The Breakthrough: Say Bonjour To The HAS2 Gene

Remember when Dr. Sinclair said that he wanted to try to get the skin to act young again? The breakthrough that accomplished this came when he and his team started playing with RNA sequencing. The goal? To isolate genes that reacted to a unique blend of resveratrol and HA.

"There are more than 20,000 genes in a cell. We used the latest in genetic technology to see which of these [reacted the most]," he explains. "It allowed us to measure every gene." One gene in particular, which we all have, stood out. Its name is HAS2.

Think of HAS2 as the friend whose eyes perk up when wine is passed around — this was the gene that loved resveratrol and now researchers knew exactly how to turn it on. They just had to find the right blend to do the most good. [Ed. note: Anyone else feeling like they'd be fast friends with HAS2?]

At this point in the discussion, you may be falling asleep. But know that Sinclair's eyes are lighting up and he's getting really excited — because it gets even better, so stay with us. Playing with blends and mixtures of molecules powered by Professor Vercauteren's original science, Sinclair and his team found a mix of molecules that, quite literally, made the HAS2 gene tell the body to make more hyaluronic acid, something genes don't want to do under normal circumstance. It's almost like they got HAS2 drunk; in it's stupor, it started making tons of hyaluronic acid.