During 2023, ILA continued to advance its mission to promote the advancement of healthy longevity for all people through scientific research of aging biology, development of new drugs and therapies, their fast implementation, improvement of public health policy in the field of aging control, and education.
In 2023, ILA membership increased to include 52 non-profit associations from 36 countries, as federated members.
The flagship projects included leading the co-organization of the international conference “Longevity Nation” in Bar-Ilan University in Israel on March 26-27, 2023. https://longevitynation.org/
During the ILA-led “Longevity Day” and “Longevity Month” campaign of October 2023 – events, including public demonstrations and meetups were held in over a dozen countries.
During its yearly assembly on January 6, 2024, the ILA envisioned for 2024 some of its potential projects and actions, including conferences (live and online), the longevity month campaign, building up the ILA web-presence and IT infrastructure, developing longevity policy recommendations, lobbying at the grassroots, national and international level, scientific projects (computational and experimental), growing the ILA federated membership (from 52 federated members in 36 countries now https://longevityalliance.org/members/ to perhaps over a hundred) by proactively joining forces with like-minded organizations, as well as proactively helping to establish new longevity non-profit organizations, especially in the developing countries, where no such organizations exist, including administrative and website support for these emerging organizations. For all these activities the ILA will seek funds and resources. https://longevityalliance.org/donate/ https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=N2BA7T2KTH2AN
In particular, in order to facilitate fund-raising, outreach and administration to advance global longevity research and advocacy, ILA unanimously voted to establish its headquarters in the UK. For that purpose, a new charity will be registered in the UK – ILA UK, based on the existing ILA federated members. At the same time, the current ILA structure, incorporated in France, will further continue its operation. https://longevityalliance.org/new/ila-general-assembly-6-january-2024/
We look forward to an active and productive year for healthy longevity!
Federated members of ILA reported the following activities and achievements during 2023:
HSAC (Healthspan Action Coalition) report for 2023
Throughout the year, we worked to grow our coalition membership, reaching the milestone of 120 members in December 2023. As we enter 2024, the coalition continues to grow at pace. https://healthspanaction.org/healthspan-action-coalition/
In June 2023, we sponsored the Longevity & Healthspan track at the World Stem Cell Summit, held this year at Wake Forest University and the Winston-Salem Innovation Quarter. This was the first time this annual conference included a track focused on longevity science. We had leading longevity scientists from around the world present, including Aubrey De Grey, Brian Kennedy, Jeanne Loring, Evan Snyder and others, and also had a speaker from the newly formed ARPA-H.
Our San Francisco event on October 1st in celebration of International Longevity Day was well-attended, including an appearance by Aubrey de Grey and other longevity scientists, as well as patient advocates and general supporters of longevity. We plan to have a similar, and even bigger, event in 2024. We also supported the launch of the Dublin Longevity Declaration, participating in launch and communications activities around this important document.
Vetek (Seniority) Association – the Movement for Longevity and Quality of Life, Israel, report for 2023
In 2023, Vetek (Seniority) Association – the Movement for Longevity and Quality of Life continued its operation in its various areas of activity (see the full report in Hebrew https://www.longevityisrael.org/vetek-association-2023-yearly-report/):
Organization of and participation in conferences. Activists of the Vetek association, in cooperation with International Longevity Alliance (ILA), Biogerontology Research Foundation (BGRF) and other partners, organized the international conference “Longevity Nation” in Bar-Ilan University in Israel. https://longevitynation.org/ https://www.longevityisrael.org/longevity-nation-conference-resolutions/
As well as participated and helped to organize several other international conferences.
Promoting the national longevity ecosystem. In cooperation with BGRF, Vetek created the online interactive platform and analytical report “Longevity Industry in Israel 2023”
https://www.longevityisrael.info/
Scientific publications. Several scientific publications were written and published on behalf of the Vetek association, and under the Vetek affiliation, including a monograph on Artificial Intelligence for Healthy Longevity. About 10 more academic articles and book chapters were written and accepted for publication. https://www.longevityhistory.com/about-the-author/. Many more scientific articles were published by members of the Vetek scientific advisory board (on behalf of their universities, not the association) https://www.longevityisrael.org/scientific-board/
Education and grass-roots advocacy. As a part of the Longevity Day/Month campaign, the Vetek (Seniority) Association – The Movement for Longevity and Quality of Life (Israel) conducted a demonstration on October 1, in Tel Aviv. https://www.longevityisrael.org/longevity-day-demonstration-tel-aviv-1-october-2023/
Moreover, live and online lectures on longevity research and advocacy for the broad public were held online.
Collaborations. Vetek association established and strengthened collaborative ties with leading allied organizations for healthy longevity, in particular with the members of the International Longevity Alliance (ILA, France) https://longevityalliance.org/members/; Biogerontology Research Foundation (BGRF, UK) https://www.biogerontology.info/strategic-partners; Longevity Alliance Baltic (LAB, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia). The Vetek Association also promoted cooperation in longevity medicine between Israel and India, and in longevity research between Israel and South Korea.
Administration. Vetek association received the “good governance certificate” (the 6th year in a row), and the tax deduction certificate for donors (Article 46 of the Israeli Income Tax ordinance). We continue to seek funds and resources to advance healthy longevity research, development and education in Israel and internationally. https://www.longevityisrael.org/donate
High level advocacy. In the past, Vetek achieved successes at its high level advocacy in Knesset and the Israeli government, such as the inclusion (at the initiative of Vetek association) of the subject of “Enhancing research, development and education for healthy longevity and prevention of aging-related diseases” into the Israel National Masterplan on Aging, published by Knesset in 2019, and encouraging calls for research proposals on aging and longevity in Israel and in cooperation with Israel (such as the Britain-Israel Research and Academic Exchange Partnership on Ageing – BIRAX Ageing).
In 2023 we continued these activities. There was an understanding to conduct special meetings on longevity research at the Knesset science and technology committee, and to encourage calls for research proposals on aging at the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Science and Technology. Also, there was planned the second Longevity Nation conference in Bar-Ilan university on March 26-27, 2023.
These plans were postponed by the war. The general attention became focused on the war. Yet, we continued to advance the mission of the association, by writing opinion papers, scientific and popular texts, working on the association’s administration, participating in international collaborations, and most importantly preparing for when we can again intensify our activity after the war ends and security returns.
LEVF (Longevity Escape Velocity Foundation) report for 2023
We designed and launched (in February) RMR1, the first study in our flagship Robust Mouse Rejuvenation program – the world’s most ambitious investigation into the extension of healthy lifespan in mammals, and the first major attempt to experimentally validate the fundamental divide-and-conquer approach to preventing and treating age-related disease.
By testing combinations of four different treatments – each individually shown in prior work by other researchers to extend life expectancy – we aim to discover which therapies produce a benefit greater than the sum of their parts, as well as learning which pairings may be wiser to avoid in future clinical applications.
Meanwhile, the scale of the study – with 1,000 mice enrolled, a feat made possible by the expertise of our partners at Ichor Life Sciences – is such that our results will add significant confidence to previous estimates of the longevity benefits of each individual technique.
See here for regular updates on RMR1, including mouse cohort survival curves and analysis.
In December, we unveiled our plans for the second study in the program, RMR2, which will potentially involve combinations of up to six different treatments.
Progress with RMR2 will depend on sufficient funding being raised. To that end, LEVF’s year-end campaign raised $322,760 from 81 named donors and a number of other donors who requested anonymity. We’re extremely grateful to all our donors.
Another significant LEVF activity in 2023 was our support for the Dublin Longevity Declaration (DLD). We helped to assemble over 100 of the world’s foremost experts on the science of aging to argue that much better control of age-related disease is now potentially within reach – and that efforts to achieve it should be immediately and greatly expanded. Look out for more activity based around the DLD in the early months of 2024 – when members of the ILA will be welcome to help raise more awareness of the DLD.
Earlier in the year, in partnership with Longevity Events Ltd, we hosted the global longevity and rejuvenation community at the second Longevity Summit Dublin (LSD). We know that each year sees a larger number of longevity events around the world, which is a great trend, but we believe LSD is special. Recordings of what took place there can be viewed on YouTube.
Retrospective and Future Outlook of Healthy Life Extension Society – HEALES NGO www.heales.org
- Monthly Newsletter Publication:
Release of monthly newsletters in five languages: English, French, Spanish, German, and Dutch. Accessible at HEALES Monthly Newsletter.
- Conference-Seminar-Exchange Organization:
Organisation of an online conference focusing on AI, longevity, and open research on October 13th
Active participation in conferences: September 9th Radical longevity and transhumanism Van Guard, Bulgaria; October 10th, Conference on Healthy Longevity, Slovenia; Longevity Summit, Dublin, ARDD 26 – 30 August in Copenhagen (poster); U.S. Transhumanist Party Virtual Enlightenment Salon” on November 5th …,
- Monthly Meetings of Heales with among other aspects: Longevity Scientific Updates: featuring advancements in the longevity field.
- Financial Support for Longaevus: Provided dedicated support and resources.
- Financial support for LongevityGpt Development: Engaged in a project related to artificial intelligence, provided dedicated support and resources in the development of LongevityGpt.
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ): Maintained an FAQ section, offering valuable information and answers on longevity-related topics. https://heales.org/links/
- Three Scientific Factsheets: clinical trials on humans,clinical trials on mice, 9 causes of aging
- Spanish Video Production: Produced short and long informative videos in Spanish on YouTube, contributing to the dissemination of longevity-related knowledge. https://www.youtube.com/@HealesMovies/videos
Perspective for 2024:
- Co-Organization of TransVision conference (January 19th, 20th and 21st 2024): Collaborated in the co-organization of TransVision 2024 Utrecht, contributing to discussions on future technologies and their impact on humanity.
- Online conference on “Sharing Health Data and AI Insights for Longevity in Europe and Around the World” (February 29, 2024): fostering international collaboration and knowledge exchange with a large panel of speakers.
AFT – Technoprog. Mini-report 2023 https://transhumanistes.com/
Conferences and meetings about longevity and other subjects
Conferences in Paris about longevity and other subjects
Articles about longevity and other subjects on the site
Podcasts/videos in The Flares”, Le futurologue and others concerning longevity and other subjects
Intervention in conferences and in the press about longevity and other questions
Monthly newsletter in French
Support for short stories about longevity
Preparation TransVision in Utrecht January 2024
Longévité & Santé report for 2023
At Longévité & Santé, French branch of ILA, a pipeline of longevity science was initiated at the end of 2022 and advanced throughout the year 2023:
The possibility to make lifespan tests at home with Daphnia – small crustaceans that are less than 1mm long – in collaboration with a lab at the Harvard Medical School. Any ILA helper is welcome to be part of the community of Daphnia lifespan tests at home – just email peshkin@gmail.com
- A protocol was submitted, here: bio-protocol – DIY Intervention Testing in Daphnia
- A toolkit was chosen on the market to handle the Daphnia: https://aquazolla.com/products/kit-elevage-daphnies (16€+S&H – you may order it and try
- An arduino robot was initiated to automatize tests (if you want to contribute to the robot / arduino or micropython code of the AI camera, let us know)
Special kudos to Leon, Rachael, Benyamin, Cora. People at Heales initiated Daphnia maintenance tests too – special kudos to Didier and Ninon. At this stage, there is still a long way to go as we have the tools and the protocol in place, Daphnia are maintained at various homes but lifespan tests are not ready yet. If you are motivated, it might be the right time to be part of the pioneers for this movement. The advantage of Daphnia is the possibility to handle them at home, school, museum etc, and to investigate fundamental aspects of aging. The advantage of automatisation is to test many things, which is hardly possible with rodents or even humans.
COLLIDA – Collective Collection of (healthy) Lifespan Data
Of mice and men: we started an extensive review and annotation of rodent lifespan tests:
- The project was described here: https://moored-brother-525.notion.site/COLLIDA-Project-627b5c39956d4b828cf778af41531afc (an enhanced version is planned at this url: https://www.longevite-sante.org/collida/ – mentioned for future readers of this document). Special kudos to Benyamin, mainly.
- In 2023, a total of 1753 articles were carefully selected so far that contain rodent lifespan test results that likely matter for deciphering solutions to aging. This covers the years 1980-2011: we advance, we are not very far from having the full list until today! This is incomparable with existing rodent lifespan databases on the web – the reason why this project was undertaken. The list is right now available on a google drive, here, and the enhanced version is planned at this url: https://www.longevite-sante.org/collida/articles/ – mentioned for future readers of this document)
- Some preliminary analysis highlighted that rapamycin, canaglyflozin, acarbose were key geroprotectors in males, and that beyond the extraordinary results of the Interventions Testing Program ( ITP) it remains important to have long lived controls. Here are two specific analyses posted on Meta, using the Collida gathered so far, one on rapamycin here, one about LEVF’s Robust Mouse Rejuvenation 1 ongoing results, here. In both, it is clear that comparing the results of the control group with control groups with the same strain of mice from other laboratories helps appreciate results. Special kudos to Edouard
- A database format was put in place to compare results across articles. We collaborated again with a lab at the Harvard Medical School to synchronize this project, COLLIDA, and another projet, ALEC, oriented towards reviewing articles rather than seeing what next lifespan tests should be undertaken, but using the same type of data. Special kudos to Leon, Olga, Edouard, Malvina.
- An automation was put in place, basic automation and with ChatGPT, though manual intervention seems to remain needed to extract lifespan test features. Based on experience with volunteers, Median and Max10% remaining smoothed lifespan (every word counts) should be sufficient to deduce what next lifespan tests make sense from the past. All this was started by hand, special kudos to Malvina, Patrick, Alexandra, Edouard, Olga, Alex, Leon, Benyamin, Walter, Anton, and certainly many others.
- ChatGPT says well how much this project is useful 🙂 :
We are trying to see how to leverage from this project to both make the data free and to collect money for future projects. A possibility is that the data would be free to those who technically contribute (and anyone can contribute with a minimal task so someone who did not contribute can still get the data for free with a very small involvement) or (for those who do not want to contribute) in exchange of any sum of money (to Longévité & Santé or the ILA) and free also to rodent researchers (defined as having their email as an author in a peer-reviewed research paper relating to rodents) . This, to collect money for future projects and to recognize the help of everyone, at times when many people retrieve data without helping at all otherwise. These are minor side thoughts; the most important thing at this stage is how to extract lifespan data from the lifespan curves in the PDFs, or at least the median and maximum lifespans described here above. Would you have skills in AI and want to try to automatize the extractions of key lifespan features from articles, please contact edebonneuil@yahoo.fr
Longecity
Over the last several years LongeCity has continued to sponsor conferences around the world, provided small grants for aging and rejuvenation research, maintained a forum for discussion of recent medical advances and biohacking results, and interviewed dozens of researchers about their efforts. https://www.longecity.org/podcast/
Live Forever Club
The Live Forever Club is a UK-based non-profit raising awareness of the prospect of radical life extension – trying to reach as wide an audience as possible.
In 2023, its website (https://liveforever.club/) expanded to over 4,000 articles and more than 11,000 resources (people, organisations, books, etc.) categorized into 160 longevity topics.
As well as continuing to grow a social media following, this year the club’s monthly newsletter reached 1,000 subscribers around the world.
In 2023, the club also launched in-person Meetup events (in London and south-east England) branded as the Longevity Café: https://www.meetup.com/longevity-cafe/
Longevity Alliance Baltic
In 2023, the Longevity Alliance Baltic was established, to promote the research of advocacy for healthy Longevity in the area and internationally. 2 conferences were already organized by Longevity Alliance Baltic: the first Baltic Conference on Healthy Longevity in Riga, on November 25, and a conference on Healthy Longevity in Kaunas, Lithuania, on December 8 in partnership with Lithuanian University of Health Sciences. https://lsmu.lt/renginiai/konferencija-sveiko-ilgaamziskumo-medicina23/
The second Baltic International Conference on Healthy Longevity is planned to take place in Riga on June 7-8, 2024 https://longevitybaltics.org/conference/
Longevity Nigeria (an emerging association, an individual ILA member)
Longevity Nigeria hosted a virtual conference dedicated to exploring the potential of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science in Optimizing Public Health in Africa. The event was held on Saturday, October 28, 2023, and drew participants from several locations, including Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Algeria, the United States, and Canada.
We will be working on project OLIVE 2024. That is Oldest LIVing nigErian.
In conclusion, on behalf of the ILA board, it is a privilege to be a part of this amazing group of global leaders of longevity research and advocacy! Looking forward to more actions and achievements. Welcome to get in touch with the ILA board: ila-lead@googlegroups.com
And thanks for your support!
ILA board