SAN FRANCISCO, June 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Human Reproduction journal has published the ground-breaking results of an international clinical study, where a novel AI algorithm called Life Whisperer Genetics was developed by AI healthcare company Presegen to assess the genetic integrity of embryos using only images. The assessment is non-invasive, low-cost, and provides results instantly. This is in stark contrast with PGT-A, the standard method used in IVF today, which requires an invasive and potentially risky biopsy to remove a portion of the embryo, followed by an expensive and time-consuming genetic testing procedure.

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The study was conducted with IVF clinics globally, including Ovation Fertility (USA), IVF-Life (Europe), Alpha IVF & Women's Specialists (SE Asia), and Wings IVF (India). Results showed that the AI algorithm could identify whether an embryo was genetically normal, or 'euploid'. Identification of euploid embryos can result in improved clinical outcomes, such as a better chance at pregnancy success.

Presagen's Chief Medical Science Officer Dr Sonya Diakiw explained "Because this assessment is based on images alone, it is not as accurate as PGT-A itself, which involves actual DNA sequencing. But we are finding that PGT-A results themselves can be variable, as they depend on the embryo sample being tested. PGT-A only tests 5 cells from a total of around 200, so it is not always representative of the entire embryo. Life Whisperer Genetics is a whole-embryo assessment of genetic integrity that does not require any invasive procedures, which can be used to prioritize embryos for use in IVF procedures."

The technology was evaluated prospectively on patients in Europe in collaboration with the IVF-Life Group. Dr Jon Aizpurua from IVF-Life said "Life Whisperer Genetics can be used for patients as a pre-screen, to ensure we only genetically test embryos that are likely to be normal, saving patients time and money. For patients who are not comfortable with invasive genetic tests, or in countries like Germany where invasive genetic tests are not permitted, Life Whisperer Genetics is a viable alternative to help select embryos that are most likely to be euploid."

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Prospective studies were also performed in collaboration with Alpha IVF & Women's Specialists in Malaysia. Chief Embryologist Adelle Yun Xin Lim said "Computer vision with AI may revolutionise IVF treatment and this new technique is another milestone of AI in IVF. The technique will help doctors and embryologists around the world to predict the chromosome status of embryos in a rapid and non-invasive manner enabling the prioritization of embryos that are likely to be euploid for transfer or for further confirmatory PGT testing, leading to a faster time to pregnancy and reducing the cost of the treatment."

Ovation Fertility's VP of Scientific Advancement, Dr Matthew (Tex) VerMilyea said "This new product is very exciting. In some ways it is like a 'Rapid Antigen Test (RAT)' for embryo assessment, providing a non-invasive, instantaneous evaluation of genetic integrity, which will have massive potential for the US market when it receives FDA approval."

Life Whisperer Genetics is already available for IVF clinics and their patients in over 40 countries globally. It can be used in combination with Life Whisperer Viability, which assesses if an embryo is likely to lead to a pregnancy. International clinical studies have shown that Life Whisperer Viability can perform better than embryologists' current manual embryo assessment methods. Together, Life Whisperer Viability and Life Whisperer Genetics provide a comprehensive assessment of embryo quality.

Paper Title

Development of an artificial intelligence model for predicting the likelihood of human embryo euploidy based on blastocyst images from multiple imaging systems during IVF

https://academic.oup.com/humrep/advance-article/doi/10.1093/humrep/deac131/6604228

Authors

S. M. Diakiw1, J. M. M. Hall1,2,3, M. D. VerMilyea4,5, J. Amin6, J. Aizpurua7, L. Giardini7, Y. G. Briones7, A. Y. X. Lim8, M. A. Dakka1, T. V. Nguyen1, D. Perugini1, M. Perugini1,9

Life Whisperer Diagnostics (a subsidiary of Presagen), San Francisco, CA, USA, and Adelaide, SA, Australia

Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia

School of Physical Sciences, Faculty of Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia

Ovation Fertility, Nashville, Tennessee, USA

Texas Fertility Center, Austin, Texas, USA

Wings IVF Women's Hospital, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

IVF-Spain, Alicante, Spain

Alpha IVF & Women's Specialists, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

Adelaide Medical School, Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia

Paper Abstract

STUDY QUESTION

Can an artificial intelligence (AI) model predict human embryo ploidy status using static images captured by optical light microscopy?

SUMMARY ANSWER

Results demonstrated predictive accuracy for embryo euploidy, and showed a significant correlation between AI score and euploidy rate, based on assessment of images of blastocysts at Day 5 after IVF.

MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE

Overall accuracy for prediction of euploidy on a blind test dataset was 65.3%, with a sensitivity of 74.6%. When the blind test dataset was cleansed of poor quality and mislabeled images, overall accuracy increased to 77.4%. This performance may be relevant to clinical situations where confounding factors, such as variability in PGT-A testing, have been accounted for. There was a significant positive correlation between AI score and the proportion of euploid embryos, with very high scoring embryos (9.0-10.0) twice as likely to be euploid than the lowest scoring embryos (0.0-2.4). When using the genetics AI model to rank embryos in a cohort, the probability of the top-ranked embryo being euploid was 82.4%, which was 26.4% more effective than using random ranking, and ~13-19% more effective that using the Gardner score. The probability increased to 97.0% when considering the likelihood of one of the top two ranked embryos being euploid, and the probability of both top two ranked embryos being euploid was 66.4%. Additional analyses showed that the AI model generalized well to different patient demographics and could also be used for evaluation of Day 6 embryos and for images taken using multiple time-lapse systems. Results suggested that the AI model could potentially be used to differentiate mosaic embryos based on the level of mosaicism.

WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS

These findings collectively support the use of this genetics AI model for evaluation of embryo ploidy status in a clinical setting. Results can be used to aid in prioritizing and enriching for embryos that are likely to be euploid for multiple clinical purposes, including selection for transfer in the absence of alternative genetic testing methods, selection for cryopreservation for future use, or selection for further confirmatory PGT-A testing, as required.

About Presagen and Life Whisperer

Presagen is an AI healthcare company that is changing the way clinics, patients, and medical data from around the world are connected through AI. Its platform, The Social Network for Healthcare, connects clinics and patients globally, and enables collaboration and data sharing to create scalable AI healthcare products that are affordable and accessible for all. The decentralized network democratizes the creation of AI products, promotes collaboration through incentives, and protects data privacy and ownership. With a focus on improving Women's Health outcomes globally, Presagen's first product, Life Whisperer, is being used by IVF clinics globally to improve pregnancy outcomes for couples struggling with fertility. With a vision of creating the largest network of clinics, patients, and medical data from around the world, Presagen is driving the future of AI Enhanced Healthcare.

About Ovation Fertility

Ovation Fertility is a national network of reproductive endocrinologists and scientific thought leaders focused on reducing the cost of having a family through more efficient and effective fertility care. Ovation's IVF and genetics laboratories, along with affiliated physician practices, work collaboratively to raise the bar for IVF treatment, with state-of-the-art, evidence-based fertility services that give hopeful parents the best chance for a successful pregnancy. Physicians partner with Ovation to offer their patients advanced preconception carrier screening; preimplantation genetic testing; donor egg and surrogacy services; and secure storage for their frozen eggs, embryos and sperm. Ovation also helps IVF labs across America improve their quality and performance with expert off-site lab direction and consultation. Learn more about Ovation's vision of a world without infertility at http://www.OvationFertility.com.

About IVF-Life

IVF-Life is a group of fertility clinics specialized in complex cases. Centres located inSpain and the UK have the latest advances in Reproductive Medicine and outstanding professionals in this field. The constant innovation and a firm commitment to technology keep IVF-Life at the forefront in the assisted reproduction field treating patients from all over the world with ahigh degree of success. IVF-Life perform a comprehensive range of treatments and diagnostic tests with the aim to provide effective solutions to a wide variety of fertility problems.

About Alpha IVF & Women's Specialists

Alpha IVF group comprises IVF centres in Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Singapore. Alpha IVF is a world-class fertility treatment provider bringing the most advanced fertility technologies and excellent success rates in achieving the goal of having a baby. Alpha IVF consists of a team of highly qualified and skilled doctors, scientists and nurses that deliver international standards of patient care. As the name Alpha suggests, the team have pioneered numerous innovative fertility treatments. Alpha IVF offers its patients access to a network of fertility experts and facilities fully equipped with a full range of cutting-edge laboratories, innovative technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), 100% post-warm survival rate for embryo cryopreservation, time-lapse embryo monitoring, PIEZO-ICSI, sperm separation technologies and many others. Continuous R&D have led Alpha IVF to achieve numerous world firsts and innovative fertility treatment protocols both regionally and globally.

About Wings

Wings IVF comprises a chain of leading fertility clinics across India, with more than 12,000 live births through IVF. Wings hospitals are state of art specialty hospitals & clinics providing all infertility treatments and IVF. They provide top quality, comprehensive, holistic care to women of India at a reasonable cost. An interdisciplinary team of expert and caring professionals is committed to meeting the physical as well as emotional and spiritual needs for each woman and her family. The Wings Hospitals have been designed and furnished to provide a high level of fertility care with comfort and privacy.

SOURCE Presagen

See the rest here:
New hope for IVF patients as global study published in Human Reproduction shows AI can effectively assess genetic integrity of embryos - Yahoo Finance

Gordon Research Conference (GRC) Systems Aging 2022. Row 1: Vera Gorbunova, Cavin Ward-Caviness, ... [+] Samuel Beck, Sruthi Sivakumar, Vittorio Sebastiano, Steve Horvath, Vadim Gladyshev, Morgan Levine, Daniel Promislow, Brianah McCoy, Richard Miller; Row 2: Morten Scheibye-Knudsen, Diljeet Gill, Andrei Seluanov, Yuancheng Lu, Cynthia Kenyon, Nicholas Schork, Kristen Fortney, Sara Jovanovska, Steve Cummings, Vyacheslav Labunskyy, Kathrin Kajderowicz, Jane Chuprin, Nathan Price, Emma Teeling, Ruogu Fang, Martin Borch Jensen; Row 3: Ake Lu, Alex Chen, Naisha Shah, Sara Hagg, Oliver Hahn, Joris Deelen, Riccardo Marioni, Raghav Sehgal, Nick Schaum, Alex Zhavoronkov, Brian Chen, James Clement, Ryan Smith, Joo Pedro de Magalhes, Alexander Suvorov, Elinor Karlsson, Inigo Martincorena; Row 4: Ellen Quarles, Bradley English, Grace Edmonds, Iosif Gershteyn, Lillian Zhu, Laura Feiner, Brian Kennedy, Laura Goetz, Luay Boulahouache, Anahita Mojiri, Elisa Morales, Daniel Nachun, Hanna Barlit, Andrey Parkhitko, Daniel Richard, Hang Ma, Jeffrey Yunes; Row 5: Aqil Rashid, Patrick Griffin, Maximilian Unfried, Zhengping Hu, Sanjeev Goel, Nikola Markov, Priscila Chiavellini, Margaux Quiniou, Wayne Mitchell, Alex Trapp, Juan Vazquez, Thomas Stoeger, Ivan Morgunov, Dylan Suvlu, Daniel Vera, Peter Niimi, Jennifer Gamble, Michael Antonov; Row 6: Qi Yan, Elizabeth Gaskell, Kaiyang Cheng, Suzanne Martos, Jose Luis Ricon, Csaba Kerepesi, Kristen McGreevy, Arkadi Mazin, Gabrielle Gilmer, Zachary Hettinger, Grant Belgard, Benjamin Salzer, Koby Baranes, Enrique Ramos, Denis Tsygankov, Hamilton Oh, Benjamin Anderson, Michael Basson, Bryan Cox; Row 7: Ada Nguyen, Michael Petr, Nadia Sutton, Grace Phelps, Michael Florea, Gary Churchill, Manuel Serrano, Kenneth Raj, Peter Kharchenko, Mlanie Mangier, Brian Okundaye, Glen Pridham, Spring (Bahareh) Behrouz, Julio Leon Incio, Farzaneh Nasirian, Tomoko Kasahara, Xinna Li, Jesse Poganik, Changqi Zhu; Row 8: Andrei Tarkhov, Yuri Deigin, Nimrod Rappoport, Sun Hee Yim, Anastasia Shindyapina, Benjamin Barr, Mahdi Moqri, Kejun Ying, Bohan Zhang, Mia Petljak, Kay Linker, Marc Kirschner, Leon Peshkin, Robert Palovics, Steven Shuken, Gregory Johnson, Jacob Kimmel, Bruce Ksander, Manish Chamoli, jinlong lu, Larissa Smulders, Mathew Vadas, Andrea Cipriano, Peter Douglas, Weronika Prusisz, Sergiy Libert, James Welsh

Important Disclaimer: the conference does not allow any photography of posters and talks. Hence, all photos in the article were taken during the extracurricular and team building activities.

One of the best ways for young scientists to get inspired and advance their scientific carriers is to interact with the faculty, research management of major funding bodies, editors of major journals, and industry leaders who may later serve as their mentors. Now that coronavirus lockdowns are winding down, hopes are up and people are beginning to ditch virtual meetings for in-person interactions; it has led to a surge in events and conferences around the globe. This has allowed the scientists to finally meet in-person to share ideas and have open discussions. Of course, some of the conferences like the largest aging research and drug discovery conference, the annual ARDD forum, was held in Europe (Copenhagen) in 2020 and 2021 and may be even larger in 2022, but in the US scientists in aging research were starving for high-quality in person meetings. Since our AI-discovered dual-purpose novel target implicated in aging and fibrosis entered Phase I human clinical trials, I started to get invited to many AI, chemistry, biology, and aging research meetings. But at most of these meetings if you present unpublished data, it will be rapidly photographed and disseminated in the industry. So when I was invited to the Gordon Research Conference by two celebrity chairs, Harvard/MGB professor Vadim Gladyshev, and the father of methylation aging clocks (possible Nobel prize), UCLA professor and one of the top scientists at the newly-formed longevity startup, Altos Labs, Steve Horvath, I got very excited.

Conference Chair Professor Vadim Gladyshev

GRC is a platform where you can openly present unpublished research, get feedback and valuable advice, find collaborators, and be certain that no one will take pictures, or disclose confidential information. Also, the meeting was held in a super distant ski resort 1.5 hour drive from the nearest airport, and the academic and industry heavyweights could not leave that easily if you commit, you commit. So without disclosing anything confidential, I will try to provide you with a glimpse into this amazing meeting designed to promote open interaction between the scientists presenting unpublished data, and culminate with a word-for-word copy of the interview with the chairs who did such a great job organizing the event.

Screenshot of the GRC conference program

The Gordon Research Conferences is a non-profit organization that hosts international scientific conferences and seminars to bring a global network of scientists together to discuss the latest pre-publication research in their field. The conference topics cover frontier research in areas like analytical chemistry, aging, artificial intelligence, astrophysics, bioengineering, and neuroscience, among many other areas of science. The conferences have been held since 1931, and have expanded to nearly 200 conferences per year. In 2022, GRC has planned over 395 events a great way for like-minded people to gather, share ideas, and have a fun time. As part of its no publication policy, each member of a GRC conference or seminar agrees that any information presented at an event is a private communication from the individual making the contribution and is presented in a way that it is not for public use. This makes the GRC one of the most thought after conferences in the world and certainly one of the most strict when it comes to disclosing unpublished data externally. Since each conference is limited to 150-200 attendees; scientists must apply to the conference and be selected by the conference chair to attend the meeting. However, for those who are really interested in not missing out, the conference topics covered are regularly published in the journal Science.

Last day of the GRC conference - review of the results

One of the events hosted by the GRC this year was the conference called Systemic Processes, Omics Approaches, and Biomarkers in Aging. It was the inaugural Systems Aging Gordon Research Conference. Held in Newry, Maine, this event is not easy to get to. Many of the scientists on the East Coast of the US needed to spend half a day or more just to get there. There is a reason for this. Often, conferences that are organized in large metropolitan areas with easy access do not have the same level of pressure cooking and interactive networking just because many senior scientists tend to be distracted and often leave prematurely. But when they are put together in a remote location, it is not easy to leave and they have no choice but to interact with each other, share knowledge, and come up with new ideas and collaborations.

The level and impact of scientific conferences is often evaluated by the number and quality of the sponsors. And the GRC conference on Aging sported a number of high-profile sponsors including GRC itself, Carl Storm International Diversity Fellowship Program, National Institute on Aging, IOMICS Intelligent Analytics, Zymo Research, Kinexum, Insilico Medicine, Illumina, Aging journal, Impetus Grants, Infinita Life Science and VitaDAO.

Evening campfire get-together at the GRC

With Vadim Gladyshev serving as chairman and Steve Horvath as vice-chairman, the conference set the stage for the field, paving the way for the development of interventions to delay and reverse aging. Vadim is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of Redox Medicine at Brigham and Womens Hospital, while Steve is a professor of human genetics and biostatistics at the University of California - Los Angeles, and a senior scientist at Altos Labs. Both are world-renowned researchers, and spoke and led the discussions at the conference.

The "Copenhagen Longevity Mafia" scientists from Scheibye-Knudsen lab arriving to the Portland ... [+] airport and excited to go to GRC. Newry, the actual location of the event is 1.5 hour bus ride away from the Portland airport to ensure that the scientists stay together.

The conference was attended by a number of prominent researchers from renowned institutions; such as Cynthia Kenyon of Calico Labs, who discussed about interventions that slow aging, Morten Scheibye-Knudsen of the University of Copenhagen, who talked about modulating DNA repair for healthy aging, and Emma Teeling of the University College Dublin, who spoke about the genetic basis of exceptional longevity of bats. Of course, there were many other luminaries and industry leaders. I spoke on the applications of deep aging clocks in clinical practice and described how we used AI and aging clocks to identify a dual-purpose aging and disease protein target that is now in Phase I clinical trials.

The conference included archery lessons. I spiced it up a little by adding individual target names: ... [+] TORC1, PHD2, and SIRT6 as a pun.

The fifth-day event was divided by various discussion topics so each day was highlighted by a new subject matter, sometimes two subject matters.

Day one was about Delaying Age, and was led by Steve Horvath as the discussion leader. On this day, Cynthia Kenyon, Richard Miller of the University of Michigan and Inigo Martincorena of the Sanger Institute presented. Richard and Inigo presented on drugs and mutations that slow aging in mice, and somatic mutations and clonal expansions in aging, respectively.

Day two was all about Epigenetic Reprogramming and Rejuvenation. It was led by Joe Betts-LaCroix of Retro Biosciences. Manuel Serrano of IRB Barcelona started the day with a talk on understanding and manipulating in vivo reprogramming and its effects on aging. He was followed by Vittorio Sebastiano of Stanford University, who spoke about transient reprogramming for multifaceted reversal of aging. Jacob Kimmel of NewLimit Research followed Vittorio with a talk on reprogramming strategies to restore youthful gene expression. Then came Morgan Levine of Yale University, who discussed DNA methylation landscapes in aging and reprogramming. She was followed by Yuancheng Lu of Whitehead Institute and Diljeet Gill of Altos Labs Cambridge Institute, who discussed reprogramming to recover youthful epigenetic information and restore vision, and multi-omics rejuvenation of human cells by maturation phase transient reprogramming, respectively. The second subject matter of the day was Genomics of Aging and was led by Emma Teeling as the discussion leader. Nicholas Schork of TGen discussed integrated approaches to characterizing the polygenic basis of longevity. Edward Boyden of MIT followed with a talk on technologies for mapping and controlling aging-related processes. Next came Martin Borch Jensen of Gordian Biotechnology with a talk on using pooled in vivo perturbation screens to understand how aging mechanisms manifest across tissues and cell types. He was followed by Joris Deelen of Max Planck, who discussed identification and functional characterization of genetic variants linked to human longevity.

The first discussion topic for the next day was Epigenetic Biomarkers, with Kristen Fortney of Bioage leading the discussions. First to the podium was Nick Schaum of Astera Institute, whose discussion topic was rejuvenome: toward a functional and multiomics understanding of aging and rejuvenation. Samuel Beck of MDI came after Nick and shared his thoughts on misexpression of genes lacking CpG islands. He was followed by Riccardo Marioni of University of Edinburgh and Ake Lu of San Diego Institute of Science, who discussed about epigenetic clocks and universal DNA methylating age, respectively. The day continued with Sara Hagg of Karolinska Institutet and Patrick Griffin of Harvard Medical School all speaking about aging research. The second subject of discussion of the day was Clinical and Molecular Biomarkers, and the discussions were led by Meng Wang of Baylor College. Cavin Ward-Caviness of the US EPA started the day with a discussion on air pollution and accelerated aging. He was followed by Morten, who was followed by Brian Kennedy of the NUS Singapore. The day ended with Paola Sebastiani of Tufts, who discussed molecular signatures of aging and extreme old age.

Day 4 Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning was the first subject matter for the next day, which was moderated by Marc Kirschner of Harvard. Sergiy Libert of Calico started the day with a talk on construction and analysis of the physiology clock for human aging. I took to the podium next and discussed applications of deep aging clocks in clinical practice and drug discovery. I was followed by Kristen Fortney of Bioage and Albert-laszlo Barabasi of Northeastern University, who discussed data-informed drug discovery for aging and the dark matter of nutrition, respectively. Other speakers included Peter Kharchenko of Harvard Medical School, Ruogu Fang of University of Florida, and Nathan Price of Thorne Health Tech. Following a short break, the day continued with Aging as a Systemic Process led by Steve Cummings. Meng Wang of Baylor College, Danica Chen of University of California, Amandine Chaix of University of Utah, Gary Churchill of The Jackson Laboratory, Xin Jin of Scripps Research, and Subhash Kulkarni of Johns Hopkins presented their views on aging and longevity.

Kristen Fortney, PhD, CEO of BioAge in the middle surrounded by the chairs of the 9th ARDD. Dr. ... [+] Fortney's BioAge has three Phase II programs in the pipeline and she will be presenting at ARDD in Copenhagen.

In my humble opinion, Kristen Fortneys BioAge presentation and some of the posters were probably the most important reveals at the conference. She has a Phase II clinical readout coming up in the matter of weeks. If this readout is successful, it will help boost our industry.

The first agenda for the last day was Comparative Genomics of Aging led by Andrei Seluanov of University of Rochester. Speakers included Vera Gorbunova of University of Rochester, Emma Teeling, Joao Pedro de Magalhase of University of Birmingham, Elinor Karlsson of UMass Chan Medical School, Leon Peshkin of the Harvard Systems Biology Department , Mia Petljak of Broad Institute, Vyacheslav Labunskyy of Boston University School of Medicine, Steve Cummings of San Fransisco Coordinating Center and Alex Colville of Stanford. The second agenda of the day was Fundamental Bases of Aging, led by Cynthia Kenyon. Kenneth Raj of Altos Labs presented first, and was followed by Daniel Promislow of University of Washington, Sruthi Sivakumar of University of Pittsburgh, Oliver Hahn of Stanford, and Margaux Quiniou of Brain Research Institute. The last speaker of the entire event was Peter Douglas of University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, who d intracellular lipid surveillance in aging.

Over the course of the five-day event, presentations covered many topics, like delaying aging, aging clocks, longevity intervention, and so much more. Many organizations like MIT, Stanford and Yale were represented. It was truly a great opportunity to network with peers.

With this successful conference on aging, the GRC has now plans the second Systems Aging meeting in 2024.

Dr. Steve Horvath of UCLA and Altos Labs (left) and Dr. Vadim Gladyshev of Harvard MGH (right), the ... [+] two chairs of the Gordon Research Conference on aging

Alex Zhavoronkov: The GRC conference brought together some of the most advanced groups from all over the world. I understand that most of the research presented is unpublished, but just talking about the general trends, can you describe a few truly "hot" areas that are likely to impact the field for the years to come?

Professor Vadim Gladyshev:

Alex Zhavoronkov: If you were to highlight just five breakthrough talks, what would these be?

Professor Vadim Gladyshev: Talks from Ken Raj, Manuel Serrano, Ake Lu, Nathan Price, and Kristen Fortney particularly come to mind, but there were many other excellent talks too. There was also an outstanding set of posters, probably on average the strongest I have ever seen.

Alex Zhavoronkov: How close are we to seeing the first longevity therapeutics in humans and what needs to happen to get the pharma companies to invest heavily into this field?

Professor Vadim Gladyshev: We are probably 5-10 years away from it, as clinical trials are needed to unequivocally demonstrate the longevity effects of some interventions. For companies to heavily invest into the space, we need at least one intervention that significantly extends healthspan and lifespan without serious side effects.

Alex Zhavoronkov: I noticed that compared to several other GRCs I attended a few years back, there was surprisingly high number of industry speakers. Altos, Bioage, our company, VitaDAO, and several others (I will provide the list). Do you see that the industry started producing valuable scientific research output?

Professor Vadim Gladyshev: This is a characteristic feature of the field now. About a quarter of attendees at the Systems Aging GRC were from industry, and some of the best talks were delivered by scientists working at companies. In a way, some companies such as Altos, Calico, Bioage, Insilico Medicine, Retro, blur the distinction between academia and industry, as they support research that is published and presented at meetings. It may be a common goal or the nature of the field, but this is definitely an exciting time to be in this area.

Alex Zhavoronkov: Are there any groups and biotechnology companies that the pharmaceutical companies should evaluate closer for partnerships or learning the best practices?

If pharma is serious about expanding into this space, it should partner with the best academic science. This is the only way for major advances. Aging research appears simple to newcomers, and there is almost no barrier to join this field and begin contributing. However, aging is in fact incredibly complex. Moreover, there is currently no consensus on the most basic features of aging. So, it is easy to slip into doing research that is appealing, but which could lead to nowhere.

Alex Zhavoronkov: Aging clocks seem to be dominating the field right now. What are the most interesting findings in this field that you can highlight from the conference?

Professor Vadim Gladyshev: Aging clocks have started a revolution in the field. At the conference, we learned of various new types of clocks, both molecular and physiological, that could apply to cells, tissues, organisms and even species and that can be trained for various manifestations of aging.

Alex Zhavoronkov: I was very impressed by the social networking component of the conference. It is truly wonderful to see so many giants in the field in person. What was the most popular extracurricular activity that everyone enjoyed the most?

Professor Vadim Gladyshev: It seems that what attendees enjoyed most is the unmatched intellectual power of the group. I could see people discussing science well after midnight, every day. And they did it during various activities too: in the pool and sauna, while hiking and doing archery, at a bar and at a fire pit.

One of the highlights of GRC are the poster sessions. This is where the many young scientists can learn from the others, interact with veteran academics and industry leaders, and receive valuable feedback and collaboration proposals. Again, due to the nature of the conference, I will not talk about the unpublished data, and cover the posters, but one thing is clear - the field of aging research is rapidly advancing with the many new wonderful scientists joining the field, many new companies starting their journeys and many venture capitalists who are getting more and more sophisticated in this highly promising field.

Winners of the poster awards with the conference chairs

In the case that you have made it this far, I would like to encourage you to learn more about this exciting field and register for the next GRC in 2024. In the meantime, there are many resources that can help people from other industries as well as physicians, computer scientists, and venture capitalists get into the field of aging research. One of the best ways to get into the field is to take free introductory courses and attend industry conferences. The next large interdisciplinary conference on aging research will transpire in Europe, and is organized by the University of Copenhagen.

GRC Chairs, Dr. Vadim Gladyshev and Dr. Steve Horvath, with ARDD Chairs, Morten Scheibye-Knudsen, ... [+] MD, PhD, and Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD in the "Come to ARDD in Copenhagen" pose

If you enjoyed reading about the GRC conference, which is very difficult to get in, please consider attending the 9th Aging Research and Drug Discovery conference in Copenhagen, running from 29th of August to 2nd of September either virtually or in-person. Both GRC chairs will be presenting and many of the scientists who presented at the GRC will be at the ARDD. The ARDD will also bring together many venture capitalists, pharmaceutical companies, and startups in longevity biotechnology.

Read more here:
A Week At The Most Secretive Conference On Aging - Forbes