Longevity research, decoded.

In a phase 2, double-blind trial of 31 adults with fibrotic MASH (fatty-liver inflammation), intermittent dasatinib plus quercetin improved fibrosis by at least one stage in 47% of treated participants versus 7% on placebo, judged by paired liver biopsies. Tissue sequencing showed lower senescence and fibrosis gene signatures in the treated group.

Life Biosciences reported dosing the first participant in a Phase 1 trial of ER-100, an eye-injected gene therapy that switches on three Yamanaka factors (OCT4, SOX2, KLF4) in people with glaucoma or NAION, a stroke-like injury of the optic nerve. The FDA cleared the company’s IND application, announced January 28, 2026, and the study’s goals are safety, tolerability and visual function.

Researchers re-analyzed blood DNA methylation from a 32-week placebo-controlled trial of semaglutide in 84 adults with HIV-associated fat redistribution. Several aging clocks moved in the younger direction with semaglutide, including PhenoAge and a roughly 9% slower DunedinPACE pace of aging.

The US Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health awarded seven teams under its PROSPR program, with up to $144 million over five years paid as milestone-based contracts. Teams will mine long-term data for early biomarkers that predict health outcomes, then use them in 1–3 year decentralized trials, including a planned phase 3 hybrid trial repurposing an SGLT2 inhibitor, rapamycin and semaglutide.

Novo Nordisk’s evoke and evoke+ trials (3,808 adults aged 55–85 with early symptomatic, amyloid-positive Alzheimer’s) found that oral semaglutide 14 mg did not beat placebo on the CDR-SB measure of decline over 104 weeks. Some Alzheimer’s-related biomarkers improved, but that did not translate into slower disease progression, and the extension phase was stopped.

Using 2,916 plasma proteins from 44,498 UK Biobank participants, Stanford researchers estimated biological age for 11 organs and linked older-looking organs to future heart failure, COPD, type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer’s over up to 17 years. People with 8 or more aged organs had about 8 times the mortality risk, while a youthful brain and immune system were tied to lower risk.

The CHALLENGE trial randomized 889 colon cancer survivors to a 3-year coached exercise program or health-education materials. Exercise cut the risk of recurrence, new cancer or death by 28% (5-year disease-free survival 80.3% vs 73.9%) and was associated with better 8-year overall survival (90.3% vs 83.2%).

In a placebo-controlled study of 42 healthy adults over 50, therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) was generally safe and improved 15 epigenetic clocks compared with placebo. Biweekly TPE plus intravenous immunoglobulin worked best, lowering estimated biological age by an average of about 2.6 years.