By Kristy Hamilton – Stanford University Stanford Report
Cy Chittenden biked 2,850 miles across America. His DNA is part of a Stanford study investigating the genetics of elite athlete endurance to inform longevity research and treatment strategies.
Somewhere in rural Kentucky, Cy Chittenden was trying, once again, to outpedal a pack of wild dogs that had become an unwelcome fixture of the Appalachian Mountains. He was one week into a nearly 3,000-mile solo ride from Richmond, Virginia, to Manhattan Beach, California.
Thousands of miles away, in a Stanford freezer, a tube of his DNA was waiting to be sequenced. The freezer holds roughly 2,000 samples in all. Each contains a full human genome of three billion base pairs, which researchers are reading for clues to what makes an elite endurance athlete elite.
