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It's an Olympics year, which means that Lee Sweeney's phone is ringing off the hook. Athletes call him three or four times a day asking for help, offering him money. They're persistent, practically begging, but he always says no.
After all, Sweeney is not an athletic coach; he is a soft-spoken physiologist at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and he is developing treatments that could stop age-related muscle decline. But "things that make the muscles healthy when you're older are going to make them healthier when they're young," Sweeney concedes, and athletes know it-which is why they want to be his guinea pigs.
Sweeney's work attracts athletes not just because he helps muscles function better-it's also because he focuses on gene therapy, a medical approach that inserts new or modified genes into patients' cells. It has not quite proved itself clinically yet, but gene therapy directly modifies DNA-so theoretically, treatments can persist for months, years or even for life. Its effects are more subtle and consistent than traditional pill-popping or daily injections. And because doctors can insert the...
After all, Sweeney is not an athletic coach; he is a soft-spoken physiologist at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and he is developing treatments that could stop age-related muscle decline. But "things that make the muscles healthy when you're older are going to make them healthier when they're young," Sweeney concedes, and athletes know it-which is why they want to be his guinea pigs.
Sweeney's work attracts athletes not just because he helps muscles function better-it's also because he focuses on gene therapy, a medical approach that inserts new or modified genes into patients' cells. It has not quite proved itself clinically yet, but gene therapy directly modifies DNA-so theoretically, treatments can persist for months, years or even for life. Its effects are more subtle and consistent than traditional pill-popping or daily injections. And because doctors can insert the...