Probably the coolest (no pun intended) company to present is Fauna Bio. This is a company started by a group of women (and led by Ashley Zehnder) who are veterinary researchers who are looking to learn from the physiological adaptations that other mammals have made (think hibernating squirrels that can slow their metabolism by 90%, and body temperature by 90%, and then come fully alive again after several months and repair all the harm that has been caused during that hibernation period).
What the company is learning by deeply studying the 13-lined ground squirrel is truly amazing.
And of course, this all ties into Longevity: there is typically a 30% to 50% lifespan improvement over same sized species - for hibernating mammals.
In the short-to-moderate term the company is focused on cardiac and pulmonary diseases. During hibernation, for example, the squirrel lowers their body temperature from its normal 35 degrees C, to about 5 degrees C, and dramatically lowers the flow of blood, and heart beats are a fraction of normal. And most parts of the animal’s brain is shut down / inactive.
And then periodically, (ever week or two) the animal (like a computer in “sleep mode” briefly awakens with a 240 fold increase in metabolism over a few hours, bring its body temperature back up to 35 degrees, heart beat back up to normal, blood flow back up to normal levels, and full brain activity resuming, and then a short time later the sleep button is pushed again and it returns to hibernation.
Dr. Zahnder compared the sudden rush of blood that takes place in these animals to the reperfusion that happens in heart attack patients when blood flow is restored. Typically in humans this is an extremely damaging event that can result in death if not extreme damage. But these squirrels do this dozens of times each hibernation period with few negative long term side effects. The research that Fauna Bio has done suggests that these squirrels do suffer significant damage, but they are also able to repair the damage. Dr. Zahnder says that humans have the similar genes and pathways in our bodies and that we just need to figure out a way to turn them on.
While Aubrey De Grey was not at the Longevity Summit, several people from his organization where there in attendance. Aubrey De Grey has a new organization called “Longevity Excape Velocity Foundation”, which (as usual with Aubrey) is doing interesting things.
Aubrey has developed a concept he calls robust mouse rejuvenation (RMR), which is when a middle-aged mouse, with a year left to live, has its life expectancy doubled (at least thats the hope). This is the flagship research program for the LEV Foundation.
The project Is starting in February of 2023. It is a 10 arm study of combinations of 4 different leading life extension approaches:
rapamycin
senolytics
stem cells
telomerase
The study will include a total of 1,000 mice, pre-aged (18 months). Starting with pre-aged mice doing each longevity therapy individually and in combination. It should be very interesting to see the results over the coming years.
Aubrey had first proposed the RMR project back when he was at SENS:
The Longevity Center is a high-end (i.e. expensive) but very science-oriented company started by Joanna Bensz. The group opened their first longevity center in Warsaw, Poland and is now expanding in Germany. They plan to open over 20 clinics around Europe over the next 5 years.
They are a wholistically-oriented organization that is designed around optimizing health and longevity over the long term. Their typical customer is between the age of 30 and 55 years old, but they service customers of any age. They can prescribe rapamycin and metformin, etc. as part of their program (this is the first clinic I’ve heard of in main-land Europe that is prescribing rapamycin and metformin for longevity purposes).
The Longevity Center offers a range of different programs, but the most comprehensive option costs between $1,000 and $2,000 for an initial assessment that takes about 4.5 hours, followed by the development of a 12-month action plan based on the results. Ongoing access to the centre’s doctors and other experts ranges from $200 to $500 per month.
Related to this, Charles Brenner showed this more detailed slide in his presentation - driving home the point that this isn’t normal aging, it appears genetically programed (so may be genetically deprogrammed):
As a sidenote, its interesting at this point to pull in some new research by GlycanAge (the bioclock company that also presented at the conference but which I’m not going to cover in depth here). GlycanAge has a new study coming out where they measured and saw that aging actually accelerates in women when they go into menopause, so this is, as Jennifer Garrison has stated, a big issue.
Equally important, in this study of 60 women in the UK (yet to be published), they found that HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) actually reversed the biological age of women (as measured by the GlycanAge bioclock, most significantly during the first three months after HR therapy initiation.
This is all fundamentally very unfair and more resources need to be put into this problem (and thankfully they are, and companies are also putting more emphasis on the area).
Another interesting Longevity Biotech company that presented at the Longevity Summit was Turn.Bio
Co-Founder Sergio Ruiz was presenting, and what I found most intriguing about the company is that they are a cellular rejuvenation company that is leveraging some biotechnology out of Stanford University to target (initially) dermatological applications. While their technology can be used in many applications, one of their first indications is aging skin.
There has been a lot of press and videos on blood plasma factors, young blood, and plasmapheresis (or TPE) the past few years. There are numerous companies that have been, and still are in this segment of the market; from Ambrosia (now defunct) to Harold Katcher’s company Yuvan Research, and others like Lyfspn (Dobri Kiprov new company), and others. But the simple truth is that one company seems to be absolutely years ahead of all these others, and that company is the spin-out from the Wyss-Coray lab at Stanford called “Alkahest” (purchased by Grifols, in 2020).
Grifols is the world leader in blood plasma products, so it seems pretty clear that the company has the experience and the scale to really dominate this market as it moves forward in with the clinical trials.
What I found most interesting about this company’s presentation is that they say they are “delivery mechanism agnostic”, meaning that they are focused on providing the blood plasma benefits via traditional blood plasma delivery approaches, but also via small molecule drugs that are designed to trigger / cause the same benefits that a person could get from the plasma product. In an emergency room, where a person may be unconscious an IV delivery of plasma may make more sense, whereas if a person is at home and wants/needs to take a therapeutic regularly, then a small molecule drug / tablet makes more sense.
If it makes it easier I’d like to share this, something to help automatically crop the slides to the right perspective and dimensions when making a picture:
From what I’ve read Turn are very close to clinical trials and so far their data seems impressive.
If they actually succeed in reversing skin aging in humans, it will be a game changer. Not only because the cosmetics industry is huge, but because there will be physical proof that aspects of aging can be reversed. Seeing is believing. I have a feeling that it could end up being a watershed moment. They also have immune function in their pipeline, which seems like a much more significant step forwards. Reversing immune aging could dramatically increase health span and potentially increase lifespan. Really exciting times.
Or, search for “IGF-1, Valter Longo”. Longo may have more to say about IGF-1 than the article above.
Or, if you have time you may find this video interesting: The title is “Eat, Fast, and Live Longer.” Longo talks a little bit about IGF-1 in the video.
I find this Vaika study on dogs very interesting because its focused on former sled dogs (perhaps equivalent to extreme athletes in human terms). Seems like a lot of interesting things could be learned the study…
Yes - I spoke with Sergio a bit at the Longevity Meetup the night before the conference. I think they are getting close to clinical trials.
While “cellular rejuvenation” sounds like it would be a game changer… I wonder on the exact effect of what they are doing regarding aging skin. You have to be skeptical about these types of claims… so many people and companies have made similar claims in the past without the results to back them up.
Perhaps some dermatologists here can comment on this slide (below). While the improvement over and above Retin-A (Renova) is substantial, I don’t see any comparison to young skin (which is what I’d want to see it compared to, not just old/control/untreated skin.
The absolute increase shown in this slide below doesn’t seem that fantastic; perhaps 50% more than just Retin-A (which while helpful, is not a game changer in skin rejuvenation).
The insulin/insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) pathway drives an evolutionarily conserved network that regulates lifespan and longevity. Individuals with Laron syndrome who carry mutations in the growth hormone receptor (GHR ) gene that lead to severe congenital IGF-1 deficiency with decreased insulin/IGF-1 signaling (IIS) exhibit reduced prevalence rates of acne, diabetes and cancer. Western diet with high intake of hyperglycemic carbohydrates and insulinotropic dairy over-stimulates IIS. The reduction of IIS in Laron subjects unmasks the potential role of persistent hyperactive IIS mediated by Western diet in the development of diseases of civilization and offers a rational perspective for dietary adjustments with less insulinotropic diets like the Paleolithic diet.
RapAdmin, Whoa! That appears to be the heart of the matter. Yes, the Western diet of highly refined carbohydrates and sugars is a highly addictive problem. Even I am addicted, but I try to keep it under control.
