ARPA-H kicks off initiative to boost the healthspan of Americans and backs $52m Buck-led personalized analytics project.
The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), part of the US Department of Health and Human Services, has demonstrated its commitment to improving healthspan in the US with launch of a new funding program called PROactive Solutions for Prolonging Resilience (PROSPR), as well as providing up to $52 million in funding for the Personalized Analytics for Transforming Health (PATH) project led by the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and Phenome Health.
The PROSPR initiative is focused on extending the healthspan of Americans, and aims to answer the question that has long guided those working in the longevity field: What if therapies existed to extend the number of years individuals live in good health while preventing the onset of age-related diseases? The funding program aims to support a shift from merely prolonging life to enhancing the quality of those years by reducing frailty and disability toward the end of life.
Building on the work of the National Institute on Aging, PROSPR seeks to accelerate the development and testing of therapeutics designed to enhance healthspan by partnering with regulators, industry leaders and other stakeholders.
“The ultimate goal is to extend healthspan – meaning the number of years aging adults live healthy lives and enjoy overall well-being by compressing the frailty and disability that comes with aging, into a shorter duration of time near the end of life,” said Dr Andrew Brack, who leads PROSPR program at ARPA-H.
The economic argument for healthspan lies at the heart of PROSPR initiative, with ARPA-H citing data that shows the 75% anticipated increase in US healthcare costs tied to aging could strain national resources, and claiming that even a minimal extension of healthspan could save the country $29 billion annually and inject $80 billion into the national economy.
PROSPR will prioritize identifying physiological and biochemical markers of early health changes associated with aging, developing diagnostic tools and designing therapies to address the root causes of age-related conditions.
“Researchers and scientists are looking to find new ways to detect and treat the large number of non-disease negative consequences of aging, like functional declines in memory, hearing, and muscle strength,” said ARPA-H Director Dr Renee Wegrzyn.
Wegrzyn said the program represents a paradigm shift in healthy aging research, targeting non-disease-related aging effects to “identify physiological and biochemical markers of early health changes during aging, develop assessment technologies that will allow researchers to better understand and target the underlying causes of age-related disease, and to develop therapeutics aimed at prolonging healthspan for all Americans.”
To achieve its goals, ARPA-H will solicit proposals from a broad spectrum of experts, including wearable tech developers, data scientists, biomarker researchers, drug developers and private sector stakeholders. Anticipated multiple awards will support a variety of projects under this initiative, contingent upon the quality of submissions and available funding.
Buck lands funding for analytics program
Alongside the launch of PROSPR, ARPA-H also announced it has backed the PATH project, led by the Buck in partnership with Phenome Health with funding of up to $52 million over four years. PATH aims to transform healthcare by using advanced analytics and AI to predict and prevent chronic diseases. The project will recruit a cohort of healthy individuals aged 50 and older, collecting in-depth data just before significant age-related health declines. By incorporating wearable technology and digital tools, the team will track disease trajectories, offering unprecedented insights into health maintenance.
“This research initiative is the first step of many to embark on a bold, new vision for biomedical research, data-driven analyses of individuals combined with a systems analysis of the data,” said Phenome Health CEO Dr Lee Hood. “It will build on important work over the last decade to offer new opportunities for optimizing healthspan and the early detection and prevention of chronic disease.”
PATH seeks to harmonize global health datasets, identify subtypes of chronic diseases, define biological rhythms to contextualize health data and create non-invasive monitoring tools. A key deliverable will be an AI-driven recommendation engine that personalizes health strategies for individuals.
“We are thrilled to receive this award to support our ambitious vision for personalized healthcare,” said Buck CEO Dr Eric Verdin. “The PATH project has the potential to significantly impact the lives of millions of people by providing foundational data and analytics for healthy aging.”
