Collin Ewald to present new research in the biology of aging at the world’s largest aging research for drug discovery conference
Credit: Insilico Medicine Hong Kong Limited
Wednesday, 26th of May, 2021, 2PM London — Collin Ewald, PhD, will present the latest research on the topic Extracellular matrix remodeling during longevity at the worlds’ largest annual Aging Research and Drug Discovery conference (8th ARDD). Collin Ewald, PhD, is the Assistant Professor at ETH Zürich, Head of the Extracellular Matrix Regeneration Laboratory at the Institute for Translational Medicine, Department of Health Sciences and Technology.
Dr Ewald has a longstanding interest in the molecular biology of healthy aging and age-related pathologies. His curiosity for aging research was ignited by the finding that neurons could regulate aging in model organisms and the finding that meditation could change the expression of stress-associated genes in humans. Fascinated by neurons and the mind, he went to New York to pursue a PhD in Neuroscience with Chris Li working on Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) related proteins in C. elegans and determined the molecular mechanisms of how AD proteins affect aging, metabolism, and learning.
He did his post-doctoral training with Keith Blackwell at Harvard Medical School discovering how insulin/IGF-1 signaling prolongs extracellular matrix maintenance (Ewald et al., Nature 2015). After a short junior faculty position at the Joslin Diabetes Center and as an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School he returned to Switzerland to join the Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM) as an assistant professor at ETH Zurich focusing his research on the role of the extracellular matrix during aging. Dr Ewald is the founder and currently the president of the Swiss Society for Aging Research.
“Accumulation of damage is generally considered the cause of aging. Interventions that delay aging mobilize mechanisms that protect and repair cellular components. Consequently, research has been focused on studying the protective and homeostatic mechanisms within cells. However, in humans and other multicellular organisms, cells are surrounded by extracellular matrices (ECMs), which are important for tissue structure, function, and intercellular communication. During aging, components of the ECM become damaged through fragmentation, glycation, crosslinking, and accumulation of protein aggregation, all of which contribute to age-related pathologies. Interestingly, placing senescent cells into a young ECM rejuvenates them. Furthermore, we found that many longevity-assurances pathways reactivate de novo synthesis of ECM proteins during aging. This raises the question of what constitutes a young ECM to reverse aging or maintain health? In order to make inroads to answering this question, I suggest a systems-level approach of quantifying the matrisome or ECM compositions reflecting health, pathology, or phenotype and propose a novel term, the “matreotype,” to describe this. The matreotype is defined as the composition and modification of ECM or matrisome proteins associated with or caused by a phenotype, such as longevity, or a distinct and acute physiological state, as observed during aging or disease. Every cell type produces its unique ECM. Intriguingly, cancer-cell types can even be identified based on their unique ECM composition. Thus, the matreotype reflects cellular identity and physiological status. Defined matreotypes could be used as biomarkers or prognostic factors for disease or health status during aging with potential relevance for personalized medicine. Treatment with biologics that alter ECM-to-cell mechanotransduction might be a strategy to reverse age-associated pathologies. An understanding of how to reverse from an old to a young matreotype might point toward novel strategies to rejuvenate cells and help maintain tissue homeostasis to promote health during aging.” said Collin Ewald, PhD, Assistant Professor at ETH Zürich, Head of the Extracellular Matrix Regeneration Laboratory at the Institute for Translational Medicine, Department of Health Sciences and Technology.
The conference proceedings of the ARDD are commonly published in peer-reviewed journals with the talks openly available at http://www.
“Aging is emerging as a druggable condition with multiple pharmaceuticals able to alter the pace of aging in model organisms. The ARDD brings together all levels of the field to discuss the most pressing obstacles in our attempt to find efficacious interventions and molecules to target aging. The 2021 conference is the best yet with top level speakers from around the globe. I’m extremely excited to be able to meet them in person at the University of Copenhagen in late summer.”, said Morten Scheibye-Knudsen, MD, Ph.D., University of Copenhagen.
“Aging research is growing faster than ever on both academia and industry fronts. The ARDD meeting unites experts from different fields and backgrounds, sharing with us their latest groundbreaking research and developments. Our last ARDD meeting took place online and was a great success. This year’s event will be a hybrid meeting with virtual and in-person attendees. I am particularly excited that being part of the ARDD 2021 meeting will provide an amazing opportunity for young scientists presenting their own work as well as meeting the experts in the field.” said Daniela Bakula, Ph.D., University of Copenhagen
“Aging research is gaining traction in the biopharmaceutical industry. To my knowledge, 6 out of the top 30 pharmaceutical companies in the world prioritized aging research for early-stage discovery or therapeutic pipeline development and several companies employ artificial intelligence for this purpose. We organize the annual ARDD conference for eight years in a row and the level of interest in aging biomarkers and noticed exponential growth in registrations over the past two years”, said Alex Zhavoronkov, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine, and the founder of Deep Longevity.
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Building on the success of the ARDD conferences, the organizers developed the “Longevity Medicine” course series with some of the courses offered free of charge at Longevity.Degree covered in the recent Lanced Healthy Longevity paper titled “Longevity medicine: upskilling the physicians of tomorrow”.
About Aging Research for Drug Discovery Conference
At ARDD, leaders in the aging, longevity, and drug discovery field will describe the latest progress in the molecular, cellular and organismal basis of aging and the search for interventions. Furthermore, the meeting will include opinion leaders in AI to discuss the latest advances of this technology in the biopharmaceutical sector and how this can be applied to interventions. Notably, this year we are expanding with a workshop specifically for physicians where the leading-edge knowledge of clinical interventions for healthy longevity will be described. ARRD intends to bridge clinical, academic and commercial research and foster collaborations that will result in practical solutions to one of humanity’s most challenging problems: aging. Our quest? To extend the healthy lifespan of everyone on the planet.
About Scheibye-Knudsen Lab
In the Scheibye-Knudsen lab we use in silico, in vitro and in vivo models to understand the cellular and organismal consequences of DNA damage with the aim of developing interventions. We have discovered that DNA damage leads to changes in certain metabolites and that replenishment of these molecules may alter the rate of aging in model organisms. These findings suggest that normal aging and age-associated diseases may be malleable to similar interventions. The hope is to develop interventions that will allow everyone to live healthier, happier and more productive lives.
About Deep Longevity
Deep Longevity has been acquired by Regent Pacific (SEHK:0575.HK), whose shares are listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Deep Longevity is developing explainable artificial intelligence systems to track the rate of aging at the molecular, cellular, tissue, organ, system, physiological, and psychological levels. It is also developing systems for the emerging field of longevity medicine enabling physicians to make better decisions on the interventions that may slow down, or reverse the aging processes. Deep Longevity developed Longevity as a Service (LaaS)© solution to integrate multiple deep biomarkers of aging dubbed “deep aging clocks” to provide a universal multifactorial measure of human biological age. Originally incubated by Insilico Medicine, Deep Longevity started its independent journey in 2020 after securing a round of funding from the most credible venture capitalists specializing in biotechnology, longevity, and artificial intelligence. ETP Ventures, Human Longevity and Performance Impact Venture Fund, BOLD Capital Partners, Longevity Vision Fund, LongeVC, co-founder of Oculus, Michael Antonov, and other expert AI and biotechnology investors supported the company. Deep Longevity established a research partnership with one of the most prominent longevity organizations, Human Longevity, Inc. to provide a range of aging clocks to the network of advanced physicians and researchers. https:/
About Regent Pacific (SEHK:0575.HK)
Regent Pacific is a diversified investment group based in Hong Kong currently holding various corporate and strategic investments focusing on the healthcare, wellness and life sciences sectors. The Group has a strong track record of investments and has returned approximately US$298 million to shareholders in the 21 years of financial reporting since its initial public offering. https:/
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