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She Says Gene Therapy Made Her 20 Years Younger | Elizabeth Parrish, BioViva

She says she reversed 20 years of biological aging by testing gene therapy on her own body before anyone else. In this episode of The 200 Year Life Project, Gary Leland sits down with Elizabeth Parrish, founder and CEO of BioViva, the first person to undergo gene therapy specifically aimed at reversing aging.

Gary, 71 and dead serious about reaching 200, talks with Parrish about how telomere and myostatin gene therapy works, what her published telomere data showed, why these therapies are still done outside the US, and how she believes affordable gene therapy could change human lifespan and healthspan. They also get into longevity escape velocity, the \.

Ultra-precise technology can count damaged DNA fragments

The Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science has developed an ultrasensitive immunoassay-based analytical platform that can detect and quantify trace amounts of “Small Excised Damaged DNA (sedDNA)” fragments generated during cellular DNA repair. This technology enables highly sensitive detection with quantification down to the level of several thousand molecules, measuring up to 22 times more DNA fragments than conventional methods. It provides a new analytical foundation for comparing DNA repair capacity between individuals and studying cellular responses to anticancer drugs and carcinogenic agents.

Human DNA is continuously exposed to damage from ultraviolet light, chemical agents, smoking and normal metabolic processes. If such damage is not properly repaired, mutations can accumulate and lead to aging and diseases such as cancer. To maintain genomic stability, cells activate the Nucleotide Excision Repair (NER) system, which removes damaged DNA segments and replaces them with newly synthesized DNA. The small excised DNA fragments generated during this process serve as important indicators of DNA repair efficiency and kinetics, providing a valuable tool for studying disease mechanisms and predicting treatment responses.

First 3D views of human cone opsins reveal how daylight vision reacts so fast

The retina of the human eye contains 6–7 million cone cells. These cells contain light-sensitive proteins known as cone opsins. They enable us to perceive our surroundings in detail in daylight. They allow us to see the world in thousands of colors: red strawberries, green leaves, the blue sky. They also enable us to see all the objects around us clearly. And they allow us to perceive fast movements, such as the rush of a train or the flight of a dragonfly.

Often, however, these all-rounders of daylight vision are also involved in retinal diseases. Impairment of cone receptor function, caused by genetic mutations or other degenerative processes, can lead to disorders such as color blindness and age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a disease affecting the central retina and causing progressive vision loss.

In a new study, Polina Isaikina and Sarah L. Schmidt, two researchers from the Center for Life Sciences at PSI, have succeeded for the first time in determining the three-dimensional structure of human cone opsins in their dark state and showing how their molecular architecture enables their rapid activation by light.

Is This the Key to Never Getting Old?

Awesome results and a new project to double mice lifespan. If I could fund one researcher right now it would be this man.


In this Conference talk, Dr. Greg Fahy presents stunning data from the TRIIM and TRIIM-X trials. His team has successfully regrown the human thymus in older adults, reversed epigenetic aging clocks by up to two years, and restored immune function to levels seen decades earlier.

Beyond the lab results, participants showed dramatic real-world improvements: 15% stronger muscles, 21% better VO2 max, and frailty scores dropping to near zero. Dr. Fahy also unveils the \.

Mind May Be Older Than the Brain | Michael Levin on Life and Intelligence

Michael Levin is a developmental and synthetic biologist at Tufts University whose work sits at the intersection of biology, bioelectricity, artificial life, regenerative medicine, synthetic biology, computer science, cognitive science, and philosophy of mind. He is known for his research on how cells communicate, make decisions, build bodies, repair tissues, and form collective intelligence through bioelectric signals. His work on Xenobots and Anthrobots has opened new questions about living robots, synthetic life forms, biological machines, morphogenesis, basal cognition, cellular intelligence, regeneration, cancer, aging, and the nature of mind beyond the brain.

In this conversation, Michael Levin and I explore whether mind and intelligence are binary or exist on a continuum, why cognition may be much older than brains, and how systems from cells to humans can pursue goals in different ways. We discuss the TAME framework, the spectrum of persuadability, cognitive light cones, bioelectricity, gap junctions, multicellular intelligence, Xenobots, Anthrobots, kinematic self-replication, neural wound healing, emergence, physicalism, mathematics, Platonic space, algorithms, bubble sort, Turing machines, evolution, human creativity, artificial intelligence, regenerative medicine, and the future of biology. This episode is for anyone interested in philosophy, consciousness, mind, intelligence, synthetic biology, developmental biology, AI, complex systems, evolution, and the deeper question of what it means for matter to become alive, intelligent, or aware.

If you enjoyed the episode, please consider leaving a like, subscribing, and leaving a review on Youtube, Spotify and Apple. #philosophy #science.

Michael’s website: https://drmichaellevin.org/

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