Semira Gonseth Nusslé, co-founder of Genknowme, spoke at the Longevity Summit Dublin 2024, presenting the company's pioneering work in epigenetic testing. Her talk highlighted the development of an innovative blood test that measures the impact of lifestyle and stress on biological ageing. Genknowme’s patented epigenetic signature provides healthcare professionals with crucial insights, helping them create personalized health programs to mitigate the negative effects of chronic stress and promote healthier ageing.

Key Points:

• Epigenetic Impact of Lifestyle on Health: Semira Gonseth Nusslé introduced Genknowme’s innovative approach to measuring the influence of lifestyle, stress, and environmental factors on gene expression and biological ageing through epigenetic processes.
• Chronic Stress as a Health Risk: She emphasized the role of chronic stress as a major risk factor for ageing and various chronic diseases. Chronic stress triggers a neuroendocrine response that, when prolonged, can lead to dysfunction in multiple organ systems, contributing to disease onset.
• Epigenetic Markers of Stress: Genknowme developed an epigenetic signature with 32 specific markers that reflect chronic stress’ impact on physiological systems, including cardiovascular, metabolic, and immune systems. This signature is patent-pending and shows strong correlations with traditional clinical markers.
• Simplifying Health Assessments with Epigenetics: The company’s blood test measures DNA methylation patterns to provide a comprehensive view of allostatic load (the cumulative impact of chronic stress on the body). This method allows for a simpler and more efficient assessment compared to traditional clinical markers.
• Guidance for Personalized Health Programs: Genknowme’s report offers healthcare professionals insights into which systems are most affected by stress in their patients, enabling the design of personalized health programs to reduce stress and improve health outcomes.
• Future Directions and Commitment to Innovation: The company plans to explore new sequencing techniques like nanopore sequencing to enhance the accuracy and efficiency of their tests. They also emphasized the need for more diverse populations in epigenetic research to improve the generalizability of findings.