The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), with seven global collaborators representing over 50 countries and territories, present the awardees of the 2024 Healthy Longevity Catalyst Awards. The awards are part of the NAM’s Healthy Longevity Global Competition, focused on stimulating research and entrepreneurism to support potential breakthroughs in healthy longevity. This multiyear, multi-phase international competition aims to help advance bold, new ideas designed to dramatically improve people’s health as they age. The Global Competition consists of three progressive phases where innovators can compete for increasingly larger awards up to $5 million at the Catalyst, Accelerator, and Grand Prize levels.
The Catalyst Awards received 1,100 applications from innovators around the world in the 2024 cycle. Individuals and teams from an array of backgrounds, such as science, medicine, technology and finance, submitted ideas aimed at extending the human healthspan. Winners are chosen based on novelty and innovation.
The NAM founded the competition in 2021 and coordinates among a network of global collaborators, each administering a competition in their respective country or region. The following 16 submissions received Catalyst Awards from the NAM (principal investigators for each are listed). Each awardee will receive $50,000 USD as seed funding to help advance their ideas:
A humanized CHIP model for studying the origins of age-related chronic inflammatory diseases
Isak Tengesdal, Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford University
Enhancing sleep in older adults using auditory stimulation: a machine learning approach
Stephanie Buss, Assistant Professor of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Using naked mole-rat lymph nodes as bioreactor for ovarian rejuvenation
Miguel Brieño-Enriquez, Assistant Professor, Magee-Womens Research Institute, U. of Pittsburgh
Smart Kneepads for Aging Monitoring and Therapy
Shiqi Guo, Research Fellow, Mass General Hospital
A Rugged, User-Friendly Desktop Detection System for Alzheimer’s Disease Breath Biomarkers: to Broaden Access to Early and Accurate Non-Invasive Diagnostics of AD
Marshall Ligare, Director of Instrument Development, Outlier Technology, LLC
Positive Childhood Experiences to Counteract Childhood Adversity for Healthy Longevity in Marginalized Communities
Angela Narayan, Associate Professor, University of Denver
Identifying language biomarkers to flag prodromal cognitive decline in at risk and underserved aging populations
Brielle Stark, Assistant Professor, Indiana University Bloomington
The Neurobiological Mechanisms of Social Connection
Debra Karhson, Assistant Professor Psychology, University of New Orleans
Building Social Capital and Wellbeing through the Older Adult Community Health Center Workforce
Thalia Porteny, Assistant Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Deep learning to estimate aging from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
Matthias Jung, Radiology Resident/Clinician Scientist, Cardiovascular Imaging Research Center, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School
Seek and destroy: Adoptive T cell transfer to clear senescence and extend health span
James White, Assistant Professor, Duke University School of Medicine
Uncovering Health Risks: Machine Learning’s Role in Deciphering Body Composition Phenotypes for Disease Risk Prediction
Jonathan Bennett, Researcher, University of Hawaii Cancer Center
Antisense Oligonucleotide (ASO)-Based Approach for Enhancing Healthspan and Lifespan
Andrew Nguyen, Assistant Professor, Saint Louis University
Enabling early glaucoma detection and monitoring through a low-cost, portable, non-corneal IOP measurement device for any setting
Joshua de Souza, Engineer, Johns Hopkins University
System for Improving Quality of Life and Mobility in Kidney and Liver Failure
Dayong Gao, Origincell Endowed Professor Mechanical Engineering, University of Washington
Microgravity as a model for studying sarcopenia and drug screening
Ngan Huang, Associate Professor, Stanford University
Other global organizations that issued Catalyst Awards include Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences; EIT Health of the European Union; Ministry of Health and National Research Foundation of Singapore; Research Grants Council, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China; Academia Sinica; National Agency for Research and Development of Chile; and the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development. Summaries of all awardees and their ideas are available online at healthylongevitychallenge.org.
Applications for the next cycle of the Catalyst Awards open in January 2025 and are accepted for approximately six weeks. 2025 awardees will be announced in the fall of 2025 following a multistep review process.
The final phase of the global competition, the Grand Prize, will award one or more prizes of up to $5 million USD for a breakthrough innovation aiming to extend healthspan. Learn more about the NAM’s Global Grand Challenge Competition here.
The Healthy Longevity Global Competition has received support from Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC; John and Valerie Rowe; Martine Rothblatt and United Therapeutics Corp.; Anthony J. Yun and Kimberly A. Bazar as well as the Yun Family Foundation; the John A. Hartford Foundation; and the Bia-Echo Foundation, in addition to commitments from the global collaborator (Catalyst Phase) and Accelerator Phase sponsor organizations.
