Thanks for joining us again for the latest edition of the Longevity and DeSci Recap. This month’s highlights include fantastic conferences, such as the Rejuvenation Startup Summit 2024 in Berlin, the Vitalia event in Roatan, and the large-scale Longevity Med Summit in Lisbon, along with many other industry insights.
Upcoming conferences
Join the Rejuvenation Startup Summit 2024 this spring: The proclaimed world’s largest in-person longevity startup gathering is coming this spring. From May 10-11, longevity startups, founders, investors, and researchers from all over the world will join together in Berlin to discuss longevity and the future of the industry in what’s sure to be an exciting event.
The previous Summit, held in 2022, attracted more than 400 participants from 30 countries, making it an interesting networking opportunity. The conference organizers have just announced the first set of expert speakers to include Michael Greve, the founder of the Former Healthy Foundation, Matthew Rosen of CoRegan, Alexander Leutner of cellblocks, and, of course, Lifespan’s own Stephanie Dainow, among many others. Follow this link to book your tickets.
Vitalia longevity popup event approaching: Following the success of the world’s first longevity popup city event, Zuzalu announced another exciting longevity gathering has been announced, and it’s approaching fast. This January will see the launch of Vitalia, an initiative to start a longevity network society, aimed at improving the human lifespan. The event is set to run over two months from January 6, 2024 to March 1, 2024 in Roatan.
Don’t miss the Longevity Med Summit 2024: On May 8-9, 2024, longevity experts and enthusiasts from around the world will gather in sunny Lisbon, Portugal for the much-anticipated Longevity Med Summit. Participants of the conference can look forward to a comprehensive agenda packed with presentations, discussion, and networking opportunities centered around such topics as functional medicine, AI and digital technologies, and regenerative medicine. Tickets for the event are still available for purchase from the website with a variety of options.
Longevity investment and development news
The $101 Million prize pot for longevity solutions: XPRIZE Healthspan has just announced the launch of a truly massive prize for a longevity-focused team that discovers and proves a “cost-effective therapeutic that restores muscle, cognition, and immune function by a minimum of 10 years”. The catch? The team that takes home the prize must demonstrate treatment results in a year or less. Entrants should bear in mind that although innovation is crucial, concerns for safety and standards for medical ethics should be applied at all times.
$38 Million in funding secured by Vivodyne AI-backed lab-organ testing: US biotech company, Vivodyne, just announced the success of its seed funding round in raising a total $38 million led by Khosla Ventures. This newly-raised capital is set to boost the development of its predictive drug platform, based on AI-technology, that is said to be able to provide preclinical data even faster, ensuring sustainable, accurate, and reproducible results.
The company, founded by University of Pennsylvania bioengineers Andrei Georgescu and Dan Huh, works by using robots to grow 3D human organ models for drug testing, backed by its AI platform. These lab-grown organs are said to be capable of mimicking human functions and phenotypes, and are key to Vivodyne’s ability to produce scalable, realistic preclinical data rapidly. Currently, the company’s platform is able to handle over 8,000 tissues simultaneously, which is more than any of its competitors.
€21 Million for Al-backed Alzheimer’s project: PREDICTOM, an AI initiative focused on Alzheimer’s detection, has just secured €21 million for an early-interment AI project designed to predict Alzheimer’s disease. With dementia cases rising across the EU, the platform is designed to collect biomarkers from patients at home, use AI algorithms to generate their risk, and, hopefully, make an earlier diagnosis leading to improved long-term longevity results.
Tech breakthroughs & new research
Turn Bio unveils targeted mRNA delivery solution: mRNA medicine innovator Turn Bio has just announced a new advancement in the treatment of age-related skin conditions. By utilizing its proprietary eTurna lipid nanoparticle delivery platform, the company is able to reach dermal fibroblasts without damage to other organs, marking a new level of precision in dermatology and a new potential market offering for clinicians and patients.
DAOs and communities
Opportunities for better crypto governance: This November saw Changpeng Zhao, the founder of world-known cryptocurrency platform Binance, step down from the position of CEO amid the company’s legal battles and admission of guilt in the violation of anti-money laundering laws. As sentencing commences for the former CEO, who is ordered to remain on US soil for the duration, many in the crypto world, such as Coinbase CEO and NewLimit founder, Brian Armstrong, see this as an opportunity to build legitimacy for cryptocurrency as an immensely popular fiat alternative. Seeing it as a way to “turn the page”, Armstrong expresses how crypto companies are changing the world and why acceptance and regulation is a big part of it.
VitaDAO launches new member portal: The DAO that never stops innovating has just dropped its latest creation online: the VitaDAO member portal. Designed to make interacting with the DAO easier and more user-friendly, the portal will contain an overview of a VitaDAO member’s activities with the DAO, including $VITA holdings and governance proposals, allowing more control and insights into the DAO for members.
World Longevity News
Unmasked: who is @agingdoc1?: After much speculation, the notable anti-aging figure @agingdoc1 on X (formerly Twitter) has finally been revealed as David Barzilai, a Boston-based MD and PhD with a slew of qualifications to his name. Barzilai’s account has long been known for its fascinating longevity insights into aging-related studies, which he revealed to be a result of personal research and the desire to share it with a wider audience. So, what’s next for Barzilai now that the great longevity secret – aside from the fountain of youth, that is – is out of the bag? @agingdoc1 is heading to YouTube and starting a podcast series on aging; keep watching to find out more.
Social media pages to follow this month
David Barzilai X – The star of this month’s social media has to be no other than @agingdoc1.
David Sinclair X – One of the best-known names in the longevity world and a must-follow on X.
Vincent Weisser X – Key member in building longevity DAOs, such as VitaDAO, Molecule, BioXYZ, and CryoDAO.
