Topic
Longevity & Healthy Aging.
Most of what gets sold as 'longevity' is reduced biology dressed in marketing language. Dr. Runge's working framework is narrower and more useful: cellular mechanisms (mitochondrial DNA damage, NADPH oxidase, epigenetic regulation), a multi-omic measurement layer (methylation arrays, fitness phenotypes, mtDNA inheritance), and a small set of behaviors and interventions with real evidence behind them.
The science that's under it
Cardiovascular aging is, at the cellular level, a controllable process. The early work in Dr. Runge's lab established that NADPH oxidase (NOX4)-derived superoxide and mitochondrial DNA damage are upstream drivers of atherosclerosis and vascular aging. The later work on Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) connected those mechanisms to fibrosis and hypertension.
The current Michigan initiative reads the same axis from three angles in one cohort: cardiorespiratory fitness phenotypes, methylation arrays (epigenetic clocks), and maternal mtDNA inheritance. The bet: a "Longevity & Cardiovascular Health Index" that's more useful than any single biomarker.
Where to read more
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