Doctor Remortgages House to Fund Rapamycin Exercise Trial After Crowdfunding Fails
Dr. Brad Stanfield shares his 4-year journey funding a rapamycin clinical trial, including personal financial sacrifices and business challenges.
Summary
Dr. Brad Stanfield chronicles his four-year struggle to fund a rapamycin and exercise clinical trial. Starting with a crowdfunding goal of $600,000 in 2021, he only raised $80,000 after two years. When private donors fell through during market crashes, Stanfield created his own supplement company to generate funding. However, scaling the business proved more difficult than expected, with inventory shortages and reinvestment needs. Ultimately, he remortgaged his family home and borrowed against his business to cover a $150,000 funding gap. The 40-participant study completed data collection in January 2025, and the manuscript was submitted for peer review in July. This personal account highlights the challenges of funding longevity research for off-patent drugs like rapamycin.
Detailed Summary
Dr. Brad Stanfield's four-year journey to fund a rapamycin and exercise clinical trial reveals the significant challenges facing longevity research. In 2021, he announced plans to crowdfund $600,000 for this study, motivated by rapamycin's impressive lifespan extension effects in mice. However, since rapamycin is off-patent (discovered in the 1960s), traditional pharmaceutical investment isn't viable due to lack of return potential.
After two years of crowdfunding efforts, Stanfield had raised only $80,000 from his YouTube community of 40-50,000 subscribers. Recognizing the need for alternative funding, he created his own supplement company in 2023, inspired by the COSMOS-Mind study showing cognitive benefits from multivitamin supplementation. His custom formulation included specific forms and doses of nutrients, excluding vitamin A and E while adding TMG.
Just as the supplement business launched, two generous viewers offered to fund the entire trial through Lifespan.io. However, during stock market volatility, the second donor couldn't fulfill their commitment, leaving a $150,000 gap. Meanwhile, Stanfield's supplement business faced unexpected scaling challenges, including inventory shortages and high operational costs that required constant reinvestment.
Refusing to abandon the project, Stanfield made the difficult decision to remortgage his family home and borrow against his business to complete funding. The 40-participant study successfully completed data collection in January 2025, with the manuscript submitted for peer review in July. This personal sacrifice underscores both the importance of rapamycin research and the funding obstacles facing longevity science, while demonstrating the lengths researchers must go to advance this critical field.
Key Findings
- Rapamycin research faces funding challenges due to expired patents preventing pharmaceutical investment
- COSMOS-Mind study showed statistically significant cognitive benefits from daily multivitamin supplementation
- Crowdfunding raised only $80,000 of $600,000 needed over two years from YouTube community
- Supplement business scaling requires significant reinvestment, making immediate profit extraction difficult
- 40-participant rapamycin-exercise trial completed with manuscript submitted for peer review July 2025
Methodology
This is a personal narrative video from Dr. Brad Stanfield, a medical doctor with an established YouTube channel focused on longevity research. The video provides a first-hand account of funding challenges rather than presenting new research data.
Study Limitations
This is a personal account without peer review. The rapamycin trial results aren't yet published or disclosed. The supplement formulation rationale is based on personal preferences rather than clinical evidence for the specific combination.
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