I went to graduate school thinking I would work on structural biology or x-ray crystallography, but ended up in the geroscience field after hearing a talk by MIT professor Leonard P. Guarente about how his lab was studying the biology of aging using biochemical, genetic, and molecular biological techniques. I was immediately fascinated by the complexity of the problem and got hooked.

Since then, my time in the field has opened my eyes to many surprising realities. For example, it is striking to me how easy it is to modulate the rate of aging in animals by manipulating individual genes or environmental parameters. I've also appreciated learning how people typically consider risk and reward in the context of healthy aging: many don't realize that health is relative, and that a "healthy" 60-year-old is functionally impaired compared to a typical 30-year-old. As such, we should weigh any risks associated with an intervention that might delay aging against the risks of doing nothing, which are significant. As the geroscience field matures, I hope to see more recognition by payers that it is more economical to keep people healthy than to keep people sick, and improved knowledge among providers about biological aging and its connection to health and disease.

In addition to my work at Optispan, I'm an Affiliate Professor of Oral Health Sciences at the University of Washington and Co-Director of the Dog Aging Project. I've previously served as founding Director of the University of Washington Healthy Aging and Longevity Research Institute, Director of the NIH Nathan Shock Center of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging and the Biological Mechanisms of Healthy Aging Training Program at the University of Washington, and CEO and Chair of the American Aging Association.