AutoPhagyGO is harnessing autophagy to redefine healthy aging

Japanese XPRIZE semifinalist draws on Nobel-winning science and lifestyle heritage to push healthspan innovation beyond the lab.

In partnership with our friends at TimePie, we continue our journey through the XPRIZE Healthspan Top 40, this time travelling (figuratively) to Japan – a country where healthy aging is as much cultural inheritance as scientific endeavor.

The XPRIZE Healthspan competition has drawn innovators from across the globe, each hoping to prove that aging is not immutable but modifiable. Among the semifinalists, Japan has made an outsized showing – six teams in the top 40 – reflecting the country’s deep cultural and scientific engagement with healthy longevity.

AutoPhagyGO is one of these contenders, and its approach stands out: an emphasis on autophagy, the Nobel-recognized cellular housekeeping process, coupled with lifestyle interventions rooted in Japanese tradition. The team is betting that tracking and tuning autophagy could yield measurable rejuvenation – and that it can be achieved with safe, scalable methods rather than prohibitively costly therapeutics. TimePie sat down with AutoPhagyGO President and CEO Dr Miwako Ishido to explore how autophagy, lifestyle heritage and the legacy of Nobel-winning science might reshape the way we age.

Longevity.Technology: It is easy to assume that longevity breakthroughs will emerge only from advanced reprogramming labs or billion-dollar biotech ventures; AutoPhagyGO challenges that assumption. By focusing on a process as fundamental as autophagy – and developing ways to quantify it in humans – the company aims to make interventions not just aspirational but verifiable. This ability to measure cellular self-renewal could prove as important as any single therapy.

Nor is the team content with theory. Their work fuses science with lived culture, drawing on Japan’s dietary and lifestyle heritage while deploying wearables, apps and AI to support adherence. In doing so, AutoPhagyGO suggests a model for longevity innovation that is both modern and grounded – an approach that could resonate globally. With the XPRIZE demanding functional rejuvenation across muscle, cognition and immunity in just a year, they have set themselves a formidable challenge. But if they can show that age can be slowed through measurable, accessible pathways, the implications for public health – and for how we think about aging – could be profound.

Reaching the XPRIZE Healthspan semifinals is no small feat; for AutoPhagyGO, it represents both recognition and responsibility. “Participating in XPRIZE is an extraordinary opportunity to show that science-driven longevity innovation can emerge from Japan,” CEO Dr Miwako Ishido says. “Enhancing healthspan is not only scientifically possible but socially essential.”

Japan’s unusually strong showing in the XPRIZE – six teams in the top 40 – did not go unnoticed. “That was surprising, and a source of pride,” she says. As the world’s longest-living nation, Japan is steeped in diet, lifestyle and cultural traditions that support healthspan. “Many Japanese teams, including ours, proposed solutions based on these practices. It shows the global field increasingly values holistic, culturally rooted interventions, not just high-tech or pharmaceutical ones.”

Designing a multi-domain intervention, however, is not without obstacles. AutoPhagyGO’s approach combines diet, supplementation, exercise and sleep – a program that demands discipline. “Naturally, we worried about adherence,” Ishido explains. To keep participants on track, they turned to wearables, apps and AI tools that reduce burden and boost motivation. Financing was another hurdle: “A high-quality trial can easily exceed $1 million,” she says. With support from sponsors and partners, though, she is confident the company can carry out the semi-final clinical trial within the Top 40 budget.

Central to AutoPhagyGO’s vision is the idea that autophagy complements, rather than competes with, more high-profile approaches such as reprogramming or senolytics. “We see them as complementary,” Ishido explains. “Autophagy is the day-to-day housekeeping system – it supports and prolongs the benefits of other antiaging interventions.” Their edge, she points out, lies in being able to measure autophagy in humans, then modulate it safely and precisely.

Safety is another cornerstone. “All our supplement ingredients have long histories of dietary use,” Ishido says. “Unlike rapamycin, ours don’t cause immunosuppression, so they’re suitable for long-term use even in healthy people.” AutoPhagyGO’s flagship Awabancha extract has extended lifespan in C elegans by 14% – “an effect rapamycin could not reproduce under the same conditions,” she notes. Extrapolated to humans, that could mean stretching an 80-year lifespan to about 91.

Meeting XPRIZE’s demand – ten years of functional rejuvenation compressed into twelve months – may sound audacious. But Ishido believes autophagy is up to the task. “Decades of research show that activating autophagy reduces biomarkers across inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction and senescence,” she says. “In humans, we aim to demonstrate that within one year, measurable gains in muscle, cognition and immunity are achievable.”

Prize or no prize, the team plans to keep pushing. “We will continue expanding clinical validation, scaling our supplement platform and entering the US, Europe and China,” says Ishido. Winning would accelerate those ambitions, bringing global visibility and credibility, but Ishido explains the company’s broader goal is “to build a global ecosystem around autophagy – diagnostics, consumer health, therapeutics.”

Partnerships already play a central role. With Japanese food company UHA Mikakuto, AutoPhagyGO launched the “Autophagy Habit” supplement series. “We combine our autophagy measurement and ingredient validation with their expertise in formulation and flavor,” Ishido says. “It’s about turning validated science into safe, enjoyable daily products.”

At the heart of their message is a challenge to how we think about aging itself. “In nature, animals like the naked mole rat or albatross live healthily and then die suddenly,” Ishido explains. “They show us aging isn’t inevitable decline.” Humans, she argues, can follow suit: “Our message is simple but bold – a future is coming where age is just a number.”

From this flows practical advice: moderate calorie intake, regular aerobic exercise, sufficient quality sleep. “But don’t overdo it,” Ishido cautions. “If the effort becomes a source of stress, it can be counterproductive.” Supplements, she adds, can help bridge the gap when lifestyle isn’t optimized.

Some of the team already practice what they preach. “We’ve had feedback of clearer vision, better sleep, less soreness after workouts, improved digestion,” she says, acknowledging that while these are encouraging signs, they remain anecdotes, not trial data.

Ultimately, AutoPhagyGO wants to be remembered not just for products but for closing a scientific gap. “Accurately measuring autophagy in humans is a long-missing piece in longevity science – and we are the first in the world to fill that gap,” Ishido says. If successful, it could reframe aging itself: not inexorable decline, but a process that can be monitored, modulated and managed.

Images courtesy of AutoPhagyGO. Main image shows Professor Tamotsu Yoshimori and President & CEO Dr Miwako Ishido with XPRIZE Healthspan Executive Director, Dr Jamie Justice.