Live at HLTH: Extending Healthy Longevity with AI—featuring Alex Zhavoronkov

Most of us would define longevity in terms of the length of our lives. But what if there’s more to it than that? What if quality matters as much as quantity? What if we could extend our healthiest, most productive years?Alex Zhavoronkov is the Founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine, a venture-backed company that seeks to extend healthy longevity through innovative AI solutions for drug discovery and aging research. Insilico has R&D labs in Belgium, the UK, Korea, Russia, Hong Kong, the US and Taiwan, and in 2017, the company was named one of NVIDIA’s Top 5 AI companies in its potential for social impact.   On the inaugural episode of The Beat, Alex joins Dr. Kuku and Dr. Shlain to discuss his work in the field of longevity biotechnology, describing his particular focus on extending our most productive years as opposed to the end of life. He introduces us to the new science around aging clocks and weighs in on the possibilities of using their data to reverse age-associated pathologies. Listen in for Alex’s insight around the potential for AI to influence our political systems and learn how a sole focus on rejuvenation rate would support global economic growth.Topics CoveredAlex’s transition from information technology to biopharmaThe intersection of technology and the human elementThe concept of quality-adjusted life years or QALYsAlex’s focus on extending productive years vs. end of lifeHow Alex sees longevity as more than just living longerThe science around aging clocks and their notable accuracyDeveloping actionable interventions from aging clock dataHow economic forces influence which diseases we researchEmbracing MMA principles as an approach to drug discoveryAlex’s work with triple-negative breast cancer moleculesAlex’s insight into how AI might influence political systemsThe parallels between gain of function and economic growthHow Peter Diamandis’ work gives Alex cause for optimism Connect with Alex ZhavoronkovInsilico MedicineAlex on LinkedIn Connect with Dr. Gulati, Dr. Shlain & Dr. KukuHLTH ConferenceDr. Shlain on LinkedInDr. Shlain on TwitterDr. Kuku on LinkedInDr. Kuku on TwitterResourcesDeep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again by Eric TopolThe Ageless Generation: How Advances in Biomedicine Will Transform the Global Economy by Alex ZhavoronkovSteven Horvath’s Aging Clock ResearchInsilico’s Partnership with CTFHAbundance: The Future is Better Than You Think by Peter H. Diamandis and Steven KotlerExponential Medicine