#17 How the $101M XPRIZE will reverse aging by 20 years | Jamie Justice

Jamie Justice takes us inside the $101M XPRIZE Healthspan competition - one of the world's largest efforts to develop therapeutics that could reverse aging.

As Executive Vice President of XPRIZE Healthspan, Jamie reveals how teams must demonstrate they can restore muscle, cognitive, and immune function in older adults within just one year. The stakes? $81M for achieving a 20-year reversal of aging markers, with $71M and $61M prizes for lesser but still remarkable achievements.

Jamie shares her fascinating journey from studying crickets' lifespans in elementary school to leading groundbreaking aging research, including work on the TAME trial with metformin. She explains why they chose these specific biological systems to measure, how they'll determine success, and what kinds of interventions teams are exploring - from repurposed drugs to gene therapies.

We discuss:

* Why Peter Diamandis pushed for more ambitious goals

* How over 550 teams from 55 countries are approaching the challenge EDIT: Since we recorded this in late 2024 they've now reached over 600 teams.

* The role of biomarkers in measuring aging

* Why they chose to measure actual restoration rather than just preventing decline

* The challenges and opportunities in aging clinical trials

* Her vision for an integrated, multi-generational society that values aging populations

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CHAPTERS:

00:00 Introduction

03:00 background

21:30 XPRIZE sculpted by experience

25:20 Collaborating with the entrant teams

29:00 Why muscle, mind and immune functions as targets

36:30 What if no one wins in 7-years?

41:05 Investors attracted

45:01 Does this give us increased longevity?

51:05 What kind of approaches have been entered?

01:00:30 AI

01:09:20 Composit end-points

01:13:10 TAME trial stuck because ...

01:19:10 Biomarkers of aging

01:26:50 AI and Biomarkers

01:29:02 The longbio track (be lucky)

01:36:20 Optimism about what?

01:41:00 3 book you have to read

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