A Special Message from the Editor
Eve Herold
Editor-in-Chief
Before we launch into news on the healthspan front, let’s acknowledge the elephant in the room. US health agencies, including the National Institutes of Health and the FDA, are currently in a state of limbo as the dust settles on a new and aggressively change-oriented administration. The entire healthcare field awaits the outcome of leadership confirmations and a freeze on grants to nonprofit organizations was announced and then partially rescinded. By the time you read this, we may have a new director of Health and Human Services, which could dramatically alter the landscape, and uncertainty abounds. Nevertheless, there have been important developments in the healthspan world. Read on for news on a new longevity app, a possible shift in our understanding of aging, surgical robots and major developments from ARPA-H. Follow that with a troubling snapshot of major disparities in the US life expectancy, plus information on a California “longevity zone” event featuring HSAC’s Co-Founder and COO Melissa King.
Longevity Meets AI Meets Stem Cells
An AI for longevity? Yes, please. Open AI’s CEO Sam Altman is all in on the search for longer lifespans, and he’s putting his money where his mouth is. In 2023, he donated $180 million to Retro Biosciences, a healthcare startup seeking to extend life by 10 years through the use of Yamanaka factors, proteins that are believed to convert mature cells into stem cells. Now, Open AI has created GPT-4b, a generative AI aimed at dramatically increasing the efficiency of identifying proteins that will reprogram somatic cells. However, unlike Google’s AlphaFold, which simply predicts the shape of proteins, GPT-4b is designed to literally design new ones that can convert adult cells into stem cells. The AI is also a departure from traditional large language models. It’s trained on limited, highly specific data related to protein interactions—a small language model, according to Anthony Regalado, writing for MIT Technology Review. The accuracy and usefulness of GPT-4b, created through a collaboration between OpenAI and Retro, is now being studied by scientists. Keep in mind this is a baby AI that will no doubt continue to be tweaked and developed. But if it works as intended, it could lead to more cell therapies that could extend both the life- and the healthspan.
A New Theory of Aging?
One of the leading theories of molecular aging holds that it’s driven by epigenetic changes, and that biological age can be determined by observing changes in DNA methylation, in which a small molecule from the methyl group attaches to gene sequences. Epigenetic changes do not change DNA sequencing, but simply provide an on-off switch for which genes get expressed. But does epigenetic change throughout the lifetime drive aging, as believed, or is it simply an effect of it? A groundbreaking new paper from Trey Ideker from the UC San Diego School of Medicine and colleagues, published in Nature Aging suggests that lifelong random somatic DNA changes are what’s driving the aging process, and methylation merely tracks the changes. Neuroscience News quotes Ideker as saying, “If [somatic] mutations are in fact responsible for the observed epigenetic changes, this fact could fundamentally change the way we approach anti-aging efforts in the future.” One of the study’s co-authors, Steven Cummings, a senior research scientist at California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute, told NN that “If somatic mutations are the fundamental driver of aging and epigenetic changes simply track this process, it’s going to be a lot harder to reverse aging than we previously thought.” This might sound discouraging at first blush, but in fact such knowledge, if confirmed, could redirect efforts to a more beneficial line of study and speed the day when scientists can actually slay the dragon of molecular aging, or at least slow it down.
2024: “The Year Surgical Robots Roared”
One of the coolest podcasts out there is Device Tuesdays, which reports on the the exciting field of medtech through conversations with industry leaders. DT also provides free webinars, and its January 21 webinar, “What’s Next for Surgical Robots?” featured a fascinating overview of 2024 developments in the field of robotic surgical systems, an industry that’s growing by leaps and bounds. Some highlights: the da Vinci 5 system was rolled out last year to much fanfare. The da Vinci is probably the most multi-abled and widely used robot. Various iterations have been in use for about 10 years for general surgery, and its maker, Intuitive, keeps adding abilities. But newly emerging robotics are focusing on specific types of surgery. Johnson & Johnson Medtech received an FDA IDE approval for its Ottava systems and approval for its Velys system for orthopedic surgeries. Medical device giant Medtronic is seeking approval for its urological surgery system, Hugo. Other players receiving approval include the less high-profile but no less impressive robots from Distalmotion, CMR Surgical, and Moon Surgical, who all make targeted, surgery-specific robotics. So far there’s no need to worry about a fully autonomous robo-surgeon calling the shots; all robotic systems to date still entail physician control. But don’t be surprised if your surgeon uses one of them on any current and future procedures. The robots combine super-advanced imaging, multiple sensing devices and a host of other abilities, all combined with continuous AI analysis for safer, more precise surgeries.
ARPA-H Gets into the Healthspan Game
One of the goals of the Healthspan Action Coalition is to reorient the medical “sick care” system to a focus on extending the healthspan through prevention and health maintenance that promises to slow aging and extend health in later life. Now the US Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health has launched a program hoping to do just that. Its new PROactive Solutions for Prolonging Resilience program, otherwise known as PROSPR, will provide grants for “decentralized clinical trialists, large-data harmonization experts, wearable tech and app developers, physiological and biochemical biomarker researchers, drug developers.” The program scope covers the gamut of anti-aging, healthspan-extending research, building on basic science developed by the National Institute on Aging. This development comes on the heels of funding for a similar project, Personalized Analytics for Transforming Healthcare, or PATH, which has already awarded $52 million to the Buck Institute. Andrew Brack, the ARPA-H PROSPR Program Manager, says, “The goal of the PATH project is to build the next generation of diagnostics, AI, and infrastructure that will shape the future of healthcare in the United States.” ARPA-H Director Renee Wegrzyn says that “The PROSPR program represents a tectonic shift in the study of healthy aging.”
The US Life Expectancy Is Plummeting for Many
After more than a century of steadily increasing life expectancies, it appears the pendulum has swung the other way. The US continues to have stark disparities in health care, and this phenomenon creates dramatic differences in life expectancy, according to a new study published in The Lancet titled “Ten Americas: A Systematic Analysis of Life Expectancy Disparities in the USA.” A team of researchers from the University of Washington and the Council on Foreign Relations led by Christopher J.L. Murray analyzed data from 2000 until 2021 and found that the gap has grown dramatically in recent years. The team identified racial, economic, geographical, age, sex and other demographics and found glaring group differences in life expectancy from the commencement of the 21st century and a sharp downward trajectory. In 2000, the gap between the highest and the lowest life expectancy based on demographics was 12.6 years. That disparity has been growing rapidly, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic. Today the difference between the longest-lived individuals and those on the lower end of the spectrum is 20.4 years, an alarming picture. But the numbers only highlight the multiple facets that influence not only lifespan, but healthspan. Clearly, if we are to erase the differences, multiple issues must be addressed, including race, income and geography as well as social factors. Extending the healthspan will take a complex, multifaceted approach to all of the factors that shorten life and cause life-limiting chronic diseases.
A Pop-Up Longevity Zone in Berkeley
Join HSAC Co-Founder and COO Melissa King in Berkeley, California for Vitalist Bay, a longevity conference that explores current science and lifestyle factors in delaying aging. The eight-week event runs from April 4 until May 29 and takes place in a pop-up “longevity zone” where multiple aspects of extending life- and healthspan will be presented. Onsite lodging is available for the expected 4,000+ attendees who will learn about the latest science, network and experience a panoply of age- and health-extending practices.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Feb 27th - March 2, 2025
Healthspan Action Coalition Member
Endorsed Conference
Annual NeuroTech Convention of SBMT 2025
The Annual NeuroTech Convention of SBMT will bring together physicians, scientists, policy makers, funding agencies and industry to further the advances and applications in brain and spinal cord mapping and image guided therapies.
DATE: February 27th to March 2nd, 2025
PLACE: Los Angeles Convention Center
April - May 29, 2025
Healthspan Action Coalition Member
Endorsed Conference
VITALIST BAY
Berkeley, California
DATES: April through May 29, 2025
Vitalist Bay is an 8-week longevity zone in Berkeley, California bringing the world’s best minds together to extend human healthspan & solve aging.
Melissa King of Healthspan Action Coalition will be speaking.