VDP-158: Partnership with LEV Foundation for the RMR2 Mouse Rejuvenation Project

Proposals
1

TL;DR:

VitaDAO proposes to support the Longevity Escape Velocity (LEV) Foundation and Dr. Aubrey de Grey and their RMR2 mouse rejuvenation project to be launched on Catalyst. We aim to:

  • Deploy $75,000 from VitaDAO’s treasury early into the auction
  • Support the project with marketing efforts and community building
  • Collaborate with the Catalyst team to negotiate the Sponsored Research Agreement (SRA) terms with LEVF, including an allocation to the institute and principal investigator.

Summary

This proposal seeks approval from the VitaDAO community to support the LEV Foundation’s RMR2 mouse rejuvenation study. This initiative represents one of the largest open science endeavors in the DeSci space, aiming to significantly advance longevity research.

Background

About the RMR2 Project

The RMR2 project is an ambitious follow-up to the initial RMR1 study conducted by the LEV Foundation. Its primary goal is to identify interventions that double the remaining lifespan of adult wild-type mice by targeting multiple aging hallmarks simultaneously—a strategy that has been underexplored in both research and startup communities.

Significance

The project aims to:

  • Determine how various longevity interventions interact, whether synergistically or antagonistically.
  • Provide insights into aging trajectories, morbidity, causes of death, and functional decline.
  • Generate compelling evidence to gain public support for rejuvenation medicine.
  • Influence policymakers to increase investment in the field.

Specification

VitaDAO’s Commitments

  1. Financial Support:
  • Deploy $75,000 into the auction to fund the pilot and experimental setup of the RMR2 project, including the implementation of smart cage technology for continuous monitoring.
  1. Marketing and Community Building:
  • Leverage VitaDAO’s platforms and networks to promote the project.
  • Engage the community to raise awareness and encourage broader participation.
  1. Collaboration on SRA Negotiations:
  • Work alongside the Catalyst team to negotiate the SRA terms with LEVF.
  • Explore possibilities of allocating a portion of VitaDAO’s acquired tokens to the LEV Foundation and the principal investigator to align incentives.

Tokenization and Governance

  • An IP-NFT representing the RMR2 project will be minted.
  • IP Tokens (IPTs) associated with the IP-NFT will be issued to reflect contributions.
  • VitaDAO will assist in:
    • Providing all necessary documentation to the Catalyst team in support for launching the project and issuing tokens.
    • Handling tokenholder communications.
    • Providing governance support.
  • The exact terms of token distribution and allocations will be detailed in the finalized SRA.

Implementation

Upon approval:

  • Minting and Funding:
    • VitaDAO will support the Catalyst team in minting the IP-NFT and issuing the associated IPTs for the RMR2 project following the auction.
    • Deploy the committed $75,000 into the auction.
  • SRA Negotiations:
    • Collaborate with the Catalyst team to finalize the SRA with LEVF
  • Marketing Initiatives:
    • Initiate a coordinated marketing campaign to promote the RMR2 project within and beyond the VitaDAO community.
  • Community Engagement:
    • Organize events, AMAs, and discussions to engage stakeholders and attract additional support.

By supporting the RMR2 project, VitaDAO not only advances its mission but also positions itself at the forefront of groundbreaking longevity research.

  • Agree
  • Revisions Requested (Detail in Comments)
  • Disagree
0 voters
2

I would like some clarity on the IPT mechanism. Why an IPT instead of some other funding mechanism, especially given the project states there is no commercialization potential in the next 4 years?

The target patient populations: Alzheimer’s, CVD, and even osteoarthritis require major genetic and diet manipulations to get disease in mice. There seems to be a mismatch between the patient target and the model system.

What strain or strains of mice are proposed for these studies?

What kind of experience does the team have with these proposed studies? The first experiments proposed for the Yamanaka factors suggests that system is not up and running in their lab.

This work seems exploratory. It’s not clear to me what the milestone 1 is: what has to happen for one of these treatments to advance to the next round?

Is this a matter of ‘we need 200k to finish the current on-going experiment’? If this is ongoing, what do the preliminary data show so far? How old have the mice made it?

1 Like
3

I agree with @bowtiedshrike. What’s the IP? We saw from LEV’s first studies that these gold standard treatments had the expected 10-20% effect sizes. I really appreciate all the hard work that went into these studies but one could argue we would know that would have been the outcome ahead of time. What will be different this time? I think until there is some therapeutic hypothesis that is dramatically different we should expect more of the same.

2 Likes
4

Rapamycin works great – which we knew from the ITP.

1 Like
5

We’re focused on the hard science needed to crack aging. Our goal is rapid breakthroughs through extensive experimentation and research.

The mission prioritizes scientific discovery first, not commercial IP development. Therefore, this project is not designed to create patentable IP within the project time frame of 2-3 years. All work aims to advance our understanding of aging while keeping future opportunities open.

2 Likes
6

I like basic science, so that’s not the issue.

What does an IPT do for this project that a different funding mechanism (or even a pump.science token) does not do? What benefits will this IPT confer? Will this confer control over the research direction?

If IPTs get used for things that are not IP, doesn’t that weaken the legal position for IPTs if regulators come after any of them?

If we mint IPTs that confer no benefits, they could be called VaporWare, especially if they pump based on VitaDAO’s reputation and then zero out. Is it worth the risk to VitaDAO’s reputation when we could use other funding mechanisms to fund the research?

2 Likes