Molecules to medicine: The translational landscape of aging interventions (Panel discussion at BAAM 2025)
In this special episode, host Chris Patil (VP-Media, BioAge) moderates a live panel discussion at the 25th Bay Area Aging Meeting at UCSF, bringing together six leading voices across the aging research ecosystem to tackle one of the field's most critical challenges: how to move promising discoveries from the laboratory to therapies that can benefit patients.The distinguished panel spans academia, industry, and scientific publishing, featuring Janine Sengstack (CEO, Junevity), Saul Villeda (Professor, UCSF), Jodi Nunnari (Director, Bay Area Institute of Science, Altos Labs), Sebastien Thuault (Chief Editor, Nature Aging), Anne Brunet (Professor, Stanford), and Nir Barzilai (Professor, Albert Einstein College of Medicine). Together, they explore the most promising research directions for clinical impact, the revolutionary tools enabling modern aging research, and the structural challenges that must be overcome to bring longevity therapies to market.Listeners will gain insights into the emerging science of cellular rejuvenation, the importance of systemic factors in aging, how to balance high-risk discovery with practical drug development, and the cultural shifts needed to better prepare the next generation of scientists for translational work. The panel also addresses the regulatory challenges of targeting aging itself as an indication and offers candid advice for young researchers navigating this rapidly evolving field.The Finer Details:Emerging research directions with the greatest clinical potential: cellular senescence, rejuvenation and repair, DNA methylation clocks, and understanding what makes aging biomarkers tickThe revolution in cellular and spatial resolution tools and how single-cell technologies are revealing cell-type-specific aging responsesSystemic factors and the remarkable plasticity remaining in aging organisms that can be unlocked through interventionsThe critical importance of starting with human data and working backward to validate targets and approachesChallenges unique to aging biotech: the need for aging-specific cellular assays, testing in older animal models, and genetic validationCultural and structural barriers between academia and industry, including the shift from mechanism-focused to mission-driven researchBalancing high-risk fundamental discovery with the practical needs of drug development and clinical translationThe regulatory landscape for aging interventions and potential pathways to FDA approval beyond traditional disease indicationsAdvice for young scientists: embracing rejection as part of the process, finding passion, working as teams, and considering diverse career paths in the growing longevity ecosystemQuotes:"Our goal as a company is to increase human health span, and the way I like to frame that more colloquially is we want to increase the number of happy, healthy years each person gets to spend on Earth." - Janine Sengstack"There is an exquisite amount of plasticity left in an aging organism, both within the tissues, within the cells. There is plasticity that we can actually tap into." - Saul Villeda"Burn bright, but don't burn out." - Jodi Nunnari"The challenge that we run into is that there are so many combinations that very quickly it would become intractable to line up enough test tubes to test them all." - Sebastien Thuault, on the complexity of aging interventions"We love our job. If not, we would not be doing it. I would do it again in a heartbeat... you get paid to play, to ask the questions that interest you, the approaches that interest you to play with who you want to—it is a fantastic job." - Saul Villeda"Our life is a life of rejection...and still, we're having fun and making an advance. So don't give up." - Nir Barzilai
New Zealand