By Matt Fuchs – Science
The XPRIZE Foundation announced on November 29th $101 million in prizes for researchers who can restore the function of an elderly person’s muscle, cognition, and immune system to a more youthful state.
The competition, backed by Saudi money and the success of a women’s athletic clothing line, seeks drugs, other therapies, and lifestyle strategies that target the biology of human aging to extend a person’s “health pan,” or the period of life free of disease or disability. Such breakthroughs could also help prevent chronic diseases closely linked to aging that threaten to overwhelm the health care system. “This is the decade where we’ll see a health span revolution,” says Peter Diamandis, XPRIZE’s founder and executive chair.