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This longevity startup is working on healthtech, ML/AI, diagnostics, and biotechnology disciplines to provide state-of-the-art solutions to slowing down and even reversing the aging process to control chronic diseases and their adverse implications
An aging population is often seen as a problem in an economy. India is a young country right now, but the United Nations predicts that Indians aged more than 60 years will double by 2050. India’s elderly population will reach 194 million in 2031 from 138 million in 2021, a 41% spike in a decade, according to the National Statistical Office (NSO)’s Elderly in India 2021 report.
Planning for the future, Centenarians Life Sciences Pvt Ltd., known as Decode Age, is a pioneering startup in the longevity industry of India working on healthtech, ML/AI, diagnostics, and biotechnology disciplines to provide state-of-the-art solutions to slowing down and even reversing the aging process to control chronic diseases and their adverse implications.
The Tech Panda spoke to Darshit Patel, Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Decode Age about the pain points they are solving.
Darshit Patel
We want to give Indians personalized solutions to tackle aging, avert the silver tsunami, and create our own first blue zone
“Decode Age is trying to solve multiple problems using one weapon. First is aging itself. As a country, we are still not looking at aging as a problem even though it is the largest cause of chronic diseases which claims 51% of total deaths in the country,” he says.
“Secondly, the most important issue in the coming decades will be ageism and the silver tsunami, according to which our stigmatized outlook towards ‘older people’ in the population will lead to more and more people entering the retirement stages earlier while fewer people enter the workforce creating a severe imbalance in the economy. To make sure we don’t face such a crisis, it is now more important than ever to keep older people vital and maintain their health enough to contribute economically to society even in the later stages of their life,” he explains.
The company’s current set of products falls into a special category that prevents aging.
“Basically, we target scientifically established hallmarks of aging with validated research-based products to slow down or reverse aspects of aging that eventually contribute to chronic disease development. Our upcoming range of products will focus on predictive products that can help in the early prediction of chronic diseases and even calculate your biological age,” says Patel.
The company is working on four essential pillars, health biomarkers based predictive tests, research-based preventive, precision and personalized health products, community awareness, and global level research.
Basically, we target scientifically established hallmarks of aging with validated research-based products to slow down or reverse aspects of aging that eventually contribute to chronic disease development
Key offering of the company includes focused longevity supplement products that counter nine signs of aging to slow the process and reverse the damage caused.
Established in Surat, Decode Age operates from Bengaluru. Apart from drug design and metagenomics specialist Patel, the founding members include serial tech entrepreneur, Parth Amin and triathlete and successful businessman Rakesh Somani.
Patel recalls the reason they decided to enter the longevity industry.
India has served the tech industry with high involvement, it is time we do in healthcare, biotechnology and longevity, as the longevity industry is the next moonshot of global research
“Global research and science in this field have accelerated at an unfathomable pace. Looking at the scenario in India, we were quite disappointed. India has served the tech industry with high involvement, it is time we do in healthcare, biotechnology and longevity, as the longevity industry is the next moonshot of global research,” he says.
Rakesh Somani, Darshit Patel and Parth Amin, Co-founders, Decode Age
“India also has the largest population cohort to study aging and countering the silver tsunami at this point would keep us away from the detrimental effects it has already had on the Japan and USA economy. Making breakthroughs in this field will give India a reputation that it has not enjoyed in its most recent discoveries,” he adds.
The company uses different technologies for its versatile product range.
“While our supplements are focused on data points and clinical research, our tests will focus on genomic, metagenomic, epigenomic technologies that harness the power of ML/AI in population studies,” explains Patel.
While our supplements are focused on data points and clinical research, our tests will focus on genomic, metagenomic, epigenomic technologies that harness the power of ML/AI in population studies
“Our product offering is absolutely unique and category-creating. There are no existing competitors in India in similar positioning,” he adds with pride.
Decode Age has managed to gain a huge organic reach without marketing, creating a community of more than 3000 people in a short time.
“We have also established international thought leadership and network in the Longevity industry by getting coverage on groups like Deep Knowledge Group,” Patel informs.
They have also connected 70+ doctors in the preventive and functional medicine systems in India.
“Our educational webinars have garnered attention from more than 1000 people in less than a month. One of our founders also did the first TEDx talk on Longevity in India,” he adds.
In the next six months, the company plans to build state-of-the-art microbiome and genomics analysis tests for ML/AI-based prediction of healthy aging and associated health features and also plans to collect more than 50,000 samples across India to establish an Indian microbiome database.
The most important issue in the coming decades will be ageism and the silver tsunami, according to which our stigmatized outlook towards ‘older people’ in the population will lead to more and more people entering the retirement stages earlier while fewer people enter the workforce creating a severe imbalance in the economy
“Our mission is to increase health span in India by at least 10 years, while the vision is to make India a leading research center for longevity. We want to give Indians personalized solutions to tackle aging, avert the silver tsunami, and create our own first blue zone,” says Patel.
Blue zones are five places in the world, where, according to Blue Zones founder, Dan Buettner, people live the longest and are the healthiest.
Decode Age seeks to offer individualised and accurate food and medication recommendations through active data collection and thorough analysis. It also intends to use autobots to speed up the production and packaging of customised formulas based on test forecasts.
The team hopes that their work will lead to a breakthrough in understanding biological aging and diseases associated with aging within the next two years. They want to identify new age-related biomarkers, understand how they relate to diseases, and start related drug design projects during the next three years.
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