From the Editor
Eve Herold
Editor-in-Chief
Welcome to the Healthspan Compass, your window on the world of healthspan in all its facets! This issue features lots of exciting news about leading-edge therapies in development and offers a deep layer of original HSAC content along with a splash of perspective here and there. Watch a free Healthspan Compass Podcast episode that offers a tour-de-force overview of stem cell research and its surprising history. Then learn what zombie cells, aging clocks and cancer have in common, and read about one HSAC member’s next-generation work that landed them in the XPRIZE Healthspan semi-finalist category. Follow that with research that found a new superpower for music, news creating hope for millions of sight-impaired people and more. If you enjoy the Compass, pass it on to your friends and colleagues!
Healthspan Action Coalition is a proud member of Research!America and the International Federation on Ageing, demonstrating our commitment to advancing health research and supporting healthy aging worldwide.
Podcast: The Connection Between WWII, the Bomb, and Stem Cells
If you haven’t discovered it yet, the Healthspan Compass podcast brings leading scientists, policy experts and other movers and shakers together to discuss all things healthspan. Our talented hosts, Sanjay Bhorjraj, a cardiologist at Providence St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, CA and stem cell researcher and Founder of Hoya Consulting, Heather Main, who was formerly at cell and gene therapy network ATMP Sweden, bring a wealth of knowledge, insight and curiosity to in-depth interviews with leading experts in regenerative and healthspan medicine. In this episode, we acknowledge that stem cell therapies are rapidly maturing to the point of new treatments, but how did we get here? Dive into an eye-opening story about the very inception of the discovery of human stem cells and the evolution of this revolutionary science. This newly released episode features a fascinating discussion about the discovery and science of stem cells with researcher Kirsty Spalding at Karolinska Insituet from both a historical and scientific standpoint.
Zombie Cells and Aging Clocks
Senescent cells are the “walking dead” of the body. Dying, but not dead, functionally defunct and eking out a kind of morbid half-life in a long, drawn-out suicide, these aged cells secrete toxic molecules that literally poison adjacent cells, causing them to degrade and even self-destruct. Normally, we wouldn’t want our cells to die, but senescent cells have overstayed their welcome, and start to play a destructive role in disease and overall aging. Now, a team of Chinese scientists is focusing on teasing apart the role of senescent cells in tumorigenesis, including how they lead to chronic inflammation, a major culprit in aging. The interdisciplinary team used an aging clock to establish the stage of the senescent cells in the body and identified proteins that regulate the process. They propose that this information can be used to target the sick and dying cells with senolytics, and suggest that this can be used as a potential therapy for treating or preventing cancer. According to corresponding authors Haixing Ju, Weifeng Hong and Ji Zhu in a paper published in Molecular Cancer, their groundbreaking work marries senescence biology with geroscience and oncology. Their hope is that adding aging clocks to the mix could lead to targeted, personalized treatments for cancer, potentially transforming cancer care for the over twenty million new cancer cases reported by the World Health Organization in 2022 alone. Could aging clocks based on aging biomarkers someday be a part of routine checkups to determine the risk for age-related diseases and to stop these conditions in their tracks?
Member Spotlight: Immunis Designated XPRIZE Finalist for Cell-Derived Biologics
Big problems need big solutions, and the international XPRIZE offers one of the most coveted awards that seeks to incentivize moon-shot initiatives to solve some of the planet’s most pressing problems. Extending the healthspan is one of them. HSAC is proud to announce that five of our members have made it into this year’s semifinalist category! Each organization has been awarded $250,000 to support research that’s ultimately eligible for a large portion of the total $101 million purse allotted for healthspan.
HSAC member and XPRIZE semi-finalist Immunis is testing the use of biologics to address age-related conditions like immune-system decline and muscle wasting. The organization has won multiple accolades in 2025 alone, including the National Academy of Medicine’s Healthy Longevity Catalyst Award, designation as one of the “Top 25 Biotech & Life Sciences Companies for 2025 by The Healthcare Technology Report,” and is the winner of Global Health and Pharma’s Biotechnology and Lifesciences awards for “BioTech Company of the Year 2025 – California.” Check out our conversation with the company’s Chairman and founder, veteran stem cell researcher Hans Keirstead, to learn more about several ongoing trials involving the use of secretomes—a class of biologics that harnesses the power of cell-secreted factors that, unlike traditional drugs, perform multiple actions. While derived from human cells, Keirstead says that Immunis’ secretomes are creating more scalable, affordable treatments than cell therapies. Read on for more details about how this potentially transformative technology is showing promise for addressing common age-driven conditions like immune malfunction, sarcopenia and declining cognition.
This is Your Brain on Music
Albert Einstein said that “If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.” Music can be soothing, energizing or inspiring, and now evidence has emerged that it may also protect the brain from dementia in individuals over 70. That’s according to Monash professor Joanne Ryan and student Emma Jaffe, who analyzed data from two large longitudinal studies. It’s been known for decades that musical memories are some of the last to decline in people with Alzheimer’s, but new evidence suggests that listening to it on a regular basis could actually protect older people from developing dementia in the first place. Ryan and Jaffe obtained the data of 10,800 older people, divided into one group that frequently listened to music and another one that never or seldom did so. The incredible results: The group that listened to music had a nearly 40 percent lower incidence of developing dementia. Data were gleaned from the ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly study (ASPREE) and ASPREE Longitudinal Study of Older Persons (ALSOP), and appears in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. While association doesn’t necessarily prove causation, the researchers suggest that music may protect the brain by stimulating multiple brain regions that support memory, emotions and attention, giving the organ a therapeutic workout that can stave off dementia. The effect was also observed in people who played a musical instrument. Could listening to music accompanied with some type of exercise, another brain-booster, offer even greater protection?
Repurposed Drugs and Aging
One of the biggest advantages of searching for ways to repurpose drugs already approved by the Federal Food and Drug Administration is that the drugs have already been through safety trials and crossed some of the hurdles needed to introduce them to human populations. This makes them available for further human trials and off-label prescribing and is already true of repurposed drugs being investigated for life- and healthspan-extension; the diabetes drug Metformin is a well-known example. Now, another diabetes drug, Henagliflozin, has been approved in China and is being investigated for improved longevity and healthspan. Researchers there have found that the drug appears to lengthen telomeres and boost levels of Peroxisome, a key protein for regulating mitochondrial function and cellular energy use. It’s theorized that Henagliflozin may suppress the chronic inflammation of aging and boost immune function. It appears to revitalize aging cells by catalyzing an enzyme that helps regulate the body’s energy balance, according to cell therapy pioneer and luminary William Haseltine, in an article in Forbes. Haseltine writes that the drug “gently raises levels of certain ketones, chemicals naturally produced when the body burns fat for fuel. These effects mimic what happens in the body with healthy diets and fasting,” both established as healthspan-extending practices. With Henagiflozin and other versatile, multi-acting drugs, we’re inching closer to the day when medications to delay the aging process enter the mainstream.
A Sims Card for Aging Eyes
The incurable eye disease age-related macular degeneration currently limits the healthspan of about 200 million people worldwide. It’s one of the reasons that older people lose independence as well as the ability to read, recognize faces and do myriad things that profoundly impact quality of life. By 2040, experts expect the incidence of AMD to explode to 300 million people, given the aging of populations throughout the developed world. For the “dry” form of the disease, in which the all-important cells at the center of the retina and thus the visual field, simply atrophy and die, there’s no remedy. That is, until now. In my 2016 book, Beyond Human, I wrote about the promise of converging medical technologies used with retinal implants to restore sight. It’s gratifying to see that the technology has recently completed a successful clinical trial in Europe. In a New England Journal of Medicine article, published by a five-country research team led by Frank Holz at the University of Bonn, human trials of a tiny subretinal photovoltaic implant that converts light signals to electrical impulses has restored sight in a group of older people affected by AMD. The implant, which is about half the thickness of a human hair, interacts with augmented-reality glasses and a computer worn on a belt to send signals to the brain that the brain interprets as vision. Out of the 38 patients who received the implant, 84 percent were able to read letters, numbers and words and to recognize faces. As encouraging as these results are, this system is the Model T of visual augmentation and entails extensive therapy to be used successfully. Expect to see the technology refined to the point where components will be miniaturized and combined in ways that make the process more effective and less cumbersome, allowing AMD patients to live more independent, satisfying lives.
Aging, Disability, and a Tangled Web of Benefit Eligibility
The US government is planning to delete age as a criterion in adjudicating applications for Social Security Supplemental Income (SSI) disability benefits, a move that threatens to further stress the solvency of the regular Social Security retirement program that millions of older Americans depend on. The disability program already denies 65 percent of benefit applications, and that’s with the current system, where eligibility goes up after the age of 50. ProPublica reports that the changes are as politically tone-deaf as they are extreme. Eligibility requirements are being rewritten to exclude age and fail to take into account the higher levels of disability among millions of voters in labor-intensive professions like factory work and other blue-collar jobs. These workers tend to have higher rates of disability in their later years compared to the general population. The administration claims that disabled older people now have advanced technologies to help them function, but provides no assistance in obtaining or utilizing these technologies. Ironically, the move threatens to further deplete the Social Security system of retirement benefits because large numbers of disabled people will be forced to tap into early retirement funds, which can be collected at a limited level at age 62. All of this portends future diminished retirement income for life, and will oblige recipients to file for SNAP benefits, assuming they’re still available, and other forms of assistance. It’s a tangled web indeed.
UPCOMING EVENTS
NOVEMBER 13-16, 2025
Healthspan Action Coalition Member
Endorsed Conference
Eudēmonia Summit
2025
November 13-16, 2025
At the Hilton in West Palm Beach
An unparalleled lineup of experts on the frontiers of health and longevity, a wide range of daily classes, workouts and treatments, and interactive exhibits from cutting-edge brands.
NOVEMBER 16-21, 2025
Healthspan Action Coalition Member
Endorsed Conference
Human Rights in the Amercicas Symposium
November 16-21, 2025
At Lakeside Village, University of Miami - 1280 Stanford Drive, Coral Gables, FL 33146
Melissa King will be attending
Healthspan Action Coalition is a proud sponsor of this event.