XPRIZE Names 20 Finalist Teams in $101M Healthspan Competition to Reverse Biological Aging
Key Insights
XPRIZE (search) announced 20 Finalist Teams advancing in the $101 million Healthspan competition, with 10 teams each receiving $1 million Milestone 2 awards to accelerate clinical development.
The competition aims to restore muscle, cognition, and immune function by a minimum of 10 years in adults aged 50–90, with treatments lasting one year or less.
UC San Diego's Stein Institute will serve as the Central Laboratory and Biorepository, providing standardized multi-omics analysis and biomarker profiling for all finalist teams.
XPRIZE (search) has announced 20 Finalist Teams advancing in the $101 million XPRIZE Healthspan competition, a global effort to develop therapeutic interventions that target the biology of aging itself. At an awards ceremony in Salt Lake City, 10 teams were named Milestone 2 Awardees, each receiving $1 million along with access to key clinical testing resources — bringing total milestone funding to $10 million. The finalist teams span four countries: the United States, South Korea, Japan, and China.
The competition, launched in November 2023, is the first health-focused XPRIZE (search) of its kind. Over its seven-year run, it seeks to accelerate the development and clinical testing of proactive, accessible therapeutics that restore muscle, cognition, and immune function in adults aged 50 to 90 — by a minimum of 10 years, with an ambitious target of 20 years, within one year or less of treatment. An additional $10 million FSHD Bonus Prize will be awarded to a team demonstrating the ability to restore lost muscular function due to Facioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy (search) (FSHD) in one year or less.
"Today marks a pivotal milestone for XPRIZE (search) Healthspan and the future of healthy aging," said Peter H. Diamandis, MD, founder and executive chairman of XPRIZE. "It is inspiring to see the breadth of scientific approaches our finalist teams are advancing to tackle one of humanity's greatest challenges."
The Milestone 2 Awardees
The 10 Milestone 2 Awardees are: AgelessRx (USA); Goda Lab, a collaboration between University of Tokyo, Tohoku University, NanoTitan, and Tokyo Relife Clinic (Japan); Johns Hopkins-Suninflam, a partnership between Suninflam Inc. and Johns Hopkins University (search) (USA); Longeveron, Inc. (search) (USA); Minicircle Inc. (search) (USA); Mitochondrial All Stars, comprising Mighty Therapeutics Holdings Inc. and University of Washington (USA); NYC-Vita Trial from Mount Sinai Health System (USA); RETRO-EPIGERNA from Macau University of Science and Technology (Macao SAR, China); RPRGAON-Progeria from PRG S&Tech (South Korea); and TIME TRAVELER – Plant-EVs (Japan).
Judges selected the awardees based on the strength of their scientific rationale, the scalability and accessibility of their therapeutic approaches, and their readiness to advance into the competition's clinical trial phase. The approaches span a diverse range of strategies targeting the biology of aging, including new and existing drugs targeting metabolism, inflammation, tissue repair, and neural protection; a first-of-its-kind medication acting as a "repair patch" for mitochondria; biologic treatments disrupting cell damage, inflammation, and fibrosis; targeted "search and destroy" molecules addressing toxic proteins responsible for rapid aging; stem cell therapies using patients' own cells; gene-based techniques delivering temporary genetic instructions for therapeutic protein production; extracellular vesicle-based medicines; and food-derived and plant-based bioactive therapies.
UC San Diego as Central Laboratory
The Stein Institute for Research on Aging at the University of California San Diego will serve as the Central Laboratory and Biorepository for the competition. "Being selected as the central hub for the world's most ambitious effort to extend human healthspan is an extraordinary honor," said Anthony Molina, PhD, professor of medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine and scientific director of the Stein Institute. "Our 43-year legacy in the science of aging, combined with a fully integrated geroscience laboratory to support major international efforts uniquely positions us to ensure that the ten finalist teams receive the highest-quality, standardized data needed to demonstrate a decade-long extension of healthspan."
The central lab will perform several key functions: creation and distribution of standardized clinical-trial procedures, specimen-handling guidelines, and assay methods; secure biorepository management of blood, tissue, and other biospecimens with full chain-of-custody controls; high-throughput genomics, epigenomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and cellular-aging biomarker profiling; and real-time data aggregation, quality-control oversight, and delivery of blinded results to the XPRIZE (search) adjudication panel.
Michael Corley, PhD, associate professor of medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine, who will co-lead the lab with Molina, stated: "The central laboratory is the scientific backbone of this competition. By providing a single, gold-standard platform for sample collection, multi-omics analysis and data integration, UC San Diego will set the benchmark for how we measure biological aging and will accelerate the translation of breakthrough therapies into clinical practice."
Clinical Trial Phase and Timeline
From 2026 to 2029, finalists will conduct rigorous clinical trials lasting up to one year each, evaluating therapeutics designed to restore muscle, cognition, and immune function in adults aged 50 to 90. The University of Utah's Data Coordinating Center will oversee trial and data management, while UC San Diego's Stein Institute coordinates shared laboratories, biomarkers, and biospecimen storage. The competition culminates in 2030, when XPRIZE (search) will award a grand prize of up to $81 million — described as one of the largest incentive prizes ever offered for a single scientific breakthrough in health.
Jamie Justice, PhD, executive director of XPRIZE (search) Healthspan, emphasized the significance: "Over the past several years, we've watched these teams transform bold scientific ideas into promising therapeutic approaches that could fundamentally change how we think about aging. As these teams move into coordinated clinical trials, they are generating the evidence needed to redefine what's possible for healthy aging while helping establish a higher standard for clinical validation."
The competition is supported by Co-Title Sponsors Hevolution Foundation (search) and Chip Wilson, founder of SOLVE FSHD (search), with GSK joining as the Official Pharmaceutical Industry partner. "Progress in healthspan science depends on more than promising discoveries. It requires strong evidence and meaningful collaboration," said Dr. Mehmood Khan, CEO of Hevolution Foundation.
"This is a transformational effort in the science of aging, unlike anything that's ever been done before," added Molina. "The competition may end in 2030, but the long-term impact of this work will be felt for many years to come, both for scientists in the field and for future patients who will benefit from the resulting treatments."