BEING YOUNG, IN LONGEVITY
What can you do?
Deeply immersed in math and computer science as a teen, I was fascinated by patterns, processes, and mechanisms. Uncovering the mechanism of aging – once I realised such a thing would be possible – felt like the most reasonable, fundamental problem for me to be working on, given the attractive complexity of the problem and the practical implications of “solving” aging. Slowly making my entrance into the longevity field, I felt out of place in a community seemingly filled with biologists who knew much better than me what was going on. (At the time, I barely knew what mitochondria was, not to mention oxidative stress, the maternal inheritance of mtDNA, oxphos diseases or other alien terms.) I thus decided to follow what seemed the more secure, conventional path of studying biology as an undergraduate, before tackling the problem of aging alongside all these biologists.
Image generated by DALL-E.
Pivoting to biology didn’t miraculously make my life easier. It did, however, allow me to gain hands-on practical lab experience, which I wanted.
This I encourage for many reasons. It helps you:
Understand how biology works (or doesn’t work)
Learn how to fail (miserably, sometimes multiple times a day)
Learn how to create & innovate, in response to failure
Decide whether you enjoy lab work or not – there is a place out there for everyone, and it doesn’t need to be in the lab
What I didn’t expect was that, despite being trained in biology, entering the lab to work on the problems I so deeply care about was not as easy.
Bottleneck #1: there are not enough opportunities for people at the beginning of their careers to try things out, fail, and retry. This happens particularly if these people’s background is considered insufficient or unrelated to their desire (e.g., wanting to work on gene therapy with a pure math background).
For wet lab specifically, there are a couple of explanations for that:
Taking people with previous experience is easier and more risk-free. This is true for many workplaces, because it makes the experience smoother on both sides of the employer and employee, and the progress on the research more efficient (the more you know, the less time and effort needs to be put into training you).
How do you gain the desired experience without being given the chance to start? It’s a try-fail-repeat cycle, until success. Apply to as many programs/labs as you can, but be smart about it: know yourself and your goals well, and network in order to find the right people who can facilitate your way in.
Not to mention the hassle of pivoting to a new career. It is crucial to identify the transferable skills you earned from your previous projects and jobs. When it comes to technical skills, you would likely be at a disadvantage. The impostor syndrome – “everyone is better than me”, “anyone would know more than I do about this technique” – is real.
Starting young (~high school) in the lab became a tougher challenge than it was a couple of decades ago, due to regulations.
And if you do end up in a lab…
From a legal standpoint, undergrads aren’t left unsupervised in the lab much. Consequences:
Taking care of an undergrad takes considerable time and effort from the side of a supervisor; thus, labs are reluctant when it comes to taking someone in. If they do, they will likely be super careful and mindful of the person
You can’t mess around & find out as much, compared to a situation in which you would be independent
Sometimes you can’t mess around at all, if you are constantly checked upon and/or being told what to do, with little space for freedom or creativity
Research opportunities come in many forms: internships, practical and theoretical courses, co-ops, research assistant positions. Depending on your skills and knowledge, some of these will fit you better than others.
If other sectors of longevity interest you – tech, policy, business, grant writing – you would have the chance to avoid academia and enter industry via similar internships, co-op programmes, jobs...
You can earn technical skills from any of these opportunities and apply them in the longevity field.
However, if you are as impatient as I am, you might already be looking for opportunities tailored to the field. In this case, one thing to be aware of is that both terms – longevity and aging – are used to describe different opportunities. What is the difference between a longevity-oriented program, vs. an aging-oriented one? Well, it is clear that the two terms have different meanings themselves. (Sufal has a lovely article on the difference between the two.) However, there are some additional nuances on top of that. For obvious reasons, “longevity” is overall less popular/avoided. “Aging”, on the other hand, makes more sense in the context of biology, policy, regulatory affairs, and the like. In the end, to achieve longevity, you likely need to pass the hurdle of aging.
Now, here comes another tricky nuance: those who consider themselves “longevity people” and take the mission straight to heart might consider “aging people” a less-ambitious version of themselves and discriminate against, at least in some fellowships I am aware of. Vice versa, longevity might appear extreme, extravagant, and unrealistic.
Note: Many times, the term “healthy aging” is advertised. Again, this happens for obvious reasons: embracing aging and “aging the right way” is a more common and “respectable” attitude than seeking longevity.
A few programs on Aging & Longevity:
The Centre for Healthy Longevity Singapore (@NUS) organizes the Healthy Longevity Talent Incubator
In terms of “Biology of Aging”, the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) @University of Chicago, organizes the Biology of Aging summer course
The Max Planck Institute for Biology of Aging in Cologne has a renowned Undergraduate Internship Programme. This is however more of a canonical aging program.
Remote volunteer research internship at Longevity Underground
If you are a lucky US citizen or permanent resident, there are considerably more many programs within the US, advertising aging biology research. As examples,
The Columbia University STAR U – Summer of Translational Aging Research for Undergraduates
The NYU Pathways into Quantitative Aging Research Summer Program
The Buck Institute on Aging Research Summer Scholars Program
Bottleneck #2: At the moment, the US is the richest in opportunities for enthusiastic youngsters. Great potential however exists internationally, and talented people can’t, or don’t want to, relocate. What do we do for this international community of motivated folks?
There is, however, a whole world outside/beyond the lab.
Longevity needs interdisciplinary minds. Even though the biological subsector of the field is the predominant one, turning longevity into a palpable reality requires changes way beyond biology.
You can check out the following resources:
Longevity Capital Summer Internship
Maximon Junior Venture Builder
Longevity List’s Internship list
Human Longevity previously had MBA & Machine Learning interns, over time
While there’s no defined, “standard” path to follow in order to enter longevity, this leaves space for one to leave a personal touch over the path they take, and to follow the main principles of tackling this problem creatively, openly, and ambitiously.
My recommendations? Learn, network, try, and fail. As some awesome folks at Z-fellows would say,
“When in doubt, apply. We are all just winging it”.
Have thoughts on this topic? We at LongX strive for collaboration on a Global Scale.
Reach out to the team at LongX and collaborate with us!
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