In this episode of Lifespan, Dr. David Sinclair welcomes back his season-one co-host, Matthew LaPlante, for a conversation devoted entirely to the eye—the organ people say they would most want to protect from aging. Together they walk through the anatomy of vision, from the cornea, lens, and retina to the rods, cones, and opsins that let us see color, and explain how age-related conditions like glaucoma, cataracts, and macular degeneration take hold. Because the eye is quite literally an extension of the brain, they explore how a simple, non-invasive retinal scan—powered by AI and the emerging field of oculomics—can estimate biological age, track brain health, and flag disease risk years before symptoms appear.

Dr. Sinclair also shares a firsthand update on ER-100, the first epigenetic reprogramming therapy to receive FDA clearance for human trials, which uses controlled expression of the OSK genes to help damaged retinal cells recover more youthful function and is now being tested in patients with glaucoma and NAION. He traces the science back to his lab's landmark 2020 work restoring vision in mice, and a follow-up study showing the effect is safe, sustained for eleven months, and can be switched back on when needed. It's a look at how the Information Theory of Aging—the idea that a youthful backup copy of information sits inside every cell—is moving from the lab into the clinic.