Wyss Institute Core Faculty member George Church, Ph.D., was the opening speaker at the TEDx Beacon Street saloon event hosted at the Franklin Park Zoo. He presented from inside the tapir cage!
Talk summary: Animals can be an extremely useful resource in prolonging human lives and promoting general health. For example, there are organs in pigs that are similar to those of humans and resistant to disease and cancer. It is also possible to engineer wild animals that are immune to human disease and spread them through the wild, to ensure the downfall of common illnesses. Furthermore, by studying and reversing aging in mice and dogs, we could eventually reverse aging in human beings.