PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Preston Estep

Also known as Pete Estep

Preston Estep is a biologist whose research spans genomics, aging and questions about the relationship between biological life and artificial intelligence. He studied neuroscience at Cornell, earned a genetics Ph.D. at Harvard in 2001, coauthored a study of calorie restriction in mice, and co-founded Veritas Genetics. He wrote The Mindspan Diet, served as RaDVaC's Chief Scientist during its experimental COVID-19 vaccine effort, and published a 2025 paper on differences between digital AI and biological organisms. As of October 2026, he is Chief Scientist and founder of the Mind First Foundation; he is also founder and Chief Scientist of the RaDVaC project.

Now at
Mind First Foundation
Born
1960
Works
26
Citations
4,490
h-index
13
Badges

Years link to their sources. Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2001

    A genetics PhD

    He studies neuroscience at Cornell as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute undergraduate scholar. In 2001, he completes a Ph.D. in Genetics at Harvard, with George Church supervising his dissertation on the transcriptional regulatory network of Saccharomyces cerevisiae stress responses.

  2. 2009

    Calorie restriction and aging

    In 2009, Preston "Pete" Estep coauthors a study finding that calorie restriction changes more than 3,000 liver genes in male mice. The study reports that the changes shift expression toward a profile more typical of females.

  3. June 2015

    Veritas Genetics' myBRCA test

    In June 2015, Veritas Genetics launches myBRCA, a saliva-based screen of BRCA1 and BRCA2. Estep is a co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Veritas, and directs gerontology at Harvard's Personal Genome Project.

  4. 2016

    The Mindspan Diet

    In 2016, he publishes The Mindspan Diet, a guide to foods that curb memory loss and improve cognitive longevity. The book draws on studies of populations with low dementia rates and research on how ingredients interact with genes.

  5. 2020

    RaDVaC's vaccine effort

    In 2020, he serves as founder and Chief Scientist of RaDVaC while participants mix and administer its experimental COVID-19 vaccine themselves.

  6. March 2025

    Eight differences between AI and biology

    In March 2025, he publishes a paper that identifies eight attributes that distinguish digital AI from biological organisms. The paper argues that claims of a highly probable hostile takeover or human extinction reflect excessive anthropomorphism and a lack of scientific rigor.

  7. June 2025

    AI Succession Salon

    At the June 2025 AI Succession Salon, he explores the scientific and evolutionary contours of machine intelligence and compares them with biological analogues. For the event, he is Chief Scientist at Mind First Foundation and CSO at Ruya AI.

  8. As of October 2026

    Chief Scientist at Mind First

    As of October 2026, he is Chief Scientist and founder of the Mind First Foundation. He is also founder and Chief Scientist of the RaDVaC project.

Career

  1. NowMind First FoundationChief Scientist, Founder
  2. From 2025Ruya AICSO
  3. From 2015Veritas GeneticsFounder and Chief Scientific Officer

Education

  1. 2001Harvard UniversityPhD
  2. Cornell University

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

Most-cited works

  1. Finding DNA regulatory motifs within unaligned noncoding sequences clustered by whole-genome mRNA quantitation1998 · Nature Biotechnology · 939 citations
  2. Compact, universal DNA microarrays to comprehensively determine transcription-factor binding site specificities2006 · Nature Biotechnology · 685 citations
  3. Regulatory Networks Revealed by Transcriptional Profiling of Damaged Saccharomyces cerevisiae Cells: Rpn4 Links Base Excision Repair with Proteasomes2000 · Molecular and Cellular Biology · 335 citations
  4. A public resource facilitating clinical use of genomes2012 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 221 citations
  5. Selection analyses of insertional mutants using subgenic-resolution arrays2001 · Nature Biotechnology · 151 citations

From OpenAlex, as of 21 October 2026.

  1. 11% of AI doctorate holders from 2010 to 2016 founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduationIncludes Preston Estep. We estimate how often AI doctorate holders founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduation, how waiting times compare between founders and top jobs, and which universities trained the most.
  2. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Harvard University. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  3. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes Harvard University. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.
  4. Companies supply the most prior-work hires at 7 of the 9 frontier AI labsIncludes Harvard University. Our estimates of the organizations where 550 people worked directly before joining 9 frontier AI labs across 620 career transitions, comparing the main feeder organizations per lab.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Preston Estep yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Speaker Bio - Preston Estep | TEDxSanFrancisco tedxsanfrancisco.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. The Team – Mind First Foundation mindfirst.foundation. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Division of Medical Sciences – Completed Ph.D.s hms.harvard.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. Short-Term Calorie Restriction in Male Mice Feminizes Gene Expression and Alters Key Regulators of Conserved Aging Regulatory Pathways | PLOS One journals.plos.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. DNA as Data | Harvard Magazine harvardmagazine.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. Veritas Genetics To Advance Precision Medicine And Disease Prevention prnewswire.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. The Mindspan Diet by Preston Estep, III: 9781101886137 | Penguin Random House penguinrandomhouse.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. Dozens of scientists and others took a DIY COVID-19 vaccine with no proof that it works | Live Science livescience.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  9. Multiple unnatural attributes of AI undermine common anthropomorphically biased takeover speculations: Eight Fundamental Differences between Biologically Evolved Humans and Digital AI s-rsa.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  10. Presentations – Mind First Foundation mindfirst.foundation. Checked 21 October 2026.
  11. Preston Estep, Ph.D. | Radvac radvac.org. Checked 21 October 2026.