In this week’s newsletter

 ✅ ARDD2024 in pictures. ✅ Longevity clinics. ✅ Arpa-H. ✅ Insilico Medicine. ✅ An important message from Nathan Cheng. ✅ Steve Horvath’s aging clocks.

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Some short housekeeping before we begin:

✅ Apologies for being a bit late! The goal is for the newsletter to arrive every Wednesday, but sometimes my workload makes that a bit challenging.

✅ That’s also why I’m skipping a few sections today. There’s so much happening that I want to share with you, but I didn’t have time to fit it all in. Don’t worry, those sections will return next time!

✅ As is often the case with my newsletter - this is a long one. As always you can also read it here instead.

The faces of longevity science

The ARDD2024 (Aging Research and Drug Discovery Meeting) conference in Copenhagen brought together some of the most influential figures in the world of geroscience, biotech, and longevity. From scientists and doctors to entrepreneurs, investors, and journalists, these individuals are shaping the future of healthcare and aging science.

When I got back from the conference I sifted through the vast collection of photos released by the organizers, and realized these images taken together tell a story. Each picture captures someone who is pushing the boundaries of what we know about aging, longevity, and health. By learning about the people in these images you’ll get a great overview of the longevity field as a whole.

Arkadi Mazin

In brief: Staff writer at Lifespan.io, and also a freelancer for outlets such as Hareetz and Times of Israel. Arkadi has called ARDD ”the mother of all longevity conferences”.

You should follow Arkadi’s work. And you probably can’t resist the headline for one of his latest articles, linked below.

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Andrea Maier

In brief: Professor Andrea Maier is a leading geroscience researcher specializing in age-related diseases, cellular senescence, and bridging the gap between research and clinical practice. With nearly 400 peer-reviewed publications to her credit, she also serves as the founding president of the Healthy Longevity Medicine Society (see also Evelyne Bischof).

Recently, Maier launched Chi Longevity, the first private clinic in Singapore dedicated to pioneering the reversal of biological aging. The more I learn about it, the more I wish I could become a patient. Call me idealistic, but this is the type of healthcare that should be accessible to everyone. Unfortunately, most people aren’t even aware that these clinics exist, and for those who are, only a small, privileged few can afford them. This disparity needs to change.

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Andrew Brack

In brief: You know DARPA, ”the agency that shaped the modern world”, according to The Economist (and everyone else). The Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency have been pivotal in the development of the internet, GPS and drones - among countless other things.

In 2013, DARPA awarded up to $25 million to a then-little-known company called Moderna to develop messenger RNA therapeutics. That decision, as we now know, turned out to be quite consequential.

Looking ahead, it’s likely that future biotech breakthroughs will come not from DARPA, but from the newly established ARPA-H, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health. According to its website, “ARPA-H advances high-potential, high-impact biomedical and health research that cannot be readily accomplished through traditional research or commercial activity.”

One example of ARPA-H’s bold moves: hiring Jean Hébert as program manager for its Health Science Futures program. If you follow this newsletter or the LEVITY podcast, you’re probably familiar with Hébert, author of Replacing Aging and a key advocate for the replacement strategy in longevity science.

But wait—wasn’t this supposed to be about Andrew Brack? Right! Brack, who recently spoke at ARDD2024, joined ARPA-H in April after working at the University of California San Francisco’s Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, where his lab studied the cellular and molecular mechanisms regulating skeletal muscle repair during aging. He’s also the co-founder of Arrive Bio, a longevity company using machine learning to discover drugs for age-related diseases.

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Andrew Steele

In brief: If you're new to geroscience, aging biology, and the idea of a future where we live much longer in good health, Ageless: The new science of getting older without getting old is a must-read. Andrew Steele is an exceptional writer with the rare talent of making complex science accessible and engaging for a broad audience. If you’ve seen any of his YouTube videos, it’s easy to understand why he’s a sought-after speaker at longevity conferences.

Following the success of his book, Steele has shifted his focus to emphasizing the importance of public and policymaker advocacy as a vital part of the longevity movement.

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Alex Zhavoronkov

In brief: Like many ARDD luminaries, Alex Zhavoronkov is incredibly prolific. A self-professed workaholic, he’s best known for founding Insilico Medicine, an AI-driven company focused on accelerating drug development. A passionate advocate for life extension, Zhavoronkov co-organizes the ARDD conference and, as highlighted in a recent MIT Technology Review article, describes life extension as his ”ultimate interest”.

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Anissa Widjaja

In brief: Anissa Widjaja is an assistant professor at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore and first author of one the most talked about longevity papers this year. I wrote about it in some depth here.

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Aubrey de Grey

In brief: Aubrey de Grey, a pioneering figure in the field of aging research, talked about what’s happening in the lab at his new company, LEVF (Longevity Escape Velocity Foundation).

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Brian Kennedy

In brief: It’s nearly impossible to summarize Brian Kennedy’s career in just a few words. A few highlights: he began his journey in aging biology at the Lenny Guarente Lab at MIT, alongside notable figures like Matt Kaeberlein and David Sinclair. He is the former president of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging (see also Eric Verdin). Currently, Kennedy serves as the director of the Centre for Healthy Longevity and is a professor in the Departments of Biochemistry and Physiology at the National University of Singapore.

In recent years, Kennedy has focused on validating various aging interventions. Like many other key figures on this list - Vadim Gladyshev, Andrea Maier, Eric Verdin, Nir Barzilai, Jamie Justice, and Steve Horvath - he plays an active role in the Biomarkers of Aging Consortium.

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David Luu

In brief: In my book I imagine a scenario where I have an appointment with my doctor. They ask me what’s wrong. ”Nothing”, I say, ”and I want to keep it that way”. In today’s sick-care model, the doctor would probably show me the door. But in tomorrow’s healthcare, the focus will be on preventing illness before it arrives.

David Luu, a trained cardiac surgeon, is helping to build that future. After attending a longevity conference a few years ago, he started a WhatsApp group for like-minded physicians to separate the signal from the noise. ”We began adding other doctors to the group and quickly realized we were all searching for the same thing—a trusted community where we could discuss the latest longevity research with peers, without bias”, he told Longevity.Technology.

Today, Longevity Docs has grown into a fast-expanding, decentralized organization with over 150 medical doctors from 35 countries.

You’ll hear more from David later this year when we feature him as a guest on the LEVITY podcast.

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David Sinclair

In brief: One of the few longevity scientists that has gone mainstream. His book, Lifespan - why we age and why we don’t have to, became a bestseller. How we’ll think of him in the future is not entirely clear. Will he be remembered for his controversial views on NMN, resveratrol and sirtuins? Or will he be seen as a true pioneer in the partial reprogramming field? Could his information theory of aging turn out to be correct? Love him or hate him, everyone is eager to find out what happens next.

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Evelyne Bischof

In brief: I love this quote from Evelyne Bischof , professor of medicine and specialist in internal medicine: ”Most of my colleagues and I consider aging to be a disease that we are all suffering from; from that perspective, every person is a patient. So, if we are all patients of aging, we should all be interested in healthy longevity medicine.”

Thanks to Bischof - a longevity physician at Human Life, Inc and vice president at Healthy Longevity Medicine Society - and other pioneers (see also Andrea Maier and David Luu) there’s among physicians a growing interest in longevity medicine.

At ARDD2024 Evelyne Bischof organized the longevity medicine track and held a talk on longevity-focused technology integration in hospitals.

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Eric Verdin

In brief: A towering figure in the longevity field, Eric Verdin is the President of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, the first independent biomedical research institute in the world focused solely on aging. Buck’s mission is ”to end the threat of age-related disease for this and future generations”.

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Jamie Justice

In brief: Here I’ll point you to my newsletter from a few weeks ago, when I wrote about Xprize. Jamie Justice is the Executive Vice President of the Health Domain at Xprize Foundation, and Adjunct Professor in Internal Medicine Section on Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, and Sticht Center on Healthy Aging and Alzheimer’s Prevention at Wake Forest University School of Medicine (WFUSM).

We are planning to have Jamie on the LEVITY podcast soon.

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Jens Juul Holst

In brief: Born just a week before the world-altering atomic bombings of Japan, Jens Juul Holst made his mark on the world in a much more positive way. The Danish physician and physiologist was instrumental in the discovery of GLP-1, which led to the development of today’s highly successful weight-loss drugs. These medications are now being explored for their potential as longevity interventions. For the full story, take a look at my newsletter from earlier this year.

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João Pedro de Magalhães

In brief: João Pedro de Magalhães is the Chair of Molecular Biogerontology at the University of Birmingham and the Chief Scientific Officer at Youthbio Therapeutics, a company focused on partial reprogramming (read an interview with their CEO here). He has authored over 100 publications and delivered more than 200 invited talks, including three TEDx presentations.

In his lab, Pedro uses genomics and bioinformatics to study longevity, having previously worked as a postdoc with genomics pioneer Professor George Church at Harvard. His research includes sequencing and analyzing genomes from long-lived species. Lately, he has turned his attention to cryopreservation, particularly finding ways to eliminate cryoprotectant toxicity. This was the focus of his ARDD talk titled ”Winter is coming: Cryopreservation as an emerging longevity technology”.

And as a final note, he boasts one of the best bios on X: ”Scientist planning to live forever (so far so good!)”.

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Lada Nuzhna

In brief: I’ll just quote what Lada writes on her website: ”Growing up, I spent lots of my time studying chemistry and physics, trying to understand the world around me - only to realize that my life will never be enough to find the answers I am satisfied with. And so extending this time is the only thing that makes sense to me. My inspiration and drive come from the idea that we can potentially live forever, to answer questions about the source of all things.”

Lada Nuzhna is the co-founder and program director for Impetus Grants, which ”provides funding for established scientists to start working on what they consider the most important problems in aging biology, without delay”.

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Nathan Cheng

In brief: Nathan was not scheduled to speak at ARDD2024. He did it anyway - and delivered the most important message of the whole conference: that we’re not on track to solve aging in our lifetimes and that, if we want that to change, we can’t rely on others to do it for us.

Nathan Cheng is the co-founder of Longevity Biotech Fellowship (together with our recent LEVITY podcast guest, Mark Hamalainen), Vitalism (together with another recent guest, Adam Gries) and general partner at Healthspan Capital (see also Sebastian Brunemeier).

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Nir Barzilai

In brief: Best known for his pioneering work in identifying longevity genes in ”superagers” - centenarians who experience a delayed onset of age-related diseases. Nir Barzilai is also a key figure behind the TAME trial, a groundbreaking study in the field of aging that has been in development for nearly a decade but still lacks full funding.

Nir Barzilai is a professor of medicine and genetics at Albert Einstein - College of Medicine, and Director at Einstein-Institute for Aging Research and the Nathan Shock Center for the Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging.

He’s also the author of Age later: health span, life span, and the new science of longevity.

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Rafael de Cabo and Steven Austad

In brief: Thanks to Peter Attia, I’ve decided to group Rafael de Cabo and Steven Austad together. When I think of Rafael de Cabo, a senior investigator at the Experimental Gerontology Section at the NIA, I immediately associate him with the much-discussed caloric restriction study in rhesus monkeys. Three years ago, Peter Attia hosted Steven Austad on The Drive podcast, where they delved into this study in great detail. In that episode, you’ll also discover some fascinating insights about Austad, including how he unexpectedly became a lion tamer!

Steven Austad, a distinguished professor at The University of Alabama and a field biologist, has dedicated much of his career to understanding why animals age and why different species age at varying rates. To explore this topic further, I highly recommend his book Methuselah's Zoo: What nature can teach us about living longer, healthier lives.

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Reason

In brief: On LinkedIn I wrote that my favorite image from ARDD2024 was ”the one capturing Reason, sitting alone, tirelessly dedicated in his fight against aging”. To which Karl Pfleger replied: ”This is really good. The all dark figure & computer but the lighting on the face. Great shot. And of course Reason's dedication to & contributions to the field are incredible as you say. He really does get tired, which is what makes the output all the more amazing.”

Reason is the CEO of Repair Biotechnologies, and has for over two decades produced the weekly Fight Aging! newsletter. Some of the earliest headlines back in 2002 reads ”The case against aging”, “Death is an outrage” and ”Unraveling the secrets of longevity”. The fight continues.

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Sara Hägg

In brief: Associate Professor in molecular epidemiology at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet. Sara’s main research interest is ”human biological aging. How to measure it in human cohorts, understanding causal pathways in aging and identify geroprotectors to repurpose for age-related diseases”.

Me and Sara both attended a panel at Vetenskapsfestivalen in Gothenburg last year. If you understand Swedish you can view it here.

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Sebastian Brunemeier

In brief: Geroscientist and partner at Healthspan Capital, which bills itself as ”the most active investor in longevity biotech, or ’long bio’, and regenerative medicine. Sebastian is a vitalist and Heathspan Capital was recently designated a certified vitalist organisation.

This certification also extends to ImmuneAGE, a startup developing drug discovery platform for immune system rejuvenation. The founder and CEO for ImmuneAGE? Sebastian Brunemeier.

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Steve Horvath

In brief: Steve Horvath is the scientist behind the development of the Horvath clock and several other so-called aging clocks, which have significantly advanced our understanding of how aging works. While there are now various types of aging clocks, Horvath is most closely associated with those measuring epigenetic changes, such as DNA methylation. This topic is closely related to a subject we discussed a few weeks ago: partial reprogramming (it’s no surprise that Altos Labs hired Horvath, given his expertise).

To evaluate the effectiveness of aging interventions or rejuvenation attempts, it is crucial to measure outcomes in a reliable way. Aging clocks hold promise for solving this challenge by providing a precise method to gauge biological age and the impact of interventions

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Vadim Gladyshev

In brief: When I think of Vadim Gladyshev, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, I see him as an optimistic skeptic. He’s part of the camp that believes we need a deeper, more fundamental understanding of what aging truly is. Recently, Gladyshev has made significant strides in the field of partial reprogramming, collaborating with David Sinclair, and he’s not just interested in biomarkers of aging but also in identifying markers of rejuvenation.

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Vera Gorbunova

In brief: We might not seek the naked mole-rat’s visual traits, but with could do with its resistance against aging. For all intents and purposes it’s ageless. The passage of time does not increase its risk of dying. A lot of our knowledge about naked mole-rats comes from Vera Gorbunova, a professor of biology at the University of Rochester and a co-director of the Rochester Aging Research Center. Her research is focused on understanding the mechanisms of longevity and genome stability and on the studies of exceptionally long-lived mammals.

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