https://youtu.be/lf77X55TTIE
Recording of (newly) SUNDAY 10/4/26 open @WorldUnivAndSch #WUaSNewsAndQA @WUaSPress #WUaSWBM
-https://youtu.be/lf77X55TTIE
-https://
-https://scott-macleod.
-https://www.youtube.com/@
Recording of (newly) SUNDAY 10/4/26 open @WorldUnivAndSch #WUaSNewsAndQA @WUaSPress #WUaSWBM -https://t.co/4wDB5QB1xK -https://t.co/lZi6qVEugD -https://t.co/7bc4xo5x3k -https://t.co/5MgfBslDlO #HarvardAARD #VirtualCellInTime #AvatarAgentEHR #DigitalHealthTwins #MITOCWinRVE ?
— WorldUnivandSch (@WorldUnivAndSch) October 5, 2026
https://x.com/WorldUnivAndSch/
https://x.com/WUaSPress/
https://x.com/sgkmacleod/
https://x.com/Q_YogaMacFlower/
https://x.com/HarbinBook/
https://x.com/scottmacleod/
* * * *
https://scott-macleod.
Topic: Sun 10/04/26 open best STEAM Creative Commons' licensed OpenCourseWare wiki World Univ & Sch WUaS News and Q&A, with Zoom URL
Time: Oct 4, 2026 04:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/
Meeting chat link
https://us04web.zoom.us/
Meeting ID: 728 3456 1360
Passcode: 722MMJ
https://
https://scott-macleod.
Topic: M 9/28/26 open best STEAM Creative Commons' licensed OpenCourseWare wiki World Univ & Sch WUaS News and Q&A, with Zoom URL
Time: Sep 28, 2026 10:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/
Meeting chat link
https://us04web.zoom.us/
Meeting ID: 712 2831 3741
Passcode: V9GckN
https://youtu.be/O3Sj0Ab9q3s
All the best, abolition-ally - and with ~50 million people enslaved or caught in human trafficking - https://www.
-https://
https://scott-macleod.
-https://
-https://scott-macleod.
-https://www.youtube.com/@
* * * *
Anamudi mountain, India: M 9/21/26 recording of @WorldUnivAndSch @WUaSPress #WUaSNewsAndQA #WUaSWBM #MITAS #MITAlumniStartups * (was - M 9/21/26 & M 9/28/26 open best STEAM Creative Commons' licensed OpenCourseWare wiki World Univ & Sch WUaS News and Q&A, with Zoom URL)
M 9/21/26 recording of @WorldUnivAndSch @WUaSPress #WUaSNewsAndQA #WUaSWBM #MITAS #MITAlumniStartups
https://youtu.be/cJkMi9pPOqk
-https://
-https://scott-macleod.
w Tue 9/14 #WUaSAgenda
-https://
-https://scott-macleod.
-https://www.youtube.com/@
#MITAS #MITAlumniStartups
*
M 9/21/26 recording of @WorldUnivAndSch @WUaSPress #WUaSNewsAndQA #WUaSWBM
-https://youtu.be/cJkMi9pPOqk
-https://
-https://scott-macleod.
w M 9/14 #WUaSAgenda
-https://
-https://scott-macleod.
-https://www.youtube.com/@
#MITAS #MITAlumniStartups ~
https://x.com/WorldUnivAndSch/
https://x.com/Q_YogaMacFlower/
https://x.com/WUaSPress/
https://x.com/HarbinBook/
https://x.com/sgkmacleod/
https://x.com/scottmacleod/
https://x.com/TheOpenBand/
https://lnkd.in/p/dpXVsrrk = https://lnkd.in/p/dpXVsrrk
https://www.linkedin.com/
https://scott-macleod.
Dear George, All,
https://x.com/WorldUnivAndSch/
https://x.com/WUaSPress/
https://x.com/TheOpenBand/
https://x.com/sgkmacleod/
https://x.com/HarbinBook/
https://x.com/scottmacleod/
https://x.com/Q_YogaMacFlower/
Super: #QuantumEchoes including running simulations FWD & in reverse #ReversingTheArrowOfTime
https://x.com/sgkmacleod/
https://x.com/TheOpenBand/
https://x.com/HarbinBook/
https://x.com/scottmacleod/
https://x.com/Q_YogaMacFlower/
https://x.com/WUaSPress/
Antonio Regalado
@antonioregalado
Age reversal remains unproven. Yet that is the goal of the healthspan XPRIZE pretty much. The purse is $81 million to the team able "restore" the cognitive & physical function of a person by 20 years, after 1 year of treatment. Finalists to be announced this summer
4:48 AM · Jun 9, 2026
https://x.com/antonioregalado/
https://x.com/Q_YogaMacFlower/
https://x.com/WUaSPress/
https://x.com/sgkmacleod/
https://x.com/HarbinBook/
https://x.com/scottmacleod/
https://x.com/TheOpenBand/
As #aKindOfYoga, how @demishassabis to join or align (#YogaWUaS) #eRapidSensor https://wyss.
https://x.com/Q_YogaMacFlower/
https://x.com/WorldUnivAndSch/
https://x.com/HarbinBook/
https://x.com/WUaSPress/
https://x.com/scottmacleod/
https://x.com/sgkmacleod/
https://x.com/TheOpenBand/
Retweeting -
Jay Jin
@JayJin_JJ
·
Dec 6
Replying to @Q_YogaMacFlower and @demishassabis
Oh wow, molecular health visualization in Street View?.
That's absolutely wild - imagine zooming from your neighborhood straight into your DNA. This AI + biotech combo is exactly where breakthroughs happen. #HealthTechhttps://x.com/JayJin_JJ/
https://scott-macleod.
How best could a MIT Prof like Dr @GeoChurch develop a 1st #MITOCW #AgingReversalGenetics' course IN A #RealisticVirtualEarth ?
https://scott-macleod.
Deinandra increscens:
[Air-L] Open Position at UCSB Dept. of Communication * Thanks, Amy (Gonzales, Assistant Professor at UCSB), I may add this to the upcoming free-to-students' startup World University and School, building on CC-4 MIT OCW in 7 languages, and wiki, WUaS Weekly Business Meeting Agenda and News (loosely conducted in the manner of unprogrammed NtF Friends / Quakers) ... and as an UCSB alumnus, in Sociocultural Anthropology with a Master's degree focus on the Internet and virtual UNESCO World Heritage Sites, having taken Communication classes too, and worked as a TA in both departments * Working on writing "Society, Information Technology and the Global University" in the new Academic Press at WUaS (planned in all 7159 known living languages with machine and human translation) but am postponing publication of it until at least 2027. Friendly regards, Scott * * *
The UCSB Department of Communication is recruiting for a tenure-track/tenured open rank faculty position. We seek a scholar who conducts innovative, theoretically grounded, and empirically rigorous research using quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-method approaches that addresses the social consequences of AI from an organizational communication perspective. All courses are taught in-person on campus. A reasonable estimated full-time rate for this position is $95,000-$435,000 annually. The University of California is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, protected veteran status, or other protected status under state or federal law.
Link to Job Advertisement: https://recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/
--
Amy Gonzales, Ph.D. (she/her)
Associate Professor, Department of Communication
Interim Co-Director, Chicano Studies Institute
UC Santa Barbara
______________________________
The To unsubscribe send an email to air-l-leave@lists.aoir.org mailing list
is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at:
Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
http://www.aoir.org/
Thanks, Amy (Gonzales, Assistant Professor at UCSB),
https://www.comm.ucsb.edu/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/
I may add this to the upcoming free-to-students' startup World University and School, building on CC-4 MIT OCW in 7 languages, and wiki, WUaS Weekly Business Meeting Agenda and News (loosely conducted in the manner of unprogrammed NtF Friends / Quakers) ... and as an UCSB alumnus, in Sociocultural Anthropology with a Master's degree focus on the Internet and virtual UNESCO World Heritage Sites, having taken Communication classes too, and worked as a TA in both departments (I think there's a UCSB video of my teaching ... part of an UCSB program for learning to teach). (I was also active in the little Quaker Meeting in Santa Barbara. Do you know UCSB's Stephen Pope for example - also a Cornell alumnI think?) Juan-Vicente Palerm was my main professor at the end of my time at UCSB, before heading to Edinburgh, Scotland potentially to do a PhD ... with my MSc dissertation there about virtual St. Kilda as a nascent place.
Thanks for this -
Profs at the Pub - Amy Gonzales
https://youtu.be/YNGNRMeytrc
Working on writing "Society, Information Technology and the Global University" in the new Academic Press at WUaS (planned in all 7159 known living languages with machine and human translation) but am postponing publication of it until at least 2027.
Friendly regards,
Scott
https://scott-macleod.
PS
Just TweetedX this, with many implications for reversing the digital divide -
Excited about #CFOs #QuakerCFOs for the #nonprofit #501c3 @WorldUnivAndSch wing - https://app.candid.org/
https://x.com/Q_YogaMacFlower/
https://x.com/WorldUnivAndSch/
https://x.com/scottmacleod/
https://x.com/sgkmacleod/
https://x.com/HarbinBook/
https://x.com/WUaSPress/
https://x.com/TheOpenBand/
https://scott-macleod.
Zoom conference call time newly ran out after the above -
....
* * * * * ~
Harvard Aging Research and Drug Development conference Th 10/1/26-Sat 10/3/26 -
ARDD 2026 — Day One Recap
Dear Scott Gordon Kenneth MacLeod,
ARDD 2026 — Day One Recap
Aging Research and Drug Discovery Meeting · Thursday, October 1, 2026 · David Rubenstein Treehouse, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Opening
09:00–09:35 · Canopy Hall
George Daley — Dean, Harvard Medical School
“Opening remarks”
Key takeaway: Aging research has immense potential, but the field must resist hype, uphold rigor and communicate responsibly.
• Goal should be extending healthspan, not lifespan alone, as age-related disease burden rises globally.
• Optimistic claims in longevity often exceed what current science can support.
• Epigenetic clocks are exciting, but their causal link to aging is unclear; their clinical and ethical use is uncharted.
• Premature commercialization of cellular reprogramming risks repeating the unproven stem cell clinic era.
• Warned of “therapeutic misconception”; cited a recent death after an IV infusion of NAD marketed for anti-aging.
• Scientists should avoid financial conflicts of interest and communicate in measured, fact-based terms.
Jamie Justice — Executive Director, XPRIZE Healthspan
“Welcome & XPRIZE Healthspan overview”
Key takeaway: The $101M, seven-year XPRIZE Healthspan creates a standardized, transparent framework for early-stage healthy-aging trials.
• Teams must restore muscle, cognitive and immune function in older adults within a one-year trial; function is used as the measure of clinical benefit.
• Finalists run one-year trials on common protocols with centralized resources, enabling head-to-head comparison and biomarker development.
• 96% of semifinalist teams are now in early-stage clinical testing, up from ~65% the previous year.
• “Plurality of effect”: >70% of awarded teams showed effects across multiple functional systems.
• Top 20 finalists announced; 10 awarded a share of $10M to run one-year trials.
• Approaches span lifestyle, supplements, biologics, repurposed and novel drugs, and AI platforms; strong representation from North America and Asia.
Chair introductions by Evelyne Bischof, Alex Zhavoronkov, Vadim Gladyshev, Morten Scheibye-Knudsen and Jesse Poganik, followed by the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Policy, Regulation & Trials for Aging
09:35–10:50 · Canopy Hall
ADM Brian Christine — Assistant Secretary for Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
“Policy & regulatory address”
Key takeaway: Health policy should shift from reactively treating individual diseases to proactively preserving health and extending healthspan.
• The U.S. “health paradox”: great wealth and capability, but life expectancy lags peer nations amid rising obesity and diabetes.
• Targeting the biology of aging could delay multiple age-related diseases at once.
• Framed within the HHS “Make America Healthy Again” agenda: breaking down silos between NIH, FDA, CDC and other agencies.
• Government role: fund rigorous trials, develop biomarkers that predict meaningful outcomes (e.g., mobility), translate evidence into practice.
• Examples of updating practice: testosterone labeling after the TRAVERSE trial; removal of the boxed warning on menopausal hormone therapy.
• Peptides need rigorous study; personally supports access to safely compounded peptides in the meantime.
• Basic pillars: nutrient-dense diet (2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines), physical activity, muscle mass, sleep, avoiding tobacco.
Andrew Brack — Program Manager, Proactive Health, ARPA-H
“ProSPR: Building regulatory-grade endpoints and trials to develop medicines for healthspan”
Key takeaway: ProSPR is building validated functional measures, anchored in intrinsic capacity, to open a clear regulatory path for aging therapeutics.
• Central bottleneck: no clear FDA pathway for aging medicines. The endpoint landscape:
– Upstream biomarkers (e.g., epigenetic): fast-moving but not yet predictive of clinical outcomes.
– Hard endpoints (e.g., mortality): favored by FDA but slow and costly.
– Functional measures (e.g., grip strength): promising middle ground, but not standardized.
• Five-year program of up to $144M integrating academia, startups, pharma, FDA and CMS.
• Building a sex-specific ProSPR Intrinsic Capacity (ProSPR IC) score from harmonized longitudinal datasets (15 integrated so far), plus an at-home kit (Mike Snyder, Stanford; Buck Institute).
• Pursuing FDA qualification of a Clinical Outcome Assessment, which would be public and usable by any sponsor.
• Repurposing trial led by Elena Volpi (UT Health San Antonio): ~1,200 participants over three years testing dapagliflozin and GLP-1 agents; oral semaglutide arm started.
• Phase 1b novel therapeutics include Cambrian Bio’s mTORC1-selective rapalog, a GPER agonist, a brain-penetrant 17α-estradiol, and a LINE-1-targeting reverse transcriptase inhibitor (Gorbunova/Sedivy).
Panel: Matching Clinical Trials of Therapeutics & Regulatory Mandates — Moderated by Andrew Brack (ARPA-H)
Key takeaway: FDA officials signaled that progress does not hinge on calling aging a disease; validated, function-based endpoints and shared data are the way forward.
• Lowell Zeta (Acting Chief of Staff, Office of the Commissioner, FDA):
– Longevity and healthspan are high priorities for FDA and HHS.
– Defining aging as a disease is not necessary and conventional tools may constrain innovation; focus on endpoint science, including digital measures of function and “feeling well.”
• Steven Kozlowski (Chief Scientist, FDA):
– Proposed quantifying a shared “g factor” of aging underlying multiple chronic diseases as a pre-competitive, qualified endpoint.
– Called for large longitudinal control datasets, standardized mechanistic-evidence frameworks and a few reliable “anchor” markers.
– Aging and longevity will be a priority in FDA’s upcoming regulatory science focus areas; new trial guidance planned for early FY2027.
• Jeffrey Siegel (Director, Office of Drug Evaluation Sciences, FDA):
– Pathway 1: show benefit across two or three distinct age-related diseases.
– Pathway 2: a broad aging indication measured by a composite across functional domains (cognition, frailty, vision, etc.).
– Validated surrogates support traditional approval; “reasonably likely” surrogates can support accelerated approval with confirmatory trials.
• Justin Penzenstadler (Associate Director, Office of Cardiology, Hematology, Endocrinology and Nephrology, FDA):
– Near term: enriched older, multimorbid populations with hard endpoints, while collecting intrinsic capacity data to validate faster endpoints later.
– Repurposed drugs (SGLT2i, GLP-1s) need careful design so known cardiovascular benefits are not mistaken for broad aging effects.
– Urged a pre-competitive consortium to build a “cookbook” of validated biomarkers; best route to feedback is a protocol under an IND.
AI & Clinical Trials in Healthspan
13:00–14:00 · Canopy Hall · Moderator: Andrew Shin, Mass General Brigham
Elena Bonfiglioli — Global Business Leader, Healthcare & Pharma, Microsoft
“AI clinical trials and the longevity discovery loop”
Key takeaway: Agentic AI and privacy-preserving data ecosystems can link R&D, diagnostics, care and consumer health to enable earlier prevention.
• Discovery loop across four phases: research and drug discovery, diagnostics, care delivery and consumer health.
• Microsoft Discovery: agentic AI platform for reasoning, simulation and iteration over molecules.
• AI retrosynthesis work published in Nature with Novartis and GSK to predict synthesizability.
• Population programs: UK’s Our Future Health; Abu Dhabi (health authorities and M42) 360° longitudinal datasets to predict disease earlier.
• Emphasis on confidential computing, responsible AI and pre-competitive regional longevity data hubs.
• Consumer health: ~50M daily health queries; U.S.-only Health Copilot connected to wearables and EMRs.
• Mission: “Compress 250 years of research into the next 25.”
Wei-Wu He — CEO, Human Longevity, Inc.
“Human Longevity Longitudinal Cohort: From Genome to Digital Health Twin: Building the Future of Precision Longevity”
Key takeaway: Whole-genome sequencing plus AI enables earlier prediction and prevention of disease, potentially pushing average life expectancy toward 100.
• Next leap after germ theory: cheap, massive data (genomics, imaging) combined with AI.
• Clinical-grade whole-genome sequencing now ~$599.
• Heart attack risk is ~50–60% heritable; genomic analysis reported as 61% more sensitive than standard of care for predicting CAD.
• Genomics could flag predicted non-responders to GLP-1 drugs before costly treatment.
• Case: 72-year-old with positive methylation cancer test and negative colonoscopy; AI pointed to the appendix, where a 7 cm tumor was found; signal turned negative after surgery.
• Goal: reduce “sick span” (~15 years for a U.S. newborn girl) to one or two years.
Evelyne Bischof — Medical Director, Sheba Longevity Center
“Clinical Trials for Healthspan: Lessons from the ELITE Trial”
Key takeaway: Adaptive, responder-based trials that pair continuous digital phenotyping and omics with an AI copilot can tune polytherapy day by day.
• ELITE (XPRIZE Healthspan semifinalist): 31 participants, 8 weeks, N-of-1 approach.
• Two arms: metformin + GLP-1, or metformin + SGLT2 inhibitor, each with supplements and prebiotics; no lifestyle changes.
• Continuous phone/multispectral scans and daily micro-surveys; omics at weeks 0, 4 and 8.
• Significant gains in cognitive and muscular function and improved immune signals; favorable shifts in GlycanAge, proteomic, methylation and organ clocks and oral microbiome diversity.
• Two metformin reactions; retrospective pharmacogenomics suggested they were predictable.
• Next: a two-year definitive study adding lifestyle interventions.
• Biggest need for longevity doctors: an AI “orchestrator” acting as a virtual multidisciplinary team.
Healthspan in Leading Industries
14:00–15:00 · Canopy Hall · Moderator: Sri Devi Narasimhan, Cell Press
Stephanie Manson-Brown — Head of Clinical Development, AbbVie
“Connecting Aging Biology to Skin Health”
Key takeaway: Skin is a neuroendocrine immune organ; keeping it healthy may have systemic benefits for inflammation and cognition.
• Skin barrier breakdown (e.g., from UV) releases cytokines that can drive systemic inflammaging.
• Small studies: twice-daily emollients lowered circulating IL-6 and TNF-alpha.
• A three-year study in China: older adults using emollients twice daily avoided the cognitive decline seen in controls.
• Healthy adults over 60 share an inflammatory signature with atopic dermatitis patients.
• A 15-attribute lexicon now defines “skin quality”; validated objective tools and PROs are still lacking.
• GLP-1 paradox (“Ozempic face”): volume loss vs. reduced systemic inflammation; more research needed.
Laure Crabbe-Vert — Senior Life Science Innovation Manager, LVMH Research
“The Skin Aging Journey”
Key takeaway: An integrated pipeline from single-cell clocks to bioprinted skin and in vivo imaging is used to validate interventions against skin aging.
• Skin clocks built from single-nucleus transcriptomics (ages 25–80) with Vadim Gladyshev’s lab; keratinocytes and fibroblasts were most informative.
• With age: senescence markers (p16) rise; ECM, oxidative-stress detoxification and circadian pathways decline; inflammation rises.
• Bioprinted full-thickness skin models (with LabSkin Creations), including a new immunocompetent, vascularized model.
• Rose de Granville extract restored fibronectin after laser wounding and matched dexamethasone against chronic UV inflammation.
• Aged skin is markedly stiffer (atomic force microscopy); peptides plus the extract restored younger mechanics.
• LC-OCT “optical biopsies” plus AI estimate the age of the dermis in vivo.
Philipp Gut — Adult Health Lead, Nestlé Research
“Nutritional approaches to improve healthspan”
Key takeaway: Weight loss lowers biological age, but GLP-1 users face “hidden malnutrition” that calls for targeted nutritional support.
• Up to 40% of community-dwelling older adults may face malnutrition.
• UK Biobank: higher BMI tracks with accelerated biological aging; a one-year meal-replacement trial lowered PhenoAge.
• Survey of ~220 GLP-1 users: 20–40% lower food intake with no improvement in diet quality.
• 47% missed 1 g/kg protein, 75% missed 1.2 g/kg; >95% had inadequate vitamin D intake.
• NHANES: lower dietary nutrient density correlates with faster PhenoAge and worse survival.
• NAD+ precursors (NR, NMN) raised NAD+ and unexpectedly boosted microbial short-chain fatty acid production.
• New: Nestlé Nutrition Institute’s Longevity Academy and a five-year partnership with NTU Singapore.
Selected Short Talks (parallel track)
13:00–15:15
Anastasia Shindyapina — Staff Scientist, Retro Biosciences
“Scalable platform to produce hematopoietic stem cells”
• End-to-end iPSC-to-HSC pipeline; ~2–4M HSCs per mL of media at high purity.
• Derived HSCs engrafted in immunodeficient mice over 20 weeks (success varied across donor lines) and kept an epigenetic age of ~0.
• Telomeres lengthen at the iPSC stage and are preserved in HSCs.
• Multiple clones screened to minimize CHIP and oncogenic mutations (final product also screened); initial indication bone marrow failure, later immune aging.
Christopher Petty — Graduate Student, Sinclair Lab, Harvard Medical School
“Chemical epigenetic reprogramming mitigates signatures of aging”
• SL100, a chemical cocktail found by screening for nuclear-integrity restoration, lowers transcriptomic age.
• In aged mice: no toxicity after one month of oral dosing; blunted frailty; youthful frailty and blood clocks.
• In a progeroid Lmna model: preserved weight, fat and muscle, prevented kyphosis; trend toward longer lifespan.
• Engineered to avoid full reprogramming; no teratomas observed; no human dosing yet.
Michael Corley — Associate Professor, UC San Diego
“Same Target, Different Pharmacology, Different Aging Effects?”
• NRTIs also inhibit HERV-K and LINE-1; tenofovir comes as TAF or TDF.
• TAF (higher intracellular levels at a lower plasma dose) shifted epigenetic and transcriptomic clocks down and suppressed CD8 T-cell aging programs.
• TDF was neutral or adverse and raised GDF15, consistent with its bone and metabolic toxicities.
• Lesson: target engagement alone does not guarantee benefit; tissue pharmacology matters.
Wayne Mitchell — Instructor, Harvard Medical School
“CROP-seq CRISPRi and CRISPRa screens identify p53 knockdown”
• Single-cell CRISPR screen of 274 transcription factors in aged mouse fibroblasts; p53 knockdown consistently lowered transcriptomic age.
• Modest lifespan/healthspan gains in worms; ~20% median lifespan increase in female flies with mid-life knockdown, but shorter lifespan in males with lifelong knockdown.
• AAV9 p53 knockdown in mice reduced liver senescence, lowered heart transcriptomic age and strongly reduced frailty.
• Key caveat: cancer risk.
David Tingley — Co-founder, Olio Labs
“An experimental platform to accelerate aging research”
• 196 sensor-equipped cages produce ~5,000 hours of behavioral data per day.
• Behavioral clock predicts mouse age with ~14-day median absolute error.
• Detected effects of a rapamycin combination (11 days), calorie restriction (19 days) and GLP-1 drugs (8 days).
• Can run ~80 intervention studies in ~25 days; sleep architecture is a key feature.
Fridolin Haug — Graduate Student, Mass General Brigham / Harvard Medical School
“FaceAge as a biomarker of aging and health”
• Model trained on >30M photos estimates age from a single selfie.
• In >37,000 cancer patients, looking older predicted worse survival (HR 1.06 per year).
• Looking older associated with hypertension, depression, cancer and heart disease.
• A clinical trial is testing FaceAge to guide individualized treatment decisions.
John C. Martinez — Postdoctoral Researcher, Gorbunova Lab, University of Rochester
“Knockdown of LINE1 transposable elements extends lifespan”
• Systemic shRNA knockdown of the youngest L1 families (Rosa26-driven).
• Longer lifespan, lower frailty and reduced systemic inflammation in old mice.
• Males fertile at 18–24 months; females fertile to ~12–13 months vs. ~9 months in controls, with more follicles and less fibrosis.
Dan Liu — Longevity Virtual Cell R&D Center, Tsinghua University
“Cross-Species Single-Cell AI Identifies Multi-Target Interventions”
• Integrates human, mouse, dog and C. elegans single-cell data to rank conserved, druggable targets.
• A two-agent treatment improved ovarian markers (more secondary follicles, higher AMH) in aging mice; fertility not tested.
• A dual-target intervention lowered frailty and raised grip strength beyond single-target treatment.
Aging Research and Pharma R&D Productivity
15:30–16:30 · Canopy Hall · Moderator: Lisa Melton, Nature Biotechnology
Michael Li — Assistant Professor, Harvard Business School
“Insilico’s Rentosertib Dilemma”
Key takeaway: AI speeds discovery but shifts the bottleneck to clinical development; portfolio decisions must weigh the value of information for future AI learning.
• HBS case on Insilico Medicine’s AI-discovered TNIK inhibitor rentosertib for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: license out or self-develop?
• AI discovery: ~1.5 years vs. ~6.5 traditionally, at perhaps one-third of the cost.
• Ten similar trials ≈ one unique data point for model learning; prioritize assets that generate novel data.
• Phase 3 estimated at ≥$91M, roughly Insilico’s total prior R&D spend (≈18 targets to PCC).
• Phase 2a signals: improved lung function trajectories and favorable proteomic aging clock effects.
• Insilico kept the asset; Phase 3 initiated July 2026 (planned N=320, 52 weeks).
• Insilico response (Alex Zhavoronkov): kept the asset to retain data and publish openly; more than 40 follow-on drugs on similar paths.
Alexander Schuhmacher — Professor, Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt
“Rethinking Pharma R&D Performance”
Key takeaway: Sustainable R&D productivity requires balancing efficiency and effectiveness, investing in internal capabilities and cutting commercially unsuccessful launches.
• Dataset: 18 top pharma companies, ~17 years, ~2,000 candidates, ~20,000 trials, 274 FDA approvals.
• Average likelihood of first approval: 14.3%, with wide variation between companies.
• 65% of drugs launched by leading companies originated externally.
• About one-third of approved drugs never recouped their own R&D costs; internally discovered drugs had higher commercial value on average.
• Only blockbusters reliably sustain the research-driven big pharma model.
• Recommendations: pair AI efficiency gains with effectiveness, build absorptive capacity through internal research, reduce unsuccessful launches.
Michael Ringel — COO, Life Biosciences
“Epigenetic Restoration to Reverse Age-Related Diseases”
Key takeaway: ER-100, an OSK-based epigenetic reprogramming therapy, restores visual function preclinically and is now in Phase 1.
• Targets glaucoma and NAION, both of which damage retinal ganglion cells.
• Reverts DNA methylation toward a youthful pattern via OSK (Oct4, Sox2, Klf4) expression.
• Non-human primates: pattern ERG recovered toward baseline after induced damage.
• Mice: optic nerve axon regrowth after crush; vision restored to baseline in a glaucoma model.
• GLP NHP toxicology showed no significant adverse events; Phase 1 dosing began Q1 2026; first-cohort data being presented at AAO.
• Preclinical signals in MASH, RPE cells (AMD), brain, heart, endothelium and cartilage.
Clinical Healthspan Trials and Practice
16:30–17:30 · Canopy Hall · Moderator: Barbara Cheifet, Nature Biotechnology
Vishwa Deep Dixit — Professor, Yale School of Medicine
“Inflammaging Checkpoints”
Key takeaway: Cysteine restriction, not methionine restriction, drives longevity effects via adipose thermogenesis, and taurine acts as a metabolic signal regulating the NLRP3 inflammasome.
• NLRP3 inflammasome in tissue macrophages drives IL-1β/IL-18 inflammation and predicts mortality.
• CALERIE participants achieved ~14% calorie restriction (target 25%); adipose metabolomics pointed most strongly to taurine/cysteine metabolism.
• In animal models, cysteine restriction caused ~30% weight loss in six days by converting white fat to thermogenic brown fat.
• Earlier methionine restriction diets also lacked cysteine; new worm data show cysteine, not methionine, restriction extends lifespan.
• Cystine was the top metabolite predictor of mortality in a large human cohort.
• Taurine inhibits NLRP3 in old mice; taurine efflux from macrophages is the metabolic sensor regulating NLRP3 assembly.
James Kirkland — Professor, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
“New Clinical Trials Strategies for Gerotherapeutics”
Key takeaway: Small, coordinated trials are showing safety and early efficacy of targeting fundamental aging processes while building responsive biomarker sets.
• “Intermediate hypothesis”: targeting one fundamental aging process can beneficially affect many others.
• Translational Geroscience Network: year seven, 13 U.S. centers, central biobank (~45,000 samples/year) and data and statistics core; 128 trials underway.
• Biomarker strategy: intervention-responsive body-fluid markers suitable as surrogates, not predictive clocks; alpha-Klotho increased in all 20 participants of an IPF senolytic trial.
• Across ~25 senolytic trials in older, multimorbid participants: no serious adverse events reported for certain senolytics.
• Early signals strongest in participants with the highest senescent cell burden (hints of MoCA improvement in MCI/early Alzheimer’s; osteoporosis phase 2a); improved biopsy scores in non-alcoholic cirrhosis.
• Next: biomarker-guided adaptive trials, donor-kidney rehabilitation for transplant, perioperative delirium, influenza and N-of-1 healthspan clinic trials.
Nicole Sirotin — CEO, Institute for Healthier Living Abu Dhabi
“Advancing Longevity Therapeutics Through Clinical Trials”
Key takeaway: Abu Dhabi’s government-backed ecosystem combines population genomics, data infrastructure and trial capacity for longevity medicine.
• >800,000 Emiratis sequenced, 400,000 with genomes linked to clinical data; Malafi health exchange holds >5M records.
• Described as the world’s first government-mandated regulatory framework for healthy longevity medicine, with the Department of Health and the Healthy Longevity Medicine Society.
• Projects: polygenic risk score validation with the Buck Institute; Ramadan fasting study with Harvard and Oura; Human Phenotype Project with Weizmann’s 10K project.
• Model-of-care study (22-week intervention) funded by the national insurer could become a scalable care bundle.
• Invited international partners to run multi-site trials in Abu Dhabi.
Talk: GLP-1 and Healthy Ageing
18:10–18:30 · Canopy Hall
Nikolaj Roed — Global Project Leader, Novo Nordisk
“GLP-1 and healthy ageing”
Key takeaway: Clinical, observational and proteomic data support semaglutide as a contributor to healthspan; muscle health and women’s health are key unmet needs.
• Disclosure: Novo Nordisk employee and shareholder.
• UK cohort applying SELECT criteria: lifelong semaglutide estimated to add ~2 years of life.
• Reduced risk of infection-related outcomes, including COVID; cancer effects appear type-dependent.
• SELECT: benefits consistent across frailty levels; the frailest reported the largest quality-of-life gains (not proposed as a frailty treatment).
• Proteomic clocks: 2–3 years lower biological age, with onset at 13–20 weeks.
• Unmet needs: muscle health (frailty, sarcopenia, malnutrition) and women’s health; study underway comparing hormone therapy, semaglutide and both combined.
• Whether GLP-1 counts as a “longevity” therapy remains debatable.
Organizer,
13th Aging Research and Drug Discovery Meeting
* * ~
ARDD 2026 — Day One Recap: Additional Sessions
Dear Scott Gordon Kenneth MacLeod,
ARDD 2026 — Day One Recap: Additional Sessions
Aging Research and Drug Discovery Meeting · Thursday, October 1, 2026 · David Rubenstein Treehouse, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Clinical Trials in Diseases of Aging: From Evidence to New Therapeutics and Regulatory Pathways
11:20–12:00 · Canopy Hall · Panel
Sebastien Thuault (moderator) — Editor, Nature Medicine
Key takeaway: Panelists saw several routes to approval for aging-related therapies, from surrogate endpoints and comorbidity-focused trials to patient-relevant function measures, and agreed that biomarkers must be tied to outcomes people can feel.
• Steven Quay (Founder & CEO, Atossa Therapeutics):
– HHS and FDA are receptive to novel approaches in aging.
– Developing mammographic breast density as a surrogate marker for breast cancer prevention via accelerated approval: conditional market access on the surrogate, with hard endpoints confirmed later.
– “Wedding cake” approach: define the indication, population and condition, then select a biomarker suitable for accelerated approval.
– Patient-reported outcomes can show benefit within 2–3 weeks, which can support access.
• Jill Lee (Director, Regulatory Policy, Novo Nordisk):
– The field is trailblazing, with many open questions; the ultimate goal is preventing chronic disease.
– Three paths: develop aging biomarker pathways; target aging-related comorbidities (obesity is linked to more than 200 age-related conditions); and prioritize measures of how patients feel, function and survive, likely faster than validating new biomarkers.
– Example: the cardiovascular benefits of GLP-1 drugs were discovered in diabetes safety trials.
• Calum MacRae (Professor, Mass General Brigham):
– Called for inverting the pyramid from a disease-centric focus to healthspan.
– Adherence is a major challenge: only 55% of patients remain on statins one year after a heart attack; perceived benefit drives uptake, as seen with GLP-1 drugs.
– Cardiology took decades to turn cholesterol and blood pressure from risk markers into targets, and some LDL-lowering agents worsened outcomes, so surrogates must be linked to outcomes.
– Molecular insights should connect to measures people can feel or see, such as sleep metrics and intrinsic capacity.
• Steve Horvath (Professor, UCLA):
– Advocates recognizing aging as a disease, with clear definitions.
– Molecular biomarkers are essential alongside functional and disease assessments.
– Companies are reluctant to collect extra biomarker data for fear of negative signals, so incentives are needed to collect it in interventional trials.
– A qualified surrogate endpoint for aging may be achievable within about 10 years.
– Proposed tiered, pre-specified biomarker panels in trials (Tier 1 must-have, Tier 2 nice-to-have), drawing on DNA methylation, proteomics, metabolomics and imaging.
From Healthspan Trials to Clinical Practice: Building the Path to Patient Access
17:30–18:10 · Canopy Hall · Panel
Michael Basson (moderator) — Editor, Nature Medicine
Key takeaway: Personalized, preventive healthspan care is emerging, but it needs standardized outcomes, shared data and reimbursement frameworks to scale and to reduce disparities.
• David Dodick (CMO, Atria Health; Professor, Mayo Clinic):
– Atria Health Institute is building a preventive ecosystem with deep phenotyping, with a focus on preventive neurology and brain health.
– Three tiers of measures: conventional endpoints (glucose, blood pressure, cholesterol, sleep, weight, cognition, coronary CT angiography, cancer screening); emerging disease biomarkers (p-tau217, polygenic risk scores) as research; and aging biomarkers (epigenetic and proteomic organ clocks) as research.
– Process of deep phenotyping, risk stratification, early intervention and multidisciplinary follow-up, with a de-identified registry intended as a “Framingham for prevention”; aims to scale to Medicare Advantage and employer plans.
– Running an IRB-approved trial of GLP-1 effects on a proteomic brain clock; uses evidence-informed, risk-adjusted off-label treatment for high-risk patients.
– Wearables are mostly motivating; the team is building dashboards that integrate wearable and EHR data with preset alerts.
• Sara Bonnes (Professor, Mayo Clinic):
– Longevity medicine lacks clinical standards, and reimbursement is difficult when aging is not a disease.
– Focuses on healthspan, patient goals and avoiding harm; primary care time constraints make communication central.
– Wearables help many patients but can harm some, for example those with eating disorders or body image concerns, so the approach must be tailored.
– Objective data such as body composition can reveal gaps between reported and actual exercise: “This doesn’t let you lie.”
• Erwin Tan (Senior Director, AARP):
– AARP’s geroscience principles focus on healthspan and avoid labeling aging a disease because of the risk of ageism; perceptions of aging affect health.
– AARP provides a consumer voice and aims to democratize interventions and reduce disparities.
– Brain health motivates lifestyle change; AARP’s Global Council on Brain Health produces accessible summaries for the public.
– Interested in scaling clinic insights into remote tools for broader population engagement.
Selected Short Talks
13:00–13:15 · Parallel track
Albert Higgins-Chen — Assistant Professor, Yale University
“The POLARIS Platform for Omics, Longevity and Aging Biomarker Insights”
• POLARIS is an ecosystem of five interconnected tools to help researchers select, interpret and understand aging biomarkers, especially DNA methylation clocks, for clinical trials.
• methylCIPHER v2: software that calculates up to 143 DNA methylation clocks, with metadata to guide selection.
• A benchmarking platform evaluates clocks across 179 datasets on four dimensions: stability, treatment response, associations and risk prediction (STAR).
• Treatment response arm: covers 88 interventions; mortality and pace-of-aging clocks such as GrimAge and DunedinPACE were the most responsive. Results are available on an interactive website.
• CpG Atlas: a SQL database annotating individual CpG sites, queryable in natural language, to explain the biology behind clocks.
• CpG Library: a curated library of 2,500 papers on aging biomarkers, mined with LLMs, with an AI chat function.
• The platform is continuously updated by AI agents with human review.
XPRIZE Healthspan: Meet the Finalists — Group A: Multimodal & Clinical Approaches
09:35–10:00 · Parallel workshop · Cedar Grove
Stefanie Morgan — VP Operations & Applied Science, AgelessRx
“AgelessRx: a multimodal approach to improving healthspan”
• Premise: monotherapy is insufficient for the multimodal nature of aging.
• 90-day randomized pilot with three arms: placebo, a medium-sized intervention and a comprehensive “more is more” stack.
• Safety: blood biomarkers stayed within healthy ranges, with no clinically concerning adverse effects.
• Both intervention arms improved biological age on a plasma proteomics test versus placebo; in the comprehensive arm, 5 of 6 participants had lower biological age.
• DEXA: lean mass improved in both intervention arms; bone mineral density improved in the comprehensive arm.
• SF-36 well-being scores improved significantly in both intervention arms versus placebo.
• The finals trial will use the comprehensive stack, with low-dose GLP-1s and sermorelin added after other internal trials.
Zahi Fayad — Director, BioMedical Engineering, Mount Sinai
“NYC VITA 2030: a randomized trial to improve healthspan by targeting inflammation”
• Targets chronic low-grade systemic inflammation as a primary driver of aging.
• Intervention: exercise (two 20-minute HIIT and three 40-minute resistance sessions per week, guided by videos and wearables), spermidine (40 mg daily) and weekly rapamycin.
• A pilot confirmed positive signals from each component; an antiviral drug was dropped after showing no effect.
• Design: 365-day, 2:1 randomized trial with 180 participants (120 intervention, 60 control receiving lifestyle counseling).
• XPRIZE success requires improvement in all three domains: muscle (six-minute walk and power), cognition (4 of 6 tests) and immune age, which the speaker called a very high bar.
Judith Klein-Seetharaman — Professor, Arizona State University
“ASU Team Healthspan: a multimodal intervention and a new integrated age metric”
• Centerpiece is oxygen as hormetic stress: hyperbaric oxygen therapy and simulated altitude.
• Adds AI-governed adaptive resistance training, a multimodal recovery protocol and personalized nutrition guided by metabolomics and a digital twin model.
• Collects more than 500 parameters, including digital biomarkers, blood assays, multi-omics and physiological measures.
• Developed “reserve energy,” an integrated age metric derived from age-dependent physiological biomarkers, to capture declining intrinsic capacity.
• Over an 8-week intervention, most participants improved on reserve energy; strong gains in muscle function and a significant improvement in Rapid Visual Information Processing (CANTAB).
Bruno Balen — Founder, ANI AI
“ANI AI: adaptive polytherapy and a world model of human biology”
• Eight-week, non-adaptive pilot at Sheba Medical Center in Israel combining GLP-1-class drugs, GLP-2, metformin and proprietary supplements, with no lifestyle changes.
• Very deep profiling: multi-omics, glycomics, metagenomics, functional and cognitive tests, and daily multispectral scans with an in-house device.
• Responses were strong but heterogeneous: about half of participants improved in two domains and about one-third (“super responders”) in all three XPRIZE domains.
• No participant showed agreement across all aging clocks tested; argued for treating clocks as multidimensional rather than a single number.
• Proposes AI as therapy: per-person in silico trials using a world model of human biology, a 90-second daily digital check-in (97.7% adherence reported), and treatment adapted mid-trial.
Panel Discussion: Group A — Multimodal & Clinical Approaches
10:05–10:25 · Parallel workshop · Cedar Grove · Panel
Group A finalists — AgelessRx, NYC VITA, ASU Team Healthspan, GOQii, ANI AI
Key takeaway: Multimodal interventions cannot yet be separated into the effects of individual components, so teams are measuring the combined effect and expect AI models to untangle individual contributions later.
• Isolating effects: factorial designs would be ideal but are too complex and costly now; trials test the combination against controls.
• Antagonism vs. synergy: one team tested its combination empirically and found the effects complementary; another deliberately chose a small number of orthogonal modalities to limit risk.
• Bruno Balen (ANI AI):
– Called drug interactions a “mess” that cannot be predicted without data; deep, repeated omics plus AI world models can reconstruct the biology, and near-real-time measurement allows dynamic adjustment.
• Partnerships: needed for financing and running trials; requests included a wearable and sensor company and compute partners for AI costs.
• Commercialization: one team pointed to existing commercial operations and approved therapeutics as a shorter path to return; NYC VITA emphasized scalable modalities (exercise, rapamycin, spermidine); one team plans a Series A in early 2027.
XPRIZE Healthspan: Meet the Finalists — Group B: Drugs & Biologics
10:25–10:55 · Parallel workshop · Cedar Grove
Reenie McCarthy — CEO, Mighty Therapeutics
“Mitochondrial All Stars: targeting mitochondrial dysfunction to improve healthspan”
• Mitochondrial dysfunction is a central driver of aging; age disrupts the cardiolipin-dependent inner mitochondrial membrane.
• Elamipretide is the first FDA-approved mitochondria-targeted therapy (accelerated approval for Barth syndrome) and normalizes mitochondrial structure and function in preclinical models.
• In a fully enrolled Phase 3 trial in dry AMD, it showed a protective effect on photoreceptors.
• SHAPE trial (4 weeks, open-label, 23 older adults, with the University of Washington): improvements in strength, six-minute walk, peak VO2, cognition and inflammatory markers.
• Finals study: 120 participants with the University of Washington, expected to begin enrolling in 2026.
Takahiro Karasaki — Associate Professor, University of Tokyo
“Goda Lab: engineering extracellular vesicles for rejuvenation”
• Natural extracellular vesicles (EVs) from young plasma can rejuvenate aged mice, but deliver poorly to target cells.
• “Super EVs” have engineered surfaces that improve targeting and uptake.
• Rejuvenation in vitro comparable to rapamycin; in aged mice, hair regeneration and improved frailty index; in fruit flies, average lifespan extended by four days.
• No major safety concerns in mice; plans to engineer EVs from cultured stem cells for aged individuals; seeking clinical development partners.
Brian Rash — VP Research & Discovery, Longeveron
“Longeveron: laromestrocel for aging frailty and Alzheimer’s disease”
• Laromestrocel is an allogeneic, off-the-shelf bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cell infusion with anti-inflammatory and pro-vascular effects; given to 644 participants across six randomized trials.
• Aging frailty Phase 2b: 63-meter (~20%) improvement in six-minute walk distance.
• Alzheimer’s Phase 2a (CLEAR MIND): 48% slower brain atrophy on MRI and improved MoCA scores versus placebo; brain inflammation (free water) stayed flat versus a rise with placebo.
• Finals trial planned for mid-2027.
Bae Hoon Kim — Research Director, PRG S&T
“RPRGAON-Progeria: targeting progerin to address aging”
• Progerin, a toxic lamin A variant that deforms the nucleus, drives Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome and is also found in naturally aged people.
• In progeria mice, treatment removed progerin, restored the nuclear envelope, doubled body weight, recovered muscle strength by 80% and extended lifespan by 60%.
• Phase 1 safety trials are complete.
• Plans a Phase 2 trial in the U.S. and South Korea, possibly from Q2 2027, and a five-subject Werner syndrome study at the University of Michigan.
Tomonari Abe — CEO, Abeyoando Pharma Co.
“Abeyoando Pharma: Yojyo Plus, bridging longevity science and daily health habits”
• Yojyo Plus is a 28-ingredient daily supplement designed to target the 12 hallmarks of aging, including NMN, ginsenoside, spermidine and Okinawa fucoidan.
• In a 42-day, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of 42 people, functional age fell by 2.8 years (vs. 0.6 with placebo) and PhenoAge by 4.1 years.
• A weaker effect on immune function led to an AI-guided formula revision; the next trial will enroll 125 people for one year.
• Opening a $7.5 million seed round.
Eunjae Yang — Principal Investigator, Lono Jaeyak Inc.
“Lono Jaeyak: cellular rejuvenation with senotherapeutic cocktails”
• Single-pathway interventions fail because senescence is sustained by multiple interacting pathways.
• Synthetic and natural cocktails target four senescence pathways at once.
• Restored proliferation in senescent cells, reduced epigenetic age by 10–27 years, normalized gene expression and rejuvenated MSCs from an 86-year-old donor.
• Aims to use rejuvenated autologous MSCs for regenerative medicine.
Panel Discussion: Group B — Drugs & Biologics
11:00–11:20 · Parallel workshop · Cedar Grove · Panel
Group B finalists — Mitochondrial All Stars, Goda Lab, Longeveron, RPRGAON-Progeria, Abeyoando Pharma, Lono Jaeyak
Key takeaway: Teams described their regulatory footing, partnership needs and closing messages.
• Reenie McCarthy (Mighty Therapeutics):
– FDA acceptance of an imaging marker of photoreceptor function in dry AMD offers a hard endpoint for an aging-related disease.
– Revenue from the approved Barth syndrome product helps, but additional trial funding is welcome; closing message: “recharging bioenergetics” to add life to years.
• Goda Lab:
– Super EVs affected multiple aging phenotypes (frailty, hair regeneration, fly lifespan), evidence of a broad platform rather than a single disease pathway.
• Brian Rash (Longeveron):
– Preparing to meet FDA on endpoints for aging frailty; manufactures in-house at its Miami GMP facility; open to partnerships; stressed rigorous randomized designs.
• Bae Hoon Kim (PRG S&T):
– Measuring progerin in natural aging requires a more sensitive plasma assay; the company is pre-IPO and seeking co-development and licensing partners.
• Tomonari Abe (Abeyoando Pharma):
– Seeking investors and research partners; cited diet’s effect on Okinawan longevity.
Organizer,
13th Aging Research and Drug Discovery Meeting
* * ~
ARDD 2026 — Day Two Recap
| ARDD 2026 — Day Two Recap |
| ARDD 2026 <event-noreply@whova.io> | Sat, Oct 3, 2026 at 4:31 AM | |
Reply-To: stephanie@insilicomedicine.com To: president@worlduniversityandschool.org | ||
* * ~
ARDD 2026 — Day Three Recap
| ARDD 2026 — Day Three Recap |
| ARDD 2026 <event-noreply@whova.io> | Sun, Oct 4, 2026 at 4:29 AM | |
Reply-To: stephanie@insilicomedicine.com To: president@worlduniversityandschool.org | ||
*
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuyi_Mountains
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wuyi_Mountains
....
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment