Reprogramming Life

Beyond the Limits of Aging, Gender, and Identity

By: Dana Larocca

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Paperback | 29 September 2026

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Paperback
394 Pages

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22.86 x 15.24 x 2.06

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IN REPROGRAMMING LIFE, DANA LAROCCA TRACES TWO INTERTWINED JOURNEYS: a scientific quest to understand aging and a deeply personal struggle to live openly as the woman she always knew herself to be.

Coming of age alongside the birth of modern biotechnology, Dr. Larocca witnessed its evolution from recombinant DNA and stem cells to cellular reprogramming and the emerging quest to reverse aging. Her own research helped demonstrate that cells from a 114-year-old woman could be reprogrammed into youthful stem cells-raising a profound question: if cellular age can be reset, could aging itself one day be reversed?

After decades of concealment, Dr. Larocca's transition brought the biological plasticity she had long studied into her own life. The experience made that plasticity tangible and revealed how far its possibilities might extend-from individual self-determination to the future of humanity.

Blending scientific history, memoir, and philosophical reflection, Reprogramming Life explores biological plasticity-from tissue regeneration and sex reversal in nature to the experimental resetting of cellular age in the laboratory. It asks how biotechnology might relieve suffering, extend healthy life, and help us shape how we age and embody who we are.

The future may offer not only more time, but more freedom to become ourselves.

Industry Reviews

"This is a beautiful book about a life spent trying to understand life, as a biologist and a human. Weaving together memoir and science, it shows how much of what we assume is fixed in biology-in particular, ageing and gender-is far more malleable than we think. Reprogramming Life is both a scientific case, and a deeply personal one, that biology is not destiny."

-Andrew Steele, PhD, Director of The Longevity Initiative and author of Ageless

"Reprogramming Life is a compelling exploration of what modern biology teaches us about human complexity and the capacity for change. Drawing on her remarkable career as a scientist and her lived experience as a transgender woman, Dana Larocca offers a deeply personal and scientifically grounded perspective on aging, gender, identity, and what it means to become fully ourselves."

-Randi Ettner, author of Confessions of a Gender Defender and Gender Loving Care

"Although genetics accounts for roughly half of the variation in aging, our environment and choices can profoundly influence how those genes are expressed. Reprogramming Life offers an engaging journey through the emerging science of longevity-from studies of exceptionally long-lived people to cellular reprogramming and rejuvenation-showing how once-unimaginable discoveries are reshaping our understanding of biology's limits."

-Nir Barzilai, MD, President of the Academy of Geroscience and author of Age Later

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