By Xoel Cardenas, Sr. Communications Specialist, Office of Vice President for Research
In a global effort to improve how we age, the University of Utah has joined forces with XPRIZE to support the Healthspan competition—a $101 million initiative aimed at closing the gap between how long we live and how well we live.
The $101 million, 7-year global competition will leverage the Utah Data Coordinating Center (DCC) to validate the science of competing XPRIZE Healthspan teams, who are working toward a goal of extending health spans for aging populations.
Launched in 2023, XPRIZE Healthspan incentivizes teams to develop a proactive, accessible therapeutic that restores muscle, cognition and immune function by a minimum of 10 years, with an ambitious goal of 20 years, in persons aged 50-80 years, in one year or less.
Dr. Jamie P. Dwyer, Assistant Vice-President for Clinical Research at the University of Utah Health, and Director of the DCC, emphasized the significance of the partnership between the U of U, DCC and XPRIZE.
“This is one of the most important topics facing humans today, and we are honored to work with XPRIZE to advance the mission of this prize,” he said. “The DCC looks forward to working with the XPRIZE Healthspan and the study teams from around the globe as we evaluate their entries to improve health span.”
Thanks to its 20-year history of designing, developing, implementing, and publishing results from national and international multicenter studies in both industry and academic settings, the Utah Data Coordinating Center is ready to play a major role in the U’s collaboration with XPRIZE for the XPRIZE Healthspan competition.
About the Utah DCC
The Utah DCC is a full-service Academic Research Organization (ARO) which provides clinical and data coordinating services, supporting investigators and sponsors throughout all phases of research.
Utah DCC is staffed with professionals whose backgrounds span the life sciences, industry, and academic medical settings.
The Utah DCC team has extensive IT expertise which helps them support decentralized trials, complex data transfer, texting solutions, image upload, data transmission from mobile health devices, digital health solutions, and in some cases, EHR data transfers.
DCC ready to help
Dr. Erin Rothwell, Vice President for Research, says based on its history of supporting investigators and their research, as well as its dedicated team of experts, the DCC is more than ready to collaborate with XPRIZE for the Healthspan competition.
“Through the Utah Data Coordinating Center, the U stands ready to support this global initiative by ensuring that data and information is managed with the highest standards of scientific integrity, transparency, and innovation,” said Rothwell. “The DCC is well positioned to support the XPRIZE Healthspan competition. It’s an exciting opportunity to help accelerate research discoveries that could transform how we age—and how we live.”
Click here to learn more about how Utah DCC can help contribute to your research journey.
To learn more about the XPRIZE Healthspan competition, click here.