Dr. Alexander (Zan) Fleming Evening Lecture

THE TALK: Targeting Healthy Longevity—Why, How, and When will we have the means of living longer but healthier

We are at the dawning of a new era for controlling the aging process and averting chronic disease. Spectacular scientific progress in understanding the biology of aging suggests that human lifespan and healthspan (years of life free of disease) can be increased. How can we increase healthy longevity beyond common senses measures like good nutrition and physical activity? Supported by successful results in higher animals, human studies are starting to be done on drugs and other products that slow or even reverse aging. But, getting the evidence to put age-slowing drugs on the market is an enormous challenge. We will review what the latest science teaches us about slowing the aging process and what you can do now to increase healthspan. We will cover drugs that are under development to slow the aging process and increase healthspan—and the challenges of doing so.

Dr. Alexander (Zan) Fleming is Founder and Executive Chairman of Kinexum, a company of professionals from across the world with diverse expertise in developing drugs, biotech products, including gene and cell therapies, medical devices, and digital health technologies. Dr. Fleming founded in 2020 and heads the not-for-profit Kitalys Institute as a means of facilitating the testing, regulation, and commercialization of healthspan products. Kitalys also produces the annual Metabesity conference series, first held in London in 2017, which brings together global experts, policymakers, and advocates to catalyze progress towards equaling healthspan to lifespan. Zan received his B.S from the University of West Florida, his M.D. and internal medicine training from Emory and training in endocrinology at Vanderbilt. After 4 years at NIH, he went on to the US FDA to head clinical review of products for diabetes and other metabolic and endocrine disorders, growth and development, elevated lipids, and reproduction. His notable, but then controversial drug approvals, included the first statin and metformin. He was assigned to WHO at Geneva and represented FDA at other international initiatives.