VitaDAO is a decentralized collective funding early stage longevity research. Their mission is to extend human lifespan by researching, financing, and commercializing longevity therapeutics in an open and democratic manner.

We were joined by Tyler Golato and Paul Kohlhaas, co-founders of Molecule and initiators of VitaDAO to talk about how drug discovery and approval currently works, what the status of longevity research is, what role IP plays -- and how all of this could change in the future with DAOs like VitaDAO.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Paul and Tyler's backgrounds and how they came to work on VitaDAO
• Longevity - thinking of aging as a disease
• Where is the research at today?
• How longevity research currently takes place in the pharmaceutical industry
• How VitaDAO is alleviating patency issues
• The first funded project with the Knudsen lab in Copenhagen - Molecule
• How DAOs make the decisions

Episode links:

• The Molecule blog
• VitaDAO
• Goldman asks: 'Is curing patients a sustainable business model?'
• VitaDAO Discord
• VitaDAO on Twitter
• Molecule on Twitter
• Paul on Twitter
• Tyler on Twitter

Sponsors:

• Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusone
• ParaSwap: ParaSwap aggregates all major DEXs and makes sure you beat the market price at every single swap and with the lowest slippage - http://paraswap.io/epicenter - paraswap.io/epicenter

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst & Meher Roy. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/403