Leading anti-aging event incorporating blockchain as part of core programming

Crypto conferences have continued to take the world by storm, being the epicenter of revolutionary concepts, gathering places for keynote speakers and entertainment for the wider population, with side events featuring the world’s most famous celebrities. With so much attention paid to these events, many organizations have recognized their impact in not only promoting cryptocurrencies themselves, but also in demonstrating the asset’s utility in other industries.

Consider some examples. In the last Grammys in 2022, the world saw a prestigious music award ceremony also become the place for thought-provoking discussions about NFTs. Not to mention, the World Economic Forum’s Davos event ended up focusing on the power of blockchain and Web3.0. Taken together, events like these prove that those outside the crypto community care about what blockchain means for their future.

The Longevity Science Foundation is another of the organizations embracing the power of crypto and discussing it in related events, such as the Aging Research & Drug Discovery (ARDD) conference, to help fund longevity research. The event, which has taken place for nine consecutive years, will be held in Copenhagen from August 29 to September 2, where hundreds of in-person participants and thousands of virtual ones are expected to attend.

Here, new technologies are designed to play a central role in the program, while exemplifying the ins and outs of the aging process.

Funding of scientific breakthroughs

While the ARDD conference was originally born out of the need to understand the fundamental mechanisms of aging, including why people develop diseases, grow old, and why there is not yet a way around it, it has grown into a place to carry on life-changing research.

Dr. Morten Scheibye-Knudsen, one of the event leaders, shares one of these findings, saying:

“One of the major breakthroughs in the field is that we can now measure biological aging accurately, so-called biological clocks. You have people who look younger than they are or look older than they are. We have different rates of aging. We can measure people’s biological speeds by measuring various biomarkers … It’s a major breakthrough.”

But while Scheibye-Knudsen was initially focused on the basic science of longevity, he was no stranger to the role that business played in getting breakthroughs out of the lab and into testing. Naturally, this progression requires capital, which happened to be a significant obstacle to many advances in the field.

That said, it is not big pharma alone that will make the difference in funding. It is also the involvement of new technologies such as crypto that helps this growth. New technology workshops at ARDD will include discussions on new ways to fund research and track progress using decentralized technology. Therefore, as part of the upcoming ARDD conference, attendees can expect a focus on medicine, venture capital for investors and panels on blockchain to be included in the mix along with longevity science.

As a result, Scheibye-Knudsen is joined by Alex Zhavoronkov, the head of AI-powered drug discovery firm Insilico Medicine and major contributor to Longenesis, a company known for using blockchain technology to streamline medical data sharing for research and trials. Zhavoronkov then becomes an original perspective on embracing new technologies to promote the field’s longevity and provide new opportunities for funding.

Gather local communities

Looking ahead, ARDD will continue to bring people together for productive conversations and bring major breakthroughs forward. Currently, crypto has already proven to be a valuable player in funding research and tracking progress, and that’s just scratching the surface.

With more synergies between these two sectors, such as growing interest in each, it is expected that attendance at events such as these will continue to grow and so will their surrounding communities.