On March 31, 2017, Discovery’s Seeker.com, which is dedicated to curiosity and innovation, featured AFAR Board Member and 2000 Research Grant recipient, David Sinclair, PhD, and Scientific Director, Steve Austad, PhD, in an article on the progress of the TAME (Targeting Aging with Metformin) Trial, which AFAR is helping manage.
The article discusses the challenges in TAME’s goal of seeking FDA recognition of aging as a treatable medical condition. The FDA currently only approves drugs for specific “indications” or recognized medical conditions--of which aging is currently not classified as one.
The TAME Trial—led by a team of AFAR experts--proposes the study of metfornin as a “multimorbidity drug” that can prevent major age-related illnesses such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, dementia, and type-2 diabetes.
Moreover, the TAME Trial will open the door for the FDA to fully recognize aging as a disease and the pathway for a range of promising drug interventions that target aging and extend healthspan, as Austad notes: “I think this is probably the most exciting thing to happen in aging research yet, and I think that’s going to be true no matter how the trial results turn out. But if they turn out to be positive, then this is a game-changer in the health business.”
Read the full article here.
Steven Austad, PhD is a Distinguished Professor and Department Chair at the University of Alabama, Birmingham.
David A. Sinclair, PhD is as a Professor of Genetics and co-Director of the Paul F. Glenn Laboratories for the Biological Mechanisms of Aging at Harvard Medical School.
For more information on TAME, please see our TAME FAQ page here.
