This is an interesting story about Ben Nashman, a young “Thiel Fellow” who’s working on a longevity oriented startup, and is a longevity enthusiast himself (taking rapamycin at 24 years of age).
Right now, Synex’s prototype is the size of a toaster, although Nashman hopes to one day have it fit in your palm. It works by first using MRI to create a 3D image of the finger to find the best spot to test. It then uses something called magnetic resonance spectroscopy to send radio pulses that “excite the different molecules,” Nashman said. The machine then takes the signals from all the molecules and filters for a specific one. Synex will start with glucose testing, but will eventually track things like amino acids, lactate, and ketones.
An obsession with longevity
Nashman was always curious about living forever.
When he was about 16, he walked into his vet’s office armed with printed-out scientific studies. He had determined that his dog should be put on the immunosuppressive drug rapamycin, a drug controversially heralded by longevity enthusiasts. The vet had no idea what Nashman was talking about. “He was just like, ‘this is just way too experimental for me,’” Nashman recalled.
The vet’s refusal didn’t deter him. “Later, I got my parents on it and I got on it,” he laughed. “Honestly, I think everything should be on it.”
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Podcast that discusses this (among other things):