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Just about the hottest thing in longevity science right now is partial reprogramming - using Yamanaka factors to rewind the biological clock in our cells. Billion-dollar giants like Altos, Retro and New Limit are betting on it.
But in this episode a far smaller player, Shift Bioscience, argues that the field may be looking in the wrong place. CEO Daniel Ives explains how his team used AI-powered virtual cells to uncover a single gene that seems to match OSK-level rejuvenation without the tumor risk that haunts classical reprogramming - and why their just-released data could change the game for aging research.
🔍 In this conversation
✅ Daniel’s journey from mitochondrial PhD work to founding Shift Bioscience.
✅ Why Yamanaka-factor–based partial reprogramming excites the field and why it’s inherently risky.
✅ Epigenetic clocks 101 — Horvath, single-cell versions, and what they really measure.
✅ Building AI “virtual cells” (transformers / GNNs) to run millions of in-silico experiments.
✅ Discovery of new rejuvenation factor sets - including SB000, a lone gene that rejuvenates without inducing pluripotency.
✅ Early wet-lab validation across fibroblasts & keratinocytes; next-step mouse studies already under way.
✅ How inhibition targets (not just over-expression) could slash timelines from 15 years to ~5 years.
✅ Mapping a “risk landscape” of age-linked diseases and why fibrosis may be the fastest clinical entry point.
✅ Funding Shift: from personal redundancy money to a $16 M seed and the next raise.
✅ Timelines, escape-velocity hopes, and where cryonics still fits.
✅ What Daniel would ask Jeff Bezos, and why the pharma ecosystem needs to “plug in” now.
🚀 Special offer for our LEVITY audience: Join Vitalism today and receive a 30% discount on your membership using the code LEVITY at checkout. https://www.vitalism.io/membership
🚀 Show notes for this episode will be available soon after this airs. Sign up for the LEVITY newsletter to get them straight to your inbox: reachlevity.com
🚀 LEVITY is co-hosted by Patrick Linden, philosopher and author, and Peter Ottsjö, journalist and author.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction to Daniel Ives
05:34 The Evolution of Shift's Focus
13:25 Understanding Aging Clocks
19:28 Commercial Clocks is ”Mostly Entertainment”
21:03 A Pivotal Meeting with Steve Horvath
24:35 A Brief Crash Course in Yamanaka Factors
28:16 Finding Something Better Than Yamanaka Factors
33:20 The Origin Story For This Approach
36:50 What Does Shift’s New Results Show?
37:33 Defining the Virtual Cell in This Context
44:22 The Gene is Called SB000
46:45 “This Could be Hugely Important”
01:01:44 Speeding up Drug Development with AI
01:11:12 What do Investors Say?
01:17:15 What Daniel Hope Will Happen Next
01:19:34 What Would Daniel Ask of Jeff Bezos?
01:27:00 Why is the company called Shift?
01:32:55 The Pride Day for Closeted Aging Biologists
01:42:28 How Should We Think About Cryonics?
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Get all LEVITY DeSci content here: reachlevity.com/t/desci (sorry about the wrong link in the episode)
📕 Check out Patrick's book: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262543163/the-case-against-death/
📗 Check out Peter's book (only available in Swedish): https://www.adlibris.com/sv/bok/evigt-ung-min-och-manniskans-drom-om-ododligheten-9789179652524
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Show notes for this episode will be available soon after this airs. Sign up for the LEVITY newsletter to get them straight to your inbox: reachlevity.com/subscribe
LEVITY is co-hosted by Patrick Linden, philosopher and author, and Peter Ottsjö, journalist and author.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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