On June 5, 2017, WIRED prominently spotlighted AFAR Deputy Scientific Director Nir Barzilai, MD and the AFAR-managed TAME trial. AFAR Scientific Director Steven N. Austand, PhD, and board member S. Jay Olshanksy, PhD, also lend insights.
The feature story, Forget the Blood of Teens. This Pill Promises to Extend Life for a Nickel a Pop, describes the history of metformin, how the drug works inside our cells, and the state of moving metformin into clinical trials.
The article details how the researchers behind the TAME Trial first prepared for their initial meetings FDA officials at a 2014 conference in a Spanish countryside castle. AFAR Scientific Director Steven Austad, PhD recounts how the closed quarters inspired their ideas: “We were stuck in this place with one another. It was really quite intense.” This close collaboration helped them solidify their goal of having the FDA consider aging an indication for treatment.
AFAR Board Member S. Jay Olshansky, PhD describes the TAME trial researchers preparation paid off. After the meeting with the FDA officials, he feels optimistic that the TAME trial may convince them that aging is a medical condition. Dr. Olshansky explains: “Within five minutes, we were all in complete agreement that this is plausible and a good idea.”
The piece even highlights how many well-known scientists in the biotechnology field have taken an interest in metformin as well. One of these scientists is 2017 AFAR Honorary Leadership Award recipient and President and Founder of Unity Biotechnology, Nathaniel David, PhD, who takes metformin to avert age-related diseases.
The article also stresses the fundraising—from a mix of NIH and private donations--necessary to advance this groundbreaking project and reminds of the project’s larger goal of providing proof-of-concept to the FDA to consider aging an indication for future drugs.
Dr. Barzilai suggests TAME is innovative from the current ineffective approach of treating each age-related illness separately. He explains: “Unless we target aging itself, all we can hope is that we switch one disease for another.”
The full article can be read here.
Steven Austad, PhD, is a Distinguished Professor and Department Chair at the University of Alabama, Birmingham.
Nir Barzilai, MD is the Director of the Institute for Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Director of the Nathan Shock Centers of Excellence in the Biology of Aging at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
S. Jay Olshansky, PhD, is a Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Research Associate at the Center on Aging at the University of Chicago and at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
For more information on the TAME Trial, we encourage you to view our TAME Trial FAQ page here.
