• Rebuts much of talk coming from the longevity sphere, David Sinclair etc. Shared by Sarah

Takeaways
- The "Biological Age Test" thing - while crude and oversimplified, does seem pretty complex in how it's calculated. There's been a few iterations now, each improving on the last, and it seems that many variables are considered.
- Biological age tests are based on measuring CpGs - need to learn about what this is.
- Horvath has a theory which is challenging Sinclair's (that of epigenomic decay) and has done studies that show "no evidence of increased epigenetic ageing" when causing random DNA damage.

• "In animals, anti-aging interventions (dietary restrictions, rapamycin, genetic manipulations) postpone age-related diseases"
• "In humans, anti-aging interventions have not been yet implemented"
• "Slowly aging individuals (centenarians) enter very old age in good health, but, when diseases finally develop, they do not receive thorough medical care and die fast"

• Want to learn more about DNAmAge.
• "The diet and lifestyle treatment was associated with a 3.23 years decrease in DNAmAge compared with controls (p=0.018)."

• "Cells that drive myelin repair become less efficient as we age"
• "We have uncovered one of the reasons that this process is slowed down in the ageing brain".
• "We identified GPR17, the gene associated to these specific precursors, as the most affected gene in the ageing brain and that the loss of GPR17 is associated to a reduced ability of these precursors to actively work to replace the lost myelin"
• "diseases, including Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease and neuropsychiatric disorders"

• The evidence is promising that in the next 5-10 years, we will start seeing robust evidence that aging can be therapeutically slowed or reversed in humans.
• The 'white mirror' of aging is a world in which biological age is halted at 20-30 years, and people maintain optimal health for a much longer or indefinite period of time.
• Negligible senescence - risk of disease doesn't change over time.
• "Aging is essentially damage that accumulates over time, which exponentially increases the risk of the diseases that kill most people."
• Hallmarks of aging
  • Genomic instability
  • Telomere attrition
  • Epigenetic alterations
  • Loss of proteostasis
  • Deregulated nutrient-sensing
  • Mitochondrial dysfunction
  • Cellular senescence
  • Stem cell exhaustion
  • Altered intercellular communication
• The 'damage' (hallmarks of aging) occurs as a by-product of normal metabolism.
• In the lab, we have demonstrated that various anti-aging approaches can extend healthy lifespan in many model organisms including yeast, worms, fish, flies, mice and rats.
• Life extension of model organisms using anti-aging approaches ranges from 30% to 1000%
• Senescent cells are a kind of 'zombie'-like cell that accumulate with age.
• Killing senescent cells with senolytics extends the median healthy lifespan by up to 27% in mice (below)

An inspiring overview of what's to come in the next decade. Some highlights.
- Paraphrased: The Great Stagnation is over. The roaring twenties are just beginning.
- Energy
- "Batteries will never match fossil fuels’ energy density" - "Commercial aviation can’t electrify"
- Nuclear fusion possible but still a decade out.
- Geothermal seems most interesting.
- Transportation
- Urban air mobility - likely non-viable if pilot is required so automation (and regulation) will be key.
- Nationwide Hyperloop probably a decade out.
- Space
- "Trade (on Earth) is roughly inverse-linear in transport costs."
- SpaceX is incredibly impressive
- Starlink - won't serve cities - will serve 3% of market that's not currently served - still $72b market.
- Thesis - SpaceX uses Starlink revenue to accelerate Mars projects
- "The 2020s will be the decade that makes or breaks cryptocurrency"
- By the middle of the decade, augmented reality will be widely deployed, in the same way that smart watches are today.
- Glasses will be computing devices. Every big tech company has a glasses project at a relatively mature stage in the lab today.