17 Best Longevity Conferences and Events for 2021

Update 5/10/2021: This post has been updated since we originally published it in August 2020. Several new longevity conferences have been added and several which are no longer happening have been removed.

Affiliate Disclaimer: Longevity Advice is reader-supported. When you buy something using links on our site, we may earn a few bucks.

Usually, when you approach a random stranger and immediately begin talking about things like DNA methylation rates and NAD+ precursors, you’re lucky if all you get is a weird look.

(Ask me how I know—I’m great fun at bars.)

The sad truth is that the topic of radical human life extension just hasn’t penetrated the public consciousness in a meaningful way (yet!).

But there are places where the budding biogerontologist (or even the curious layperson) can start conversations with, “What’s your favorite method for inducing senescent cell autophagy?” and not be politely shown the door.

And these places are called longevity conferences!

Yes, and these marvelous anti-aging events exist, not only on the internet, but out in the real world. So you can leave the harsh white light of the lab, or the dark confines of your basement, and interact with actual, flesh-and-blood people who, just like you, want to end the scourge of aging within our lifetimes.

I’ve put together a list of the top longevity conferences (including both in-person and online life-extension events) so you can finally see if that senolytics joke you’ve been practicing in the mirror for the last three months actually lands.

Best Longevity Conferences and Events for 2021

These top longevity conferences were selected using a couple criteria. To be included in this list, the event must:

• Have a primary purpose of increasing the healthy lifespan of human beings.
• Take place in 2021 (or, if delayed and rescheduled because of COVID-19, originally was so planned)
• Have at least three sessions devoted to presenting new research on human life extension, longevity therapies, and/or rejuvenation interventions.

I organized the below  list of top life extension conferences in alphabetical order.

A quick note on the difference between longevity conferences and aging conferences: 

1. Aging and Gerontology 2021

• Date: September 6-8, 2021
• Location: London, UK
• Cost: $99-$949

This longevity conference, originally slated for June of 2020 has, unsurprisingly, been rescheduled due to COVID-19 and will now take place in September of 2021.

But don’t be bummed out by the delay, because this conference, run by scientific conference company Sciinov (who also put on the Healthy Aging and Rejuvenation Summit last year), has got some great longevity topics. With talks on blue zones, gender differences in aging, and how diet and stress affect telomere length, you’ll have plenty to look forward to when September rolls around.

2. Ending Age-Related Diseases 2021

• Date: August 19-22, 2021
• Location: Virtual
• Cost: TBD

If you’ve been in the longevity space for even a little bit, odds are you’ve chanced upon the Life Extension Advocacy Foundation (LEAF) and their flagship site Lifespan.io. With a solid longevity blog and tons more advocacy and even research fundraising tools, LEAF is a well-known resource in the life-extension space.

Ending Age-Related Diseases is LEAF’s big longevity conference each year and, though it will be online-only this year due to COVID-19, it’s still bringing together some of the biggest leading lights in the field and covering some of the most exciting and cutting-edge topics in life extension research. With speakers like Aubrey de Grey of SENS, Steve Horvath (of Horvath’s epigenetic clock fame), and James Kirkland of the Mayo Clinic attendees are sure to get a packed four-days-worth of biotech and longevity news, discussion, and connections.

Recordings of the 2020 event are also now available on LEAF’s YouTube channel.

3. Aging Research and Drug Discovery Meeting (ARDD)

• Date: August 31-September 3, 2021
• Location: Copenhagen, Denmark/Virtual
• Cost: $49-$499

Chaired by longevity heavy hitters like Alex Zhavoronkov of Insilico Medicine, ARDD is one of the largest conferences in the life-extension space. Over 2,200 people attended 2020’s event and the conference organizers boast attendees from 120 different countries.

Speakers for 2021 include prominent researchers from institutes like the Max Planck Institute of Biology and Aging, as well as longevity influencers like scientist and intermittent fasting advocate Valter Longo.

4. Exponential Medicine 2021

• Date: TBD, 2021
• Location: San Diego, USA
• Cost: TBD

Led by Peter Diamandis’s (whose XPrize Foundation is also sponsoring a series of human Longevity Challenges) Singularity University, Exponential Medicine is a four-day conference focused on how technologies can “reinvent health and medicine.”

While much of the conference’s topics are only of ancillary interest to life extensionists (e.g. how to use voice applications in medical software), a good many of the talks and papers presented are right on the money for longevity enthusiasts. Speakers like rockstar geneticist David Sinclair and futurist Jamie Metzl discuss senolytics and CRISPR’s impact on healthspan, while doctors like David Fajgenbaum talk about self-experimentation and other novel ways of speeding up access to therapies and cures.

While it looks like the 2020 conference didn’t happen because of COVID-19, here’s hoping 2021’s gets scheduled!

5. Extending Human Healthspan and Longevity Conference

• Date: May 19, 2021
• Location: Virtual
• Cost: $30-$85

This one-day online life-extension event is hosted by the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) and the New York Academy of Sciences.

Already the speaker lineup reads like a who’s who of the people working on the front lines of fighting aging. From metformin TAME trial lead and author of recent longevity book Age Later Nir Barzilai, to Joan Mannick, first author on the famous paper about rapamycin, and Morgan Levine of Levine’s Phenotypic Clock fame, you can be forgiven for being a little starstruck when attending this conference.

6. Harvard/Paul F. Glenn Symposium on Aging

• Date: TBD, 2021
• Location: Boston, USA
• Cost: TBD

Also unfortunately postponed due to COVID-19, this one-day symposium is helmed by David Sinclair, Co-Director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research at Harvard and, through his lab, one of the most prominent anti-aging researchers in the world today. His book, Lifespan: Why We Age— and Why We Don’t Have To, is a must-read life extension book outlining our current understanding of aging and the therapies and interventions being studied right now to treat it.

The host and location alone should be enough to recommend this event to anyone interested in life extension, but the topics of the talks also don’t disappoint. Sinclair and the other presenters cover things ranging from “On the Genetics and Epigenetics of Aging” to “mTOR and Lysosomes in Growth Control” and, since these are the folks doing the actual research, you can be assured it’s all bleeding edge science.

Topics may be a little advanced for the average non-scientist, but the educated layperson likely won’t have any problems following along.

7. Healthy Life Extension Society (HEALES) Conference

• Date: February 11-12, 2021
• Location: Virtual
• Cost: Free

This two-day online conference from the European-based Health Life Extension Society (HEALES) brought in an impressive array of speakers and scientists.

From Irina Conboy of the famous blood dilution studies, to longevity blogger Josh Mitteldorf, TAME trial lead Nir Barzilai, and TRIIM study lead Greg Fahy—to name but a few—the list of top anti-aging personalities at this event is staggering.

And the good news is it’s all free and available right now online! The videos of the original event can all be seen in a curated playlist on HEALES’ YouTube channel.

8. International Conference on Aging and Disease 

• Date: October 29-November 1, 2021
• Location: Beijing, China
• Cost: $100-$500

Hosted by the International Society on Aging and Disease, this conference has a heavy focus on longevity and dealing with the damage and diseases caused by aging. With speakers from countries all over the world including Denmark, Israel, India, China, and the U.S. the ICAD is a broadly international event. Topics covered range from longevity interventions to the relationship between DNA damage and age-related diseases to stem cell applications for combating age-related diseases.

Speakers of note for life extensionists include the chairman of the Israeli Longevity Alliance, the Head of the Laboratory of Genetics of Aging and Longevity in the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and the founder of the British Longevity Society.

9. International Symposium on Neurobiology and Neuroendocrinology of Aging

• Date: July 15-20, 2022
• Location:  Bregenz, Austria
• Cost: $250-TBD

With talks like “Targeting cellular senescence for healthy aging” and “Mechanisms underlying functional rejuvenation by mTOR inhibition” this symposium, originally planned to take place in July 2020 but then pushed to the summer of 2021, and now to July 2022, has a lot to offer the longevity-conference-curious.

Organized by Dr. Holly Brown-Borg of the University of North Dakota and sponsored by organizations like Google’s secretive Calico anti-aging company as well as the National Institute of Health, non-scientists could be forgiven for thinking the topics covered by this event might be too technical for them to benefit. But luckily the plan is to “maximize the value of the conference for students and newcomers to gerontology” by providing an introduction to the space that will help the educated lay person understand and put into context the talks to follow.

10. Interventions in Aging Conference 

• Date: October 19-21, 2021
• Location: Lisbon, Portugal/Virtual
• Cost: €1,547-€1,858

Organized by conference company Fusion Limited, and chaired by Linda Partridge of UC London’s Institute of Healthy Ageing and Heinrich Jasper of biotech giant Genentech, the 4th Interventions in Aging Conference will take place virtually in October of 2021 due to COVID-19.

This is another can’t-miss event for spanners. Past conferences have included talks on targeting the hallmarks of aging with rapamycin, understanding the epigenetic mechanism of intermittent fasting, and immunosenescence and how senescent cells affect aging—and speakers have included folks from distinguished longevity-related institutions like the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing, the Salk Institute, and the Mayo Clinic.

11. Longevity Investors Conference

• Date: September 27, 2021
• Location: St. Mortitz, Switzerland
• Cost: TBD

As we mentioned in our discussion of the ethics of life extension, the market for anti-aging interventions is a massive one, potentially encompassing every single person on the planet. While this will work to increase access and drive costs down for longevity therapies, it also presents an incredible opportunity to make money by serving such a vast market.

That’s where the Longevity Investors Conference comes in. With speakers ranging from prominent scientists like David Sinclair and Aubrey de Grey, to entrepreneurs and investors like billionaire Jim Mellon of Juvenescence, to VCs and fund directors like Alexandra Bause of Apollo Health Ventures, this one-day conference is a crash-course in investment opportunities and fundraising vehicles for longevity.

Video from last year’s online conference can be purchased for $250 if you want a taste of what this year’s event will likely entail before committing to buying plane tickets to Switzerland.

12. Longevity Leaders Congress 2021

• Date: May 4-7, 2021
• Location: London, UK
• Cost: £625-£1,245

The UK-based LSX (“Life Science eXecutive”) Leaders puts on this longevity event and several smaller, regional ones every year. Normally done in-person, 2021’s event was online-only (‘cuz COVID).

Billed as an opportunity to connect executives in the life sciences and longevity industries with the “capital, intelligence, innovation, and partners” to help them grow, this conference features tons of presenters (over 70 for the 2021 event). Speakers include Aubrey de Grey of SENS, Gregory Bailey of bio-pharma company Juvenescence, and Tina Woods of Longevity International.

13. 3rd Longevity Therapeutics 2021 Summit

• Date: January 26-28, 2021
• Location: Virtual
• Cost: $399-$2,157

The Longevity Therapeutics conference is organized by conference company Hanson Wade in partnership with a host of longevity organizations and institutions like Lifespan.io and the Aging Analytics Agency.

Similar to the Longevity Leaders Conference, this anti-aging conference brings together a relatively small number of attendees (fewer than a hundred) with dozens of speakers and industry partners to allow for intimate discussions and connections. With a focus on turning research into actionable and effective anti-aging therapies and interventions, the Longevity Therapeutics conference is a great option for proactive life-extension crusaders and researchers.

14. Longevity World Forum

• Date: TBD
• Location: Valencia, Spain
• Cost: €250-€550

Billing itself as the first major longevity and genomics conference in Europe, the Spain-based Longevity World Forum plays host to medical professionals, entrepreneurs, and researchers from around the world.

Speakers include Liz Parrish of BioViva, Maria Abramson of SENS, and Manuel Collado of the Laboratory of Stem Cells in Cancer and Aging at Santiago de Compostela. Past talks have presented on the role of diet in lifespan extension, translating senolytic medicines into clinical trials, and how AI might impact human longevity.

The 2020 event seems to have been postponed, and no dates yet have been set for 2021.

15. RAADfest 2021 Annual Conference: Revolution Against Aging and Death

• Date: October 1-3, 2021
• Location: Virtual
• Cost: $97-$247

RAADfest is one of the most prominent US-based longevity conferences. Though online for 2021, it’s usually held in Las Vegas every year and organized by The Coalition for Radical Life Extension. 

If you’re an anti-aging activist and want to be star-struck, RAADfest is the place to be. This conference really attracts the heavy hitters in the longevity science space, from Liz Parrish of BioViva, to Aubrey de Grey of SENS, and Ray Kurzweil of Google (and The Singularity is Near fame) along with dozens more.

RAADfest’s presentations tend to feature cutting-edge yet layman-accessible research. With almost 1,000 attendees, it’s one of the top anti-aging events by its scale alone. Over 70 life-extension and longevity companies also show up to present their wares to those curious about what the market has to offer doctors, researchers, and consumers.

16. Systems Aging Gordon Research Conference

• Date: May 29-June 3, 2022
• Location: Newry, Maine USA
• Cost: $655-$1,380

Chaired by Vadim N. Gladyshev and Vice-Chaired by the famous Steve Horvath of Horvath’s Epigenetic Clock, this inaugural aging research event is aimed primarily at “established and junior scientists” in the longevity sciences field.

While unfortunately delayed to 2022 due to COVID-19, this conference is likely to touch on some of the most exciting research and breakthroughs in aging, rejuvenation therapies, and other longevity interventions. Though its target audience and the likely technical nature of talks may mean it’s more for advanced life-extension enthusiasts.

17. Undoing Aging 2022

• Date: May 26-28, 2022
• Location: Berlin, Germany
• Cost: €200-€850

Last on the list alphabetically, but actually one of the biggest and most-important conferences on longevity and life extension, Undoing Aging is SENS’s (longevity giant Aubrey de Grey’s research foundation) big annual conference held in Berlin in partnership with Michael Greve’s Forever Healthy Foundation.

The conference has been put on by SENS since 2003 and has a well-earned respected place among top life extension conferences (it may be the best-known life-extension event in the world). Delayed now to 2022, the conference’s focus will be on “rejuvenation now” and “highlighting the first generation of human rejuvenation therapies that are either currently in clinical trials or are available today.” Undoing Aging promises to be one of the most exciting longevity conferences to happen next year.

Which longevity conferences did we miss?

Is your favorite life extension event not on this list? Did you attend one of these events and want to share your story? Let us know in the comments!

(Or just share your favorite senolytics-based jokes. We think the world would be better with more of them.)

J.P.

I’m the co-founder of Longevity Advice and have been passionate about radical life extension ever since I was a teenager. Formerly I was a content marketing director in the B2B software space. I’m also a sci-fi novelist, wargame rules writer, and enthusiast for cooking things in bacon fat. My sister once called me “King of the Nerds” and it’s a title I’ve been trying to live up to ever since.