A Research Roadmap - Replacing Brain Cells to Combat Brain Aging
| Author | Rohan N. Krajeski, Kyle M. Loh, Jean M. Hébert, Alexander Dityatev, Tyson Ruetz, Timothy J. Gardner, Nicole G. Coufal, Xin Jin, Alex Colville, Raiany S. Romanni, Joanne Z. Peng, James Fickel |
|---|---|
| Published | November 2023 |
| Format | Report |
| Original | Read the original |
TL;DR — An Amaranth Foundation white paper (2023) from a neuroscience workshop, setting out moonshot research directions for replacing aged brain cells.
Version 1, November 2023, written by researchers from Cambridge, Stanford, Einstein, Scripps, MIT and elsewhere together with the Amaranth Foundation, a philanthropy that funds longevity research and is part of James Fickel’s family office. It came out of a workshop the foundation organised in San Francisco in February 2023.
It argues that the brain progressively fails with age and proposes replacing brain cells as a direct counter. Four “moonshot ideas” are laid out with their challenges: transplanting new neurons and glia (including replacing microglia); triggering new brain cells from the brain’s own stem cells or by converting one cell type into another; learning from songbirds and turtles, which keep making brain cells throughout life; and understanding and engineering the brain’s extracellular matrix.
What it is: a research-agenda white paper from a funder and workshop participants — informed expert opinion on where to look, not experimental results. Published openly by the foundation.
Where this came from
- A copy saved in October 2026.
- Public copy: https://amaranth.foundation/s/brain-aging-white-paper.pdf
31 pages. A copy is archived locally against link rot; the header links the original source.