Dr. David Sinclair

But I didn't choose to study humans because I figured if we can't figure it out for little yeast cells, we'll never figure it out for humans.

So I went to MIT.

My professor was Lenny Guarente.

I went to his lab and I said, I'm not going, I'm not leaving.

The goal was, in my mind, was to figure out, are there longevity genes?

At that time, most people thought that there were aging genes that caused aging, death genes.

That doesn't make any sense to me.

Our bodies would have longevity genes that give life.

So in yeast, I went searching for them.

And out of that work came two things.

The first is Lenny and I, my professor and I published in the journal Cell, which was a massive big deal in those days, still is, but it was my first time, the first evidence for a cause of aging for any species.

We figured out why yeast cells get old.

Do you want to guess?

Why do yeast cells get old?

Have you been paying attention?

What does the information theory of aging say?

Oh, you can measure the identity of yeast cells.

They have an identity.

It's called their mating type.

The main identity of a yeast cell is they are either A-type or alpha-type.