x01a Research Archives

The company found that, over time, the drugs cause a wide slowdown in aging clocks—as much as 4 years in the case of a clock that looks at heart proteins. “I think it’s pretty clear that the organ age is shifting,” said Aguayo-Orozco.

The studies are also a huge boost for the science of aging clocks. Although these measures reflect a person’s age, it’s been uncertain if they are useful as true biomarkers. Now clock makers have evidence  that their readouts show a drop in age when people take drugs with broad, well-demonstrated benefits.

“The clock people have been pushing for a decade to get this kind of study done,” says Yuge Ji, a biologist who previously worked in the field and now runs a startup, Reflector Bio. “It’s huge for them.”

As part of its study, Novo took blood draws from 10,052 people, half on the drug and half on a placebo. Their blood, collected at the start of the study as well as months later, was then measured with “proteomic clocks,” which use levels of key proteins to predict a person’s age and risk of dying.

Scientists at Eli Lilly performed similar research on their GLP-1 drug, tirzepatide, using so-called “epigenetic” clocks that assess age by counting accumulated changes to DNA. Lilly’s study was smaller, but also found that for the most part, molecular time moved more slowly for people on the drug.

“All the clocks are telling a consistent story that we’re seeing a reduction in age,” Kevin Duffin, vice president for aging research at Lilly, said during the conference. “It’s not like we’re going to reverse age by 30 years or something, but it’s a significant reduction.”

Scientists have uncovered stunning new evidence that remnants of a massive ancient supercontinent are buried beneath Antarctica’s vast ice sheet.

The discovery suggests the frozen continent is hiding fragments of Himalaya-scale mountain ranges that may have helped trigger the rapid expansion of life on Earth roughly half a billion years ago.

Two geologists from Australian National University uncovered evidence of material left behind during the formation of Gondwana, the enormous southern supercontinent that once joined modern-day Africa, South America, Antarctica, Australia, and the Indian subcontinent.

The findings were published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

The hidden geological remnants could transform scientists’ understanding of the processes that drove the Cambrian explosion, a period marked by the rapid appearance and evolution of complex life in Earth’s fossil record.