Professor Alysson R. Muotri (geneticist and developmental biologist at UC San Diego) joins for a far out conversation about sending brain organoids to the International Space Station and what they're teaching us about aging, neurological disease, and a new kind of AI. One month in orbit ages an organoid the equivalent of 10 years on Earth, and Alysson's lab has already used that compressed timeline to unlock an FDA-approved clinical trial for a drug developed in space.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why space accelerates brain aging
• The surprising role of "junk DNA" and endogenous retroviruses in neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration
• Why HIV antiretroviral drugs may be the key to treating neurological conditions 
• What the decommissioning of the ISS and the rise of commercial space stations mean for biomedical research
• How brain organoids learn, remember, and inspire a new generation of AI algorithms beyond transformers
• The bioethics frontier: when do organoids become conscious and how would we even know?
  
  
  Credits:
  
  Created by Greg Kubin and Matias Serebrinsky
  Host: Matias and Greg
  Produced by Nico V. Rey
  Find us at businesstrip.fm and psymed.ventures
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  Theme music by Dorian Love
  Additional Music: Distant Daze by Zack Frank