From Silicon Valley billionaires to the Saudi royal family – everyone’s investing in an emerging anti-ageing industry.
A market that barely boasted half-a-billion in capital a decade ago, but could command as much as $15 billion by 2030.
Ageing slower, better – or not at all – is among the defining scientific quests of our time. Life spans have expanded over 20 years in the last 80 years. But not so healthspans. As we get older, we face a barrage of ills: chronic diseases. Memory impairment. Mental illness. Muscle degeneration. For many of us, growing old is still more burden than blessing. All of which has spawned a desire – and an industry – to defy time.
Avi Roy, an Oxford-based biomedical scientist and entrepreneur, locates himself firmly within the business of biological aging. A tech optimist, he is committed to the cause of human health and longevity.
His work spans multiple fronts. Currently, he advises and supports startups around the globe, but he’s also involved hands on and helming a couple of innovative ones. United to Defeat Aging (UDA), which seeks to provide “instant access” to anti-ageing and longevity to everyone. The unique Zolman Longevity Clinic, which offers the most detailed analysis of a person’s biological age by monitoring 72 organs. And he previously worked with Elizabeth Parrish, the first known person to undergo gene therapy for de-ageing, at BioViva. He’s also co-founded two initiatives, The Happiness Foundation and Human AI Alignment (HAIA), which focus on mental health and the interaction between humans and AI, respectively.
His ventures keep good company. Take Google founder Larry Page’s Calico, which is focused on solutions to live longer and healthier. Or Altos Labs, staffed with four Nobel Laureates – and potentially financed by Jeff Bezos – that’s looking to reverse disease and disability. Or Retro Biosciences, looking to add 10 years to a lifespan – and OpenAI’s Sam Altman’s first biotech investment.
As the authors of Dmitry Kaminsky and Margaretta Colangelo, authors of Longevity Industry 1.0, put it, the biotech company that cracks the code to long life first will become the next Google.
It’s not just through entrepreneurial venture that Roy is determined to advance this intersection of science, health, and lifestyle. While he was President at the UK non-profit Biogerontology Research Foundation, his research spanned the gamut – from rejuvenating human skin to identifying markers of ageing. It all culminated in a protocol for screening anti-ageing drugs, now available through open access.
Research on ageing and longevity is experiencing a golden age, to accommodate a growing silver economy. Whether genomics or chemicals. Cell reprogramming or regenerative medicine. But it’s not all smooth sailing.
Take NMN. Touted as a potential anti-ageing agent, it’s the star ingredient in UDA’s “longevity coffee” that, the company attests, can reduce your physical age by four years and biological age by over six. But in 2022, US FDA imposed restrictions on NMN dietary supplements, on the grounds of limited scientific evidence, quality control, and unproven claims. While NMN has proven to be a wonder drug in animal testing – extending lifespan, reducing chances of heart diseases in mice – the industry as a whole faces multiple hurdles. Underfed on human data, barriers to regulatory approval, and long timespan from lab to shelf.
Recently, celebrated Harvard genetics professor David Sinclair announced a chemical cocktail to reverse-age cells. In one week. It works on mice and monkeys. Could humans be next? At SYNAPSE, watch Avi Roy as he talks AgeTech and miracle molecules. The inevitable question of inequality and ethics of longevity and age-reversal. And separating the science from snake oil.
*Due to unforeseen, personal circumstances, Avi Roy could not participate in SYNAPSE 2024.
