🧬🛍 16 - Longevity - The Who is Who - Part 3
Hello again 👋 This is Curation for Longevity 🧬🛍 by Laura Minquini. I am the founder of MYKIGAI - a discovery and recommendation platform for longevity.
Our Longevity ToolKits are prepared by our Geroscientist, Girish Harinath.
Last week it was hard to think of business as usual after Russia invaded Ukraine, so we decided to not send out an edition of our newsletter. We’ll be back to regular programming and a new brand feature as of next week.
That’s not to say business is running as usual.
I wanted to share the profile of aging researcher Dr. Korolchuk, a Ukrainian posting important humanitarian and scientific initiatives to help the people of Ukraine. There are multiple ways in which one can try to help, despite not being there physically.
Please feel free to send us your suggestions to publish.
The different camps of Longevity (continued)
Welcome to part 3 of the Who is Who in Longevity. Here are Part 1 & Part 2.
Biohackers 🧫
The use of this term has widened to include even next-level experts who are giving you tips on how to be healthy. However, someone like bio-engineer Josiah Zayner is the OG Biohacker, as he is legitimately experimenting with genetic engineering. The microbiome transplant is being talked about a lot lately, but he already did that in 2016. You know, just to try some simple microbiome engineering.
Anyone up for watching CRISPR and genetics done Netflix style there is a four-part documentary “Unnatural Selection” that features Zayner prominently.
If I was to make an analogy, Zayner is The Haute Couture and most of what is being called “biohacking” is like H&M.
I respect a lot of my biohacker friends, but the thing that confuses me about some of them is that they have no issue promoting some gamma GABA ultrasonic wave (ok, I made this up but sounds the same as some of the stuff they use) which is “good” for your biology but are hosting podcasts on the evils of vaccination...
Then there is the father of biohacking who looks 60 to me even though he is nowhere near this age. But given how running multiple companies ages you, fine I get it, my girlfriend thought my age was older this weekend so I can’t say much on this department anymore.
Maybe the gamma GABA waves are hypnotizing the penguins to buy ice.
The biohacking world, needless to say, sometimes collides with pseudo-science; in particular, snake oil.
Snake Oil 🐍
Some hard-core research scientists even consider things like epigenetic clocks part of snake oil.
To me, snake oil is literally the oils, and most if not all MLMs. I must admit, I have a pathological dislike of them, but lo-and-behold I have seen some very serious investors and businessmen, as well as researchers, follow the account of a very well-known MLM company that sells supplements and whose founder is the head of some immortalist church.
So, snake oil is very much in the eye of the beholder.
Le Science Snob 🥸
The science snob is someone who only wants to be speaking to other scientists, researchers, investors, or people that they deem to have a high IQ as theirs. That is if intelligence and know-how are measured by PhDs or the size of your venture fund.
Most of the most incredible scientists in the field are not this, it is a particular strain of ambition that is very concerned to belong to the Silicon Valley venture world. Anyway, fortunately, there are very few of them.
Longevity/ Snake Oil 🧬🐍
For Le Scientists snobs, Le MYKIGAI might belong here, and to some so does Dr. Sinclair, so we are in good company! Like Sinclair, we are interested in getting the general public interested in longevity.
But he will not be snubbed, and I mean, the man is illustrious and a professor at Harvard. So even the most hard-core Le Science snobs become cringy on the le ass-kissing when it comes to him. Sinclair’s book Lifespan is the best known-book in longevity at the moment - I am using the measure of general public awareness. Because of this, a new podcast, and what looks like a well oiled media machine he is the most famous voice in the space. I heard his book narrated by him none-the-less, I have seen the interviews, he is compelling and a great communicator, and I for one think that it is great to have someone in the industry who understands the importance of consumer engagement for the field. This brings me to Le Contrarian and The Controversy, which you can read on Part 4 this weekend.