Born in Salzburg, Daniel Wallerstorfer studied molecular biology at the University of Manchester, where he also completed his doctoral degree in biotechnology.

During his studies, Dr. Wallerstorfer discovered his interest in human genetics, and was particularly fascinated by the possibilities of preventive genetic diagnostics.

In 2009, Dr. Wallerstorfer returned to Austria with the vision of making genetic analyses available to a wide audience and thus supporting people in health prevention and founded a human genetics laboratory, which quickly became one of the leading providers of lifestyle diagnostics and preventive diagnostics in Europe.

In addition to regular lectures in which he shares his extensive knowledge in the field of genetics, he is also happy to answer our questions.

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What exactly does a molecular biologist do?

Biology focuses on living things. Molecular biology goes one step deeper and studies the internal processes of the cell at the molecular level. An important part of this is how cells decipher the instructions in DNA, the so-called genes, and follow the instructions accordingly.

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My second area of expertise, biotechnology, focuses on how we can use the processes of living cells to achieve specific goals. Genetically manipulated hamster cells, which produce insulin, which is important for diabetics, are one such example.

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How did you get into lifestyle genetics and nutrigenetics and why are you interested in these fields?

I originally wanted to become a paleontologist (dinosaur researcher). The movie Jurassic Park then brought me to genetics and so I started studying it. During my studies, the topic of human genetics became increasingly interesting for me. The fact that we are all born with genetic risks but don't do anything with this information until the disease develops led me to start a company.

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The aim has always been to give people the opportunity to look at their own genetics and benefit from the information.

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This includes preventing illnesses or side effects of drugs, but also a healthy diet, better performance in competitive sports and easier weight regulation.

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What has been your biggest surprise so far?

How long have we known about genetic risks and that this knowledge is still barely being used to prevent diseases.

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What is particularly attractive or motivating for you in genetic research at the moment?

There is a great deal of interesting science in the field of aging research. We are slowly learning how aging processes work and there are initial approaches to reverse these processes. I don't think it's impossible that we could achieve eternal life with novel technologies.

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Artificial intelligence in particular is also bringing about a revolution in genetic diagnostics. AI systems are used to analyze the genomes of hundreds of thousands of people, making it possible to make ever more precise statements about people's health.

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The possibilities to make our lives easier, healthier and longer have become very realistic. Which half-truths disturb you the most in this context?

The main problem is that most researchers present their field, e.g. aging research, too simplistic. As if this were the only process of aging. In fact, there are many processes that we need to get to grips with during aging, but every researcher sees their area of research as “the one process that makes us age.” There are many processes that play a role here and that we must solve in order to be able to significantly extend life. The trick is to keep an overview and to include all factors.