Dynamic Resilience by Wellcome Leap: status and timeline

Dynamic Resilience

Cut the progression of frailty by 25%, which Leap estimates could prevent 71,000 fall-related hospital stays and 8,000 deaths a year in the US alone.

PilotStage 3 of 5

Active; first projects ended Sept 2026. REPROGRAM drug trial in over-70s expects results around Oct 2026.

Updated 17 Jun 2026Checked 11 Oct0 updates this week

Milestones

Next · Funded teams report trial and biomarker results

Program launched with Temasek Trust, $60MApr 2023Complete.
Funded projects start, e.g. University of Birmingham (to Sept 2026)7 Sep 2023Complete.
REPROGRAM trial gets UK ethics approval23 Jul 2024Complete.
REPROGRAM trial registered10 Sep 2024Complete.
REPROGRAM protocol published in PLOS One17 Jun 2026Complete.
REPROGRAM trial starts recruiting24 Sep 2025Complete.
Funded teams report trial and biomarker resultsNowCurrent milestone.

Most important updates

Current obstacles

Short trials measure biology, not outcomesREPROGRAM's main readout is senescent cells in fat biopsies; whether that leads to fewer falls or faster recovery needs larger trials.
Program funding ends after three yearsProjects that began in September 2023 were set to end in September 2026; follow-on trials need new money.

Physics limits

Resilience shows only under stressHow well someone recovers is visible only after a shock such as surgery or infection, so it is hard to measure in advance or in healthy people.
Aging markers are noisy stand-insCell senescence counts or epigenetic clocks vary between tissues and labs, and changing them does not prove a person will age more slowly.

How it works

3 parts

Markers

Predicting who bounces back

Teams use long-running patient cohorts and stored samples to find marker patterns that predict how a person recovers after a shock.

Mechanism

Why some people get frail

Lab models of cells, tissues and whole organisms are stressed on purpose to see which biological systems fail first.

Trials

Treat before a known stress

Surgery is scheduled, so drugs can be given beforehand. REPROGRAM tests metformin, fisetin or spermidine for three weeks in healthy adults over 70.

Spec sheet

Spec	Dynamic Resilience
Program budget	$60M^R (reported)
Planned length	3 years^R (reported)
Frailty progression target	25% reduction^R (reported)
REPROGRAM trial size	60 adults aged 70+^R (reported)
REPROGRAM dosing period	3 weeks^R (reported)

^R reported by the company

Papers & demos

1 item

17 Jun 2026paper
REPROGRAM: rationale and protocol for a trial of metformin, fisetin and spermidine in adults 70+ (opens journals.plos.org)Protocol of a Dynamic Resilience-funded trial measuring whether three cheap drugs change aging biology in three weeks.

Update log

3 updates

About Wellcome Leap

The team behind Dynamic Resilience

Wellcome Leap

DARPA-style health research funder

A US nonprofit set up by the Wellcome Trust in 2020 to run milestone-driven health research programs modelled on DARPA. Its Dynamic Resilience program, co-funded with Temasek Trust, studies why older people recover from surgery or illness and tests drugs to help.

Started with $300M from the Wellcome Trust in 2020; a further $335M followed in 2022.
Dynamic Resilience: a $60M, three-year aging program co-funded with Temasek Trust from 2023.
Researchers stay at their home institutions; Leap sets milestones and funds them.

wellcomeleap.org (opens wellcomeleap.org)Company profile →

Founded: 20206 yrs
Headquarters: United States
Status: Non-profit
Valuation: non-profit
Raised: $635M2 rounds
Last round: Additional grant · $335MFeb 2022
Works in: LongevityInstitutes & funders
Coverage: 1 program · 3 updateslatest 17 Jun 2026checked 11 Oct
Lead investors: Wellcome Trust
Partners: Temasek Trust (opens biospectrumasia.com)University of Birmingham (opens research.birmingham.ac.uk)
Investors: Wellcome Trust (opens wellcome.org)
People: Regina E. Dugan (opens en.wikipedia.org)President and CEORichard Gillingwater (opens wellcomeleap.org)ChairLynne Cox (opens wellcomeleap.org)Program Director, Dynamic Resilience

Spec

Dynamic Resilience

Program budget

$60M^R (reported)

Planned length

3 years^R (reported)

Frailty progression target

25% reduction^R (reported)

REPROGRAM trial size

60 adults aged 70+^R (reported)

REPROGRAM dosing period

3 weeks^R (reported)

Dynamic Resilience

Milestones

Most important updates

Current obstacles

Physics limits

How it works

Predicting who bounces back

Why some people get frail

Treat before a known stress

Spec sheet

Papers & demos

Update log

Wed 17 Jun

Tue 23 Jul 2024

Apr 2023

About Wellcome Leap

Current obstacles

Physics limits

How it works

Predicting who bounces back

Why some people get frail

Treat before a known stress

Spec sheet

Papers & demos

Update log

Wed 17 Jun

Tue 23 Jul 2024

Apr 2023

About Wellcome Leap