Surendra Sehgal, a pharmaceutical researcher who first identified rapamycin in 1972 and championed it for decades in the face of indifference and setbacks
What I am reading: Rapamycin: The unlucky history of the most powerful anti-aging drug on Big Think. It's a surprisingly interesting and readable history of rapamycin, a drug approved fur immune suppression in organ transplant patients, which is finding a lot of support for longevity uses. A few highlights from the article:
Rapamycin was discovered by accident, in the ground, during a construction dig on Easter Island.
The compound has an unlikely combination of properties: it's antifungal, but it blocks the production of immune cells. Even though it blocks the production of of immune cells, it reduces the odds of cancer (the two are completely at odds).
Rapamycin increased longevity in mice by 6 months, equivalent to a 20 year increase in humans.
A 3-year clinical study is underway right now to see if the longevity effects of rapamycin translate to humans.
What really got me: The story of rapamycin is strange and full of accidents. The compound occurs naturally, but apparently only in one place on Earth. It was found by accident, championed by one man for years, set back several times by corporate problems, and in the end led to fundamental discoveries about human biology (the mTOR pathway).
I've long assumed that, given enough time, all scientific discovery is inevitable. But as this article shows, science is a haphazard and very human process. If you'd like to find out the story of rapamycin, both because it's interesting and to get more informed about this most promising longevity treatment, the Big Think article is worth a read.