The Toronto Aging Biology Symposium 2024

A case of longevity exposure in Canada

Feb 14, 2024

Something about sitting in the Great Hall of a Gothic-Revival era building from 1919 that makes you wonder about the longevity of your surroundings. The preserved and beautiful architecture, antique windows, and aged intimate details within the University of Toronto’s Hart House all contribute to its timeless ambiance.

Now imagine that your seat in this 100-year-old building, designed after relics of an even further past, is part of one of the first aging biology events in Toronto. You are bound to think of how many people have come and gone through here, yet the building remains forever frozen in time.

It’s almost poetic... Could those people have ever dreamed of the changes that would take place? Could they have imagined an event of this magnitude, challenging the effects the unstoppable force of time has on us?

The “Toronto Aging Biology Symposium” (TABS) hosted by Toronto Longevity Research Circle (TLRC) at the University of Toronto (UofT) took place on January 31, 2024, with over 200 attendees. The event focused on bringing cutting-edge health research and innovation from academia and industry to its attendees, and was a massive success.

The symposium was one of a kind and a great demonstration of how we can improve accessibility to and within the field. Registration was free of cost, yet there were still complimentary refreshments, snacks, breakfast, and a very healthy lunch provided; a stark contrast to most other conferences. Whether you are a researcher, a healthcare professional, a student, or simply fascinated by the prospects of extending the human lifespan, the Toronto Aging Biology Symposium was the place to be.

Members of the LongX team had the privilege of helping organize the conference. If you happened to attend you may have caught Sufal immortalizing the event as the photographer, and Marvin helping speakers set up throughout the event.

What Happened?

As everyone enjoyed their pastries, juices, and choice of caffeination, the conference opened with Courtney Hudson Paz, founder and program director of ‘TIME initiative’. Courtney holds a Ph.D. in Biology of Aging from Buck Institute and has done a phenomenal job facilitating innovation and building the initiative from the ground up. TIME focuses on accelerating aging biology talent at the undergraduate level. Their inaugural cohort of fellows started in 2023 taking on a variety of projects, including Maggie Li (University of Toronto), one of the main organizers for TABS.

The main takeaway from Courtney’s opening remarks?

We should all care about aging and what the field will bring.

The rest of the conference was broken down into 4 sessions. So for the sake of your “Time” and attention span, let’s do a quick highlight of what each session covered.

Session Overview & Schedule

For the whole schedule and speaker briefs visit TLRC’s website.

TABS 2024 Speakers - Not all pictured (Courtesy of Sufal Deb)

Session 1:

Focused on exploring some basic aging biology, stem cell pluripotency, and exploring what the future of regeneration can look like from micro (cells) to macro (organ) standpoints.

Session 2:

After exploring the tissues of axolotls and how they might help us, this session had the first panel (with a panel member coincidentally wearing an axolotl shirt) discussing the longevity biotech & VC scene, exploring pitfalls, bottlenecks, and where to focus our efforts.

Session 3:

A huge part of attempting to live longer is maintaining our brain’s functionality and neuroplasticity, tackled in the first presentation about using astrocytes(the primary glial cell in our nervous system) as a tool to repair our brains. Wrapping up the session with a panel hitting close to home, aka Toronto in this case and its biotech ecosystem and its future.

Session 4:

The last, but not least session, happened to also be the most information-packed session. TABS wrapped up with back-to-back talks from UofT trainees, all of whom did a phenomenal job sharing their current research progress. No better opportunity to hear about cutting-edge research as it is in the process of “cutting the edge”.

Lightning Talk Speakers - Left to Right as below (Courtesy of Sufal Deb)

Trainee Lightning Talks:

B Cells Promote T Cell Immunosenescence and Mammalian Aging Parameters— Dr. Saad Khan | Winer Lab
Differential T Cell Reconstitution Between Aged and Young Thymus — Yue Ru (Ruth) Li | JCZP Lab
Characterizing Elite Cell States in Human iPSC Reprogramming — David He | Wrana Lab
Pregnancy to Interrogate Reproductive Aging — Dr. Dylan Siriwardena | Wheeler Lab
Using Peptide Coated Nanoparticles as a Therapy for Restenosis — Ryan Appings | Bendeck Lab
Vascularized Lung Organoids to Study Development and Disease — Callum Stirton | Pelletier Lab

It’s just another conference… why should YOU care?

A call for the future.

I doubt anyone attending had the know-how to fully comprehend what each speaker shared and have meaningful thoughts or questions from all the content.

But that’s not really the point.

The point is that events like this are sometimes the only professional exposure some get to the longevity and aging biology fields. These events expose the field to the masses, with TABS being a great case of exposure for undergraduate students in the Greater Toronto Area.

The point is to increase awareness, garner inquisitive minds, hone curiosity, and leverage intelligence and intellectual potential toward tackling the root cause of aging-related diseases.

The point is to make an effort, an attempt, to extend our lifespan and the existence of the human consciousness.

Points and Dramatics aside, TABS was organized and hosted by a group of undergraduate students at their own university. They did great outreach, hosted and accommodated multiple speakers, and potentially inspired hundreds of students, if not at least providing them with free lunch and educational content as a side for their meals.

Where did this group of longevity-curious young minds come from?

A plethora of students go from studying general biology, chemistry, and life sciences, to eventually specializing in niche research, completing a thesis before they graduate, and in some exceptional cases even becoming a published author. With courses like cell biology, immunology, and genetics, students are exposed to their respective and specific avenues of research and are able to imagine a career in the field, especially with the already established and well-documented pipelines in each domain. Longevity and Aging biology courses on the other hand simply do not exist at the undergraduate level, with the odd course only offered at the 4th or graduate level with a plethora of prerequisites that most don’t plan for.

Many students involved today essentially pivot their existing research interests into the field, which is great! Unfortunately, their set of decisions and coincidences to end up here are not easily recreated.

So without exposure, education, or awareness, how is it possible for undergraduate students to even consider exploring research in the field?

The only answer is to find education elsewhere, that’s what the internet is for after all right?

As more and more educational resources ( just like us here at LongX ) and groups like TLRC begin to host events and spread knowledge, there will be an increase in the number of interdisciplinary and non-research roles and opportunities coming into existence. We will have people more heavily focused on lobbying for aging therapeutic-specific regulation changes, for increased budgets and funding, and for facilitating open scientific collaboration of knowledge and resources. With more research being conducted we will have more spin-offs, ventures, and eventually the educational industry will be almost forced to shift towards incorporating and adding aging biology courses and programs. Imagine seminars on longevity taking place in intro-biology courses!

If you happened to listen to the panels in sessions 2 and 3, you can see how all this effort towards exposure can, and will snowball. Eventually, that avalanche will be breaking bottlenecks in the field.

For now though... let's just focus on facilitating more events for people to accessibly attend, explore their curiosity, and share a common goal of extending life with others.

Location, Location, Location, & Longevity 📍

All of this still begs the question... How is it that the TABS organizing committee, composed of students, were the ones to host one of the first comprehensive aging biology events in the Canadian mega-city of Toronto?

…

Do you hear that chanting?

*Cue “usa, uSa, uSA, USA, USA, USA” chants and the screech of a bald eagle*

The United States leads in aging research today, even with the scrappy budget academia receives from the NIH. Leaps in progress are made especially in biotech hubs like San Franciso and Boston, which host regular events, and thousands of people with futuristic visions and transcendental ambition. There’s just something about the country of capitalism that pushes progress.

Although Canada, the ‘Hat’ of America follows the US economic train, most of Canada has their focus contained to geroscience. Despite major cities like Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, and Montreal being diverse and almost biotech-rich, there is little to no effort in the longevity industry, particularly when compared to the scale and magnitude of US-based research. The key Canadian players are currently, mostly, limited to university-funded organizations.

There is hope however that cities up north will follow in the footsteps of their American cousins. Once again the answer lies in exposure. One way to help more of the world catch up is by providing resources on a global scale.

👏 A Big Round of Applause! 👏

Let’s conclude this by giving a big warm thank you and a round of applause for the organizing committee that made the event possible:

Maggie Li
David He
Shayan Rabbi
Sufal Deb
Marvin Yan
Victor Li
Flo Guo
Zayn Rahman
Sean Millar
Yvonne Hew

As well as a big thank you to the sponsors that helped TLRC host TABS 2024: Medicine by Design (UofT), BioAge, Retro Biosciences, TIME initiative, age1, and Human Biology Students Union (UofT).

So while you eagerly wait for TABS 2025 or the next event in Canada, you might as well read more about the LongX team’s experiences at global events!

Vitalia, the 3-month longevity-city in Honduras: