Cynthia Kenyon
Cynthia Kenyon
Cynthia Jane Kenyonis an American molecular biologist and biogerontologist known for her genetic dissection of aging in a widely used model organism, the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScientist
CountryUnited States of America
ideas biology logical
I loved the idea that biology was logical.
running country people
Generally, older people in their fifties, sixties, and seventies are running most countries and are CEOs of corporations. Which isn't to say there aren't entrepreneurs, but if the young were better in every respect, there'd be no reason for the old. Our life span reflects our particular life strategy.
believe heart healthy
Maybe one day we will be able to take a pill that keeps us young and healthy much longer. I believe in my heart that this will happen.
beautiful people tree
A big tree seemed even more beautiful to me when I imagined thousands of tiny photosynthesis machines inside every leaf. So I went to MIT and worked on bacteria because that's where people knew the most about these switches, how to control the genetics.
principles understood ifs
In principle, if you understood the mechanisms of keeping things repaired, you could keep things going indefinitely.
cutting pasta sugar
Carbohydrates, and especially refined ones like sugar, make you produce lots of extra insulin. I've been keeping my intake really low ever since I discovered this. I've cut out all starch such as potatoes, noodles, rice, bread and pasta.
aging imagine slow-down
Imagine that: If you could change one of the genes in an experiment, an aging gene, maybe you could slow down aging and extend lifespan.
thinking needs causes
You would think that UV just causes mutations, but it doesn't; you need a gene to be active for it.
powerful data brain
Ageing is very exciting. But if I didn't work on ageing, I'd want to work on the brain. There are really cool techniques you can use now. And bioinformatics. The methods you can use for comparing large data sets - that's so powerful.
sweet chocolate too-much
I eat some fruit every day, but not too much and almost no processed food. I stay away from sweets, except 80 per cent chocolate.
seeker truth
I was a little truth seeker as a child. I wanted more than anything to understand myself and also other people.
eventually people small trying youthful
We are trying to find drugs, small molecules, that people could take to make them disease-resistant, more youthful and healthy. Eventually we will find them.
convert days developing food lots produces resources single soon strategies three time worm worms
There are lots of different strategies that an animal can use to survive. What a worm does is try to convert food into worms as soon as possible. In three days a single worm produces 300 progeny. So why put your resources into developing if you can make a brand-new worm in no time at all?
fascinated
The public is absolutely fascinated by aging. They don't want to get old. And you can see - read Shakespeare. Read the sonnets. They're all about aging.