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UT Health Newsroom: UT Health San Antonio team named XPRIZE Healthspan Semifinalist

Blake Rasmussen, PhD, and Elena Volpi, MD, PhD, FGSA

Original story: UT Health San Antonio Newsroom

Contact: Claire Kowalick, kowalick@uthscsa.edu

SAN ANTONIO (June 5, 2025) ­— More than 600 teams from 58 countries around the world entered the XPRIZE Healthspan competition. That number has now been whittled down to 100 semifinalists and 40 top award-winning milestone teams, including a team at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) Sam and Ann Barshop Institute for Longevity & Aging Studies (Barshop Institute).

In 2023, XPRIZE Healthspan launched a first-of-its-kind $101-million, health-based seven-year competition. In the past century, life expectancy has more than doubled, but the length of time people live with minimal health complications or disability, referred to as healthspan, has not increased. This means people are living more of their lives with chronic and serious health conditions or disabilities. XPRIZE Healthspan aims to close this gap by incentivizing teams to develop a treatment or therapeutic that can be delivered in one year or less, to adults aged 50-80 with a goal of adding 10 to 20 years of healthy life.

On May 12, in a ceremony in New York City, the top 100 teams were recognized as semifinalists with the top 40 teams selected as Milestone 1 award winners. Milestone 1 winners each receive $250,000 to support their research and move toward clinical trials in the next phase of competition. Among the Milestone 1 awardees is Rejuvenation Through Low Frequency Ultrasound, a team of UT Health San Antonio scientists who are investigating the potential of ultrasonic treatment to rejuvenate senescent cells.

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UT Health San Antonio team named XPRIZE Healthspan Semifinalist 

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