Finding Genius Podcast

Finding Genius Podcast


Finding a Way to Turn Back Time—Vittorio Sebastiano—Turn Biotechnologies

February 19, 2020

At Turn Biotechnologies, the team is attempting the seemingly impossible: the reversal of ageing. On today’s podcast, you’ll learn the following: What role epigenetic drift plays in the process of ageing at the cellular level, and what can trigger it How the team at Turn Bio is reprogramming the epigenetic signature of age, and the promising results that have already been shown in mouse models How the process of extracting, rejuvenating, and returning cells to tissue works How the work being done could eventually address the effects of ageing and/or prevent age-related diseases   “It is possible to reverse the epigenetic landscape of the cells and bring it back in time so that a cell, which by the process of aging becomes dysfunctional with time, can actually be reprogrammed or reversed in a way that it becomes more youthful, and more functional, and this could have repercussions on the cell itself, but also broadly speaking, systemically in the individual,” says Vittorio Sebastiano, explaining the premise of Turn Bio, a company for which he serves as both co-founder and scientific advisory board chairman. Sebastiano expounds on a number of interesting subjects, including what causes genes to express certain types of cells and what types of environmental stimuli may disrupt this programming, leading to the creation of dysfunctional cell types (i.e. what he calls the process of ageing), various methods of epigenetic regulation, the hallmarks of cellular ageing, the important distinction between ageing and senescence, and what he sees in terms of both short-term and long-term goals with this work.