May 22, 2023:

News of the death of the Longevity Marketcap Newsletter has been greatly exaggerated. (“Tis but a dauer state!”)

It’s been 1.3 years since my last publication (sorry). There have been massive developments in the longevity industry – and also a number of significant personal updates. 

But the mission remains the same. 

These are my notes from the longevity underground.

1. Change Log

2. Last Year in Longevity (2022 - present)

3. My Links

*Disclaimer: None of this should be taken as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only.

📢 Change Log

• I’ve left On Deck. The 1.5 years I spent building the On Deck Longevity Biotech Fellowship were a whirlwind of accelerated personal growth, of which I am eternally grateful for. We successfully ran two cohorts and 200+ fellows went through the program, many of which are now working in the longevity industry today.

• I’m now running the Longevity Biotech Fellowship, a new nonprofit organization I co-founded with Mark Hamalainen (formerly Head of Science @ Synthego). Our mission is to scale the amount of people working on longevity through our community and Fellowship program – a 3-day intensive workshop-retreat + 12-week online career path accelerator. 

• Healthspan Capital, an early-stage longevity biotech VC fund I co-founded, has now made 18 investments over its 1.5 years of operation. We’ve become one of, if not the most, active investors in the space. You can join our fund through Angel List here. 

• More projects to be announced soon...

  
  

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Special Note: SynBioBeta 2023

I’ll be speaking on a panel on Longevity x Synthetic Biology at SynBioBeta 2023 in Oakland, California (May 23 - 25). 

SynBioBeta is the biggest industry conference in synthetic biology and this year they have another impressive speaker lineup of giants in biotech (Craig Venter, Martine Rothblatt, Jason Kelley, + many more )

But most notably, this is the first SynBioBeta conference that will have dedicated programming on longevity biotech, including sessions with Laura Deming (Longevity Fund, Lorentz Bio), Joe Betts-LaCroix (Retro Biosciences), Chris Patil (BioAge), and more.

PS: You can use this discount code (SPKTK9TNGCON) to get $200 off your SynBioBeta 2023 ticket.

📝 Last Year in Longevity (2022 - present) 

It’s been over a year since my last newsletter (sorry). Here’s a summary of what happened in longevity..

2022 was a rollercoaster year in longevity. It started off with a bang – a parade of historic billion dollar headlines and new initiatives. But today there are clouds of uncertainty as the macroeconomic headwinds have pummelled the entire biotech/tech sector.

Here are the top stories and trends from last year: 

1. The Year of the Mega-reprogramming Startup

A summary of the most well-funded startups in partial reprogramming that made the news last year.

Three very well-funded longevity startups developing partial reprogramming technology were announced around the beginning of 2022:

• Altos Labs ($3B in funding from Yuri Milner, Jeff Bezos, ARCH Ventures, allegedly)   

• Retro Biosciences ($180M in funding from Sam Altman of OpenAI, and others) 

• NewLimit ($105 in funding from Brian Armstrong of Coinbase, and others, and now an additional $40M Series A from outside investors) 

Let’s take a look at each:

Altos Labs

Funding: At $3B dollars at launch, Altos Labs is the most well-funded seed financing in all of startup history – if it can even be called a startup. (There are also recent rumors that Altos Labs has raised an additional several billions in funding... )

Is bigger better? The comparisons drawn between Altos and Google’s Calico are inevitable, the latter of which has received its share of criticism for not having enough to show for after 10 years of operation.1

The risk with these “Bell Labs of Aging” companies is that, while aiming to excel at both basic science and drug development, they end up performing badly at both. Do basic science, but can’t openly share results. Do drug development, but it’s difficult to develop a drug pipeline starting from your basic science efforts efficiently. Additionally, funding an organization with massive amounts of unfederated capital upfront removes some of the existential pressure to move with brutal efficiency. 

Roster: The founding team consists of pharma/biotech veterans Rick Klausner (NCI, Juno Therapeutics), Hal Barron (poached from GSK, also formerly at Calico), Hans Bishop (Formerly at GRAIL), and founding scientist Juan Carlos Izpisua-Belmonte (formerly Salk Institute, pioneered the partial reprogramming technique alongside Alejandro Ocampo).

Altos has also been able to recruit a large chunk of academia’s top aging scientists, reportedly offering million dollar salaries to entice them to drop prestigious tenured academic positions. Top names include: Wolf Reik, Steve Horvath, Morgan Levine, Manuel Serrano, and many others.   

Funders: Perhaps the most revealing thing about the Altos announcement was what was not mentioned in the press release: Any of their investors.

I have 99% confidence that Yuri Milner was the main funder behind Altos, but his involvement along with Jeff Bezos’s, (or any other person) has never been officially confirmed. (Perhaps this was done to avoid propagating the “billionaires chasing immortality” meme.)

But why so secretive? If this was a cancer hospital (or space museum or physics prize), Milner/Bezos’s name would be on the building in big letters. Perhaps Altos is wrestling with some inner longevity-shame (exacerbated by the billionaire connection).2 Rightly or wrongly, it seems that the leadership at Altos believe that working on aging is not yet kosher. 3

What are they working on?: Not aging, apparently. Altos’s Rick Klausner made it abundantly clear that they are not a longevity company and that they do not work on aging. Altos’s president, Hans Bishop, said that any extension in longevity would be an “accidental consequence”.4 Their founding scientist, Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, on the other hand would later say that he expects their research to produce treatments to prevent aging within two decades. 

Perhaps Altos’s leadership + PR team believe that they need to pretend to not be a longevity company in order to shield themselves from negative press and public perception.

Unfortunately, we become what we pretend to be. Say “We don’t work on aging!” enough times, and it will permeate the company culture, its people, the choices that are made, and ultimately subvert their goal.

Which is definitely not longevity.

Retro Biosciences

Retro Biosciences quietly came out of stealth early in 2022, but details around the company and its “mysterious funder” only became public this year.  

Funding: Retro has raised a whopping $180M in funding – the bulk of which from Sam Altman, co-founder of OpenAI and formerly president of Y Combinator. Altman reportedly put his entire liquid net worth into two companies: Retro and Helion (a fusion reactor company). The funding is to support Retro’s work for 10 years as a sort of OpenAI-for-longevity project. 

Roster: Retro is led by serial entrepreneur-scientist Joe Betts-LaCroix, a well known leader in the longevity field. He previously founded Vium (an in vivo vivarium monitoring/automation startup) and was part-time partner at Y Combinator, building out its first Biotech batch (which were actually just all longevity companies). Co-founders include Matt Buckley (from the Brunet lab) and Sheng Ding (professor at UCSF and expert in reprogramming). 

Additionally, a lot of the smartest and most driven people I know in the aging space have found their way to joining Retro. 

What are they working on?: At a high level, the mission of the company is to extend healthy lifespan by 10 years. From what I’ve gathered, the overarching strategy of the company is to be able to do biology at scale, hence their heavy focus on automation and computational biology.5   

Retro has three main therapeutic programs:

• Partial reprogramming

• Plasma based therapies (i.e parabiosis inspired) 

• Autophagy

Joe Betts-LaCroix presented some of Retro’s preliminary preclinical results at ARDD 2022 in Copenhagen, which included reprogramming to increase pools of naive and central memory T-cells, an autophagy enhancing molecule that showed increased muscle performance in a certain mouse model of disease, and a plasma experiment that reduced fibrosis in muscle and liver. Retro plans to be in the clinic this year for two of their programs and have therapies approved by the end of the decade. 

PS: I’ve had the pleasure of touring the famous “shipping container” labs at Retro HQ and it is seriously cool. 

NewLimit

Announced back in late 2021, NewLimit was co-founded by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Blake Byers (formerly a biotech investor at Google Ventures). NewLimit is a self-professed “radical healthspan extension” company. Nice.

• Funding: NewLimit launched with $105M in funding, ostensibly a large part of this coming from Brian Armstrong (who has a reported net worth of $2.4B). Armstrong would later on pledge of 2% of his Coinbase shares towards funding efforts to address aging. Earlier this week, NewLimit had announced it had raised a $40M Series A from Founders Fund, Dimension, Kleiner Perkins, Elad Gil, and others. 

• Roster: NewLimit poached Jacob Kimmel, a star principal investigator from Calico to serve as their Head of Research. Kimmel previously conducted some key work that suggested that in Yamanaka reprogramming, genes involved in dedifferentiation could be separated from those involved in rejuvenation – a result that helped spur the intense race to find novel rejuvenation factors. 

• What are they working on?: The company is very open with sharing their progress via updates on their blog and even a recent Nerualink-style live-streamed event. NewLimit’s strategy is to do high-throughput pooled screens of combinations of transcription factors + machine learning to narrow down the search for novel rejuvenation genes. Their first applications will be in immune system rejuvenation (T cells, tumor infiltrating lymphocytes, etc).  

• Logo: A based on lifespan survival curves–  with a cheeky wink and a nod to asymptotic immortality. I believe the logo is quite similar to the one I designed at Healthspan Capital (and my lawyers agree!) 6

PS: While the reprogramming space race heats up, it must be noted a number of other players exist such as Calico, Turn Bio, Shift Bioscience (I’m an investor), YouthBio, Iduna Therapeutics, Marble Therapeutics, Rejuvenate Bio, and a few others that have yet to be announced.  

2. Hevolution, Zuzalu, and The Longevity States

After months of rumours, the Saudi nonprofit organization Hevolution Foundation was finally announced at AGE 2022 by its CSO and former NIA Director, Felipe Sierra. The foundation, created by royal decree, will deploy up to $1B per year into longevity — ⅓ of which will be for private startups and ⅔ for academic grants. 

So far, Hevolution has only announced funding for academic grants, including:

• $2M for Impetus Grants (excellent choice!). Press release.

• $8.5M for AFAR New Investigators Awards in geroscience and aging biology. Press release.

• $5M for HF-AGE, NIH grants that were deemed meritorious by peer review, but not funded.

• $115M for preclinical translational geroscience projects. Press release.

(And there’s also at least one major non-commercial project that Hevolution is funding that has not yet been announced…  I’m not referring to the TAME trial, I don’t have any info on that)

Why Hevolution is important

Hevolution represents something much more than just capital itself (which is already game changing for longevity).

Hevolution is the first example of what you get when a state actually prioritizes doing something about aging – a so-called “longevity state”.

The $1B/yr that Hevolution plans to deploy represents ⅛ of a percent of Saudi Arabia’s GDP per year. This is within an order of magnitude of proportionate funding the United States spent on the Apollo Program (~0.25% of US GDP per year for 10 years). This is truly remarkable. 

In contrast, the United States spends ~ $400M on basic aging biology research + some small amount of grants that make its way to longevity startups, representing less than 0.002% of its GDP per year. A United States Apollo-level effort to tackle aging would require a ~1000x increase in funding, or $400B a year. 

(Aside: ARPA-H, a new US DARPA-style initiative for biomedical innovation, has a budget of $2.5B over three years. While not explicitly aging-focussed the director of ARPA-H, seems very sympathetic to the geroscience field. The agency’s first project announced this week, “NITRO”, is focused on regeneration of joint tissue to treat osteoarthritis.) 7

Lately there’s been multiple efforts to effect political shifts towards longevity states including Zuzalu (where I am writing this newsletter), an experimental crypto AI-doomer zK network-state longevity pop-up city in Montenegro, initiated by Vitalik Buterin (with involvement from VitaDAO and others), the New Castle: City of Longevity proposal, political lobbying groups like A4LI, and some other revolutionary initiatives still in stealth. 

Already I’m hearing through my network of examples of governments around the world making requests for longevity policy proposals. In the next 5 - 10 years, I predict we will see a growing number of states enact pro-longevity policies both for health and wellness in the present but also for research and development of the aging therapies of the future. 

3. Aging Drugs in the Clinic: Wins and Failures

As of today, there are zero drugs approved for aging or longevity. 

However, a number of drugs developed in the context of aging are being tested in clinical trials right now. 

In the past year, some of these aging drug clinical trials have seen success, others have failed. Here are the some of the main clinical outcomes over the last year:

Clinical Successes:

BioAge // BGE-105 // Phase 1b // Age-related muscle decline

BioAge announced positive results in their Phase 1b trial of BGE-105, an apelin receptor agonist drug to treat age-related muscle decline. In the study of 21 bed-rested older adults, the subjects treated with BGE-105 showed less muscle atrophy compared to the control arm – up to 100% greater relative improvement in muscle mass by some measures. Loss of muscle mass with age results in loss of mobility and physical function and increases the risk of falls and fractures (which can lead to serious health problems and death in older adults).

BioAge uses proprietary biobank samples linked to health records + machine learning to identify relevant pathways in aging. The company has raised over $120M+ from investors including a16z and Khosla Ventures. 

Unity Biotechnology // UBX1325 // Phase 2 // Diabetic Macular Edema

In April this year, Unity Biotechnology announced positive long-term (48 week) follow up results in their Phase 2 trial of UBX1325, a senolytic Bcl-xl inhibitor drug to treat diabetic macular edema. In the study of 65 patients, subjects treated with a single injection of UBX1325, a senescent-cell killing drug, showed greater improvement in visual acuity compared to those in the sham-treated control group – a relative improvement of +5.6 letters. Unity plans to proceed with a Phase 2b trial comparing against anti-VEGF treatment. UBX1325 is the farthest clinically advanced senolytic drug in longevity, a successful Phase 3 would be a much needed validation for the field of senescent cell-targeting interventions.8

Clinical Failures:

Unity Biotechnology // UBX1325 // Phase 2 // Wet age-related Macular Degeneration

Unity unfortunately did not see the same success in their wet age-related macular degeneration Phase 2 trial with UBX1325. In March 2023, the company reported that their 51-person study did not meet its primary endpoint. Patients treated with UBX1325 saw an average change of visual acuity of -0.8 letters while the control arm (treated with anti-VEGF injection) saw an unexpected increase of +3.2 letters.

Longevity biotech is a tiny field right now. But all it will take is one positive Phase 3 trial of an aging drug to spark the next phase of intense growth of the field. 

4. Towards Longevity on the Label

One of the outstanding challenges facing the longevity biotech industry is actually proving that any of these drugs will increase lifespan. The general vibe in the longevity community is that a lifespan trial in humans will never be done– though I suspect that this is dogma.9 Sure, geroprotection / TAME-like / multi-morbidity risk reduction trials can demonstrate efficacy in aging/healthspan or delaying age-related disease, but this is not the same thing as longevity (i.e actual increase in life expectancy). These are only proxies.

One of the few companies that actually have a credible plan to demonstrate lifespan extension, albeit in dogs, is Loyal, a biotech startup founded by Celine Halioua. Earlier this year, Loyal announced they had made progress with the FDA towards approval of the first clinical trial design to test healthspan and lifespan directly. The company is developing two drugs for canine aging (a drug targeting the IGF-1 pathway, and a caloric restriction mimetic). Loyal raised a $27M Series A in 2022. 

There are other companies working on aging in dogs (and cats to a lesser extent): Rejuvenate Bio (a Church lab spinout developing combination gene therapies, also partial reprogramming), Trivium Vet (rapamycin formulation), and Genflow Biosciences (SIRT6 gene therapy for DNA repair). The Dog Aging Project, a large-scale academic investigation into aging in pet dogs co-founded by Matt Kaeberlein, will conduct a small trial of rapamycin in large breed dogs to see if it extends lifespan/healthspan. 

All this is great news for dogs, and a successful demonstration of lifespan extension will attract more interest to the field. But the translatability to humans will still be an open question.

5. New aging biomarkers initiatives to measure aging and rejuvenation

The past year saw a number of new projects created around aging biomarkers and measuring aging – one of the outstanding challenges in the longevity field. Some highlights include:

Biomarkers of Aging Consortium: The Biomarkers of Aging Consortium was announced virtually at Foresight Institute in February this year. Founded by Mahdi Moqri (Stanford/Harvard), the consortium is an organization that brings together major stakeholders in the aging biology field to create a roadmap for characterization and validation of aging biomarkers. The ultimate goal is to develop robust aging biomarkers that could be eventually used for evaluating aging interventions. The Biomarkers of Aging Consortium’s first conference will be held at the Buck Institute in December.   

ASTM Standards Task Group: In early May, at Zuzalu, Montenegro, Keith Comito (Founder of Lifespan.io) announced the ASTM International Task Group on Physiological Biomarker-Related Data Collection and Interoperation Standards. The initiative will form a committee to set standards on the collection of biomarker data and will involve major players across many industries including Disney, Lifespan.io, Pfizer, NIH, United Airlines, and many others. 

Project Ordo (Cambrian Biopharma) At ARDD 2022, James Peyer, CEO of Cambrian Biopharma announced Project Ordo, an initiative to create standards and protocols around biomarker collection and aging biomarker discovery. Cambrian’s master plan hinges upon the development of an aging biomarker / surrogate endpoint through collection of clinical data from their portfolio of programs. 

Rejuvenation Olympics / Blueprint: Finally, it’s also worth mentioning the work of Bryan Johnson, tech entrepreneur, and creator of Blueprint and co-founder of the Rejuvenation Olympics. The Olympics consists of a leaderboard of “rejuvenation athletes'' around the world competing to post the largest reversal of their “biological age” as measured by a TruDiagnostics DNA methylation test. These are essentially n=1 studies, but the aggregate data could be insightful.

6. The Longevity Heretics of Radical Replacement

At the Longevity Biotech Fellowship, we conducted a survey of 400 professionals working in aging biology and longevity biotech to get their estimates on which aging interventions would result in the biggest addition to lifespan over the next 5, 10, and 25 years. 

On a 25 year time horizon there was one clear winner: Organ replacement.

Organ replacement is nothing new. The first kidney transplant was done in 1954. People have been working on tissue engineering in regenerative medicine since the 1990s. eGenesis, a George Church startup, has been working on xenotransplantation of organs from genetically-edited pigs since 2014.  

However the paradigm to use radical replacement of the body (and brain, progressively) as a practical strategy to significantly extend maximum lifespan or even obviate aging has only been recently popularized by Jean Hebert, professor of genetics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. In his seminal book “Replacing Aging”, Hebert argues that age-related molecular changes in the cell and the extracellular matrix are so complex that replacement of old tissue with young is the most practical full solution for aging. This could mean replacing anything from entire systems of interconnected organs to whole body replacement via head transplants (tried in primates in the 1970s with some interesting results).10

Currently, a handful of longevity heretics like Jean Hebert are building companies to address aging with radical replacement. These include:

• BE Therapeutics - A startup founded by Jean Hebert trying to replace the most difficult organ: the brain. The startup aims to progressively replace aged neocortical brain tissue with young iPSC-derived neural tissue. 

• Renewal Bio - Riding on the coattails of nature's developmental power, Renewal is a new startup developing synthetic embryoids and synthetic wombs as a scalable source of genetically identical cells, tissues, organs, and potentially even entire bodies. Renewal is a spinout from Jacob Hanna’s lab at the Weizmann Institute in Israel, co-founded by Omri Amirav-Drory, General partner at Nfx Bio. 

• And at least two other startups that are operating in stealth. 

Although there are many technical challenges to radical replacement, they remain mostly in the realm of engineering and medical techniques, not basic science.

Perhaps the greater challenge is getting the general public to get over squeamishness on these approaches.

PSA: Someone needs to start a venture fund that focuses solely on radical replacement.

7. The Macroeconomics of the Longevity Winter

Longevity biotech funding is down, but so is everything.

The Fed controls the metric tensor of the financial universe, and none are safe from the Big Crunch when interest rates are hiked so quickly.

In late 2021, investment rounds were competitive. VCs were fighting to get into the hotter deals. Fast forward to today and it’s a complete 180 degree reversal. 

Tech (except AI?) and biotech generally have suffered. Bruce Booth’s article on the biotech VC pullback estimates a near 66% decrease in 1Q investment compared to last year, according to data from Pitchbook. Also: A five-fold increase in down rounds, 50% decrease in the number of 1st financing rounds of new startups, and a 60% - 70% drop in investment from “crossover” investors from the public markets side from two years ago.

Not surprisingly, longevity biotech funding has also fallen significantly, perhaps as much as 70% - 80% compared to last year. Startups are having difficulty raising money. Longevity VCs are having trouble closing their funds.

All this doom and gloom is actually great news –  if you’re an investor with dry powder. Valuations have come down and there’s much less competition for deals.

So let this be a call to action for mission-driven investors and opportunistic capitalists alike: It’s time to build. 

8. And all the other stuff that happened:

I can’t possibly cover all of the last 15 months of the longevity industry in one post. But here are some additional notable headlines by category: financing rounds, investors, new co’s, and policy & culture:

Notable Deals

• VitaDAO: Jan 2023. $4.1M. Contributors of capital included Pfizer Ventures (!), Shine Capital, Balaji Srinivasan, among others. VitaDAO is a decentralized collective that funds and commercializes longevity research.

• Morphoceuticals Inc . Feb 2023. $8M Seed. Round led by Prime Mover Labs and Juvenescence, this startup is building off the amazing bioelectric regeneration research of Michael Levin at Tufts in order to regenerate limbs in humans. 

• Gero x Pfizer. Jan 2023. Gero has partnered with big pharma company Pfizer to use their AI/ML and big data expertise to find targets for fibrotic disease. Gero, co-founded by hardcore theoretical physicist-turned aging biologist Peter Fedichev, is one of the most unique companies in the longevity space.

• Juvena Therapeutics. Nov 2022. $41M Series A. Led by Mubadala, a UAE sovereign wealth fund. I see folks from Mubadala at longevity conferences often, more evidence of increased longevity interest in the Middle East states. Juvena Therapeutics uses ML to profile the secretome of stem cells to find rejuvenative therapeutic proteins.  

• Oviva Therapeutics. May 2022. $11.5M. A Cambrian Biopharma company aiming to slow ovarian aging using Anti-Mullerian hormone drugs. Co-founded by Daisy Robinton.  

• Entos Pharmaceuticals x Eli Lilly. Jan 2022. $50M. Partnership deal to use Entos’s non-viral gene delivery platform for CNS disease. Entos is not a longevity company per se, but the validation from pharma bodes well for their affiliated company Oisin Bio that is using the same gene delivery technology for aging indications.** I’ve recently become an investor in Oisin Bio.

• Gameto. Jan 2022. $20M Series A. Drugs to improve IVF, slow ovarian aging, and treat menopause. Co-founded by Dina Radenkovic.

• Life Biosciences. Jan 2022. $82M Series C. A DisCo umbrella company co-founded by David Sinclair. Subsidiary companies include Iduna Therapeutics (partial reprogramming), Selphagy (chaperone mediated autophagy), Continuum Bioscience (mitochondrial thermogenesis), among others. 
  
  + others. For a complete list of financing rounds, check out my database at LongevityList.com

New Startups 

• Amplifier Therapeutics. Mar 2023. A Cambrian Biopharma portfolio company targeting the AMPK nutrient sensing pathway to increase ATP production. Press release.

• Pretzel Therapeutics. Sep 2022. ($72M Series A). An ARCH Ventures company developing a wide array of mitochondrial therapeutics including those to correct the mitochondrial genome. 

• Ora Biomedical - High throughput lifespan/healthspan assays of worms with robotics to find novel geroprotectors and combination therapies. Co-founded by Matt Kaeberlein.

• Renewal Bio. Already mentioned earlier but just so damn cool. Synthetic embryoids and synthetic wombs for replacement of cells/tissues/organ, etc. 

• Tornado Therapeutics. Feb 2022. A Cambrian Biopharma daughter company developing novel mTOR inhibitors out-licensed from Novartis. Helmed by Joan Mannick. Basically a sequel to resTORbio, which failed under unfortunate circumstances.11   
  
  + others. For a complete list of companies check out my database at LongevityList.com

New Investors/DAOs

• Optispan Ventures. Matt Kaeberlein, one of the foremost experts in the field of aging biology, stepped away from academia to work on venture building and investing through Optispan, a new firm he co-founded.   

• Life Extension Ventures. 100M fund investing in lifespan extension of humans and the planet. Co-founders: Inaki Berenguer, and Amol Sarva, 

• AthenaDAO - a decentralized collective funding and commercializing research in women’s health and reproductive lifespan.

• CryoDAO - a decentralized collective funding and commercializing research in cryopreservation technologies. 

New Nonprofit Orgs

• Biomarkers of Aging Consortium. Feb 2023. A pan industry-academic effort to create a roadmap for the the characterization and validation of aging biomarkers for the use of evaluation aging interventions.

• Say Forever! March 2023. A rapidly growing viral street campaign that gets the general public talking about indefinite healthspan. 

• Time Initiative. Apr 2023. A new fellowship program to onboard undergraduates into the longevity field. Funded by AFAR.

• Phaedon Institute. April 2023. a new think tank in longevity biotech devoted to supporting the field of aging biology and the longevity industry. Initiated by Marco Quarta (CEO of Rubedo Life Sciences) and others.

• Longevity Escape Velocity Foundation (LEVF). Dec 2022. A new foundation founded by Aubrey de Grey. They are conducting large-scale mouse lifespan experiments with combinations of interventions.

• ARPA-H: $2.5B in funding over three years – a Biden administration DARPA-style agency whose mission is to accelerate innovation in health. ARPA-H’s first program announced last week (NITRO) aims to regenerate joint tissue. 

• Longevity Biotech Fellowship (2022). Our mission is to scale the amount of people working on longevity through our community and Fellowship program – a 3-day intensive workshop-retreat + 12-week online career path accelerator. 

• Rejuvenome cancelled? Originally meant to be a $70M project in partnership with the Buck Institute to do deep aging phenotyping + lifespan studies with combination therapies on mice. It appears the project will not be moving forward.12

Policy

• A4LI Longevity Science Caucus - A new bipartisan group of politicians devoted to advancing longevity policies in the United States Congress.  

• A4LI Advanced Approval Pathway for Longevity Medicines (AAPLM) - A proposal for improved regulatory paths for longevity therapeutics including: special approval track, priority review voucher system, and indication-by-indication patent term extensions.

• Emphasis on Geroscience appears in the US Appropriations Bill. With special directions for the NIH, NIA, and FDA. 

Culture

Join the Longevity Industry

Looking for jobs, companies, or investors in the longevity biotechnology industry? Check out my website LongevityList.com. 

Not sure where to make the biggest impact on longevity? Apply to join the Longevity Biotech Fellowship!

My Links

Some of my projects, resources, and ways to support my mission. More projects coming…

Projects

• Longevity Biotech Fellowship - Our mission is to scale the amount of people working on longevity through our community and Fellowship program – a 3-day intensive workshop-retreat + 12-week online career path accelerator. 

• Healthspan Capital - An early-stage longevity biotech venture fund.

• Longevity List  - Find jobs, companies, and investors in the longevity industry. Email me if you want to add your job or company to the list. It’s free.

  • Longevity List Database - A handy Airtable base covering people, companies, trials, academic labs, and a list of longevity companies that are presently raising capital.

• LMC Clinical Trial Tracker - Longevity therapeutics in clinical trials. Completion calendar useful for investors who want to time data readout catalysts.

• LongevityMarketcap.com - The main page tracks prices of publicly traded longevity stocks.

• Longevity Biotech Show - (not active) Official website of the Clubhouse show / podcast. We interview the people building, funding, and championing technologies that extend healthy human lifespan. On Clubhouse / Spotify podcasts. 

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3. Longevity Futures

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5. Longevity Jobs

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7. 2021 Review: Quantifying the Longevity Industry

8. My Links

*Disclaimer: None of this should be taken as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only.

Mission: To grow a wave of passionate people building, funding, and championing technologies that extend healthy human lifespan. 

If you want to be part of this mission alongside me, please consider supporting through Patreon. 

Notice to new readers: You might want to take a look at this post of longevity resources if you are new to this space. 

📢 Announcements

• 📢On Deck Longevity Biotech (ODLB) is now accepting applications for the 2nd cohort.📢

  • Interested in getting involved in the Longevity Biotech startup ecosystem as a founder, early hire, or investor? Apply here.

• My longevity biotech rolling fund Healthspan Capital is now live on Angel List. We’ve raised our first quarter of capital, enlisted an amazing advisory board, and invested in three longevity startups so far. 

  • Our fund is uniquely public and accessible (min $5k) as to allow more sources of capital to enter the private longevity biotech industry.

  • Sebastian Brunemeier (former Principal at Apollo Health Ventures, co-founder of Cambrian Biopharma) is an advisor. Michael Chinen (angel investor) is a partner.

• Feb 3rd, 2022 @10AM PST. Longevity Biotech Virtual Job Fair by On Deck Longevity Biotech. Public job fair featuring longevity biotech startups. Short company intros followed by small group breakout rooms for networking. Companies include: BioAge, Retro Biosciences, Repair Biotechnologies, Rubedo Life Sciences, Gameto, Deciduous Therapeutics, Juvena Therapeutics, Underdog Pharmaceuticals, Arrive Bio, Cognito Therapeutics, and more.

📝 Last Week(s) in Longevity

Industry:

🧬Coinbase CEO, Brian Armstrong, announces $105M funding to launch a new epigenetic reprogramming startup called NewLimit.

* errata: Original publication stated NewLimit’s focus was on radically extending human “lifespan.” This has been corrected to “healthspan”.

The crypto & longevity crossover continues. NewLimit is a newly announced epigenetic reprogramming startup founded by Coinbase founder and CEO, Brian Armstrong, along with Blake Byers (biotech investor formerly at Google Ventures). The company has raised $105M and is focussing on “radically extending human healthspan” by first going after indications in eye disease and immunosenescence using reprogramming before age reversal in all tissues.

With this announcement the cellular reprogramming race continues to heat up. It was only a few months ago that Altos Labs was leaked – a new reprogramming mega-company backed by Jeff Bezos, Yuri Milner, and Rick Klausner to the tune of $270M USD (with a rumored $6B earmarked), hiring a large fraction of the top researchers in reprogramming/epigenetics. In my opinion, Altos was the biggest development in LongBio in 2021. 

Altos and NewLimit are not alone, however. Retro Biosciences, Iduna Therapeutics, Turn Biotechnologies, Shift Bioscience (I’m an investor), AgeX Therapeutics (NYSE:AGE), and YouthBio Therapeutics  are also pursuing the reprogramming paradigm for aging. 

The basic idea behind epigenetic reprogramming is to reset the gene expression of old cells to that of a young cell without turning the “clock” all the way back to a pluripotent embryonic state (often referred to as “partial reprogramming”). This can be achieved using some combination of transcription factors like the Yamanka factors (OSKM) or other factors / potentially small molecules. The reprogramming technique traces its roots back to Shinya Yamanka’s Nobel Prize winning work on induced pluripotency (2006). Development of partial reprogramming is more recent, some notable examples: Ocampo/Belmonte’s in vivo partial reprogramming work in mice (2016), and David Sinclair’s reprogramming work demonstrating the regeneration of the optic nerve in mice (2019).

Epigenetic reprogramming is one of the most promising and perhaps overhyped approaches to reversing aging. It promises “full” rejuvenation at the cellular level and potentially applicable to all cell types. However, it is still very early days – there has not yet been a demonstration of lifespan extension in wildtype mice using reprogramming. Reprogramming also would not likely be able to address aging damage in DNA mutations or crosslinks in the extracellular matrix. There’s also questions of safety regarding tumor formation. Reprogramming remains a high risk, high reward bet. 

🧬 Cambrian Biopharma raises $100M Series C. 

Cambrian Biopharma is one of the big distributed drug development companies (“DisCo”) hub-and-spoke companies in the longevity space. At the end of October, Cambrian announced that it had raised $100M in a Series C round led by Anthos Capital and SALT Fund. The funds will enable Cambrian to advance their existing programs and work with more scientific collaborators. Cambrian has 14+ programs under its umbrella, including assets from Sensei Biotherapeutics (phage cancer vaccine), Vita Therapeutics, and several others that have not been made public.

The hub and spoke DisCo model consists of a parent holding company that holds stakes in daughter biotech companies. Shared centralized resources in the parent company can be deployed in a flexible manner to help develop the assets of the portfolio companies. DisCos are touted as being capital efficient and flexible (compared to traditional VC / venture studio), but are more suited for asset-based portfolio companies and not platform-based or founder-led portfolio companies. 

Cambrian Biopharma, based in New York, was founded in 2019 by James Peyer, Christian Angermeyer, and Sebastian Brunemeier.

For more info on Cambrian and their hub-and-spoke approach, I highly recommend you check out the wonderful Translating Aging Podcast episode with Cambrian CEO, James Peyer.  

🧬 Jean Hebert’s Brain Aging Reversal Tissue Engineering receives a $1M grant from The Methuselah Foundation. 

In early December, Jean Hebert, professor of neuroscience and genetics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine announced receipt of a $1M USD grant from the Methuselah Foundation to support his work on progressive replacement of neural tissue in the neocortex. 

Tissue engineering and cell therapy replacement strategies to treat disease or reverse aging is an exciting and fundamentally comprehensive approach that avoids having to tinker with the unfathomable complexities of metabolism. Jean Hebert’s strategy to go after the most difficult organ to replace, the brain, is one of the defining bioengineering projects of our time. It’s a moonshot worthy of much more attention considering how little progress has been made on traditional single target approaches to tackling neurodegenerative disease. 

I highly recommend readers check out Jean Hebert’s book: Replacing Aging (I have written notes on Jean Hebert’s book here)

🧬 Apollo Health Ventures raises $180M in second fund. Korify Capital launches new $100M fund.

Apollo Health Ventures, one of the largest LongBio venture funds in the world, recently announced it had raised $180M in its second fund. Apollo predominantly operates in a venture creation model – finding scientists with promising translatable discoveries and helping build a new company around them. Some Apollo portfolio companies include:

• Aeovian Pharmaceuticals (mTOR)

• Samsara Therapeutics (autophagy)

• HAYA Therapeutics (long non-coding RNAs)

• Cleara Biotech (senolytics, FOXO4)

• + others not publicly disclosed

The amount of capital flowing into longevity funds is an encouraging sign of growing legitimacy for the investment thesis. There are now several $100M+ VC funds in longevity including the newly announced Korify Capital (Robin Lauber, Davide Ottolini), Kizoo Technology Capital, Longevity Vision Fund, and Maximon.1

🧬 Lineage Cell Therapeutics partners with Genentech for eye disease.

Lineage Cell Therapeutics (NYSE:LCTX), an embryonic stem cell platform startup working on cell therapy for regenerative medicine, announced a partnership with biotech giant Genentech (part of the Roche group) to develop its OpRegen program for dry age-related macular degeneration. The deal included $50M dollars up front with up to $670M in milestone payments (biobucks). Lineage’s share price was up 15% on the news. 

Lineage’s OpRegen is a treatment for dry age-related macular degeneration – the leading cause of vision loss for older individuals in wealthy nations. The OpRegen cell therapy consists of allogeneic embryonic stem cells that are differentiated into retinal pigment epithelial cells (RPE) and surgically transplanted into the retina. The therapy is currently in Phase 2 trials, with some very promising clinical data showing sustained improvements in vision in treated patients.

I’ve previously written a deep dive on Lineage Cell Therapeutics here. 

🧬 Fountain Therapeutics raises $15M Series A-2 round. 

Fountain Therapeutics is a platform longevity biotech startup founded by Tom Rando that leverages machine learning and high throughput in vitro cell imaging to find drugs that may reverse aging. Last month the company announced a $15M Series A-2 round led by Khosla Ventures with Eli Lilly and R42 coming in as new investors.  

The application of machine learning and computer vision for drug discovery platforms is promising – other companies pursuing this approach include Spring Discovery, Juvena Therapeutics, Recursion Pharmaceuticals ($436M IPO in 2021), and Insitro. 

🧬 Endogena announces $20M additional Series A funding.

Endogena is a Swiss-based longevity biotech startup that is developing drugs that stimulate endogenous regeneration in tissues in the body. The company announced an additional $20M in Series A funding, bringing a total of $29M raised to date. The funding was led by Rejuveron, one of the large DisCo / hub-and-spoke companies in the longevity space. 

The funding will allow Endogena to continue to advance its program, EA-2353, a drug that stimulates the regeneration of retinal photoreceptor cells to treat retinitis pigmentosa, a type of progressive eye disease that causes loss of vision. Clinical trials for EA-2353 are expected in 1H 2022. 

Some other companies developing drugs to stimulate endogenous regeneration include Frequency Therapeutics (NASDAQ:FREQ), Biosplice Therapeutics (formerly Samumed), and Morphoceuticals Inc.

Ecosystem:

🧬 Longevity Science Foundation commits $1B over 10 years to advancing scientific research. Partners with Coin Telegraph to educate crypto community on longevity. 

The Longevity Science Foundation is a $1B Swiss foundation dedicated to advancing scientific research in longevity to increase maximum lifespan beyond 120+ years. The foundation was announced at the end of September, and chaired by an impressive board including Evelyne Bischof, Andrea B. Maier, Eric Verdin, Matt Kaeberlein, Michael Levitt and Alex Zhavoronkov. 

The donors of the foundation remain a mystery, but considering the recent announcement of the foundation’s partnership with Coin Telegraph to increase awareness about longevity and also its  blockchain proposal voting mechanism, it’s pretty clear that crypto people are behind the initiative.

Researchers and institutions wishing to apply for a grant from the Longevity Science Foundation can apply here.

🧬 Alliance for Longevity Initiatives jumpstarts political lobbying for geroscience and longevity.

The Alliance for Longevity Initiatives is a new 501(c)(4) non-profit organization founded with the goal of “creating social and political action around the issues of combating age-related chronic conditions and increasing our number of healthy, disease-free years.” 

Lobbying for longevity, essentially. 

The organization, helmed by Dylan Livingston, held their first bipartisan public panel in December to discuss how to involve Congress in longevity and how to grow a grassroots campaign in this space. (recording here)

Panelists included former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, former Congressman Steve Israel, Director of the Institute for Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine Nir Barzilai, M.D., Partner at the SALT Fund Dina Radenkovic M.D., and A4LI Chair of the Board Sonia Arrison.

My take: I cannot stress enough how important this organization is, and how important it is to get longevity on the political agenda. Currently, less than 1% of the NIH budget goes towards geroscience. Political campaigns were hard fought to bring cancer and HIV/AIDs research to the forefront of public support. Aging/geroscience will need to go through this same fight eventually. Might as well start now.  

To quote Siddartha Mukherjee’s biography of cancer, Emperor of All Maladies: 

“For any illness to rise to political prominence, it needed to be marketed, just as a political campaign needed marketing. A disease needed to be transformed politically before it could be transformed scientifically. ​​If Farber’s antifolates were his first discovery in oncology, then this critical truth was his second.”

I’ve become a donating member of A4LI, and I highly recommend others to do so too. You can donate to A4LI or become a member here.

🧬 New longevity media projects, television, documentaries, movies, etc.

Several new media projects have been springing up, spreading awareness about longevity. These include three documentaries and one feature length film. Some of these projects are still filming / raising funds.

Media is a powerful codescript for human ambition and cooperation. I myself first became aware of longevity/anti-aging after watching a Ray Kurzweil documentary.  

• Limitless - A Disney+ documentary starring Chris Hemsworth exploring longevity mostly from the performance and health optimization angle. Peter Attia makes an appearance in the trailer, so there’s that. 

• Longevity Hackers - A documentary currently being filmed and directed by Michal Siewierski. The project is also looking for investors, so interested parties should reach out.
  
  About:
  
  Longevity Hackers is a new mainstream longevity feature documentary that is currently in the making by Emmy nominated filmmaker Michal Siewierski. The film features some of the biggest names in the longevity space. Check out www.longevityhackers.tv for more information or contact info@newrootsfilms.com for limited investment or sponsorship opportunities in this movie. The film is set to be released between Q2 and Q3, 2022 worldwide, in dozens of channels and digital platforms. 

• Ageless - A longevity documentary project currently looking for investors. Team includes Daniel Sollinger, Galia Barkol, and Issen Robbins.
  
  About Ageless:
  
  After witnessing her father's long decline, Galia Barkol sets out to find what is being done today about age-related diseases. She learns we are on the brink of a medical revolution as dramatic as vaccines and antibiotics. A new scientific consensus has been established: "Biological aging can be targeted medically."
  
  This paradigm shift may enable us to prevent, treat, and even reverse the terrible diseases we now struggle to cure. As this new field reaches its tipping point, Galia interviews leading scientists, biotechnologists, policy makers, social psychologists, and academics who shed light on this complex subject— from funding, government policies and clinical trials to the “anti-aging” industry and ethical concerns.
  
  

• Last Generation to Die. A feature film project by Tim Maupin. Also looking for investors.
  
  Filmmaker Tim Maupin's longevity feature film is currently in development and seeking funding. Based on his proof-of-concept, festival favorite, and visually stunning short film "The Last Generation to Die", this full length adaptation will dive further into a near future world in a positive light where science is just on the cusp of true age-reversal. This film seeks to change minds and hearts toward the positive benefits of longevity without going into the usual dystopian Hollywood territory. Greater public acceptance would move the science faster and more quickly reduce suffering and save more lives. 

  
  Full deck and financial information are available upon request. Please reach out to timmaupin@gmail.com to learn how you can be part of this groundbreaking film in which the convergence of art and science will serve as a powerful, global mission statement redefining aging. To view the proof-of-concept short film and for more information, please visit the film’s website: www.lastgenmovie.com 

🧬Other news in brief🧬

• Longevity Biotech Association launches to increase collaboration and standardization within the longevity biotech industry. 

• Undoing Aging 2022 is cancelled due to the pandemic, third year in a row. 

  • Really unfortunate. Additionally, JPM is going virtual this year.

• Longeveron (LGVN) obtains FDA approval for its stem cell therapy to treat rare congenital heart condition in infants. 

  • Longeveron’s stock price climbed over 10x over the next few days.

• Insilico Medicine begins its first clinical trial of its AI-discovered drug.  

• Brad Stanfield announces crowd funding of rapamycin trial.

  • Looking to see if exercise + rapamycin have synergistic effects

• AgeX Therapeutics (AGE) stock surges 85% on December 31st – no explanation…

Special Notice: Cryopreservation

• Are you a neurobiology / neuroscience PhD student looking to join an exciting new biotech startup? Check out Lorentz Bio / contact Laura Deming.
  

• Tomorrow Biostasis is building a new cryopreservation provider based in Berlin, Germany and currently focused on Europe. Together with a non-profit foundation in Switzerland the goal is to
  
  a) provide high quality cryopreservation,
  b) professionalize and communicate the topic better and most importantly
  c) fund R&D.
  
  R&D projects are currently targeted on tangible, shorter-term improvements of the procedure and practices and will expand to basic research over time. More information: tomorrowbiostasis.com and emilkendziorra.medium.com

• Cryopets is a new cryonics company founded by Kai Micah Mills focussing on cryopreservation of pets. 

📅 Longevity Futures

• Jan 11, 2022. WuXi Apptec Healthy Aging Forum 2022. Online An online series of panels and talks put on by WuXi. Speakers from academia and industry including: Kristen Fortney (BioAge), Linda Partridge (MPI), Eric Verdin (Buck Institute), Jens Eckstein (Apollo Health Ventures), James Peyer (Cambrian).    

• Jan 11, 2022 @ 7PM PT. Artificial Intelligence and Aging Webinar. Presented by Ronjon Nag of R42.  

• Jan 12, 2022. Therapeutics for Diseases of Aging Virtual Panel. Part of JPM 2022. Moderated by Kristen Fortney (BioAge). Panelists include Sam Jackson (Alector), Alex Zhavoronkov (Insilico Medicine), Jennifer Garrison (Buck Institute), and William Evans (Berkeley, Duke).   

• Feb 3rd, 2022 @10AM PST. Longevity Biotech Virtual Job Fair by On Deck Longevity Biotech. Public job fair featuring longevity biotech startups. Short company intros followed by small group breakout rooms with company representatives for networking. Companies include: BioAge, Retro Biosciences, Repair Biotechnologies, Rubedo Life Sciences, Gameto, Deciduous Therapeutics, Juvena Therapeutics, Underdog Pharmaceuticals, Arrive Bio, Cognito Therapeutics, and more.

• April 26- 27, 2022. Longevity Leaders Annual Congress Conference. London, UK. Industry focussed conference including speakers: Greg Bailey (Juvenescence), Tom Rando (Fountain Therapeutics, Stanford), Alexandra Bause (Apollo Health Ventures), Joan Mannick (Life Biosciences), and many others.

• May 17-20, 2022. 50th Annual AGE Meeting. San Antonio, TX. The American Aging Association’s annual meeting / conference will be taking place in May in San Antonio,  Texas. Speakers predominantly from academia including: Matt Kaeberlein, David Gems, Tom Rando, Vittorio Sebastiano, and many others. Price: $550 (early bird).
  
  About:

  The American Aging Association was launched on October 19, 1970 and organized by a group of distinguished medical doctors and scientists who wanted a specific organization dedicated to aging research. The Association is defined as a non-profit, tax-exempt national organization of lay and scientific members dedicated to:

  • Promote biomedical aging studies directed towards increasing the functional life span of humans with one goal being to slow the aging process.

  • Keep the public informed of the progress of aging research and of practical means of achieving a long and healthy life.

  • Increase knowledge of biogerontology among physicians and others in the health fields

  • Foster the scientific and professional career development of AGE trainees and scientific members.

  
  Why be an AGE Member?

  
  The American Aging Association fosters the scientific and professional career development of its members through scientific meetings, networking, mentorship, and financial support of trainees. Members have access to exclusive content, such as recorded seminars and Powerpoint slides, and have free access rights to the electronic content of the journal GeroScience.
  

Know of any interesting longevity talks, meetings, or events? Please email me.

📡 Capital Raise Radar

• Want to know who’s raising capital? Happy to chat with interested, mission-aligned parties. Contact me at nathan@longevitylist.com

✨ Featured Longevity Jobs

Looking for jobs, companies, or investors in the longevity biotechnology industry? Check out my website LongevityList.com. 

• Venture Associate // Cambrian Biopharma // New York City, NY

• Laboratory Assistant // Casma Therapeutics // Cambridge, MA

• Office Manager // Spring Discovery // San Carlos, CA 

• Senior Computational Biology Scientist // Gameto // New York City, NY  

• Product Designer // Loyal // San Francisco Bay Area or Remote

• Software Engineer // Loyal // San Francisco Bay Area or Remote

• Neuroscientist // Lorentz Bio // San Francisco, CA

• + more jobs

If you are hiring, email me a link to your job postings and I will post them on longevitylist.com (it’s free).

➕ New Companies on Longevity List

Some interesting longevity companies I have discovered and added to the Longevity List database in the past week. Have any longevity company tips? Please email me. 

• Telomere Therapeutics: Founded by Maria Blasco, a renowned researcher of telomeres and telomerase currently based in Spain (CNIO).

• Telocyte: A startup developing an hTERT telomerase gene therapy to reverse aging in the brain / treat Alzheimer’s disease. Founded by Michael Fossel. 

• Boston Matrix: A new open source biotech project focussing on the extracellular matrix (ECM) for aging. Developing small molecule drugs to inhibit ECM crosslinking. Affiliated with Open Longevity, the Russian longevity community.    

• Starkage Therapeutics: A French biotech startup focussing on development of novel senolytics using immunotherapy.

• NewLimit: A new epigenetic reprogramming company founded by Brian Armstrong (Coinbase), and Blake Byers (formerly Google Ventures).

• Altos Labs: Epigenetic reprogramming mega-company backed by Jeff Bezos and Yuri Still technically in stealth, but is clearly well underway. 

• YouthBio Therapeutics: Epigenetic reprogramming. Founded by Yuri Deigin.

2021 Review: Quantifying the Longevity Biotech Industry

Roundup of 2021 - key stats in the Longevity Biotech industry. Data from longevitylist.com.

2021 was an incredible year for longevity biotech. 

There were SPACs, IPOs, DAOs, new $100M funds, new clinical trials, and new mega companies (specifically in epigenetic reprogramming). 

Let’s take a look back at the investment landscape and capital inflows into the LongBio industry in 2021.

$3B USD total funding in 2021

*Update March 17, 2022: Since publishing this post, Altos Labs publicly launched with $3B USD in funding, much larger than the reported $270M in the MIT Technology Review scoop.

New capital flowed into the LongBio sector to the tune of $3B in 2021 (based on publicly announced financings).

To be fair, a large percentage of this funding was Calico and AbbVie’s renewed partnership ($1B in 2021). But outside of Calico, there were several 100M+ financing rounds, from SPACs, IPOs, or venture financing rounds.

36 Completed Capital Raises

2021 saw 36 publicly announced capital raises in longevity biotech, which included Altos Labs, New Limit, Loyal, and many others.

Here’s the breakdown by financing type

• 32 private venture deals / funding

• 2 IPOs

• 1 SPAC

• 1 acquisition

*Update March 17, 2022: Since publishing this post, Altos Labs publicly launched with $3B USD in funding, much larger than the reported $270M in the MIT Technology Review scoop.

The areas of regenerative medicine and tissue engineering saw the largest total financings as there are more mature companies in that sector (several SPAC/IPOs in 2021). Epigenetic reprogramming followed in total dollar amount of financing coming from just two (mega) companies: Altos Labs and NewLimit. 

10+ New Longevity Biotechs Founded in 2021

Ten or more new longevity biotech startups were founded in 2021. This is definitely an incomplete figure as most biotech companies stay in stealth mode for some time before officially announcing. We might not know the true count for 2021 for a year or more.

For reference, 2020 saw 14 new longevity companies founded (probably incomplete data, too). Not much can be said about trend until 2021 companies start coming out of stealth.

Take away: We need more longevity founders.

Five $100M+ New Venture Fund Announcements

In 2011, Laura Deming founded the first longevity venture capital fund with just $4M raised. Ten years later, five venture funds or venture builders each announced new $100M+ funds and commitments in 2021 alone.

Including:

• Kizoo Technology Capital - Michael Greve announced commitment of $340M USD toward rejuvenation biotech startups

• Apollo Health Ventures - Announced the close of $180M for their second fund

• Korify Capital - based in Switzerland, announced new $100M+ longevity biotech venture fund 

• Maximon - Announced a $105M venture building fund.  

• Cambrian Biopharma - Technically not a venture fund, but operates as a holding company that does venture creation, essentially. Announced a $100 Series C in 2021. 

Also worth mentioning VitaDAO raising $5M in ETH – a major milestone as a new decentralized structure enabled by web3 to fund and commercialize longevity research IP.   

Six New Potential Anti-Aging Therapies Brought to Clinical Trials

Four LongBio startups brought new therapies to the clinic in 2021. Most notably:

• BioAge: BGE-117 //  unexplained adult anemia // Phase 2

  • Hypoxia pathway

• BioAge: BGE-175 // Covid-19 // Phase 2

  • Immunosenescence 

• Spring Discovery (through a non-profit): disulfiram (off patent) // Covid-19 // Phase 2

  • Immunosenescence 

• Calico // ABBV-CLS-7262 // amyotrophic lateral sclerosis // Phase 1

  • Integrated stress response activator

• Retrotope // RT001 // progressive supranuclear palsy // Phase 2

  • Mitochondrial peroxidation inhibitor

• Retrotope // RT001 // amyotrophic lateral sclerosis // Phase 2

  • Mitochondrial peroxidation inhibitor

-NATHAN

My Links

Some of my projects, resources, and ways to support my mission. More projects coming…

Projects

• On Deck Longevity Biotech Fellowship (Program Director) - On Deck Longevity Biotech (ODLB) is a continuous community for people to come together to build, join, or invest in revolutionary longevity biotechnology startups.

• Healthspan Capital - An early-stage longevity biotech venture fund.

• Longevity List  - Find jobs, companies, and investors in the longevity industry. Email me if you want to add your job or company to the list. It’s free.

  • Longevity List Database - A handy Airtable base covering people, companies, trials, academic labs, and a list of longevity companies that are presently raising capital.

• LMC Clinical Trial Tracker - Longevity therapeutics in clinical trials. Completion calendar useful for investors who want to time data readout catalysts.

• LongevityMarketcap.com - The main page tracks prices of publicly traded longevity stocks.

• The Future of Longevity - A monthly series of public Q&As in themes and trends with experts in longevity science and industry. Co-hosted by Laura Minquini, Avi Roy, and me. 

• Longevity Biotech Show - Official website of the Clubhouse show / podcast. We interview the people building, funding, and championing technologies that extend healthy human lifespan. On Clubhouse / Spotify podcasts. 

• forum.longevitybase.org - An open question and answer system for aging biology and longevity biotechnology. 

• The One Percent Bet for Longevity Pledge - An initiative to get individuals and corporations to pledge at least 1% of their resources to fund longevity companies and research.

• LongevityBase.org -  An open-source volunteer initiative to itemize every instance of modulation of biological aging in the scientific literature.

• Humans for Longevity - A literary art project featuring the stories and motivations behind the people working on solving the problem of aging. 

Support

• Patreon - For people who want to support my work and mission. Premium tiers include access to my private Telegram group for behind-the-scenes thoughts and network.

• Twitter - Random thoughts, link shares, memes. My DMs are open.

A special thanks to my Patreon supporters who have joined forces with me to undertake this mission.

1. Announcements

2. Last Week(s) in Longevity

3. Longevity Futures

4. Capital Raise Radar

5. Longevity Jobs

6. New Companies on Longevity List 

7. Special Note: The Last Generation to Die

8. Media is Code.

9. My Links

*Sincerest apologies to my readers: I’ve been focussing 100% of my efforts on launching the first cohort of the On Deck Longevity Biotech (ODLB) program. Going forward, expect a more regular cadence for the Longevity Marketcap Newsletter. Thank you for your patience!

*Disclaimer: None of this should be taken as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only.

Mission: To grow a wave of passionate people building, funding, and championing technologies that extend healthy human lifespan. 

If you want to be part of this mission alongside me, please consider supporting through Patreon or Longevity List Merch.

Subscribe now

📢 Announcements 

• The On Deck Longevity Biotech Team (Ada Nguyen, Michelle Kwok, and myself) successfully launched the first cohort of ODLB on September 12th. Thank you to everyone who supported us and our mission: To increase the number of people working to build longevity biotech startups

  • Interested in getting involved in the Longevity Biotech startup ecosystem as a founder, early hire, or investor? Apply for the waiting list for the 2nd cohort of On Deck Longevity Biotech.

• On Deck announces ODX, a $100M accelerator fund. I’m excited to be part of On Deck’s newest initiative to support founders with the launch of ODX. Any early-stage founders looking to get capital, support, and backing from an incredible community should apply -- especially if you are a longevity biotech founder!
  

• My longevity rolling fund Healthspan Capital is now public on Angel List. We aim to invest in a broad “index-like” manner in longevity biotech startups.  

  • Sebastian Brunemeier (former Principal at Apollo Health Ventures, co-founder of Cambrian Biopharma) is an advisor.

  • Michael Chinen (angel investor) is a partner.

  • Any accredited investor can start investing in the fund today. Minimum check size is $5k.

  • Select investment deals will be syndicated.

• Proud to announce that I’ve recently become an angel investor in Transistor Bio, a startup founded by the unrelenting Adam Ashwal. Transistor Bio is building a platform to automate in vivo studies, with a particular focus on dramatically lowering the cost of aged mice (which cost half their weight in gold).

• Notice to new readers: You might want to take a look at this post of longevity resources if you are new to this space. 

📝 Last Week(s) in Longevity 

I have so much to tell you.

• Altos Labs, a new anti-aging mega-biotech by Jeff Bezos, Yuri Milner, Rick Klausner, and many others.
  
  It’s finally here!
  
  I had written about Jeff Bezos’s rumored involvement in a big longevity initiative since May. Earlier in September, an MIT Technology Review scoop filled in some of the details of this new company, Altos Labs, and its roster of luminaries:

  • Backed by Israeli-Russian billionaire Yuri Milner (Breakthrough Prize) and Jeff Bezos. Rumors are that Bob Nelson at ARCH is also involved (not surprising) as well as Bill Maris’s Section 32 (Bill Maris co-founded Google Calico)  

  • Helmed by biotech titan, Rick Klausner (NCI, Juno Therapeutics). Shinya Yamanaka will chair the scientific advisory board.

  • At least $270M raised already. (My sources indicate it is actually 2x this amount. 

  • David Sinclair indicated Altos had $6B during our interview last week at On Deck. 

  • Altos Labs appears to be focussing on cellular reprogramming -- a nascent technology tracing its roots to the Nobel Prize-winning work of Shinya Yamanaka that allows old cells to reset their state to one resembling a young embryonic stem cell. Modern approaches include partial or transient reprogramming, with or without the OSKM Yamanaka factors, in order to rejuvenate cells.

  • Altos is poaching top scientific talent by offering $1M+ salaries and equity. Manuel Serrano, Wolf Reik, Steve Horvath, Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte, and other top academic experts in cellular reprogramming have left their posts to join Altos. 

  • Multi-site: USA, Europe, Japan, etc.

  • The initial focus will be on doing “great science”.

  My take: Altos Labs is a welcomed development in longevity -- high-profile names will raise awareness, legitimacy, and capital for this space. However, the question on everyone’s mind within the community is how Altos Labs will avoid disappointing like Google Calico, which, contrary to Time magazine’s clickbait, has not solved death yet -- much less produced an FDA-approved therapy for any indication.1
  
  Altos Labs, like Calico, seems to be focused on basic science, initially. But unlike Calico, Altos appears to be focused on a very specific therapeutic approach, cellular reprogramming -- which several other LongBio startups are hotly pursuing (Shift Bioscience, Retro Bioscience, Turn Bio, Iduna Therapeutics, and AgeX Therapeutics).   

  The alleged $6B earmarked for Altos Labs is just one of the big announcements slated for the longevity industry this year. Hevolution, a yet-announced initiative based in the Middle East and helmed by ex-Life Biosciences CEO, Mehmood Khan, is rumored to have $20B committed towards longevity.
  

• Loyal raises $27M Series A + National Institutes on Aging ITP Collaboration. Loyal is a dog healthspan extension biotech startup founded by Celine Halioua. After only 4 months since they announced $11M raised in their seed round, Loyal revealed that they had raised another $27M for their Series A. Investors included Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital, The Longevity Fund, and several others. Clinical trials (in dogs) are expected in 2022 and 2023.
  
  Loyal also announced earlier in September that two of their compounds had been selected by the NIA’s Interventions Testing Program (ITP) for testing. The ITP is the gold standard mouse lifespan test -- a multisite mouse lifespan study tested on a four-way cross of genetically heterogeneous mice (HET3).2
  

• Launch of Impetus Grants. Early September, Martin Borch Jensen and his team of longevity apprentices announced the Impetus Grants -- a sort of “Fast Grants” for academics with proposals for longevity research projects. The project has raised $20M+ from individuals such as Juan Benet (IPFS), Jed McCaleb, and Vitalik Buterin. A stellar lighthouse donation of crypto wealth, no doubt.
  
  The Impetus Grants team will disburse grants in the $10k - $500k range. Proposals will be reviewed by experts in aging biology and decisions made within three weeks. Interested researchers should apply here.
  

• Astera’s $70M Rejuvenome project partners with the Buck Institute. The newly formed Astera Institute announced they would be working with the Buck Institute for their $70M Rejuvenome project -- a large-scale multi-omics study of anti-aging interventions and combinations of interventions in mice.

  While there are several interventions known to extend maximal lifespan in mice, very few studies have been tried on combinations. There’s reason to believe that combining multiple interventions could increase lifespan in additive or even synergistic ways. For instance, metformin combined with rapamycin increases lifespan in mice additively.
  

• Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong comes out in support of longevity and the Dog Aging Project. Last month, Brian Armstrong announced that he and several others donated a total of $2.5M to the Dog Aging Project (helmed by Matt Kaeberlein, Kate Creevy, and Daniel Promislaw). Armstrong also came out in support of longevity in general. The Dog Aging Project is a study involving 10,000+ dogs to track changes in canine biomarkers during aging. A small rapamycin trial will also be conducted in a subset of dogs.
  
  The Brian Armstrong announcement is yet another example of the ubiquitous crypto-longevity overlap, which includes notable individuals like Vitalik Buterin, Balaji Srinivasan, Marc Bernegger, Qiao Wang, Mike Novogratz, Christian Angermeyer, among others. As the cryptocurrency markets continue to surge to new highs, newfound wealth in the hands of the technologically progressive will inevitably find its way to longevity, which is arguably the ultimate form of technology.  
  

• Elevian raises $40M Series A. Elevian is a longevity biotech startup that is developing recombinant growth differentiation factor 11 (GDF11), a “young blood” circulating factor believed to be involved in improved tissue regeneration. The proceeds from Elevian’s Series A round will enable them to file an IND with the FDA and initiate Phase 1 clinical trials using GDF11 to treat stroke. Prime Mover Labs led the round, with Bold Capital, and Leslie Ventures also participating.

  Elevian is based on the scientific work of Amy Wagers and Lee Rubin at Harvard. The role of GDF11 in longevity and regeneration is a bit contentious. Some studies suggest that GDF11 could play a role in regeneration and improve neurogenesis in mice. In contrast, a 2015 paper suggested that GDF11 inhibited muscle regeneration. See this review paper on GDF11 and this review too.

• Fauna Bio raises $9M seed round. Fauna Bio is an early-stage biotech company building a discovery platform that leverages comparative genomics to find drug targets inspired by unique biological capabilities found within the animal kingdom. Fauna’s latest investment round was led by LifeForce Capital.
  
  Fauna currently has partnerships for target discovery in obesity with Novo Nordisk and has programs in heart disease and novel targets for fibrosis.
   

• Spring Research announces $32M Series B. Spring Discovery announced it had raised a $32M Series B to pursue multiple discovery programs and advance their clinical stage pipeline. The round was led by General Catalyst and Elad Gil. Other notable investors include Caffeinated Capital, First Round, and Tencent.
  
  Most interestingly, Spring also announced it had spun up a non-profit organization to conduct a clinical trial of a cheap generic drug (disulfiram) to treat moderate COVID-19. Disulfiram, a drug approved to treat alcohol dependence, was identified by Spring’s machine learning platform to potentially modulate hyperinflammation. Inflammaging and overactive/dysregulated immune systems are suspected to play a large role in aging and mortality in elderly COVD-19 patients.

  Spring Discovery is a biotech startup that uses a machine learning and wet lab automation platform to identify therapies that can treat aging and its diseases. The company is an AGE1 accelerator alumni and was founded by Ben Kamens in 2017. 

• Underdog Pharmaceuticals raises $10M Seed II. Underdog Pharmaceuticals is a SENS Research Foundation spinout that is developing novel cyclodextrin drugs to treat atherosclerosis. Last week the company announced the closing of a $10M Seed II round led by Kizoo Technology Capital. Underdog plans to use the funds to enter the clinic by 2023. 
  
  Atherosclerosis is an age-related disease characterized by the stiffening of arteries caused by the buildup of plaques in the inner lining of the artery. Cyclodextrins are molecules of glucose linked together in a ring. Beta-cyclodextrin is known to have the potential to remove 7-ketocholesterol (7KC), a product involved in arterial plaque buildup, but has safety issues as a drug. Underdog is attempting to create novel safe cyclodextrins to remove 7KC.

  In May, Kizoo and Web.de co-founder Michael Greve announced 362M EUR earmarked for investment in rejuvenation biotech startups.

• Unity Biotechnology announces positive Phase 1 clinical trial data for UBX1325. Begins Phase 2 study. Unity Biotechnology is a publicly-traded clinical stage LongBio company developing drugs that kill senescent cells. Earlier this summer, the company announced positive results for their Phase 1 safety trial for their drug UBX1325 (a Bcl-xL inhibitor) to treat diabetic macular edema (DME). There were no treatment related adverse events and further early efficacy data showed some improvements in visual acuity and macular thickness. Unity is currently conducting Phase 2 trials for UBX1325 in DME (results expected in 2022) and planning trials for macular degeneration.
  
  Unity is the most prominent company in the nascent senolytics industry. The company raised hundreds of millions from investors including ARCH Venture Partners, Longevity Fund, Peter Thiel, and Jeff Bezos and raised an IPO in 2017. Unfortunately, their first program UBX0101, a senolytic drug to treat osteoarthritis in the knee, failed in Phase 2 last year, which imploded their market capitalization. 

• Minovia announces partnership deal with Astellas for mitochondrial therapeutics. US and Israel-based mitochondrial augmentation startup Minovia announced a partnership with Japanese pharma giant, Astellas in late July. The deal includes a $20M payment upfront with up to $420M per product. Minovia has tested their mitochondrial augmentation therapy in Phase 2 clinical trials for Pearson syndrome -- a rare mitochondrial disease.  
  
  Mitochondrial transfer/augmentation is a therapeutic approach to correct mitochondrial dysfunction in rare or chronic age-related diseases through the addition of undamaged mitochondria into cells. Minovia, Cellvie, and Mitrix are the only three startups I’m aware of pursuing this approach -- each with a different spin. Minovia infuses hematopoietic stem cells with undamaged mitochondria ex vivo before transfusion of the stem cells into the patient. Cellvie uses direct transfusion or injection of autologous mitochondria into tissue. Mitrix is leveraging so-called “mitlets” mitochondria ejected from platelets in extracellular vesicles.

Other news in brief

• [Aug 13] Longeveron fails to meet Phase 2b endpoint for stem cell therapy treating frailty

• [Aug 10] CohBar announces positive Ph 1a/1b data for NASH/obesity 

• [Aug 2] Biophytis announces positive Phase 2 data for drug targeting sarcopenia

• [July 27] Abbvie and Google agree to jointly invest another $1B in partnership

• Stanford now has a course in Longevity Venture Capital (taught in part by Ronjon Nag of R42)

📅 Longevity Futures

• November 17-18, 2021: Longevity Summit - A new online conference on longevity. Incredible list of speakers including Kristen Fortney, Hanadie Yousef, Ben Kamens, Daniel Ives, Matt Kaeberlein, Nikolina Lauc, Andrew Brack, Martin Borch Jensen, and more. I will be moderating a panel. Free passes are available to select audiences. 

• November 17th, 2021: Investing in the Age of Longevity - An online conference on longevity investing put on by Jim Mellon and Master Investor. Speakers include Nir Barzilai, James Peyer, Jim Mellon, Daniel Ives, Sergey Young, James Kirkland, and more. Tickets are 300/100 GBP for non-academic/academic attendees. 

• December 4th - 5th (SF), 11th - 12th (Paris): Foresight Institute’s Vision Weekend - Starting at the Internet Archive, a rocket company, and ship in San Francisco on Dec 4 & 5, culminating at a laboratory for the future disguised as a stunning castle outside of Paris on Dec 11 & 12. Plus permanent 2022 cyberspace layer. 40+ presenters are confirmed across biotech, nanotech, neurotech, computing, and space, including Jose Luis Ricon (Rejuvenone), Sonia Arrison (100 Plus), Adam Marblestone (FRO), Greg Fahy, (Intervene Immune), Dina Radenkovic (SALT), (Peter Norvig (Google), Jaan Tallinn (Skype), Anders Sandberg (Future of Humanity Institute), and many more.

Know of any interesting longevity talks, meetings, or events? Please email me.

📡 Capital Raise Radar

I do not endorse or have affiliations with any of the companies listed below. This is not an offer to buy or sell securities. This is for informational purposes only. If you have intel on any other longevity companies currently raising please email me. It’s free.

• Shift Bioscience // Seed // more details

  • Machine learning platform targeting genes involved in cellular reprogramming.

  • Raising 3.5M GBP seed round.

  • Founded by Daniel Ives.

• Stealth synbio & gut microbiome longevity company // Pre-seed // email for details

  • 2nd-time biotech founder

  • Novel synbio approach to longevity, not publicly disclosed

  • Recipient of NIH SBIR grant,

  • Looking to raise a pre-seed round

  • Contact for more details.

• Protein-based therapeutics for tissue regeneration startup // Series A // email me for more details

  • proprietary protein library

  • machine learning-enhanced drug discovery platform 

  • pipeline of novel drug candidates

  • Contact for more details

• Rubedo Life Sciences // Series A // mentioned on The Longevity Biotech Show

  • Raising Series A in the very near future.

  • Developing a drug discovery platform first focussing on prodrugs to target senescent cells in a selective manner.

  • Team: Marco Quarta (Stanford), Julian Klein, Marc Gallop

• Gerostate Alpha // Raising $500k+ at $18M cap // WeFunder page

  • High-throughput phenotypic screen platform to discover anti-aging drugs.

  • A spinout from the Buck Institute for Aging. Y Combinator-backed startup.

  • Team includes academics from the Buck Institute: Simon Melov, Mark Lucanic, Gordon Lithgow. 

  • Crowdfunding on WeFunder. Open to all investors, even retail.

• Equator Therapeutics // Raising: $3M - $5M // Slide Deck: 

  • Mitochondrial uncoupler drug to burn fat through natural body heat production.

  • Targeting obesity, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, PCOS. 

  • Pro longevity: Exercise mimetic, increases mitochondrial biogenesis, etc

  • Y Combinator-backed company. 

  • Team: Jonah Sinick, Yuriy Kirichok, Michael Grabe, Liliya Gabelev, David Segura 

• + see all (click on “Capital Raise Radar”)

✨ Featured Longevity Jobs

Looking for jobs, companies, or investors in the longevity biotechnology industry? Check out my website LongevityList.com. 

• 3x reprogramming postdocs // Ocampo Lab // Lausanne, Switzerland

• Executive Assistant // Retro Biosciences // Redwood City, California

• Immunologist // Spring Discovery // San Carlos, California

• Senior Research Associate // Rubedo Life Sciences // Sunnyvale, California

• Head of Operations // Laura Deming’s NewCo // ?

• Chief of Staff // Loyal // San Francisco

• RA, scientists, senior scientists // Dorian Therapeutics // San Carlos, California

• Bioinformatician // Rejuvenome Project // Berkeley, California

• Senior Scientist, Medicinal Chemistry // Weatherwax Bio // San Francisco, California

If you are hiring, email me a link to your job postings and I will post them on longevitylist.com (it’s free).

➕ New Companies on Longevity List

Some interesting longevity companies I have discovered and added to the Longevity List database in the past week. Have any longevity company tips? Please email me. 

• Arda Therapeutics: Founded by Adam Freund, an ex-principal investigator at Calico. This startup is developing a single-cell sequencing platform to identify cell surface markers associated with pathological cells (senescent cells and beyond). Arda will then develop immunotherapies to remove these cells (antibody, CAR-T)

• Gray Matter: Co-founded by Alexey Strygin, this startup is developing an in silico peptide discovery platform to target age-related disease / aging.

• Refoxy Pharma: Founded by Victor Bustos (Apollo Health Ventures), this startup is developing drugs to target FOXO, a transcription factor protein implicated in longevity.   

• Weatherwax Bio: Founded by Armand Cognetta and Mathias Pauthner, this YC and Longevity Fund-backed startup is developing a therapeutic platform based on induced-proximity / bifunctional drugs to drug undruggable targets.

• Vincere Biosciences: Founded by Spring Behrouz and Andy Lee. The company focuses on therapeutics to increase mitophagy (recycling dysfunctional mitochondria) in order to treat multiple diseases including Parkinson’s disease, etc.

• Telos Biotechnology: A startup spun out from an academic team at University of Texas South Western focussing on telomeres.

• Etta Biotechnology: Preclinical startup founded by Kyle Brewer and Lulu Lorien. The company is developing a nanoparticle-delivered senolytic (fisetin).

🧬 Special Note: Funding The Last Generation to Die

Filmmaker Tim Maupin's longevity feature film is currently in development and seeking funding. Based on his proof-of-concept, festival favorite, and visually stunning short film "The Last Generation to Die", this full-length adaptation will dive further into a near-future world in a positive light where science is just on the cusp of true age-reversal. This film seeks to change minds and hearts toward the positive benefits of longevity without going into the usual dystopian Hollywood territory. Greater public acceptance would move the science faster and more quickly reduce suffering and save more lives. 

Full deck and financial information are available upon request. Please reach out to timmaupin@gmail.com to learn how you can be part of this groundbreaking film in which the convergence of art and science will serve as a powerful, global mission statement redefining aging. To view the proof-of-concept short film and for more information, please visit the film’s website: www.lastgenmovie.com 

Media is code.

I’ve personally donated $1,000 to fund Tim Maupin’s full feature film “The Last Generation to Die”. 

Here’s why:

Longevity biotechnology is not solely a scientific or commercial enterprise: It is also a political enterprise. DNA and RNA coding of cells will play an important role in increasing human longevity. But so will the coding of collective human effort towards longevity. And media scripts for human beings.

Storytelling.

Siddhartha Mukherjee writes in his book “The Emperor of All Maladies”

The campaign against cancer, Farber learned, was much like a political campaign: it needed icons, mascots, images, slogans—the strategies of advertising as much as the tools of science. For any illness to rise to political prominence, it needed to be marketed, just as a political campaign needed marketing. A disease needed to be transformed politically before it could be transformed scientifically.

Aging is a disease3 in dire need of a political transformation. Less than one percent of the NIH budget today goes towards geroscience proper -- even though most major diseases are driven by aging. How can we align the public on the problem of aging?

We need common stories: Pro-longevity media and storytelling are the vectors for propagating a shared vision for a future devoid of all age-related diseases. 

Media modulates regulations downstream, too. 

The speed at which we can test and commercialize anti-aging interventions is currently constrained by the FDA. But the FDA is made of people and reflects the collective desires of society. COVID-19 demonstrated how quickly a new intervention can be approved if people want it badly enough. Shared desire. Shared stories. Shared vision. Media codes for these.

Since my last newsletter, I’ve noticed a promising wave of pro-longevity media initiatives being formed -- some through the On Deck Longevity Biotech Fellowship as well. We’ll need more media efforts like these to counter misleading clickbait journalist narratives of longevity, those centered on blood boy-draining immortality-seeking billionaires, overpopulation, etc. These are tired tropes.

So if you share the same optimistic vision for the future as me, consider funding those who endeavor to tell the longevity story.

-NATHAN

Reach out to director Tim Maupin: timmaupin@gmail.com 

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🔗 My Links

Some of my projects, resources, and ways to support my mission. More projects coming…

Projects

• On Deck Longevity Biotech Fellowship (Program Director) - On Deck Longevity Biotech (ODLB) is a continuous community for people to come together to build, join, or invest in revolutionary longevity biotechnology startups.

• Healthspan Capital - An early-stage longevity biotech venture fund.

• Longevity List  - Find jobs, companies, and investors in the longevity industry. Email me if you want to add your job or company to the list. It’s free.

  • Longevity List Database - A handy Airtable base covering people, companies, trials, academic labs, and a list of longevity companies that are presently raising capital.

• LMC Clinical Trial Tracker - Longevity therapeutics in clinical trials. Completion calendar useful for investors who want to time data readout catalysts.

• LongevityMarketcap.com - The main page tracks prices of publicly traded longevity stocks.

• The Future of Longevity - A monthly series of public Q&As in themes and trends with experts in longevity science and industry. Co-hosted by Laura Minquini, Avi Roy, and me. 

• Longevity Biotech Show - Official website of the Clubhouse show / podcast. We interview the people building, funding, and championing technologies that extend healthy human lifespan. On Clubhouse / Spotify podcasts. 

• forum.longevitybase.org - An open question and answer system for aging biology and longevity biotechnology. 

• The One Percent Bet for Longevity Pledge - An initiative to get individuals and corporations to pledge at least 1% of their resources to fund longevity companies and research.

• LongevityBase.org -  An open-source volunteer initiative to itemize every instance of modulation of biological aging in the scientific literature.

• Humans for Longevity - A literary art project featuring the stories and motivations behind the people working on solving the problem of aging. 

Support

• Longevity List Merch Store - T-shirts and apparel to support my work. 10% of profit goes to SENS, João Pedro de Magalhaes’s lab, and the PEARL Rapamycin trial.

• Patreon - For people who want to support my work and mission. Premium tiers include access to my private Telegram group for behind-the-scenes thoughts and network.

• Twitter - Random thoughts and link shares. My DMs are open.

A special thanks to my Patreon supporters who have joined forces with me to undertake this mission.

Blogs / Posts

• Laura Deming’s Short Longevity FAQ - A > 10 min read on the basics of longevity science.

• Jose Luis Ricon’s Longer Longevity FAQ - A more in-depth read on the biology of aging.

• Hallmarks of Aging - A review (2013) of nine different proposed mechanisms of aging. Cited by everyone but getting a little old. There’s still a lot of debate over what causes aging, but these hallmark targets are a good start and some are well-validated in mice (and being tested in humans today).

• Fight Aging! Blog and Newsletter - by Reason. The newsletter is a weekly summary of the newest anti-aging science papers and news.

• How to build a biotech - Celine Halioua’s writings. (Founder @ Loyal)

• How to start a biotech company in the longevity industry - a guide written by Reason (Fight Aging! / Repair Biotechnologies)

Websites

• Longevity.technology - Industry and science news website. Daily newsletter.

• Lifespan.io - Non-profit organization, news, longevity research crowdfunding platform, resources

• Agingbiotech.info - database of longevity companies and resources

• Longevity List - longevity industry jobs board, company database, investor database

• Longevity Marketcap - list of publicly traded longevity biotechs

• Aging Analytics - databases on companies, trials, organizations, people in longevity. From DKV.

Podcasts

• Translating Aging Podcast - Sponsored by BioAge Labs, features interviews with the leading founders, scientists, and investors in longevity.

• The Longevity Biotech Podcast - Interviews with founders and investors in longevity biotech. Hosted by Nathan Cheng and Robert Ziman.

• The Simple Biotech Podcast - James Ruhle interviews founders and CEOs of (mostly) longevity biotech companies.

Books

• Juvenescence: Investing in the Age of Longevity - written by Jim Mellon, patron saint of longevity investing / British billionaire. Covers both science and industry.

• Lifespan: Why we age — and why we don’t have to - written by David Sinclair, professor of Genetics at Harvard. A good book for general audiences.

• Ending Aging - written by Aubrey de Grey, director of SENS Research Foundation. The book that started the revolution for many people (including myself)

• Replacing Aging - written by Jean Hebert, professor of neuroscience and genetics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

YouTube

• The Sheekey Science Show - Explainer videos of longevity science and recent biology papers.

• The Science of Aging (Martin Borch Jensen) - A 2.5 hour long seminar covering aging biology/biotech

Programs

• On Deck Longevity Biotech - a continuous community for people to come together to build, join, and invest in revolutionary longevity biotechnology startups.

• Foresight Group Healthspan Accelerator - Non-profit group helmed by Allison Duettmann and sponsored by 100 Plus Capital.

• AGE1 Accelerator - Run by Laura Deming at The Longevity Fund.

My projects:

• On Deck Longevity Biotech Fellowship (Program Director)- On Deck Longevity Biotech (ODLB) is a continuous community for people to come together to build, join, or invest in revolutionary longevity biotechnology startups.

• Longevity List  - Find jobs, companies, and investors in the longevity industry. Email me if you want to add your job or company to the list. It’s free.

  • Longevity List Database- A handy Airtable base covering people, companies, trials, academic labs, and a list of longevity companies that are presently raising capital.

• LMC Clinical Trial Tracker- Longevity therapeutics in clinical trials. Completion calendar useful for investors who want to time data readout catalysts.

• LongevityMarketcap.com- The main page tracks prices of publicly traded longevity stocks.

• The Future of Longevity- A monthly series of public Q&As in themes and trends with experts in longevity science and industry. Co-hosted by Laura Minquini, Avi Roy, and me. 

• Longevity Biotech Show - Official website of the Clubhouse show / podcast. We interview the people building, funding, and championing technologies that extend healthy human lifespan. On Clubhouse / Spotify podcasts. 

• forum.longevitybase.org - An open question and answer system for aging biology and longevity biotechnology. 

• The One Percent Bet for Longevity Pledge - An initiative to get individuals and corporations to pledge at least 1% of their resources to fund longevity companies and research.

• LongevityBase.org -  An open-source volunteer initiative to itemize every instance of modulation of biological aging in the scientific literature.

• Humans for Longevity - A literary art project featuring the stories and motivations behind the people working on solving the problem of aging.

1. Announcements

2. Last Week(s) in Longevity

3. Longevity Futures

4. Capital Raise Radar

5. Longevity Jobs

6. New Companies on Longevity List 

7. Adventures in Longevity

8. My Links

*Disclaimer: None of this should be taken as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only.

*Error bounty: Found a factual error in the newsletter? Email me to receive up to $5 in BTC or ETH (pending network conditions, size of error).

Mission: To grow a wave of passionate people building, funding, and championing technologies that extend healthy human lifespan. 

If you want to be part of this mission alongside me, please consider supporting through Patreon or Longevity List Merch.

📢 Announcements 

• I’ve joined On Deck as Program Director for their Longevity Biotech Fellowship. After working every day, night, and weekend straight, we launched the program last Tuesday. The launch was an incredible success thanks to the amazing Founding Fellows and speakers of the program, the On Deck team, my awesome program partner Ada Nguyen -- and this super epic tweetstorm by Balaji Srinivasan.

  • Why: We need more people working on longevity, especially founders! So we are doing something about it.

  • Mission: On Deck Longevity Biotech (ODLB) has a simple mission: To increase the number of people working to build longevity biotech companies.

  • Who: The fellowship program takes in people who want to DO something about the problem of aging: Founders, aspiring founders, operators looking to join a startup, or investors, regardless of whether you have the “right” background or not. (See Ben Kamens, Matt Scholz, Reason, etc for examples)

  • What: ODLB is a continuous community program that runs year-long with workshops, deep dives with industry experts, 1:1 mentorship, curated connections, social & networking events, and some exciting in-person events post-COVID.

  • When: The deadline for applications for the first cohort is August 31st. Applicants will be accepted on a rolling basis so applying earlier will increase your chances of securing a spot. The first cohort kicks off on September 12th.

  • Cost: Academic pricing is available. Financing plans are available. There are scholarships from On Deck’s Access Fund, too. I will be funding several scholarships out of my own pocket.

    • We’re committed to ensuring that any talented person who deserves to get into the program can do so regardless of their financial situation.

  • Personal note: I already had my hands full with my other longevity projects and have always been a solo entrepreneur. But I decided to join the team at On Deck anyway because I really believed that this program needed to exist. We have the opportunity to make a big impact on human longevity and age-related disease through this fellowship so I encourage anyone who wants to DO something about aging to apply.

• I’ve also started a fund: Healthspan Capital, which invests in early-stage longevity biotech companies

  • Sebastian Brunemeier (former Principal at Apollo Health Ventures, co-founder of Cambrian Biopharma) is an advisor. Michael Chinen (angel investor) is a partner.

• Notice to new readers: You might want to take a look at this post of longevity resources if you are new to this space. 

📝 Last Week(s) in Longevity 

Errata: The original version of the previous newsletter incorrectly stated that Rubedo Life Science’s lead program was a “galacto-conjugate prodrug”. This has been corrected to “prodrug”.

• VitaDAO raises $5.1M USD in token sale. VitaDAO is a decentralized autonomous organization that funds longevity research and commercializes the resulting intellectual property -- all through the Ethereum blockchain. The genesis auction of the DAO’s governance tokens ($VITA) raised a total of ~2,500 ETH = ~ $5.1M USD over six days (June 18 - June 23). The current VitaDAO market capitalization is ~$16M.

  VitaDAO’s successful token sale is a positive development in this experimental world of DAOs as internet-native collective funding vehicles for longevity or other frontier areas of technology. The potential benefits of funding longevity through a DAO compared to traditional VC funds are numerous:

  • Democratization - not restricted to accredited investors.

  • Reduced friction - obtaining $VITA governance tokens takes less than a minute using Uniswap and a MetaMask wallet.  

  • Decentralized participation - Anyone, anywhere can be part of the organization, vote on proposals, earn $VITA tokens for doing tasks for the DAO, or be a recipient of the research funding. 

  There’s a vibrant community forming around VitaDAO and I encourage anyone who is interested to check out their Discord channel to get involved (~1600 members and growing). Researchers and startups can also get in contact with the VitaDAO community in order to submit funding proposals. Disclaimer: I participated in the VitaDAO token sale and am HODLing $VITA.

• On Deck launches a fellowship in the Longevity Biotech vertical. On Deck is a startup known for its connected universe of fellowship programs that help people achieve their goals in various sectors, startup stages, or career roles. Last Tuesday, the company announced the launch of their inaugural Longevity Biotech Fellowship program, organized by Nathan Cheng and Ada Nguyen.
  
  The On Deck Longevity Biotech (ODLB) program is a “continuous community for people to come together to build, join, or invest in revolutionary longevity biotechnology startups.” The fellowship will include workshops, deep dives with industry experts, 1:1 mentorship, curated connections, social & networking events, and some exciting in-person events post-COVID.
  
  Founding Fellows acting as mentors of the program include Kristen Fortney, Ben Kamens, Sebastian Brunemeier, Ryan Bethencourt, Reason, Marco Quarta, Joe Betts-LaCroix, Andrew Brack, Jean Hebert, Morgan Levine, and many, many others.
  
  The deadline for applications for the first cohort is August 31st. Applicants will be accepted on a rolling basis. The first cohort kickoff is September 12th.
  

• Mehmood Khan steps down from Life Biosciences to head a newly formed global non-profit for longevity. Life Biosciences, David Sinclair’s umbrella longevity biotech corporation, announced that their CEO Mehmood Khan would be stepping down to take on a new role as head of a “newly founded global non-profit organization focused on funding research on therapies that address aging biology and extend human healthspan”. More details will be made available later this year.
  
  This sounds like the initiative that Nir Barzilai was hinting at during a Foresight Institute call this year. Aubrey de Grey also hinted during a Clubhouse call last month that a certain funding initiative was delayed but would be announced in August.

  Who is funding this organization? (according to Barzilai it will amount to $1B/year). I have heard some fairly credible rumors but cannot confirm them. Tips are welcome.

  Note: This non-profit longevity funding announcement is almost definitely distinct from the one that a certain e-commerce billionaire will be announcing sometime soon -- ideally before he embarks on a rather risky joy ride.
  
  And perhaps there are more than just these two developments as well...

• Alector (NASDAQ:ALEC) announces $2.2B partnership with GlaxoSmithKline. Alector is a publicly traded biotech company that develops drugs to treat neurodegenerative diseases through a novel neuro-immunology approach. On Friday, the company announced a $2.2B partnership (biobucks) with GlaxoSmithKline. Alector’s stock was up 57% on the day of the news.
  
  Unlike other pharma companies that develop antibodies that directly bind to beta-amyloid (aducanumab, etc), Alector relies on an approach that modulates the innate function of the microglia immune cells in the brain to treat dementia, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s disease. The company has several clinical trials ongoing from Phase 1 to Phase 3.
  

• Insilico Medicine raises $255M Series C round. Alex Zhavoronkov’s AI-drug discovery startup, Insilico Medicine, announced a $255M Series C funding round on June 22nd. The round was led by Warburg Pincus (private equity group), Qiming Ventures, Formic Ventures (Michael Antonov), and Baidu Ventures, among many investors. 
  
  Insilico is in the process of filing an IND application with the FDA to bring their AI-generated drug for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) to the clinic. The startup also has 16 assets in the pipeline.
  
  Insilico is one of the several AI/ML drug discovery startups beginning to bring drugs to the clinic. The company uses generative adversarial networks (GANs) and reinforcement learning (RL) techniques to generate and select molecules to treat disease. Other companies in the longevity AI/ML space include Relation Therapeutics (Juvenescence portfolio company), Spring Discovery (founded by Ben Kamens), and BioAge Labs (Kristen Fortney).

  A new era of progress could be right around the corner if AI-assisted drug discovery is able to outperform the ~10% clinical trial success associated with traditional approaches. It’s certainly a hot sector: The number of new companies formed in AI drug discovery is exploding.

  

• Vita Therapeutics raises $34M Series A round led by Cambrian Biopharma. Vita Therapeutics is a biotech startup that builds on the work of Gabsang Lee and Kathryn Wagner at Johns Hopkins. The company is developing a stem cell therapy to treat muscular dystrophies (first in limb-girdle muscular dystrophy). The Series A round was led by Cambrian Biopharma, one of the big multi-company “hub-and-spoke” umbrella companies in the longevity space (Cambrian was founded by Sebastian Brunemeier, Christian Angermeyer, and James Peyer)
  
  Vita is developing a stem cell therapy where blood cells are taken from a patient, turned into stem cells (induced pluripotency), genetically engineered by editing out disease-causing mutations, turned into myosatellite cells, and then engrafted back into the patient. Cambrian’s Peyer noted that experiments in mice showed good integration of the muscle stem cells and improved grip strength and treadmill performance. 
  
  The application of this myosatellite cell approach won’t work for the more well-known form of dystrophies like Duchenne muscular dystrophy (no myosatellite cells in the heart). There is potential that Vita’s approach could reverse aging in skeletal muscle through regeneration. However, there is also a debate as to whether muscle stem cells can flourish in an aged microenvironment (Novak et al. 2021 argue the limitation for regeneration is the aged tissue microenvironment, not the age of the transplanted cells).
  

• BioAge Labs launches “Translating Aging”, a new podcast on longevity biotech and translational science. Translating Aging is a new longevity-focussed podcast produced and sponsored by BioAge Labs. The inaugural episode featuring Eric Verdin, Director of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, was released on June 23rd.
  
  Perhaps taking a cue from one of their media-savvy investors, a16z, BioAge’s move into media can be seen as necessary not only to raise awareness about longevity but also in order to control the way their story is being told in the context of society. Tackling aging is a mission of the highest urgency and highest unmet need -- it would be a risk to leave the storytelling of this mission to mainstream media and journalists with dubious incentives.  
  
  “If code scripts machines, media scripts human beings”. And ultimately the FDA -- unelected gatekeepers they may be--  is made of people who act on the wishes of other people. And if enough of these people want accelerated regulatory approval for longevity therapeutics or more funding for longevity research, then it will happen.
  
  Longevity podcasts, YouTube channels, TikToks, blogs, newsletters, etc all play an important role, so go make more of these.

  

• Wake Forest researchers win the NASA x Methuselah Foundation Tissue Vasculature Challenge prizes. Two teams of researchers at Wake Forest, led by James Yoo and Anthony Atala, were awarded winners of the Vascular Tissue Challenge sponsored by NASA and the Methuselah Foundation. Initially conceived in 2013, the challenge required researchers to engineer an in vitro vascularized tissue at least 1 cm thick that could provide adequate blood flow for at least 30 days. Both groups used 3D bioprinting technologies to win the challenge.
  
  Tissue engineering is a valid approach to reversing aging -- one that doesn’t require the understanding of the complex biochemical processes behind aging and metabolism. It may even be possible to reverse aging in the brain by progressive replacement of neural tissue as Jean Hebert is attempting at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. (See “Replacing Aging”)
  

• David Sinclair announces the development of a low-cost epigenetic age test.  During our last Longevity Panel discussion on June 15th, David Sinclair announced that he was developing a low-cost epigenetic age test (likely for consumers). Epigenetic age tests measure DNA methylation at CpG sites, the pattern of which can be used to predict chronological age. 
  
  The usefulness of epigenetic clocks for surrogate biomarkers of aging in something like a clinical trial is still up for debate; the causal mechanism is totally unclear. However, during a recent Foresight Institute call, Steve Horvath -- the godfather of epigenetic clocks and UCLA researcher who is owed an Illumina T-shirt -- made the prediction that the development of an aging biomarker would likely come from a commercial venture, driven by capitalist market forces. 
  
  One commercial example of this type could be the application of the GrimAge clock (which is correlated to mortality) at FOXO Technologies, a life insurance company. It is also possible that a DTC low-cost epigenetic age test that is used at scale in millions of people over long time periods (and linked to medical records) could lead to the development of a robust aging biomarker (lots of assumptions here).  
  

• Heartseed raises $37M USD Series C. Heartseed is a stem cell therapy biotech company based in Japan. After signing a ~$598M USD deal with Novo Nordisk on June 1st, the company went on to announce the completion of a $37M Series C funding round on June 11th. 

  Heartseed is developing an allogeneic, iPSC-derived cardiomyocyte cell therapy to repair heart muscles in patients with ischemic heart failure (usually caused by narrowing of coronary arteries, atherosclerosis). Their novel approach uses spherical clusters of cardiomyocytes implanted in the heart muscle wall versus the more commonly used cell sheets engrafted to the heart surface 
  
  While the longevity biotech drug scene in Japan is limited (Taisho’s senolytic partnership with Insilico Medicine being one exception), there are many Japanese stem cell companies -- stem cell therapy regulations in Japan are fairly relaxed. 

• Continuum Biosciences receives $2.2M in grant funding from the NIH. Continuum Biosciences is a biotech company that develops mitochondrial uncouplers to treat NASH (a type of fatty liver disease), obesity, and other metabolic diseases. The company announced on June 14th that it had received a $2.2M grant from the NIH.
  
  Mitochondrial uncouplers are a class of drugs that intentionally make mitochondria less efficient at oxidative phosphorylation (usually by allowing protons to leak across the inner membrane), allowing for more glucose to be used up to create the same amount of ATP. Simply: These drugs allow for the burning of more fat without exercising.
  
  Continuum is developing a mitochondrial uncoupler molecule called BAM-15 (or analogs) that acts similarly to a now-banned dieting drug, 2,4 dinitrophenol, but without all the negative side effects. In preclinical studies, researchers at Continuum were able to demonstrate that BAM-15 could reduce liver fat and prevent diet-induced obesity and glucose intolerance without altering food intake, lean body mass, or body temperature.
  
  Continuum Biosciences is one of David Sinclair’s Life Biosciences portfolio companies. Equator Therapeutics, a Y Combinator company is also developing similar mitochondrial uncoupler drugs.
  
  For an overview of longevity companies developing mitochondrial therapeutics see my previous newsletters: A Map of Mitochondria Longevity Companies Part 1.
  

• Retrotope announces initiation of Phase 2 study of RT001 to treat Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP). Retrotope is a California-based biotech company that is using deuterated polyunsaturated fatty acids (D-PUFA) to treat a number of diseases linked to lipid peroxidation and oxidative stress, including PSP. On June 30th, the company announced it was initiating a Phase 2 clinical trial for progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a rare neurodegenerative disease characterized by loss of nerve cells involved in locomotion, balance, and eye movement.
  
  Lipid peroxidation of mitochondrial membranes is believed to be linked to mitochondrial dysfunction, one of the so-called “Hallmarks of Aging”. Retrotope’s D-PUFA therapy is believed to intervene in the lipid oxidation chain reaction through a trick of chemistry called the kinetic isotope effect.
  

• MetroBiotech announces collaboration with US SOCOM military to trial NAD+ enhancing drug next year. NAD+ boosting supplements are becoming extremely popular in the wellness/biohacking longevity circles -- though evidence of any anti-aging benefit still needs to be determined through clinical trials. Now the US military wants to get in on the action by teaming up MetroBiotech, a biotech company co-founded by David Sinclair that develops NAD+ boosting drugs. A trial of the company's anti-aging, “performance-enhancing” drug is scheduled for next year. 

  NAD+ is an important coenzyme that is involved in metabolism in all living cells. NAD+ levels decline with age and it is believed that restoration of these levels could have some anti-aging benefit. For the most thorough review of NAD+ restoration therapy please see Forever Healthy’s insanely comprehensive review.

• GenFlow Bioscience looking to publicly list on The London Stock Exchange. GenFlow Bioscience is a UK-based biotech company that is developing a gene therapy to treat aging in humans and dogs. According to my source (also confirmed by a detail on LinkedIn), GenFlow is preparing to go public on the London Stock Exchange this year.
  
  The company has a Phase 1/2 human trial planned for Werner syndrome, a progeroid “accelerated aging” disease (note that progeria and aging are not the same). GenFlow’s therapy uses an adeno-associated virus vector to deliver the cDNA that encodes for a centenarian SIRT6 gene. SIRT6 is a member of the highly-conserved sirtuin proteins that play a role in cell metabolism and DNA repair. A recent study showed that overexpression of SIRT6 in mice resulted in a 15% - 27% increase in median lifespan and an 11% - 15% increase in maximum lifespan. 

  More longevity companies going public is generally a good thing -- for a list of publicly traded longevity biotech stocks check out longevitymarketcap.com

• Other news in brief

  • SENS Research Foundation donation campaign <> new cryptocurrency airdrop. This is not an endorsement of this cryptocurrency project.

  • Intellia announces positive human in vivo CRISPR therapy for ATTR

📅 Longevity Futures

• Monday, July 12th, 2021 @ 10:30 AM PST // 1:30 PM EST: Longevity Biotech Q&A with Erika Batista, Nathan Cheng, Ada Nguyen, Sebastian Brunemeier, Daniel Ives, Marco Quarta, Robin Mansukhani, Ethan Perlstein, and special guests!

  • This Q&A is being hosted by Clubhouse influencer Erika Batista in support of the new On Deck Longevity Biotech Fellowship launch. 

  • Title of the Q&A: “Building and Investing in Longevity Biotech Startups”.

  • Please join us!

• Wednesday, July 14th, 2021 @ 10AM PST /// 1PM EST. The Future of Longevity II (panel discussion)

  • Laura Minquini, Avi Roy, and I return for another panel discussion on longevity science and biotechnology. We’ve decided to host these talks once a month under the name The Future of Longevity.

  • Our guests this time include Nir Barzilai, George Church, Jim Mellon, Jay Olshansky, and Alejandro Ocampo —so far.

  • For past recordings of talks I host, please go to LongevityBiotechShow.com or Spotify. Here are some previous episodes:

    • #017: “The Scientist Working to Reverse Aging” - Longevity Panel - June 15th, 2021

    • #016: Sebastian Brunemeier - June 10th, 2021

    • #015: Marinna Madrid (Cellino) - June 3rd, 2021.

    • #014: Tyler Golato (VitaDAO) - May 27th, 2021

    • #013: Marco Quarta (Rubedo Life Science) - May 20th, 2021

    • #012: Matt Scholz (Oisin Biotechnologies) - May 6th, 2021

    • #011: Kristen Fortney (BioAge Labs) - April 29th, 2021.

    • #010: Jean Hebert (Albert Einstein College of Medicine) - April 22nd, 2021.

• July 20th - 23rd, 2021. American Aging Association Annual Meeting / Conference. Speakers include Andrew Brack (UCSF, Arrive Bio), Morgan Levine, Vadim Gladyshev, Luigi Ferrucci. 

• EARD 2021 August 19th - 22nd, 2021. LEAF / Lifespan.io’s annual Ending Age-related Disease Conference will be taking place from September 20th -23rd. Speakers include experts from industry and academia such as Eric Verdin, Irina Conboy, Steve Horvath, Vadim Gladyshev, Michael Greve, Reason, Joao Pedro de Magalhaes, and many more. General admissions tickets start at $373 USD, but the keynote speaker talks are free. (I’ve already purchased my ticket)

• August 31st, 2021 - September 3, 2021. Aging Research and Drug Discovery Conference 2021. Online. $49 for a 3-day pass. The first day of the conference is free to attend. An incredible lineup of speakers including David Sinclair, Alex Zhavoronkov, Thomas Rando, Peter de Keizer, Collin Ewald, Kristen Fortney, Nir Barzilai, Brian Kennedy, Manuel Serrano, Vera Gorbunova, and many others. (I’ve already purchased my ticket)

• September 24th - 26th, 2021 - LongHack. Longevity hackathon, for those new to the field or for veterans. The Hackathon includes tracks for Biotechnology, Diagnostics and Pharma, and AI and Bioinformatics. Teams will count with the support of great mentors like Aubrey de Grey, Nir Barzilai, Helena Salama, Pranjul Shah, Jean Hebert, Mika Teikari, Sonali Khanra, Pritam Kumar, and many others. You don't need a team or idea to participate, register and they can help you find a match.

• September 27th, 2021 - Longevity Investors Conference. Annual industry-focussed longevity conference put on by Marc P. Bernegger and Tobias Reichmuth of Maximon. Speakers include Sergey Young, Celine Halioua, Michael Greve, Brian Kennedy, Alex Zhavoronkov, and many others. (I’ve already purchased my ticket)
  

Know of any interesting longevity talks, meetings, or events? Please email me.

📡 Capital Raise Radar

I do not endorse or have affiliations with any of the companies listed below. This is not an offer to buy or sell securities. This is for informational purposes only. If you have intel on any other longevity companies currently raising please email me. It’s free.

• Stealth synbio & gut microbiome longevity company // Pre-seed // email for details

  • 2nd-time biotech founder

  • Novel synbio approach to longevity, not publicly disclosed

  • Looking to raise a pre-seed round

  • Contact for more details.

• Protein-based therapeutics for tissue regeneration startup // Series A // email me for more details

  • Proprietary protein library

  • Machine learning-enhanced drug discovery platform 

  • Pipeline of novel drug candidates

  • Contact for more details

• Stealth reprogramming startup // Seed // email for details

  • Not publicly disclosed. 

  • Contact for more details. 

• Rubedo Life Sciences // Series A // mentioned on The Longevity Biotech Show

  • Raising Series A in the very near future.

  • Developing a drug discovery platform first focussing on prodrugs to target senescent cells in a selective manner.

  • Team: Marco Quarta (Stanford), Julian Klein, Marc Gallop

• Yuva Biosciences // Currently raised $1.75M already (Seed) // Article

  • Developing compounds that target mitochondrial dysfunction to reverse aging. Includes natural compound cosmeceutical for skin aging and hair loss. Also developing pharmaceuticals for prostate / ovarian conditions.

  • Team: Keshav Singh (University of Alabama), Greg Schmergel (Nantero)

• Oncolife Therapeutics // Raising $2M - $3M // Slide deck

  • Developing drugs that modulate stem cell activity to treat cancer and aging

  • Team: Guy Barry (QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia), Paul Baldock (The Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, Australia)

• Gerostate Alpha // Raising $500k // WeFunder page

  • High-throughput phenotypic screen platform to discover anti-aging drugs.

  • A spinout from the Buck Institute for Aging. Y Combinator-backed startup.

  • Team includes academics from the Buck Institute: Simon Melov, Mark Lucanic, Gordon Lithgow. 

  • Crowdfunding on WeFunder. Open to all investors, even retail.

  • Already raised $2.1M on a $15M valuation.

• Ponce de Leon Health // Raising $15M // Article: 

  • Makers of Rejuvant Life Tabs, a calcium alpha-ketoglutarate supplement (CaAKG). Alpha-ketoglutarate is a key molecule in the Krebs cycle. Brian Kennedy (former head of Buck Institute, now at the National University of Singapore) is the CSO of this company.  

  • CaAKG supplementation reduces frailty and extends maximum lifespan of female mice by 20%. (Shahmirzhadi et al 2020)

  • Currently “soft-closed” $5.5 M for their Series B. Looking to raise up to $15 M total.

• Revivo Therapeutics// Raising: $5M // Slide Deck: 

  • Small molecule drugs that enhance cognition and reduce neuron excitability to treat neurodegenerative and CNS conditions (including anxiety and depression). 

  • Targets the nitric oxide and CREB pathways. 

  • Same team that built Cardioxyl ($2B exit to Bristol Myers Squib)

• Equator Therapeutics// Raising: $3M - $5M // Slide Deck: 

  • Mitochondrial uncoupler drug to burn fat through natural body heat production.

  • Targeting obesity, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, PCOS. 

  • Pro longevity: Exercise mimetic, increases mitochondrial biogenesis, etc

  • Y Combinator-backed company. 

  • Team: Jonah Sinick, Yuriy Kirichok, Michael Grabe, Liliya Gabelev, David Segura 

• + see all (click on “Capital Raise Radar”)

✨ Featured Longevity Jobs

Looking for jobs, companies, or investors in the longevity biotechnology industry? Check out my website LongevityList.com.

• Research Associate // Gordian Biotechnology // San Francisco, California 

• Cellular reprogramming scientists (wet or dry lab) // Retro Biosciences // San Francisco, California

• Scientist / Senior Scientist Discovery Biology // Rubedo Life Sciences // Sunnyvale, California

• Senior Scientist - Applications // Turn Bio // Mountain View, California

• Bioinformatics Data Science // Relation Therapeutics // Global (remote)

• Research Associate // Juvena Therapeutics // Palo Alto, California

• Operations Manager // Cambrian Biopharma // New York City, New York

• Chief of Staff // Loyal // San Francisco, California

• Medical Analyst for Rejuvenation Therapies // Forever Healthy // Karlsruhe, Germany or Remote

• Head of Consumer // Loyal // San Francisco, Remote

• + more longevity jobs

If you are hiring, email me a link to your job postings and I will post them on longevitylist.com (it’s free).

➕ New Companies on Longevity List

Some interesting longevity companies I have stumbled upon and added to the Longevity List database in the past week. Have any longevity company tips? Please email me. 

• Yap Therapeutics - A spinout from the Texas Heart Institute, this company is developing a gene therapy to modulate the Hippo pathway to induce regeneration of cardiac myocytes after heart attack.  

• Bit Bio - A Cambridge University spinout founded by Mark Kotter and Florian Schuster. The company is developing a precision reprogramming technology to create any cell type at scale. Initially, they will produce cells for research (in vitro studies, organoids) with possible future development of therapeutics. Investors include Rick Klausner and ARCH Venture Partners.  

• MetroBiotech - A David Sinclair company developing NAD+ boosting drugs. A clinical trial in partnership with the US military is planned for next year.

• Nanotics - A company developing a platform of artificial nano-scavengers capable of degrading specific signaling molecules in the blood.

Adventures in Longevity

I’ve been working full-time doing what I can to accelerate progress in longevity for just under a year now. 

In that time, I’ve started a longevity investing newsletter, jobs board, industry database, podcast, longevity biotech stock tracker, clinical trial tracker, mega longevity panel discussion series, venture fund, dabbled in longevity streetwear, made my first angel investment in a longevity company, met (virtually) many of my heroes, made so many new friends in longevity who have helped me along the way, and taken on the responsibility of Program Director for the Longevity Biotech Fellowship at On Deck.

And yes, some longevity memes were also made. (Exhibit A, B, C, D).

My relatively short but surprising adventure in longevity thus far reminds me of something Marc Andreesen wrote: 

“The world is a very malleable place. If you know what you want, and you go for it with maximum energy and drive and passion, the world will often reconfigure itself around you much more quickly and easily than you would think.”

I definitely believe this to be true — and in longevity especially, people are willing to help others who put in the effort.

There are two important keywords here, though:

Passion. How do people know if you are really passionate about something, like longevity? As readers of Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being1 would know, the word passion comes from the Latin root for “pain”. I know founders in this space that faced rejection after rejection from investors. Those who watched as their peers climbed career ladders while struggling with their own startup. Be aware that the path is often very painful and failure is common.

Go. Aging is a problem of the highest urgency and highest unmet need. 100,000+ people die of age-related diseases every day. The manner of decline and suffering associated with aging is inhumane for many -- and unfortunately, it’s in the cards for everyone if nothing is done about it. We need those who recognize the scale of the problem of biological aging to go take action today.

If you have been on the fence about getting involved in longevity consider taking the leap. There is capital flowing into the space and a lot more is on the way. There are a number of requests for startups from knowledgeable leaders in the field. There are programs to support longevity founders and operators (like the one I am organizing at On Deck).

All we need now is passionate people to go out there and meet the challenge of aging head-on. 

-NATHAN

My Links

Some of my projects, resources, and ways to support my mission. More projects coming…

Projects

• On Deck Longevity Biotech Fellowship (Program Director)- On Deck Longevity Biotech (ODLB) is a continuous community for people to come together to build, join, or invest in revolutionary longevity biotechnology startups.

• Healthspan Capital - An early-stage longevity biotech venture fund.

• Longevity List  - Find jobs, companies, and investors in the longevity industry. Email me if you want to add your job or company to the list. It’s free.

  • Longevity List Database- A handy Airtable base covering people, companies, trials, academic labs, and a list of longevity companies that are presently raising capital.

• LMC Clinical Trial Tracker- Longevity therapeutics in clinical trials. Completion calendar useful for investors who want to time data readout catalysts.

• LongevityMarketcap.com- The main page tracks prices of publicly traded longevity stocks.

• The Future of Longevity- A monthly series of public Q&As in themes and trends with experts in longevity science and industry. Co-hosted by Laura Minquini, Avi Roy, and me. 

• Longevity Biotech Show - Official website of the Clubhouse show / podcast. We interview the people building, funding, and championing technologies that extend healthy human lifespan. On Clubhouse / Spotify podcasts. 

• forum.longevitybase.org - An open question and answer system for aging biology and longevity biotechnology. 

• The One Percent Bet for Longevity Pledge - An initiative to get individuals and corporations to pledge at least 1% of their resources to fund longevity companies and research.

• LongevityBase.org -  An open-source volunteer initiative to itemize every instance of modulation of biological aging in the scientific literature.

• Humans for Longevity - A literary art project featuring the stories and motivations behind the people working on solving the problem of aging. 

Support

• Longevity List Merch Store- T-shirts and apparel to support my work. 10% of profit goes to SENS, João Pedro de Magalhaes’s lab, and the PEARL Rapamycin trial.

• Patreon - For people who want to support my work and mission. Premium tiers include access to my private Telegram group for behind-the-scenes thoughts and network.

• Twitter- Random thoughts and link shares. My DMs are open.

A special thanks to my Patreon supporters who have joined forces with me to undertake this mission.

1. Announcements

2. Last Week in Longevity

3. Longevity Futures

4. Capital Raise Radar

5. Longevity Jobs

6. New Companies on Longevity List 

7. Non-Traditional

8. My Links

*Disclaimer: None of this should be taken as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only.

Mission: To grow a wave of passionate people building, funding, and championing technologies that extend healthy human lifespan. 

If you want to be part of this mission alongside me, please consider supporting through Patreon or Longevity List Merch.

📢 Announcements 

• forum.longevitybase.org - A “StackExchange / Quora” for aging biology / longevity biotech. In open beta right now.Feel free to sign up and try it out. Email me if you would like to become a moderator or if you have some suggestions.

• The Longevity Biotech Show is officially a podcast! Check us out on Spotify and also Apple Podcasts.

• Longevity Virtual Coworking. Every Friday. Drop in hours: 12PM - 5PM EDT.If you are working on longevity or thinking about getting into the longevity industry, please join me for an experimental virtual longevity coworking space using the Pluto.Video web app. (No sign-up required.) (Room Link)  

• The 1% Bet for Longevity-- a website initiative.39 people have now signed up for the 1% Bet for Longevity Pledge. My goal is to get to 50,000 people and at least 100 companies to pledge 1% of their resources towards funding longevity companies and research by the end of the year. 

• Humans For Longevity. A project featuring a collection of stories from people who care about longevity and their motivations.

📝 Last Week in Longevity

Errata: The original version of this article incorrectly stated that Rubedo Life Science’s lead program was a “galacto-conjugate prodrug”. This has been corrected to “prodrug”.

• Biogen’s Alzheimer’s drug aducanumab gets FDA approval. On Monday, the FDA made a controversial decision to grant accelerated approval to Biogen’s aducanumab antibody therapy to treat Alzheimer’s disease. The approval is conditional on the requirement of Phase 4 trials that confirm aducanumab’s efficacy within nine years, or the approval could be rescinded by the FDA. This marks the first new drug approved for Alzheimer’s disease in 20 years.
  
  The approval was surprising. An independent expert committee convened last November voted overwhelmingly (10 objections, 1 abstain) against the approval of aducanumab, citing a failure to show strong evidence of its effectiveness to reduce cognitive decline. Biogen conducted two Phase 3 studies of aducanumab in Alzheimer’s disease, of which only one trial met a clinical endpoint of reduction of cognitive decline. The FDA’s decision of accelerated approval hinged on aducanumab’s demonstration of removal of beta-amyloid plaques, which the FDA “expects” will lead to a reduction in cognitive decline. The amyloid hypothesis is not a settled fact so this expectation is uncertain. On the plus side, this approval might pave the way for more favorable views on surrogate endpoints -- something that will be needed for trials in aging.
  
  The chatter on biotech Twitter / longevity Twitter was mostly of disbelief and cries of FDA corruption. There were a few notable sympathizers with the decision. Robert Nelson of ARCH Venture Partners believed that the conditional approval was the right move. Others did not mince words.
  
  Alzheimer’s disease is a manifestation of aging in the brain -- the risk factor goes up exponentially with age. Of note: 20-year-olds don’t get Alzheimer’s disease. The paradigm of the longevity therapeutics industry is that we can prevent age-related diseases like Alzheimer’s if we can treat the root cause (aging) before the pathology is possibly too far advanced to treat without replacement therapies like those championed by Jean Hebert.

• VitaDAO announces token sale from June 18th - June 23rd. VitaDAO is a decentralized autonomous organization that seeks to fund longevity research and commercialize the resulting intellectual property -- all on the Ethereum blockchain.
  
  The VitaDAO tokens generated in the “genesis” event starting June 18th give holders voting rights for research proposals, commercialization, and the operation of the DAO. Those that would like to participate in the token sale will need a non-exchange crypto wallet, such as Metamask, holding the desired amount of Ether (i.e Ethereum) they want to put into the sale (+network gas fees). Further instructions on how to interact with the genesis event smart contract will be released soon. See VitaDAO’s discord group for more information.
  

• Lineage Cell Therapeutics (NYSE:LCTX) announces additional cases of retinal restoration, OpRegen cell therapy. Lineage Cell Therapeutics is a regenerative medicine cell therapy company that develops allogeneic cell therapies to treat dry age-related macular degeneration (dry AMD), spinal cord injury, and cancer. Last week, the company announced two additional cases of sustained restoration (~ 6 months post-treatment) of retinal tissue in patients with dry AMD treated with Lineage’s OpRegen RPE cell replacement therapy. Visual acuity in these patients was also above baseline after 6 months. Lineage’s stock surged 26% on the news.
  
  Dry AMD is an age-related ocular disease that leads to vision loss. It is characterized by the buildup of drusen deposits under the retina, and loss of retinal pigment epithelial cells (RPE cells) and photoreceptors. Dry AMD affects ~ 9 million people in the US alone and there are no effective FDA-approved treatments.
  
  Lineage’s data is a remarkable result and a major win for replacement therapies and regenerative medicine: It is a reversal of CNS tissue damage caused by aging. While other companies like Astellas had attempted a similar RPE cell therapy in the past, the results of improved visual acuity were not sustained past 3 years.
  

• HCW Biologics files for IPO. HCW Biologics is a clinical-stage Florida-based biotech that develops fusion protein therapies that modulate inflammaging in order to treat cancer and other age-related diseases. Last week, the company announced it was seeking to raise $50M in an IPO listing on the NASDAQ. Their S-1 can be found here.
  
  Of note, HCW Biologic’s HCW9218 is designed to block transforming growth factor-ß (TGF-ß), which is believed to have immunosuppressive and pro-cellular senescence activity. Initial indications for HCW9218 are cancer (to remove chemotherapy-induced senescent cells) and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).
  
  Inflammation and immune system dysregulation have been linked to aging (“inflammaging”) and there are several companies developing anti-aging therapeutics in these contexts. The connection between senescent cells, SASP, cancer, and chemotherapy is being targeted by longevity startups like Rejuversen and Oncosence. 

• Loyal announces partnership with Morris Hospital to study aging in golden retrievers. Loyal is a startup founded by Celine Halioua that is developing anti-aging drugs to extend lifespan first in dogs. The company recently announced a partnership with Morris Hospital to do a lifespan/cancer aging study in golden retrievers -- a breed known for its propensity to cancer. Loyal will measure DNA methylation in blood samples collected over nine years of life of the retrievers in the study.
  
  Ostensibly this will allow the company to develop a methylation clock specific to golden retrievers that might be predictive of mortality or disease. Loyal is already conducting their own shorter multi-breed dog healthspan study in collaboration with multiple veterinarian clinics in the United States.
  

• Rubedo Life Science announces partnership with Cedars-Mount Sinai for IPF study. Rubedo Life Science is a Khosla Ventures-backed anti-aging drug startup co-founded by Marco Quarta. The company’s lead program is a prodrug that clears senescent cells in order to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Last week Rubedo announced a partnership with Cedars-Mount Sinai Medical Center to advance their IPF trial to the clinic. For more about Rubedo Life Science, check out my interview with CEO and co-founder, Marco Quarta on The Longevity Biotech Show.
  

• Thoughts on why resTORbio’s Phase 3 Trial failed. resTORbio was a Novartis spinout that was developing a rapamycin analog to treat aging. It failed its Phase 3 trial in November 2019. A recent report published in The Lancet from the team at resTORbio gave insight into the full analysis of their Phase 2/3 trials of RTB101, an mTOR inhibitor similar to rapamycin. In both trials, RTB101 administration was well tolerated and lead to an increased upregulation of IFN-induced antiviral responses in elderly patients.

  Matt Kaeberlein, a researcher at Washington University and one of the leads at the Dog Aging Project (which includes a small rapamycin trial), believes that results published by resTORbio are actually quite promising for mTOR inhibitors. The failure of the RTB101 Phase 3 trial appears to be have been due to the FDA’s request to change the endpoint selection to a reduction of respiratory tract infection as measured by self-reported symptom questionnaires instead of laboratory-confirmed tests (as in Phase 2). 

  resTORbio was formed as a Novartis spinout helmed by Joan Mannick (now at Life Biosciences, David Sinclair’s anti-aging umbrella company). After restTORbio’s failure, it underwent a reverse-merger with Adicet Bio, a CAR-T biotech company. resTORbio still has data forthcoming in a Phase 2 Covid-19 prophylaxis trial conducted in partnership with the National Institutes on Aging. The trial was slated to be completed in February 2021.  

📅 Longevity Futures

• Thursday, June 10th, 2021 @ 1:00PM PDT / 4:00PM EDT: Sebastian Brunemeier (ex Apollo Health Ventures, Cambrian Biopharma) on The Longevity Biotech Show, Clubhouse App. 

  • Join us for a conversation with Sebastian Brunememeier, co-founder of Cambrian Biopharma and former venture capitalist at Apollo Health Ventures. 

  • Clubhouse app is now on Android. 

  • For past recordings and show schedule visit: LongevityBiotechShow.com or Spotify. Here are some previous episodes:

    • #015: Marinna Madrid (Cellino) - June 3rd, 2021.

    • #014: Tyler Golato (VitaDAO) - May 27th, 2021

    • #013: Marco Quarta (Rubedo Life Science) - May 20th, 2021

    • #012: Matt Scholz (Oisin Biotechnologies) - May 6th, 2021

    • #011: Kristen Fortney (BioAge Labs) - April 29th, 2021.

    • #010: Jean Hebert (Albert Einstein College of Medicine) - April 22nd, 2021.
      

• June 10th @ 9:30AM ET. ARK Innovation and Commercialisation Series: In Conversation with Jim Mellon. Jim Mellon is a billionaire longevity investor, co-founder of Juvenescence, and author of the book of the same name.  

• June 11th @ 9:45 AM CET. RESETaging conference. Speakers includ Manuel Serrano, Joao Pedro de Magalhaes, and more.

June 15th @ 1PM ET. MEGA Longevity Panel: The scientists working on reversing aging. Avi Roy (Oxford), Laura Minquini (MYKIGAI), and I have organized an incredible panel of some of the biggest names in anti-aging / longevity including Aubrey de Grey, David Sinclair, Jean Hebert, Joao Pedro de Magalhaes, David Gobel, Greg Fahy, Liz Parrish, and Alexandra Stolzing.  

• Summer Aging Seminars at Loyal. Celine Halioua, the founder of dog life-extension startup Loyal, is putting on aging science seminars this summer at their headquarters in San Francisco. Register to join.

• July 8th @ 4PM PT. Science of Aging Seminar by Martin Borch Jensen (Gordian Biotechnology). Hosted by 50 Years -- a venture capital firm founded by Seth Bannon. (Likely an investor in Gordian -- see website)  

• July 20th - 23rd, 2021. American Aging Association Annual Meeting / Conference. Speakers include Andrew Brack (UCSF, Arrive Bio), Morgan Levine, Vadim Gladyshev, Luigi Ferrucci. 

• August 31st, 2021 - September 3, 2021. Aging Research and Drug Discovery Conference 2021.Online. $49 for a 3-day pass. The first day of the conference is free to attend. An incredible lineup of speakers including David Sinclair, Alex Zhavoronkov, Thomas Rando, Peter de Keizer, Collin Ewald, Kristen Fortney, Nir Barzilai, Brian Kennedy, Manuel Serrano, Vera Gorbunova, and many others.

Know of any interesting longevity talks, meetings, or events? Please email me.

📡 Capital Raise Radar

I do not endorse or have affiliations with any of the companies listed below. This is not an offer to buy or sell securities. This is for informational purposes only. If you have intel on any other longevity companies currently raising please email me. It’s free.

• Stealth reprogramming startup // Seed // (email for details)

  • Not publicly disclosed. 

  • Email me for details. 

• Rubedo Life Sciences // Series A // mentioned on The Longevity Biotech Show

  • Raising Series A in the very near future.

  • Developing a drug discovery platform first focussing on prodrugs to target senescent cells in a selective manner.

  • Team: Marco Quarta (Stanford), Julian Klein, Marc Gallop

• Yuva Biosciences // Currently raised $1.75M already (Seed) // Article

  • Developing compounds that target mitochondrial dysfunction to reverse aging. Includes natural compound cosmeceutical for skin aging and hair loss. Also developing pharmaceuticals for prostate / ovarian conditions.

  • Team: Keshav Singh (University of Alabama), Greg Schmergel (Nantero)

• Oncolife Therapeutics // Raising $2M - $3M // Slide deck

  • Developing drugs that modulate stem cell activity to treat cancer and aging

  • Team: Guy Barry (QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia), Paul Baldock (The Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, Australia)

• Gerostate Alpha // Raising $500k // WeFunder page

  • High-throughput phenotypic screen platform to discover anti-aging drugs.

  • A spinout from the Buck Institute for Aging. Y Combinator-backed startup.

  • Team includes academics from the Buck Institute: Simon Melov, Mark Lucanic, Gordon Lithgow. 

  • Crowdfunding on WeFunder. Open to all investors, even retail.

  • Already raised $2.1M on a $15M valuation.

• Ponce de Leon Health // Raising $15M // Article: 

  • Makers of Rejuvant Life Tabs, a calcium alpha-ketoglutarate supplement (CaAKG). Alpha-ketoglutarate is a key molecule in the Krebs cycle. Brian Kennedy (former head of Buck Institute, now at the National University of Singapore) is the CSO of this company.  

  • CaAKG supplementation reduces frailty and extends maximum lifespan of female mice by 20%. (Shahmirzhadi et al 2020)

  • Currently “soft-closed” $5.5 M for their Series B. Looking to raise up to $15 M total.

• Revivo Therapeutics// Raising: $5M // Slide Deck: 

  • Small molecule drugs that enhance cognition and reduce neuron excitability to treat neurodegenerative and CNS conditions (including anxiety and depression). 

  • Targets the nitric oxide and CREB pathways. 

  • Same team that built Cardioxyl ($2B exit to Bristol Myers Squib)

• Equator Therapeutics// Raising: $3M - $5M // Slide Deck: 

  • Mitochondrial uncoupler drug to burn fat through natural body heat production.

  • Targeting obesity, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, PCOS. 

  • Pro longevity: Exercise mimetic, increases mitochondrial biogenesis, etc

  • Y Combinator-backed company. 

  • Team: Jonah Sinick, Yuriy Kirichok, Michael Grabe, Liliya Gabelev, David Segura 

• + see all (click on “Capital Raise Radar”)

✨ Featured Longevity Jobs

Looking for jobs, companies, or investors in the longevity biotechnology industry? Check out my website LongevityList.com.

• Senior Project Manager, Research // AgelessRx // Remote

• Research Associate, Scientist- Boominathan Lab // SENS Research Foundation // Mountain View, California

• Postdoctoral Research Fellow // SENS Research Foundation // Mountain View, California

• Research Associate // SENS Research Foundation // Mountain View, California

• C elegans Research Scientist// Magnitude Biosciences // Durham, England

• Research Associate Immunology // SENS Research Foundation // Mountain View, California

• Senior Scientist - Applications// Turn Bio // Mountain View, California

• Senior Scientist - Technology // Turn Bio // Mountain View, California 

• Medical Analyst for Rejuvenation Therapies // Forever Healthy // Karlsruhe, Germany or Remote

• Analyst for Functional and Preventive Medicine​ // Forever Healthy // Karlsruhe, Germany or Remote

• Scientific Spokesperson // Forever Healthy // Karlsruhe, Germany or Remote

• Head of Global Communications // Forever Healthy // Karlsruhe, Germany or Remote 

• Head of Consumer // Loyal // San Francisco, Remote

• Computational Bio Internship // Loyal // San Francisco? / Remote?

• SPAC Investment Professional // Maximon // Zug, Switzerland

• Associate Director/Director of In Vivo Biology/Pharmacology// BioAge Labs // Richmond, CA, USA

• + more longevity jobs

If you are hiring, email me a link to your job postings and I will post them on longevitylist.com (it’s free).

➕ New Companies on Longevity List

Some interesting longevity companies I have stumbled upon and added to the Longevity List database in the past week. Have any longevity company tips? Please email me. 

• HCW Biologics: A company developing fusion proteins to modulate the immune system and inflammation to treat cancer and age-related diseases. HCW9028 is a TGF-beta inhibitor that acts on the nexus of senescence, SASP, and immune system dysregulation. HCW9028 is being developed to treat cancer (in the context of chemotherapy-induced senescence) and IPF.

• Myoforte Therapeutics: A company developing regenerative medicine to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy, local muscle atrophy, and sarcopenia. Myoforte’s key asset is a small molecule drug that activates muscle stem cells to regenerate muscle (in mice). It achieves this by inhibiting 15-PGDH, which in turn raises levels of prostaglandin E2. The company is a spinout from Helen Blau’s lab at Stanford. *Thanks to a reader from Japan for this company tip.

• Synthetic Biologic (NYSE:SYN): A publicly traded company that develops a recombinant version of intestinal alkaline phosphatase -- a protein enzyme that increases median lifespan in mice by ~+40%. The company also develops other drugs that target the gut microbiome or gut barrier health. 

Non-Traditional

Not everyone in longevity comes from the traditional biology track. The overarching mission of the longevity biotech industry tends to draw in people from diverse fields -- many from outside of the biological sciences. 

This is a good thing. Not only does it reinforces the notion that anyone can get involved in longevity, it also increases the diversity of thought and approaches to the problem of aging. Historically speaking, some of the biggest advances in biology were catalyzed by those outside the field (Delbruck, Schrodinger, and Crick, for instance) 

Here’s a list of just some of the prominent people within the longevity industry that came from backgrounds outside of the traditional biological sciences. 

Note: There are also ways to get involved in the longevity industry that are specifically NOT biology or AI machine learning jobs. See LongevityList.com for job listings.

Note 2: A majority of the founders of longevity-focussed venture funds do not come from traditional biotech.

Aubrey de Grey

Affiliation: Founder SENS Research Foundation

Background: Computer science, AI

Aubrey de Grey is considered one of the founders of the anti-aging field. He was the first to popularize the idea of damage repair with the seven SENS categories of aging damage -- very similar to the mainstream nine Hallmarks of Aging that would come several years later. His popular book, Ending Aging, inspired countless numbers of people to get involved in solving the problem of biological aging (the author of this newsletter included). 

Despite being one of the founders of the anti-aging space, he has no formal biology training. Aubrey de Grey received a Bachelor’s degree in computer science from Cambridge and worked as an artificial intelligence researcher at Sinclair Research. He learned biology on his own from reading papers and attending conferences. He proposed a theory of aging, the Mitochondrial Free Radical Theory of Aging, in his book of the same name published in 1999. For this publication, he was awarded a Ph.D. from Cambridge. 

Laura Deming

Affiliation: Founder, The Longevity Fund

Background: Physics, Cynthia Kenyon’s Lab.

In 2011, Laura Deming, a Thiel Fellow and former protege of Cynthia Kenyon, founded the first longevity-focussed venture fund at the age of 17. Although she did some C. elegans biology work in Kenyon’s lab when she was 14, she actually went on to study physics at MIT. Laura Deming would later drop out after being awarded a Thiel Fellowship. The rest is history. 

Laura Deming’s style of thought is heavily influenced by physics (She live streams Gedanken experiments on Twitch, has a fondness for bionumbers, first principles thinking, etc). Her fund, The Longevity Fund, invests in companies that sometimes have an unusual aging angle. 

Matt Scholz

Affiliation: Oisin Biotechnologies, OncoSenX, Immusoft

Background: Computer science, physics

Matt Scholz started his career in computer science and computer security. His first biotech company, Immusoft, was envisioned as the first app store for the human body. Scholz started the company after he spent a couple of years self-learning biology by reading biomedical papers and inundating academic researchers with questions. 

Currently, Matt is running two biotech companies, OncoSenX and Oisin Biotechnologies -- gene therapy companies in oncology and aging respectively. He has repeatedly stated that his north star belief for these companies is that “the essence of life is information”.

Ben Kamens

Affiliation: Founder, Spring Discovery

Background: Software engineering, computer science

Ben Kamens was founding engineer and VP of Engineering at Khan Academy. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in computer science and philosophy from Duke University. In a Clubhouse conversation with General Catalyst’s Katherine Boyle earlier this year, he recounted how he self-learned biology and went down the proverbial “rabbit hole” of aging biology. 

In 2017, with the encouragement of Laura Deming, he founded Spring Discovery, a startup with a drug discovery platform that uses AI/ML and lab automation to develop therapies that treat aging and its diseases. Spring Discovery raised an $18M Series A in 2018.

Reason

Affiliation: Repair Biotechnologies, FightAging.org

Background: Space physics, astrophysics

Reason has been writing about aging biology since 2002 at his blog fightaging.org -- one of the best resources in longevity and aging biology. He received Master’s degrees in Space Physics and Astrophysics. 

In 2018 he founded Repair Biotechnologies alongside Bill Cherman. The company is developing a gene therapy to degrade cholesterol plaques in order to treat atherosclerosis. 

Jonah Sinick 

Affiliation: CEO Equator Therapeutics, formerly Head of Data Science BioAge Labs

Background: Mathematics

Jonah Sinick received his Ph.D. in Mathematics at the University of Illinois (focus on number theory and hyperbolic geometry). He was formerly head of Data Science at Kristen Fortney’s BioAge Labs before he became CEO of Equator Therapeutics -- a Y Combinator startup that is developing a mitochondrial uncoupler drug. 

Peter Fedichev

Affiliation: Founder, Gero

Background: Physics

Peter Fedichev is a theoretical physicist and biotechnology founder. He received his Master’s in Physics at Moscow State University and his Ph.D at Amsterdam University. He was an assistant professor of physics at the University of Innsbruck.

At some point around 2012 Peter Fedichev switched from writing mostly physics papers with titles like “Liquid-liquid phase transition model incorporating evidence for ferroelectric state near the lambda-point anomaly in supercooled water” to more biology and drug discovery related papers. In 2012, Fedichev co-founded Gero, an AI drug discovery startup that leverages data from whole-exome sequencing.

Note: Fedichev’s LinkedIn profile reads: “Сuring the uncurable with Landau Lifshitz book and a bit of AI”. Landau and Lifshitz is a legendary tome on theoretical physics. 

Joe Betts-LaCroix

Affiliation: Founder, Retro Biosciences, Vium

Background: Earth sciences, robotics, biophysics

Joe Betts-LaCroix’s background is multi-disciplinary to the extreme. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in earth sciences, a Master’s degree in robotics at MIT, and did biophysics research at Caltech. He has experience founding DNA sequencing and electronics companies, built the world’s smallest personal computer at a time, and was also a co-founder of Vium -- a digital vivarium company. 

He is currently the founder of Retro Biosciences, a startup that uses high-throughput, high-dimensional approaches to develop therapies for diseases driven by the biology of aging.

My Links

Some of my projects, resources, and ways to support my mission. More projects coming…

Projects

• Longevity List  - Find jobs, companies, and investors in the longevity industry. Email me if you want to add your job or company to the list. It’s free.

• Longevity List Database- A handy Airtable base covering people, companies, trials, academic labs, and a list of longevity companies that are presently raising capital.

• LMC Clinical Trial Tracker- Longevity therapeutics in clinical trials. Completion calendar useful for investors who want to time data readout catalysts.

• LongevityMarketcap.com- The main page tracks prices of publicly traded longevity stocks.

• Longevity Biotech Show - Official website of the Clubhouse show / podcast. We interview the people building, funding, and championing technologies that extend healthy human lifespan. On Clubhouse / Spotify podcasts. 

• The One Percent Bet for Longevity Pledge - An initiative to get individuals and corporations to pledge at least 1% of their resources to fund longevity companies and research.

• LongevityBase.org -  An open-source volunteer initiative to itemize every instance of modulation of biological aging in the scientific literature.

• forum.longevitybase.org - An open question and answer system for aging biology and longevity biotechnology. 

• Humans for Longevity - A literary art project featuring the stories and motivations behind the people working on solving the problem of aging. 

Support

• Longevity List Merch Store- T-shirts and apparel to support my work. 10% of profit goes to SENS, João Pedro de Magalhaes’s lab, and the PEARL Rapamycin trial.

• Patreon - For people who want to support my work and mission. Premium tiers include access to my private Telegram group for behind-the-scenes thoughts and network.

• Twitter- Random thoughts and link shares. My DMs are open.

A special thanks to my Patreon supporters who have joined forces with me to undertake this mission.

Not true!

Not everyone in longevity comes from the traditional biology track. The overarching mission of the longevity biotech industry tends to draw in highly motivated people from diverse fields -- many from outside of the biological sciences. 

This is important.

There is a lack of founders in longevity so encouraging those with non-traditional backgrounds increases the founder pool and diversity in ways of thinking. Note: Historically speaking, some of the biggest advances in biology were catalyzed by those outside the field (Delbruck, Schrodinger, and Crick, for instance) 

Here’s a non-exhaustive list of some of the prominent people within the longevity industry that came from backgrounds outside of the traditional biological sciences. 

Note: There are also ways to get involved in the longevity industry that are specifically NOT biology or AI machine learning jobs. See LongevityList.com for job listings.

Note 2: A majority of the founders of longevity-focussed venture funds do not come from traditional biotech.

Ben Kamens

Affiliation: Founder, Spring Discovery

Background: Software engineering, computer science

Ben Kamens was founding engineer and VP of Engineering at Khan Academy. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in computer science and philosophy from Duke University. In a Clubhouse conversation with General Catalyst’s Katherine Boyle earlier this year, he recounted how he self-learned biology and went down the proverbial rabbit hole of aging biology. 

In 2017, with the encouragement of Laura Deming, he founded Spring Discovery, a startup with a drug discovery platform that uses AI/ML and lab automation to develop therapies that treat aging and its diseases. Spring Discovery raised a $18M Series A in 2018.

Matt Scholz

Affiliation: Oisin Biotechnologies, OncoSenX, Immusoft

Background: Computer science, physics

Matt Scholz started his career in computer science and computer security. His first biotech company, Immusoft, was envisioned as the first app store for the human body. Scholz started the company after he spent a couple of years self-learning biology by reading biomedical papers and inundating academic researchers with questions. 

Currently, Matt is running two biotech companies, OncoSenX and Oisin Biotechnologies -- gene therapy companies in oncology and aging respectively. He has repeatedly stated that his north star belief for these companies is that “the essence of life is information”.

Reason

Affiliation: Repair Biotechnologies, FightAging.org

Background: Space physics, astrophysics

Reason has been writing about aging biology since 2002 at his blog fightaging.org -- one of the best resources in longevity and aging biology. He received Master’s degrees in Space Physics and Astrophysics. 

In 2018 he founded Repair Biotechnologies alongside Bill Cherman (who also does not come the traditional biology track). The company is developing a gene therapy to degrade cholesterol plaques in order to treat atherosclerosis. 

Joe Betts-LaCroix

Affiliation: Founder, Retro Biosciences, Vium

Background: Earth sciences, robotics, biophysics

Joe Betts-LaCroix’s background is multi-disciplinary to the extreme. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in earth sciences, a Master’s degree in robotics at MIT, and did biophysics research at Caltech. He has experience founding DNA sequencing and electronics companies, built the world’s smallest personal computer at a time, and was also a co-founder of Vium -- a digital vivarium company. 

He is currently a co-founder of Retro Biosciences, a startup that uses high-throughput, high-dimensional approaches to develop therapies for diseases driven by the biology of aging.

Daniel Oliver

Affiliation: Rejuvenate Bio

Background: Mechanical Engineering, Business

Daniel Oliver received a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Caltech and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He met his future co-founder and CSO of Rejuvenate Bio, Noah Davidsohn, as an undergrad at Caltech.

Rejuvenate Bio is a George Church lab spinout that is developing a combination gene therapy to reverse aging in dogs. In an interview on the Longevity Biotech Show, Oliver shared his views on how he views his role as CEO:

“Your job as a business person or a CEO is trying to remove as many barriers to the science making progress as possible because at the end of the day, that's what moves the needle. And so anything I could do to take something off [my co-founder] Noah's plate to allow him to push the science forward or find ways of expediting any of those experiments or things like that — I think that's the most meaningful thing. Cause that's the thing that takes the longest.”

Jonah Sinick 

Affiliation: CEO Equator Therapeutics, formerly Head of Data Science BioAge Labs

Background: Mathematics

Jonah Sinick received his Ph.D. in Mathematics at the University of Illinois (focus on number theory and hyperbolic geometry). He was formerly head of Data Science at Kristen Fortney’s BioAge Labs before he became CEO of Equator Therapeutics -- a Y Combinator startup that is developing a mitochondrial uncoupler drug. 

Peter Fedichev

Affiliation: Co-founder, Gero

Background: Physics

Peter Fedichev is a theoretical physicist and biotechnology founder. He received his Master’s in Physics at Moscow State University and his Ph.D at Amsterdam University. He was an assistant professor of physics at the University of Innsbruck.

At some point around 2012, Fedichev switched from writing mostly physics papers with titles like “Liquid-liquid phase transition model incorporating evidence for ferroelectric state near the lambda-point anomaly in supercooled water” to more biology and drug discovery related papers. In 2012, Fedichev co-founded Gero, an AI drug discovery startup that leverages data from whole-exome sequencing. An affiliated company, Gero Sense attempts to develop biomarkers of aging using biometric and biotracking data.

Note: Fedichev’s LinkedIn profile reads: “Сuring the uncurable with Landau Lifshitz book and a bit of AI”. Landau and Lifshitz is a legendary tome on theoretical physics. 

Aubrey de Grey

Affiliation: Founder SENS Research Foundation

Background: Computer science, AI

Aubrey de Grey is considered one of the most influential leaders of the anti-aging field. He is most known for popularizing the idea of damage repair with the seven SENS categories of aging damage -- very similar to the mainstream nine Hallmarks of Aging that would come several years later. His popular book, Ending Aging, inspired countless numbers of people to get involved in solving the problem of biological aging.

Despite being one of the founders of the anti-aging space, he has no formal biology training. Aubrey de Grey received a Bachelor’s degree in computer science from Cambridge and worked as an artificial intelligence researcher at Sinclair Research. He learned biology on his own from reading papers and attending conferences. He proposed a theory of aging, the Mitochondrial Free Radical Theory of Aging, in his book of the same name published in 1999. For this publication, he was awarded a Ph.D. from Cambridge. 

Laura Deming

Affiliation: Founder, The Longevity Fund

Background: Physics, Cynthia Kenyon’s Lab.

In 2011, Laura Deming, a Thiel Fellow and former protege of Cynthia Kenyon, founded the first longevity-focussed venture fund at the age of 17. Although she did some C. elegans biology work in Kenyon’s lab when she was 14, she actually went on to study physics at MIT. Laura Deming would later drop out after being awarded a Thiel Fellowship. The rest is history. 

Laura Deming’s style of thought is heavily influenced by physics (She live streams Gedanken experiments on Twitch, has a fondness for bionumbers, first principles thinking, etc). Her fund, The Longevity Fund, invests in companies that often have an unusual aging angle. 

Jose Luis Ricon

Affiliation: Independent researcher @ Nintil.com, Astera Institute / Rejuvenome Project

Background: Aerospace/mechanical engineering

Jose Luis Ricon is most known for his comprehensive — yet accessible, essays on aging biology (and other topics) posted on Nintil.com. His Longevity FAQ is the best introduction to longevity that I recommend to newcomers to the field. He’s also been instrumental player in the Rejuvenome project, which will test multiple combinations of anti-aging interventions in mice while collecting a mountain of multi-omics data.

His formal training was in mechanical and aerospace engineering and also spent some time as a software engineer at Twitter.

Joining the longevity industry

Are you interested in doing something about aging by getting involved in longevity startups? The On Deck Longevity Biotech Fellowship is a community of founders, operators, experts, and investors all focussed on building revolutionary longevity biotech startups. We are currently accepting applications till August 31st for the next cohort that kicks off September 12th.

1. Announcements

2. Last Week in Longevity

3. Longevity Futures

4. Capital Raise Radar

5. Longevity Jobs

6. New Companies on Longevity List 

7. How to Start a Longevity Biotech Company

8. My Links

*Disclaimer: None of this should be taken as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only.

Mission: To grow a wave of passionate people building, funding, and championing technologies that extend healthy human lifespan. 

If you want to be part of this mission alongside me, please consider supporting through Patreon or Longevity List Merch.

📢 Announcements 

• forum.longevitybase.org - A “StackExchange / Quora” for aging biology / longevity biotech. In open beta right now. Feel free to sign up and try it out. Email me if you would like to become a moderator or if you have some suggestions.

• The Longevity Biotech Show is officially a podcast! Check us out on Spotify and also Apple Podcasts.

• Longevity Virtual Coworking. Every Friday. Drop in hours: 12PM - 5PM EDT. If you are working on longevity or thinking about getting into the longevity industry, please join me for an experimental virtual longevity coworking space using the Pluto.Video web app. (No sign-up required.) (Room Link)  

• The 1% Bet for Longevity-- a website initiative.39 people have now signed up for the 1% Bet for Longevity Pledge. My goal is to get to 50,000 people and at least 100 companies to pledge 1% of their resources towards funding longevity companies and research by the end of the year. 

• Humans For Longevity. A project featuring a collection of stories from people who care about longevity and their motivations.

📝 Last Week in Longevity

• Oisin Biotechnologies raises $5M seed round. Oisin Biotechnologies is a preclinical-stage gene therapy longevity company founded by Matt Scholz and Gary Hudson. This week the company announced the completion of a $5M oversubscribed seed round led by Althea Capital LLC. The company plans to use the capital to advance its preclinical studies, with results in chronic kidney disease coming later this year.
  
  Oisin’s lead program is a senolytic gene therapy for chronic kidney disease. In preclinical studies, the company’s therapy was able to reduce senescent cell burden in naturally aged mice and also extend lifespan by 20 percent. On The Longevity Biotech Show podcast two weeks ago, Matt Scholz stated that Oisin was planning to enter the clinic in 18 months. 

  Oisin’s technology uses a unique neutrally charged proteo-lipid nanoparticle for gene delivery, which allows for broad biodistribution and repeated dosing -- something that is difficult with the more common charged nanoparticle vehicles or viral vectors. A general gene therapy delivery platform that can express genes in a targeted and reliable manner would be an incredible development for longevity therapeutics with applications beyond just senolytics. Scholz has previously stated his intentions to grow Oisin Biotechnologies into the“Pfizer of aging”. 

• Loyal announces $11M seed round. Loyal is a startup founded by Celine Halioua that is developing anti-aging therapies by first focussing on extending lifespan in dogs. In a profile article written by Ashley Vance (Elon Musk’s biographer) in Bloomberg, Celine Halioua revealed that the company had raised an $11M seed round is planning to enter the clinic (for dogs) in 2022.

  Loyal is one of the most exciting longevity startups in the industry due in part to their clever canine-first approach. But despite all the building in public Celine Halioua does on Twitter and her blog, the company remains very stealthy in regards to their target and modality. Considering their plan involves going from dogs to humans, the target is likely a conserved pathway (mTOR? IGF?). 

• HAYA Therapeutics comes out of stealth with $20M in seed funding. HAYA Therapeutics is a Swiss-based biotech company that is developing antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) therapies that target long non-coding RNAs (lncRNA) to inhibit fibrosis. The company raised $20M from Apollo Health Ventures, BERNINA BioInvest, 4See Ventures, Schroder Adveq, and Viva BioInnovator.
  
  HAYA Therapeutics was founded by Samir Ounzain, a post-doctoral researcher at Lausanne University Hospital. The company is based on Ounzain’s work on Wisper, a long non-coding RNA that is linked to fibrosis after heart injury. Ounzain showed that an antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) that silenced Wisper could attenuate myocardial infarction-induced fibrosis in the heart and improve cardiac function. HAYA is planning to enter the clinic in 2 - 3 years, with hypertrophic myopathy as their first indication. The company plans to target a number of fibrotic diseases in the future.
  
  80%+ of the human genome is made of non-coding regions (i.e sequences that don’t translate into proteins). Some of the long sequences of DNA in the non-coding regions (lncRNA) are believed to play a role in gene transcription, post-translational regulation, and epigenetic regulation, and other processes. Many of these lncRNAs are implicated in aging and inflammation. 

• GenSight Biologics optogenetics therapy enables vision in a patient with retinitis pigmentosa. GenSight Biologics is a French gene therapy company that focuses on diseases of blindness. Last week the company published results in Nature Medicine demonstrating an optogenetic therapy that enabled partial vision in a single patient with retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited disease that causes loss of vision due to deterioration of photoreceptors.
  
  GenSight’s therapy (GS030) inserts a bacterial gene that encodes a light-sensitive protein into retinal ganglion cells. In order to properly activate these pseudo-photoreceptors, the patient must wear biomimetic goggles that amplify the light in a specific frequency range.
  
  GenSight’s therapy (GS030) is also being developed for patients with dry age-related macular degeneration. GenSight also has a gene therapy that treats a rare mitochondrial disease of blindness (LHON) through the allotopic expression of mtDNA in the nucleus -- one of the proposed main methods of damage repair in Ending Aging.
  

• Google launches a semantic search engine for biomedical research. This is not directly related to longevity but I feel like everyone should know that this amazing tool exists.

📅 Longevity Futures

• Thursday, June 3rd, 2021 @ 1:00PM PDT / 4:00PM EDT: Marinna Madrid (Cellino) on The Longevity Biotech Show, Clubhouse App.

  • Join us for a conversation with Marinna Madrid, co-founder of Cellino, a laser-editing stem cell company.

  • Clubhouse app is now on Android. 

  • Sign up for reminders via Google Calendar. Click this link for email reminders for all future Longevity Biotech Show events. 

  • For past recordings and show schedule visit: LongevityBiotechShow.com or Spotify. Here are some previous episodes:

    • #012: Matt Scholz (Oisin Biotechnologies) - May 6th, 2021

    • #011: Kristen Fortney (BioAge Labs) - April 29th, 2021.

    • #010: Jean Hebert (Albert Einstein College of Medicine) - April 22nd, 2021. 

    • #009: Keshav Singh & Greg Schmergel (Yuva Biosciences) - April 15th, 2021.

    • #008: Marc Bernegger, Tobias Reichmuth, Collin Ewald (Maximon) - April 8th, 2021.

    • #007: Daniel Ives (Shift Biosciences) - April 1st, 2021.
      

• Friday, May 28th, 2021 @ 8AM PT / 11AM ET. Sergey Young (Longevity Vision Fund) and David Sinclair (Life Biosciences, Harvard Medical School, Lifespan book) live AMA.

• Summer Aging Seminars at Loyal. Celine Halioua, the founder of dog life-extension startup Loyal, is putting on aging science seminars this summer at their headquarters in San Francisco. Register to join.

• July 20th - 23rd, 2021. American Aging Association Annual Meeting / Conference. Speakers include Andrew Brack (UCSF, Arrive Bio), Morgan Levine, Vadim Gladyshev, Luigi Ferrucci. 

• August 31st, 2021 - September 3, 2021. Aging Research and Drug Discovery Conference 2021.Online. $49 for a 3-day pass. The first day of the conference is free to attend. An incredible lineup of speakers including David Sinclair, Alex Zhavoronkov, Thomas Rando, Peter de Keizer, Collin Ewald, Kristen Fortney, Nir Barzilai, Brian Kennedy, Manuel Serrano, Vera Gorbunova, and many others.

Know of any interesting longevity talks, meetings, or events? Please email me.

📡 Capital Raise Radar

I do not endorse or have affiliations with any of the companies listed below. This is not an offer to buy or sell securities. This is for informational purposes only. If you have intel on any other longevity companies currently raising please email me. It’s free.

• Rubedo Life Sciences // Series A // mentioned on The Longevity Biotech Show

  • Raising Series A in the very near future.

  • Developing a drug discovery platform first focussing on prodrugs to target senescent cells in a selective manner.

  • Team: Marco Quarta (Stanford), Julian Klein, Marc Gallop

• Yuva Biosciences // Currently raised $1.75M already (Seed) // Article

  • Developing compounds that target mitochondrial dysfunction to reverse aging. Includes natural compound cosmeceutical for skin aging and hair loss. Also developing pharmaceuticals for prostate / ovarian conditions.

  • Team: Keshav Singh (University of Alabama), Greg Schmergel (Nantero)

• Oncolife Therapeutics // Raising $2M - $3M // Slide deck

  • Developing drugs that modulate stem cell activity to treat cancer and aging

  • Team: Guy Barry (QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia), Paul Baldock (The Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, Australia)

• Gerostate Alpha // Raising $500k // WeFunder page

  • High-throughput phenotypic screen platform to discover anti-aging drugs.

  • A spinout from the Buck Institute for Aging. Y Combinator-backed startup.

  • Team includes academics from the Buck Institute: Simon Melov, Mark Lucanic, Gordon Lithgow. 

  • Crowdfunding on WeFunder. Open to all investors, even retail.

  • Already raised $2.1M on a $15M valuation.

• Ponce de Leon Health // Raising $15M // Article: 

  • Makers of Rejuvant Life Tabs, a calcium alpha-ketoglutarate supplement (CaAKG). Alpha-ketoglutarate is a key molecule in the Krebs cycle. Brian Kennedy (former head of Buck Institute, now at the National University of Singapore) is the CSO of this company.  

  • CaAKG supplementation reduces frailty and extends maximum lifespan of female mice by 20%. (Shahmirzhadi et al 2020)

  • Currently “soft-closed” $5.5 M for their Series B. Looking to raise up to $15 M total.

• Revivo Therapeutics// Raising: $5M // Slide Deck: 

  • Small molecule drugs that enhance cognition and reduce neuron excitability to treat neurodegenerative and CNS conditions (including anxiety and depression). 

  • Targets the nitric oxide and CREB pathways. 

  • Same team that built Cardioxyl ($2B exit to Bristol Myers Squib)

• Equator Therapeutics// Raising: $3M - $5M // Slide Deck: 

  • Mitochondrial uncoupler drug to burn fat through natural body heat production.

  • Targeting obesity, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, PCOS. 

  • Pro longevity: Exercise mimetic, increases mitochondrial biogenesis, etc

  • Y Combinator-backed company. 

  • Team: Jonah Sinick, Yuriy Kirichok, Michael Grabe, Liliya Gabelev, David Segura 

• + see all (click on “Capital Raise Radar”)

✨ Featured Longevity Jobs

Looking for jobs, companies, or investors in the longevity biotechnology industry? Check out my website LongevityList.com.

• Research Associate, Scientist- Boominathan Lab // SENS Research Foundation // Mountain View, California

• Postdoctoral Research Fellow // SENS Research Foundation // Mountain View, California

• Research Associate // SENS Research Foundation // Mountain View, California

• C elegans Research Scientist// Magnitude Biosciences // Durham, England

• Research Associate Immunonology // SENS Research Foundation // Mountain View, California

• Senior Scientist - Applications// Turn Bio // Mountain View, California

• Senior Scientist - Technology // Turn Bio // Mountain View, California 

• Senior Scientist/Director - Chemist // Turn Bio // Mountain View, California

• Senior Scientist/Director - Formulation // Turn Bio // Mountain View, California

• Engineering Intern // Cellvie // Matzingen, Switzerland

• Senior Scientist, Biochemist // Cellvie // Matzingen, Switzerland

• Medical Analyst for Rejuvenation Therapies // Forever Healthy // Karlsruhe, Germany or Remote

• Analyst for Functional and Preventive Medicine​ // Forever Healthy // Karlsruhe, Germany or Remote

• Scientific Spokesperson // Forever Healthy // Karlsruhe, Germany or Remote

• Head of Global Communications // Forever Healthy // Karlsruhe, Germany or Remote 

• Head of Consumer // Loyal // San Francisco, Remote

• Computational Bio Internship // Loyal // San Francisco? / Remote?

• Epigenetics / Reprogramming Postdoc// Morgan Levine Lab (Yale) // Yale

• SPAC Investment Professional // Maximon // Zug, Switzerland

• Associate Director/Director of In Vivo Biology/Pharmacology// BioAge Labs // Richmond, CA, USA

• + more longevity jobs

If you are hiring, email me a link to your job postings and I will post them on longevitylist.com (it’s free).

➕ New Companies on Longevity List

Some interesting longevity companies I have stumbled upon and added to the Longevity List database in the past week. Have any longevity company tips? Please email me. 

• Longevity Biotech: A company that develops orally available peptides to treat Parkinson’s (targeting VPAC2 receptor to prevent neurotoxicity) and diabetes. 

How to start a longevity biotech company

The amount of capital available in the longevity biotechnology sector is about to dramatically increase. Minting more longevity founders is and will continue to be the main bottleneck to accelerating progress. How do we solve this problem?

Well, there are two ways to increase the number of founders in longevity:

1. Increase the number of people who are aware that the longevity biotech industry even exists. 

2. Convince more people that are already aware of the longevity biotech industry to become founders.

The awareness campaign is something that anyone can work on. Longevity books, podcasts, blogs, tweets, newsletters, talks, YouTube videos, social media posts, etc all contribute to the overall effort. Create more of these. If you cannot create, then share.

The second point, convincing more people to become founders, is a trickier endeavor. Startups are risky and often demoralizing. Biotech can be expensive. 

Myths

There may also be some misconceptions about longevity biotech startups that could be holding people back from starting their own companies.

Let’s clear up some myths about longevity biotech startup formation:

1. You need a Ph.D. to become a longevity biotech founder. This is false. While a large fraction of biotech founders have PhDs, it is not strictly necessary. Tony Kulesa of Petri Bio talks about how founders without PhDs can get into biotech by just volunteering in a lab (Eric Lander, who did not have a biology Ph.D., did this). One of the most prominent founders in longevity, Celine Halioua, for instance, does not have a Ph.D -- though she has some Ph.D. training.

2. You need formal training in biology to be a longevity biotech founder. This is empirically false. Many of the most promising longevity companies were founded by people without biology degrees. Matt Scholz of Oisin Biotechnologies, Ben Kamens of Spring Discovery, and Reason of Repair Biotechnologies are three prominent examples (all coming from computer science). The most visible figurehead of the industry, Aubrey de Grey, also had no formal biology training (also coming from computer science). Virtually every topic in biology can be learned online for free (Edx, Coursera, Khan Academy, Scihub).  Start with MIT’s 7.00x Intro to Biology course. Follow industry for advances in biotech (list of biotech resources).

3. You need a million dollars to get started. Biotech is generally expensive. Matt Scholz recounted his story maxing out his credit cards to get his first biotech startup off the ground. However, with some creativity, biotech startups can be done cheaply -- depending on what you choose to do. Kristen Fortney’s bioinformatics approach at BioAge Labs cost her only $5k - $10k to get started. Daniel Ives of Shift Bioscience was able to get to an investable proof of concept doing in vitro work for ~ $70k. Nabiha Saklayen and her founders at Cellino were able to build their prototype for under $20k. 

Resources

Here are some of the best resources on starting your own longevity biotech company:

• How to Start a Biotech Company in the Longevity Industry (2020) - Reason. This 20-page PDF written by Reason (Repair Biotechnologies, FightAging.org) is a goldmine for practical knowledge. This is my favorite point in his guide:

  • Thus there is the hard way to develop an idea for a biotech startup in the longevity field: spend years reading the research and attending the conferences, becoming familiar enough with the science, and the scientists, in order to identify and understand the potential of specific projects, and pick one. Then there is the easy way: just ask one of the existing advocates who has already done all of this and has thus gained a good familiarity with the projects that should be carried forward, but are not. Many of these advocates are very interested in connecting entrepreneurs with scientists in order to ensure that those projects are in fact developed.

• Celine Halioua’s Blog: How to build a Biotech. Many great short to medium-length articles ranging from practical advice to more high-level perspectives. Some of my favorites:

  • A Framework for Ideation in Early-Stage Biotech

  • A quick guide to writing an early-stage biotech investment memo

  • The Cost of Science

  • Preclinical Drug Development

  • Basics of Regulatory Affairs

  • How I raised a $11M seed as a first-time, female, solo founder for a biotech moonshot 

• The Entrepreneur’s Guide to a Biotech Startup - Peter Kolchinsky. One of the more well-known books on biotech startups in general. Peter Kolchinsky is the founder of RA Capital, one of the most prominent biotech VC firms.

• Developing a Biotechnology Startup in the Rejuvenation Field - Kelsey Moody. A 2.5-hour presentation by Kelsey Moody, the founder of Ichor Therapeutics. Moody has a unique perspective, he dropped out of medical school to start his own fully-integrated aging biotech / CRO in his apartment (in which he even built his own vivarium). 

• Bay Bridge Bio Startup School - Richard Murphey. A series of panel talks on topics relevant to biotech startups. Unfortunately, the syllabus was not completed due to the pandemic. 

Programs

There exists a large number of biotech startup accelerators, some restricted to specific universities, that can help founders at various levels of their journey. A smaller number of longevity-focussed accelerators can also be found. Ideally, there should be some sort of longevity-focussed biotech “startup school”, but nothing like this exists yet. 

Longevity biotech specific 

• On Deck Longevity Biotech: A community for people to come build, join, and invest in revolutionary longevity biotech startups. (updated June 29, 2021)

• AGE1: Laura Deming’s / Longevity Fund’s accelerator. Historically, AGE1 has taken four companies per year. The program offers mentorship and access to lab space. Alumni include Spring Discovery, Rubedo Life Sciences, Gordian Biotechnology, Deciduous Therapeutics, and Fauna Bio.

• Foresight Health Extension accelerator: The Foresight Group is a non-profit that assembles a number of the top academics and industry leaders for seminars and events. The accelerator is sponsored by Sonia Arrison at 100plus Capital. 

Non-specific to longevity

• Petri Bio: Founded by some OGs in biotech (George Church, Daphne Koller, Marie LeProust). The companies they focus on tend to combine engineering and biology.

• Founder Frequency by Pillar VC. A one-week biotech startup validation and co-founder dating program. A collaboration between Petri Bio and Pillar VC.  

• Y Combinator: Originally known more for software/tech startups, a growing number of biotech companies have gone through the YC program. Some longevity biotech alumni include Gerostate Alpha, Dorian Therapeutics, and Equator Therapeutics.

• The Engine: A venture accelerator firm spun out from MIT that invests in “tough tech”. Alumni include Cellino and Radix Labs.

• Entrepreneur First: An accelerator that invests in people. Individuals apply, form companies with other co-founders, and receive funding if their pitch is accepted. 

• StartX: A non-profit accelerator that requires at least one member to have a connection to Stanford. Alumni include Guided Clarity and Orca Bio. 

• IndieBio: A four-month accelerator program in New York or San Francisco. Provides 250k in funding plus lab space and mentorship in exchange for equity. Alumni include Guided Clarity.

My Links

Some of my projects, resources, and ways to support my mission. More projects coming…

Projects

• Longevity List  - Find jobs, companies, and investors in the longevity industry. Email me if you want to add your job or company to the list. It’s free.

• Longevity List Database- A handy Airtable base covering people, companies, trials, academic labs, and a list of longevity companies that are presently raising capital.

• LMC Clinical Trial Tracker- Longevity therapeutics in clinical trials. Completion calendar useful for investors who want to time data readout catalysts.

• LongevityMarketcap.com- The main page tracks prices of publicly traded longevity stocks.

• Longevity Biotech Show - Official website of the Clubhouse show / podcast. We interview the people building, funding, and championing technologies that extend healthy human lifespan. On Clubhouse / Spotify podcasts. 

• The One Percent Bet for Longevity Pledge - An initiative to get individuals and corporations to pledge at least 1% of their resources to fund longevity companies and research.

• LongevityBase.org -  An open-source volunteer initiative to itemize every instance of modulation of biological aging in the scientific literature.

• forum.longevitybase.org - An open question and answer system for aging biology and longevity biotechnology. 

• Humans For Longevity. A project featuring a collection of stories from people who care about longevity and their motivations.

Support

• Longevity List Merch Store- T-shirts and apparel to support my work. 10% of profit goes to SENS, João Pedro de Magalhaes’s lab, and the PEARL Rapamycin trial.

• Patreon - For people who want to support my work and mission. Premium tiers include access to my private Telegram group for behind-the-scenes thoughts and network.

• Twitter- Random thoughts and link shares. My DMs are open.

A special thanks to my Patreon supporters who have joined forces with me to undertake this mission.

1. Announcements

2. Last Week in Longevity

3. Longevity Futures

4. Capital Raise Radar

5. Longevity Jobs

6. New Companies on Longevity List 

7. Humans for Longevity

8. My Links

*Disclaimer: None of this should be taken as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only.

Mission: To grow a wave of passionate people building, funding, and championing technologies that extend healthy human lifespan. 

If you want to be part of this mission alongside me, please consider supporting through Patreon or Longevity List Merch.

📢 Announcements 

• forum.longevitybase.org - I’ve made some improvements to the UI to make it feel more like a “StackExchange / Quora” for aging biology / longevity biotech. Feel free to sign up and try it out. Email me if you would like to become a moderator or if you have some suggestions.

  • For academics, independent researchers, biotech founders, and scientific-minded enthusiasts, etc.

  • Ask questions, get answers → builds a searchable longevity research knowledge base. 

• The Longevity Biotech Show is officially a podcast! Check us out on Spotify and also Apple Podcasts.

• Every Friday @ 12PM - 5PM EDT. Longevity Virtual Coworking. If you are working on longevity or thinking about getting into the longevity industry, please join me for an experimental virtual longevity coworking space using the Pluto.Video web app. (No sign-up required.) 

  • Bring something to work on.

  • Feel free to ask questions. 

  • Help out. Connect.

  • I plan on holding this weekly. It’s free. (Room Link)  

• The 1% Bet for Longevity-- a website initiative. 37 people have now signed up for the 1% Bet for Longevity Pledge. My goal is to get to 50,000 people and at least 100 companies to pledge 1% of their resources towards funding longevity companies and research by the end of the year. 

📝 Last Week in Longevity

• Unity Biotechnology’s UBX1325 passes Phase 1 for diabetic macular edema. Phase 2a trial initiated. Unity Biotechnology is the earliest senolytics company -- founded in 2009 by Ned David, Judith Campisi, Jan van Deursen, and Daohong Zhou. Last week, the company announced that their lead program drug, UBX1325 to treat diabetic macular edema, had passed its Phase 1 safety trial. There were no serious adverse effects and initial data on efficacy will be released later this year. A Phase 2a efficacy trial (that may also enlist wet AMD patients for a parallel trial) is already underway with data expected in 2H 2022. 

  Diabetic macular edema is a disease that causes impaired vision due to inflammation and leakage of blood vessels in the retina. Preclinical studies conducted by Unity have shown a link between diabetic retinopathy and the accumulation of senescent cells in retinal blood vessels of human patients.
  
  Presently, Unity’s main focus is on senolytic drugs for ocular diseases. However, the company also has programs in neurology that include both senolytic drugs and a non-senolytic therapeutic anti-aging protein, alpha-klotho (licensed from UCSF). 
  
  Unity is one of the most high-profile anti-aging biotech companies, attracting over $200M in funding from investors including Peter Thiel and Jeff Bezos. However, their first program, UBX0101 failed in a Phase 2 knee osteoarthritis trial in August 2020 - causing Unity’s stock price to plunge. 

• Aubrey de Grey hints at a “seismic” announcement for the longevity industry. Last Thursday, Aubrey de Grey and Vitalik Buterin appeared on an excellent AMA hosted by VitaDAO, a blockchain project that is attempting to create a decentralized organization that funds longevity research and tokenizes the resulting IP on Ethereum. During the stream, Aubrey de Grey hinted that someone (likely a billionaire) is going to make a big announcement in ~one month.
  
  Here’s what Aubrey said: 

  “It's slightly unfortunate that we're doing this AMA now rather than a month or so from now because of the stuff that I can't talk about that is happening that will be really seismic in this field. People are getting involved in this that have not been involved before. Somebody whose name we all know and whose name I cannot mention. But he has been talking to me and been interested in this for more than 15 years is finally going to be doing something. And if you're listening, for God's sake, don't fuck it up the way Larry Ellison did 20 years ago and the way Larry Page did eight years ago1. Get it right.”

  Who could it be?

  In a Foresight Institute call last year, Aubrey mentioned he met Jeff Bezos at TED in 2005 (transcript here). 

  “Jeff Bezos, I met at TED in 2005... I met him several years thereafter. And every single year, he would take the initiative to come up to me and asked me, what was new what was going on, but he's also never given us a penny.”

  Jeff Bezos invested in both Unity Biotechnology and Denali Therapeutics. Bezos also recently announced he would be stepping down as CEO of Amazon starting in Q3 this year. Perfect timing. And after conquering internet commerce, logistics, cloud computing, and making forrays into space travel, there are only so many frontiers left. It is highly likely that it is Jeff Bezos.
  
  Some commenters on my Twitter suggested Elon Musk could be the mysterious man Aubrey was referring to. Elon has discussed the issue of life extension in an interview with Tim Urban at Wait But Why and also funded Halcyon Molecular around 2010. But Elon’s view on longevity seems to only recognize the issue without much enthusiasm for actually tackling the problem. 

  What about Bill? Bill Gates seems to be vehemently against spending any money on the development of longevity therapeutics. All this despite the fact that he is a champion of research into Alzheimer’s disease, which is very much a manifestation of aging.
  
  As I have written previously, my prediction is that announcements like the one Aubrey is hinting at will be only one of many similar announcements in the coming years. Only last week, Michael Greve announced a 300M EUR commitment to rejuvenation startups. Nir Barzilai claimed earlier this year that there would be an announcement for a $1 billion per year investment into longevity companies. According to Statista, 90% of the world’s billionaires were over the age of 50 in 2019: Funding will be exploding shortly. Now is a great time to get involved in longevity, especially for founders.
  

• Deciduous Therapeutics publishes natural killer T cell senolytic study. Anil Bhushan is a researcher at the University of California San Francisco and also the co-founder of Deciduous Therapeutics, an immuno-senolytics startup backed by the Longevity Fund, 8VC, and crv.
  
  In a paper published last week in Med (Cell Press), Bhushan demonstrated that the activation of invariant natural killer T cells (iNKT cells) with a special lipid called ɑ-galactosylceramide was able to remove senescent cells from fat tissue (mouse model of obesity) and lung tissue (pulmonary fibrosis model). The clearance of senescent fat cells resulted in the normalization of metabolism and blood glucose in obese mice. Clearance of senescent cells in the lung resulted in suppressed fibrosis and increased survival in IPF-model mice.
  
  The immune system naturally clears senescent cells in the body. Leveraging the power of natural immune cells or engineered CAR-T cells is a promising approach to kill senescent cells in a manner that minimizes the amount of collateral damage to healthy cells. The senolytics industry is diverse in modalities and approaches (small molecule drugs, peptides, antibodies, RNA splicing factors, gene therapies, cell therapies, immunology approaches, nanoparticles, etc). This diversity potentially will lead to better chances of at least one success in this subsector.
  

• AgelessRx PEARL Trial launches a crowdfunding campaign on Lifespan.io AgelessRx is spearheading a trial to test the effects of rapamycin on certain measures of healthspan in human patients. Their randomized placebo-controlled Phase 2 trial will measure various blood panels, visceral fat, and epigenetic DNA methylation age in different dosing regimens. Data will be made publicly available. PEARL is looking to raise $75,000 for its first goal, with several stretch goals for extra testing measures.
  
  Rapamycin is one of the most studied anti-aging drugs -- it extends the lifespan of mice by ~ 15%. Unfortunately, it as well as many other potential anti-aging compounds are unpatentable (either off-patent or natural compound), which severely diminishes the business case for running a clinical trial. The PEARL trial represents one of the first cost-efficient community-funded aging trials that might be extended and replicated for other compounds in the future. I am donating and I would encourage others to do so too. 
  

• Vitalik Buterin donates $3M+ to the Methuselah Foundation. After donating over $1B dollars in cryptocurrency to COVID relief in India, Vitalik went further and donated substantial amounts to charities including 1,000 ETH to the Methuselah Foundation (as well as some indeterminately valued meme coins). The Methuselah Foundation was founded by Aubrey de Grey and David Gobel in 2003. The foundation’s mission is to support projects and research to accelerate breakthroughs in longevity.
  

• Martin Borch Jensen announces Longevity Apprenticeship. Want to work alongside a founder at one of the most promising longevity biotech / gene therapy companies? Martin Borch Jensen, co-founder of Gordian Biotechnology, is looking to hire ~four longevity apprentices who will shadow and learn firsthand how to execute projects in longevity biotech. Prior experience or expertise in aging biology is not required.
  

• NIA + USC National Geroscience Initiative whitepaper. A whitepaper detailing a vision for a national geroscience program was published by a coalition of members from academia and government (NIA). Jose Ricon (nintil.com ) and Adam Marblestone played a large role in the background material. The initiative was unveiled as part of a Geroscience symposium on May 7th, 2021. There are four goals for the geroscience initiative:

  • Goal 1: Increase Support for Basic and Translational Geroscience Research

  • Goal 2: Increase the number of early-stage clinical trials (Phase I and Phase IIA). focused on improving healthspan, with attention to relevant differences relating to race, ethnicity, sex, disability, occupation, and access to care.

  • Goal 3: Utilize public-private partnerships and innovative program management to address the impact of socioeconomic disparities on the R&D, distribution, and delivery of geroscience solutions and speed translation to communities in need.

  • Goal 4: Increase the number of researchers with expertise in both geriatrics and geroscience, capable of conducting translational research and designing and implementing late pre-clinical studies and clinical trials.

📅 Longevity Futures

• Thursday, May 20th @ 5:00PM PDT / 8:00PM EDT: Marco Quarta (Rubedo Life Sciences) on The Longevity Biotech Show, Clubhouse App. 

  • Clubhouse app is now on Android. If you would like an invite please send me proof of a new donation to SENS Research Foundation. I have 5 invites -- first come first serve.

  • Join us for a conversation with Marco Quarta, a researcher at Stanford University and co-founder of Rubedo Life Sciences, a biotech company developing targeted senolytics. Please note the different time (8PM ET).

  • Stick around at the end of each show for a casual “after-party” longevity biotech chat/networking. 

  • Sign up for reminders via Google Calendar. Click this link for email reminders for all future Longevity Biotech Show events. 

  • For past recordings and show schedule visit: LongevityBiotechShow.com or Spotify. Here are some previous episodes:

    • #012: Matt Scholz (Oisin Biotechnologies) - May 6th, 2021

    • #011: Kristen Fortney (BioAge Labs) - April 29th, 2021.

    • #010: Jean Hebert (Albert Einstein College of Medicine) - April 22nd, 2021. 

    • #009: Keshav Singh & Greg Schmergel (Yuva Biosciences) - April 15th, 2021.

    • #008: Marc Bernegger, Tobias Reichmuth, Collin Ewald (Maximon) - April 8th, 2021.

    • #007: Daniel Ives (Shift Biosciences) - April 1st, 2021.
      

• Wednesday, May 19th, 2021 @ 10:30AM EDT. AFAR Extending Human Healthspan and Longevity Webinar. $85 (discounts for academics). Speakers will include Nir Barzilai, Ana Maria Cuervo, James Kirkland, Morgan Levine, Joan Mannick, and others.

• Thursday, May 20th, 2021 @ 7PM SGT. Tobias Reichmusth (Maximon) NUS Webinar. Tobias Reichmuth is a co-founder at Maximon, a Swiss-based longevity venture building company. They partner with entrepreneurs to build longevity companies from scratch. Tobias Reichmuth will be speaking as part of the National University of Singapore’s Healthy Longevity webinar series. 

• Friday, May 21, 2021 @ 1PM PST. Nathan Shock-Buck Institute Town Hall. Join for a Town Hall meeting to learn how you can leverage the technical services and expertise of the Nathan Shock network of aging research institutions. 

• Wednesday, May 26th, 2021 @ 7AM EDT. João Pedro de Magalhães Integrative Genomics of Aging Seminar. Zoom. 

• Summer Aging Seminars at Loyal.Celine Halioua, the founder of dog life-extension startup Loyal, is putting on aging science seminars this summer at their headquarters in San Francisco. Register to join.

• July 20th - 23rd, 2021. American Aging Association Annual Meeting / Conference. Will include speakers such as Andrew Brack, Morgan Levine, Vadim Gladyshev, and more.

• August 31st, 2021 - September 3, 2021. Aging Research and Drug Discovery Conference 2021.Online. $49 for a 3-day pass. The first day of the conference is free to attend. An incredible lineup of speakers including: David Sinclair, Alex Zhavoronkov, Thomas Rando, Peter de Keizer, Collin Ewald, Kristen Fortney, Nir Barzilai, Brian Kennedy, Manuel Serrano, Vera Gorbunova, and many others.

Know of any interesting longevity talks, meetings, or events? Please email me.

📡 Capital Raise Radar

I do not endorse or have affiliations with any of the companies listed below. This is not an offer to buy or sell securities. This is for informational purposes only. If you have intel on any other longevity companies currently raising please email me. It’s free.

• Yuva Biosciences // Currently raised $1.75M already (Seed) // Article

  • Developing compounds that target mitochondrial dysfunction to reverse aging. Includes natural compound cosmeceutical for skin aging and hair loss. Also developing pharmaceuticals for prostate / ovarian conditions.

  • Team: Keshav Singh (University of Alabama), Greg Schmergel (Nantero)

• Oncolife Therapeutics // Raising $2M - $3M // Slide deck

  • Developing drugs that modulate stem cell activity to treat cancer and aging

  • Team: Guy Barry (QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia), Paul Baldock (The Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, Australia)

• Gerostate Alpha // Raising $500k // WeFunder page

  • High-throughput phenotypic screen platform to discover anti-aging drugs.

  • A spinout from the Buck Institute for Aging. Y Combinator-backed startup.

  • Team includes academics from the Buck Institute: Simon Melov, Mark Lucanic, Gordon Lithgow. 

  • Crowdfunding on WeFunder. Open to all investors, even retail.

  • Already raised $2.1M on a $15M valuation.

• Oisin Biotechnologies // Raising $5M // Slide Deck

  • Senolytic gene therapy using a lipid-protein nanoparticle delivery vehicle. Kills cells that express the p16 gene -- a marker of senescent cells. Inducible apoptosis gene with a p16 promoter triggered by a chemical dimerizer.

  • Team: Matthew Scholz (Immusoft), Gary Hudson.

  • Seed round. Accredited investors only. $50K minimum check size. 

  • Other investors include The Methuselah Fund, Kizoo Technology Capital. 

• Ponce de Leon Health // Raising $15M // Article: 

  • Makers of Rejuvant Life Tabs, a calcium alpha-ketoglutarate supplement (CaAKG). Alpha-ketoglutarate is a key molecule in the Krebs cycle. Brian Kennedy (former head of Buck Institute, now at the National University of Singapore) is the CSO of this company.  

  • CaAKG supplementation reduces frailty and extends maximum lifespan of female mice by 20%. (Shahmirzhadi et al 2020)

  • Currently “soft-closed” $5.5 M for their Series B. Looking to raise up to $15 M total.

• Revivo Therapeutics// Raising: $5M // Slide Deck: 

  • Small molecule drugs that enhance cognition and reduce neuron excitability to treat neurodegenerative and CNS conditions (including anxiety and depression). 

  • Targets the nitric oxide and CREB pathways. 

  • Same team that built Cardioxyl ($2B exit to Bristol Myers Squib)

• Equator Therapeutics// Raising: $3M - $5M // Slide Deck: 

  • Mitochondrial uncoupler drug to burn fat through natural body heat production.

  • Targeting obesity, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, PCOS. 

  • Pro longevity: Exercise mimetic, increases mitochondrial biogenesis, etc

  • Y Combinator-backed company. 

  • Team: Jonah Sinick, Yuriy Kirichok, Michael Grabe, Liliya Gabelev, David Segura 

• + see all (click on “Capital Raise Radar”)

✨ Featured Longevity Jobs

Looking for jobs, companies, or investors in the longevity biotechnology industry? Check out my website LongevityList.com.

• C elegans Research Scientist// Magnitude Biosciences // Durham, England

• Research Associate // SENS Research Foundation // Mountain View, California

• Research Associate Immunonology // SENS Research Foundation // Mountain View, California

• Senior Scientist - Applications// Turn Bio // Mountain View, California

• Senior Scientist - Technology // Turn Bio // Mountain View, California 

• Senior Scientist/Director - Chemist // Turn Bio // Mountain View, California

• Senior Scientist/Director - Formulation // Turn Bio // Mountain View, California

• Engineering Intern // Cellvie // Matzingen, Switzerland

• Senior Scientist, Biochemist // Cellvie // Matzingen, Switzerland

• Medical Analyst for Rejuvenation Therapies // Forever Healthy // Karlsruhe, Germany or Remote

• Analyst for Functional and Preventive Medicine​ // Forever Healthy // Karlsruhe, Germany or Remote

• Scientific Spokesperson // Forever Healthy // Karlsruhe, Germany or Remote

• Head of Global Communications // Forever Healthy // Karlsruhe, Germany or Remote 

• Head of Consumer // Loyal // San Francisco, Remote

• Computational Bio Internship // Loyal // San Francisco? / Remote?

• Epigenetics / Reprogramming Postdoc// Morgan Levine Lab (Yale) // Yale

• SPAC Investment Professional // Maximon // Zug, Switzerland

• Associate Director/Director of In Vivo Biology/Pharmacology// BioAge Labs // Richmond, CA, USA

• + more longevity jobs

If you are hiring, email me a link to your job postings and I will post them on longevitylist.com (it’s free).

➕ New Companies on Longevity List

Some interesting longevity companies I have stumbled upon and added to the Longevity List database in the past few weeks. Have any longevity company tips? Please email me. 

• Intraclear Biologics: An Estonian-based longevity biotech company that is developing gene and enzyme therapies to clear intracellular aggregates. Their first targets are lipofuscin and 7-ketocholesterol. Intraclear was founded by Ariel Feinerman. 

• Celularity (NASDAQ:GXGX): A spinout from Bristol Myers Squibb’s Celgene, this company uses allogeneic natural killer cells for cancer therapies and allogeneic placenta-derived stem cells to treat degenerative diseases. The company announced its intentions to merge with GX Acquisition Corporation in a $372M SPAC deal in January this year. Celularity has also recently entered into an partnership with Palantir for data analysis services. Celularity was founded by Peter Diamandis (X Prize) and Robert Hariri.

Humans for Longevity

When the billionaires finally wake up and invest in the longevity industry, expect that there will be backlash from the mainstream media. The media will paint the desire to extend health beyond the status quo as egotistical and the exclusive purview of the immortality-seeking uber-wealthy. 

This, of course, is ridiculous.

The vast majority of the people I know working on longevity are not billionaires. They are regular human beings like you and me. 

It’s important, now more than ever, to tell the stories of these ordinary people who want to do something about aging. We need to set the record straight on the narrative: Longevity is not just for billionaires - longevity is for all humans. If we do not tell our own stories, they will be told for us, often by those who are ignorant of the potential universal benefits of treating aging as a disease. 

Celine Halioua, the founder of Loyal, told her story in a touching Medium post (“Why I care about longevity”). Her story is one of many deeply human stories -- aging has touched everyone and their families in some way.

I have created a website, Humans for Longevity, to collect these stories as part of an artistic project / practical “PR campaign” for the longevity community. The first (short) story to appear on the website is one of my own.

If you have a story about why you care about longevity and wish for it to appear on Humans for Longevity, please send it to me at nathan@longevitylist.com along with one photo of your choosing.

-NATHAN

My Links

Some of my projects, resources, and ways to support my mission. More projects coming…

Projects

• Longevity List  - Find jobs, companies, and investors in the longevity industry. Email me if you want to add your job or company to the list. It’s free.

• Longevity List Database- A handy Airtable base covering people, companies, trials, academic labs, and a list of longevity companies that are presently raising capital.

• LMC Clinical Trial Tracker- Longevity therapeutics in clinical trials. Completion calendar useful for investors who want to time data readout catalysts.

• LongevityMarketcap.com- The main page tracks prices of publicly traded longevity stocks.

• Longevity Biotech Show - Official website of the Clubhouse show / podcast. We interview the people building, funding, and championing technologies that extend healthy human lifespan. On Clubhouse / Spotify podcasts. 

• The One Percent Bet for Longevity Pledge - An initiative to get individuals and corporations to pledge at least 1% of their resources to fund longevity companies and research.

• LongevityBase.org -  An open-source volunteer initiative to itemize every instance of modulation of biological aging in the scientific literature.

• forum.longevitybase.org - An open question and answer system for aging biology and longevity biotechnology. 

• Humans for Longevity - A collection of stories submitted by real people delving into the reasons why they care about aging and longevity.

Support

• Longevity List Merch Store- T-shirts and apparel to support my work. 10% of profit goes to SENS, João Pedro de Magalhaes’s lab, and the PEARL Rapamycin trial.

• Patreon - For people who want to support my work and mission. Premium tiers include access to my private Telegram group for behind-the-scenes thoughts and network.

• Twitter- Random thoughts and link shares. My DMs are open.

A special thanks to my Patreon supporters who have joined forces with me to undertake this mission.

1. Announcements

2. Last Week in Longevity

3. Longevity Futures

4. Capital Raise Radar

5. Longevity Jobs

6. New Companies on Longevity List 

7. Thoughts on what the aging field needs

8. My Links

*Disclaimer: None of this should be taken as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only.

Mission: To grow a wave of passionate people building, funding, and championing technologies that extend healthy human lifespan. 

If you want to be part of this mission alongside me, please consider supporting through Patreon or Longevity List Merch.

📢 Announcements 

• The Longevity Biotech Show is officially a podcast! Check us out on Spotify. Coming soon to Apple Podcasts, pending approval.

• forum.longevitybase.org - I’m rolling out a “StackExchange / Quora” for aging biology / longevity biotech. It’s in open beta right now. Feel free to sign up and try it out. Email me if you would like to become a moderator or if you have some suggestions.

  • For academics, independent researchers, biotech founders, and scientific-minded enthusiasts.

  • Ask questions, get answers → builds a searchable longevity research knowledge base. 

• Every Friday @ 12PM - 5PM EDT. Longevity Virtual Coworking. If you are working on longevity or thinking about getting into the longevity industry, please join me for an experimental virtual longevity coworking space using the Pluto.Video web app. (No sign-up required.) 

  • Bring something to work on.

  • Feel free to ask questions. 

  • Help out. Connect.

  • I plan on holding this weekly. It’s free. (Room Link)  

• The 1% Bet for Longevity-- a website initiative. 36 people have now signed up for the 1% Bet for Longevity Pledge. My goal is to get to 50,000 people and at least 100 companies to pledge 1% of their resources towards funding longevity companies and research by the end of the year. 

📝 Last Week in Longevity

• Michael Greve announces 300M EUR to fund rejuvenation biotech startups. Michael Greve is the founder of Kizoo Technology Capital and the non-profit Forever Healthy Foundation. Last week Greve announced an additional 300M EUR to fund longevity biotechnology startups through Kizoo. 
  
  This is BIG news. To put the announcement into perspective, an average-sized longevity biotech seed round is around $5M, according to the longevitylist.com database. Greve’s capital can therefore seed an additional ~70 longevity startups on top of the 115 longevity startups on Longevity List. Note that the announced funding doesn’t account for the amount of external co-investment that will inevitably follow on, which Greve estimates could result in an extra 3 - 4x in capital.

  I believe that this 300M EUR is just the beginning of a golden age for longevity biotech startup funding. Of the top 200 billionaires on Forbe’s list, only 10 are below the age of 40. And no matter how many billions of dollars they might have, once you pass the age of 50 you cease being a billionaire of seconds (at rough current life expectancy estimates).
  
  Michael Greve is an entrepreneur known for co-founding WEB.de, a German web portal company. Greve also founded the Forever Healthy Foundation, which puts on the Undoing Aging conference every year, and Kizoo Technology Capital. Kizoo invests in a number of longevity biotech startups including Elastrin, Cellvie, Lysoclear, Turn Bio, Maia Biotechnology, Lift Biosciences, Underdog Pharmaceuticals, Elevian, Revel Pharmaceuticals, Oisin Biotechnologies, FoxBio, and Antoxorene. 

• Dyno Therapeutics raises $100M Series A led by a16z. Gene therapy vector engineering is heating up. Two weeks ago Capsida announced a $140M in funding, including a deal with pharma giant AbbVie. Last week Dyno Therapeutics, an AAV capsid engineering startup co-founded by George Church, announced a $100M Series A. Investors in the round included a16z, Lux Capital, Polaris Ventures, and CRV.
  
  Dyno Therapeutics’s platform uses high-throughput generation of capsids through DNA library synthesis and artificial intelligence to optimize the design (safety, targeting, efficiency, manufacturability). Last February the company published a paper in Nature Biotechnology that showed their platform was able to generate viable capsids at a rate 60x+ higher than traditional random mutagenesis approaches.

  Gene therapies have mostly been used to treat rare monogenic diseases presently. But the power of a general gene therapy platform that can deliver any gene with precise targeting and timing will be important for longevity therapeutics. Companies such as Gordian Biotechnology, Rejuvenate Bio, and Oisin Biotechnologies are all pursuing gene therapies to target aging. A controversial anti-aging gene therapy for dementia is already being trialed in humans in Mexico by BioViva / Liz Parrish.
  

• FOXO Technologies acquires exclusive license for GrimAge and PhenoAge epigenetic clocks. FOXO Technologies is a startup that is commercializing epigenetic clocks by offering testing services for researchers and also offering a new kind of epigenetic clock-based life insurance. The company announced it had obtained an exclusive license for PhenoAge and GrimAge DNA methylation clocks from UCLA. Both “biological clocks” were developed in part by Steve Horvath, a professor at UCLA who first discovered that DNA methylation patterns could be used to predict age.

  PhenoAge is a predictor of aging outcomes including healthspan, Alzheimer’s disease, and heart disease. It was developed by training DNA methylation data to predict phenotypic measures of aging derived from clinical measures (blood biomarkers of inflammation, liver/kidney/immune system function). 

  GrimAge is a significant epigenetic-based predictor of mortality (i.e time to death). It was trained using DNA methylation data to create surrogate predictors of seven different blood plasma proteins along with the number of smoke-pack years. 

  Epigenetic clocks are a promising tool for research, therapeutics translation, and potentially clinical trials. Horvath and others have created a non-profit organization, the Clock Foundation, in order to advance the use of epigenetic clocks as surrogate endpoints in anti-aging clinical trials. 

• Stealth BioTherapeutics (NASDAQ:MITO) post-hoc analysis data for Dry AMD Phase 1 trial. Stock goes wild. Stealth BioTherapeutics is a clinical-stage biotech company that develops peptide therapies targeting the mitochondria. Their core asset is elamipretide, a peptide that stabilizes a mitochondrial membrane lipid called cardiolipin. Last week Stealth announced results from a post-hoc analysis of their Phase 1 trial for dry age-related macular degeneration, showing a correlation between improvements in low-light eyesight and the changes in the ellipsoid zone of the retina, a mitochondria-rich region in photoreceptors. Though the data was only post-hoc and suggestive, Stealth’s stock surged 35% on the news, possibly in the hopes that data bodes well for their ongoing Phase 2 Dry AMD trial. 

📅 Longevity Futures

• Thursday, May 20th @ 5:00PM PDT / 8:00PM EDT: Marco Quarta (Rubedo Life Sciences) on The Longevity Biotech Show, Clubhouse App. 

  • The Clubhouse app is now on Android. If you would like an invite please send me proof of a new donation to SENS Research Foundation. I have 5 invites -- first come first serve.

  • Join us for a conversation with Marco Quarta, a researcher at Stanford University and co-founder of Rubedo Life Sciences, a biotech company developing targeted senolytics. Please note the different time (8PM ET).

  • Stick around at the end of each show for a casual “after-party” longevity biotech chat/networking. 

  • Sign up for reminders via Google Calendar. Click this link for email reminders for all future Longevity Biotech Show events. 

  • For past recordings and show schedule visit: LongevityBiotechShow.com or Spotify. Here are some previous episodes:

    • #012: Matt Scholz (Oisin Biotechnologies) - May 6th, 2021

    • #011: Kristen Fortney (BioAge Labs) - April 29th, 2021.

    • #010: Jean Hebert (Albert Einstein College of Medicine) - April 22nd, 2021. 

    • #009: Keshav Singh & Greg Schmergel (Yuva Biosciences) - April 15th, 2021.

    • #008: Marc Bernegger, Tobias Reichmuth, Collin Ewald (Maximon) - April 8th, 2021.

    • #007: Daniel Ives (Shift Biosciences) - April 1st, 2021.
      

• Wednesday, May 12th, 2021 @ 11AM EDT. Aubrey de Grey and S. Jay Olshansky Longevity Webinar - Healthspan Show. Free online talk. Aubrey de Grey is the founder of SENS Research Foundation and Jay Olshansky is a professor of epidemiology at the University of Illinois Chicago.

• Thursday May 13th, 2021 @ 10AM PDT / 1PM EDT Aubrey de Grey + Vitalik Buterin + VitaDAO Live AMA. Live on YouTube. Post your questions on this Twitter thread. VitaDAO is a decentralized organization that seeks to invest in longevity research projects and provide a mechanism for ownership in the resulting IP -- all on the Ethereum blockchain. 

• Wednesday, May 26th, 2021 @ 7AM EDT. João Pedro de Magalhães Integrative Genomics of Aging Seminar. Zoom. 

• Summer Aging Seminars at Loyal. Celine Halioua, the founder of dog life-extension startup Loyal, is putting on aging science seminars this summer at their headquarters in San Francisco. Register to join.

• August 31st, 2021 - September 3, 2021. Aging Research and Drug Discovery Conference 2021.Online. An incredible lineup of speakers including: David Sinclair, Alex Zhavoronkov, Thomas Rando, Peter de Keizer, Collin Ewald, Kristen Fortney, Nir Barzilai, Brian Kennedy, Manuel Serrano, Vera Gorbunova, and many others.

Know of any interesting longevity talks, meetings, or events? Please email me.

📡 Capital Raise Radar

I do not endorse or have affiliations with any of the companies listed below. This is not an offer to buy or sell securities. This is for informational purposes only. If you have intel on any other longevity companies currently raising please email me. It’s free.

• Yuva Biosciences // Currently raised $1.75M already (Seed) // Article

  • Developing compounds that target mitochondrial dysfunction to reverse aging. Includes natural compound cosmeceutical for skin aging and hair loss. Also developing pharmaceuticals for prostate / ovarian conditions.

  • Team: Keshav Singh (University of Alabama), Greg Schmergel (Nantero)

• Cytonics // Raised $2.8M (Series C) // SeedInvest page

  • Developing recombinant alpha-2-macroglobulin (A2M) protein to treat osteoarthritis. Also developed a diagnostic biomarker test for osteoarthritis. 

  • Team: Gaetano Scuderi, Antonio Carvalho, Joey Bose, Lewis Hanna

  • Crowdfunding on SeedInvest. Open to all investors, even retail.

• Oncolife Therapeutics // Raising $2M - $3M // Slide deck

  • Developing drugs that modulate stem cell activity to treat cancer and aging

  • Team: Guy Barry (QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia), Paul Baldock (The Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, Australia)

• Gerostate Alpha // Raising $500k // WeFunder page

  • High-throughput phenotypic screen platform to discover anti-aging drugs.

  • A spinout from the Buck Institute for Aging. Y Combinator-backed startup.

  • Team includes academics from the Buck Institute: Simon Melov, Mark Lucanic, Gordon Lithgow. 

  • Crowdfunding on WeFunder. Open to all investors, even retail.

  • Already raised $2.1M on a $15M valuation.

• Oisin Biotechnologies // Raising $5M // Slide Deck

  • Senolytic gene therapy using a lipid-protein nanoparticle delivery vehicle. Kills cells that express the p16 gene -- a marker of senescent cells. Inducible apoptosis gene with a p16 promoter triggered by a chemical dimerizer.

  • Team: Matthew Scholz (Immusoft), Gary Hudson.

  • Seed round. Accredited investors only. $50K minimum check size. 

  • Other investors include The Methuselah Fund, Kizoo Technology Capital. 

• Ponce de Leon Health // Raising $15M // Article: 

  • Makers of Rejuvant Life Tabs, a calcium alpha-ketoglutarate supplement (CaAKG). Alpha-ketoglutarate is a key molecule in the Krebs cycle. Brian Kennedy (former head of Buck Institute, now at the National University of Singapore) is the CSO of this company.  

  • CaAKG supplementation reduces frailty and extends maximum lifespan of female mice by 20%. (Shahmirzhadi et al 2020)

  • Currently “soft-closed” $5.5 M for their Series B. Looking to raise up to $15 M total.

• Revivo Therapeutics// Raising: $5M // Slide Deck: 

  • Small molecule drugs that enhance cognition and reduce neuron excitability to treat neurodegenerative and CNS conditions (including anxiety and depression). 

  • Targets the nitric oxide and CREB pathways. 

  • Same team that built Cardioxyl ($2B exit to Bristol Myers Squib)

• Equator Therapeutics// Raising: $3M - $5M // Slide Deck: 

  • Mitochondrial uncoupler drug to burn fat through natural body heat production.

  • Targeting obesity, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, PCOS. 

  • Pro longevity: Exercise mimetic, increases mitochondrial biogenesis, etc

  • Y Combinator-backed company. 

  • Team: Jonah Sinick, Yuriy Kirichok, Michael Grabe, Liliya Gabelev, David Segura 

• + see all (click on “Capital Raise Radar”)

✨ Featured Longevity Jobs

Looking for jobs, companies, or investors in the longevity biotechnology industry? Check out my website LongevityList.com.

• C elegans Research Scientist// Magnitude Biosciences // Durham, England

• Research Associate // SENS Research Foundation // Mountain View, California

• Research Associate Immunonology // SENS Research Foundation // Mountain View, California

• Senior Scientist - Applications// Turn Bio // Mountain View, California

• Senior Scientist - Technology // Turn Bio // Mountain View, California 

• Senior Scientist/Director - Chemist // Turn Bio // Mountain View, California

• Senior Scientist/Director - Formulation // Turn Bio // Mountain View, California

• Engineering Intern // Cellvie // Matzingen, Switzerland

• Senior Scientist, Biochemist // Cellvie // Matzingen, Switzerland

• Medical Analyst for Rejuvenation Therapies // Forever Healthy // Karlsruhe, Germany or Remote

• Analyst for Functional and Preventive Medicine​ // Forever Healthy // Karlsruhe, Germany or Remote

• Scientific Spokesperson // Forever Healthy // Karlsruhe, Germany or Remote

• Head of Global Communications // Forever Healthy // Karlsruhe, Germany or Remote 

• Head of Consumer // Loyal // San Francisco, Remote

• Computational Bio Internship // Loyal // San Francisco? / Remote?

• Epigenetics / Reprogramming Postdoc// Morgan Levine Lab (Yale) // Yale

• SPAC Investment Professional // Maximon // Zug, Switzerland

• Associate Director/Director of In Vivo Biology/Pharmacology// BioAge Labs // Richmond, CA, USA

• + more longevity jobs

If you are hiring, email me a link to your job postings and I will post them on longevitylist.com (it’s free).

➕ New Companies on Longevity List

Some interesting longevity companies I have stumbled upon and added to the Longevity List database in the past week. Have any longevity company tips? Please email me. 

• Retro Biosciences: A new stealth longevity therapeutics by Joe Betts-LaCroix. The company intends to target multiple age-related diseases with a single therapy. Joe Betts-LaCroix is a biophysicist and entrepreneur. He was co-founder of Vium/Mousera and an investor in Recursion Pharma, Spring Discovery, and StemCentrx. 

• Lift Biosciences: A pan-cancer cell therapy startup developing allogeneic off-the-shelf neutrophils derived from exceptional cancer-resistant individuals. Investors include Jonathan Milner and Kizoo Technology Capital. 

Thoughts on “What the Aging Field Needs”

Celine Halioua (founder at Loyal) recently wrote a blog post that identifies seven key needs in the longevity industry today. Here’s my commentary and thoughts: 

What the aging industry needs:

• More teams taking on regulatory risk

  • Longevity companies are aiming to trial drugs for specific proxy diseases -- not aging. This introduces the risk of false fails -- where the drug actually works for aging but fails for other reasons related to the chosen proxy indication.

  • One solution could be to find ways to do better preventative medicine trials in age-related diseases. It may be that reversing a disease of aging with advanced pathology might be much harder for the first aging drugs we develop, even if the drug being tested works for aging in general. 

• More translational aging companies

  • Nobody is really attempting aging trials.

  • This is very true. Only Nir Barzilai (TAME) and perhaps AgelessRx (PEARL) are trying to work out the kinks of an aging trial. 

  • Aging biomarkers are being discussed as a surrogate endpoint but I have yet to see a public roadmap on how such a biomarker will be approved by the FDA. 

• More sustainable business models

  • Aging startups need to break free from relying on cash from risk-averse big pharma 

  • Most biotechs end up selling to big pharma or requiring big pharma for cash. But big pharma companies are not very interested in aging -- AbbVie perhaps is an exception.

  • Aging (and perhaps gene therapy) could be the next paradigm shift in medical biotechnology that allows for new biotech companies to displace big pharma incumbents.

  • Ideally, we want aging companies to become self-sustaining, reinvesting their profits back into new R&D.

  • Some longevity founders see this opportunity: Matt Scholz stated on our podcast that he hopes that Oisin Biotechnologies will become the “Pfizer of aging”.

• More investors bullish on aging

  • High quality bar, long time horizons, significant resources. Pick two.

  • Longevity biotech is still a very young industry. 

  • Michael Greve’s 300M EUR announcement sounds great in terms of the number of startups it could seed. But even 300M EUR alone is not enough money to bring one drug to market. We need more investors.

  • Which one of the three (high quality bar, long time horizon, significant resources) is most easily rectified if lacking? Probably “high quality bar”. Increasing investor sophistication (either through learning or recruitment of suitable advisors) is much easier than trying to change an investor’s time horizon or increasing their wealth. 

  • So who belongs to this glorious demographic of well-capitalized + long time horizon investors that lack aging biotech sophistication? Young crypto millionaires and billionaires. They are not in immediate need of anti-aging therapies but have more money than they know what to do with it. Vehicles like VitaDAO might be effective ways to capture some of this crypto wealth investment.

• More (strategic) conservatism

  • Aging drugs are not about immortality or radical life extension...yet. This is something to debate later.

  • Ideas of longevity escape velocity and immortality tend to be too extreme for the general public. It’s much easier to digest longevity as medicine that happens to prevent diseases of aging and reduce all-cause mortality.

  • I’m divided on whether we actually need a large percentage of the public to get on board the longevity train before the first anti-aging drug is demonstrated. However, a large political mandate to approve anti-aging drugs would definitely help pressure the FDA.    

• More new ideas

  • There are many companies in the mTOR, cellular senescence, and mitochondria subsectors. But where are the longevity companies doing gut microbiome, hematopoietic stem cell rejuvenation, and advanced replacement therapies?

• An interdisciplinary approach

  • Sometimes it takes fresh ideas from outside your niche (aging biology) to make progress.

  • Examples:

    • Aubrey de Grey wrote about how knowledge of soil bacteria held a potential key to degrading lipofuscin in his book Ending Aging. A startup called Lysoclear is attempting this approach.

    • Cellino, a stem cell startup, uses AI, robotics, and lasers to manipulate stem cells in manufacturing.

    • Theoretical physicist Erwin Schrodinger made incredible inferences from first principles on the nature of DNA. His book What is Life is a must-read and very relevant to aging.

Now please enjoy this talk on the physics of aging:

My Links

Some of my projects, resources, and ways to support my mission. More projects coming…

Projects

• Longevity List  - Find jobs, companies, and investors in the longevity industry. Email me if you want to add your job or company to the list. It’s free.

• Longevity List Database- A handy Airtable base covering people, companies, trials, academic labs, and a list of longevity companies that are presently raising capital.

• LMC Clinical Trial Tracker- Longevity therapeutics in clinical trials. Completion calendar useful for investors who want to time data readout catalysts.

• LongevityMarketcap.com- The main page tracks prices of publicly traded longevity stocks.

• Longevity Biotech Show - Official website of the Clubhouse show / podcast. We interview the people building, funding, and championing technologies that extend healthy human lifespan. On Clubhouse / Spotify podcasts. 

• The One Percent Bet for Longevity Pledge - An initiative to get individuals and corporations to pledge at least 1% of their resources to fund longevity companies and research.

• LongevityBase.org -  An open-source volunteer initiative to itemize every instance of modulation of biological aging in the scientific literature.

• forum.longevitybase.org - An open question and answer system for aging biology and longevity biotechnology. 

Support

• Longevity List Merch Store- T-shirts and apparel to support my work. 10% of profit goes to SENS, João Pedro de Magalhaes’s lab, and the PEARL Rapamycin trial.

• Patreon - For people who want to support my work and mission. Premium tiers include access to my private Telegram group for behind-the-scenes thoughts and network.

• Twitter- Random thoughts and link shares. My DMs are open.

A special thanks to my Patreon supporters who have joined forces with me to undertake this mission.

1. Announcements

2. Capital Raise Radar

3. Last Week in Longevity

4. Longevity Futures

5. Longevity Jobs

6. New Companies on Longevity List 

7. The Cost of Aging

8. My Links

*Disclaimer: None of this should be taken as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only.

Mission: To grow a wave of passionate people building, funding, and championing technologies that extend healthy human lifespan. 

If you want to be part of this mission alongside me, please consider supporting through Patreon or Longevity List Merch.

📢 Announcements 

• The Longevity Biotech Show is officially a podcast! Check us out on Spotify. Coming soon to Apple Podcasts, pending approval.

• forum.longevitybase.org - I’m rolling out a “StackExchange / Quora” for aging biology / longevity biotech. It is in open beta right now.Feel free to sign up and try it out. Email me if you would like to become a moderator or if you have some suggestions.

  • For academics, independent researchers, biotech founders, and scientific-minded enthusiasts.

  • Ask questions, get answers → builds a searchable longevity research knowledge base. 

• Every Friday @ 12PM - 5PM EDT. Longevity Virtual Coworking.If you are working on longevity or thinking about getting into the longevity industry, please join me for an experimental virtual longevity coworking space using the Pluto.Video web app. (No sign-up required.) 

  • Bring something to work on.

  • Feel free to ask questions. 

  • Help out. Connect.

  • I plan on holding this weekly. It’s free. (Room Link)  

• The 1% Bet for Longevity-- a website initiative.34 people have now signed up for the 1% Bet for Longevity Pledge. My goal is to get to 50,000 people and at least 100 companies to pledge 1% of their resources towards funding longevity companies and research by the end of the year. 

📡 Capital Raise Radar

I do not endorse or have affiliations with any of the companies listed below. This is not an offer to buy or sell securities. This is for informational purposes only. If you have intel on any other longevity companies currently raising please email me. It’s free.

• Yuva Biosciences // Currently raised $1.75M already (Seed) // Article

  • Developing compounds that target mitochondrial dysfunction to reverse aging. Includes natural compound cosmeceutical for skin aging and hair loss. Also developing pharmaceuticals for prostate / ovarian conditions.

  • Team: Keshav Singh (University of Alabama), Greg Schmergel (Nantero)

• Cytonics // Raised $2.8M (Series C) // SeedInvest page

  • Developing recombinant alpha-2-macroglobulin (A2M) protein to treat osteoarthritis. Also developed a diagnostic biomarker test for osteoarthritis. 

  • Team: Gaetano Scuderi, Antonio Carvalho, Joey Bose, Lewis Hanna

  • Crowdfunding on SeedInvest. Open to all investors, even retail.

• Oncolife Therapeutics // Raising $2M - $3M // Slide deck

  • Developing drugs that modulate stem cell activity to treat cancer and aging

  • Team: Guy Barry (QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia), Paul Baldock (The Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, Australia)

• Gerostate Alpha // Raising $500k // WeFunder page

  • High-throughput phenotypic screen platform to discover anti-aging drugs.

  • A spinout from the Buck Institute for Aging. Y Combinator-backed startup.

  • Team includes academics from the Buck Institute: Simon Melov, Mark Lucanic, Gordon Lithgow. 

  • Crowdfunding on WeFunder. Open to all investors, even retail.

  • Already raised $2.1M on a $15M valuation.

• Oisin Biotechnologies // Raising $5M // Slide Deck

  • Senolytic gene therapy using a lipid-protein nanoparticle delivery vehicle. Kills cells that express the p16 gene -- a marker of senescent cells. Inducible apoptosis gene with a p16 promoter triggered by a chemical dimerizer.

  • Team: Matthew Scholz (Immusoft), Gary Hudson.

  • Seed round. Accredited investors only. $50K minimum check size. 

  • Other investors include The Methuselah Fund, Kizoo Technology Capital. 

• Ponce de Leon Health // Raising $15M // Article: 

  • Makers of Rejuvant Life Tabs, a calcium alpha-ketoglutarate supplement (CaAKG). Alpha-ketoglutarate is a key molecule in the Krebs cycle. Brian Kennedy (former head of Buck Institute, now at the National University of Singapore) is the CSO of this company.  

  • CaAKG supplementation reduces frailty and extends maximum lifespan of female mice by 20%. (Shahmirzhadi et al 2020)

  • Currently “soft-closed” $5.5 M for their Series B. Looking to raise up to $15 M total.

• Revivo Therapeutics// Raising: $5M // Slide Deck: 

  • Small molecule drugs that enhance cognition and reduce neuron excitability to treat neurodegenerative and CNS conditions (including anxiety and depression). 

  • Targets the nitric oxide and CREB pathways. 

  • Same team that built Cardioxyl ($2B exit to Bristol Myers Squib)

• Equator Therapeutics// Raising: $3M - $5M // Slide Deck: 

  • Mitochondrial uncoupler drug to burn fat through natural body heat production.

  • Targeting obesity, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, PCOS. 

  • Pro longevity: Exercise mimetic, increases mitochondrial biogenesis, etc

  • Y Combinator-backed company. 

  • Team: Jonah Sinick, Yuriy Kirichok, Michael Grabe, Liliya Gabelev, David Segura 

• + see all (click on “Capital Raise Radar”)

📝 Last Week in Longevity

• Turn Bio closes funding round by Khosla Ventures. Turn Bio is a preclinical longevity biotech company developing epigenetic reprogramming therapies to reverse aging. Last week the company announced the closing of a funding round by Khosla Ventures. The funding amount was not disclosed. Khosla Ventures joins other investors in Turn Bio including The Methuselah Fund, Michael Antonov’s Formic Ventures, and Kizoo Technology Capital. 
  
  Turn is planning on using mRNA technology to deliver epigenetic reprogramming factors to reverse aging --essentially resetting the epigenome to a youthful state. The company has programs in skin aging, osteoarthritis, ophthalmology, and muscle aging. Scientific co-founders of the company include Marco Quarta and Vittorio Sebastiano.
  
  The scientific basis of epigenetic reprogramming can be traced in part to Shinya Yamanaka’s 2007 discovery of induced pluripotency (resetting a cell back to its embryonic stem cell state) -- for which he won the Nobel Prize.
  
  Epigenetic reprogramming has shown some notable successes in mice. David Sinclair’s lab at Harvard recently demonstrated the regeneration of a crushed optic nerve and restoration of vision in mice by expressing OSK Yamanaka factors through an AAV gene therapy. Work by the Belmonte lab at the Salk Institute showed transient reprogramming of OSKM reprogramming factors could reverse aging phenotypes in progeroid mice and increase regenerative capacity in older wild-type mice.
  
  Other companies developing epigenetic reprogramming approaches for aging include AgeX Therapeutics and Iduna (David Sinclair / Life Biosciences company)
  

• Denali Therapeutics DNL151 positive Phase 1a/1b for Parkinson’s disease. Denali Therapeutics is a biotech company developing drugs to treat neurodegenerative diseases. Last week the company announced positive results in their Phase 1a/1b clinical trial for DNL151, an LRRK2 inhibitor to treat Parkinson’s disease. The Phase 1a/1b trial of healthy volunteers and Parkinson’s patients showed the drug was well tolerated with no serious adverse events. Measurements of pharmacodynamic biomarkers pS935 LRRK2 and pT73 Rab10 (pRab10) suggest the drug was able to target the intended pathway. A urinary biomarker for lysosomal function also saw improvement.
  
  DNL151 is a small molecule drug that inhibits LRRK2 in order to restore autophagy/lysosomal function. Repeats of the LRRK2 gene are the most common cause of genetic types of Parkinson’s disease. Although the pathophysiology is still not understood, there is a strong link between LRRK2 and reduced autophagy/lysosomal function and build-up of alpha-synuclein protein. DNL151 is being developed in a partnership with Biogen. Investors in Denali Therapeutics also include Bezos Expeditions, ARCH Venture Partners, and F-Prime Capital. 
  
  Neurodegenerative disease represents a major gating function for healthspan extension. Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease still do not have effective treatments despite a large number of attempts in the clinic. Therapeutic approaches that boost or restore the natural ability of brain cells to recycle defective misbehaving proteins are gaining popularity. Companies developing autophagy/lysosome function boosting therapies include Selphagy, Casma Therapeutics, Samsara Therapeutics, among others.
  

• Capsida comes out of stealth, targeting neurodegenerative disease with gene therapy. Capsida is a newly formed company that develops AAV gene therapy vectors that selectively target cells in the brain in order to treat neurodegenerative diseases. Last week the company emerged from stealth with $140M in backing from Westlake Village BioPartners and Versant Versant in addition to a partnership with pharma giant AbbVie.
  
  Capsida is based on the work of Viviana Gradinaru, a neuroscientist researcher at Caltech. The company leverages machine learning, high-throughput approaches, non-human primate models, with computational/structural biology techniques to develop AAV vectors that selectively target specific tissues.
  
  Current AAV vectors used in gene therapies largely end up in the liver. This makes it difficult to selectively target specific tissues without increasing dosage -- which could elicit an immune response. Development of gene therapy platforms that “just work” and can be delivered in specific tissues and at controlled times will be a useful tool for longevity therapeutics.   
  

• Unity Biotechnology announces positive preclinical UBX1325 data. Unity Biotechnology is the oldest and most visible senolytics company in longevity biotech. Last week at the ARVO 2021 conference the company announced preclinical data for UBX1325, their drug for diabetic macular edema. Unity’s data showed that UBX1325 was able to reduce retinal vasculature in two preclinical models of retinopathy. Diabetic edema is a disease that causes blindness. It is characterized by the growth and leakage of blood inflamed blood vessels in the retina and is linked to the presence of senescent cells. 

  UBX1325 is a locally injected small molecule drug that targets senescent cells by inhibiting Bcl-xL, an anti-apoptotic protein. The drug induces cell apoptosis in senescent cells and thus reduces the production of inflammatory SASP factors.

  UBX1325 is currently undergoing Phase 1 clinical trials with data readouts expected sometime this year. This trial represents another chance for Unity to validate the senolytics hypothesis. In August 2020, Unity’s knee osteoarthritis trial with UBX0101 failed in Phase 2, sending the company’s stock tumbling ~60%.

  Unity Biotechnology is the biggest and most well-known senolytics company -- investors include Peter Thiel, Jeff Bezos, ARCH Venture Partners, and the Longevity Fund. However, their current senolytic drugs represent a first-generation approach, whereas more targeted 2nd generation senolytics are being developed at Unity and other companies. Unity also appears to be advancing their neurology program with alpha-klotho (UBX2089)-- an anti-aging protein (not a senolytic) licensed from UCSF. 

• Muhdo partnership with the National University of Singapore. Muhdo is a DNA and epigenetic (DNA methylation) testing company based in the United Kingdom. The company recently announced a partnership with the National University of Singapore (NUS) to undertake a large-scale global study of how epigenetics changes with age. 

  Singapore is one of the nations at the forefront of accelerating progress in longevity. And with good reason: Their population is one of the fastest aging populations in the world. The government of Singapore has taken a number of steps to prioritize aging research and policy, including recruiting Brian Kennedy from the Buck Institute to spearhead longevity initiatives at NUS. 

📅 Longevity Futures

• Thursday, May 6th @ 1:00PM PDT / 4:00PM EDT: Matthew Scholz (Oisin Biotechnologies) on The Longevity Biotech Show, Clubhouse App. 

  • Join us for a conversation with Mathew Scholz, Co-founder of Oisin Biotechnologies. 

  • We will be discussing Matthew Scholz’s unique background (Computer Security) and backstory building Oisin Biotechnologie, gene therapy, and senolytics. 

  • Stick around at the end of each show for a casual “after-party” longevity biotech chat/networking. 

  • Sign up for reminders via Google Calendar. Click this link for email reminders for all future Longevity Biotech Show events. 

  • For past recordings and show schedule visit: LongevityBiotechShow.com or Spotify. Here are some previous episodes:

    • #011: Kristen Fortney (BioAge Labs) - April 29th, 2021.

    • #010: Jean Hebert (Albert Einstein College of Medicine) - April 22nd, 2021. 

    • #009: Keshav Singh & Greg Schmergel (Yuva Biosciences) - April 15th, 2021.

    • #008: Marc Bernegger, Tobias Reichmuth, Collin Ewald (Maximon) - April 8th, 2021.

    • #007: Daniel Ives (Shift Biosciences) - April 1st, 2021.

• May 4th - May 7th, 2021. Longevity Leaders Online Conference: An industry and academia conference with networking events. Basic passes are free but access to premium online events is paid. A great lineup of speakers: Aubrey de Grey, Nir Barzilai, João Pedro de Magalhães, Sergey Young, Ronjon Nag, representatives from Alkahest, Stealth BioTherapeutics, Navitor, and many more. 

• May 6th, 2021 @ 7PM SGT. Peter Fedichev (Gero) at NUS Healthy Longevity Webinar. Peter Fedichev is CEO and co-founder of Gero, a longevity drug discovery company that leverages AI/ML and genomics. 

• Wednesday, May 12th, 2021 @ 11AM EDT. Aubrey de Grey and S. Jay Olshansky Longevity Webinar - Healthspan Show. Free online talk. Aubrey de Grey is the founder of SENS Research Foundation and Jay Olshansky is a professor of epidemiology at the University of Illinois Chicago.

• Wednesday, May 26th, 2021 @ 7AM EDT. João Pedro de Magalhães Integrative Genomics of Aging Seminar. Zoom. 

• Summer Aging Seminars at Loyal. Celine Halioua, the founder of dog life-extension startup Loyal, is putting on aging science seminars this summer at their headquarters in San Francisco. Register to join.

• August 31st, 2021 - September 3, 2021. Aging Research and Drug Discovery Conference 2021.Online. An incredible lineup of speakers including: David Sinclair, Alex Zhavoronkov, Thomas Rando, Peter de Keizer, Collin Ewald, Kristen Fortney, Nir Barzilai, Brian Kennedy, Manuel Serrano, Vera Gorbunova, and many others.

Know of any interesting longevity talks, meetings, or events? Please email me.

✨ Featured Longevity Jobs

Looking for jobs, companies, or investors in the longevity biotechnology industry? Check out my website LongevityList.com.

• Senior Scientist - Applications// Turn Bio // Mountain View, California

• Senior Scientist - Technology // Turn Bio // Mountain View, California 

• Senior Scientist/Director - Chemist // Turn Bio // Mountain View, California

• Senior Scientist/Director - Formulation // Turn Bio // Mountain View, California

• Engineering Intern // Cellvie // Matzingen, Switzerland

• Senior Scientist, Biochemist // Cellvie // Matzingen, Switzerland

• Medical Analyst for Rejuvenation Therapies // Forever Healthy // Karlsruhe, Germany or Remote

• Analyst for Functional and Preventive Medicine​ // Forever Healthy // Karlsruhe, Germany or Remote

• Scientific Spokesperson // Forever Healthy // Karlsruhe, Germany or Remote

• Head of Global Communications // Forever Healthy // Karlsruhe, Germany or Remote 

• Head of Consumer // Loyal // San Francisco, Remote

• Computational Bio Internship // Loyal // San Francisco? / Remote?

• Epigenetics / Reprogramming Postdoc// Morgan Levine Lab (Yale) // Yale

• SPAC Investment Professional // Maximon // Zug, Switzerland

• Associate Director/Director of In Vivo Biology/Pharmacology// BioAge Labs // Richmond, CA, USA

• + more longevity jobs

If you are hiring, email me a link to your job postings and I will post them on longevitylist.com (it’s free).

➕ New Companies on Longevity List

Some interesting longevity companies I have stumbled upon and added to the Longevity List database in the past week. Have any longevity company tips? Please email me. 

• Gero.ai: A Singapore-based company that leverages AI and whole-exome DNA sequencing to discover anti-aging drugs. Their approach leverages genomics to find rare mutations that can lead to general druggable pathways. Gero also offers their drug discovery platform as a service to pharma companies. The company was founded by Peter Fedichev (physicist) and Maxim Kholin.  

• Khondrion: A clinical-stage biotech company developing mitochondrial-targeted therapeutics for rare diseases. The company’s main program is KH176, a redox modulator that is also believed to inhibit PGE2, a prostaglandin involved in inflammation. Khondrion is currently conducting Phase 2 clinical trials for MELAS, Leigh syndrome, and other rare mitochondrial diseases. 

• Mitobridge: A clinical-stage mitochondrial therapeutics company acquired by Astellas. Mitobridge develops small molecule drugs that modulate PPAR-delta, a key protein involved in muscle endurance and mitochondrial fatty acid utilization. The company has two clinical trials: A Phase 2 trial for acute kidney injury and a Phase 1 trial for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. 

The Cost of Aging

Aging has a cost on all levels: Personal, familial, societal, and economic. It does not merely rob life through mortality/premature death. It also robs life free of debilitating chronic age-related conditions -- i.e reduction in healthspan.

While the true human cost of aging may well be incalculable, we can determine some estimates of the lower bounds to make the moral, economic, and financial case for developing technologies that target aging. 

One way to estimate the lower bound cost of aging is to first find the total DALYs (Disability-Adjusted Life Years) incurred by age-related disease. 

DALY =  Years of Life Lost (YLL) + Years of Lost due to Disability (YLD).  

Years of Life Lost (YLL) is measured relative to life expectancy at age of death. 

Years Lost due to Disability (YLD) is measured using disability weightings for each disease or condition. For instance, blindness and Alzheimer’s disease have high disability weightings (~ 0.6 ), whereas a condition like lower back pain has a disability weighting of ~0.03.

How many diseases of aging are there? 

In a report in the Lancet (Chang et al. 2019), authors defined age-related diseases as those that quadratically increase in incidence with age -- i.e incidence rate accelerates with age. They found that 92 of the 293 diseases in the WHO Global Burden of Disease dataset fit this criterion, listed here:

92 age-related diseases, by broader disease categories

Cardiovascular diseases

Atrial fibrillation and flutter; endocarditis; hypertensive heart disease; intracerebral haemorrhage; ischaemic heart disease; ischaemic stroke; myocarditis; non-rheumatic calcific aortic valve disease; non-rheumatic degenerative mitral valve disease; other cardiomyopathy; other cardiovascular and circulatory diseases; other non-rheumatic valve diseases; peripheral artery disease

Chronic respiratory diseases

Asbestosis; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; coal worker pneumoconiosis; interstitial lung disease and pulmonary sarcoidosis; other pneumoconiosis; silicosis

Communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional diseases

Diarrhoeal diseases; encephalitis; lower respiratory infections; pneumococcal meningitis; trachoma

Diabetes and kidney diseases

Chronic kidney disease due to type 2 diabetes mellitus; chronic kidney disease due to glomerulonephritis; chronic kidney disease due to other and unspecified causes

Digestive diseases

Cirrhosis due to NASH; pancreatitis; paralytic ileus and intestinal obstruction; peptic ulcer disease; vascular intestinal disorders

Injuries

Drowning; environmental heat and cold exposure; falls; foreign body in other body part; other transport injuries; other unintentional injuries

Neoplasms (cancer)

Acute lymphoid leukaemia; acute myeloid leukaemia; benign and in-situ intestinal neoplasms; bladder cancer; brain and nervous system cancer; breast cancer; chronic lymphoid leukaemia; chronic myeloid leukaemia; colon and rectum cancer; gallbladder and biliary tract cancer; Hodgkin lymphoma; kidney cancer; larynx cancer; lip and oral cavity cancer; liver cancer due to NASH; liver cancer due to alcohol use; liver cancer due to hepatitis C; malignant skin melanoma; mesothelioma; multiple myeloma; myelodysplastic, myeloproliferative, and other hematopoietic neoplasms; non-Hodgkin lymphoma; non-melanoma skin cancer (basal-cell carcinoma); non-melanoma skin cancer (squamous-cell carcinoma); oesophageal cancer; other benign and in-situ neoplasms; other leukaemia; other malignant neoplasms; ovarian cancer; pancreatic cancer; prostate cancer; stomach cancer; thyroid cancer; tracheal, bronchus, and lung cancer; uterine cancer

Neurological disorders

Alzheimer's disease and other dementias; motor neuron disease; Parkinson's disease

Other non-communicable diseases

Congenital musculoskeletal and limb anomalies; digestive congenital anomalies; endocrine, metabolic, blood, and immune disorders; other haemoglobinopathies and haemolytic anaemias

Sense organ diseases

Age-related and other hearing loss; age-related macular degeneration; cataract; glaucoma; other sense organ diseases; other vision loss; refraction disorders

Skin and subcutaneous diseases

Cellulitis; decubitus ulcer; fungal skin diseases; other skin and subcutaneous diseases; pyoderma

Source: Chang et al. 2019

******

Interestingly, type 2 diabetes and osteoarthritis were not considered age-related diseases by Chang et al. because, while these diseases increased in incidence with age, they were not convex with age.1

Chang et al 2017 determined that 51.3% of all disease burden was attributable to age-related disease.2 The total global disease burden (aging and non-aging) in 2017 was 2.5 billion life years lost to premature death or disability.

Therefore, a 2017 estimate of the cost of aging would be ~ 1.28 billion life years lost. That’s the equivalent of 300 million Ph.D. degrees!3

For context, the global disease burden of malaria in 2017 was ~46M disability-adjusted life years.

How much is one DALY averted worth?

To generate a dollar value to shock governments and investors into investing in longevity research and anti-aging biotechnology we need to first determine a dollar value cost of 1 DALY. 

This is a bit tricky. 

In one study (Daroudi et al 2021), regression analysis between DALY and healthcare expenditure was performed to obtain a dollar value of 1 DALY in different countries. Naturally, the value was different depending on the socioeconomic development (sometimes measured by the Human Development Index - HDI) of each country. 

Daroudi et al calculated that “the estimated cost per DALY averted was $998, $6522, $23,782, and $69,499 in low HDI, medium HDI, high HDI, and very high HDI countries, respectively”. The average was $25,200. 

Thus we can crudely estimate that the total global cost of aging in 2017 was ~$32 trillion when factoring in loss from premature death and loss due to disability. For context, global GDP in 2017 was ~ $80 trillion. 

Many assumptions have been made in these estimations -- some dodgier than others -- but at least it gives a rough idea of the scope of the problem of aging and the rewards if we can solve it. 

From a moral standpoint, 1.28 BILLION years of healthy life lost is an outrage4. And yes, there are other non-age-related diseases that deserve attention too. But in terms of pure effective-altruism-bang-for-your-buck, you really cannot beat a strategy of targeting a single root cause -- aging --to reduce suffering and increase quality of life universally.

And if I have managed to convince you of the gravity of the situation of aging, please start doing something about it today. If you can’t build a longevity company or project, then fund it. If you can’t fund a longevity company, then champion one. 

Here are some longevity entities anyone can fund / advocate for:

• Gerostate Alpha

• VitaDAO

• Lifespan.io

• SENS Research Foundation

• Joao Pedro de Magalhaes’s Lab

• Jean Hebert’s Lab

• Share this newsletter:   

Share Longevity Marketcap Newsletter

-NATHAN

My Links

Some of my projects, resources, and ways to support my mission. More projects coming…

Projects

• Longevity List  - Find jobs, companies, and investors in the longevity industry. Email me if you want to add your job or company to the list. It’s free.

• Longevity List Database- A handy Airtable base covering people, companies, trials, academic labs, and a list of longevity companies that are presently raising capital.

• LMC Clinical Trial Tracker- Longevity therapeutics in clinical trials. Completion calendar useful for investors who want to time data readout catalysts.

• LongevityMarketcap.com- The main page tracks prices of publicly traded longevity stocks.

• Longevity Biotech Show - Official website of the Clubhouse show / podcast. We interview the people building, funding, and championing technologies that extend healthy human lifespan. On Clubhouse / Spotify podcasts. 

• The One Percent Bet for Longevity Pledge - An initiative to get individuals and corporations to pledge at least 1% of their resources to fund longevity companies and research.

• LongevityBase.org -  An open-source volunteer initiative to itemize every instance of modulation of biological aging in the scientific literature.

• forum.longevitybase.org - An open question and answer system for aging biology and longevity biotechnology. 

Support

• Longevity List Merch Store- T-shirts and apparel to support my work. 10% of profit goes to SENS, João Pedro de Magalhaes’s lab, and the PEARL Rapamycin trial.

• Patreon - For people who want to support my work and mission. Premium tiers include access to my private Telegram group for behind-the-scenes thoughts and network.

• Twitter- Random thoughts and link shares. My DMs are open.

A special thanks to my Patreon supporters who have joined forces with me to undertake this mission.

1. Announcements

2. Capital Raise Radar

3. Last Week in Longevity

4. Longevity Futures

5. Longevity Jobs

6. New Companies on Longevity List 

7. Is aging a disease?

8. My Links

*Disclaimer: None of this should be taken as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only.

Mission: To grow a wave of passionate people building, funding, and championing technologies that extend healthy human lifespan. 

If you want to be part of this mission alongside me, please consider supporting through Patreon or Longevity List Merch.

📢 Announcements 

• forum.longevitybase.org - I’m rolling out a “StackExchange / Quora” for aging biology / longevity biotechnology. It is in open beta right now. Feel free to sign up and try it out. Email me if you would like to become a moderator or if you have some suggestions.

  • For academics, independent researchers, biotech founders, and scientific-minded enthusiasts.

  • Ask questions, get answers → builds a searchable longevity research knowledge base. 

• Announcing LongevityBase.org - Want to earn $100 in BTC? I’m going to be posting a task on 1729.com to incentivize volunteers to get the ball rolling on an open-source database for things that modulate biological aging. 

  • Basically, I want people to read longevity intervention research papers (in mammalian models and humans) and add entries to the LongevityBase Airtable. One parameter of aging (lifespan or some phenotype of aging) per line. 

  • The goal is to get to a critical database mass at which point people will volunteer to maintain it. Interested? First, subscribe to 1729.com or sign up here. Will be rolling out instructions soon.

• Every Friday @ 12PM - 5PM EDT. Longevity Virtual Coworking. If you are working on longevity or thinking about getting into the longevity industry, please join me for an experimental virtual longevity coworking space using the Pluto.Video web app. (No sign-up required.) 

  • Bring something to work on.

  • Feel free to ask questions. 

  • Help out. Connect.

  • I plan on holding this weekly. It’s free. (Room Link)  

• The 1% Bet for Longevity-- a website initiative. 32 people have now signed up for the 1% Bet for Longevity Pledge. My goal is to get to 50,000 people and at least 100 companies to pledge 1% of their resources towards funding longevity companies and research by the end of the year. 

📡 Capital Raise Radar

I do not endorse or have affiliations with any of the companies listed below. This is not an offer to buy or sell securities. This is for informational purposes only. If you have intel on any other longevity companies currently raising please email me. It’s free.

• Yuva Biosciences // Currently raised $1.75M already (Seed) // Article

  • Developing compounds that target mitochondrial dysfunction to reverse aging. Includes natural compound cosmeceutical for skin aging and hair loss. Also developing pharmaceuticals for prostate / ovarian conditions.

  • Team: Keshav Singh (University of Alabama), Greg Schmergel (Nantero)

• Cytonics // Raised $2.8M (Series C) // SeedInvest page

  • Developing recombinant alpha-2-macroglobulin (A2M) protein to treat osteoarthritis. Also developed a diagnostic biomarker test for osteoarthritis. 

  • Team: Gaetano Scuderi, Antonio Carvalho, Joey Bose, Lewis Hanna

  • Crowdfunding on SeedInvest. Open to all investors, even retail.

• Oncolife Therapeutics // Raising $2M - $3M // Slide deck

  • Developing drugs that modulate stem cell activity to treat cancer and aging

  • Team: Guy Barry (QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia), Paul Baldock (The Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, Australia)

• Gerostate Alpha // Raising $500k // WeFunder page

  • High-throughput phenotypic screen platform to discover anti-aging drugs.

  • A spinout from the Buck Institute for Aging. Y Combinator-backed startup.

  • Team includes academics from the Buck Institute: Simon Melov, Mark Lucanic, Gordon Lithgow. 

  • Crowdfunding on WeFunder. Open to all investors, even retail.

  • Already raised $2.1M on a $15M valuation.

• Oisin Biotechnologies // Raising $5M // Slide Deck

  • Senolytic gene therapy using a lipid-protein nanoparticle delivery vehicle. Kills cells that express the p16 gene -- a marker of senescent cells. Inducible apoptosis gene with a p16 promoter triggered by a chemical dimerizer.

  • Team: Matthew Scholz (Immusoft), Gary Hudson.

  • Seed round. Accredited investors only. $50K minimum check size. 

  • Other investors include The Methuselah Fund, Kizoo Technology Capital. 

• Ponce de Leon Health // Raising $15M // Article: 

  • Makers of Rejuvant Life Tabs, a calcium alpha-ketoglutarate supplement (CaAKG). Alpha-ketoglutarate is a key molecule in the Krebs cycle. Brian Kennedy (former head of Buck Institute, now at the National University of Singapore) is the CSO of this company.  

  • CaAKG supplementation reduces frailty and extends maximum lifespan of female mice by 20%. (Shahmirzhadi et al 2020)

  • Currently “soft-closed” $5.5 M for their Series B. Looking to raise up to $15 M total.

• Revivo Therapeutics// Raising: $5M // Slide Deck: 

  • Small molecule drugs that enhance cognition and reduce neuron excitability to treat neurodegenerative and CNS conditions (including anxiety and depression). 

  • Targets the nitric oxide and CREB pathways. 

  • Same team that built Cardioxyl ($2B exit to Bristol Myers Squib)

• Equator Therapeutics// Raising: $3M - $5M // Slide Deck: 

  • Mitochondrial uncoupler drug to burn fat through natural body heat production.

  • Targeting obesity, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, PCOS. 

  • Pro longevity: Exercise mimetic, increases mitochondrial biogenesis, etc

  • Y Combinator-backed company. 

  • Team: Jonah Sinick, Yuriy Kirichok, Michael Grabe, Liliya Gabelev, David Segura 

• + see all (click on “Capital Raise Radar”)