#035: July 6th, 2021 - Longevity Marketcap Telemetry
On Deck Longevity Biotech. VitaDAO raise. Insilico Medicine, Continuum Biosciences, Vita Therapeutics. Mystery non-profit. Adventures in longevity.
Announcements
Last Week(s) in Longevity
Longevity Futures
Capital Raise Radar
Longevity Jobs
New Companies on Longevity List
Adventures in Longevity
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 engineered autologous cell therapy approach. 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 NASA Vascular Tissue Challenge. 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
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:
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.
This is by far my favorite novel.
Amazing Newsletter Nathan! I'm new to the longevity space and it sounds reallyyy exciting!
Awesome job Nathan!