In this episode, Matt provides an update on the Dog Aging Project (DAP) and its 10-year journey. He discusses the challenges of navigating government funding, skepticism from fellow academics, and managing clinical trial enrollment during a pandemic. The DAP aims to understand canine ageing with hopes of extending both dog and human lifespans, while also giving us more time with our furry companions. Today, it stands as the world's largest study on ageing.

Key Points:

Matt explores the Dog Aging Project, focused on understanding and slowing ageing in companion dogs, which may offer valuable insights into human longevity, while addressing the project's expansion and the funding challenges it faces.

• Introduction to the Dog Aging Project (DAP): Matt provides an overview of DAP, its two main goals: understanding canine ageing and slowing the biological ageing process in dogs through clinical trials.
• Why Dogs?: Dogs age similarly to humans and share the same environment, making them ideal models for studying ageing and health. Their shorter lifespan allows for faster insights into ageing.
• Genetic and Phenotypic Diversity: The genetic variation and physical diversity among dog breeds enable researchers to study ageing across various traits and environmental conditions.
• Longitudinal Study and Clinical Trials: The DAP is a large-scale study involving over 50,000 dogs, collecting data over time to analyse health outcomes. A key clinical trial is testing if rapamycin can extend dogs' lifespan.
• Impact on Human Health: Research on dog ageing could provide insights into human ageing and disease prevention, potentially extending both canine and human lifespans.
• Challenges and Growth: Despite funding setbacks, the DAP has grown into the largest study of its kind and continues to engage the public in research on canine and human longevity.