Round up: US$25m fund to reimagine human longevity

Age Tech World explores the latest business developments in the world of age technology and longevity

US$25m fund to reimagine human longevity

India-based entrepreneur Deepinder Goyal has announced the launch of Continue Research, supported by a US$25m personal fund dedicated to advancing global longevity science.

Continue Research was founded two years ago as an independent scientific initiative exploring upstream biological mechanisms: the fundamental leverage points where small interventions could meaningfully transform how humans age and live.

The team has been investigating a core hypothesis on human ageing that, if validated, could significantly reshape current biological understanding.

Entirely funded by Goyal’s personal capital, the US$25m Continue Fund will support scientists worldwide who adopt a systems-level approach to biology and challenge the complexity of traditional models.

All findings from Continue and its funded collaborators will be released as open-source research in the coming weeks.

Reflecting Goyal’s belief in accessible science, the initiative prioritises interventions that benefit entire populations, not only the wealthy.

Continue Research is structured not as a company or a startup, but as a research collective and seed fund.

Eli Lilly to acquire Adverum Biotechnologies

Eli Lilly and Company and Adverum Biotechnologies – a gene therapy company working to preserve sight for life in highly prevalent ocular diseases – have announced a definitive agreement for Lilly to acquire Adverum Biotechnologies, including its lead product candidate, Ixo-vec.

Adverum is developing a pipeline of intravitreal single-administration gene therapies with the aspiration of developing functional cures to restore vision and prevent blindness.

Its lead product candidate, Ixo-vec, is an intravitreal gene therapy being developed for the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration (wAMD).

Ixo-vec is designed as a single one-time treatment to deliver continuous and stable intraocular aflibercept levels, thereby reducing the significant patient burden associated with current chronic anti-VEGF therapies, while also potentially leading to improved vision outcomes.

Ixo-vec is being evaluated in the ARTEMIS Phase 3 clinical trial, which has completed screening.

The programme has been granted Fast Track and Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy (RMAT) designations by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, as well as PRIME designation by the European Medicines Agency and the Innovation Passport from the United Kingdom’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency for the treatment of wAMD.

Generation Lab raises US$11M for SystemAge longevity diagnostic

Generation Lab has announced the completion of an US$11m seed funding round, bringing total funding to US$15m.

SystemAge quantifies biological age including the health of 19 organ systems/functions from intact primary blood results based on discovery of the physiologic non-linear curve of DNA methylation ageing.

In less than a year of operation, the company has signed over 275 clinics worldwide, amassed more than 300 million human-aging data points, and achieved 99.9 per cent diagnostic accuracy, providing for the first time a clinically relevant capacity for meaningful, well-controlled healthspan optimisation.

“We’re witnessing a fundamental shift from reactive to proactive healthcare — led by consumers,” said Alina Su, CEO and Co-founder of Generation Lab.

“Generation Lab is shaping the future of the longevity industry,” said Kerry Wang, Partner at Accel.

“Alina, Michael, and Irina are building with conviction and credibility in a space that demands both.

“Their SystemAge™ platform combines solid science with strong commercial progress, creating a new category in data-driven healthcare. This is only the beginning.”

Immorta Bio expands StemCellRevivify Platform

Immorta Bio has announced new data and the filing of a patent application demonstrating regeneration of heart, brain, and liver tissues using mitochondria isolated from personalised mesenchymal stem cells (pMSC) generated through the Company’s proprietary StemCellRevivify platform.

The new data disclosed in the patent application show that pluripotent stem cells can be generated from the blood of aged mice and differentiated into “young” pMSC, from which mitochondria were isolated.

Mitochondria derived from pMSC, unlike those from conventional MSC, produced profound therapeutic and regenerative effects in animal models of heart failure, radiation-induced brain injury, and liver failure.

Immorta Bio is preparing to initiate clinical trials of SenoVax in lung cancer, where tumours exploit senescent-cell mechanisms to shield themselves from immune attack.

The Company also plans to advance StemCellRevivify pMSC therapy into clinical trials for liver failure, a major unmet medical need.

Additionally, the potential synergy between SenoVax and StemCellRevivify for treating disorders of consciousness (coma) was recently discussed in the peer-reviewed publication “Reversing Coma by Senolytics and Stem Cells: The Future is Now,” published in the Journal of Translational Medicine.

“Immorta Bio is shaking the foundations of medicine by treating aging as a disease we can defeat,” said Dr. Boris N. Reznik, Chairman and CEO of Immorta Bio.

“Our StemCellRevivify platform, paired with SenoVax, isn’t just regenerating hearts, brains, and livers, it’s rewriting the rules of human potential.

“While some debate the ethics of extending life, we’re delivering results, pushing the boundaries of science to dominate the longevity market and give humanity a fighting chance against time.”

Stowers Institute appoints first AI Fellow to help advance biological research with AI

To help harness AI’s potential for discovery through data analysis, the Stowers Institute for Medical Research has appointed Sumner Magruder, Ph.D., as its first AI Fellow.

The new role within the Stowers Fellows Program is designed to accelerate the integration of advanced computational methods into biological research.

“This is very much an exciting time in biology,” Magruder said.

“We have more data than we know what to do with. So, just imagine the possibilities now that we can design experiments to go hand in hand with new computational methods.”

Magruder brings an exceptional interdisciplinary background to his new role, holding a Ph.D. in computer science from Yale University and a Ph.D. in biology from Universität Hamburg.

His training in AI, machine learning, computational biology, and neuroscience uniquely positions him to help catalyze new advances at the interface of AI and the life sciences.

“AI is not just a tool for efficiency; it’s a driver of entirely new discoveries,” said investigator Julia Zeitlinger, head of the Institute’s AI Initiative.

“Sumner brings both the technical expertise and the curiosity-driven spirit needed to help our scientists push biology into new territory.”

Magruder’s research has a particular emphasis on bringing explainability to complex models.

Currently, he’s using AI to deduce “timelines” by which cells develop, from normal development and aging to the progression of diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

“What changes are truly disease-specific and what is simply part of getting older?” he explained.

His findings could one day provide a clearer picture of how diseases emerge and progress.

“A large part of my research isn’t just in the creation of new methods, but it’s also in their proliferation,” Magruder said.

“Making them usable so that, suddenly, it’s not just me using this tool. It’s the entire academic community.”

“Sumner’s relentless curiosity drives him to look at problems in ways most do not,” said scientific director Kausik Si, Ph.D.

“His perspective will accelerate how we approach research from new angles and ask questions that, not long ago, were out of reach.”

At the Institute, Magruder will collaborate with 20 independent research programmes and 15 Technology Centers to design new algorithms tailored to biological questions, working with researchers to unlock insights from increasingly large and complex datasets.

“The future of biology will be written at the intersection of data, computation, and discovery,” said president and CSO Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado, Ph.D.

“By investing in AI and this fellowship, we are ensuring that our scientists have the intellectual and technological tools to pioneer in this new era.”