Daily Podcasts Video Research

Many peptides sound like Yiddish words. Here’s why.

JL;DR SUMMARY In a fascinating intersection of science and culture, Pinchas Cohen at the University of Southern California has discovered a variety of mitochondrial-derived peptides, naming them with Yiddish-inspired acronyms like SHLP (schlep) and MENTSH. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

JL;DR members get full summaries of all articles in the archive, including this one. Donate & start reading »

Tags

Jewish CultureYiddish NamesBiotechnologyUscMedical ResearchScientific DiscoveryPinchas CohenPeptidesMitochondrial DnaWellness Industry

Places mentioned

Los Angeles, California, United States
"These are potent biological molecules, Cohen said."
Pacific Palisades, California, United States
"He belongs to a Kehillat Israel synagogue in Pacific Palisades, though the fires that swept through the neighborhood earlier this year, he said, slowed things down a bit."
Haifa, Haifa District, Israel
"His fathers family has been in Israel since the 1880s, among the founders of the first Jewish community in Haifa."
Israel
"The key to healthfully aging, Cohen said, is diet and exercise."
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
"Cohen did his medical training at the Technion in Haifa, then Stanford, then the University of Pennsylvania and UCLA, before joining USC 14 years ago as dean of the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology."
Berlin, Germany
"His grandfather studied biology in Berlin in 1904 and helped establish agricultural institutions in pre-state Israel."
Washington, Washington DC, United States
"Cohen, who goes by the nickname Hassy, was born in Israel and moved to the United States at 14, when his parents were posted to the Israeli embassy in Washington."

Support this source

This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 80181
Cairo Source ID 42
Retrieved 2026-04-16 05:31:18 UTC
Curated 2026-04-16 08:31:19 UTC