Fight Aging!

Karl Pfleger is one of the small community of angel investors and philanthropists who collectively initially supported the first rejuvenation biotechnology companies to emerge in this present generation of the longevity industry. Here he is performing the public service of publishing a curated list of biotechnology companies in the industry, startups that are either definitively or at least arguably working on a means to intervene in important mechanisms of aging, along with their targets and progress to date. That there are still fewer than 100 such companies indicates that this is very much an industry in its initial growth phase - but growth is certainly happening. The sizable pools of venture funding dedicated to the longevity industry, such as Juvenescence and Life Biosciences are attracting new entrepreneurs, and the scientific community is starting to realize that the prospects for advancing their research programs into clinical translation have greatly improved these past few years.

Chronic diseases of aging have over the past century taken over from infectious diseases as the predominant causes of death and suffering. The science of aging has shown over the past few decades that certain slow biological changes collectively underlie most (if not all) chronic diseases. The aging and longevity field, the understanding of these slow changes and how to interfere with them, is currently a small part of the overall medical, healthcare, and biotech spaces, but the efficiency of targeting the underlying causes of multiple diseases will rapidly cause aging to grow to become a much larger portion.

The aging and longevity field has recently grown to the point where it is difficult to follow important developments, even for insiders. There are books, journals, and blogs, but few sources of structured information to refer to for broader context or to consult for targeted inquiries, particularly few focused narrowly on aging defined as the underlying molecular causes of multiple age-related diseases.

As an especially important example, the internet previously had no reasonably comprehensive and precise list of companies with therapies or diagnostics for underlying aging in the above sense. Some argue that aging will be a scientific, commercial, and cultural revolution to rival any others. What is even more certain is that the field is important and of interest to many, so concise ways to pay attention will be useful. This will be a living site with ongoing updates. Focus will be on content, not flashiness, with the goal being utility for the community, those interacting with it, and the wider interested public.

Link: http://agingbiotech.info/