Diabetes, Alzheimer's, heart disease, and stroke. These were identified by the CDC as 4 of the top 10 leading causes of death in the United States. What do they all have in common? They are all age-associated diseases, meaning that as humans age, they are increasingly likely to contract one of these diseases.
Longevity research is the research behind how to keep cells from aging and becoming less efficient in their functions. What's interesting about longevity research is that it's not aimed at a specific disease but rather a broad scientific problem to do with keeping cells working properly for as long as possible.
Longevity research began as a scientific movement of individuals who realized that aging is a major scientific problem. Today, it is a $4.1B dollar industry.
But how did it get there?
With the rise of an increasing amount of biotechnology companies specializing in longevity research, the field has grown into a full blown industry creating progress every day. Popular entrepreneurs such as Jeff Bezos have even began investing in longevity research. These companies use multidisciplinary methods across a variety of fields such as proteomics, transcriptomics, metabolemics, cellular and molecular biology, and computational biology.
Some of these companies include Altos Labs, Insilico Medicine, and Unity Biotechnology: each approaching the problem of aging and their own scientifically unique ways. For example, Altos Labs approaches the problem of aging from a biochemistry perspective with the goal of promoting cellular rejuvination. This is in contrast to Insilico Medicine which deals in the computational side of the field and uses deep learning and insilico methodology for drug discovery.
An array of conferences and consortiums take place every year to push forth collaboration between companies and academia and spark investment into new and growing companies. In the next ten years, I have no doubt that this field will become the next big thing and I'm excited to see what new innovations will be created next.