Aging Research; Where is the Funding?
There is insufficient Federal funding for aging research
Federal funding for aging research comes from the National Institute on Aging (NIA). The NIA is a division of the National Institute of Health (NIH), which is the largest biomedical research agency on Earth, and the medical research arm of the U.S. department of Health and Human Services (HHS) [1]. The NIA is requesting $3.2 billion for fiscal year (FY) 2021, a decrease of about 10% from FY 2020. The NIA will only allocate 10% of its budget, $322.6 million, to its Division of Aging Biology (DAB), which
supports research to determine the basic biochemical and genetic mechanisms underlying the processes of aging at the cell, tissue, and organ levels and the ways these are communicated among cells and tissues of the body
[2]. The research done by the DAB is arguably closest to what we mean in regards to research on the biology of aging, yet it receives only 10% of the NIA budget.
Aging research is far too valuable to only account for less than a quarter of a percent of discretionary funding.
The NIA’s requested budget for FY 2021 is only 0.24% of the United States proposed discretionary budget for 2021, and the NIA’s DAB budget is only 0.024% of the United States discretionary budget [3]. Aging research is far too valuable to only account for less than a quarter of a percent of discretionary funding. And research on the biology of aging through the DAB, which includes research on treating aging with therapies such as senolytics, is receiving a negligible amount of funding given the enormous potential of such therapies to slow or reverse aging.
How much funding is there from philanthropists and non-profits?
It is hard to gauge the amount of funding from extra-governmental sources when it comes to aging research. There are several non-government organizations and non-profits that fund aging research. Several notable ones are the Life Extension Advocacy Organization (LEAF), the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research, and the Scientifically Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) Research Foundation, and the Methuselah Foundation.
·The Clock Foundation, a non-profit organization founded by biostatician and UCLA professor Dr. Steve Horvath and bioengineer and UCLA alum Bobby Brooke, is dedicated to furthering the development and availability of biomarker testing, with an emphasis on epigenetic aging clocks, for use by researchers, physicians/clinics, and drug-development companies. They aim to reduce testing costs, perform mechanistic studies, and to develop more powerful biomarkers of health-span and life-span for humans, model organisms, and pets. Their team provides testing and analysis of several aging biomarkers, including epigenetic aging clocks, markers of immunosenescence, and markers of organ dysfunction, and partners with researchers to conduct proof-of-concept aging studies. They have plans to enable large-scale preclinical and clinical trial infrastructure in the U.S. and internationally for promising anti-aging treatments [4].
· The Glenn Foundation, a non-profit funded by philanthropist Paul F. Glenn, provides funding to its nine Glenn Centers for Aging Research, which exist at Stanford, the Buck Institute, MIT, Princeton, the Salk Institute, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, University of Michigan, Harvard, and the Mayo Clinic [5]. The Glenn Foundation also provides funding for the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) to coordinate funding and research grants [6], and with Bay Area Aging Meeting (BAAM) which organizes bi-annual networking meetings for researchers in the field of aging [7].
· LEAF is an advocacy and crowdfunding non-profit with the aim of “advocating and supporting the development of biotechnologies with the goal of ending age-related diseases.” The LEAF website, Lifespan.io features news on aging research, interviews with top scientists and advocates, information and videos highlighting the science of aging, the drug pipelines of promising companies in the field, and a Covid-19 roadmap, among many other resources for those interested in educating themselves or getting involved. Crowdfunding goes towards research projects sponsored by LEAF, and one can choose to donate to specific projects or to the LEAF organization [8].
· SENS Research Foundation is a non-profit that funds research on aging aimed at the development of “rejuvenation biotechnologies,” which it defines as technologies to “remove, repair, replace, or render harmless the cellular and molecular damage caused by the biological aging process” [9].
· The Methuselah Foundation is a non-profit biomedical charity that funds companies pursuing anti-aging therapies. Its goal is to “make 90 the new 50 by 2030” [10].
How much funding is there from venture capital?
Venture capital is also involved in researching and fighting aging. There are many companies researching and developing aging therapies, but again, it is difficult to determine the amount of money involved. A few notable companies in terms of their mission and total funding are Calico, Unity Biotechnology, and the Longevity Fund.
· Google’s Calico, California Life Company, is a R&D company that has been stealthily researching the biology of aging with the goal of creating interventions [11]. Since its founding in 2013, 2.5 billion dollars have been invested in Calico through a joint venture between Google and AbbVie [12]. Calico is very secretive, so little is known about their research projects or drug pipeline [13].
· Unity Biotechnology, a start-up founded in 2009, is trying to cure age-related diseases by targeting the mechanisms of aging. Its focus is on senescent cells and it has received multi-hundred million dollar investments by Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos’, and PayPal cofounder, Peter Thiel [14].
· The Longevity Fund is a venture capital company, founded in 2011, that invests in Seed and Series A companies developing drugs for aging and age-related diseases. According to its website, the companies it has invested in have collected greater than $500 million dollars in follow-on funding [15].
We need to advocate for more funding for research and development that targets aging.
Fighting aging needs to be made a top priority. Considering that aging and age-related illness are the leading causes of death and morbidity in the developed world [16], funding for aging research and potential aging therapies needs to be a platform-level issue that receives as much attention as defense budgets and health insurance. There is negligible funding from the U.S. government for aging research, so funding has had to come from other sources such as non-profits and the private sector. We need something similar to ‘Operation Warp Speed,’ the U.S. government’s $10 billion dollar effort to accelerate the development of vaccines for COVID-19.
Advocacy for aging research starts with us, at the individual level. We must make it a priority in our political lives. We can tell those we know via social media to raise awareness that aging is a potentially curable condition and that it is not being given enough attention. We can consider donating to aging advocacy organizations. We can start petitions for aging research to be better funded and more rigorously pursued. Aging research will continue to occur at institutions, companies, and universities at a somewhat sluggish pace unless we make our voices heard! It is clear that we need a grass-roots approach to advocate for accelerated research that will eventually lead to Fortune 500 companies, politicians, and others with financial or political power taking notice and taking action.
References:
[1] About NIH. (n.d.). Retrieved July 20, 2020, from https://www.nih.gov/about-nih
[2] Fiscal Year 2021 Budget. (n.d.). Retrieved July 20, 2020, from https://www.nia.nih.gov/about/budget/fiscal-year-2021-budget
[3] United States, Office of Management and Budget. (2020). A Budget for America’s Future. Retrieved July 20, 2020, from https://whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/
[4] Clock Foundation. (2021, July 5). About the Clock Foundation. Retrieved September 3, 2021, from https://clockfoundation.org/about-the-clock-foundation/
[5] Glenn Foundation for Medical Research. (2020). Retrieved July 21, 2020, from https://glennfoundation.org/
[6] AFAR | American Federation for Aging Research. (2020). Retrieved July 21, 2020, from https://www.afar.org/about-afar
[7] Bay Area Aging Meeting. (2020). Retrieved July 21, 2020, from https://agingmeeting.org/
[8] LEAF | Life Extension Advocacy Foundation. (2020). Retrieved July 21, 2020, from https://www.lifespan.io/
[9] SENS Research Foundation. (2020). Retrieved July 21, 2020, from https://www.sens.org/our-research/
[10] Springfield, VA, 22153United States. (2020). WHO WE ARE. Retrieved July 21, 2020, from https://www.mfoundation.org/who-we-are#about-us
[11] Calico. (2020). Retrieved July 21, 2020, from https://www.calicolabs.com/
[12] Salinas, S., & LaVito, A. (2018, June 26). Google sister company and drug giant chip in another $1 billion to cure age-related diseases. Retrieved July 21, 2020, from https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/26/alphabet-backed-calico-and-abbvie-chip-in-1-billion-to-cure-aging.html
[13] Belluz, J. (2017, April 27). Google is super secretive about its anti-aging research. No one knows why. Retrieved July 22, 2020, from https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/4/27/15409672/google-calico-secretive-aging-mortality-research
[14] Zaleski, A. (2018, August 29). Why Jeff Bezos is backing this Silicon Valley scientist who is working on a cure for aging. Retrieved July 21, 2020, from https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/29/jeff-bezos-backs-silicon-valley-scientist-working-on-a-cure-for-aging.html
[15] The Longevity Fund. (n.d.). Investing in Human Longevity. Retrieved July 21, 2020, from https://www.longevity.vc/
[16] Niccoli T, Partridge L. Ageing as a risk factor for disease. Curr Biol. 2012;22(17):R741-R752. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2012.07.024
