uh so it's definitely come down over time, 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:29.520 huch improvement. And that thousand dollar mark Joe you pointed 0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:32.960 out was was actually a kind of unofficial goal for 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:35.559 the genetics community for a long time, right, Yeah, people 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:37.920 have been talking about this for years since I think 0:07:37.920 --> 0:07:41.040 just after two thousand, people start talking about the thousand 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:44.520 dollar genome because this is a problem, like we know 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:46.920 that we can learn a lot from the data provided 0:07:46.960 --> 0:07:49.679 in our genes, but if it costs so much money 0:07:49.720 --> 0:07:53.720 to sequence a genome, it's a lot of trouble getting there. Yeah. Yeah, 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:55.920 If it's billions of dollars every time, that's a difficult 0:07:55.920 --> 0:07:59.360 thing to fund, certainly, right. So essentially just putting together 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:02.280 a whole lot of money and reducing the cost of 0:08:02.320 --> 0:08:05.200 sequencing a genome can take us a long way in 0:08:05.280 --> 0:08:09.760 terms of learning more about the relationship between our genome 0:08:09.920 --> 0:08:13.080 and the ways we age and the diseases we get. 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:16.440 The disease that the company is going to be focusing 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:19.600 on first is cancer UM and that's why they're working 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:22.800 with UC San Diego's Mores Cancer Center. UM. They're planning 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:26.120 on sequencing the genomes of cancer patients, both their healthy 0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:28.920 cells and also tumor cells in an attempt to better 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:32.600 understand these patients and the course of their disease. They're 0:08:32.880 --> 0:08:36.360 they're starting out offering the sequencing free of charge to 0:08:36.559 --> 0:08:39.840 the patients, although the company has stated that that they're 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:42.200 planning or kind of hoping to be able to charge 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:44.320 for the service later on down the line. Yeah, we 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:46.280 don't know when that will happen, but that that's I 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:50.840 think the eventual goal. Yes, So what does this mean? 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:55.640 Why does it help a cancer patient or anybody at 0:08:55.640 --> 0:08:58.559 all really to get their genome sequence to well, So 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:01.360 we'll start with the broad The broad view is that 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:05.400 genome sequencing data can be gathered in conjunction with massive 0:09:05.440 --> 0:09:09.960 amounts of other general data about health UH and the 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:14.160 health of the sequencing subjects. So hopefully by combining and 0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:17.600 cross referencing these data points, we can learn a lot 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:22.040 more about how to treat diseases, especially age correlated diseases, 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:26.320 and eventually more about aging itself. And Venera said he 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:30.040 wants to put together basically a new age of a 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:34.280 quantitative approach to health, connecting all the pieces of data 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:37.520 that people have been collecting separately for all these years, 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:41.040 so we can sequence a genome and we can collect 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:43.200 data about you every time you go to the doctor. 0:09:43.800 --> 0:09:46.959 He wants to put this info together in a massive 0:09:47.000 --> 0:09:50.920 way and look for correlations. Right, And we've talked a 0:09:51.000 --> 0:09:53.600 little bit, I mean a lot actually about about the 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:57.280 genome and um, the microbiome before on this show. If 0:09:57.280 --> 0:09:59.120 you want a really full treatment on genes, you can 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:01.520 check out our pot cast episode Genes one oh one, 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:06.440 which published back on August um. But but basically every 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:08.959 time we've we've said on this podcast that humans are 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:12.240 really complicated biomachines and that we're really going to need 0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:14.760 more research if we're ever going to understand why are 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:17.199 our bodies work the way that they do. We were 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:21.440 talking about these three broad categories of of genes and 0:10:21.559 --> 0:10:25.560 microbiome and blood chemicals. You know, the genome is kind 0:10:25.559 --> 0:10:28.360 of like like our code. The microbiome is like a 0:10:29.040 --> 0:10:31.000 kind of like a network of other users that are 0:10:31.000 --> 0:10:35.400 in the system. And and the blood content um is 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:39.760 data that that we, being the sort of system administrator 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:42.640 and along with the other users, put into the system. 0:10:42.720 --> 0:10:45.280 The system being our body. Um. So, so if we 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:48.160 can control all of these elements, then we'll be able 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:51.280 to live longer and healthier. Pypathetically, not just control them, 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:55.560 but understand the relationship between them. Yes, definitely, um yeah, Okay, 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:59.640 so that's sort of the broad view. But to sort 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:03.240 of zero in on what this means for the individual patient, 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:05.480 I think we should talk about a few ways that 0:11:05.920 --> 0:11:09.360 getting your genome sequenced with this technology that they have 0:11:09.480 --> 0:11:12.480 can make a big difference in your own health profile. 0:11:12.880 --> 0:11:15.440 And these are practical applications that are going on. Now. 0:11:15.520 --> 0:11:18.320 This isn't this isn't in the future. This is right. 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:20.720 We are living the incredible future, right, this is already 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:26.040 for real, and learning more about different correlations between elements 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:29.760 of the genome and diseases that we experience will take 0:11:29.880 --> 0:11:32.240 us even farther. So the first thing I wanted to 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:36.480 talk about was preventative medicine. So having your whole genome 0:11:36.559 --> 0:11:40.240 sequence can help you know what diseases you have a 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:44.400 predisposition for. So if you know what diseases you are 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:47.720 at the highest risk for, you can take preventative measures 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:52.040 towards specifically those diseases, preventing them before you get them, 0:11:52.240 --> 0:11:56.280 rather than treating them once the symptoms appear. Uh And 0:11:56.280 --> 0:11:58.600 and the founders of this company have talked about this 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:01.520 that we have kind of a active approach to health. 0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:04.640 Right now, you wait to get sick, and then you 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:08.080 treat the sickness, you try to do something about it. Well, 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:11.480 what's obviously much better than that is knowing how you 0:12:11.520 --> 0:12:14.800 are most likely to get sick based on who you are, 0:12:14.880 --> 0:12:18.120 based on your genes, and then taking steps to stop 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:21.560 that before it happens, or to watch for early warning 0:12:21.640 --> 0:12:24.679 signs and catch them early enough to to really do 0:12:24.880 --> 0:12:28.600 more good. Right That's certainly true, because with lots of diseases, 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:33.240 the earlier you catch it, the much better project uh And. 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:37.439 One really interesting example of this comes from Vnor himself. 0:12:38.360 --> 0:12:41.640 Ventor actually had his own genome sequence, and one of 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:43.760 the things that he found out from doing that was 0:12:43.840 --> 0:12:47.400 that he had a particular gene variant. He had the 0:12:47.480 --> 0:12:50.920 APO E four gene variant, which is one of the 0:12:50.960 --> 0:12:56.800 forms of the apollopope protein E gene from chromosome nineteen, 0:12:57.280 --> 0:12:59.880 and that's a gene that creates a protein that affects 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:04.360 cholesterol and fat in the bloodstream. Research had shown that 0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:07.640 people who have this E four variant that Ventor had 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:11.840 are at a greater risk for developing Alzheimer's disease, UH 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:14.600 much greater than people who had other common variants like 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:18.679 E two or E three. And because this gene variant 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:22.439 was associated with fat metabolism as well as Alzheimer's, Ventor 0:13:22.480 --> 0:13:25.959 announced that he started taking preventative fat lowering drugs after 0:13:26.040 --> 0:13:29.400 he found out he had this gene variant. That's I 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:33.120 that's that's great. UM. I don't know if the fat 0:13:33.160 --> 0:13:37.640 lowering drugs he was taking had any effect on the 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:41.720 Alzheimer's outlook or if that was just specifically for fat 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:45.600 content in the blood. But one thing that is true 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:48.959 is that years later he he had his brain scanned 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:52.439 basically to look for early signs of Alzheimer's. There's plaque. 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:54.520 I think that that shows up in brain scans. The 0:13:54.559 --> 0:13:57.960 amyloid plaques, and he went in there looking for because 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:01.800 he knew he had this predisposition, and they saw nothing. Uh. 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:05.319 And so another thing that that shows, and that's important 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:07.800 to point out, is that there's not necessarily a one 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:11.719 to one correlation between the disease you have a predisposition 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:15.240 for and what you will definitely, Yet like having a 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:19.640 predisposition just means you're more likely, right, And especially in 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:21.960 the case of this gene variant, I think that the 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:24.400 fact that he has it on on one of his 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:27.160 chromosomes means that he's got like a thirty percent chance 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:30.440 of developing Alzheimer's. And he said himself, you know you 0:14:30.480 --> 0:14:33.920 can't get thirty percent Alzheimer's. That's that's not how the 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:37.080 disease works, um, Right, Either either you have it or 0:14:37.160 --> 0:14:41.160 you don't, right. But but it's it's really cool to 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:43.920 to know that you have this chance and be able 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:47.200 to therefore get more testing done and and figure out 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:50.400 whether there are more steps that you need to take. Um. 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:52.600 And this isn't the only disease that they have found 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:54.600 this kind of stuff out for. There's a breast cancer 0:14:54.680 --> 0:14:56.720 is a big one, right right, There's the b r 0:14:56.800 --> 0:14:59.840 C A one and b r c A two genes, 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:03.040 and these are a big deal, especially in the news 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:07.720 since an announcement by Angelina Jolie right in UH last 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:11.480 year in she announced that she had undergone a preventative 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:15.440 double missectomy to to avoid breast cancer because she had 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:18.360 tested positive for one of these genes well or for 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:22.440 mutations for a bad mutation on one of these genes, 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:25.360 and that was known in the scientific literature that Okay, 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:28.480 we've seen that this certain mutation in the b r 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:33.080 C A jeans makes you very likely to get breast 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:37.640 and or ovarian cancer. And so she took preventative steps, 0:15:37.760 --> 0:15:42.040 and a lot of people were praising her basically for UH, 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:44.960 for doing this and for announcing it publicly, and yeah, 0:15:45.320 --> 0:15:48.040 sort of as a public health consciousness thing. Yeah, it's 0:15:48.040 --> 0:15:51.480 definitely a drastic preventative measure, and and it's not the 0:15:51.560 --> 0:15:54.240 right one for for every person. Jolie is is very 0:15:54.280 --> 0:15:57.360 fortunate to have the kind of funds to UM to 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:01.280 undergo that surgery pri at LEE and also have really 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:05.800 excellent reconstructive surgery afterwards. UM, and not everyone has access 0:16:05.880 --> 0:16:08.840 to that kind of healthcare. Well, even more than that, 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:12.600 it was would be the cost of the gene sequencing itself, certainly, 0:16:13.280 --> 0:16:15.880 which used to be a lot more than it is now. 0:16:15.920 --> 0:16:18.680 And that's one of the big reasons that bringing bringing 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:22.040 down the cost matters a lot. If it's so expensive, 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:24.080 that means a lot of people won't have these kinds 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:26.520 of options. Um, but the cheaper you can make it, 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:29.760 the more widespread you can provide the service. And it's 0:16:29.760 --> 0:16:32.160 definitely really cool that we've got a sex symbol like 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:36.400 Angelina Jolie talking uh frankly in public about this kind 0:16:36.400 --> 0:16:41.440 of issue. Definitely, Okay, So there, So there's preventive medicine 0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:44.480 we just talked about. Let's say that you don't catch 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:48.600 something before it happens. Let's say you find out, oh 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:53.760 I already have cancer or I already have some specific disease. 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:57.200 Is there any way that having your genome sequence can 0:16:57.240 --> 0:17:00.320 help you? Then? Well, actually, yes, it's still to help 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:04.480 you a lot. There's this idea of personalized medicine. That's right, 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:07.560 because right now, treatments for diseases are are based on 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:10.720 a kind of imaginary average person. At any time that 0:17:10.760 --> 0:17:13.280 any kind of testing on on a drug or treatment 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:17.800 is done, it's it's with a relatively small population of 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:20.360 people that may or may not represent what you are, 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:23.000 and doctors are kind of guessing as to how your 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:25.560 body is going to react to that treatment, right, well, 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:29.359 I mean, and even whatever kind of population it's targeted towards, 0:17:29.400 --> 0:17:32.639 there's no one single person. Yeah, it's this, it's this 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:37.200 average approach. Uh. Wouldn't it be so much better if 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:40.000 we could look at your genome and say, hey, you 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:44.080 have these five specific genes that we know respond really 0:17:44.119 --> 0:17:47.560 well to this combination of treatments, as opposed to your 0:17:47.600 --> 0:17:50.320 next door neighbor who has variants of all those genes 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:53.520 and would respond better to a different drug. Um and 0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:57.520 So there are actually examples of this you can find today. 0:17:57.560 --> 0:18:01.600 There is the anti cancer drug resultantib SO. I know 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:03.760 the name of that drug sounds weird, but if there's 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:06.439 evidence that you get a really good response rate for 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:09.440 a certain type of gene variant, it makes a big 0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:12.640 difference to know whether or not you've got that gene 0:18:12.720 --> 0:18:16.080 variant that responds well. Yeah, there's also a gene that 0:18:16.200 --> 0:18:20.000 predicts um breast cancer patients response to a specific drug 0:18:20.119 --> 0:18:24.359 called her sceptin, and uh, yeah, you know it's having 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:26.399 having this kind of information beforehand can save a lot 0:18:26.440 --> 0:18:30.600 of time and money. Um, well not just time and money, 0:18:30.640 --> 0:18:33.720 but your life. Like I mean, if I guess that's 0:18:33.760 --> 0:18:36.880 important too. If you say you have a cancer outlook 0:18:37.080 --> 0:18:41.119 and you're being um, you're talking with your doctor about here, 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:44.800 you know, three different treatment paths we could try. It 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:47.680 certainly will save you time and money not to try 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:50.199 one that's not going to work on you. But it 0:18:50.240 --> 0:18:53.359 will also possibly save your life because if you you 0:18:53.520 --> 0:18:57.480 spend time going down one road, um, while you have 0:18:57.560 --> 0:19:01.360 cancer progressing, and it turns out actually, based on your genes, 0:19:01.440 --> 0:19:04.160 it would have been better to go down a different road. Yeah, 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:06.479 that's time that you might not have and make a 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:09.600 big difference in whether or not you survive or how long. 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:14.600 Cancer has really been the most successful UM disease group 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:19.480 for this kind of uh personalized medicine as of yet. UM, 0:19:19.520 --> 0:19:21.960 there's there's also been some some other research and in 0:19:22.000 --> 0:19:25.920 other fields, like there was an association of certain differences 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:29.520 in a group of genes called CYP for fifty with 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:33.639 patients reactions to ss r s as are selective serotonin 0:19:33.720 --> 0:19:38.040 reuptake inhibitors, which are a type of antidepressants. But the 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:41.800 association hasn't been corroborated in clinical studies yet, and this 0:19:41.840 --> 0:19:45.919 particular example is sometimes cited as exemplifying the current problems 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:49.560 with personalized genetic medicine. UM. You know, the the association 0:19:49.640 --> 0:19:52.320 was announced by one group of researchers, Some doctors and 0:19:52.359 --> 0:19:55.960 genetic testing companies started using it in their practice, but 0:19:56.119 --> 0:19:59.640 further clinical trials haven't proven the association yet. And there's 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:04.560 worry that we're wasting patients money and time, albeit slightly 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:07.960 less serious time than with something like cancer, while we're 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:11.000 getting all of this sussed out. Yeah, which is exactly 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:14.280 the reason. It's good to have a whole lot more data, 0:20:14.440 --> 0:20:16.960 like they're talking about here, to just just harvest it, 0:20:17.080 --> 0:20:21.520 bring it in, have tons to work with. Um. It's 0:20:21.520 --> 0:20:24.480 a big problem when you you have just enough data, 0:20:24.800 --> 0:20:27.600 you know, to suggest a correlation, but you don't have 0:20:27.720 --> 0:20:32.879 enough to feel that you have a very strong model. Okay. 0:20:32.880 --> 0:20:35.840 And so after these, uh, the next thing, sort of 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:40.000 the long term goal that they've talked about less specifically 0:20:40.040 --> 0:20:45.520 and more generally is aging itself. So, as Venor points out, 0:20:45.560 --> 0:20:50.240 aging is basically the number one risk factor for like 0:20:50.440 --> 0:20:55.080 most diseases, basically everything, Yeah, tons of stuff and Right now, 0:20:55.119 --> 0:20:58.560 aging is considered inevitable. It's just part of life. But 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:01.840 the question is could you neetic research like this genome 0:21:01.880 --> 0:21:06.280 sequencing bring about anti aging techniques and so long term, 0:21:06.359 --> 0:21:09.320 the company says its goal is to defeat diseases of 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:13.719 aging and perhaps even aging itself, with a combination of 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:16.960 this genomics research and also with stem cell therapy, which 0:21:17.000 --> 0:21:18.880 is not to be overlooked. And that's something we've talked 0:21:18.880 --> 0:21:22.800 about in other podcasts before. So obviously this matters on 0:21:22.840 --> 0:21:25.600 a person to person basis. I mean, most people would 0:21:25.680 --> 0:21:29.119 like to live longer and to be in better shape 0:21:29.160 --> 0:21:32.280 and healthier for more of their lives, so that that's 0:21:32.320 --> 0:21:34.879 sort of a no brainer. Yes, that's the thing we want. 0:21:35.320 --> 0:21:37.800 It could make a big difference for society as a whole, 0:21:37.880 --> 0:21:42.800 for example, because if you are having a harder time 0:21:42.840 --> 0:21:45.840 getting around and doing all the things you want to 0:21:45.960 --> 0:21:49.080 do as you get older because of this thing we 0:21:49.160 --> 0:21:51.720 call aging, it makes it harder for you to say, 0:21:51.760 --> 0:21:55.560 continue to work, Oh sure, you can be more productive. 0:21:56.240 --> 0:21:59.920 You can. You can have all of that great quality 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:02.720 time with with working that we all look forward to 0:22:02.840 --> 0:22:04.960 in our old age. I mean, well, I mean the 0:22:05.000 --> 0:22:08.080 personal benefits some people probably enjoy their work. But beyond 0:22:08.200 --> 0:22:11.160 working there, there's also just having the quality of life 0:22:11.160 --> 0:22:13.320 that you want to be, the ability to go out 0:22:13.320 --> 0:22:15.400 and do the things you want to do, of course, 0:22:15.440 --> 0:22:18.480 and also freeing up a lot of UM talent and 0:22:18.640 --> 0:22:21.639 minds and time from the kind of end of life 0:22:21.680 --> 0:22:25.000 care that that we provide pretty long term in some 0:22:25.040 --> 0:22:28.520 cases these days. Right, So it's not just about living longer, 0:22:28.560 --> 0:22:31.520 but it's about being able to do more in the 0:22:31.600 --> 0:22:33.720 years that you do live. And it's pretty cool that 0:22:33.760 --> 0:22:37.000 all of this is coinciding with UM, with big data 0:22:37.119 --> 0:22:42.400 technologies and and analysis techniques, because it's you know, we've 0:22:42.400 --> 0:22:46.439 we're already pouring a lot of UM processing power and 0:22:46.560 --> 0:22:50.960 thought into how to sift through this amount of information. 0:22:51.400 --> 0:22:55.399 So so I think that that is UM very fortunate 0:22:55.560 --> 0:23:00.000 and or logical that is happening. At the same time, 0:23:00.760 --> 0:23:02.879 I'm sure it's not a coincidence that that we are 0:23:03.200 --> 0:23:06.800 gaining uh and not entirely a coincidence that that we're 0:23:06.840 --> 0:23:09.120 that we're gaining all of these powers at the same time. 0:23:09.160 --> 0:23:11.199 Oh yeah, well, I mean it totally makes sense this 0:23:11.320 --> 0:23:14.080