Hi all,
I did my PhD work at the Mayo Clinic in Type 2 Diabetes and Obesity, focusing on the genes responsible for both diseases and studying how their expression changes with exercise. I learned in my PhD that much of these common biological pathways share huge overlaps with aging research. For example, the whole insulin signaling axis, and the cellular mechanisms that control proteolysis.
Ive long been a huge proponent of aging and longevity research, but the current commercial trend appears to be in the Quantified Self wearables space. Everyone wants to lose weight, and because of this millions of people are buying step counters. A small minority of those people are also getting their genomes tested. We in the longevity research space should reach those people for help!
So about 2 years ago I kicked off an open genomics study. The idea is to combine those data types to create a dataset that aging researchers can find interesting patterns in. Such a dataset would be very useful to us, since we could study the interactions between genes and environment. Ive created a whole genome interpretation "search engine" for people to use. Now Im just having trouble getting exposure for it. Once I get a few thousand people onboard, I can start to replicate current findings in genomic research. The top obesity causing genes themselves appear to be intricately connected to the methionine pathway. Finding interactions with exercise, sleep, and diet could be a huge windfall for understanding why people get sick.
Anyone have any feedback on how I can make this better, and reach more people? Im hoping to reach both longevity enthusiasts, and the general public, of which I hope to get excited about the prospects of longevity research.
