Brin fights Parkinson's Gene

Google co-founder Sergey (Sergey Brin) (Photo source: Wired website)

As the saying goes, Brin is more inclined to abandon hundreds of years of scientific knowledge theory, but the use of Google-style methods, found a corresponding way of coping. For Brin, the money is plentiful and technically feasible.

According to relevant reports: The latest issue of the "wired" cover article revealed that Google co-founder Sergey (Sergey Brin) lurking in the body of a dangerous mutant cells, leading to the possibility of Parkinson's disease and the efforts of Brin to fight the disease gene.

Every few days, Google's co-founder, Brin, drove to a pool after work, stood on a 3-metre springboard, stared at the water and dived into the water.

Diving is a challenge for Brin, which can cause great fatigue to both physical and mental. "The diving process itself is short-lived, but it's also intense," he says. It does make your heart rate go up. ”

Another benefit of diving is that every dive is an offset against Brin, offsetting the risk of Parkinson's disease in the future. In every cell in Brin's body, there is a gene called LRRK2, located on chromosome 12th, which is a highly correlated mutation gene with Parkinson's disease.

The Power of initiative

Not every patient with Parkinson's disease is carrying LRRK2 variants, and the mutant carriers will not eventually develop Parkinson's disease. But carriers have a 30%-75% chance of developing the disease, compared with 1% of the average American with Parkinson's. Brin, for his own, thought his DNA had a 50% chance of developing.

That's why Brin does physical training: Parkinson's disease is still a difficult understanding, but research has found some behaviors that contribute to low prevalence, with physical training at the top. Coffee intake was also associated with lower risk, but Brin couldn't stand the taste of coffee and decided to drink a cup of tea every day.

Through diving and a cup of tea a day, Brin hopes to fight Parkinson's disease and reduce his chances.

"Suppose, through reasonable diet and physical training, I can halve the risk of illness by about 25%." Brin went on to predict that "advances in neuroscience will halve this risk, so my chances of Parkinson's are down to about 13%." "The caveat is that these are all just guesses, but from the way he gives the data and the explanations, he is very persuasive," he said.

"Google-style" solution

Of course, Brin is not just an ordinary 36-year-old. As Google's co-founder, he has a 15 billion dollar worth of money, which has added another option for Brin to fight disease.

After learning that he had carried the LRRK2 mutant Gene, Brin invested 50 million of dollars in scientific research on Parkinson's disease, which he believes is enough to help speed up the process of the research. Given the increasing number of drug treatments and cures, Brin adjusted his overall risk to "no more than 10%". That's still 10 times times the average, but it's a huge step in balancing his genetic predisposition.

It sounds so pragmatic and so obvious that people overlook the astonishing fact that many philanthropists are funding the study of their own diagnosed diseases. But in the first place, the hope of funding scientific research based on genetic testing and avoiding the disease is unprecedented.

There is another cause for concern. Unlike business-school science, Brin employs another completely different path, driven by calculations and huge datasets, based on his algorithmic sensibility and Google's belief in computing power. "The steps of medical research are roughly the same as the steps I use for the Internet. We will look at things extensively, collect a lot of information, and if we find a pattern, we can reap something. ”

In other words, Brin tends to throw away hundreds of years of scientific epistemology, but instead uses Google's approach: collecting data first, then making assumptions, and then finding a way to deal with the problem. For Brin, the money was plentiful and technically feasible.

But sometimes we find ourselves stuck in the same situation as Brin, choosing exercise, changing the diet, and trying everything possible while waiting for technological progress without a solution. In this sense, Brin's story is not a billionaire's story, but rather extraordinary.

(This article comes from "wired", the content is abridged)