Spring is in the air if you are in the Northern Hemisphere, and in the theme of new growth, let’s see what the Lifespan.io team has been up to recently.
Happy Birthday to Lifespan.io
Today, March 21st, it is our birthday, and we celebrate 10 years of supporting rejuvenation research.
Lifespan.io President Keith Comito said, “When we launched 10 years ago, it was always our plan to follow the steps laid out by those who came before us. We hoped to eventually see a day where rejuvenation research would be taken seriously by world leaders.”
Coincidentally, this is also the day that the Lifespan team will be at the Washington, DC fly-in event. Members of the longevity caucus and ARPA-H will join A4LI, a group focused on political action on aging. There will be a report from the event for you to enjoy in the coming weeks, so be looking out for that!
What is happening echoes the “Life Extension: How to Reach a Societal Turning Point” talk Keith gave in August 2016 at the D.N.A. Conference.
The talk emphasized the importance of effective messaging, education, and collective action to gain widespread acceptance for life extension. He proposed a three-step plan:
- Having a clear and inclusive message
- A consistent call to action
- Mobilizing initiatives into transformative projects
A lot has changed since we first started out a decade ago, and progress in the field has really started to amp up. There is still a long way to go, but it is great to see our original goals beginning to come to fruition.
Longevity on the agenda at Vitalia
We recently went to Vitalia, an event with a focus on life extension on the Caribbean island of Roatán. There, leading experts from the rejuvenation biotechnology, DeSci, and technology sectors are meeting to discuss the future.
Similar to Vitalik Buterin’s Zuzalu event last year, Vitalia continues the concept of the experimental pop-up city. It is happening in and around Próspera, a Special Economic Zone with legal and regulatory autonomy. The event started January 6th and ends on April 1st, so there is still time to visit.
Prospera ZEDE is a unique economic zone established under the Honduran constitution. Its aim is to create jobs and boost the economy through promoting entrepreneurial activities. It is recognized for having a highly innovative legal framework that is pro-technology and sophisticated.
Vitalia had a clear mission: To accelerate progress in extending healthy human lifespan. To that end, the event had four bi-weekly themes:
- Longevity & Human Improvement.
- Crypto Cities & Network States.
- AI & Technological Progress.
- Pathways to Healthy Life Extension.
President Keith Comito, Executive Director Stephanie Dainow, journalist Arkadi Mazin, and James Hale and Christie Sacco from marketing were present.
“Vitalia was not just fun but also a great example of dedicated people consciously choosing work over leisure,” Arkadi said. “While it was easy to get sucked into all the things the island had to offer, Vitalians balanced it admirably with networking, learning, building new companies and connections.
Vitalia is the first pop-up city that basically ditched the “pop-up” part by opting for a permanent presence. About 30 people have decided to stay there, and now, all longevity enthusiasts will have this amazing place as a sort of home base. Honestly, I can’t wait to go back there.”
These pop-up city events are becoming increasingly popular. They are a great way for groups of people to engage and initiate positive action for longevity tech. It’s really quite amazing just how much the longevity landscape has changed in the last 10 years or so.
Only a decade ago, there was little funding for research and even less public interest. Happily that situation is significantly different now, and there are aging interventions close to and even in clinical trials today.
If you want to find out more, be sure to check out the event report Hard Science and Long-Shot Ideas Meet in Vitalia by Arkadi Mazin.
The Million Molecule Challenge
Mitchell Lee and Matt Kaeberlein, along with other researchers, have launched the Million-Molecule Challenge in collaboration with Ora Biomedical. This initiative aims to quickly assess numerous compounds that may have the ability to enhance longevity and promote overall health.
Lifespan.io has partnered with Ora Biomedical to offer financial support for this endeavor. Through fiscal sponsorship, a non-profit organization grants its tax-exempt status to specific entities and external projects that align with the organization’s goals.
Lifespan.io has decided to back The Million-Molecule Challenge because we believe that it has the potential to drive significant progress in our comprehension of aging and potential strategies to combat it.
If you are curious to learn more about how the team is using the amazing WormBot and other tools to identify longevity molecules, check out How to Test One Million Molecules by Arkadi Mazin.
You can sponsor intervention(s) to be tested or even propose your own experiment as part of the project. Check out the Million-Molecule Challenge page to find out more and get involved!
The longevity race: National Strategies for Global Leadership
Lifespan Executive Director, Stephanie Dainow recently spoke at the National University of Singapore’s Centre for Healthy Longevity Conference 2024.
The event focused on supplements with potential to extend healthspan and lifespan. NAD+ precursors, multivitamins, fisetin, and urolithin A were some of the supplements being discussed.
Lifespan.io took a different angle at the conference and chose to talk about longevity in the context of a contest between nations. Stephanie’s talk likened the longevity movement to a race and looked at the various national strategies for global leadership. The idea was to look at the problem of aging and the ill health it brings in a different way.
She compared the race to solve aging as being similar to the space race or the arms race seen during the Cold War. Both of these historical races were essentially a competition between nations to dominate and achieve a strategic technological goal.
Just like winning the space race or the cold war, solving aging will also mean achieving a great strategic victory and much power. There is a clear opportunity for a leader to emerge in the longevity race. But who will be first?
Once the first breakthroughs in rejuvenation biotech and longevity arrive it will be transformative for healthcare. This is inevitable and there is no stopping it once the genie is let out of the bottle.
Stephanie’s talk set out to answer the following questions:
- Who’s going to be the global leader?
- Who will inform best practices?
- Who will set the new standards?
- Who’s going to have authority?
- How does somebody win the race?
- What does that leadership and influence actually look like?
The longevity race has begun, and there will be implications for nations falling behind. This is why Lifespan.io is looking at the field not only from a scientific point of view but also from a geopolitical one.
Our plans for 2024 are big, and we need your support
Finally, we kindly ask a favor from you. As a nonprofit organization, we depend on the backing of our audience to continue providing a diverse range of content centered on living a long and healthy life. We have big plans for 2024, and here are some examples.
- Sponsorship of groundbreaking, underfunded research.
- Trustworthy longevity news and education, reaching as many as one million people per month.
- Making more high-impact collaborations, such as our partnership with Chris Hemsworth’s Centr.
- Accelerating and funding numerous longevity biotech startups through our Longevity Investor Network.
- Dispelling misconceptions and changing the narrative around aging, rejuvenation, and longevity.
Your support matters, now more than ever. Join us in making a lasting impact by making a contribution. Together, we can create a healthier future for everyone!
