Latest news with #XPRIZE
Medscape
5 days ago
- Health
- Medscape
Medscape 2050: Peter Diamandis
Medscape 2050: The Future of Medicine The bowhead whale can live for 200 years. The Greenland shark can live up to 500 years. Why can't humans live that long? For Peter Diamandis, MD, executive founder of Singularity, founder and executive chairman of the XPRIZE Foundation, and founding partner of Fountain Life, the answer is simple. 'It's either a software problem or a hardware problem. And we're going to be able to solve that.' The medical field is on an 'exponential growth curve' owing to the impact of AI systems, Diamandis says. Soon, we will be able to map the human body on a cellular level for each individual. Trillions of cells, running billions of chemical reactions every second, are too vast for the human brain to grasp. But not for AI. 'Imagine a future,' Diamandis says, 'where drugs are designed, not discovered. Drugs are designed specifically not just for a disease, but for your version of the disease.' A shift from reactive to preventive medicine is also getting closer. Sensor technology will pick up details such as voice tone, walking rhythm, or the sound of a cough and recommend further tests to catch health issues earlier. For Diamandis, 'data is king.' Your data can reveal your optimal lifestyle plan for diet, exercise, sleep, and mindset. And 'your mindset,' Diamandis says, 'is the most important thing that you possess.' If you believe that we will bend the longevity curve, if you approach these new technologies with optimism, you might just live long enough to experience them.
Forbes
19-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
How Moonshot Leaders Like Anousheh Ansari Build the Future
Anousheh Ansari sees big problems the same way a climber sees a summit on the horizon. Distant. Challenging. And too important to ignore. As the CEO of the non-profit XPRIZE Foundation, she's found the perfect job for her approach to problems. Anousheh's role is to incentivize breakthroughs in areas like carbon removal, space exploration, clean water, and longevity—big, hairy problems that can't be solved on a tight deadline or narrow budget. Anousheh is one of the most future-focused people I know. But when we sat down at TED in Vancouver, she shared some frustrations with the now. 'It's increasingly difficult because of this short-termism that people have,' she told me. 'This type of thinking has led us to where we are today and the problems we're facing. And most of the big problems we have will not be fixed in a couple of quarters. We need to really think about scalable approaches to solving them.' Anousheh is Exhibit A for how some people are just wired to focus on the future. Only 16% of us, to be precise. The rest of us inhabit the land of the present, fighting fires and focusing on near-term targets… and risking missing seismic long-term changes that could either kill our business or offer the next billion-dollar opportunity. As our conversation went deeper, it became clear that she doesn't just balance the Now and the Next. She instinctively sees how the Now leads to the Next. 'For me it's been an essential part of anything that I do,' she said. 'I look at (a problem) globally, I look at it long-term, and then I take short-term steps. That sort of comes naturally.' Leaders who want to stay ahead would do well to learn how she spots what's next, reframes risk, and works on the problems everyone else avoids. The XPRIZE Foundation's model is to propose a grand challenge and offer a sizable prize to the first team that can demonstrate a solution. In doing so, the XPRIZE attracts massive brain power and a diversity of potential solutions. They also attract investments from competitors that are collectively several orders of magnitude greater than the prize itself. She isn't interested in small challenges. 'I never even thought about working on improving something and creating a product that was like the next variation,' she told me. 'That never interested me. I think there are lots of people who can do that. I always loved introducing something new to the world. I was focused on solving a problem…I can think of a million better things to do with my time than create the next best dating app.' A Mindset Forged in Adversity As a girl growing up in Iran in the turbulent 1970s and 80s, Anousheh had her eye on an outlandishly tough challenge—going into space. Iran was in revolution and war—and had no space program. Relatives would humor Ansari over her obsession with Star Trek and the pictures she drew of herself in a rocket ship. But that little girl was deadly serious. In 2006, now a U.S. citizen and successful telecom entrepreneur, Anousheh blasted off on a Russian Soyuz rocket that looked uncannily like the ones she drew as a girl, becoming the first Iranian in space and the first self-funded woman to fly to the International Space Station. I asked her where she got this capacity to take on big challenges. It certainly wasn't from her upbringing. Growing up in Iran, failure was seen as a mark of shame rather than a growth opportunity. She was conditioned to try to please everyone. Even after she moved to the United States, Anousheh was still a woman in the male-dominated field of science and technology. 'I'm not part of the boys' club,' she said. It took her years to shed that need to please others. To take risks. But when she did, it was a powerful liberation. '[I realized] I'd always be trying to chase something that I will never achieve. Because even if someone likes what I do, someone else won't like what I do. I needed to stop thinking about that and just focus on what I believe is the right thing for me and how I want to show up in the world.' That clarity of purpose is what allows her to persist even when others don't see what she sees. Now 58, she has the patience and confidence to keep building even when the path isn't obvious, or when others don't understand or believe in her vision. 'If you're not doing it for the right reasons, you'll give up and you'll just throw in the towel and leave,' she said. Rather than seeing failure as shameful, she now embraces it. Failure can be learning, provided you choose to use it. 'If I don't use it wisely, then it's a failure.' Ansari's first venture, with husband Amir, was founding Telecom Technologies to provide telecom companies with a bridge between legacy networks and next-generation technology. Its sale for $550 million in 2000 gave her the funds—and the freedom—to return to her childhood dream of space travel. At the time, Peter Diamandis had launched the first 'X' Prize. Like Anousheh, Diamandis had grown up being obsessed with the idea of traveling to space, but NASA was constantly defending smaller and smaller budgets and mired in controversy. When a friend gave him a book about Charles Lindbergh—the first person to fly from New York to Paris—he learned Lindbergh was doing it for a competition. The Orteig Prize offered a $25,000 reward by wealthy hotelier Raymond Orteig. Diamandis wondered if he could do the same thing for space travel. Soon after, he announced a $10 million challenge for the first non-governmental team that could launch a crewed spacecraft twice within two weeks. The problem, though, was that Diamandis didn't have a wealthy hotelier to fund the prize and claim the naming rights. Confident that a sponsor would appear before the prize was won, he called it simply the 'X' Prize. Those sponsors eventually appeared in the form of Anousheh and Amir Ansari. The success of the Ansari X Prize effectively launched today's $500 billion private space industry. Like the best future-focused leaders, Ansari is able to spot small, early changes today that point to more fundamental macro shifts down the line. When she commits to a big future goal, it's because she's recognized an important need that isn't being met, often because it's hard to do. Her attitude to risk is core to this approach. Faced with a big, bold challenge, most leaders get preoccupied by the risks they run in pursuing it, be that pushback from shareholders, missing nearer-term targets, or straining budgets. Ansari turns that framing on its head: 'The risk of not creating and the risk of not solving that problem to me is greater.' It's this relationship with risk that helps her move forward and persist when others hesitate and get impatient. It's why she persuaded her family to cash in retirement savings to found Telecom Technologies. Every leader can learn from this as they consider how to face long-term macro trends that are already in place, ranging from the shift to electric vehicles, to the effects of climate change, to the trend toward healthy eating and a more diverse population. The real risk doesn't lie in preparing for these versions of the future—it lies in ignoring them. Today, at XPRIZE, she's pioneering a model of innovation that many company leaders could learn from. The organization doesn't just offer prize money for every moonshot idea that gets submitted. It designs clear, measurable, future-focused challenges that attract inventors, engineers, and scientists from around the world. That clarity is hard-earned. Anousheh told me it takes months of research, hundreds of expert interviews, and extensive iteration to hone a vague ambition into something solvable, and that isn't defined too narrowly or too loosely. They ask questions like: 'What breakthroughs and innovations do we need? Why is the problem stuck? Who's investing in it? Why aren't they investing?' This intensive research helps weed out goals that are genuinely unrealistic or, while ambitious, are already being solved by the market. 'Solving homelessness is a genuine moonshot, but is actually far harder than an actual moonshot,' she explained. Involving mental health, drug addiction, and public policy, homelessness is the kind of complex, multifaceted challenge that defies an overarching solution and needs to be broken up into separate goals. This process of carefully evaluating and defining the truly important challenges hasn't just won entrepreneurs prizes—it's been the foundation for enduring competitive success for their businesses. 'They say, 'My company would have died if I had shifted my direction to do exactly what the competition asked me to do,'' Ansari said. That insight really stuck with me. Most executives chase market trends… and end up with similar products. Rather than measuring themselves against the competition, leaders should be defining and solving their own challenges based on how they see the future, or different versions of the future, unfolding. Anousheh Ansari is, of course, keenly focused on making sure that XPRIZE itself is prepared for the future. She's building an endowment to sustain the foundation beyond her and Diamindis. And she's bringing in new talent while also nurturing the alumni ecosystem of former prize competitors as a source of support and fresh ideas. She's doing it because she fundamentally believes her organization is an essential player in creating a better future. 'I don't see any other institution that has this long-term vision and is trying to actually act on it.'
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
GI Innovation and GI Biome Advance to the Semi-finals of XPRIZE Healthspan with Anti-Aging Potential of GI-102 and GIB-7 Combination Therapy
GI Innovation and GI Biome have been selected as a Top 40 semi-finalist in the XPRIZE Healthspan competition among 600 registered teams from 58 countries Selected as one of 8 teams to pitch at the XPRIZE Investor Summit in New York The team is now competing for one of the largest prize pools in the history of XPRIZE SEOUL, South Korea, May 12, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- GI Innovation, a South Korean biotech company, announced on May 13 that it has been selected as a semi-finalist in the XPRIZE Healthspan competition in collaboration with its sister company GI Biome. The XPRIZE Healthspan semi-finals ceremony is taking place in New York from May 12 to 14, with the top 40 semi-finalist teams out of more than 600 registered teams among 58 countries invited. The company has not only advanced to the semi-finals but has also been selected as one of 8 teams among the 40 semi-finalists to earn an exclusive opportunity to present its vision and innovations to high-profile, institutional global investors. XPRIZE, a U.S.-based nonprofit foundation, is the recognized global leader in designing and executing large-scale competitions to solve humanity's greatest challenges. For over 30 years, our unique model has democratized crowd-sourced innovation and scientifically scalable solutions that accelerate a more equitable and abundant future. Semi-finalists are selected by an expert committee using rigorous guidelines and advancement into this elite group is seen as recognition of exceptional scientific vision and execution. The XPRIZE Healthspan competition, in which the joint GI Innovation - GI Biome team is competing, aims to discover breakthrough treatments that can slow or prevent age-related degeneration. The competition offers a record-breaking total prize pool of approximately USD $101 million. Selected as a semi-finalist team, GI Innovation will receive a prize of USD $250,000 to support the next clinical trial stage. Only the top 10 teams from the semi-finals round will advance to the grand finals. 'Anti-Aging' Strategy with Immune Booster GI-102 and Microbiome-Based GIB-7 Combination The GI Innovation-GI Biome joint team proposed a combination therapy consisting of GI-102, an immune-boosting drug, and GIB-7, a microbiome-based synbiotic, as a novel anti-aging approach. Clinical studies have shown that GI-102 potently activates CD8+ T cells and NK cells at high doses, allowing those immune cells to safely attack a range of tumor types including melanoma, kidney, lung and bladder cancers. However, at a low dose, it selectively expands and activates NK cells, which are critical for clearing senescent cells and cellular debris, playing a vital role in delaying aging and maintaining physiological functions. Based on this mechanism, GI Innovation is pursuing the use of low-dose GI-102 as an NK cell enhancer. GIB-7 is a premium synbiotic developed using GI Biome's proprietary Microbiome+ Herbal Therapy platform. It combines three patented probiotic strains with herbal ingredients. Clinical trials in elderly volunteers at Seoul National University Hospital have already been completed. In an aging mouse model, GIB-7 elicited an increase in beneficial gut microbiota, improved regulation of circadian rhythm, and improved muscle strength. "We entered this competition with the goal of winning, and it is a great honor to have passed the first gateway, highlighting the scientific innovation of both GI Innovation and GI Biome," said Dr. Myoung-Ho Jang, CEO and Founder of GI Innovation. "The upcoming clinical trial will be conducted in collaboration with Dr. Katherine Samaras, a key opinion leader in anti-aging research at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Australia. Through this competition, we will do our utmost to realize our global vision of progressing from treatment to prevention." View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE GI Innovation Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
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
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Modalis has been selected as a finalist in the XPRIZE Healthspan FSHD Bonus Prize Competition and awarded research funds.
TOKYO & WALTHAM, Mass., May 12, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Modalis Therapeutics Corporation (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 4883), a pioneering company developing innovative products for the treatment of rare genetic diseases utilizing its proprietary CRISPR-GNDM® epigenome editing technology, announced its recognition as a top eight finalist in the prestigious XPRIZE Healthspan competition's FSHD Bonus Prize and award of $250,000 for demonstrating a feasible solution to treat Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) . XPRIZE, the world's leader in designing and operating large-scale incentive competitions to solve humanity's grand challenges, launched the $101 million, 7-year global XPRIZE Healthspan competition in 2023. The competition's FSHD Bonus Prize is designed to ignite solutions for FSHD, a genetic disease that impacts muscular function that has limited treatment options due to its complexity. In the FSHD Bonus Prize Competition, the $8 million grand prize will be awarded to the team that successfully completes a clinical trial demonstrating significant advancements in FSHD treatment, making a major step toward finding a cure. FSHD is the third most common form of muscular dystrophy, affecting around 1 million people worldwide. FSHD is a genetic disorder in which the muscles of the face, shoulder blades, and upper arms are typically among the most affected. The onset is typically in the teenage and early adult years, but it can present in infancy, which tends to be a more aggressive course. The disease is slowly progressive and approximately 20% of patients are wheelchair bound by age 50. There are currently no FSHD-specific or disease-modifying treatments available. Modalis' proprietary CRISPR-GNDM®, is capable of specific modulation of the expression of disease-relevant genes, without introducing double-strand DNA breaks. Our MDL-103 is potentially the first-in-class therapeutics to solve the challenge and provide life-changing therapeutics for the patients of FSHD by suppressing expression of Dux4, the gene responsible for deleterious FSHD symptoms, across muscle tissues. "We are honored to be named as one of the top 8 finalists in the XPRIZE Healthspan FSHD Bonus Prize competition" said Haru Morita, CEO of Modalis. "This is not only an honor, but also a validation of our vision of developing treatments for patients suffering from diseases for which there is no cure and of our innovative epigenome editing technology (CRISPR-GNDM®). We are also excited about the opportunity to leverage the global innovation network provided by the XPRIZE and to explore potential collaborations with leading research institutions and companies from around the world." About XPRIZE XPRIZE is the recognized global leader in designing and executing large-scale competitions to solve humanity's greatest challenges. For over 30 years, our unique model has democratized crowd-sourced innovation and scientifically scalable solutions that accelerate a more equitable and abundant future. Donate, learn more, and co-architect a world of abundance with us at About SOLVE FSHD SOLVE FSHD is a venture philanthropic organization established to catalyze innovation and accelerate key research in finding a cure for FSHD, established by renowned Canadian entrepreneur and philanthropist, Chip Wilson. The Wilson family has committed $100 million to kick-start funding into projects that support the organization's mission to find a cure for FSHD by 2027. The goal of SOLVE FSHD is to find a solution that can slow down or stop muscle degeneration, increase muscle regeneration and strength, and improve the quality of life for those living with FSHD. If you want to find out more about our efforts at SOLVE FSHD, please see our website - About Modalis: Modalis Therapeutics develops precision genetic medicines using epigenome editing technology. Modalis is pursuing therapies for orphan genetic diseases using its proprietary CRISPR-GNDM® technology which enables the gene/locus-specific modulation of gene expression or epigenetic editing without the need for DNA cleavage or altering DNA sequence. Headquartered in Tokyo with laboratories and facilities in Waltham Massachusetts, the company is listed on Tokyo Stock Exchange's Growth market. For additional information, please visit View source version on Contacts Modalis Therapeutics CorporationCorporate Planning Departmentmedia@ Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
