The XPRIZE award includes $250,000 to fund preliminary studies and a chance to compete for the $101 Million grand prize to revolutionize the approach to human aging.

Shalender Bhasin, MD

The project of the Brigham - Boston XPRIZE Healthspan Team, led by Shalender Bhasin, MD, and JoAnn Manson, MD, DrPH, was selected as a Top 40 research proposal to receive Milestone 1 funding for preliminary studies and move forward to the next phase of the seven-year, $101M XPRIZE Healthspan Global Competition.

The Top 40 semifinalists, who were announced in New York City on May 12, 2025, were selected from over 600 registered teams across 58 countries.

Dr. Bhasin is director of the Boston Claude D. Pepper Aging Research Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and Professor of Medicine, and Dr. Manson is chief of the Division of Preventive Medicine at BWH and the Michael and Lee Bell Endowed Professor of Women’s Health

JoAnn Manson, MD, DrPH

Their proposal includes collaborating with an industry partner to test a promising new therapeutic that could help in extending “healthspan” and delaying the onset of aging-related conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cognitive decline, mobility loss, and cancer.

The project will include other collaborators across the Mass General Brigham system and Harvard University.

This initial award comes with $250,000 that Bhasin and Manson can use to fund pilot research, which will include investigating patient recruitment strategies and identifying clinical endpoints and biomarkers for a larger clinical trial.

The team will then be in position to compete for the final grand prize.

XPRIZE Healthspan is a seven-year, $101 million global competition that seeks revolutionary new approaches to improve human aging.

The winning team must demonstrate that their therapeutic treatment restores muscle, cognitive and immune function in persons aged 50 to 80 years.

Contact: McKenzie Ridings mridings@mgb.org