{"id":30035,"date":"2025-04-17T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/?post_type=article&p=30035"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:10:42","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:10:42","slug":"longevity-science-is-not-sci-fi-anymore","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/longevity-science-is-not-sci-fi-anymore\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Longevity Science Is Not Sci-Fi Anymore’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n 17 Apr 2025 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

‘Longevity Science Is Not Sci-Fi Anymore’<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Former NFL hopeful Ryan Rossner turned his attention to science, particularly longevity and gene therapy science<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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Main image: Minicircle<\/p>\n

\"sport<\/h6>\n
By Joe Lemire<\/h6>\n
Ryan Rossner starred as a kicker at Stephen F Austin before taking two years to pursue an NFL career, signing as an undrafted free agent with the Atlanta Falcons.<\/h6>\n

When he didn\u2019t break through, he returned to school and went on to earn a PhD in molecular aging, studying under University of Washington professors Brian Kennedy and Matt Kaeberlein and pursuing research with Scott Leiser.<\/p>\n

Now 42, Rossner is the Director of Longevity at\u00a0Minicircle<\/a>, a gene therapy startup in Austin, where he recently met SBJ and spoke about his career.<\/p>\n

On his college experience…<\/b><\/p>\n

I studied philosophy and political science, and I took football very seriously. I 100% wanted an NFL career. I wanted to make enough money to have financial freedom, but the NFL was very hard, and I was probably not mature enough to grind it out at that point.<\/p>\n

On returning to school…<\/b><\/p>\n

I took two years, bounced around the NFL, went right back to school [to complete my degree]. The NFL was that pressure cooker \u2014 I learned so many performance and discipline skills. I finished with straight As in school for the first time. I finished in philosophy and poli sci. But while pursuing football, I had the chance to read a lot, and I got exposed to popular science books about the exponential progress of technology through history. This grabbed me like nothing had before. I was like science is the answer to all these philosophical questions. And I can do science forever. It\u2019s inexhaustible. So I got my BA and moved to Seattle to do science.<\/p>\n

On his academic interest…<\/b><\/p>\n

I focused on longevity, probably for two reasons: one, one of the formative events in my life was to watch my mom go through cancer. That\u2019s why I got into philosophy. I wanted to understand why that happened. Philosophy doesn\u2019t really answer that, but science empowers us to change that, specifically molecular biology. The other reason was all the exciting technological developments of the future, we get to experience them more if we\u2019re around \u2014 longevity is like the big limiter.<\/p>\n

On the start of his research…<\/b><\/p>\n

I started working under this post-doc, Scott Leiser. He\u2019s a former college football player, and we were studying how low oxygen exposure can increase lifespan in lab animals. Athletes train at altitudes, and then some of the mechanisms that are turned on by low oxygen are also turned on by fasting, which is like the foundational longevity intervention. So I started defining some of those mechanisms that were shared by low-oxygen, low-calorie longevity interventions.<\/p>\n

On scientific breakthroughs versus football glory…<\/b><\/p>\n

Ecstatic \u2014 nothing is better than discovering new scientific stuff. It\u2019s the coolest feeling imaginable. At our rivals\u2019 homecoming, [I hit] a clock-expiring,\u00a054-yard field goal<\/a>\u00a0to silence the crowd. That was also cool. But science is like you\u2019re seeing the secrets of the universe.<\/p>\n

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A post shared by Ryan J. Rossner, PhD (@rjrphd)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n