Reporting on the Systems Aging Gordon Research Conference
Alex Zhavoronkov, who these days is as much interested in accelerating progress in cryonics as in translational research for the treatment of aging, here reports on his time at the recent Systems Aging Gordon Research Conference, one of a growing number of new conference series serving academic efforts make headway in the matter of treating aging as a medical condition. As a general rule, more successful conference series tend to indicate a larger and more successful field: more researchers, more funding, more attention from the world at large. The proliferation of conferences focused on aging is a good sign.
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. Both are world-renowned researchers, and spoke and led the discussions at the conference. 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.
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.
The first discussion topic for day three 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". 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. "Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning" was the first subject matter for day four, 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.
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.