Scientists are converging at UC Irvine in September because they believe the code has been cracked on aging. Have we reached the Klotho tipping point?
The first conference on the future of breakthrough Klotho-gene-based therapies and diagnostics will convene September 15 and 16 at the Klotho Conference and Scientific Seminar to be held at The Cove at UCI Beall Applied Innovation.
“Klotho is the fountain of youth,” says Carmela Abraham, Ph.D., a senior co-chair of the conference. “That’s because if people have more Klotho, they'll be younger for longer.”
In biology research, Klotho refers to a gene and its corresponding protein, discovered in 1997, that plays a crucial role in regulating aging, metabolism, and potentially influencing healthcare and lifespan.
Abraham is professor emerita of biochemistry, pharmacology and experimental therapeutics, at the Boston University School of Medicine.
She earned her bachelor’s of science degree in biology from Tel Aviv University and her doctorate in neuroscience from Harvard University. In 1990, Abraham was the recipient of The Neuroscience Education and Research Foundation Award for Outstanding Promise as a Young Alzheimer's Disease Investigator.
Since 2023, Abraham has served as the CSO (chief science officer) at ADvantage Therapeutics, headquartered in Miami, FL. The company’s pipeline includes therapeutics for prevention and treatment of age-related disease including Alzheimer’s disease.
“I'm a neuroscientist, very much interested in the brain,” says Abraham. “For the past 40 years my main research has been in Alzheimer's disease and the normal aging of the brain. This is how I started to work on Klotho. I wanted to understand why during normal aging without disease, 50 percent of individuals develop cognitive decline.”
Her dream is to translate all of her findings into treatments for ailments such as Alzheimer’s disease, ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), and Multiple Sclerosis (MS).
The COVID-19 pandemic vaccine research using mRNA gave Abraham a eureka idea for Klotho.
“Our Klotho treatment is made of messenger RNA that we inject in lipid nanoparticles, just like the vaccine for COVID,” said Abraham. “The levels of circulating Klotho decrease with aging. Our therapeutic strategy aims to restore/boost Klotho to levels found in young individuals”.
Abraham says she is on the verge of announcing a breakthrough treatment, which she will discuss at the conference.
“It is clear from research published that if you are low in circulating Klotho, you are likely aging more rapidly than you should and thus more likely to face many or all aging related ailments earlier in your life,” said Abraham.
This landmark Klotho conference will not just be a series of presentations but will be an interactive forum for discussions and debate on the future of Klotho-based therapies and diagnostics. The hope is this is a tipping point moment.
In his provocative books The Tipping Point and Revenge of the Tipping Point, Canadian writer Malcolm Gladwell defined a tipping point as "the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point." Similar to how a small fire can ignite and quickly spread to become a raging inferno, tipping points can cause widespread change.
Rapidly mounting evidence, including human case studies, are proving the amazing change potential of Klotho, something the conference attendees are coming to discuss.
“Last month in July there were a total of 4,100 scientific papers published on Klotho,” said Howard Leonhardt, Ph.D., senior co-chair of the conference. “Now just 30 days later, there are 4,271 papers published on Klotho. So, in only one month, there are 171 new papers with fresh evidence showing the relationship between Klotho, disease and aging.”
Klotho is a transmembrane protein that is released from the cell membrane and circulates in the blood just like a hormone. In addition to other effects, it provides some control over the sensitivity of the organism to insulin and is involved in age-related diseases and longevity. There is also evidence that it can provide breakthroughs in the treatment of cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, kidney disease, metabolic syndrome and more.
Of the current published scientific research papers on Klotho, 397 (9 percent) establish a relationship between Klotho and cancer treatment.
“In an experiment that we did for cancer tumors, we found Klotho is also a cancer suppressor,” noted Abraham. “We showed that there was a sweet spot of the amount of Klotho that was able to kill the cancer. Too much of Klotho did not do that, and too little Klotho also didn't do it.”
The principal sponsor of the conference and scientific seminar is one of Leonhardt’s companies, Lionheart Health and Wellness, a 2022 spinoff of Leonhardt Ventures that he founded in 1982.
Leonhardt ‘s companies are a global leader in aortic aneurysm repair and hold 60 patents issued, licensed, pending or optioned at Leonhardt Ventures and Lionheart Health with over 700 patents claims.
These patent claims include bioelectric stem cell homing, proliferation and differentiation control, turning gene switch back on for restoring elasticity in issues via Tropoelastin, over 300 claims for combination bioelectric and biologics based organ regeneration (heart, kidneys, livers, lungs, brains, bladders, pancreas, eyes, hearing, skin), over 70 protein expressions related to reversing aging including klotho, sestrins, sirtuins, NANOG, LIM, GDF10, GDF11, BDNF, SDF1, PDGF, VEGF, EGF, HGF, Apelin., and 15 issued patents on bioelectric and klotho treatment of cancer.
“Last year, our inventions created $2 billion in revenues for licensees and over 600,000 patients have been treated.” said Leonhardt. “We know how to develop a useful technology, how to bring it to market, how to license it to somebody and have it help a lot of people. And now we've packaged together a way to do that for both medical aesthetics, health span and lifespan.”
Leonhardt has a 25-year history in California. His company bought commercial property in California in 2000 and set up its first R&D laboratory in 2008.
At its facility in Irvine, Lionheart does research with cells in a lab setting for skin regeneration, hair regeneration, joint health, sexual health, rapid body toning and health span longevity.
The conference brings together a variety of keynote presentations and interactive sessions featuring an impressive lineup of thought leaders, researchers, and clinicians at the forefront of Klotho-related science. Leonhardt believes the two-day UCI Beall Innovation event will demonstrate the potential of Klotho to improve health and combat aging.
The conference will be held at The Cove @ UCI Beall Innovation, which was built specifically to be a location for entrepreneurial connections for UCI and the community, and designed to accelerate innovation. UCI Beall Innovation is a campus center with a mission to inspire innovation and entrepreneurship for the 21st century.
The center seeks to provide education and hands-on experience for students to learn about the process and importance of becoming an entrepreneur and to equip them with the knowledge and resources needed to launch a successful business through two main focuses, which include curriculum and entrepreneur activities and events.
To register, attendees should visit the conference registration page. There are several options, including a two-day in-person option for $150 and a two-day virtual option for $99. Another package combines the conference and a Lionheart Longevity & Wellness Retreat that starts three days before the conference is available for $1,995. For UCI students or faculty members, the cost to attend the two-day conference is discounted to $75.
Henry DeVries is the author of 20 books and is the CEO and editor-in-chief of Indie Books International in Oceanside, California.
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