LOS ANGELES— Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris has gifted $10 million to USC to launch a longevity research initiative focused on extending lifespan and delaying disease, USC officials announced Monday.
The new USC Parris Longevity Accelerator will unite experts in engineering, AI, gerontology, and medicine to investigate the biological causes of aging and develop early-stage preventative treatments, according to the university.
“Age-related diseases continue to cost our healthcare system trillions of dollars. Now is the time to act to not only help people live longer but also to improve their quality of life,” said Mayor Parris in a statement.
Parris co-founded ReParris, a regenerative medicine company that creates innovative small-molecule treatments to prevent and manage age-related diseases.
The Accelerator’s first major project will use recent research data to identify aging subtypes and patients most at risk, USC officials explained.
“For far too long, we’ve thought about and approached age-related diseases at the point of crisis with expensive, late-stage interventions,” said Dr. Denis Evseenko, the USC professor leading the program. “Our team already has a well-documented track record of successful translation of scientific breakthroughs into the early stage preventive therapeutics and clinical trials.”
Evseenko said the program aims to shift the paradigm by focusing on the earliest indicators of aging, understanding why some people age faster, and developing targeted strategies to stop disease before it begins.
