Restore Youthfulness & Vitality to the Aging Brain & Body — Dr. Tony Wyss-Coray

1. Young blood is medicine, not just a readout. Factors circulating in young blood can actively rejuvenate old tissue. In parabiosis experiments, young circulation reactivated brain stem cells, reduced inflammation, increased neural activity, and improved memory in old mice — and human young plasma mimicked these effects in mice.
2. Organs age at different rates. The body does not age uniformly. Different organs decline on different trajectories, and an individual's 'age gap' — the difference between an organ's estimated age and chronological age — strongly predicts future disease risk in that specific organ.
3. Aging happens in waves, not a straight line. Blood composition shows dramatic, nonlinear shifts at inflection points, including a major wave around age 35–40 (in both men and women) and changes around menopause, suggesting evolution stops 'caring' for us once reproduction is secured.
4. Vitality and longevity can be in tension. Hormones like growth hormone, IGF-1, testosterone and estrogen can boost vitality but higher growth hormone/IGF-1 is associated with shorter lifespan (large vs. small dogs). The field's real goal is healthspan — staying functional until the end — not merely extending lifespan.
5. No proven human longevity drug exists. Only exercise and diet have proven effects on health in humans. NAD/NMN/NR supplements raise blood levels but have not been shown to extend lifespan or reduce frailty in humans, and many NMN products don't even contain what's on the label.
6. Exercise benefits travel through the blood. Blood from exercised mice transferred cognitive benefits to non-exercised mice. Exercise triggers liver-released factors (e.g., clusterin/ApoJ, GPLD1) that improve brain function — physiology, not just the act of exercising, drives the benefit.
7. Choice and enjoyment shape exercise outcomes. Animals forced to exercise (vs. choosing to) showed long-term increases in blood pressure, stress markers, and memory deficits. Electing to do hard things — even ones you dislike — may yield the greatest benefit, engaging the anterior mid-cingulate cortex.
8. Be extremely cautious with unproven clinics. Stem cell injections, GDF11, and klotho obtained from unregulated clinics carry real danger — one anecdote involved an egg-sized spinal infection causing temporary paralysis. Rigorous, blinded, controlled trials are essential before trusting any intervention.
9. Light and social connection matter enormously. Bright days (ideally sunlight) and dark nights reduce susceptibility to virtually every mental health condition. Centenarian studies show the long-lived are highly social — the benefit of wine may be largely the shared, communal context.
10. We need tools, not vague advice. Rather than repeating 'exercise, sleep, eat well,' the future is measuring organ- and cell-specific aging, prescribing tailored interventions, and re-testing to confirm an organ actually got younger.

Parabiosis and the Discovery That Young Blood Rejuvenates the Brain

Wyss-Coray credits the modern revival of parabiosis — a surgical model pairing the circulatory systems of an old and a young mouse — to his Stanford colleague Tom Rando, who recruited him to Stanford. Rando used the model to study muscle stem cell aging, showing that old, deteriorated muscle that no longer regenerated could be restored to a near-youthful state when infused with young circulation. Rando also observed effects in other tissues, including the brain, which is what initiated the collaboration with Wyss-Coray.

Wyss-Coray's lab had independently been searching for blood signatures of Alzheimer's disease in humans. While they found proteins predictive of Alzheimer's, the most striking difference was between young and old people — protein concentrations differed dramatically by age. This raised the central biological question of cause versus effect: do blood proteins change in response to brain aging, or do they actively drive it? Parabiosis allowed them to test causation directly by giving an old brain factors from a young organism.

The results were striking. Young circulation reactivated stem cells in the brains of old mice, reduced inflammation, increased measurable electrical neural activity, and — most importantly — improved memory function. This reframed blood-borne factors not merely as a passive readout of organ health but as active medicine capable of resetting aspects of an aging clock.

Translating Young Blood to Humans

To translate these findings, Wyss-Coray co-founded a company called Alkahest. They first took blood from young or old humans and injected it into mouse brains, showing young human blood could mimic the rejuvenating effects of young mouse blood — implying shared factors across species.

They then collaborated closely with Grifols, a company that manufactures clinical medicines from pooled plasma donations (isolating antibodies for immunodeficient or immunosuppressed patients, and albumin for blood loss). This manufacturing process let the researchers test different plasma fractions in mice and identify which were most powerful. Promising fractions were advanced into small clinical trials in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's patients, which looked encouraging.

These efforts connect to longstanding clinical observations that patients receiving blood transfusions often feel invigorated or report mental clarity. Grifols also ran a blinded, placebo-controlled trial of about 500 Alzheimer's patients using therapeutic plasma exchange — removing patients' plasma and reinfusing albumin (which carries other factors) — and reported clear, significant benefits. The field's hope is to mount a large, definitive trial that could earn FDA approval.

Therapeutic plasma exchange and epigenetic clocks

Wyss-Coray noted he has not personally performed these procedures but knows researchers who have. A small placebo-controlled trial of 40 healthy older individuals by a company called Circulate Therapeutics used epigenetic clocks to assess organ and body age, and found that some organs and the body overall appeared younger after treatment, with modest functional improvements — suggestive but not dramatic.

What's Actually in Young Blood: Good Factors vs. Bad Factors

Huberman pressed on whether young blood works by inhibiting damage-inducing 'bad' factors or by supplying genuinely pro-youthful factors — a distinction critical for designing a therapeutic. Wyss-Coray's answer: it's all of the above. With age, inflammatory proteins increase; in mice, knocking out or neutralizing some of these improves cognition in old animals. At the same time, there are active pro-growth factors that stimulate cell activity and help maintain stem cells.

He framed blood as 'nature's cocktail' or a fountain of youth that lives within us but dries out with age, alongside an accumulation of harmful factors. Using single-cell tools, his lab can now examine how every cell in an old mouse responds to young blood. Almost every cell changes its gene expression, but in independent ways depending on its receptors. Stem cells appear to be major targets, and mitochondria — the cell's energy producers — are key targets of the rejuvenating effects.

The central, unsolved challenge is identifying the minimal cocktail of the most important factors. Pinpointing which factor to supply or block is extremely difficult; ideally one would knock out genes one by one in vivo using CRISPR tools, which isn't yet easy to do. Over the past decade, individual factors keep being described, but a robust method to interpret and prioritize them has been lacking. Wyss-Coray expects the eventual answer will involve multiple factors targeting different pathways and cell types — mimicking what nature does.

Should you bank your blood?

No. While there are clear differences between individuals, young blood from one person has a similar beneficial composition to young blood from another. All of Wyss-Coray's studies used pooled blood from multiple donors and still showed benefit, so banking one's own blood is unnecessary for this purpose.

The Dracula question

Huberman and Wyss-Coray mused on whether the Dracula lore reflects an ancient intuition that blood is an essential life fluid associated with youth. Wyss-Coray noted his lab never fed young blood to mice orally (factors would need to survive stomach acid and be absorbed) and wouldn't be surprised if some benefits survived. He drew a parallel to bloodletting and leeches, which release factors that 'must have done something.' Both stressed they are not promoting drinking blood.

Organ-Specific Aging and Aging Clocks

Contrary to the intuition that an organism ages uniformly, different organs age at different rates. By harvesting tissues from animals at regular intervals, researchers can map aging trajectories: some organs stay stable for long periods then decline, others decline steadily from early adulthood, and others stay robust nearly until death.

In humans, Wyss-Coray's group leverages platforms that can measure thousands of proteins from a drop of blood — explicitly distinguishing this real science from the discredited Theranos. Some platforms now measure 11,000 proteins. Using large population cohorts followed for two decades or more, they identify which proteins originate from specific organs (brain, lung, liver, heart). Clinical medicine already measures a handful of organ-specific proteins to detect injury, but measuring thousands lets them estimate the biological age of each organ.

For most people, organ ages are roughly in sync with the body, but some individuals show deviation — an 'age gap' between an organ's estimated age and chronological age. This age gap is a strong predictor of future disease in that organ: a faster-aging heart predicts heart disease or heart attack, a faster-aging kidney predicts kidney disease, and a faster-aging brain predicts Alzheimer's disease.

Vero Biosciences

Wyss-Coray co-founded Vero Biosciences with Paul Coletta to profile organ age with the mission of eradicating chronic diseases and extending healthspan. The 'Vero Compass' combines biological protein signatures with clinical and wearable data to identify which organ is most at risk, suggest a tailored intervention (a medical treatment or a lifestyle change such as a specific type of exercise or diet), and then re-test to confirm whether the intervention actually changed the organ's age — creating a continuous feedback loop. The company is live, working with a small number of clinics, with plans to expand. The tool could also monitor how a new medication (e.g., an ADHD drug or an ApoB-lowering drug) affects organ aging for better or worse.

Implications for drug trials and repurposing

Wyss-Coray argued that many complex diseases like Alzheimer's likely have multiple subtypes, yet most trials enroll all-comers who already have a diagnosis, often too late. Risk-profiling could let trials test drugs in specific subtypes, potentially rescuing beneficial drugs that fail when applied indiscriminately. Huberman connected this to Dr. David Fagenbaum (University of Pennsylvania), who survived Castleman disease by repurposing approved drugs and now runs the nonprofit EveryCure, which uses AI to find existing-drug candidates for treatment-resistant diseases. Both noted there's little financial incentive for drug companies to invest in repurposed off-patent drugs.

Separating Science from Hype: NAD, Supplements, and Stem Cell Clinics

On the NAD/NMN/NR longevity hypothesis popularized by David Sinclair, Wyss-Coray was blunt: while not his area, no human intervention has been validated to extend lifespan. Many compounds (including NMN and related metabolites) show benefits in animal models, and a clinical study shows supplements raise blood levels — but that is not evidence of effects on lifespan, frailty, or any tangible outcome. Huberman noted he takes NMN powder for its perceived pro-energy effect and incidental hair/nail growth, while explicitly stating he doesn't believe it extends lifespan. A Singapore researcher tested 10 NMN preparations and found many didn't contain what the label claimed; NMN is also chemically unstable and degrades quickly, so quality, third-party testing, and freshness matter.

On stem cell clinics, Wyss-Coray and Huberman issued strong cautions. Huberman recounted a physician friend who received a stem cell injection into a spinal disc at a Mexican clinic — which a chair of neurosurgery told him is a terrible idea because discs cannot accept cellular injections — resulting in an egg-sized infection and temporary paralysis, ultimately resolved only after a U.S. clinic excised the infection. There are no rigorously tested stem cell treatments for these purposes; out-of-country regulations are often less stringent, making such interventions dangerous.

By contrast, platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is FDA-approved and used for fertility treatments and sports/joint injuries. PRP, typically from one's own blood, concentrates platelets full of growth-factor-laden granules that aid wound healing; people report positive effects, though Wyss-Coray cautioned that approval for one indication doesn't mean evidence for all uses. Exosomes — small vesicles released by cells carrying proteins, RNA, lipids, and metabolites — are an emerging field studied for both therapeutic and diagnostic purposes. Wyss-Coray's protein measurements actually include the contents of exosomes, which his lab opens up to read what's inside.

Vitality vs. Longevity: Hormones and Antagonistic Pleiotropy

Huberman framed puberty as perhaps the fastest rate of aging in the lifespan — a brain-initiated cascade driven by testosterone, estrogen, and gonadotropins. Many attempts to restore vitality in adulthood supply these hormones (perimenopausal women taking estrogen/testosterone, men taking testosterone, growth hormone use). Properly dosed, these boost energy, libido, recovery, leanness, and possibly cognition — but elevated growth hormone and IGF-1 are associated with shorter lifespan, as seen in large dogs living shorter lives than small dogs due to IGF-1 dosing.

Wyss-Coray explained this tension as 'antagonistic pleiotropy' — something beneficial when young can be harmful when old. From an evolutionary standpoint, the human natural lifespan was historically around 30–40 years (most people died young, largely of infectious disease). Once reproduction is secured and offspring raised, evolutionary pressure to keep an individual alive weakens dramatically, though there may be a weaker force favoring knowledgeable elders. Modern lifespans of 80+ are thanks to hygiene, antibiotics, and treatments for blood pressure and heart disease — both speakers praised antibiotics as lifesavers, citing a friend whose aggressive infection nearly cost his vision before systemic antibiotics resolved it.

Wyss-Coray emphasized that aging research should distinguish lifespan from the quality of that extended life — Tom Rando's recurring point that animal studies report lifespan but rarely assess whether animals are vital or merely 'hanging in there.' No magic intervention yet keeps everything together longer, certainly not in humans.

Waves of aging

Looking at blood composition across the human lifespan from age 20 to 90, Wyss-Coray's group identified nonlinear 'waves of aging.' The first major wave occurs around age 35 (roughly 35–40), with dramatic changes in concentrations of many factors in both men and women — some going up, some down. He speculated this may reflect the evolutionary window during which nature 'needs' us, after which it stops investing.

Exercise as Blood-Borne Medicine

Wyss-Coray's former trainee Saul Villeda did parabiosis experiments and then, with both labs, took blood from exercised young mice and injected it into non-exercised mice — transferring exercise's beneficial brain effects via blood alone. Villeda showed that exercised young blood given to old mice had an even stronger effect than ordinary young blood.

These effects appear to involve factors released from the liver in response to exercise that travel to and improve the brain. Wyss-Coray's lab described clusterin (also called apolipoprotein J), a complement-pathway protein involved in lipid binding, coagulation, immune 'eat me' signaling, and synapse formation and remodeling (linked to Beth Stevens' work). Injecting recombinant synthetic clusterin into mice mimicked some benefits, though the precise mechanism remains unclear. Villeda identified another factor, GPLD1, that clearly has effects of unclear mechanism. In a further creative experiment, caloric restriction in mice produced plasma that, when transferred to other mice, mimicked the beneficial effects.

Huberman connected this to John Ratey's book Spark and the idea that movement is essential for brain plasticity, citing a sea creature that settles on a rock and digests its own nervous system once it stops moving — suggesting feedback from movement signals the brain to remain robust. Wyss-Coray emphasized that exercise's brain benefits are not merely psychological but driven by actual factors released into the blood.

Not all exercise is equal — and choice matters

Huberman highlighted a study suggesting fast-twitch athletes — pole vaulters, gymnasts, high jumpers, sprinters — gain substantial longevity (roughly five to eight years over age-matched cohorts), even versus other highly trained athletes. This suggests different exercise types release different, more potent molecular cocktails. Wyss-Coray cited John Long at Stanford, who found a modified amino acid conjugated to lactate (Lac-Phe) that spikes during extreme muscle activity in sprinter dogs, racehorses, and human sprinters; in animals it proved beneficial and Long identified its receptor.

Robert Sapolsky described an experiment where rodents allowed to choose running on a wheel gained the expected benefits (lower blood pressure, improved lipids), but genetically identical rodents forced to run when tethered to another animal showed long-term increases in blood pressure, stress markers, and memory deficits tied to hippocampal rewiring. The lesson: choice and enjoyment fundamentally alter outcomes. Huberman added Joe Parvizi's finding that stimulating the anterior mid-cingulate cortex produces a sense of motivated tenacity, and that this region grows in people who successfully push through diets, exercise, and challenges — making elective hard effort a 'double benefit.'

Wound Healing, Aging, and the Immune System

The body degrades quickly after injury, especially after age 60, whereas children heal rapidly and often without scars. Wyss-Coray attributed this partly to the aging immune system, which shifts from specific responses toward nonspecific, inflammation-associated responses — so wounds may trigger excess inflammation and less healing. Additionally, aging tissues overproduce extracellular matrix proteins like collagen, which may interfere with rapid healing; overall, everything is 'a little out of tune.'

Huberman raised the curiosity that cuts inside the mouth — a warm, moist, bacteria-laden environment — heal with little or no scarring, suggesting something pro-healing (possibly in saliva). Similarly, wounds in babies often leave no trace where the same wound in an older person scars for life. Both noted this is an active and worthwhile area of study.

Toward Real Rejuvenation Therapeutics

Most researchers in the field aim for healthspan rather than lifespan — maintaining organ and cognitive function until death, ideally allowing one to die intact rather than gaining ten miserable extra years. Establishing causation requires physiological experiments in animal models to isolate individual factors, rigorous single-factor testing, and then carefully controlled, blinded human trials large enough to be definitive.

Wyss-Coray named klotho (a protein with beneficial effects across multiple organs, mechanism unclear) as one candidate companies are moving toward human trials, along with other beneficial factors and approaches to inhibit detrimental factors. He estimated that within five to ten years some factor with an effect could emerge, but stressed there will be no single miracle factor — the young-blood studies make clear that many factors targeting different pathways, cell types, and tissues are needed, possibly requiring different treatments tailored to different organs to keep each running until age 100.

Cerebrospinal Fluid, Lymph, and Synaptic Protein Clocks

Wyss-Coray's lab studied cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), whose composition also changes dramatically with age. A heroic fellow collected young CSF from mice and infused it via pump over a month into old animals, regenerating the brain and improving cognition; oligodendrocytes — the cells that wrap neural connections in myelin (the 'plastic around the wire') — were the strongest target. He suggested glymphatic fluid or lymph could similarly harbor beneficial factors, though such experiments are extremely difficult in mice.

In humans, the lab measured thousands of proteins in CSF from 3,000 individuals (including Alzheimer's patients at various stages) and found, in an unbiased analysis, that the top proteins correlating with cognition were synaptic proteins. Taking the protein that rises most and the one that falls most with cognition and forming a ratio yielded a strong, independent predictor of cognitive resilience versus decline — independent of pathological markers like A-beta. Alarmingly, this ratio degrades continuously from early adulthood, with strong risk separation between the top and bottom quartiles.

Fasting, Diet, and Caloric Restriction

Wyss-Coray cautioned that 'intermittent fasting' has no agreed definition and the field is messy, with animal-to-human translation a stretch given vast differences in lifespan, rhythm, and environment. There are no clinical studies showing clear benefits of fasting in humans, and some monkey studies suggest fasting can be detrimental (e.g., worse kidney function). However, animal studies clearly show caloric restriction activates diverse beneficial pathways — reduced inflammation, improved energy metabolism, better protein turnover, improved handling of cellular 'garbage,' and less oxidative damage — even if translation to tangible human benefits is uncertain.

He has occasionally tried Walter Longo's fasting-mimicking diet — a fat-rich, ketogenic protocol lowering calories to about 1,000 per day for five days — describing increased alertness, which makes evolutionary sense (a starving organism needs a sharp brain). Huberman noted catecholamines (dopamine, norepinephrine, epinephrine) likely rise, producing alertness and 'hanger.' Both noted longer medically supervised fasts (three to four days on water, electrolytes, ketones) in very overweight individuals can reportedly reset appetite and food preferences, possibly via the gut microbiome's effect on the brain.

Both practice a roughly 12-hour overnight eating break (caffeine, electrolytes, water until 10–11 a.m.; last meal around 7 p.m.) — partly to support sleep and exercise. Wyss-Coray argued the worst pattern is constant snacking all day, which is not how humans evolved; the body is adapted to periodic starvation. Huberman noted he can't do one-meal-a-day because the large meal causes gastric discomfort and disrupts sleep.

Environmental Toxins and Food Quality

On EMFs, plastics, food dyes, and other modern exposures, Wyss-Coray said the honest answer is uncertainty: such compounds may pass safety testing yet prove detrimental in 20–30 years or in combination with others. He doesn't believe low-level EMFs cause acute harm but acknowledged cumulative concerns. Both try to control what they easily can — avoiding drinking from plastic, choosing BPA-free cans — while acknowledging that obsessing over every exposure is paralyzing.

Wyss-Coray grew up in Switzerland (until age 26) with clean tap water, fresh whole foods, freshly prepared meals and desserts, a vegetable garden, and fruit trees — a 'far different' experience from typical American food culture laden with dyes, preservatives, and packaged foods. On organic versus non-organic produce, Huberman noted the differences in contaminant levels appear smaller than expected (citing a student science project by Dr. Teo Soleymani's son finding no significant differences in one batch), which is reassuring for those who can't afford organic, though growing one's own or local sourcing is surely cleaner. He cited Shanna Swan's point that rural agricultural areas with crop spraying carry the highest endocrine disruptor exposure, cancer risk, and associations with Parkinson's — contrary to the assumption that cities are most dangerous.

Sleep, Light, and Mental Health

Huberman praised Matt Walker (Why We Sleep) as having driven one of the great public-health victories of the past decade by raising awareness of sleep, alongside the recognized importance of cardiovascular and resistance training. During sleep, glymphatic clearance removes debris from tissues, especially the brain (facilitated by glia). Wyss-Coray hasn't studied lymph between young and old animals but agreed it would be fascinating, given how dramatically CSF composition shifts with age.

On light, Huberman cited a UK study of over 80,000 subjects: bright days (ideally sunlight) and dark nights reduce susceptibility to virtually every mental health condition and improve existing ones. Artificial light is insufficient during the day, and even small amounts of artificial light at night can be too much — though people vary greatly in sensitivity (independent of eye color). Wyss-Coray, raised amid short, foggy Swiss winters, noted how much easier sunny California makes starting the day, and lamented people who wear dark glasses all day, which he called bad for the brain and mental health. For those lacking sunlight, a 10,000-lux artificial light in the morning can offset seasonal depression and provide the beneficial morning cortisol/catecholamine spike.

Social Connection, Alcohol, and Lifestyle

Wyss-Coray owns a winery, which he argued does not contradict longevity science: pure alcohol is probably not good for the body, but wine's benefits are largely social. Centenarian studies consistently show the long-lived are highly social, embedded in community and not left alone in old age. Huberman noted the strong data linking social connection to stress reduction, and his on-record position that zero alcohol is better than any, with about two drinks per week the upper limit for non-alcoholic adults.

Both contrasted American food and drink culture — historically built on volume, abundance, and 'amusement-park food' (apple pie, fries, burgers, hot dogs) plus heavy beer/spirits drinking — with European traditions of nourishment, fresh preparation, and social, moderate consumption. Wyss-Coray's mantra was moderation: eat any food but not only one food; include fruits and vegetables; have drinks but don't get drunk daily.

On dementia prevention, Wyss-Coray cited the work of Gill Livingston and others showing lifestyle dramatically influences dementia and Alzheimer's risk. Modifiable and partly non-modifiable factors include poverty, childhood obesity, lower education, smoking, and excessive alcohol; optimizing these substantially lowers dementia risk. On cognitive 'exercise' (crosswords, reading, learning languages or instruments), Wyss-Coray said there's little evidence it helps people who already have cognitive impairment, and benefits likely depend on whether a person genuinely craves mental stimulation. Huberman advocated 'use it or lose it,' noting handwriting's importance for developing brain circuits and his own practice of reading at least a page (ideally a chapter) daily with his phone out of the room.

Breathing, Blood Flow, and Future Studies

Huberman raised qigong, tai chi, and deliberate breathing practices — where vigorous inhales raise heart rate and extended exhales lower it via respiratory sinus arrhythmia — which traditions credit with improving circulation and 'feeding the brain.' He noted observations that as people age and cognition declines, they tend to become mouth breathers, possibly reflecting trouble oxygenating the brain (cause or correlate unclear). Both saw a clear opportunity: take blood before and after a breathing intervention and measure what changes — an easy, cheap, zero-cost-for-the-participant experiment applicable at any age. Huberman noted he and David Spiegel ran a breathwork study but didn't examine how breathing patterns change blood chemistry, and Wyss-Coray expressed enthusiasm to do so.

Wyss-Coray and Huberman use wearables (Garmin) to track steps and sleep, finding the data useful. Huberman recalled early Stanford wearables work (Mike Snyder; a grad student named Rachel) and predicted a near future where many physiological variables are continuously measured — for example, eyeglass frames measuring daily photon exposure to ensure sufficient sunlight.

What Wyss-Coray Is Most Excited About Now

Wyss-Coray previewed a preprint (publicly available later that week) extending organ-age estimation to the cell-type level. Using current proteomics, his group assigned proteins to 40 different cell types, enabling age estimates for specific cell types in the body. In amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease — named for the baseball player who died of the rapidly progressive muscle-weakness disease), they found patients had an enrichment of extremely old skeletal muscle cells and old heart muscle cells (cardiomyocytes). In the UK Biobank longitudinal study with up to ~20 years of follow-up, of people healthy at entry, about 250 developed ALS over 15 years — and those with extremely old muscle cells had strongly increased risk, providing finer-resolution, more precise disease prediction down to the cellular and molecular level.

Similarly, the age of astrocytes (a brain cell type) was a much stronger predictor of Alzheimer's disease than whole-brain age, especially in combination with a genetic risk factor.

His greatest current motivation is building a map of the human proteome across genetic diseases. There are roughly 6,000–7,000 monogenic (single-mutation) diseases. By profiling the plasma proteomes of individuals carrying such mutations and comparing them to healthy people, he aims to learn how the body responds to disruption of specific genes — essentially using humans as the experimental system that worms and flies provide via gene knockouts. Drawing on repositories where patients volunteer samples for research, his group has already profiled 25 genetic diseases and found specific patterns. The goal is to make this resource publicly available so any researcher can ask how their protein of interest changes across diseases, learn how diseases relate, and identify shared biological pathways.