Happy holidays! Winter is in full swing for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere. It is a time for cozy nights by the fire and a great time to catch up on what has been happening at Lifespan News and LRI.
A cultural intelligence platform for effective advocacy
We are delighted to announce that the campaign to develop a cultural intelligence platform has been a success!
Thanks to donations from the community and Longevity Alliance members, the project will now start. The goal of the campaign was $100,000, and we managed to raise $104,395, taking us to 104% needed to start this important initiative.
About the project
Public trust is the key that opens all other doors. For a long time, the field of longevity research has needed better tools to gauge public opinion and cultivate that trust.
To achieve this, LRI is supporting the development of a cultural intelligence platform by the Public Longevity Group (PLG). The goal is to create tools for measuring public opinion. It will help us to evaluate media coverage and analyze social media engagement in the field. It will also help us to develop effective ways to communicate with audiences that have been overlooked.
The cultural intelligence platform is an AI-driven platform. It will be able to examine all kinds of information, such as media articles and journal papers. With this information, it will be able to track public sentiment in real time and can conduct A/B testing for advocacy messaging.
This set of tools will allow us to engage with audiences worldwide and in much more effective ways, such as by finding the best messaging for different demographic groups. This is excellent news, and our field urgently needs tools like this to support effective advocacy.
We will be reporting on progress and findings from the cultural intelligence platform in the coming years. Many thanks to everyone who helped to make this a reality.
Top longevity news stories of Autumn 2025
As usual, we have been busy bringing you the best in longevity journalism in these past weeks; here are some of the highlights.
Longevity medicine for everyone
Dr. Andrea Maier is a well known and respected researcher in the aging research field. She works at the National University of Singapore and runs her own company, Chi Longevity, which focuses on longevity medicine.
Many longevity centers provide what are effectively high-level healthcare services to rich clients. Andrea wants to go beyond that and has been working on ways to bring longevity medicine to the wider public.
With the NUS launching a clinical trial center focused on longevity, Arkadi Mazin caught up with Andrea. In this interview, he talked to her about the goal of longevity for everyone.
Multilingualism Is Associated With Delayed Aging
Anna Drangowska-Way brought us an interesting article about people who speak multiple languages and longevity. A recent paper suggested that there is a link between spoken languages and delayed aging.
While the exact reasons for this association are not clear, this does touch upon what we know about brain aging: staying mentally active and engaged gives one the motivation to keep going. The quote “The mind is just like a muscle – the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets and the more it can expand.” is apt here.
Anna speaks a number of languages herself, so that’s also good news for her! It isn’t too late to start learning a new language. With many language apps available today, it has never been easier to get started. You never know; it might just help you live a longer, healthier life.
Improving the Cultural Image of Longevity
The Alliance for Longevity Science, Arts & Entertainment (ALSAE) has recently launched. This new nonprofit organization aims to challenge misconceptions about longevity research.
Its goal is to engage with people who create culture in our societies. The organization already has a list of “cultural ambassadors” that includes Oscar- and Grammy-winning artists. Arkadi Mazin spoke with the founders about their goal to improve the cultural image of longevity.
Repairing our DNA
DNA damage is a primary reason we age. Over time, our DNA experiences imperfect repair or mutations. The burden of this damage grows over time and raises the risk of cancer and other age-related diseases.
Matter Bioworks is a new biotech company with a bold vision: to repair our DNA.
We spoke with Sam Sharifi, the Chief Scientific Officer at Matter Bio, who shared how this company plans to fix damaged DNA. Matter Bio plans to achieve this by replacing only the damaged parts of DNA using a transposon-based editor. This technique offers more fidelity than CRISPR gene editing, according to Sam.
The company is also exploring the potential of giving people multiple copies of beneficial genes, which might make it possible to make the genome more efficient and robust.
Indefinite lifespans are being discussed more often
We are likely some time from when aging becomes optional, but it is interesting to see the topic being discussed more often.
A recent poll by YouGov explored public sentiment about living indefinitely thanks to science. The fact that these discussions are happening at all shows there is a change from just ten years ago.
Unfortunately, the questions and even the available answers were a mixed bag, so what this survey ended up with was a somewhat confusing and contradictory set of responses. It does really prompt the question “Do the people making these polls consult with experts in the field before they publish them?”
Judge for yourself about what the public had thought of the question “if death were optional, would you still choose it?”
Building a scientific superintelligence
Professor George Church is a well-known name in the aging research field. He has an almost legendary reputation for entrepreneurship due to the number of companies he has co-founded.
Normally, he only plays advisory roles in these companies, so our interest was piqued when it was announced that he would be the Chief Scientist at the new Lila Sciences.
Lila has the goal of reinventing the scientific method. This company wants to use AI to advance science, but on a scale never seen before. Lila’s executives believe that they can create an AI capable of designing and running thousands of experiments at a time. This high throughput, along with AI’s ability to make unique connections, is an interesting idea.
Arkadi Mazin spoke with Professor Church to learn more about how that this company intends to create a scientific superintelligence.
Support the science for longer, healthier lives for all
While the world celebrates another trip around the sun, help us to turn ‘growing old’ into ‘staying young longer.’ Make a US tax-deductible gift so that we can continue to develop therapies to delay, prevent, and reverse age-related diseases.
We really are making a difference here at our research center in Mountain View, California. The Sharma Lab is conducting important research on senescent cells and therapeutic approaches to removing them. The Boominathan Lab is developing mitochondrial repair therapies, with a focus on the repair or replacement of damaged mitochondrial DNA and the maintenance of mitochondrial health.
Your help also supports our advocacy efforts and allows us to keep bringing you the latest rejuvenation biotech news. As a non-profit, we are free from commercial and government influence and are your trusted source for longevity-related news and information.
Help us accelerate the science and systems driving longer, healthier lives for all. Donate today!
Join the Lifespan Alliance
If you are interested in supporting us as a company, including the benefits of doing so, please consider becoming a member of the Lifespan Alliance.
We sincerely appreciate all the organizations that have partnered with us already. Your contributions are invaluable and enable us to persist in our vital research, advocacy, journalism, and educational efforts. Thank you for your support.
Finally, we would like to wish you all a happy holiday season and a fantastic new year!
View the article at lifespan.io
