LIVE LONG AND PROSPER: ‘Longevity’ Science Could Reach Billions In 2019 – And Is No Longer Just The Preserve of Billionaires.
The hard science goes like this. Scientists, entrepreneurs and philanthropists are now re-thinking aging and our assumptions that chronic diseases – like arthritis – are the inevitable by-products of aging. The latest research unlocking the cellular basis of aging shows that we can prevent or slow down chronic diseases. Aubrey De Grey, the maverick bio-engineer who pioneered rejuvenation medicine, argues that aging is just a set of accumulated side effects from metabolism that eventually kills us off, and so we need strategies to minimize cellular death, improve the rate of repair and/or stop mutations going awry (as with cancer) to stay younger for longer.
Intriguing possibilities are emerging. Old drugs like rapamycin (used to prevent organ transplant rejection) and metformin (a gold standard in diabetes management to control blood sugar) are finding new uses to delay aging. Over 100 new drugs have also been found to extend lifespans of mice, with specific “senolytic” drug cocktails, for example, combining dasatinib (used to treat leukaemia), and quercetin (a plant chemical often found in red wine and kale), shown to kill off senescent cells. Unity Biotechnology, a company specializing in development of senolytics recently completed a successful IPO and the results of the clinical trials will soon show the effects of this new class of “geroprotectors” in humans.
This quest for drugs to extend longevity is not confined to big companies focused on keeping their shareholders happy. In 2018 several start-ups came out of the stealth mode including the Harvard spin-off Elevian, a company targeting age-related muscle wasting and another company with the ties to Harvard, Life Biosciences working as an accelerator for multiple longevity-oriented subsidiaries.
A recent call by Y-Combinator focusing on longevity means that we will see a plethora of young start-ups coming through in 2019. Increasing number of venture funds, holding companies and venture funds including Juvenescence, Apollo Ventures, Longevity Vision Fund, Life Biosciences, Deep Knowledge Ventures and Longevity Fund are funding and incubating a large number of promising companies in the longevity space.
Faster, please. Related: The Longevity Dividend.