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VitaDAO Letter: New collab with Research Hub, Symposium Recap & more

November 14, 2022
Sarah Friday

Inside:

  • A Recap of VitaDAO’s 2nd “Crypto meets Longevity Symposium” 
  • VitaDAO Fellowship Update
  • New VitaSpotlight Series: Rapamycin as a Promising Aging Intervention 
  • How to contribute to VitaDAO and ResearchHub’s Community Driven Paper
  • Meet DAO Member Paolo Binetti

Upcoming Events

Community Call: November 24th at 9 AM EST-  Swing by VitaDAO’s monthly community call and learn more about what is going on in VitaDAO behind the scenes! 

The Longevity Summit December 6-7 | Buck Institute for Aging | Novato, CA -  THE FUTURE OF MEDICINE: ELIMINATING DISEASES OF AGING. Use the code "VitaDAO" for 15% off admission to the conference on the Eventbrite.

Hackathon: 13-15th Jan and 20-22- Join VitaDAO’s Hackathon, an online hackathon focusing on longevity. Registration is now open! 

DAO News

Symposium Recap: Exploring the Intersection of Longevity and Web3

On October 20th, 2022, Max Unfried and Eleanor Sheekey hosted the 2nd VitaDAO Crypto meets Longevity Symposium. The symposium consisted of twenty-two scientists, blockchain experts, and longevity professionals from internationally recognized institutions who spoke on the intersection of longevity and the blockchain.

Their talks highlighted updates in longevity medicine, strategies in drug development, discussions surrounding DAO economic ecosystems, and more!

Missed the conference? Catch up on VitaDAO’s Youtube

The VitaDAO Fellowship: Funding the next generation of Longevity Enthusiasts

VitaDAO received over 200 applications for a 3rd VitaDAO Fellow Cohort. These funds were made possible by generous donors on Gitcoin, in addition to the funding provided by VitaDAO (VDP-57). 

By providing grants up to 3,000 USD, the fellowship financially supports upcomers in the field to attend longevity conferences, fund research, and afford tuition to longevity programs.

Two cohorts, totaling 48 VitaDAO fellows, have been funded with over $45,000 USDC! Current VitaDAO Fellows have taken active roles in VitaDAO and are part of the exclusive VitaDAO Fellows network. 

Learn more: http://vitadao.com/fellowship 

New VitaSpotlight Series: Exploring Rapamycin - a Promising Aging Intervention?

Vita Fellow Adrian Moliere and Tomas Schmauck-Medina explore Rapamycin’s mechanism of action and its potential. Additionally, Professor Mikhail Blagosklonny weighs in on the idea that inhibiting pathways responsible for growth also slows aging: 

“Exploring Rapamycin: Most Promising Anti-aging Compound?

Find out more about how genetic knockouts or interventions showing the greatest increase in lifespan are targeting growth-, and not damage repair signaling pathways.

Exciting collab with Research Hub:
Contribute to a Community Driven Review Paper 

What are the most reliable longevity biomarkers, and how can they be evaluated? Alongside ResearchHub, VitaDAO is offering a bounty of 3,000 $VITA + 50,000 $RSC to be split among individuals who contribute to a community-driven review paper exploring current biomarkers for longevity.

Are you interested in exploring the pros and cons of different longevity biomarkers? Join the discussion on VitaDAO’s Discourse.

Governance: Funding Vita Fellows and Governance Updates

October’s Passed Proposals

VDP-57: $10k for the next VitaDAO Longevity Fellowship Batch 

As a result of this passed proposal, VitaDAO will donate $10,000 USDC to fund VitaDAO Longevity Fellows. VitaDAO Fellows can apply to receive micro-grants of up to $2,000 USDC.

VDP-59: VitaDAO Governance Amendment #3

As a result of this passed proposal, seven changes will be made to VitaDAO’s governance framework. These changes include a time limit of three months for phase 2 proposals, a mandatory seven-day waiting period for phase 2 proposals after the last significant change to the proposal, a formal on- and offboarding process for managers and authors on VitaDAO’s Snapshot space, changes to the on- and offboarding process of becoming a signer on VitaDAO’s multi-signature wallets, introduction of “Stakeholders” as a new user type, and amendments to the Code of Conduct.

Live on the Vita Governance Forum - discuss and vote!

Find all of VitaDAO’s pending live proposals on Discourse, VitaDAO’s governance hub for proposals before they are moved on-chain. These proposals are open for engagement, voting, and questions! This month, several new proposals were added to Discourse:

This proposal suggests governance improvement by “batching” VitaDAO’s governance into seasons, with each four-month season consisting of a Governance Phase and an Execution Phase. Within the season, the Governance Phase lasts 6 weeks and the rest is the Execution Phase where ideas proposed during the Governance Phase are executed.

This proposal requests $300k USDC to fund the discovery and development of a novel antiglycation and anticross-linking agent aimed at decreasing ECM stiffness.

  • VDP-62: Budget Allocation to Sponsor Longevity and Aging Conferences 

This proposal requests 20,000 USDC to sponsor eight months of Longevity and Aging Conferences and Events and requests that the SciComm and Awareness WG be given the power to decide which events to sponsor. 

Meet Key Longevity WG Contributor: Paolo Binetti

Paolo Binetti is one of our top VitaDAO Longevity/ Deal flow Working Group contributors. Outside of VitaDAO, he is a venture fellow for Healthspan Capital, a bio-expert for Capital Cell, an On Deck Longevity Biotech fellow, and an investor. Paolo holds a PhD in Controls, Robotics, and Bioengineering as well as a Bioinformatics specialization and has industry experience in R&D project management and business development.

How did you first get involved with the VitaDAO community?

Adding healthy years to our life will be beneficial for everyone. So everyone should be able to contribute to longevity biotech, either by funding it or working on it, but this is not happening, at least not as massively as it should. I want to solve this problem, VitaDAO could be one way to do it, so I decided to join.

What does your role as a Longevity/DealFlow Working Group Member entail?

Sourcing and reviewing research proposals and helping to mature them before they get to senior reviewers and community vote. I love it because every day I work with amazing researchers and founders on new cutting-edge ideas that could one day extend our healthspan and lifespan. I also help improve our infrastructure to make it even more effective.

What has surprised you the most about VitaDAO?

First, the amount of incredibly talented and competent people that I have come across, all committed to the same goal. Second, a rich infrastructure to collaborate in a decentralized way. Third, the flexibility to evolve toward ever more efficient ways of working. And the community’s welcome was phenomenal!

What are you most excited about in VitaDAO’s future?

Building a portfolio of solid projects with therapeutic potential, in collaboration with our new institutional partners in venture capital and pharma, and with an increasing contribution from the public. Everyone should have VITA tokens in their pockets, shaping the future of healthcare and reaping the benefits of the longevity biotech boom.

Any closing thoughts for readers?

I am always looking for new ideas for our deal flow, so if you have a great one that could generate valuable intellectual property and eventually translate to the clinic, please reach out!

Join Us! 

Have a special skill set? Contribute to VitaDAO and receive $VITA in return. Join the VitaDAO community on Discord and stay up to date on Twitter!  

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