The Optispan Podcast explores diverse approaches to extending life and healthspan. In this episode, Ora Biomedical CEO Mitchell Lee discusses their innovative use of worms, robotics, AI, and public participation for high-throughput drug discovery. He and co-founder Matt talk about building the largest database of longevity interventions, the challenges of working with worm models, and memorable setbacks. Mitchell also shares his background in mentoring researchers and his role in the American Aging Association, while Matt serves as Ora’s co-founder and Chair of the Board.

Key Points:

This episode features Ora Biomedical CEO Mitchell Lee discussing high-throughput drug discovery using worms, robotics, AI, and public involvement to build the largest longevity intervention database. He and Matt also explore the challenges of drug discovery in longevity and the reliability of data from worm models.

• Introduction to Ora Biomedical: Mitchell Lee, CEO of Ora Biomedical, explains the company’s mission to discover longevity drugs using worms, robotics, and AI to identify interventions that extend healthy lifespan.
• WormBot Technology: Ora Biomedical uses the WormBot, an automated platform that can monitor thousands of small experiments in worms, providing data on how drugs affect movement, health, and lifespan.
• Community Involvement with Longevity Research: The Million Molecule Challenge invites the public to sponsor drug tests, with results added to an open-access database for global researchers to explore.
• Longevity Drug Discovery Stagnation: Both Matt and Mitchell discuss frustration with the slow pace of longevity drug discovery, stressing the need for large-scale screening to find more effective interventions.
• Importance of Combinations and Dosages: They highlight that combining drugs or adjusting doses may unlock even greater lifespan extensions, something still underexplored in ageing research.
• Successes and Findings: The podcast shares early results, such as the discovery of natural compounds like berberine showing promising lifespan extension effects in worms.
• AI and Predictive Power: Ora Biomedical is building the largest longevity interventions database, which can be leveraged by AI to predict new, more potent anti-ageing compounds.
• Transparency and Collaboration: Data from the WormBot experiments will be open to the public, fostering transparency and community-driven discoveries in the longevity field.