OIA Founder Dr. Hector Zenil at industry panel on the future of ageing
Founder of Oxford Immune Algorithimics participates in the 73rd Annual Scientific Meeting as one of the trustees of the British Society for Research on Ageing (BSRA) representing King's College London and Oxford Immune Algorithmics (OIA) at the University of Birmingham’s Medical School.
Dr. Zenil chaired a keynote speaker session, participated in an industry panel (rightmost on pictures) and helped select the winner for the prize for the best spinout idea during the conference.
On the panel was Dr. Peter Hamley (Apollo Ventures), Dr. Manuel Serrano (Altos Labs) and Prof. Cynthia Kenyon (Calico) moderated by BSRA chair Prof. David Weinkove.
Dr. Serrano discovered the ageing-related gene p16 and was first to report that cell reprogramming can be achieved within tissues. Dr. Hamley (second left to right on the pics) has been directly involved in the development and market placing of dozens of drugs at some of the Top 5 pharma companies.
Next to Dr. Zenil there was Prof. Kenyon who was awarded the Lord Cohen of Birkenhead Medal at this conference, as a testament to her research uncovering genetic mechanisms of ageing. She was one of the first people to show that ageing can be influenced directly by small changes to single genes.
Prof. Weinkove (leftmost) asked the industry panel a very interesting question that was enough to lead the whole session. When do we each of us think the first slowing ageing drug would be approved? Most of my fellow panelists seemed to agree that between 1 to 5 years but I was an outlier. I said that no less than 5 years and more likely 15 or more. This because, I explained, is less about science and more about the human condition.
”It was not clear to me the world was ready or would need to change before such an approval was possible and not the other way around. The world is hard wired to be reactive to disease and not proactive at preventing: from how doctors prescribe drugs to how insurance companies reimburse them and how governments would need to deal with state pensions and the like, the world is not ready.
”This without mentioning the many ethical ramifications about who would have access (the resources) to pay for them out of pocket potentially making inequality even greater and deeper (with wealthier people living longer). But some of these drugs are already here and are being repurposed, so the question was about specific age-related labelling in the drug's intended use.
”We see some of this already happening with new weight reduction drugs and how they are disrupting not only the med & wellness markets but how we think of disease and the social dynamics.”
Dr. Hector Zenil, Associate Professor at KCL & Founder, Director and Chief Visionary Officer of Oxford Immune Algorithmics
Oxford Immune Algorithmics (OIA) was one of the sponsors alongside some giants in the innovation space in ageing research and longevity science spaces such as Calico (Google ageing research arm) and Altos Labs, Yakult, and others.
Oxford Immune Algorithmics is deep-tech start-up that applies Artificial General Intelligence (causal predictive & generative AI) based on symbolic regression and program synthesis to deliver decentralised mission-driven solutions to everyone today.