Sergey Young 

CRISPR technology. Some 50-70 years ago, a global pandemic like COVID-19 would have claimed millions of lives before a vaccine was developed. Today, the SARS-CoV-2 genome was sequenced within days, a diagnostic test was able to provide results within less than an hour and a vaccine was designed and developed in a few weeks. Welcome to the world of CRISPR [Link]

­

Virotherapy drugs. Japanese researchers developed a virotherapy drug that uses a virus to attack brain tumor cells. A herpes virus, genetically engineered to replicate only in cancer cells, effectively destroys these cells [Link]

­

Lab-grown meat. Meat and dairy products are responsible for 60 percent of agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions; that’s why lab-grown meat is emerging as the most impactful step to reverse climate change. Living longer doesn’t matter if there’s no planet to live on [Link]

­

An Oura Ring for the brain. Bryan Johnson dedicated his entire fortune to “the Oura Ring for your brain”. At a price tag of over $50k, Bryan believes his special device, called Kernel, will help doctors treat mental health more consistently and accurately. He summarized his vision in a recent interview, saying, "If you go to a cardiologist with heart problems, they are going to run a lipid panel, calcium score, blood pressure, and a variety of other tests before treating you. If you go to the doctor with depression or mental health issues, they just give you a random pill and hope for the best. We need diagnostics for the brain” [Link]

The changing economics of aging

If you were born in 1960, you had a 13 percent chance of living to be 100. Fast forward to today, and that number has increased to 50 percent — and it will continue to climb. But how will this shift change our wallets and economies at large? To learn more about the economics of aging, continue reading [Link]

­The XPRIZE: Can we live radically longer?

More than 70 percent of all deaths can be attributed to age-related diseases like cancer, Alzheimer’s, heart disease and liver disease. In the United States, chronic diseases are the leading driver of the more than $3 trillion spent annually on health care. What longevity breakthroughs would improve these numbers and allow us to work for longer and reduce healthcare spending? [Link]