The DNA of Things with Dr. Jeremy Koenig

In this episode, Jeremy Koenig sits down with Dr. Chadi Nabhan, a physician-scientist, oncologist, and healthcare innovator who stands at the intersection of cancer care, precision medicine, and artificial intelligence. Dr. Nabhan shares his remarkable journey from serving as a key expert witness in the landmark Monsanto Roundup trials to his current role as Chief Medical Officer at Right, where he's revolutionizing clinical trial design through AI. The conversation explores the critical importance of communication in healthcare, the challenges of translating complex science for patients and families, and how innovative technology is shortening the timeline for life-saving treatments to reach those who need them most.

Key Takeaways

🔬 From Courtroom to Page: Dr. Nabhan's book "Toxic Exposure" chronicles his experience as an expert witness in the Monsanto Roundup trials, revealing the science behind glyphosate's link to lymphoma and the drama of corporate litigation

📚 Making Cancer Accessible: "The Cancer Journey" transforms complex oncology into relatable stories, guiding patients and caregivers through every step from diagnosis to treatment while honoring the often-overlooked role of caregivers

⚡ Time is Lives: Clinical trials can take 10-15 years to complete, but even shortening this timeline by 2-3 years could save countless lives by bringing breakthrough therapies to market faster

🎯 The 80% Problem: 80% of clinical trial sites run behind schedule, and 50% enroll zero or one patient—a massive inefficiency that Right is solving through AI-powered site selection

🤖 Digital Twins Revolution: Right creates digital twins of every clinical trial site worldwide, matching protocols to the best-performing locations based on capabilities, patient demographics, investigator experience, and regulatory history

💬 Language as Technology: Effective communication in healthcare means meeting people where they are—if a patient doesn't understand, it's the clinician's responsibility to communicate better, not the patient's failure to comprehend

🎓 The Readiness Score: Just like Olympic athletes need specific fitness for their sport, clinical trial sites have unique readiness profiles for different studies—no single site is best for everything

📖 Fiction Meets Truth: Dr. Nabhan's fourth book ventures into fiction, creating characters inspired by real experiences in academic medicine, demonstrating how storytelling can illuminate deeper truths

🏥 AI and Cancer Care: His upcoming third book explores how artificial intelligence is transforming every aspect of the cancer journey, aiming to demystify AI and help people embrace rather than fear these innovations

👥 Patient Voices Matter: The most powerful perspectives in healthcare innovation come from patient advocates who can bridge the gap between scientific advancement and lived experience

 LINKS:

https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/
https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/
https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig

In this episode, Dr. Jeremy Koenig sits down with Eli Bremer, Olympic modern pentathlete turned systems thinker and international sport leader, for a profound conversation about human performance, individualization, and the courage to reject one-size-fits-all approaches. From being picked last in childhood to competing at the Beijing Olympics, Eli shares his journey of discovering that success comes not from fixing weaknesses, but from exploiting strengths. They explore how DNA testing, AI, and personalized data are transforming athletic development, healthcare, and entrepreneurship—revealing that the future of performance isn't about optimization, but understanding. This conversation challenges conventional wisdom about talent, training systems, and what it truly means to be "one of one."

Key Takeaways

🏊 From Last Pick to Olympian - Eli's transformation from the kid picked last in kickball to Olympic athlete proves that persistence and self-belief can overcome initial limitations

🧬 DNA Unlocks Decades of Discovery - Taking a genetic test revealed what Eli learned through 30 years of trial and error: his body responded best to higher volume training, validating his intuitive approach

🎯 Systems vs. Individuals - The US Olympic system optimizes programs and recruits talent to fit them, while successful international programs optimize around each unique athlete

🧠 The Intellectual Athlete - Athletes who think critically about their training, question systems, and actively participate in their development often become successful entrepreneurs and disruptors

📊 Subjective Beats Objective - Despite advances in wearables and tracking technology, how an athlete feels often provides more valuable performance data than objective metrics alone

💪 Exploit Strengths, Outsource Weaknesses - The best performers don't focus on fixing what they're bad at—they double down on what makes them exceptional and delegate the rest

🔬 Soft Systems Over Hard Systems - Viewing athletes as complexities to understand rather than problems to engineer creates more sustainable, personalized pathways to excellence

👨‍👩‍👧 Performance Beyond the Podium - Human performance extends from Olympic gold to making a child, raising a family, and building businesses—each requiring the same principles of understanding your unique design

😔 Post-Olympic Depression is Real - Most Olympic athletes experience deep depression after competition ends, making identity beyond sport a critical but often overlooked aspect of athlete development

🌟 You're One of One - Everyone has unique genetic advantages, life experiences, and strengths—success comes from discovering and embracing what makes you exceptional rather than trying to fit someone else's mold

 LINKS:

https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/
https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/
https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig

In this episode of the DNA of Things, Dr. Jeremy Koenig welcomes back Dr. Nathan Price, co-director of the Center of Human Health Span at the Buck Institute and Chief Scientific Officer at Thorne. Dr. Price reveals how AI and multi-omic data are revolutionizing personalized medicine, transforming healthcare from reactive treatment to proactive wellness. He unveils his latest innovations—the N of One Analyzer and Health Span Horizons program—showing how your unique biological data can be translated into individualized interventions that extend healthspan.

Key Takeaways

🧬 AI-powered personalized medicine can now analyze your genome, microbiome, blood biomarkers, and lifestyle to create truly individualized health recommendations

🤖 Dynamic health conversations replace static reports—ask follow-up questions and get contextualized insights tailored to your specific biology and goals

🔬 Health Span Horizons launches two breakthrough tools: Health Span Compass (personal advice engine) and Health Span Synthesizer (autonomous AI research system)

💡 Everyone is an N of One—your unique combination of genetics, environment, and lifestyle requires personalized rather than one-size-fits-all approaches

⏱️ AI accelerates discovery—what took researchers 1-3 years can now be analyzed and reported in real-time

🎯 Participatory health empowers you to become the scientist of your own life using AI and dense biological data

🚀 Healthspan extension is proven—the years you live healthy and happy are definitively extendable through screening, lifestyle optimization, and emerging therapeutics

 LINKS:

https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/
https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/
https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig

In this episode, Dr. Jeremy Koenig sits down with Dr. Elena Ikonomovska, a machine learning scientist and co-founder/CEO of Diadia Health, to explore how artificial intelligence and systems biology are revolutionizing women's health. Elena shares her journey from building algorithms at tech giants like Google and Reddit to turning her expertise inward when conventional medicine failed to address her own health struggles. She reveals how normal lab ranges often conceal systemic disease, especially in women, and introduces a groundbreaking approach that analyzes the dynamic interplay between hormones, immunity, and metabolism to enable precision prediction and personalized healing.

Key Takeaways

🧬 Standard lab ranges are misleading – Normal TSH levels can hide low T3 thyroid hormone levels in 75% of women, leading to missed diagnoses and years of suffering

🔗 Systems biology reveals hidden connections – Health issues like hypothyroidism, insulin resistance, and nutrient deficiencies don't exist in isolation but interact in complex patterns that traditional medicine overlooks

🤖 AI-powered precision health – Machine learning can decode the relationships between biomarkers, genetics, symptoms, and lifestyle factors to create personalized health optimization strategies

🎯 Individual optimal ranges matter – Standard lab ranges reflect the status quo of an unhealthy population; true health requires targeting your unique optimal ranges based on genetics and health history

💪 Women must become health advocates – Comprehensive testing of thyroid, sex hormones, metabolism, and immunity at least twice yearly, combined with data-driven insights, empowers women to demand better care

🔬 Genetic context transforms biomarker interpretation – Understanding genetic variants (like DIO2 for thyroid conversion) explains why the same lab values mean different things for different people

🌟 Functional medicine meets technology – Diadia Health combines expert functional medicine knowledge with AI analysis to fill gaps in women's health research and create actionable protocols

📊 Continuous monitoring enables experimentation – Regular biomarker testing every three months allows for hypothesis testing and discovery of what interventions actually work for your unique biology

🧘 Trauma impacts physiology – Immune dysfunction, histamine reactions, and mast cell activation can stem from traumatic events, requiring both biological support and trauma healing

🚀 Citizen science is the future – Taking ownership of health data and participating in collaborative research helps build better datasets and optimal ranges for women's health prevention

About the Guest

Dr. Elena Ikonomovska is a machine learning scientist with a PhD in artificial intelligence and the co-founder and CEO of Diadia Health, a precision health company reimagining women's health through systems biology and data intelligence. Before founding Diadia Health, Elena built algorithms that powered decision systems at Google, Reddit, and Change.org. She has also worked in blockchain technology focusing on real-time spam and scam detection. Her work unites data science with empathy to decode the dynamic interplay between hormones, immunity, and metabolism, revealing new pathways toward understanding and healing in women's health.

 LINKS:

https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/
https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/
https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig

In this episode, Dr. Jeremy Koenig sits down with Pouria Sanae, CEO and co-founder of ixlayer, to explore the transformation of healthcare delivery through technology and systems thinking. Pouria shares his remarkable journey from aerospace engineering to becoming a pioneer in precision medicine infrastructure, driven by a profound realization about the fragmented nature of modern healthcare after witnessing a 37-year-old patient's devastating Alzheimer's diagnosis.

The conversation delves into how ixlayer is rebuilding healthcare's fundamental architecture by connecting labs, clinicians, payers, and patients into seamless diagnostic journeys. From processing 90,000 COVID tests daily with a 20-person team to enabling direct-to-patient experiences across cardiology, oncology, and Alzheimer's care, Pouria reveals the critical infrastructure layer that makes precision medicine accessible and actionable.

Key Takeaways

🎯 The Pre-Patient Revolution - Healthcare must shift from reactive treatment to proactive screening, catching disease before symptoms appear rather than waiting for the "check engine light" to activate

🔬 The Single Pixel That Changed Everything - A 37-year-old patient with 95% probability of early-onset Alzheimer's at age 45 became the North Star for ixlayer's patient-centered design philosophy

🏗️ Infrastructure Over Innovation - The most important healthcare technology isn't a new drug but the seamless infrastructure that connects patients to testing, diagnosis, and treatment

📊 Beyond Normal Ranges - Traditional lab result "normal ranges" are statistical averages that ignore individual optimization, age, geography, and personal health goals

🌉 Bridging Healthcare Islands - Patients currently face disconnected "islands" (symptoms, doctors, labs, prescriptions) with no bridges between them; ixlayer creates those connections

⚡ The 0.08% Problem - Only 0.08% of patients who see a pharmaceutical ad actually reach a prescription, taking 3-7 months navigating a friction-filled system

🔗 Shopify Meets Stripe for Healthcare - ixlayer combines patient experience design (like Shopify) with clinical service integration (like Stripe) to orchestrate complex multi-vendor healthcare journeys

🧬 From Helix to Healthcare Scale - Early genomics work at Helix revealed that every organization was rebuilding the same infrastructure wheel, leading to ixlayer's platform approach

🚀 COVID Stress Test - Processing 1,100 programs and 90,000 daily tests during the pandemic forced rapid scaling and proved the platform's resilience at extreme volume

💡 Don't Wait Philosophy - The most critical health intervention is taking action today rather than postponing preventive care, testing, or lifestyle changes until tomorrow

 LINKS:

https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/
https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/
https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig

In this episode of The DNA of Things, Dr. Jeremy Koenig sits down with Dr. Neal Kitchen, COO of Epimorphy and pioneer in personalized health through epigenetics and microbiome integration. As an identical twin with a divergent health journey from his brother, Neal offers a unique perspective on how biology responds to our choices rather than dictating our fate. This conversation explores the intersection of genetics, epigenetics, and the microbiome, revealing how scientific wellness platforms like Liv by Epimorphy are transforming complex biological data into actionable insights for everyday people.

Key Takeaways:

🧬 Your DNA isn't a fixed blueprint but a dynamic listener that responds to your environment, lifestyle choices, and daily habits—making biology a dialogue rather than destiny

👯 Identical twins with the same genetic code can have vastly different health outcomes, proving that epigenetics and microbiome diversity play crucial roles in shaping who we become

🎹 Think of genetics as piano keys and epigenetics as the music you play—the keys are fixed, but the melody changes based on how you interact with your biology

🔬 Liv by Epimorphy integrates three critical layers of personalized health: genetics (your inherited code), epigenetics (how lifestyle modifies expression), and microbiome (your microbial ecosystem) to create comprehensive wellness insights

💑 Vaginal and semen microbiome testing can optimize not just fertility but long-term intimate relationships by understanding microbial exchange between partners

⚡ Biological interventions can produce surprisingly rapid changes when properly targeted—your body responds faster than you think when given the right information

🎯 Women's health has been historically underserved in clinical research, with women often treated as "small men" in studies, making sex-specific health platforms essential for accurate personalization

📊 Continuous monitoring creates living biological models that reveal patterns invisible in one-time snapshots, transforming how we understand metabolic responses and health trajectories

🔄 The future of personalized medicine requires longitudinal data integration from wearables, lab tests, and molecular sequencing to build truly actionable health narratives

🌊 Moving from fearing your data to conversing with it represents a fundamental shift in health consciousness—understanding that measurements are invitations for evolution, not judgments

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/livwomen.us?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

Check their website: livbio.com 

Music from #Uppbeat
License code: OUWYN8VSSNKJRVME

 LINKS:

https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/
https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/
https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig

In this episode, Dr. Jeremy Koenig sits down with Dr. Jens Walter, a global leader in microbiome research and professor at University College Cork Ireland, to explore how ancestral dietary patterns can reverse metabolic imbalances and restore gut health. Dr. Walter shares groundbreaking insights from his NiME Diet trial, which demonstrated substantial improvements in cardiometabolic risk markers, increases in neuroprotective metabolites, and reductions in carcinogenic compounds—all achieved in just three weeks using affordable, practical supermarket foods. The conversation traverses the evolution of microbiome science, the economics of healthy eating, the role of food processing in modern society, and why top-down systemic change is essential to close the gap between what's biologically possible and what people actually eat.

Key Takeaways

🔬 Remarkable Biomarker Changes in 3 Weeks: Dr. Walter's NiME Diet trial showed substantial improvements in cardiometabolic risk markers, neuroprotective metabolites like indole-3-propionate, and reductions in carcinogenic compounds

🥗 Affordable, Practical Foods Work: The NiME Diet uses normal supermarket foods—no exotic or expensive ingredients required—proving that microbiome restoration is accessible

🦠 Microbiome Disruption Drives Modern Disease: The shift from ancestral to industrialized diets has disrupted our ancient symbiosis with gut microbes, contributing to skyrocketing chronic disease rates

📊 The Longevity Connection: Large-scale epidemiological studies show that sustained dietary patterns built on principles similar to the NiME Diet can add up to a decade of healthy life expectancy

💰 Economics Trump Health: Food companies operate in a capitalistic system where even 3-5 cents price difference determines viability, making it nearly impossible to produce healthy foods without systemic change

🏛️ Top-Down Reform Is Essential: Individual effort alone won't solve the health crisis—successful interventions like Finland's nutrition program in the 1960s required political, systematic overhaul of food systems

🍽️ Practical Implementation: Through partnership with Gourmet Fuel in Dublin, Dr. Walter is translating microbiome science into daily life with cost-effective, ancestral-inspired meals

🌍 Ecological Thinking: Understanding microbiomes requires viewing them as complex ecosystems where organisms interact synergistically and competitively, with selection acting at multiple levels

🧪 Food Processing Isn't Evil: Not all processing is harmful—frozen and canned vegetables retain nutritional value, and the focus should be on making processed foods healthier rather than eliminating them

 LINKS:

https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/
https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/
https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig

Dr. Jeremy Koenig sits down with Guy Leitersdorf, founder and CEO of Longevity AI, for a powerful conversation about transforming healthcare from reactive to proactive. After losing his father to late-stage lung cancer despite premium healthcare monitoring, Guy left his role as a data scientist at IronSource to build Florence—an AI system that analyzes decades of longitudinal medical data to predict and prevent chronic disease.

Drawing from the same behavioral science techniques used to predict consumer clicks, Guy discovered that 80% of unhealthy years are preventable through early intervention in metabolic, cognitive, heart, and immune health. Today, Longevity AI partners with leading healthcare networks including Genics, Well Health Technologies, and Quadrant Management, reaching toward 200,000 practitioners to deliver personalized longevity plans that save doctors 50% of their time while empowering patients with actionable, evidence-based health guidance.

Key Takeaways

🔬 80% of chronic disease burden is preventable through early detection of patterns in metabolic, cognitive, heart, and immune health—the "four horsemen" of aging

🤖 Florence AI analyzes millions of patient records across decades to identify health trends that traditional point-in-time assessments miss, turning longitudinal data into personalized prevention strategies

💡 The same technology that predicts consumer behavior can be repurposed to predict health outcomes—Guy applied lessons from advertising AI to build predictive health intelligence

⚕️ Clinical-grade biological age assessments provide more meaningful health insights than chronological age, measuring metabolic, immune, cognitive, and cardiovascular function separately

🎯 Personalized health coaching works like "Tinder for habits"—matching evidence-based interventions with activities people actually enjoy, dramatically increasing adherence

⏱️ Longevity AI's platform saves physicians over 50% of their time by synthesizing complete patient health pictures, enabling doctors to focus on high-value clinical decisions

🔒 Privacy-first AI architecture processes health data on-device, never exposing sensitive clinical and lifestyle information to external servers

🌍 Tailored biological ages account for regional differences—the same biomarker readings can indicate different health states depending on location, air quality, food systems, and standards of care

🏥 Strategic partnerships with 200,000+ practitioners position Longevity AI to deliver 10 billion additional healthy years by making prevention accessible at scale

💪 Longevity is a decision—taking one evidence-based healthy action in 2026 can compound into years of extended healthspan

 LINKS:

https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/
https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/
https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig

In this episode of the DNA of Things, host Dr. Jeremy Koenig sits down with Dr. Garrett Yount from the Institute of Noetic Sciences to explore the fascinating intersection of consciousness, biology, and human potential. They dive deep into how our thoughts, emotions, and intentions can literally reshape our gene expression and physical reality—without any genetic engineering or technological augmentation. Dr. Yount shares the science behind "vibes," the power of heart coherence, and introduces his new course on energy awareness that teaches practical techniques for influencing your own biology through mindfulness and attention.

Key Takeaways

🧬 Your mind is in constant conversation with your genes—what you focus on and how you feel can trigger epigenetic changes that either heal or harm your body

🧘 The placebo effect demonstrates pure mental events changing gene expression, with studies showing the brain producing endogenous opioids simply through belief

❤️ Your heart generates the strongest electromagnetic field in your body, extending three feet outward, and its signature changes based on your emotional state—gratitude versus anger creates measurably different frequencies

🔬 The Institute of Noetic Sciences merges rigorous scientific methodology with consciousness research, studying phenomena like external Qigong's effects on cells and the biological impact of meditation

🎯 Athletes and high performers intuitively understand mind-body coherence—Dr. Koenig shares how he went from 700th to 7th in national rankings in just three months through coached awareness practices

📱 Modern technology and social media are constantly programming our biology through attention hijacking—reclaiming conscious control of what influences your mind is radical self-care

🌡️ Simple self-tests like the hand warming exercise prove you can direct blood flow through focused attention, demonstrating immediate mind-body influence anyone can experience

🧪 Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance from events like the Dutch Hunger Winter shows how trauma and stress create methylation patterns that persist for generations

💡 True transhumanism may not require external technology—untapped powers of human consciousness and intentional practices offer an internal path to enhancement

🎓 Dr. Yount's new course offers eight modules of practical training in sensing and regulating your energetic body, complete with scientific context and experiential practices for beginners

 LINKS:

https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/
https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/
https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig

In this episode, Dr. Jeremy Koenig sits down with Kristy Berry, CEO of CENEGENICS, to explore how longevity medicine evolved from a “fringe” idea to the future of proactive health. Kristy’s story—from her start as the company’s first patient service associate to leading a global network redefining human performance—illustrates what it truly means to take ownership of your health and longevity. Together, they dive into how CENEGENICS blends cutting-edge science with human connection, reshaping healthcare from treatment to transformation through precision diagnostics, AI-driven longevity platforms, and a deep understanding of each patient’s unique biology.

✨ Key Takeaways
💪 From fringe to future: Once viewed skeptically, longevity medicine is now seen as the next frontier of healthcare—CENEGENICS was simply early, not wrong.
🧬 Personalized, data-driven care: The company’s holistic approach integrates nutrigenomics, biomarker analysis, and musculoskeletal AI scans to create actionable health insights.
🧠 Technology meets empathy: Kristy emphasizes that while data guides care, human connection is what transforms it.
🌍 Longevity for everyone: What was once an elite concept is now essential—CENEGENICS’ mission is to make proactive health accessible to all ages and lifestyles.
🏃‍♀️ Empowerment through awareness: True wellness starts with understanding your body and taking charge of your health narrative—becoming the CEO of your own body.

 LINKS:

https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/
https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/
https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig