Astral Codex Ten

Rapamycin

3 min read

Rapamycin

Article

Rapamycin is a recurring brand in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between December 02, 2021 and June 18, 2025. The archive places it in contexts such as “A suitably foreboding one, even! Rapamycin gets its name from Rapa Nui”; “Mice on rapamycin live about 10% longer than usual”; “The drug that’s furthest along is boosted rapamycin”. It most often appears alongside Australia, US, 1DaySooner.

Metadata

  • Category: Brands
  • Mention count: 2
  • Issue count: 2
  • First seen: December 02, 2021
  • Last seen: June 18, 2025

Appears In

Source Context

Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.

Book Review: Lifespan
December 02, 2021 · Original source
The main thing I remember from my biochemistry classes is that mTOR is a big oval with the word “mTOR” on it. mTOR turns off in times of deprivation, so you can keep it off by depriving yourself. That’s why the gold standard of anti-aging interventions is calorie restriction: eat less food. This isn’t just the “stay thin if you don’t want to die of a heart attack” thing, this is where you eat an absurdly low amount of food, practically starving yourself, as a desperate strategy to turn off this one protein. This kind of extreme calorie restriction extends lifespan about 50% in lemurs, and would probably work for humans too. Sinclair brings up the story of a weird Venetian merchant who took some kind of vow of temperance and ate famously little each day: he lived to 100, which is pretty good for the 1500s. And:
Inline links: in lemurs
Suppose you’re not a mouse, can’t get genetically engineered, and you have a normal aversion to diet and exercise. Is there a pill you can take? Yes! A suitably foreboding one, even! Rapamycin gets its name from Rapa Nui aka Easter Island, where it was discovered in a fungus living beneath one of the giant stone heads. It’s a strong inhibitor of mTOR (in fact, the “TOR” in mTOR’s name stands for “Target Of Rapamycin”). Mice on rapamycin live about 10% longer than usual. Can you take rapamycin? Probably a bad idea, it’s a potent immunosuppressant. Organ recipients take it sometime to quiet their immune system down to the point where it stops rejecting the transplant, but it’s not a lot of fun.
Inline links: live about 10% longer than usual
ACX Grants 1-3 Year Updates
June 18, 2025 · Original source
We have two repurposed drugs that are clinical stage. The drug that's furthest along is boosted rapamycin, which we're using for chronic kidney disease in cats. We will have safety, stability, and pharmacokinetic data by July. Combined with the recent conditional approval of generic rapamycin for feline hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, this should put us in a good place to find a strategic partner.