The Saudi royal family has started a not-for-profit organization called the Hevolution Foundation that plans to spend up to $1 billion a year of its oil wealth to support basic research on the biology of aging and find ways to extend the number of years people live in good health.
If the Saudis are able to spend it, it will make the Gulf state the largest sponsor of researchers trying to understand the causes of aging.
The foundation hasn't made a formal announcement, but the scope of its effort has been outlined at scientific meetings and is the subject of excited chatter among aging researchers.
The fund is managed by Mehmood Khan, who was hired to the CEO job in 2020. The primary goal is to extend the period of healthy lifespan. This is the biggest medical problem on the planet.
There is a technology called ms tech.
If you can slow the body's aging process, you can delay the start of multiple diseases and prolong the healthy years people are able to enjoy as they grow older. Khan says the fund is going to give grants for basic scientific research on what causes aging, just as others have done, but it also plans to go a step further by supporting drug studies.
We need to translate that biology into human research. It won't make a difference until something appears in the market that benefits patients
The fund can spend up to $1 billion annually. The division of the US National Institute on Aging that supports basic research on the biology of aging spends about $325 million annually.
Hevolution hasn't announced what projects it will back, but people familiar with the group say it looked at funding a $100 million X Prize for age reversal technology and has reached a preliminary agreement to fund a test of the diabetes drug
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