”A government agency turning sci-fi dreams into reality!”

🤙🏼 Want to connect? Add me on LinkedIn. 🙏🏼 Not subscribed to the LEVITY podcast on Youtube yet? Do it here. 🎧 More of a listener? The LEVITY podcast is also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and other places.

🏡 Housekeeping

➡️ We want to make LEVITY as relevant and useful as possible - and that starts with understanding who’s reading.

This helps in two ways:

We tailor content to the scientists, founders, and thinkers who actually read it.

We attract sponsors - the kind who offer tools, jobs, and opportunities you might actually care about.

Just click the option below that best describes your work. Once you do, you’ll see a short follow-up field where you can (optionally!) tell us more - like what company you’re at or what you're working on.

Thanks for helping us make LEVITY better.

➡️ Depending on when you’re reading this you might still have a chance to win Prolon kits. Our sweepstakes close at midnight (CET) July 13. Don’t miss out!

➡️ A short newsletter today - but both news items below are worth your attention.

From now through the end of August, I’ll be hitting pause on longevity news as I take my first real vacation in two years.

But don’t worry - LEVITY isn’t going quiet.

We’ve got two new podcast episodes dropping in July, and I’ll continue sending at least one newsletter every week. The upcoming issues will be a mix of content I’ve been preparing over the past month or so.

🏖️ Hope you all have a wonderful summer!

/Peter

Big pharma has aging in its crosshairs

We're only halfway through 2025 – but it's already been quite the year for Gero. And, by extension, for anyone serious about the project of staying alive longer, in better health.

First came the worm study, that I told you about a few months ago: an AI-designed molecule extended lifespan in C. elegans by 74%, one of the strongest results ever seen in that model.

Now, Gero has landed something even bigger: a partnership with Chugai Pharmaceutical, a Roche-owned powerhouse, to develop antibody therapies targeting the biological failure points of aging.

The deal could be worth up to $250 million in milestones and royalties. But more important than the money is the message: big pharma is paying attention - not just to diseases, but to the shared architecture behind them.

Chugai won’t be marketing an “anti-aging antibody” anytime soon. Regulators still demand a disease label. And clinical trials are still expensive and cumbersome.

But here’s what is increasingly being accepted: the willingness to say that aging is a system failure worth targeting - and to build a pipeline accordingly.

ARPA-H backs the replacement paradigm

This week, ARPA-H launched the FRONT (Functional Repair of Neocortical Tissue) program - a multimillion effort to regenerate neocortical brain tissue and restore function lost to strokes, injury, and neurodegeneration.

This is (no pun intended) the brainchild of Jean Hebert, author of Replacing Aging and a long-time advocate of the “replacement over repair” approach to aging damage. As Mark Hamalainen - former guest on the LEVITY podcast and now part of ARPA-H -put it:

“I'm incredibly proud to have worked on the build-up to this program launch with Jean Hebert, and to work for a government agency turning sci-fi dreams into reality!”

ARPA-H’s language is more carefully worded. But make no mistake: both Mark Hamalainen and Jean Hebert are in the business of solving aging, nothing less. Now the replacement paradigm is gaining ground in federal R&D strategy.