Panel
The Roadmap to Longevity | Global Conference 2025
Milken InstituteGadi Schwartz, Dan Buettner, Laura Deming, Richard Isaacson, Eric Verdin, Vonda Wright
- Dan Buettner predicts that specific dietary and activity changes, such as consuming one cup of beans daily or a whole-food plant-based diet, could add approximately four to six years to life expectancy, with an additional four to five years possible for a 40-year-old increasing their daily steps by 5,000.
- Dr. Eric Verdin estimates that optimizing all lifestyle factors could extend healthy life by 15 to 20 years, potentially allowing most individuals to reach ages 90 or 95 in good health, while Dr. Richard Isaacson projects that his intervention program may delay dementia onset by four to eight years.
- Laura Deming anticipates FDA approval for a dog lifespan extension drug within the next year and predicts a human approval label in a similar timeframe, aiming to translate these results to humans over the coming decade.
- Dr. Eric Verdin forecasts the approval of at least one human aging drug within the next five years, citing five ongoing Phase 3 clinical trials, and expects an avalanche of new interventions targeting aging to emerge in the next few years.
- Dr. Richard Isaacson notes that blood-based Alzheimer's biomarker tests are moving to higher resolution soon and expects GLP-1 drugs to be used in precision medicine to combat cognitive decline, though he cautions against overpromising.
- Dan Buettner observes a historical life expectancy increase of 2.5 years per decade since 1840, predicts that reaching age 90 yields 10 bonus years of life expectancy, and suggests walkable urban designs could increase daily steps to 10,000, lowering all-cause mortality by 12% per 1,000 steps.
- Dr. Vonda Wright identifies a "suffering gap" for women extending from age 64 to 81, indicating many years lived past this period are not healthy, while other speakers emphasize that cell differences between genders will improve future care.
- Laura Deming and Dr. Richard Isaacson warn of significant challenges in the next three to four years regarding research funding, predicting that private sector investment alone is insufficient if public funding is reduced and that the field requires new models like venture philanthropy.
- Dr. Eric Verdin fears a "brain drain" of young scientists leaving the US due to funding uncertainty, noting that federal NIH funding slashes could cause the US to lose biomedical leadership to Europe, while the next 50 to 100 years are predicted to be a period of amazing biological advancement.
- Dan Buettner expects future population health strategies to rely on "nudges and defaults" such as educating women of childbearing age and designing infrastructure for physical activity, rather than seeking a single "silver bullet."
- Dr. Eric Verdin predicts a systemic shift from "sick care" to "health care" over the next few years, driven by a growing cultural trend among young people to assume responsibility for their own longevity.
- Laura Deming envisions the future of cryopreservation as scaling the freezing of whole humans to bridge the gap until treatments for terminal illnesses become available.
- Dr. Richard Isaacson projects that precision medicine will require personalized "cocktails" of interventions based on individual gender, genetics, and lifestyle factors to determine the right person, dose, and duration.