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The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a new funding opportunity through the launch of the PROactive Solutions for Prolonging Resilience, or PROSPR, program. The big question that drives the program is, “What if we had therapies to extend healthspan and prevent the onset of age-related diseases?”

ARPA-H PROSPR Program Manager Andrew Brack, Ph.D., says, “the ultimate goal is to extend healthspan—meaning the number of years aging adults live healthy lives and enjoy overall well-being by compressing the frailty and disability that comes with aging, into a shorter duration of time near the end of life.” The PROSPR program builds on foundational work by the National Institute of Aging and will work with industry and regulators to accelerate the testing and availability of new therapeutics targeted at healthspan.

This commitment by ARPA-H is not only an investment in national health, but an impactful economic investment. The number of people 65 and older accounts for 18% of the U.S. population and is projected to increase to 23% by 2054. Considering their increased care needs relative to younger ages, health care costs will increase by 75% if nothing is done to prevent the progressive loss of physical functioning during aging, according to a Pew Research Center Study. It is estimated that increasing the average American healthspan would lessen health care costs due to a combination of fewer medical needs, less reliance on assistance by others, and increased potential for individuals and their family caregivers to remain in the workforce. Because of these and other factors, it is estimated that extending healthspan by one year in only 10 percent of the aging population would reduce costs of U.S.

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Microgravity is known to alter the muscles, bones, the immune system and cognition, but little is known about its specific impact on the brain. To discover how brain cells respond to microgravity, Scripps Research scientists, in collaboration with the New York Stem Cell Foundation, sent tiny clumps of stem-cell derived brain cells called “organoids” to the International Space Station (ISS).

Surprisingly, the organoids were still healthy when they returned from orbit a month later, but the cells had matured faster compared to identical organoids grown on Earth—they were closer to becoming adult neurons and were beginning to show signs of specialization. The results, which could shed light on potential neurological effects of space travel, appear in Stem Cells Translational Medicine.

“The fact that these cells survived in space was a big surprise,” says co-senior author Jeanne Loring, Ph.D., professor emeritus in the Department of Molecular Medicine and founding director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at Scripps Research. “This lays the groundwork for future experiments in space, in which we can include other parts of the brain that are affected by neurodegenerative disease.”

Dr. Ethell’s groundbreaking research serves as the foundation for Leucadia Therapeutics’ work. A PhD in Neuroscience, he has studied Alzheimer’s disease for 20 years. He was a Human Frontiers of Science Long-term Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry in Germany and a Research Associate at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. Dr. Ethell ran Alzheimer’s disease research at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, served on the faculty at the University of California Riverside, and later founded the Molecular Neurobiology Group at the Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, California, where he also chaired the Department of Neuroscience. He has authored more than 85 papers and presentations.

The Coalition for Radical Life Extension and Longevity Escape Velocity Foundation are bringing together the best in longevity research with the best in anti-aging and age-reversal practices.
The critical research Aubrey de Grey Ph.D. has curated through his renowned Longevity Summit will now be featured at RAADfest, alongside the most advanced and relevant clinical practices for impacting longevity today. RAADfest is the largest and most immersive event in the world focused on super-longevity for a general audience.

Bringing together cutting-edge science, inspiration, entertainment and fun, RAADfest is more than just a conference – it’s a celebration of life. RAADfest provides the information and inspiration to enable people to take charge of their longevity. Produced by the Coalition for Radical Life Extension, whose mission is to align people, resources and policies to our shared vision of curing aging.
https://www.raadfest.com/

Unlocking The Potential Of Blood — Dr. Jackie Kunzler Ph.D. — Senior Vice President, Global R&D, Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies.


Dr. Jackie Kunzler, Ph.D. is Senior Vice President and Global Head of Research and Development (R&D), and member of the Executive Management Committee, of Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies (https://www.terumobct.com/), where she focuses on innovation and development leading the way for unlocking the potential of blood and cell collections in varied sectors, including blood banking, plasma-based therapies and cell and gene therapies.

Dr. Kunzler joined Terumo from Baxter Healthcare where she held successive leadership roles in their business, including as Baxter Healthcare’s Senior Vice President for Quality and Regulatory and Head of Global Life Sciences.

Dr. Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnston hopes to pick up the movement where Jones left off, albeit with the significant twist that his version does not require freezing. A research fellow at Melbourne’s Monash University, Zeleznikow-Johnston wrote the new book, “The Future Loves You: How and Why We Should Abolish Death,” which makes the case that cryopreservation is possible and should be more widely available. Rejecting the popular notion that death endows life with meaning as “palliative philosophy,” Zeleznikow-Johnston’s book instead argues a human’s connectome — a high-resolution map of all their brain connections — could be theoretically recorded perfectly before they die.

Once that happens, that same internal brain activity could be recreated through high-powered computers, while a new brain is grown in a vat via stem cells or some combination of the two. As such, Zeleznikow-Johnston is proposing a spiritual descendant to the cryonics movement (which he dismisses as “unscientific” and “unsubstantiated”), one where the focus is not on preserving tissues but on the “data,” so to speak, of our distinct connectomes.

“We have very strong evidence that the static structure of the neurons is enough to hold onto someone’s memories and personality.”