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A Campaign to Launch Rapamycin Human Trials Starts Today

We intend for this trial to provide solid evidence for or against the usefulness of this drug for slowing aging.

PEARL Rapamycin CampaignPEARL Rapamycin Campaign

Today is an exciting day for us with the launch of the Participatory Evaluation (of) Aging (with) Rapamycin (for) Longevity Study, or PEARL, on Lifespan.io. The PEARL trial will be the first large-scale human trial with a focus on slowing down aging.

Making clinical trials for anti-aging a reality

Progress in developing effective interventions against aging has been slow; this is mainly due to the lack of funding for robust trials to test them. The biohacking community has self experimented with many supplements and drugs over the last few decades, and while that has led to some useful insights, the related clinical trials have yet to happen.

The PEARL clinical trial aims to test rapamycin, a promising compound that may slow human aging down. There has traditionally been little interest from public money sources for funding longevity studies, so it is up to us as a community to make progress happen.

More about the rapamycin human trial

Rapamycin is a naturally occurring antifungal antibiotic produced by soil bacteria originally discovered on Easter Island. It has been shown to increase the healthspan, the period of life spent free from the diseases of aging, in many organisms, including yeast, worms, and mice. Until now, there has not been a proper clinical trial to evaluate if rapamycin can slow down aging the same way in humans.

The PEARL trial will be tracking 200 participants over the course of a year. Four different dosage groups will be included in the study in order to determine if rapamycin has a positive influence on aging in humans and if so, to establish what dose is needed to achieve this.

There will also be a placebo control group, which is essential to compare and validate data. It will be a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study and registered with clinicaltrials.gov. The principal investigator is Dr. James P Watson at UCLA, who was also a PI for the famous TRIIM trial.

To see if and how rapamycin influences human aging, PEARL will test a host of biomarkers once the study begins, 6 months into the study, and at the 12-month mark. These tests will include autonomic health, blood, body composition, fecal microbiome, immune and inflammation health, methylation age, and skeletal muscle.

Be part of scientific progress

We have a real chance with this campaign to move the needle and set the standard for clinical trials focused on slowing down or even reversing aging. If you want to be part of that change, check out the PEARL campaign and the cool rewards we offer for supporting the project.

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About the author

Steve Hill

Steve serves on the LEAF Board of Directors and is the Editor in Chief, coordinating the daily news articles and social media content of the organization. He is an active journalist in the aging research and biotechnology field and has to date written over 600 articles on the topic, interviewed over 100 of the leading researchers in the field, hosted livestream events focused on aging, as well as attending various medical industry conferences. His work has been featured in H+ magazine, Psychology Today, Singularity Weblog, Standpoint Magazine, Swiss Monthly, Keep me Prime, and New Economy Magazine. Steve is one of three recipients of the 2020 H+ Innovator Award and shares this honour with Mirko Ranieri – Google AR and Dinorah Delfin – Immortalists Magazine. The H+ Innovator Award looks into our community and acknowledges ideas and projects that encourage social change, achieve scientific accomplishments, technological advances, philosophical and intellectual visions, author unique narratives, build fascinating artistic ventures, and develop products that bridge gaps and help us to achieve transhumanist goals. Steve has a background in project management and administration which has helped him to build a united team for effective fundraising and content creation, while his additional knowledge of biology and statistical data analysis allows him to carefully assess and coordinate the scientific groups involved in the project.
  1. Donovan Breone
    May 18, 2021

    Does the PEARL trial have the same purpose as the TAME trial?

    That is, to provide strong evidence that rapamycin can, as with metformin in the TAME trial, target aging and thus prevent all age-related diseases?

    And at long therm, could rapamycin be approved for aging when there is sufficient evidence, as is hoped for by the TAME trial with metformin ?

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