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How close are we to ovarian rejuvenation and what role will AI play in getting us there? In this conversation, reproductive biologist and aging researcher Dr. Vittorio Sebastiano joins Dr. Kara Fitzgerald to explore how rapidly advancing technologies are transforming geroscience and regenerative medicine.
Vittorio Sebastiano PhD and his Stanford team are behind ERA (Epigenetic Reprogramming of Aging), a “partial reprogramming” platform that aims to reset epigenetic changes associated with aging while preserving cell identity. One of their targets is ovarian rejuvenation, which is truly an exciting possibility. Since menopause timing influences later health for women (including risk of osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline, and more), ovarian rejuvenation is relevant for healthy aging. Of course, there’s also the tremendous potential fertility applicability as well.
In this excerpt, Dr. Sebastiano explains why ovarian rejuvenation may be only a few years away, not decades, and how artificial intelligence is fundamentally changing the pace of scientific discovery. From analyzing massive datasets and decades of published research to identifying high-probability molecular targets, AI is enabling researchers to generate stronger hypotheses and accelerate the path from discovery to clinical trials.
In fact, his vision of AI in research is applicable across many areas. Many of us have experimented with AI in clinic and in our personal lives – often with good outcomes, but sometimes not. That said, AI is becoming an embedded tool, allowing science to leapfrog forward at an incredible rate. It’s pretty spectacular. In this context, every I and T would be dotted, crossed, and evaluated, of course.
The discussion also touches on AI-driven drug development, natural product discovery, and a powerful insight from reproductive biology: the human body already contains the blueprint for regeneration. This conversation offers valuable perspective for clinicians and researchers working at the intersection of functional medicine, longevity, and translational science.
Key Insights on Ovarian Rejuvenation, AI in Geroscience, and Women’s Longevity
Watch the video and discover:
- Why ovarian rejuvenation may be only years away, not decades, due to rapid advances in aging biology and regenerative science.
- How AI acts as a major accelerator in geroscience, capable of analyzing vast datasets, literature, and biological networks far beyond human capacity.
- Stronger hypotheses, faster clinical translation: AI improves target selection and shortens the path from discovery to human trials.
- How reproductive biology reveals a blueprint for regeneration, showing that aging tissues retain the capacity to reset biological age.
- Implications that extend beyond fertility, impacting long-term women’s health, longevity, and disease risk across the lifespan.
Dr. Sebastiano joined us for the 2025 Functional Medicine is Longevity Medicine™ Masterclass where he explored how organ-specific rejuvenation can offer systemic benefits for overall health and longevity. Access the recording in the Younger You™ Practitioner Training Program.
Related Content: AI in Healthcare, Longevity Medicine, and Functional Practice
Curious to learn more about AI use in healthcare? Check out our recent content on the topic:
- Podcast: Decoding Aging: The Science Of Cellular Rejuvenation With Dr. Vittorio Sebastiano
- Podcast: Why Human-Centered AI Is the Future of Medicine & Mental Wellness
- Webinar: The EHR That Will Transform FxMed in 2026: AI, Less Charting, Faster Insights
- Report: The Use of AI & Wearables in Functional & Longevity Medicine
- Blog: How Are Functional Medicine Practitioners Using AI?
Vittorio Sebastiano, Phd
Professor UC Irvine & Co-Founder TurnBio
Dr. Vittorio Sebastiano is a distinguished professor and researcher at UC Irvine (previously at Stanford University) and co-founder of Turn Biotechnologies, a cutting-edge company focused on cellular regeneration and longevity research. Sebastiano is revolutionizing the understanding of aging through the ERA™ (Epigenetic Reprogramming of Aging) technology, which promises to reverse signs of aging without compromising cellular identity. This innovative technique offers new possibilities for tissue regeneration and anti-aging treatments, paving the way for therapies that could slow down the aging process and improve quality of life.
The technology at the foundation of the ERA™ platform was developed and patented in Vittorio’s Stanford University lab. An expert in stem cell biology and epigenetic reprogramming, he has worked in some of the world’s most prestigious academic institutions. He received his bachelor’s degree and doctorate from the University of Pavia (Italy) and completed post-doctoral work at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine in Germany and Stanford. Dr. Sebastiano continues to lead and collaborate with various scientific institutions to redefine the future of regenerative medicine.
Video Transcript
Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: How far out are we from ovarian rejuvenation?
Dr. Vittorio Sebastiano: I think we’re a bit more far out. Again, not 100 years, not 50 years. Probably we are behind by maybe a handful of years. And that’s also because of the fact that as the technology in the other fields is developing – and it’s developing at a pace that is unimaginable – I’m very hopeful, for example, about the implementation of AI in geroscience [study of aging biology]. This is really going to be a game changer.
And that is going to impact every single field. So I’m hopeful that technology development is actually synergistically going to accelerate, for example, other new ideas that now are really at the beginning [stages], but they could get to clinical fruition at a much faster pace.
Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Like just briefly, how is AI going to expedite it in general?
Dr. Vittorio Sebastiano: It’s going to expedite, I think, in many different ways. Well, first of all, because the capacity that the AI has to manage information is not human. We as humans, even if we were all together thinking about one problem, our mind is not set to handle a gigantic amount of information. We cannot process it.
And that’s the reason why research has been so slow because the connections that we make, and I’m an average person, but even if a genius does that, the amount of information that a brain can handle is very limited, right? You have to go to read through hundreds of thousands of papers and you have to remember millions of different molecule names and genes names and pathways. It’s just we cannot work that way but AI can do that.
Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Yeah.
Dr. Vittorio Sebastiano: And so that information that is already available is out there. It can be processed and kind of condensed and distilled in such a rapid way through AI. So that’s the first thing that AI can do.
The second thing that AI can do, I think, is that thanks to the ability to actually connect many different things, even things that are completely far apart. For example, an IP application, a patent application and a paper written 100 years ago, connecting that information in a very meaningful and logical way gives you the opportunity to develop knowledge that has higher chances of being true.
What do I mean by this? Again, I take the example of a researcher. A researcher bases his or her kind of work on the work of others, but also the work that this particular person has done over the course of 10-20 years, right? And it’s an experimental approach, which means that you come up with a hypothesis based on what you know.
Dr. Vittorio Sebastiano: And then you test that hypothesis. But that hypothesis is built again on a very limited number of, or a very small amount of information. Because it’s your own experience and the experience of the people that you know or the papers that you have read over the course of 20 years. AI, based on what I said before, can process an incredible amount of information in a blink of an eye. And that information is so well organized and structured, and the connections are so robust that the chances that then the experimental hypothesis is going to be true are much higher. Because again, it’s based on a number of connections, a number of networks that we [humans] cannot process simultaneously.
Dr. Vittorio Sebastiano: So that’s why I think that. Because of these two reasons: (1) the capacity of managing information, and (2) the ability to predict molecules or genes or pathways that are with a higher chance of being successful for a certain question. Those are the two things that are going to be the game changer.
They’re going to accelerate the developments, and also the implementation of drugs in clinical studies. We’re already seeing it. Look at what Insilico Medicine is doing. They have already developed 10 molecules, all of which are in phase one. In how many years? Three, four, five? I don’t remember when Insilico was funded, but…
Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Yeah.
Dr. Vittorio Sebastiano: Typically from the moment you discover something to the moment you get to a clinical trial, in a canonical, classical setup, it takes you 15 to 20 years for one single discovery. Now we have 10, just from Insilico Medicine, already in phase one after a few years. It’s just mind blowing.
Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: Right. That’s amazing. So there’s interesting work going on in the natural product space. Really interesting science that’s kind of likewise catapulted ahead beyond anything I expected to see in my career. Even using Insilico for identifying natural products and appropriate species and so forth. It’s very cool.
Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: You know, I just want to share as an aside the “aha” moment that you shared with me on our original podcast that was kind of an “aha” for me to listen to you talk about it.
You’re a reproductive biologist by training and your “aha” moment and what brought you into aging was realizing that an aged adult can create new, ground zero age can create life, or even negative, less than zero, in the case of a fetus. And that’s what ultimately brought you here and us having this conversation now, that original, brilliant, extraordinary, but so simple and obvious epiphany of: “wow, we have this information already in our being.” Just hats off. Wherever that took place, whatever you were doing. I tend to have my best thoughts when I’m riding my bike.
What a brilliant observation and then to dedicate your life to figuring it out and to actually having that be validated; that you’re actually currently even able to find it and to begin to bring it forward in a way that could be, to your point, game-changing for all of us for humanity.
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