#072 Morgan Levine, PhD, on PhenoAge and the Epigenetics of Age Acceleration — can we change the pace?
FoundMyFitness
Rhonda Patrick, Ph.D.
4.8 • 5.5K Ratings
🗓️ 12 April 2022
⏱️ 89 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Morgan Levine, Ph.D., developed the phenotypic aging clock called PhenoAge and is a Founding Principal Investigator at Altos Labs, a biotech company that seeks to understand the mechanisms that drive the aging process and age-related diseases with the hope of identifying possible interventions. Additionally, Dr. Levine is an assistant professor of pathology at the Yale University School of Medicine, where her research focuses on the science of biological aging.
Dr. Levine completed a postdoctoral fellowship with previous guest Dr. Steve Horvath, a pioneer in the field of epigenetic clocks.
In this episode, Dr. Levine and I discuss:
- 00:01:19 - What is aging and why does it matter to scientists?
- 00:04:45 - Hallmarks of aging
- 00:08:59 - The advantage of epigenetic clocks in research
- 00:19:05 - Epigenetic age acceleration
- 00:36:40 - Are epigenetic changes in aging a cause or consequence?
- 00:42:15 - Reversing epigenetic age with interrupted reprogramming techniques
- 00:49:27 - Therapeutic plasma exchange in aging and pro-aging factors in blood
- 00:56:01 - Lifestyle factors that accelerate epigenetic age
- 01:03:23 - Reliability of consumer epigenetic aging tests
- 01:06:12 - Construct validity of epigenetic clocks
- 01:12:06 - Thoughts on most exciting research in aging field
- 01:13:44 - Dr. Levine's lifestyle habits
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, my friends. The conversation you're about to listen to features Dr. Morgan Levine, |
| 0:07.4 | a founding principal investigator at Alto's Labs and new biotechnology company focused |
| 0:12.8 | on the development of cellular rejuvenation technology. Alto's Labs has been depressed |
| 0:17.8 | quite a bit recently for bringing together pioneers of epigenetics, epigenetic clocks |
| 0:23.1 | and tissue reprogramming. Dr. Levine, as an expert in the field of epigenetics, brings |
| 0:28.8 | much to the table here, which I suspect should make this episode an enjoyable one for many. |
| 0:34.7 | Dr. Levine's research background is in the study of epigenetic aging, with the goal of |
| 0:39.6 | trying to understand the underlying mechanisms that cause aging. To paraphrase Dr. Levine, |
| 0:46.2 | epigenetics in many ways is the operating system of the cell. While all of our cells |
| 0:51.7 | essentially have the same DNA, the epigenetic program is largely what imbues our cells |
| 0:57.4 | with their identity, whether that's a skin cell or a neuron. This program, which gets |
| 1:03.0 | rewritten as we age, also gives our cells characteristics that differentiate them from |
| 1:09.0 | those of a younger person, such as the ability to withstand stress and more. So it's important |
| 1:15.6 | to recognize that our epigenetics respond at least to some degree to environmental inputs, |
| 1:22.1 | in other words, to how we live. A word of advice, if avoiding unnecessary epigenetic age |
| 1:29.8 | acceleration is your goal. Avoid harmful habits like smoking in particular, and prioritize |
| 1:36.6 | keeping a healthy body weight. These two may be big smoking guns when it comes to accelerated |
| 1:43.3 | epigenetic aging. |
| 1:48.4 | In this episode, Dr. Levine and I discuss, how aging is defined, what the hallmarks of |
| 1:54.2 | aging are, and what Dr. Levine thinks may be the key drivers of aging. What epigenetic |
| 2:00.1 | aging means, how it is measured by different types of epigenetic clocks, and how these |
| 2:05.6 | different clocks can be used for different predictive purposes, such as identifying chronological |
... |
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