XPrize - more teams have been entered (unsurprisingly)

#1

Because I have set up a team to enter the XPrize contest I have access to the list of teams and their descriptions. As far as I know this information is not restricted in any way, but I need to check that.

In any event there are teams being added every day at the moment. Late entrants (those in 2024 and 2025) will pay a higher and much higher (USD100K) fee. Hence I think this will calm down at some stage.

If people would like me to do a report back on the other teams (and it is allowed for me to do that in the terms and conditions) then I will do that in a few weeks once things have calmed down.

My plan for my own team is to enable other biohackers to use it as an umbrella in which to test their own hypotheses although obviously my priority will be to test my own hypothesis.

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#2

This is quite a good article:

The winner of XPRIZE Healthspan will demonstrate that their therapy, in a treatment period of one year or less, restores muscle, cognitive, and immune function by a minimum of 10 years, with a goal of 20 years, in adults aged 65-80 years who are free of major or life-threatening disease and disability.

The final prize amount will be based on the magnitude of functional improvements demonstrated by the winning team. Reversing age-related decline by 10 years will be awarded $61 million, rising to $71 million for 15 years, or $81 million for a reversal of 20 years or more. (The lower amounts will only be paid out if no team achieves results at the higher levels.)

The XPRIZE Healthspan competition will take place over the next seven years with two key judging milestones along the way. The first milestone will occur in two years’ time, where up to 40 of the registered teams will be selected by the judging panel to receive a $250,000 award to support their on-going work. After three to four years, the second milestone will see 10 of the registered teams receive a $1 million award to continue their efforts.

XPRIZE says that the winning idea “can come from anywhere and anyone.” Teams may include companies, non-profits or academic institutions, and can come from any nation or combination of nationalities. Only “government entities” are excluded.

There is no limit to the type of therapeutic treatments, which could include drugs, biologics, gene therapies, devices, nutritional, or lifestyle approaches, whether administered alone or in combination. Safety is, of course, paramount, and XPRIZE says it will expel teams who do not uphold reasonable standards of safety and ethics.

In addition to demonstrating that therapeutic treatments can restore functional ability typically lost during aging, XPRIZE says the competition aims to build consensus on methodologies to measure functional and biological aging.

There is more in the article linked to.

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#3

Forbes: (a bit more info).

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#4

Here’s a podcast which talks about how the process is intended to act as a multiplier

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#5

There are now 71 teams in the prize. I have read the terms of use and I don’t think they prevent me talking about other applicants. Two of the teams appear to be entered to test the database and some are not particularly meaningful as yet. I have two complex tasks to do in terms of responding to the forum, but I expect to be able to do a bit of a report soon.

One useful aspect of the Xprize is to encourage people who think they may have some answer to register and describe their answer. (at least in a limited way).

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#6

Prizes for success in research and development can work well, if coupled with suitable publicity and activism. Such efforts have a long history, going back to the well-documented longitude rewards offered by the British government in the 1700s. More recently, the original Ansari X Prize for suborbital flight was a very successful example of this sort of initiative, and was launched around the same time as the Methuselah Mouse Prize to spur greater efforts to extend life in animal models. The Palo Alto Longevity Prize followed later with similar goals. Unfortunately for the ability of longevity-focused prizes to generate ongoing publicity, it has turned out to be hard to beat the 60-70% extension of life of mice lacking functional growth hormone signaling. That was not anticipated.

XPRIZE is the foundation that emerged from the original Ansari X Prize, set up to run further incentive prizes for research and development. After a few years of recent interest in involving XPRIZE to in some way help to accelerate the ongoing development of means to treat aging, organizers have now found the sizable funding needed for such an effort, and launched the XPRIZE Healthspan initiative. Development of medical interventions and clinical trials to prove their efficacy are expensive propositions, and a prize to incentivize more activity in this arena must be correspondingly large - and so it is.

Focusing on multiple measures of healthspan rather than the one absolute measure of life span, and focusing on people rather than mice, is a logical reaction to what has been learned in the past few decades about mouse aging and a greater appreciation of the differences in the response to interventions targeting metabolism in mice and humans. Short-lived species exhibit a much greater extension of life span from calorie restriction and loss of growth hormone signaling than is the case in long-lived species, but the short-term improvements in health and metabolism appear much the same.

By the way functions are commonly measured, it might be possible to hit the prize minimum threshold of a 10 year reversion of measures of aging in at least muscle function via resistance exercise. If one starts with sedentary older people, much more likely! This may be intentional, in the sense that trying to improve on the size of the benefits produced by exercise should be a focus for the research and development community, but many of the interventions currently under development do not outperform exercise, and nobody is really holding anyone’s feet to the fire on that topic.

The XPRIZE site does not appear to yet include a description of the specific measures they wish to use to assess the quality of an intervention in each of muscle function, cognitive function, and immune function, but a variety of different measures exist, some standardized, some not. It is unclear as to whether the prize organizers will leave it to the teams to pick their own measures. There is certainly a lot of room to argue over which measures are most appropriate.

Links to the original website story

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#7

Applications seem to have calmed down for a bit. There are now 93 “teams” entered. However, four of those are to test the database.

At least one is there only really for the FSHD sub prize (Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy - there is USD10M for anyone who can fix this - having looked superficially at this is might be a transcription issue, but that is not obvious. I am not necessarily sure it fits with age related diseases.)

Some of the “teams” do not seem to have a plan yet. Eg “So far, it’s just me and my laptop.” and “The team is still being formed with the most adequate members.” With others either they don’t have a plan or they are not telling people much about it. If there does not seem to be any information about what people propose to actually do I am not putting the description into this post.

These seem to have plans of some form
108 Labs https://www.thebreathai.com “We believe living up to 108 years is possible by transcending stress to happiness one breath a time.”

https://abvproducts.com
ABV Products Company LLC was founded in 2022, drawing on intellectual property created by Roar Biomedical for the discovery of functional compounds in tequila.
(low or no alcohol tequila, however)

“Our statement: In order to achieve a healthy longevity someone should alternate anabolism with catabolism. To achieve and alternate these 2 metabolic conditions is possible with proper nutrition, exercise and nutriceutical support.”

“Through a patented and innovative technology platform, Aptah Bio developed the first and only compound able to correct genome-wide RNA processing errors. In other words, we can correct multiple mRNAs and toxic proteins using one single compound.”

“Innovation with biology has many future avenues including correcting and preventing chronic inflammation, which in turn will extend lifespans. We have a unique formulation that will help billions of people fight off chronic inflammation, which is the root cause of diseases.”

“A small team of holographic enthusiasts finding newer solutions to ease stress on human health.”

“Beyond You is a revolutionary AI-based transcriptomic for better health & aging. With our proprietary algorithms of AI, we examine the expression of over 15,000 genes in blood, related to inflammatory status, metabolic health, longevity, and the state of organ systems, among others, enabling personalized recommendations and interpretations for healthcare professionals to reverse all the alterations detected. Affiliated With: Sant Pau Hospital”

“We started BHI 14 years ago with the goal to bring the miracles of stem cell and regenerative medicine therapy to the masses, especially in emerging markets which could not afford expensive western medications or surgeries. We have published many articles in peer reviewed journals and uploaded over 100 protocols to the U.S. FDA. We believe Stem Cell/Exosome Therapy combined with Bio Identical Hormone Optimization will add at least 30-50 healthy productive years - safely and affordably!”

“A group of biohackers who are focussed on improving human cellular function using leading edge science to obtain improvements to the diseases of aging. The hypothesis that problems with transcription (shortage of acetyl-CoA) and translation (shortage of ATP and RQC overuse) drive much of the phenotype of aging is not the only hypothesis that will be tested. This is the team leader’s hypothesis. Biohackers are welcome to join the team to work with alternative hypotheses.”

“Cyborginc, a subsidiary of The Matrix, focuses on augmenting humans through biotech like gene therapy.”

“Led by Tiat – Singapore’s Benjamin Button – Team DeAging aims to Disrupt Aging. Healthspan=Lifespan. Diseasespan=0. The goal is a sustainable 50% Age Reversal (#60isthenew30 #80isthenew40 #100isthenew50 etc). We will do so by executing on the DeAging Pyramid™. Team DeAging has access to clinicians, scientists and deaging athletes (M/F). BEAT™ – BEspoke Age Test – biomarkers are tested by independent institutions of good standing such as: The Mayo Clinic, NUS, NTU and National Heart Centre.”

“Select members of the team will join in this competition. Kaya Kalpa as outlined by Tapasviji Maharaj will be implemented over a 60-90 day timeperiod to reverse ageing. Affiliated With: Space Ocean Corp”

“The Extended Longevity Protocol is a set of 10 Phytotherapeutic Extract Formulations that address the 10 determinant factors of aging. Proven to decelerate the biomarkers of aging. Tested on ages 44 to 76 yo. The Products are currently in production and available. • Decelerates the Epigenome by 16+ years • Grows telomeres of a newborn-10,380 bp in a 70yo man • GlycanAge test shows the age of 32 for a 70 yo man First clinical study completed GRAS standing www.extendedlongevity.com”

“FULLLIFE Health & Fitness has spent the last three years creating the worlds most advanced health, fitness and nutrition platform.”

“GDF11 is a naturally occurring protein that has an amazing capacity to restore aging muscles, hearts, brains and immune systems in mice. In the last 10 years, we have helped hundreds of humans properly dose GDF11 based on key biomarker feedback. We have many CNS Vital Signs tests showing GDF11 significantly improves cognition in terms of reaction time, processing speed and memory. We also have UCLA Immune panels showing GDF11 increases the most important immune biomarker, naive Ts, by 50%.”

“WE ARE ON A MISSION TO INTRODUCE A NEW KIND OF A HEALTH SECTOR WHERE A DAILY PRACTICE IS A PREVENTATIVE HEALTHCARE THAT NOT ONLY DECIEVES CHRONIC DESEASE VERY EARLY IN STAGE, ENHANCES MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH BUT ALSO TACKLES FOOD WASTE AND POLLUTION. READ MORE ABOUT US HERE WWW.GEFJUN.SE”

“I am proud to share that my passion for Holy Cow led me to research and study for over a decade and found a practical solution to combat the problems in Agriculture, Climate Change, Dairy, Environment and Human Health. It is an ultimate solution for Agriculture, Dairy and Human Health and to reduce GHG emissions in a natural way. After many successful trial runs, I founded M/s. Gomathi Vidya Agri Biotech Research Project Private Limited to scientifically validate my research findings”

“Goodnick is the most effective healthy ageing company for people over 60. We help them stay strong for life so they can live life to the full. Our first product, Strongevity, helps people over 60 build and maintain a lean, strong body for life by offsetting age related muscle loss and increasing bone density. Strongevity is a unique, powerful and science-backed way to overcome the physical decline of ageing with simple strength-based exercise and nutrition.”

“HERO Therapeutics makes best in class iPSC hematopoietic stem cells to treat and cure ailments associated with longevity and aging including cognitive awareness, immune deficiencies, enhancing life span, and building physical activity and muscle.”

“Dedicated team of life sciences and drug discovery experts who have cracked the code for preventing and reversing neuropathic pain, reducing inflammation, reducing the use of opioids in pain management, reducing reward seeking behavior, and reducing the withdrawal effects seen in opioid use disorder.”

“Immortalité is a Hawai’i based longevity company. We currently hold the World Record in Fastest Epigenetic Age Reduction – 8.4 Years in 8 Weeks. We believe that regeneration is the key to longevity and our products and programs allow people to activate the regenerative process within their own bodies. Our research team is made up of regenerative farmers here in Hawai’i who have put their knowledge into regenerating the human body.”

“The Insulin-Friendly Lifestyle (IFL) team researches lifestyle interventions which lengthen healthspan by focusing on consuming whole real natural foods and beverages, appropriate exercises and movements, and managing stress (in its broadest definition). Given the focus on how insulin levels respond, an IFL can work for everyone no matter their age, gender, health status, religious or cultural affiliation, or dietary preferences. An IFL considers every aspect of health, including oral care.”

“Junevity is rewinding diseases of aging with novel transcription factor medicines. Based on 6 years of breakthrough research at UCSF, Junevity is advancing novel therapies towards a new era of rejuvenating medicine.”

“We develop therapies that aim at resolving the key mechanisms underlying aging. Our technology is capable of restoring autophagy and energy metabolism to pathological cells. We havec several in vivo and in vitro POCs. We are 2 in our team, both experienced entrepreneurs. Serge is at the origin of our patented discovery and has already contributed to molecules that have been clinically tested against severe diseases. Laurence is the business head of the team. Welcome if you’d like to join us !”

“Longevity InTime is an AI & Big Data powered health company, providing real-time remote tracking technology for severe diseases at the earliest stages. Our goal is to prolong life for 20+ years by means of permanent measuring human biodata with more than 400 biomarkers, using your favorite weareable devices, manual input, lab tests and our BioContain”

“Minicircle’s mission is to make scalable life extension gene therapy available to everyone.”

“We have uncovered access to real-life superpowers that interrupt and reconfigure what’s going on inside of us on a muscular, vascular and neural level. These Neuromuscular Cheat Codes happen instantaneously, without any external aid and are fully on-command under our control. They can intervene with muscular composition and function, shift blood flow patterns to affect immune responses and organ states and cause neural interventions that can slow or reverse neuron decline to prolong cognition.”

“Omnix Bio is creating a portfolio of novel lipids, to enable the creation of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) with validated tropism, through the use of a proprietary AI-based lipid generation platform. This AI system utilizes data generated from a high-throughput, human-mimetic 3D culture screening system, which allows for various lipid and LNP formulations to be tested in high volumes in parallel, across a range of conditions. This will enable future genetic and personalized medicine.”

“Oumua is a company that develops and produces smart breathing devices. The main product is Oumua smart breathing trainer, it is a consumer tech device that conditions the users’ breathing muscles (making them stronger, faster, and more efficient), paired with an AI-powered training app that displays live visuals, provides compliance and progress tracking, and analyses the respiratory fitness, including the “lungs age”, an integral function that correlates directly to the life expectancy. Affiliated With: Oumua Inc Oumua FZCO”

“Honored as the Top 0.2% @ TechCrunch Disrupt and a “World Changing Idea” in Fast Company, Parallel is a precision longevity & health platform targeting the Hallmarks of Aging. While Parallel’s technology can be applied to all areas of human health, it is starting in skin. Pioneers of Microbiome Dermatology™, Parallel offers best-in-class skin microbiome testing paired with personalized products & prescriptions utilizing novel patent-pending phage ingredients to improve aging & healthspan.”

“Ponce Therapeutics is using advanced technologies to develop novel therapeutics targeting the fundamental mechanisms of aging. Its lead programs, both senolytic and senomorphic in nature, utilize novel therapeutics discovered using our proprietary, state-of-the-art biotechnology platforms to restore the youthful balance of aged or “senescent” and young cells in the body. This leads to a resetting of one’s biologic clock, turning back time on one’s body to its former youthful exuberance.”

“We are developing a new class of conformationally selective medicines to improve human health. We take a biochemistry-first approach by leveraging our proprietary mass spectrometry-enabled platform to develop first-in-category medicines that selectively target distinct protein conformational signatures in a range of age-related disease states. This approach represents a major departure from conventional drug discovery strategies, and has the potential to radically improve human health-span.an biodata with more than 400 biomarkers, using your favorite weareable devices, manual input, lab tests and our BioContain”

“Our confidential system has been proven to reverse nerve damage and restore healthy nerve operation in extremities by a factor of 15* years or more. *Estimate”

“Ginger for longevity”

“We are a small biotech startup based in Cambridge, UK that is using the power of active machine learning and cell simulation models to discover genes that safely rejuvenate cells. Our state-of-the-art single-cell transcriptomic clocks allows us to rapidly move through combinatorial space both in the wet lab and in silico.”

“Supercede Therapeutics is developing STX-001, a small molecule inhibitor of the Activin receptor Type II (ACTRII) kinase, to promote muscle mass increase and fat loss for patients with obesity. Activin levels increase with age and suppress muscle growth, and this mechanism has been clinically demonstrated to significantly increase muscle mass across a range of muscle diseases. Supercede’s oral ACTRII inhibitor may provide critical muscle support for continued function during aging.”

“Talk to Eve is an innovative AI tool for mental health and wellbeing.”

“Canurta is a biotechnology company discovering and bioprocessing rare, multipotent polyphenols to find new ways to reverse the chronic disease crisis with botanical therapeutics. With our advanced technologies, Canurta can capture, purify, and enrich rare polyphenols for the first time to target inflammation and address unmet needs in neurology, virology and oncology.”

“Vincere Biosciences specializes in developing small molecule therapeutics to protect high-energy organs like the brain, heart, and kidneys. Utilizing AI, traditional biology, and drug discovery expertise, Vincere focuses on age-related decline’s root causes. Their initial work is advancing compounds that enhance damaged mitochondria elimination, optimizing mitochondrial quality control and mitophagy. This positions Vincere as a key player in tackling age-related diseases, including Parkinson’s.”

“Viome is a pioneering longevity and preventative healthcare company committed to bridging the gap between scientific breakthroughs and their practical implementation as health solutions. Utilizing cutting-edge AI and the world’s largest gene expression database, Viome’s home-based tests offer individuals personalized nutritional guidance and innovative microbiome health products to enhance both lifespan and healthspan.”

“In preclinical trials we have reversed epigenetic age by more than 50%. Our peer reviewed study: Reversal of biological age in multiple rat organs by young porcine plasma fraction | GeroScience Our treated rat Sima is a world record holder for maximum lifespan for her species: Anti-ageing scientists extend lifespan of oldest living lab rat | Medical research | The Guardian”

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#8

It’s really heartening to see so many teams entering. I’m glad that Harold Katcher and Ashkay’s team are in as well.
But I believe what’s more likely to work is a combination of treatments. I don’t think any one theory or treatment will be enough. It makes me wonder if bringing team together that compliment each other further down the line might be a better strategy. It’s an exciting time for sure though. I remember the first X price and following Burt Rutan’s progress, which eventually led to Virgin Galactic. Even though Virgin hasn’t set the world on fire, at least it moved things forward. I’ll be curious to see who is going to be brave enough to try some of these treatments. It’s all for nothing if it stays theoretical.

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#9

It changes a ton of things with NASA and other pace agencies and probably also help with their inspiration for a lot of other private can do space, not just government - eg SpaceX, BlueOrgin, etc

#10

Yeah, was thinking and think we might see that overtime

Would also be cool - for real - to see the eg a wholistic Blueprint vs Peter Attia combined program based protocol applied to cohorts of people in clinical trial format as part of the prize.

As perhaps like a Majo and/or Cleveland Clinic and/or MGH team to jump in too.

Would perhaps make group from Mayo to Attia to think deeper about things like plasmapherisis, etc should be included for full potential.

Perhaps the LifeBio’s, Cambrian, Retro, etc, could enter the race with “current therapies” too even if some of their next gen stuff is not yet clinical trial yet.

#11

I think it is an interesting contest. The target is a hard target to hit which will make a real difference. I dont think a single intervention will hit the target. Combinations will be needed.

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#12

In a lot of ways it was a watershed moment. I was struck while I was watching the Hevolution conference how significant it could be. Humans getting together to extend healthy lifespan might be the first step humanity takes to try and conquer death.

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#13

They are now up to 121 teams. However, very few have a declared methodology that may be worth trying. I don’t think any of the new ones are sufficiently interesting to report them here and I may stop keeping track of this.

There will be some teams who are well targeted on the objective and it is always possible that the teams that say things like “scientists, engineers, innovators” will actually come up with something that has positive results.

It remains that the contest is a useful contribution to encouraging the development of science in this area. I will keep battling on with my protein production protocol (translation and transcription).

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#14

There’s now 129 teams including Chromadex. I am not persuaded that NAD boosting will hit the three targets even at 10 years, but this is one way to find out.

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#15

Are we sure they will not combine with other things?

#16

It’s a meme company overestimating their product.

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#17

No. They might do a combination.

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#18

Efforts like this are interesting to me. Zeroing in on specific genetics may inform and amplify a multi-method approach.

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#19

Now 138 including a few more software tests and a suggestion of using CRISPR to extend telomeres.

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#20

I appreciate you telling us about the more interesting approaches. Some of those you mentioned have some really compelling ideas for our group.

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