NYSCF Team Receives Healthy Longevity Catalyst Award from the National Academy of Medicine

We are pleased to share that NYSCF Senior Research Investigator Bjarki Johannesson, PhD, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s Daniela Cornacchia, PhD, have received a Healthy Longevity Catalyst Award from the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) to study factors that influence aging using stem cells and artificial intelligence.

This award, announced this morning by NAM, is part of the Healthy Longevity Global Competition, a multiyear, multimillion-dollar international competition seeking breakthrough innovations to extend human health and function later in life. The Catalyst Phase calls on teams and individuals from any background — from science, medicine, and health to technology, finance, social sciences, and beyond — to submit innovative ideas with the goal of extending the human healthspan.  Applications are judged primarily on novelty and innovation. 

“I am delighted to honor this diverse group of scientists, innovators, and entrepreneurs for their bold ideas to extend the human healthspan and improve the physical, mental, and social well-being of people as they age,” said National Academy of Medicine President Victor J. Dzau in a press release.  “As this global competition advances, we hope this wellspring of activity will continue to attract new researchers to the field, activate innovation, and stimulate breakthroughs that will impact the lives of generations.”

Age-dependent diseases, such as neurodegenerative diseases, are the leading cause of death in industrialized countries. Counteracting the aging process itself holds the potential to prevent or delay these diseases, and recent studies support the idea that aging is not an unstoppable phenomenon as it was once believed. Using the power of NYSCF’s robotic systems coupled with artificial intelligence, Drs. Johannesson and Cornacchia aim to identify the biological factors that drive aging and identify drugs that can target them.