Welcome back to the latest edition of the Longevity and DeSci Recap and the first of 2024. The past year has been packed with new discoveries and releases, including Exo’s Iris, a hand-held AI ultrasound device; large-scale deals, such as Fauna Bio x Lilly at $494 million and ExcepGEN $14 million in seed funding; and innovations such as AthenaDAO and Zuzalu, the first pop-up city.
It seems that 2024 is shaping up to be an eventful year already. January has started with a bang with the launch of the latest pop-up city event, Vitalia, in Honduras, the news of a unique piece of technology, and an AI tool that could reinvent healthcare consultations. Here are the insights, interviews, and research in the longevity technology sphere over the past month.
Upcoming conferences
Here are some of the first quarter’s upcoming conferences and events for all longevity enthusiasts.
The City of Life is live. Join Vitalia in Roatan, Honduras: The redefinition of the longevity landscape is already underway in Roatan, Honduras, where up to 200 residents and 500+ visitors interested in longevity are joining forces to rejuvenate the world. Inspired by the first pop-up city, Zuzalu, Vitalia’s schedule is packed with talks, co-working, events, and other attractions for longevity enthusiasts. Broken into four separate bi-weekly thematic areas, culminating in a summit, Vitalia’s participants will have a chance to explore:
- Longevity & Human Improvement (Jan 15 – 21): How longevity is an integral part of human development, business models for longevity start-ups, human improvement, biohacking and more, with an overall focus on life-enhancing solutions
- Start-up Societies (Jan 29 – Feb 4): The impact of crypto on governance and longevity societies, network states and new governance, real-life examples of crypto communities and their challenges
- AI & Technological Progress (Feb 5 – 11): The journey of AI as an accelerant in the technology world, the history of progress and stagnation in technology, how AI can play a role in advancing biotech, and the wider ecosystem of AI and its potentials
- Pathways to Life Extension (Feb 19 – 25): The potential for new drug development, innovative design solutions, clinical advancements, and healthcare, and presenting projects and concrete solutions that have been developed during the pop-up city event
Longevity and Biohacking Convention in Cancun: The Longevity and Biohacking convention in Cancun, Mexico is set to add to the fervor. For two days from March 2, 2024 to March 3, 2024, the event’s attendees will gather together to explore the topics of longevity and achieving peak performance, mental and physical. The schedule is packed with 34 keynotes, 60 exhibits showing the latest in longevity technology, workshops, and networking events. It will culminate with a final dinner party to round up the exciting two-day event.
Head back in time with the Turn Around Aging Conference: To be held in Munich in March, the Turn Around Aging Conference is dedicated to healthy longevity and solutions that can improve human health and lifespan. Supplements, lifestyle factors, and hormone replacement are set to be hot topics of discussion at the event, with ticket prices starting from €129. This conference will be held in the German language.
Over to DC for the Longevity Science Fly-In: From March 21-22, 2024, the Longevity Science Fly-In will be the host of this exclusive longevity networking-centric event. Notable names such as Newt Gingrich and experts in biotechnology will be present at the luxury Hay-Adams hotel, close to the White House. Registration for the top-level event is set at $2,000.
Rejuvenation Start-up Summit 2024 is back in Berlin: Set to be the world’s largest in-person gathering that brings together longevity start-ups, investors, and enthusiasts, this year’s conference will facilitate a variety of world-renowned speakers, such as Matthew Rosen of CoRegan, Alexander Leutner of cell blocks, Lifespan’s Stephanie Dainow, and others. This event will be held from May 10-11, 2024. Tickets are available now.
Longevity investment and development news
Health biotech company Timeline raises $66 million in funding: Longevity is set to take the consumer market with Timeline’s latest Series D funding round. The company raised a massive $66 million in an oversubscribed round led by BOLD, L’Oréal Groupe’s venture capital fund to further Timeline’s proprietary technology, Mitopure. Mitopure, backed by 15 years of research, is claimed to enhance cellular longevity and improve mitochondrial function, a key factor in skin, strength and cognition. This latest funding will allow the company to continue its venture into the food, beauty and health sectors, bringing its longevity solution to a larger market.
New funding for early heart disease detection: CardioSignal, the tech company dedicated to improving remote cardiac care, just received $10 million in Series A funding to advance its heart disease detection technology. The smartphone-based solution aims to detect the early signs of heart disease using gyroscopic and accelerometer sensors to measure heart movements aiming to reduce deaths from cardiac disease.
Tech breakthroughs & new research
Neuralink has been implanted for the first time: Much anticipated with both fear and awe, the wait is over for those speculating whether or not Elon Musk’s Neuralink would ever get off the ground. The start of 2024 saw the first successful implant of the proprietary technology into a human, using its unique product, Telepathy. The technology is designed to “generalized brain interface to restore autonomy to those with unmet medical needs today and unlock human potential tomorrow” and is aimed at those with paralysis and degenerative disease.
After much consideration, and initial safety concerns, the chip (Telepathy) was approved by the FDA for human trials and works by capturing brain signals and transmitting them via Bluetooth technology.
Can a chatbot do better medical consultations than a human?: This is the question asked by Lifespan.io’s Arkadi Mazin when reviewing the latest research into a Google-made AI chatbot designed to conduct medical consultations. The technology, Articulated Medical Intelligence Explorer (AMIE) was trained using media resources and refined via iterations. It was then put to the test against primary care physicians, outperforming them in 24 out of 26 categories, including differential diagnosis, empathy and communication.
However, this study evaluates only chatting ability, which is not an area that physicians are typically trained in. Yet, this technology does present the potential to democratize healthcare and deliver a solution for resource-poor communities.
DAOs and communities
AthenaDAO announces its first Entrepreneur-in-Residence: Competition was fierce as five finalists competed to be the first-ever EIR at AthenaDAO. The final event was held as a pitch session and evaluated by three judges: Dr.Lynae Brayboy, MD, Chief Medical Officer & Co-Founder of Ovom Care; Alok Tayi, PhD, Founder and CEO of Vibe Biotechnology; and James Brodie, Chief Investment Officer at ID Theory. After a long debate, the judges selected Maria Such, PhD for the honor.
World longevity news
Manulife partners with UpLink in multi-year longevity initiative: The global investment management group Manulife has just announced a partnership with UpLink, the World Economic Forum’s open innovation platform. UpLink, launched in 2020, supports start-ups that come up with solutions for the World’s Sustainable Development Goals and has supported over 350 entrepreneurs since its inception. The multi-year initiative led by Manulife and UpLink seeks to address the demographic and financial challenges of aging, promote longevity, and build upon the previous partnership focused on nature-based climate solutions.
Social media pages to follow this month
Life Noggin YouTube: If you haven’t already subscribed, now’s the time to learn more about longevity and other topics in quick, easy-to-understand videos.
Lifespan.io News: Hosted by Emmett Short, Lifespan.io News covers the latest in longevity in video form.
Christian Angermayer’s Instagram: Christian Angermayer is an entrepreneur, biotech founder and longevity enthusiast. Follow to hear the latest insights and investment news.
