Longevity Research Uncovered: Decoding Aging & Tech Innovations with NIA Expert Ron Kohanski

Lifespan.io President Keith Comito interviews Ron Kohanski, Ph.D., the director of the Division of Aging Biology at the National Institute on Aging, at the Ending Age Related Diseases conference.

[00:00:00] Introduction and effects of Covid-19 on the NIA
[00:03:36] Funding and budget allocations for aging biology
[00:04:47] Relation between neuroscience and aging biology
[00:06:31] Health disparities and social determinants of health
[00:11:26] Connecting social factors to biological and clinical outcomes
[00:14:42] Aging clocks using inputs such as voice or sound, NIH's interest in wearables
[00:17:44] NIA collaboration with tech companies for accessible health monitoring systems
[00:20:13] Integrating decentralized science, technology, research programs
[00:20:55] Creation of a DARPA-like agency for health
[00:21:37] Synthetic data and federated learning
[00:22:05] Communicating with federal agencies like NIH and NIA
[00:26:23] Searching for appropriate biomarkers and clinical endpoints in aging research
[00:28:26] Deficit accumulation as a potential marker of aging and functional decline
[00:30:37] Challenges in identifying when aging begins
[00:32:27] Examples of deficits: mental acuity, visual acuity, hearing loss
[00:33:31] Future systems for measuring multiple deficits at once
[00:34:14] Should aging be classified as a disease?
[00:36:53] Geoscience Summit and other aging-related conferences
[00:39:32] Potential for machine learning to improve biomarkers in aging research

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About Ron Kohanski
Ronald A. Kohanski, Ph.D., is the director of the Division of Aging Biology (DAB) at the National Institute on Aging. He promotes research in all areas of the biology of aging, covering basic, applied and translational research through the diverse portfolios managed by DAB program officers. A long-standing principle of DAB, dating back 30 years to NIA’s Longevity Assurance Genes funding opportunities, is to bring to the forefront the rate of aging as a guiding principle. This is based on the fundamental metric of lifespan and the influence of genetic, environmental, dietary, and pharmaceutical manipulations that later lifespan and health at older ages.

For several years, Dr. Kohanski has been a proponent for studies using heterochronic parabiosis and heterochronic blood exchange, which demonstrate the abilities of older animals to respond to “youthful signals” and are part of a broader program on regenerative biology and medicine. In addition, he has had a special interest in systems biology and signatures of aging as means to understand functional decline and the heterogeneity of aging. Dr. Kohanski strives to support expansion of research in the basic biology of aging in human populations, with special attention to health disparities.

About Keith Comito
Keith Comito is a computer programmer and mathematician whose work brings together a variety of disciplines to provoke thought and promote social change. He has created video games, bioinformatics programs, musical applications, and biotechnology projects featured in Forbes and NPR. In addition to developing high-profile mobile applications such as HBO Now, MLB At Bat, and most recently Disney+, he explores the intersection of technology and biology at the Brooklyn community lab Genspace, where he helped to create games which allow players to direct the motion of microscopic organisms. Seeing age-related disease as one of the most profound problems facing humanity, he now works to accelerate and democratize longevity research efforts through initiatives such as Lifespan.io. As president of LEAF, he is a leading advocate for the increase of healthy human lifespan, participating in numerous speaking engagements and press appearances around the world, and working to produce high-impact media projects to inform and engage the public regarding this critical topic. He earned a B.S. in Mathematics, B.S. in Computer science, and M.S. in Applied Mathematics at Hofstra University, where his work included analysis of the LMNA protein.

The annual Ending Age-Related Diseases (EARD) conference by Lifespan.io brings together longevity thought leaders together to exchange research reports, inspire and get inspired with new ideas, find collaborators, supporters, and mentors.

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