Health Science Roundup Week of Sept 15, 2021

Altos Labs. Jeff Bezos is joining Russian-born billionaire Yuri Milner in creating a competitor to the Google-backed Calico. Altos is pursuing biological reprogramming technology, a way to rejuvenate cells in the lab that some scientists think could be extended to revitalize entire animal bodies, ultimately prolonging human life. They are bringing some A-list scientists including Steve Horvath, whom we know as the creator of the epigenetic age measuring Horvath Clock.

Peter Attia with Matt Kaeberlein, PhD: The biology of aging, rapamycin, and other interventions that target the aging process. Fascinating if nerdy dive into why there are no good data-based definitions of aging, rapamycin, fasting, and mTOR. He discusses the current state of the literature of testing rapamycin (and rapalogs) in animals and humans, including Matt’s Dog Aging Project, and provides insights into how we can improve future trials by conceptualizing risk, choosing better endpoints, and working with regulators to approve such trials.

Dog Longevity Vet: Our canine friends don’t live as long as we do, but many of the currently experimental interventions for people are being used safely on dogs now.  If anyone has lost a dog, you know how heart wrenching that can feel. We have not used them, but a friend of AGEIST has and reports they do good work.

Rejuvenate Bio: a Harvard startup, secured over $10M in April to tackle age-related conditions with a single injection — and it’s experimenting on age reversal with dogs. Anti-aging gene therapy involves altering an organism’s DNA to reverse aging. If proven in our canine friends, the next step will be human trials.

Sauna for proven healthspan extension.  In recent decades, sauna bathing has emerged as a means to increase lifespan and improve overall health, based on compelling data from observational, interventional, and mechanistic studies. Dr Rhonda Patrick’s extensive and exhaustive investigation into the positive health effects of getting hot.