ARDD 2025 Recap: Reflections & Takeaways
- Dr. John Thomson Smith
- 6 hours ago
- 3 min read
It was a great pleasure to return to Copenhagen recently to attend the annual Aging Research and Drug Discovery (ARDD) meeting for a second time. This meeting, now in its 12th year, is well established as the leading global conference in healthy longevity medicine. ARDD offers an impressive collaboration of international experts, including healthcare clinicians, geroscience research teams, representatives from big pharma and biotechnology corporations, and investors.
There was a landmark presentation delivered by the McKinsey Health Institute, outlining the application of healthspan science, a fast-growing field that focuses on biomedical innovations targeting the biological aging process and contributing to healthy longevity. Several key areas that need acceleration were highlighted, including fundamental research, using biomarkers as surrogate endpoints, and fostering collaborations for translational development. The take-home message was the great importance of generating and connecting human data through a decentralized platform, a concept we have established at Rejuve.AI. The institute published a pivotal white paper on 29 August 2025, which will allow stakeholders to shape their roles in this transformative field. This document is a must-read for all individuals involved in longevity medicine.
A standout lecture was given by Insilico Medicine CEO and ARDD co-founder Alex Zhavoronkov, who introduced the concept of real estate within longevity medicine. His vision is to create a longevity ‘city’ on one geographical site to incorporate longevity clinics, health and wellbeing facilities, sustainable AI-driven accommodation, and academic research laboratories involved in drug discovery. In fact, this revolutionary idea is already in progress, with ongoing construction of such a facility in the vibrant and affluent city of Shanghai. The longevity center will be named “Top-Town”, where artificial intelligence, humanoid robots, and technological excellence will be the standard.
For the first time ever, two of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, presented their GLP-1 programs as longevity target medicines at the conference. Both companies decided to send a strong message to the field—that GLP-1’s have demonstrated wide-ranging positive effects across multiple organ systems. These drugs are not only crucial in disease management but are key components in disease prevention, healthspan, and overall longevity. This demonstrates a paradigm shift in how big pharma may transition from their role in ‘sickcare’ and focus on preventative healthcare and personalized medicine.
There were also some engaging poster presentations at the conference, and our own Data Scientist Macsue Jacques presented alongside Rejuve.AI CEO Jasmine Smith. Macsue’s poster focused on the development of a biological clock based on questionnaire data, making our application accessible even to individuals who do not have blood test results. By creating insights (or proxies) from questionnaire responses, the goal is to provide individuals with actionable advice—notifying them when their answers suggest that certain blood biomarkers may be outside a healthy range. This approach could encourage timely medical consultation and ultimately aid in disease prevention before symptoms arise.
Jasmine’s poster showcased the establishment of the International Longevity Research Database (ILRB), a resource currently in review by an Institutional Review Board. The ILRB is designed to support progress in N-of-1 personalized advice, using longitudinal user data to create a unique platform for tracking and improving individual health trajectories. Together, our contributions highlighted the importance of accessible, user-centered tools and global-scale databases in advancing longevity science.
Another highlight from ARDD this year was the National University of Singapore's Professor Andrea Maier sharing evidence from her studies that GrimAge, an epigenetic clock, is now ready for use in the clinic. Unlike earlier epigenetic clocks that were primarily trained on chronological age, GrimAge brings strong predictive power of a person's risk of age-related conditions and mortality. This gives healthcare providers a useful tool to assess a patient's biological age and to gauge the effectiveness of longevity interventions.
Finally, there were some interesting discussions at ARDD 2025 focused on the rebranding of the longevity medicine field. The diverse terminology used throughout the community can cause confusion in the wider population, and there is a drive to agree on an overarching brand for the field. Although the word geroscience was tabled as a solution, I personally would favour the McKinsey Institute proposal that Healthspan Science is a more appropriate and appealing term for key stakeholders.