With a new month ahead and an old one behind, it’s again time to review the latest news and progress in the field of rejuvenation biotechnology. There’s a number of past events to look back upon, including Age-Related Diseases 2019, and upcoming ones to look forward to; let’s get started.
LEAF News
Team and activities
On October 1st, we are launching a crowdfunding campaign in support of MitoSENS, a project of the SENS Research Foundation. This time, the tireless team of MitoSENS is going to investigate the possibility of rescuing mitochondrial function in a living organism by moving the mitochondrial genes to the nucleus in transgenic mice. Please support the campaign with a donation, and don’t forget to tell your friends and co-workers to do the same! If the study is successful, it will open the door to controlling mitochondrial function in humans.
Moscow Biohacking Conference: On September 19th, LEAF board member Elena Milova took part in this conference by talking about the motivation for a radically extended lifespan. She reminded the audience that acting on the desire for a long life ultimately means taking personal responsibility for sustainable development and addressing global issues such as population aging, drug resistance, pollution, and inequality before they become threats.
The Heterogeneity of Senescent Cells: Nina Khera returns with another article, this time discussing the characteristics of senescent cells; as they are vastly different, a variety of senolytics and treatments will be required to remove them and their harmful effects.
Rejuvenation Roundup Podcast
Ryan O’Shea of Future Grind hosts this month’s podcast, showcasing the events and research discussed here.
EARD2019 Videos
We’ve shared quite a few videos from Ending Age-Related Diseases 2019 in September, so if you couldn’t attend, here’s your chance to see what you’ve missed.
Greg Fahy: Dr. Greg Fahy of Intervene Immune discussed his company’s efforts in restoring the thymus, a critical organ of the immune system. Phase 1 clinical trials have shown that not only has the organ been successfully regenerated, the patients’ biological age has dropped by 2.5 years according to Dr. Steve Horvath’s epigenetic clock. We also published an article about Dr. Fahy’s research. His intriguing study was covered in Nature Communications and many other editions this month.
Morgan Levine: Associate Professor Morgan Levine of the Yale School of Medicine gave a talk about epigenetic biomarkers, and she went into detail, discussing co-methylation networks and their relationship to cellular senescence.
Michael West: Dr. Michael West of AgeX Therapeutics based his talk around the differences between germ-line and somatic cells, explaining aging and age-related diseases in the context of the Weismann Barrier and the evolution of simpler organisms into more complex forms.
Doug Ethell: Dr. Drug Ethell of Leucadia Therapeutics discussed how the blockage of the cribiform plate, which naturally drains cerebrospinal fluid, contributes to Alzheimer’s disease and how his company is developing a method to unclog this bony structure.
Maria Blasco: Dr. Maria Blasco of the Spanish National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) presented her group’s findings on telomeres and telomerase, showing the relationship between telomere attrition and lifespan between different species while discussing the effectiveness of telomerase in countering this attrition.
Kelsey Moody: Dr. Kelsey Moody of Ichor Therapeutics discussed how lysosome malfunction begins the process of macular degeneration and how his company plans on dealing with this crippling disease.
Lifespan.io Interviews
Kevin Strange: We asked Dr. Strange some detailed questions about the function of his company’s flagship product, MSI-1436 (trodusquemine), which has been shown to promote regeneration in animal studies.
David Sinclair: On the day of the release of his new book, Lifespan: Why We Age and Why We Don’t Have To, we published this interview about Dr. Sinclair’s thoughts on multiple topics related to rejuvenation biotechnology.
Jay Olshansky: At International Perspectives in Geroscience, a recent conference hosted in Israel, Elena Milova interviewed Prof. Jay Olshansky, a well-known sociologist and biodemographer and a long-term proponent of the development of rejuvenation biotechnologies.
Research Roundup
A New Era Beckons as First Drug Is Created by AI: Insilico Medicine has performed early-stage drug development in a blazingly fast 46 days through its use of artificial intelligence; the next step is to test the drug in animals.
Brain, Liver and Muscle Rejuvenated by Calibrating Aged Blood: The Conboy lab continues its work on altered intercellular communication, removing pro-aging compounds from blood in order to promote tissue regeneration and youthful function.
Transient Telomerase Expression Mediates Senescence and Reduces Cancer Risk: Researchers at the University of Maryland and the National Institutes of Health have found that somatic cells transiently reactivate telomerase in order to retain their function.
Study Results Suggest Human Aging Can Be Reversed: As Dr. Fahy of Intervene Immune discussed in his presentation at Ending Age-Related Diseases 2019, his company’s drug combination has been shown in a Phase 1 human clinical trial to regenerate the thymus, causing downstream, wide-ranging rejuvenative effects.
SWIFT Provides Synthetic Organ Breakthrough: A new method of producing blood vessels for synthetic organs has allowed Cambridge researchers to go beyond the thin-tissue organoid stage. While SWIFT as a technique still needs refinement, it has taken us one step closer to fully functional synthetic organs.
News Nuggets
Insilico Medicine secures $37M in Series B funding: Insilico Medicine, a Juvenescence partner company employing state-of-the-art artificial intelligence for drug discovery, has recently raised 37 million dollars to further develop its pipeline and commercialize some of the technology that it’s developed. Recently, Insilico made the news with its AI-discovered fibrosis drug.
Sergey Young on Sky News: The mind behind the Longevity Vision Fund, Sergey Young, was briefly interviewed by Sky News about his investment in Insilico Medicine and his involvement in the longevity industry in general.
Methuselah Foundation sponsors Metabesity 2019: Our friends at Methuselah Foundation will be among the sponsors of the upcoming Metabesity 2019 conference (see below), and they are offering a discount code to buy tickets to the event at 20% off; if you’re interested in the conference, you might want to take up the offer.
Coming up in October
Targeting Metabesity 2019: On October 15-15, 2019, Targeting Metabesity 2019 will take place at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, DC. By “metabesity”, the organizers of the event mean “the constellation of chronic diseases and complications of senescence, all which share metabolic, inflammatory, and other drivers”—in other words, aging. This two-day conference will feature many of the brightest stars of science, including Dr. Nir Barzilai, Laura Deming, Dr. Vadim Gladyshev, Dr. Joan Mannick, and many more.
Longing for Longevity: Another interesting event taking place next month is the Trottier Symposium Longing for Longevity, held at the Centre Mont-Royal, 1000 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Canada. Among the speakers is Dr. David Sinclair, who will present his latest book, Why We Age and Why We Don’t Have To. The event is free, so if you’re around, it’s surely worth a visit.
UNITY at the Global Healthcare Conference: The Cantor Global Healthcare Conference will take place in New York City, on October 2-4, 2019 and it will “will feature over 200 innovative industry leaders from public and private companies for an in-depth discussion of the developments and trends shaping biotechnology, specialty pharmaceuticals, medical technology, healthcare facilities and services, and life sciences tools and diagnostics.” UNITY Biotechnology, the famous company testing senolytics in humans for the treatment of knee osteoarthritis, will be present too; if you can’t attend, a podcast of UNITY’s presentation will be available on the company’s website following the event.
OpenBio forum: On October 25, LEAF board member Elena Milova will participate in the biomedical forum OpenBio in Novosibirsk, Russia, where she will give a talk on the investment opportunities and will be a co-moderator of a session on rejuvenation biotechnologies.
RAADfest: Billing itself as “the most powerful inspiration and information for staying alive”, this upcoming conference will discuss multiple facets of the longevity industry, including supplements and a longevity-promoting mindset.
Thank you so much for being a part of our readership; your continued support, in whatever form it may come, is what keeps us going. As usual, special thanks go to the Lifespan Heroes, who allow our organization to stay in business and carry out its activities through their generous donations. Conferences, webinars, YouTube shows, news reports—none of these would be possible without your help. If you’d like to be a Lifespan Hero, visit lifespan.io/hero to make your monthly pledge.