Hot business trends 2023: How to turn 90 into 50?

Imagine a world where age is really just a number. Where long-lived people are not just old and helpless bores, but vigorous and healthy, and maybe even still working. Between 1920 and 2020, the average human life expectancy approximately doubled. We have eradicated many deadly diseases, cured previously incurable diseases, and most recently introduced breakthroughs from immunotherapy to robotic surgery. Longevity-focused founders and investors believe we still have a long way to go. It is believed that with advanced treatments for deadly diseases, age-reversing drugs and an abundance of early diagnostic tools, we could easily increase life expectancy by a couple of decades. Maybe longer. Methuselah Foundation (The Methuselah Foundation ), a nonprofit focused on longevity, describes its mission as “Turning 90 to 50 by 2030.”

Society will look completely different. On the one hand, this will be a big problem for the pension system, and on the other hand, enterprises will have more labor at their disposal and a larger number of consumers buying products and services. The way people lived and planned their lives would almost certainly change dramatically. How fantastic is this assumption?

On closer inspection, only a little. Advances in artificial intelligence and growing capabilities in genetics management mean many companies and startups are turning to the field of longevity. Of course, immortality is still just a dream. But as life expectancy increases, providing services that help people live longer, healthier, more active lives is becoming an attractive area for business.

Companies are approaching the issue of longevity from a variety of directions, including:

• Correction of cellular processes
• Regeneration of body parts
• Discovery of new drugs
• Anti-Aging Nutritional Supplements

Investors are also not ignoring this area. For example, longevity-focused venture funds such as Apollo Health Ventures   And Life Extension Ventures  willing to invest $180 million and $100 million, respectively, in companies dedicated to the longevity of https://www.crunchbase.com. The Saudi royal family has created a nonprofit organization called the Hevolution Foundation, which plans to spend up to $1 billion a year to support basic research into the biology of aging and find ways to make people live longer while remaining active, a condition known as "healthspan." This amount could make the Gulf state the largest funder of researchers, trying to understand the underlying causes of aging and how it can be slowed down with drugs.

Correction of cellular processes

One startup that has attracted attention is Altos Labs. The company, which is backed by Jeff Bezos and whose director is Nobel Prize winner and co-creator of the CRISPR gene editing tool Jennifer Doudna, entered into an agreement in early 2022 giant deal  in $3 billion funding from Jeff Bezos and venture capital firm  ARCH Venture Partners.  The company's stated goal is to “reverse disease” through “programming cellular rejuvenation”—essentially hacking cellular processes to interrupt the mechanisms associated with aging and tricking cells into re-entering a younger, healthier state.

Calico, a subsidiary of Alphabet, also aims to reverse aging by targeting cellular processes. The company's focus on longevity complements Google's much broader strategy to provide more health services. The company, founded in 2013, has received several patents related to cell reprogramming and last year expanded its partnership with pharmaceutical company AbbVie to focus on treating neurodegenerative diseases and cancer.

Regeneration 

Many regenerative medicine startups are entering the market, targeting specific diseases. Companies are developing treatments that can significantly improve the quality of life of older adults. Companies like Eyestem  (vision restoration), Spiderwort  (spine restoration), Hy2Care   (recovery of joints after injury), Mesentech (bone restoration) and Toregem BioPharma http://toregem.co.jp/en/home_en (dental regeneration), among others, have raised early funding in 2022.

Some companies are trying their hand at growing entirely new organs to increase lifespan. LyGenesis   is testing technology that it says will force a patient's body to grow new kidneys, liver or pancreas on lymph nodes. These mini-organs will serve as an alternative to full-scale transplantation for people for whom this is not possible - for example, for those who are very ill or when a suitable donor cannot be found. Company Satellite Bio  attracted venture funding in 2022 for $110 million to develop implantable tissues that it says can be programmed to replace poorly functioning organs.

Discovery of new drugs

Drug discovery is another key area where technology can impact active lifespan. The recent success of a drug trial for Alzheimer's disease demonstrates how new ways to quickly create and test new drugs can transform the pharmaceutical market. Advances in artificial intelligence and quantum computing are already being tested in new approaches to identifying new drug candidates from huge databases of molecules and in modeling drug interactions to improve the likelihood of clinical trial success. For example, at the beginning of 2022 Algorithmix  raised a $4 million seed round of funding to create a quantum computing-enabled platform for drug modeling.

The number of drug candidates being tested for common age-related diseases such as dementia and cancer is expected to increase dramatically as new technologies used in drug development develop.

Anti-Aging Nutritional Supplements

Another trend being developed in the longevity space is dietary supplements that slow down aging based on a consumer's genetic data, allowing one to measure one's "biological age" using an epigenetic clock - the idea being that the body can exhibit aging characteristics that deviate significantly from what it was supposed to be. , which would be typical for chronological age. For example, Elysium  offers test at home. Consumers provide a DNA sample for genetic analysis. The company looks for epigenetic markers associated with aging due to lifestyle factors such as lack of sleep or stress, and offers supplements that it claims help prevent some of the effects of aging.

Despite the rapid growth of investor interest in the longevity sector, it is hardly possible to find a universal source of youth. But development is happening quickly. Stay tuned for upcoming advances in key areas such as cellular reprogramming, regenerative medicine, and drug discovery. These developments, coupled with a greater understanding of the aging process, lay the foundation for the development of effective anti-aging practices. Our assumptions about age may or may not change completely in the coming years, but one thing is for sure: for the world of technology, the dream of immortality will never die.