[tt] Sergey Brin, Gly2019Ser & a real chance against Parkinson disease/aging! « Pimm - Partial immortalization

[Brian Atkins]

(This is a good side effect of genetic testing. As many more people begin to get 
tested as prices drop to nearly nothing we should expect to see much more 
interest in solving diseases, and solving them QUICKLY.)

http://pimm.wordpress.com/2008/09/19/sergey-brin-gly2019ser-a-real-chance-against-parkinson-diseaseaging/

It was already known that amongst the Google top people Sergey Brin is the one 
who is most interested in pushing biotechnology and the biomedical sciences: in 
his Stanford years he was interested in biology courses according to The Google 
Story, he married Anne Wojcicki (who graduted from biology at Yale), Google 
invested $4.4 million into 23andMe the pioneering personal genomics company 
co-founded by Anne, then Google invested into 23andMe competitor Navigenics too.

Now Sergey Brin added another, serious and personal reason to think that he is 
really, personally committed to the quick progress in the biomedical sciences: 
in his new blog - already a bit of an Internet history - called Too he disclosed 
that using the 23andMe personal genetics service he figured out something 
worrying about his and his family’s risk of Parkinson disease (his mother and 
her aunt are being already diagnosed with PD):

     “I learned something very important to me — I carry the G2019S mutation and 
when my mother checked her account, she saw she carries it too.
     The exact implications of this are not entirely clear. Early studies tend 
to have small samples with various selection biases. Nonetheless it is clear 
that I have a markedly higher chance of developing Parkinson’s in my lifetime 
than the average person. In fact, it is somewhere between 20% to 80% depending 
on the study and how you measure.

The G2019S mutation is actually the rs34637584 SNP and lies in the gene LRRK2 
encoding leucine-rich repeat kinase on chromosome 12. The mutation affects the 
first codon of the gene and is a guanine (G)-to- adenine (A) substitution 
resulting known as a missense and  leads to a glycine - serine (hence the name) 
amino acid conversion in the protein product. Here is how the SNP position looks 
in the 23andMe browser using the sample family, the Mendels.

23andMe’s amazingly good corporate blog The Spittoon cited a recent article 
about the chances:

     The risk of PD for a person who inherits the LRRK2 Gly2019Ser mutation was 
28% at age 59 years, 51% at 69 years, and 74% at 79 years.

I am now waiting for the results of my 23andMe test and I think it is better if 
humans prepare themselves to make the jump to be curious, rational, balanced and 
modestly skeptical about their disclosed genetic information.

I must say that Brin’s attitude and conclusion can be recommended for everybody 
facing the same problem but the fact that it is a Google co-founder speaking 
here gives us a real chance against Parkinson disease which is really one of the 
worst aging related condition as the average age of onset is around 60 years of age.

     This leaves me in a rather unique position. I know early in my life 
something I am substantially predisposed to. I now have the opportunity to 
adjust my life to reduce those odds (e.g. there is evidence that exercise may be 
protective against Parkinson’s). I also have the opportunity to perform and 
support research into this disease long before it may affect me. And, regardless 
of my own health it can help my family members as well as others.
     I feel fortunate to be in this position. Until the fountain of youth is 
discovered, all of us will have some conditions in our old age only we don’t 
know what they will be. I have a better guess than almost anyone else for what 
ills may be mine — and I have decades to prepare for it.

So instead of thinking along the boring and impolite New York Times lines:

     “Analysts said they did not believe that the news about Mr. Brin would have 
a negative impact on Google’s shares.”

let’s just say that the news about one particular nucleotide in Mr Brin’s 
chromosome 12 would probably have a long standing and huge positive impact on 
the fight against Parkinson disease.

/Here ends logically the original post, what comes after is related to it, but 
not strictly, let ask the readers…/

What’s really interesting for me is that this fight against PD directly related 
to the other more general fight Sergey mentions as a condition: “Until the 
fountain of youth is discovered”.

More than a month ago Aubrey de Grey, Chris Patil and me had a shared Aging and 
life extension session in the Googleplex’s Seville Room at the SciFoo 
unconference. I had a short 6 slide - 10 min presentation between the 2 other 
smart, funny and native speaker guys and I decided to highlight only 1 thing out 
of the many-many ideas I have in this field. This only thing was a strategical 
one as I tried to answer the question: What can Google do for fixing aging & 
life extension? right now technologically and accordingly I suggested something 
that only Google can implement concerning its scale and potential. Unfortunately 
I didn’t see Sergey or Anne in the audience (they visited probably another 
session more interesting to them) but we had a nice audience nevertheless.

The question of what Google can do for curing Parkinson disease or aging might 
easily be as important as building a colony on Mars and a NASA Campus. Extension 
in time is a deeper problem than extension in space.

Google already made the first steps to the biotech direction by inventing 
23andMe/Navigenics. What are the next steps?

This is the first time we are hearing about anything of the health condition of 
the Google Founder generation as an issue in itself and as something time 
dependent and prone to decay. When Sergey/Larry (and us) are getting older and 
older I predict that the thoughts will be more and more on how to fix the 
physiological and mental state of the body to preserve work capacity than space 
traveling.

Concerning the chances for a robust life extension technology the Google founder 
generation is still in the ring, but hasn’t had too much time left to do sg. 
before the final knockout.

Earlier I wrote about The life extension bonus effect of personal genome 
services which is supposed to be in the range of 10 years today. I would add now 
that knowing our predisposed genetic makeup in details is an absolute necessary 
but not sufficient step and the only service available at this moment that can 
rationally help us to design a substantially longer and safer life.

-- 
Brian Atkins
Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
http://www.singinst.org/