A neuroscientist and physician named Christin Glorioso, founder and CEO of NeuroAge Therapeutics, has launched a six-month competition called "Younger" that invites approximately 500 participants to attempt to reverse their biological age. Winners will be selected based on the greatest gap between chronological and biological age, as well as the largest reversal of biological age over the trial period.
Biological age measurements attempt to quantify the health status of organs and bodies using various methods. These include chemical signatures that form on DNA (epigenetic markers), blood proteins and lipids, and functional health measures. More than one hundred such "aging clocks" exist, each capturing different aspects of the aging process. Glorioso acknowledges that using these clocks to measure individual biological age remains controversial. "They're just not good enough for that yet," according to the source material.
The competition uses multiple clocks simultaneously to work around individual limitations. Standard competitors ($999 entry fee) submit blood samples analyzed by TruDiagnostic for epigenetic age measurement, complete cognitive tasks scored by NeuroAge for brain age, provide physical measures like grip strength, and upload selfies to a Harvard-developed app that estimates facial age. Ultra competitors ($4,499) access additional blood tests, MRI scans, and DEXA scans. The trial officially begins in January, though approximately 120 people have already signed up.
Glorioso identifies three goals for the competition. First, she wants to educate the public about aging clocks. Second, she hopes the trial will generate "the world's most comprehensive clock dataset" to clarify what each clock actually measures. Third, she intends to gather data on purported longevity interventions like red-light masks and sauna access provided by sponsoring companies, which Glorioso notes cannot typically afford to conduct formal clinical trials.
The leaderboard currently shows seven baseline measurements. One competitor identified as "Fred" shows a biological age 28.8 years below his chronological age, while a 47-year-old competitor registered a biological age of 68.1, with particularly poor performance on standing-from-seated tests.