10 learnings from Longevitydocs Cannes 2026
#97 Weekly Longevity Medicine Intelligence
Hey Doc,
It is 6:00 AM in Eze, a small village in the hills above the French Riviera. A few days after the LongevityDocs Cannes Summit, and I am sitting with coffee, looking at the sea, trying to find the right words.
Here is what keeps coming back: grateful, privileged, responsible, proud, nostalgic, inspired.
Looking at this coastline, I keep thinking about a story. A hundred years ago, the French Riviera in summer was empty. Hotels closed in May. No festival or beach clubs. Then an American couple, Gerald and Sara Murphy, convinced the Hotel du Cap in Antibes to stay open, cleared the seaweed off the beach, and invited Picasso for lunch. He came in a black Stetson and bathing trunks. Fitzgerald followed. Cocteau, Léger, Stravinsky, Man Ray. Within a few years, the Riviera became the center of the creative world, and summer on the Mediterranean became the standard it still is today.
One family stayed when no one else would. They built something where nothing existed. And everyone followed.
That is what we are doing in Cannes with longevity medicine.
Physicians from 30 countries flew in to build this field together. People who could have been anywhere chose to be here. That is not something you forget.
Many of the 1,000+ doctors in our community could not make it. So I wanted to share the highlights with you, and what comes next.
Dr. David Luu, Founder, longevitydocs.™
What you missed in Cannes
We started the way the Murphys started: by showing up and inviting everyone to the table. The White Party on the deck of the Majestic, mocktails on the water, then dinner at the Palm Beach. Everyone in white. A celebration of community, and a reminder of what we stand for: pure, ethical, united by one mission.
Morning Rituals
Then we ran. The next morning was the first-ever LongevityDocs Run Club along La Croisette. Zone 2 pace, so people could actually talk while they ran. On day two, movement, yoga pose, and breath work on the sand.
The Summit
Then the Summit opened at the Palais des Festivals. Thomas de Pariente, Deputy Mayor of Cannes, linked urban lifestyle to longevity and made the case for Cannes as a longevity city. A hundred years after the Murphys put this coastline on the map for art, a deputy mayor is now pitching it as the home of longevity medicine. The field has already won the argument.
Nir Barzilai, President of the Academy of Geroscience, opened with the new biomarkers and the work ahead to standardize the field. He shared a number worth sitting with: centenarians incur roughly one-third the medical cost of everyone else in their final two years of life.
The Graduation
Then the graduation of the world’s first ever Certified Longevity Doctors (CLD). The Gala at the Carlton Hotel was the heart of it. 25 new CLDs crossed the stage, with a commencement address by Dr. Nir Barzilai, honored by Dr. Giovanni Campanile, Dr. Cynthia Keller, Dr. Melissa Loseke, and Dr. Saranya Wyles. The Murphys cleared a beach. We are clearing a path for a new generation of physicians.
The Longevity Docs Awards
Dr. Ami Bhatt, Chief Innovation Officer of the American College of Cardiology, received the Impact Award.
Dr. Nir Barzilai received the Legacy Award, presented by Ingrid Ansellem, Brand General Manager, L’Oréal Paris France.
Dr. Sunita Mishra, Chief Medical Officer of Neko Health, received the Innovation Award, presented by Professor Zahi Fayad, Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
Dr. Jessica Shepherd received the LongevityDocs Doctor of the Year Award, presented by Brenna Stone, L’Oréal Paris.
Dr. Steven Murphy received the Community Leadership Award with a standing ovation from the audience.
What every doctor can take home for Monday morning
The Murphys did not just throw parties. They created the conditions for an entire movement. Every person who showed up on that beach carried something home and built on it. Here is what you carry home from Cannes.
It takes one physician to change a patient’s life. Every longevity doctor is that physician. Lead with ethics and compassion. The way you see your patient can change their trajectory. You make the call.
Small rooms build the partnerships that last. The Murphys did not host conferences. They hosted dinners. Community beats scale. We gather to build the infrastructure the field needs to move forward.
Longevity medicine is just born. Legitimize first, then standardize, then democratize. We are still in phase one. That is the exciting part. The Murphys arrived when the beach was empty. So did we.
Your personal brand is a clinical trust factor. Patients choose the physician before the protocol. Build it with intention.
The CBC may be the most underrated panel you order. Learn to read it as a longevity tool, not a checkbox. RDW and the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio track biological age and mortality risk.
Use the safety you already have. The best-evidenced gerotherapeutics are repurposed and FDA-approved: GLP-1s, SGLT-2 inhibitors, metformin, bisphosphonates. Known safety beats a shelf of supplements/peptides with high hype and thin evidence.
The ecosystem is ready, cities included. When a deputy mayor pitches you on longevity, you are no longer clearing seaweed. The beach is open.
Real-world evidence will make longevity medicine the standard of care. Outcomes matter more than mechanisms, and this community is built to generate them.
Ambient longevity is already here. The watch, the ring, the home, the sensor are becoming the clinic. The physician who learns to read that data leads. The one who ignores it gets routed around.
Most patients are not looking for a fancy protocol. They are looking for a hand on their shoulder.
A message from Dr. Nir Barzilai, President of Academy of Geroscience
Dear David,
It is not every day that one receives a “lifetime” achievement award, particularly when one fully intends to keep going long enough to earn at least another half. Thank you!
Standing at the Cannes Film Palais of Festival, representing the Academy of Geroscience as its president, was both surreal and deeply meaningful. As someone who entered this field when it was still considered fringe, I felt a quiet satisfaction seeing how far we have come, from early skepticism to a field now rich with promise. The true test, of course, is whether that promise is being realized responsibly.
I arrived with some uncertainty. I expected a “tribe,” a small, enthusiastic but perhaps insular group. What I found instead was something much more encouraging: a movement. A community of nearly 1,000 physicians who are not only engaged, but eager to learn, collaborate, and move the field forward. Perhaps what we need next is not just a tribe, but a nation.
A great deal of credit goes to you, David. Your leadership set the tone: dynamic, innovative, and, importantly, joyful. From the thoughtful program design to the informal “Zone 2 jog” along the promenade, you created an environment where serious ideas could flourish alongside genuine human connection.
One of the most valuable aspects for me was gaining insight into the motivations and challenges faced by practicing longevity physicians. This is not my daily domain, and listening to their perspectives added an important dimension to my understanding of how our science is being translated into care. I will admit that I came prepared to discover some truly “creative” practices. While I cannot claim to know everything that is being done in clinics, much of what I heard was thoughtful and, given the scarcity of large-scale clinical trials in this space, reasonably grounded. This is an important point: innovation is occurring in the absence of perfect evidence, which makes judgment, restraint, and shared standards all the more critical.
I also made a call to use FDA approved drugs that are gerotherapies more aggressively, because knowledge of their safety is an advantage in particular over multi supplements where hype is high and promise lacks evidence
That said, I do want to raise a note of caution regarding peptide therapies. I was particularly struck to learn that several practitioners are administering MOTS-c—a peptide, which I helped develop with colleagues at CohBar Inc. While the enthusiasm is understandable, there are real concerns. Antibody formation is a known issue and could have significant immunological consequences. Additionally, the peptide’s tendency to dimerize and its limited solubility raise serious questions about efficacy in addition to safety in its current form. More broadly, peptides should not be used without clear, short-term, measurable phenotypes—sleep being one example—where benefit and risk can be assessed more immediately.
Looking ahead, it is clear that coordination across organizations will be essential. Groups such as HLMS, the Longevity Institute, and others each bring unique strengths. Aligning efforts and defining complementary roles could significantly accelerate progress and help establish much-needed standards.
Finally, I would like to emphasize a concept that I believe is central to our future success. We have recently refined Geroscience’s positioning. It is not just a field of study—it is the mechanism that leads to the clinical field. It is the discipline that connects interventions to outcomes such as healthspan and longevity, and holds us accountable for delivering both safely and effectively.
My call to this community is simple: come from geroscience. Let it serve as the foundation that guides practice, informs innovation, and ensures that what we do is not only exciting, but right.
And to David, thank you for your generous words, your leadership, and your energy. I look forward to continuing this conversation in New York, and well beyond.
Nir Barzilai
President, Academy of Geroscience
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