#28 These rats don't age - here's why  | Prof. Rochelle Buffenstein
LEVITY15 Juli 2025

#28 These rats don't age - here's why | Prof. Rochelle Buffenstein

Even though it’s undeniably...aesthetic-challenged, the naked mole-rat is the envy of the longevity world. Its risk of death barely changes with time; it shrugs off cancer, stays fertile for decades and seems to skip every hallmark of aging that hobbles the rest of us.

But why? What evolutionary forces gave a mouse-sized, subterranean rodent near-immunity to aging - and what can its biology teach us about extending healthy human life?

Comparative biologist Prof. Rochelle Buffenstein (University of Illinois Chicago) - who has maintained the world’s largest captive colonies and authored 200+ papers - joins LEVITY to dissect the evidence.


In this episode

✅ Rochelle’s journey: from Zimbabwe farm kid to the pre-eminent naked mole-rat researcher.

✅ Eusocial society: queens, worker castes and lethal succession battles.

✅ No Gompertz slope: hard numbers that show mortality risk stays essentially flat for 40 years.

✅ Cancer resistance → high-molecular-weight hyaluronan, unusual immune cell profiles.

✅ Telomere maintenance and DNA-methylation reversal.

✅ Proteostasis on easy-mode: slow translation, durable proteins, super-charged autophagy.

✅ What actually kills a mole-rat?

✅ Translational angles: small-molecule screens, CRISPR edits, and why funding is still an uphill battle.

✅ Other long-lived species worth studying - and how young scientists can break into comparative gerontology.


🚀 Special offer for our LEVITY audience: Join Vitalism today and receive a 30% discount on your membership using the code LEVITY at checkout. https://www.vitalism.io/membership


Show notes for this episode will be available soon after this airs. Sign up for the LEVITY newsletter to get them straight to your inbox: reachlevity.com


LEVITY is co-hosted by Patrick Linden, philosopher and author, and Peter Ottsjö, journalist and author.


00:00 Teaser

02:37 Meet Prof. Rochelle Buffenstein

07:04 Naked mole-rats crash course

10:23 Eusocial life: Queens, workers, death matches

11:46 Extreme underground lifestyle (Low O₂, High CO₂)

18:12 Problems with inbreeding?

26:07 Don’t call them cold-blooded!

29:15 Keeping the world’s largest colony of naked mole-rats

31:45 Eating naked mole-rats

36:01 Lifespan of the naked mole-rat

38:20 Two remarkable papers

50:53 How long can they live?

52:45 Resistance to cancer

57:03 The Hallmarks of aging are no match for this rodent

59:48 Surprising immune defense

01:04:18 What’s the evolutionary rationale?

01:10:08 Translating the research

01:18:51 Other longevity champions

🗞️ SUBSCRIBE to the LEVITY newsletter: reachlevity.com/subscribe

Get all LEVITY DeSci content here: reachlevity.com/t/desci (sorry about the wrong link in the episode)


📕 Check out Patrick's book: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262543163/the-case-against-death/

📗 Check out Peter's book (only available in Swedish): https://www.adlibris.com/sv/bok/evigt-ung-min-och-manniskans-drom-om-ododligheten-9789179652524


-----


Show notes for this episode will be available soon after this airs. Sign up for the LEVITY newsletter to get them straight to your inbox: reachlevity.com/subscribe


LEVITY is co-hosted by Patrick Linden, philosopher and author, and Peter Ottsjö, journalist and author.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Avsnitt(39)

#37 The Anti-Catastrophe League

#37 The Anti-Catastrophe League

Tom Ough tells us about the Big Things that may end humanity - and what we can do and in some cases have done to prevent these. Did you know that if all the risks, the one that is most likely to end y...

16 Dec 202544min

#36 How crypto is sparking a longevity frenzy

#36 How crypto is sparking a longevity frenzy

Today we’re diving into one of the strangest and most ambitious ideas in longevity: using crypto trading to fund real-time lifespan experiments.Benji Leibowitz, founder of pump.science, joins us to ex...

2 Dec 20251h 48min

#35 The Anti-Aging Uprising: Felix Werth’s Political Attack on Death Itself

#35 The Anti-Aging Uprising: Felix Werth’s Political Attack on Death Itself

Valuable time is being lost because there is not enough funding for science with real life-extending potential. No major political party is promising to address aging, even though aging harms and kill...

11 Nov 20251h 24min

#34 Biomarkers of aging: How close are we, really? - A conversation with Sara Hägg

#34 Biomarkers of aging: How close are we, really? - A conversation with Sara Hägg

Sara Hägg, PhD is an associate professor at Karolinska Institutet, where she leads the Molecular Epidemiology of Aging Group. Her work focuses on human biomarkers of aging - especially biological age ...

28 Okt 20251h 36min

#33 “Can death be the answer?"  A conversation with philosopher Nicholas Agar

#33 “Can death be the answer?" A conversation with philosopher Nicholas Agar

We are always excited about the next technological solution. But what if it does not come? Or what if it comes only for the few, or with terrible side-effects? And while we are waiting for the easy te...

7 Okt 20251h 44min

#32 “Medical malpractice”: Matt Kaeberlein on biological age tests

#32 “Medical malpractice”: Matt Kaeberlein on biological age tests

One idea I’ve had lately is to put together a list of people to trust in geroscience and the longevity field more broadly. (And I might do it - keep an eye on reachlevity.com- and subscribe while you’...

23 Sep 20251h 50min

# 31 He wants to save your pet with cryo - The Kai Micah Mills interview

# 31 He wants to save your pet with cryo - The Kai Micah Mills interview

When you give a child a pet, you also expose them to death—since most pets pass away long before their owners. But what if we could cryopreserve Buddy or Tiger, and bring them back from suspended anim...

9 Sep 20252h 8min

#30 Soon you'll take a drug designed by AI  | Alex Zhavoronkov

#30 Soon you'll take a drug designed by AI | Alex Zhavoronkov

As you may have heard, AI-designed medicines have crossed a historic line. In this episode, Alex Zhavoronkov - CEO of Insilico Medicine and founder of ARDD walks us through how Insilico’s rentosertib ...

26 Aug 20252h 13min

Populärt inom Vetenskap

dumma-manniskor
p3-dystopia
svd-nyhetsartiklar
allt-du-velat-veta
rss-ufo-bortom-rimligt-tvivel
kapitalet-en-podd-om-ekonomi
bildningspodden
rss-vetenskapsradion-2
det-morka-psyket
halsorevolutionen
4health-med-anna-sparre
sexet
rss-tidsmaskinen
dumforklarat
rss-utblick
naturmorgon
rss-geopodden-2
rss-experimentet
rss-vetenskapsradion
paranormalt-med-caroline-giertz