Global longevity competition for $101 million names semifinalists—here are their ideas for extending life by 10 years or more
The contestants in a race to extend life are on their second lap.
In a seven-year global competition, teams are rushing to discover novel therapeutics and interventions that can extend human life by a decade and help people age well.
In 2023, Peter Diamandis, an entrepreneur, self-proclaimed futurist, and founder and executive chairman of the XPRIZE Foundation, launched the $101 million healthspan competition. Since then, over 600 teams from 58 countries have put their ideas in the ring, including medical devices, lifestyle interventions, and biological therapies. Today, the competition awarded each of the top 40 teams $250,000 to help them test their hypotheses in clinical trials.
'We're really pushing at a global scale for people to accelerate the process, so we can get real solutions in the hands of people who need them,' Jamie Justice, PhD, executive director of XPRIZE Healthspan, tells Fortune.
Teams from all over the globe, composed of students, university researchers, and even a Nobel Prize winner, are competing for the coveted prize, which will amount to $81 million.
One team of high schoolers from Malaysia pitched a community-based solution that includes facilitating drum circles with older adults. Another team is testing the potential life-extending benefits of popular diabetes and weight-loss drugs, GLP-1s. Still another is examining whether the drug Metformin can help prevent cognitive decline. By 2030, the winner will have shown that their therapy can restore muscle, cognitive, and immune function in a one-year clinical trial of older adults.
"The next breakthrough in aging could come from scientists and entrepreneurs, anywhere. With this prize, we're igniting a global healthspan revolution, and these semifinalists are leading the charge," said Diamandis, in a press release. "This competition isn't just accelerating progress, it's challenging our society's beliefs in what's possible when it comes to aging."
Judges made up of leading researchers and scientists in the field assessed teams based on whether they illustrated 'really solid innovation [on a] potential breakthrough that could affect all of the processes that underlie how we age,' says Justice. Teams had to show a readiness for clinical trials with strong evidence of an intervention that can be scaled to the broader population.
While people are living longer, there is still a decade-long gap, on average, between how well people live and how well they live in good health. This competition is hoping to reduce the gap and extend how long people live in good health.
'We're looking at solutions that can be proactive and can be generalized to a greater population, so that we can begin to address that gap at a population level,' Justice says.
Teams will submit data from their clinical trials by April of next year, ahead of XPRIZE selecting the top ten finalists in July of 2026, followed by the grand prize winner selected in 2030.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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Yahoo
2 hours ago
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Recludix Pharma Announces Development Candidate Nomination of First-in-Class Oral STAT6 Inhibitor for Inflammatory Diseases and Achievement of Significant Milestone Under Collaboration with Sanofi
--Completion of GLP toxicology studies associated with a $50 million payment to Recludix under the collaboration with Sanofi -- REX-8756 is a potent and selective oral STAT6 inhibitor that demonstrates complete pathway inhibition and is well tolerated in preclinical studies --Investigational New Drug (IND)-enabling activities ongoing to support IND submission later this year SAN DIEGO, June 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Recludix Pharma, a leader in the discovery of inhibitors of challenging targets for inflammatory disease, today announced that the company has nominated a lead development candidate REX-8756, an oral, selective and reversible small molecule inhibitor of STAT6, and completed the GLP toxicology studies for the compound. Many allergic and inflammatory diseases -- such as asthma, COPD, and atopic dermatitis -- are caused by Type 2 inflammation, driven by the production of the cytokines Interleukin-4 (IL-4) and Interleukin-13 (IL-13). STAT6 is required for IL-4 and IL-13 signaling but is downstream in the disease pathway from other drug targets, and therefore, its inhibition has been shown in preclinical studies to be a more selective approach than Janus Kinase (JAK) family inhibitors, with potential for fewer side effects. 'There is significant opportunity to develop oral medicines with biologic-like activity and favorable safety profiles to provide alternatives to current therapies, such as JAK inhibitors which can impact viral immunity and hematopoiesis,' said Nancy Whiting, Pharm.D., president and chief executive officer of Recludix. 'At Recludix, we are driven to discover and develop best-in-class drug candidates that have the potential to become transformative medicines. We and our partner Sanofi are pleased to have reached this significant milestone in this important program and look forward to advancing REX-8756 to the clinic in the near term.' 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'We have discovered a number of oral STAT6 SH2 domain inhibitors that performed impressively in preclinical studies, speaking to the power of our platform,' said Ajay Nirula, M.D., Ph.D., executive vice president and head of research and development of Recludix. 'Following our recently presented preclinical data at the May 2025 American Thoracic Society Conference that further demonstrated the robust efficacy and differentiated safety profile of our STAT6 inhibitors, we are excited to advance REX-8756 as a potential first-in-class oral therapy for patients with immune-related inflammatory disease.' About Sanofi CollaborationRecludix is advancing STAT6 inhibitors from preclinical research and development until the start of Phase 2 clinical trials. Sanofi will assume worldwide clinical development and commercialization responsibilities thereafter. Sanofi has global rights to small molecule STAT6 inhibitors developed under the partnership. 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A STAT6 inhibitor offers the potential for a novel first-in-class targeted oral therapy for patients in the treatment of Type 2 inflammatory diseases. About RecludixRecludix is a leader in developing platform approaches to discover potent and selective inhibitors of challenging protein targets. The company's management team includes industry veterans with a track record of success, including former leaders of Seagen, Blueprint Medicines, and Lilly. Recludix has developed a unique drug discovery platform that integrates custom generated DNA-encoded libraries, massively parallel determination of structure activity relationships, and a proprietary screening tool to ensure selectivity. The company is employing this approach first in the development of SH2 domain inhibitors. 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Regeneron Expands Clinical-Stage Obesity Portfolio with Strategic In-Licensing of Novel Dual GLP-1/GIP Receptor Agonist
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Medscape
5 hours ago
- Medscape
Chronotherapy in RA Treatment: Tantalizing but Under-Studied
Morning stiffness is common for people with arthritis and that got researchers to thinking that if they could time drug therapy to match the body's rhythms when pain receptors are most active, they could relieve that morning stiffness and potentially target flares. That concept, known as chronotherapy or chronomedicine, aims to synchronize drug delivery to the body's circadian rhythms. A few small clinical trials and observational studies have evaluated this concept, but most recently researchers in Japan completed a multicenter, nonrandomized, controlled study that found that almost twice as many patients who took baricitinib at night had a measurable improvement in symptoms than patients who took the Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor in the morning. Amanda Sammut, MD 'Chronotherapy refers to the strategic timing of medication, therapies, or other medical interventions to align with the body's natural circadian rhythms,' Amanda Sammut, MD, chief of rheumatology at Harlem Hospital Center in New York City, told Medscape Medical News. 'The goal of chronotherapy is to optimize therapeutic efficacy and minimize adverse events.' Progress Slows After Nobel Prize In 2017, Jeffrey Hall, Michael Rosbash, and Michael Young won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for their work isolating a gene that controls the normal daily biological rhythms. However, as researchers in Italy who have studied chronotherapy in inflammatory joint diseases have noted, transition of that knowledge to clinical practice has proceeded slowly. 'Growing knowledge of chronobiology applied to inflammatory joint diseases could stimulate the development of new drug strategies to treat patients in accordance with biological rhythms and minimize side effects,' the Italian researchers wrote. 'It should be evidence-based,' John Hogenesch, PhD, a neuroscientist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Cincinnati, who has researched circadian rhythms, told Medscape Medical News. 'Yet there are only about 140 studies in 50 years looking at drug timing.' Sammut noted that chronotherapy is not yet incorporated into major rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treatment guidelines. 'The temporal administration of anti-inflammatory agents to coincide with this cytokine surge presents a theoretically sound strategy to improve disease activity,' she said. Akira Hashiramoto, MD, PhD The most recent research in Japan, led by Akira Hashiramoto, MD, PhD, at Kobe University, Kobe, Japan, assigned 122 patients with RA to four open-label treatment groups: Either baricitinib 2 mg or 4 mg in the morning or evening. The primary endpoint was the percentage of patients with at least 20% improvement in the American College of Rheumatology response criteria (ACR20) at 12 weeks. Some of the secondary endpoints included ACR20, ACR50, and ACR70 response rates at other timepoints as well as changes in the Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI) at the same timepoints out to 1 year. Hashiramoto told Medscape Medical News that the changes in swollen joint count (SJC) significantly improved in the evening vs the morning dosing group throughout the 52-week study period, and that changes in tender joint count, patient global assessment, and physician global assessment mostly occurred before 3 months. 'Therefore, we believe that the most important mechanism for achieving sustained CDAI remission at weeks 12, 24, and 52 is that chronotherapy maximized the effect of baricitinib by week 12 after initiation, when all components of CDAI have responded well,' he said. 'The results demonstrate the crucial importance of the treat-to-target strategy.' Earlier studies demonstrated the potential of chronotherapy. Researchers in Berlin, led by Frank Buttgereit, MD, at Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany, reported in 2008 that modified-release prednisone reduced the duration of morning stiffness in RA. In 2013, Buttgereit's group reported that low-dose prednisone chronotherapy when added to existing disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs produced significantly higher response rates than placebo for ACR20 — 48% vs 29% ( P < .001), and more than double the rate for a 50% improvement (22% vs 10%, P < .006). A 2011 study in Japan found that methotrexate chronotherapy can improve RA symptoms compared with traditional dosing methods, but Sammut cautioned that the results may not be entirely related to chronotherapy. The study switched patients from the standard methotrexate dose three times daily to once daily at bedtime, but with the same weekly dosing. 'So even though the results showed improved disease activity scores and functional capacity, it may not be related to the actual chronotherapy portion alone,' Sammut said. Role of the Circadian Clock The body's circadian clock is central to chronotherapy. A few studies have explored the role of the body's internal clock in RA pathophysiology, including one by Buttgereit's group in Berlin. Buttgereit's group reported in 2015 that circadian disruption altered circulating leukocyte rhythms in patients with RA. Specifically, they found the rhythms of effector CD8 + and CD4+ T cells, and interleukin (IL)–6R+ CD8+ T cells were abolished in patients with RA; and that IL-8R+ monocytes, CD20+ CD27+ memory B cells, and CD20+ human leukocyte antigen –DR+ activated B cells, which were not rhythmic in healthy individuals, had rhythmic circulation in the peripheral blood of patients with RA. Researchers at Nova Southeastern University in Davie, Florida, conducted a literature review in 2023 in which they identified four common clock genes that were dysregulated in patients with RA: Circadian locomotor output cycles kaput; brain and muscle ARNT like-1 ; period ; and cryptochrome. Research has also been conducted on the diurnal variation of symptoms of polymyalgia rheumatica. In a 2016 observational study, Danish researchers reported that plasma concentrations of IL-6, IL-8, tumor necrosis factor–α, IL-1β, and IL-4 varied with time in both patients treated with prednisolone and untreated patients, peaking between 4:00 AM and 8:00 AM. With the exception of IL-1β, concentrations of these cytokines and of IL-10 were higher throughout the 24-hour observation period in treated patients, as were melatonin and cortisol levels, the latter peaking around 2:00 AM and 8:00 AM, respectively. Farshid Guilak, PhD In his laboratory at Shriners Hospitals for Children — St. Louis — Farshid Guilak, PhD, has been researching circadian rhythms and timed-release therapy to minimize arthritic flares and prevent disease progression in people with RA or juvenile idiopathic arthritis. 'It turns out that not only does our brain have this region that cycles but virtually every other tissue in the body is on a 24-hour clock,' Guilak told Medscape Medical News. 'Unlike the master clock, they're called the peripheral clocks.' These peripheral clocks in the joints dictate the ebb and flow of pain within them, he said. 'The exact reason is not completely known, but my belief is that our tissues also have periods of activity and rest,' Guilak said. 'During the night we elevate a lot of the proteins and genes that are related to repair and regeneration, things that are related to cleaning out the cells, such as the process of autophagy. It's very important in the brain and memory that if you don't have these sleep periods, you don't actually allow your tissues to reset and repair themselves.' Inflammatory mediators peak between 3:00 AM and 5:00 AM, he said. 'This is one reason why many people with arthritis wake up with morning stiffness,' he said. 'The clock regulates about 50% of drug transporters, targets, and metabolizing enzymes,' Hogenesch said. 'About half of all small-molecule drugs have a short (less than 12-hour) half-life. This means as many as 25% of all drugs may be influenced by when they are taken.' Guilak's group reported that people who work night shift had a 25% higher risk for knee osteoarthritis and a 30% higher risk of having knee replacement than nonshift workers. 'Disruption of sleep is a major risk factor for arthritis,' he said. 'Doing shift work or getting < 6 hours of sleep a night significantly increases the risk of osteoarthritis.' Challenges in Adapting Chronotherapy in RA Chronotherapy faces several barriers before it gains wider acceptance as a treatment approach in RA. One involves identifying specific circadian patterns in individual patients. 'The gold standard is the dim-light melatonin onset assay, which is only done in a tiny subset of patients in a tiny subset of academic medical centers,' Hogenesch said. More practical methods, he said, are using surveys, such as the Munich ChronoType Questionnaire, or actigraphy, which uses wearables, such as a Fitbit or Oura ring. 'So [it will be] surveys and wearables for the near future,' he said. The complexity of medical regimens for patients with RA poses another barrier to wider acceptance, Summat said. 'The medication regimen for patients with RA, and for many other chronic diseases, usually includes multiple medications,' she said. 'When you include timings of medications, it may make it more complicated and more difficult to adhere to the regimen.' But other patients may be amenable to having a medication schedule, Sammut said. 'Timing of medications is something that we should think about in our patients already,' she said. 'For instance, if a patient is on a proton pump inhibitor, we would recommend taking it on an empty stomach half an hour before eating or drinking anything.' She suggested that physicians and pharmacists should collaborate on developing medication plans for patients. Individual patients' sleep schedules are another factor to consider with chronotherapy, Sammut added. Chronotherapy With Other Drugs The JAK inhibitors tofacitinib and upadacitinib could potentially be used for chronotherapy in RA, Hashiramoto said. 'The half-life, time after administration of the drug to reach maximum plasma concentration, or drug withdrawal of tofacitinib and upadacitinib are different from that of baricitinib, so the efficacy of bedtime dosing must be demonstrated in clinical trials,' he said. 'However, in our limited experience, tofacitinib tends to respond well in patients who start with only a single evening dose, with similar results to baricitinib 2 mg in the evening,' he said. 'For upadacitinib, once daily in the evening is as effective as baricitinib.' Based on his group's research, Hashiramoto said that chronotherapy does not increase adverse events with either tofacitinib or upadacitinib. 'We hope that follow-up studies of chronotherapy will be conducted in Europe and the United States, not only for baricitinib, but also for other JAK inhibitors,' he said. Emerging Research: Unlocking Gene Circuits Guilak's research group has been investigating 'chronogenetics,' circadian-based gene circuits that can be programmed into stem cells and that, once implanted in the body, match the patient's circadian clock to deliver anti-inflammatory drugs daily at a specific time. The stem cells are administered in a drug-eluting implant — 'like a spaghetti string rod full of cells injected under the skin,' he said — that is inserted into the joint. It's designed to release drugs once a day. Guilak reported that these gene circuits produced effective amounts of IL-1 receptor antagonist in mice. More recently, Guilak's group reported on an implant that responds to both circadian and inflammatory signals to release therapeutic levels of IL-1 receptor antagonist not only at a specific time but also in response to activation of pain receptors. His group recently received a grant from the Advanced Research Project Agency for Health to develop the implant. 'Our goal is to get this into patients in the next 3-5 years,' he said. Hashiramoto reported receiving honoraria from AbbVie and honoraria and grants from Eli Lilly Japan. Guilak is an employee and shareholder of Cytex Therapeutics and has applied for patents on concepts on chronogenetics. Sammut and Hogenesch reported no relevant financial relationships.
