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The Longevity Initiative

@thelongevityinitiative.org

Independent think tank and educational organisation dedicated to advancing longevity science in the UK, EU and around the world. Founded by @statto.bsky.social and @kshoylev.bsky.social

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The Longevity Initiative@thelongevityinitiative.org · 2mo ago

We spoke with Social Capital for their new Deep Dive on longevity! Ageing is the biggest shared risk factor for the diseases that kill us, but they find that it gets just 0.25% of global biomedical R&D. Read more here:

Deep Dive: How Close Are We to Living Longer?

Cancer, heart disease, dementia, and type 2 diabetes are funded, researched, and treated as separate problems. However, they share one underlying driver…

chamath.substack.com

The Longevity Initiative@thelongevityinitiative.org · 2mo ago

We’ve been on there for a while, but just officially launched on @linkedin.com! Check out our article on what we started a think tank, not a biotech – and please give us a follow over there and share our page with your network.

Welcome to The Longevity Initiative

The Longevity Initiative is working towards a world free from age-related disease. So why start a think tank and educational nonprofit rather than a biotech? Longevity policy and education are some of...

linkedin.com

The Longevity Initiative@thelongevityinitiative.org · 2mo ago

Lovely to see a spike in traffic for our 2025 longevity business round-up last week as the Retro Bio news broke! If you're catching up on the reprogramming gold rush, the biotech funding drought and recent big exits, it’s all here:

The business of longevity in 2025: big bets amid biotech bust

Billion-dollar bets on cellular reprogramming, biotech's rough year, and early FDA success for healthy lifespan extension in dogs.

thelongevityinitiative.org

The Longevity Initiative@thelongevityinitiative.org · 2mo ago

Does NIH research funding track what actually kills Americans? Building on A4LI’s new report, we ran the numbers: and ageing fares worst. Ageing causes 83% of deaths, yet receives just 1.2% of the research funding per death that cancer does—around $1 per American per year.

Scatter plot titled "US research funding vs deaths, by cause". Subtitle: "NIH research funding of a disease or cause of death in 2024, plotted against annual US deaths from that cause in 2023. Ageing causes over 80% of US deaths, but receives just 0.8% of NIH funding." The vertical axis shows NIH funding (2024), from 0 to $8bn. The horizontal axis shows deaths from disease (2023), from 0 to about 2.6m. Each point is a cause of death. Most points cluster in the bottom-left corner, with low funding and low-to-moderate death counts. Cancer sits high up at roughly 720k deaths and just over $8bn in funding — the highest-funded point. Alzheimer's and coronaviruses sit high on the funding axis despite relatively few deaths. Heart disease sits low and to the right, at about 1.4m deaths but under $2bn in funding. Ageing is far to the right at around 2.6m deaths but near the very bottom of the funding axis, an extreme outlier showing huge mortality and almost no funding. A blue annotation reads: "Cancer is involved in 23% of deaths and receives $24 per American per year". A red annotation reads: "Ageing is responsible for 83% of US deaths and receives $1 per American per year". There is almost no correlation between how many people a disease kills and how much research funding it receives. Chart: The Longevity Initiative. Source: RCDC Funding Survey / CDC / analysis by The Longevity Initiative. Created with Datawrapper.
The Longevity Initiative@thelongevityinitiative.org · 2mo ago

Does NIH research funding track what actually kills Americans? Building on A4LI’s new report, we ran the numbers: and ageing fares worst. Ageing causes 83% of deaths, yet receives just 1.2% of the research funding per death that cancer does—around $1 per American per year.

Scatter plot titled "US research funding vs deaths, by cause". Subtitle: "NIH research funding of a disease or cause of death in 2024, plotted against annual US deaths from that cause in 2023. Ageing causes over 80% of US deaths, but receives just 0.8% of NIH funding." The vertical axis shows NIH funding (2024), from 0 to $8bn. The horizontal axis shows deaths from disease (2023), from 0 to about 2.6m. Each point is a cause of death. Most points cluster in the bottom-left corner, with low funding and low-to-moderate death counts. Cancer sits high up at roughly 720k deaths and just over $8bn in funding — the highest-funded point. Alzheimer's and coronaviruses sit high on the funding axis despite relatively few deaths. Heart disease sits low and to the right, at about 1.4m deaths but under $2bn in funding. Ageing is far to the right at around 2.6m deaths but near the very bottom of the funding axis, an extreme outlier showing huge mortality and almost no funding. A blue annotation reads: "Cancer is involved in 23% of deaths and receives $24 per American per year". A red annotation reads: "Ageing is responsible for 83% of US deaths and receives $1 per American per year". There is almost no correlation between how many people a disease kills and how much research funding it receives. Chart: The Longevity Initiative. Source: RCDC Funding Survey / CDC / analysis by The Longevity Initiative. Created with Datawrapper.
The Longevity Initiative@thelongevityinitiative.org · 3mo ago

New post: Can longevity save us from a population crisis? We tried out @ourworldindata.org’s new population projection tool to see if increasing life expectancy could save us from demographic decline:

Can longevity save us from a population crisis? – The Longevity Initiative

Everyone’s worried about falling birth rates. Almost no one is talking about the other lever that could reshape our demographic future: longevity.

thelongevityinitiative.org

The Longevity Initiative@thelongevityinitiative.org · 3mo ago

New post: Can longevity save us from a population crisis? We tried out @ourworldindata.org’s new population projection tool to see if increasing life expectancy could save us from demographic decline:

Can longevity save us from a population crisis? – The Longevity Initiative

Everyone’s worried about falling birth rates. Almost no one is talking about the other lever that could reshape our demographic future: longevity.

thelongevityinitiative.org

The Longevity Initiative@thelongevityinitiative.org · 5mo ago

The Human Ageing Genomic Resources are vital open-source databases on longevity genes and drugs, and animal lifespans. It would be a loss to the field if they go offline due to funding cuts. See @jpsenescence.bsky.social’s post here for more details and how to support:

Joao Pedro Magalhaes@jpsenescence.bsky.social · 5mo ago

🚨 The Human Ageing Genomic Resources Are at Risk For over 20 years, our Human Ageing Genomic Resources (HAGR) have supported ageing and longevity research. We are raising funds to secure their continuity while we pursue long-term funding. www.justgiving.com/page/human-a...

The Longevity Initiative@thelongevityinitiative.org · 7mo ago

Why does the word ‘longevity’ seem to be everywhere at the moment? The final piece in our round-up of the last year in longevity looks at how ageing, wellness and biohacking cropped up in the media, pop culture and…in discussions between Putin and Xi? Please enjoy this Friday read:

Netflix and immortal dictators: Longevity’s biggest year yet

From Bryan Johnson's viral biohacking to Putin and Xi discussing living to 150, 2025's biggest longevity stories—and whether hype is helping or hurting science.

thelongevityinitiative.org

The Longevity Initiative@thelongevityinitiative.org · 7mo ago

US ageing research funding could drop from $1.04 to 62 cents per person. Europe spends even less. Meanwhile, @xprize.org Healthspan's $101 million competition announces semifinalists. Part 3 of our year in review:

Budget cuts, mega-prizes, and the future of longevity funding – The Longevity Initiative

40% cuts are proposed to US funding of longevity science, while the $101 million XPRIZE Healthspan—the world's largest prize—announces 100 semi-finalists.

thelongevityinitiative.org

The Longevity Initiative@thelongevityinitiative.org · 7mo ago

To kick off 2026, we’re publishing a week of articles looking back at 2025 in longevity. The first is 2025 in longevity science—two new drug cocktails make mice live longer, plus clocks to measure the age of your organs and ‘extracellular vesicles’ improve signs of ageing in monkeys. Read it here:

2025 in longevity: mice live 30% longer, human organ clocks

Two new drug cocktails make mice live longer—plus clocks to measure the age of your organs, and ‘extracellular vesicles’ improve signs of ageing in monkeys.

thelongevityinitiative.org

Agingdoc⭐David Barzilai🔔MD PhD, MS, MBA, DipABLM@agingdoc.bsky.social · 7mo ago

My friend Andrew Steele is building this: The majority of poor health and deaths globally are caused by diseases that become common with age... "But public policy has yet to catch up.. & longevity science is underappreciated, and underfunded We exist to change that" 🧑‍⚕️⚕️ thelongevityinitiative.org

The Longevity Initiative

Learn how longevity science could help us all live healthier for longer—and what extending healthspan means for policy, ageing, and the economy.

thelongevityinitiative.org

The Longevity Initiative@thelongevityinitiative.org · 7mo ago

Hi! We are The Longevity Initiative, a new think tank and educational organisation working towards a world free from age-related disease, where longevity medicines are accessible to everyone. Find out more at our website, thelongevityinitiative.org 🐢

The Longevity Initiative@thelongevityinitiative.org · 7mo ago

We’re fundraising! And, just in time for the end of the tax year, we’ve partnered with Vitalism Charitable Foundation 501(c)(3) to enable US taxpayers to make a donation intended to support The Longevity Initiative which may be tax-deductible. Find out more here:

Please donate to our end-of-year fundraiser – The Longevity Initiative

The Longevity Initiative is running an end-of-year fundraiser, in partnership with Vitalism Charitable Foundation.

thelongevityinitiative.org

The Longevity Initiative@thelongevityinitiative.org · 7mo ago

Hi! We are The Longevity Initiative, a new think tank and educational organisation working towards a world free from age-related disease, where longevity medicines are accessible to everyone. Find out more at our website, thelongevityinitiative.org 🐢

The Longevity Initiative

Learn how longevity science could help us all live healthier for longer—and what extending healthspan means for policy, ageing, and the economy.

thelongevityinitiative.org