Roxanne Khamsi

So as you and I are talking, as people are listening, our DNA is just picking up mutations and some of these mutations will stick around for a while.

And the idea is that by the time we're older, we've kind of just amassed a bunch of mutation.

Now, the idea is, what happens if we might be able to undo some of the mutation that we acquire?

And I know that on this show, you guys have talked about bowhead whales and how they have a vast amount of DNA repair enzyme.

And this might be part of the reason they can live 200 years and longer.

So the question is, can we maybe replicate some of the DNA repair in those long-lived organisms to improve our longevity as well?

It is, yes, super tantalizing to think about this as a new avenue to anti-aging treatments.

But as you're pointing to, there's a lot of hype in this industry that happens.

And we want to make sure that we don't go too far in one direction without kind of having a reality check.

I think the important thing to recognize...

is as you and I have talked about, mutation can be a good thing.

So if you try to globally slow it down, you might be doing a disservice to the body.

You might be slowing down its ability to defend itself, perhaps.

For sure.

So once you're able to look at the body at the single cell level, you can really understand at a granular level which cells are mutating and which ones aren't.

And you can really compare and contrast.

If you really want to count, let's say, what proportion of cells have a mutation, that single cell sequencing is super helpful.

So, you know, I'm not a huge proponent of things like smoking.

And I was talking to my son's babysitter about why not to smoke.

And then I was thinking about what I learned.