The science of ageing is progressing rapidly and with it comes a new industry, with hundreds of early stage companies now in existence and the first publicly listed companies beginning to appear.

Master Investor’s one day masterclass, Investing in the Age of Longevity, aims to bring together investors, advisors, academia and businesses working in the field of Longevity to provide an independent and powerful platform to showcase the latest innovations in this field with a view to fostering collaboration and exploring investment opportunities.

Jim Mellon

Jim is an entrepreneur with a flair for identifying emerging global trends enabling him to build a worldwide business empire. He is amongst the top 10% in the “Sunday Times Rich List” (Britain’s equivalent to the Forbes list). He is often described as the British Warren Buffett and he predicted the Credit Crunch of 2007-08 in a book entitled “Wake Up! Survive and Prosper in the Coming Economic Turmoil”. Jim followed this with “The Top 10 Investments for the Next 10 Years” (2008) and subsequently “Cracking the Code” (2012), “Fast Forward” (2014) and, most recently, “Juvenescence” (2017). His monthly “Mellon on the Markets” column in Master Investor Magazine has gained him cult status among investors. He holds a master’s degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University. He is on the Board of Trustees of the Buck Institute in California, a trustee of the Biogerontology Institute, and a Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford.

Victor Hill

Victor is a financial economist, consultant, trainer and writer, with extensive experience in commercial and investment banking and fund management. His career includes stints at JP Morgan, Argyll Investment Management and World Bank IFC.

Dr. Aubrey de Grey

Dr. Aubrey de Grey is a biomedical gerontologist based in Mountain View, California, USA, and is the Chief Science Officer of SENS Research Foundation, a California-based 501(c)(3) biomedical research charity that performs and funds laboratory research dedicated to combating the aging process. He is also VP of New Technology Discovery at AgeX Therapeutics, a biotechnology startup developing new therapies in the field of biomedical gerontology. In addition, he is Editor-in-Chief of Rejuvenation Research, the world’s highest-impact peer-reviewed journal focused on intervention in aging. 

He received his BA in computer science and Ph.D. in biology from the University of Cambridge. His research interests encompass the characterisation of all the types of self-inflicted cellular and molecular damage that constitute mammalian aging and the design of interventions to repair and/or obviate that damage.

Dr. de Grey is a Fellow of both the Gerontological Society of America and the American Aging Association, and sits on the editorial and scientific advisory boards of numerous journals and organisations. He is a highly sought-after speaker who gives 40-50 invited talks per year at scientific conferences, universities, companies in areas ranging from pharma to life insurance, and to the public.

SENS Research Foundation works to develop, promote, and ensure widespread access to therapies that cure and prevent the diseases and disabilities of aging by comprehensively repairing the damage that builds up in our bodies over time. We are redefining the way the world researches and treats age-related ill health, while inspiring the next generation of biomedical scientists.

Nir Barzilai MD

Dr. Barzilai is a chaired Professor of Medicine and Genetics and Director of the biggest Center in the world to study the Biology of Aging. He is the recipient of an NIH Merit Award aiming to extend the healthy life span in rodents by biological interventions. He also studies families of centenarians that have provided genetic/biological insights on the protection against aging. Several drugs are developed based, in part, on these paradigm-changing studies. He is a recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the recipient of the 2010 Irving S. Wright Award of Distinction in Aging Research and is the 2018 recipient of the IPSEN Longevity award. He is leading the TAME (Targeting/Taming Aging with Metformin) multi central study to prove that concept that multi morbidities of aging can be delayed in humans and change the FDA indications to allow for next generation interventions. He is a founder of CohBar Inc. (now public company) and Medical Advisor for Life Biosciences. He is on the board of AFAR and CohBar He has been featured in major papers, TV program and documentaries (TEDx and TEDMED) and has been consulting or presented the promise for targeting aging at The Singapore Prime Minister Office, several International Banks, The Vatican, Pepsico, Milkin Institute, The Economist and Wired Magazine.

Albert Einstein College of Medicine is a research-intensive medical school. For more than 60 years, our diverse faculty and staff have set the standard for excellence in medical and graduate education and patient-centered clinical care, and have made major contributions to scientific research enhancing human health in our communities and beyond. Our mission is to prepare a diverse body of students to become knowledgeable, compassionate physicians and innovative scientific investigators, and to create new knowledge.

Laura Demming

Laura is the founder and managing director of the Longevity Fund, an early stage venture capital fund focused on extending healthy human lifespan. After years working on nematode longevity at the UCSF graduate school, Laura matriculated at MIT at 14 and 2 years later participated in the inaugural Thiel Fellowship class. Since then, she has built Longevity Fund and AGE1, funds focused on helping start and fund longevity companies.

Longevity Fund is an early stage venture capital fund investing in breakthrough longevity companies taking on age-related disease. Since closing the first fund in 2013, Longevity Fund companies have collected >$500M in follow-on funding, resulting in the 2018 IPO of the first company dedicated to reversing the diseases of aging, and multiple programs in clinic to reverse or prevent age-related disease.

Reason

Reason is co-founder and CEO of Repair Biotechnologies, a biotech startup working on means of rejuvenation of the thymus and reversal of atherosclerosis. He is the founder and writer of Fight Aging!, which has been a leading voice in the longevity biotechnology and patient advocacy communities for more than fifteen years. Reason is also an active angel investor in the rejuvenation biotechnology space, and has for many years led and aided non-profit fundraising for academic research into rejuvenation via repair of molecular damage.

Repair Biotechnologies, Inc. is a biotechnology company with the mission to develop and bring to the clinic therapies that significantly improve human healthspan through targeting the causes of age-related diseases and aging itself. Founded in 2018, Repair Biotechnologies is developing therapies with the goals of regenerating the thymus, treating cancer, and reversing atherosclerosis.

Liz Parrish

Elizabeth Parrish, the Founder and CEO of BioViva, is a humanitarian, entrepreneur, innovator, author, podcaster, and a leading voice for genetic cures. As a strong proponent of progress and education for the advancement of regenerative medicine modalities, she serves as a motivational speaker to the public at large for the life sciences. She is actively involved in international educational media outreach. Dedicated to the cause of improving and safeguarding more and more lives, Elizabeth asserts, “We are focused on saving as many lives as possible by making tomorrow’s therapies available. This is about Life and Death. Risk aversion and the delaying the approval of therapies that have been successful in research simply kills.”

BioViva, a trail-blazing medical data analysis and research and development company, was started to change the face of healthcare treatments by bringing enhanced and definitive solutions for some of the most perilous diseases. The inspiration came from a life-changing incident when the founder’s son was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. On the path to find the most adequate treatment for him, she was confronted with the reality of children suffering from genetic diseases. She also discovered that, although laboratory animals have been successfully treated for many of these diseases, those therapies haven’t yet been made available to humans, because of the medical profession’s exaggerated risk aversion and the FDA’s precautionary attitude. This meant that despite the discovery of appropriate therapies, the kids die because these therapies have not yet been through a lengthy and extremely expensive chain of paperwork and clinical trials. Determined to change this condition, she established BioViva. Today, BioViva analyzes biomarkers from trials and studies involving patients referred to the clinics by its partner company, Integrated Health Systems. The company is focused on speeding up the number of medical innovations by cooperating with companies that offer consenting patients pioneering therapies that they cannot get in the United States. Using medical researchers to oversee the patients, it beats the gold standard of the US FDA and creates exponential technology for the future. BioViva is the first company in the world to look at the data of regenerative gene therapies in humans.

Declan Doogan

Dr. Declan Doogan is a seasoned drug development executive and life sciences investor with more than 30 years of experience in the global pharmaceutical industry.

Declan joined Pfizer in 1982, where he held a number of senior positions in R&D in the USA, UK and Japan. Declan was the clinical development head for what was to become ZOLOFT, an important antidepressant and one of the top-selling products in the world. He retired from Pfizer in 2007 as the Senior VP Head of World Drug Development.

Subsequently, Declan was Head of R&D at Amarin where, along with the CEO, he raised $100m to fund the reorganization and portfolio realignment leading to the completion of a Phase III program and NDA approval for Vascepa (icosapent ethyl) for elevated triglycerides. During his career, Declan has engaged in activities to promote excellence in pharmaceutical medicine and sits on the Boards of several biotechnology companies.

Dr. Doogan received his Medical degree from Glasgow University in 1975, and received a Doctorate of Science from the University of Kent, UK.

Juvenescence is developing multiple therapeutics focused on improving and extending
human lifespans. The Juvenescence team comprises proven and seasoned experts in
drug development, strategy, structure, commercialization and finance.

From its outset, Juvenescence has staked out a major footprint in AI, and specifically in machine and deep learning through its part ownership of Insilico Medicine and through its ownership in NetraPharma and Juvenescence AI. Ac- cess to these two AI engines from our joint ventures will assist our efforts in drug discovery, as well as in optimizing human trials of the therapeutics we develop.

Our company’s pipeline consists of pre-clinical candidates that have been joint ventured with leading research institutions and associated scientist inventors. In addition, we are partners with established companies such as Age X, where our role is to provide finance, development expertise and to help guide products with management towards commercialization.

Dani Saurymper

Dani Saurymper joined AXA IM Framlington Equities in 2015 as a Portfolio Manager for the Framlington Equities Health funds. Dani is also the Healthcare/Ageing and Lifestyle specialist within our internal global research team. Prior to AXA IM, Dani was a senior equity research analyst covering European healthcare at Barclays Capital. Dani started his career in 2001 at Goldman Sachs as a senior pharmaceutical analyst covering European Pharmaceuticals, before moving to Nomura as a sector specialist covering global healthcare.

Dani holds a BSc in Management Studies and Pharmacology from Leeds University and MSc in International Business form Manchester School of Management UMIST.

AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) is an active, long-term, global, multi-asset investor. We work with clients today to provide the solutions they need to help build a better tomorrow for their investments, while creating a positive change for the world in which we all live. As at the end of March 2019 we have €750 billion assets under management, AXA IM employs over 2,350 employees are the world out of 30 offices across 21 countries. AXA IM is part of the AXA Group, a world leader in financial protection and wealth management.

Michael West

Michael D. West, PhD is the founding CEO of AgeX Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on the development and commercialisation of novel therapeutics targeting human ageing, and a subsidiary of BioTime, Inc. (NYSE US: BTX), where he also serves as Co-CEO, having joined as CEO in 2007. Prior to BioTime he served in a variety of roles including Chairman, CEO and CSO at Advanced Cell Technology, which, as Ocata Therapeutics, was acquired by Astellas Pharma of Japan in 2016 for $379 Million.

In 1990 Dr. West founded Geron (Geronology) Corp (Nasdaq: GERN) with backing from Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers and Venrock. For its scientific team he recruited Drs. Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak, who collectively went on to win the Nobel Prize in Medicine. While at Geron he also created the research consortium with Prof. James Thomson that led to the first isolation of human embryonic stem cells.

Dr. West received a B.S. Degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1976, an M.S. in Biology from Andrews University in 1982, and a PhD with a concentration on the biology of cellular aging from Baylor College of Medicine in 1989. The author of numerous articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals, he wrote The Immortal Cell: One Scientist’s Quest to Solve the Mystery of Human Aging (DoubleDay, 2003). He has appeared as a guest on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and has testified before the US Congress about the potential lifesaving benefits of regenerative medicine.

AgeX Therapeutics, Inc. (Alameda, CA) is focused on developing and commercializing innovative therapeutics for human aging. Its PureStem® and UniverCyte™ manufacturing and immunotolerance technologies work together to generate highly defined, universal, allogeneic, off-the-shelf pluripotent stem cell-derived young cells of any type for application in a whole host of diseases with a high unmet medical need. AgeX has two preclinical cell therapy programs: AGEX-VASC1 (vascular progenitor cells) for tissue ischemia and AGEX-BAT1 (brown fat cells) for Type II diabetes. AgeX’s revolutionary longevity platform named induced Tissue Regeneration (iTR™) aims to unlock cellular immortality and regenerative capacity to reverse age-related changes within tissues.

Sergey Young

Sergey Young is a longevity investor and visionary. His mission is to help one billion people extend their healthy lifespans by making longevity affordable and accessible for everyone. 

Sergey’s investment experience, spanning over 20 years, includes managing a $2bln private equity fund and co-founding Peak State Ventures, a New York-based private equity fund focusing on new technologies in Real Estate, Digital Healthcare, and the Future of Work. Sergey is also Longevity Venture Partner at BOLD Capital Partners, a $250m fund focusing on exponential technologies co-founded by Peter Diamandis.

Longevity Vision Fund provides Seed to Series C funding to biotech and life extension-focused companies that have demonstrated affordable longevity potential and vision of milestones driving up the value of the company and market validation.

Beverly Vaughan

Beverley is the Programme Director for UK SPINE, joining Oxford University in late 2019. Developing the consortium to deliver a national network of collaborators offering innovative solutions to healthy ageing and treatment of diseases of ageing, with novel therapeutics and intelligent clinical trial design. Beverley has over 15 years’ experience within the life sciences sector. With experience across the pharmaceutical and SME biotech community setting up complex networks (Advanced Therapy Treatment Centres, iUK), programme management (through challenging projects at the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult) and business development (at Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst). Developing business and academic opportunities through to implementation, as well as teaching and personnel development. Beverley has over 7 years’ experience as a clinical scientist specialising in haematology and oncology in addition to 5 years’ within academia, lecturing and managing R&D within the Medical Sciences at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

The UK SPINE sets out to build a multi-lateral knowledge exchange network, concomitantly bringing together multi-disciplinary expertise from a range of HEIs, industry and the charitable sector, together with strong NHS partnerships focused on a common goal.

The Life Science Industrial Strategy set out to establish the UK as a global hub for clinical research and medical innovation, through novel and efficient partnerships across sectors. Critical to this mission is knowledge exchange, which is better, faster and bigger.

Pivotal to the UK and all developed nations is the healthcare challenge to improve therapeutics for the elderly, reducing the impact of age related comorbidities, affordably, with accelerated timelines. The UKSPINE project sets out to improve health in old age, by accelerating the development of new and affordable therapies which overcome the generic processes driving ageing and age related diseases.

Michael Corcoran

Michael is a partner in the corporate team at Hill Dickinson, having qualified as a solicitor in 2005. He works primarily with high-growth private companies and small-cap listed companies, particularly in the media, technology, life sciences and resources sectors.

Michael has increasingly focused on matters relating to the life sciences sector over the last five years, working with academics, university spin-outs, venture capital and private equity groups. In particular, Michael has advised Juvenescence Limited, a longevity-focused company, and EMMAC, the leading independent European cannabis company, since incorporation.

Michael has extensive capital markets experience and has led a number of IPOs on the AIM market, the standard list and also the NEX high growth market. In addition, Michael has vast experience advising listed clients on secondary fundraisings, reverse takeovers, schemes of arrangement, takeover offers, tender offers, rights issues, general M&A and private equity.

Michael is noted in The Legal 500 2020 as a ‘trusted adviser whose capacity, communication, and commitment to excellence shines through.’

Our Life Sciences team provides practical, commercial legal advice to companies at all stages of development, from start-up to established multi-national.

We support clients from an idea in a lab, to helping incorporate the company, raising capital, protecting and licensing intellectual property, signing strategic partnerships and, ultimately, commercialising life-changing treatments and technologies.

We also help clients navigate a legal and regulatory landscape that is continuously evolving in response to innovation as well as societal and ethical challenges.

Our interdisciplinary team blends insight and pragmatism to provide high-quality, trusted advice to some of the world’s leading life sciences companies.

Areas of expertise in which we work include pharma, biotech, healthtech, medical cannabis, cell and gene therapies, genomics, IVF and embryo research.

www.hilldickinson.com

William Bains

William Bains is a researcher, innovator and entrepreneur in the life science, with a 20-year track record in company creation, development and financing. He has degrees from Oxford and Warwick and has run research projects at Stanford, Bath, Imperial College and Oxford, and is now a research affiliate at MIT. He has founded five start-up companies, and has helped raise over £60M in early stage funds for these and other start-ups in UK biotechnology. Three of the companies that he wrote business plans for subsequently floated. William is currently founder and CSO Five Alarm Bio Ltd.

Five Alarm Bio is a Cambridge-based start-up developing compounds that boost our bodies’ ability to defend themselves against the damage of aging. FAB was founded in 2016, and seed funded by its founders, Five Alarm’s initial research on its test compound FAB001 showed that it can reduce cell senescence, one of the key drivers of aging, through a novel mechanism that is inherently likely to be suitable for long-term use. We are seeking £2.75M to take this exciting opportunity to commercial realization. 

Nafees Malik, M.D.

Nafees Malik, M.D., is Chief Operating Officer at AgeX Therapeutics. He is an M.D. with a Master’s degree from the University of Cambridge. His 15 year career has involved roles spanning clinical medicine, investment banking, biopharmaceutical companies, research and academic institutions, and strategy consulting. For many years now, he has focused on the strategic and commercial analysis of cell and gene therapies and regenerative medicines. He is also Head of Cell and Gene Therapy at Juvenescence.

AgeX Therapeutics, Inc. (Alameda, CA) is focused on developing and commercializing innovative therapeutics for human aging. Its PureStem® and UniverCyte™ manufacturing and immunotolerance technologies work together to generate highly defined, universal, allogeneic, off-the-shelf pluripotent stem cell-derived young cells of any type for application in a whole host of diseases with a high unmet medical need. AgeX has two preclinical cell therapy programs: AGEX-VASC1 (vascular progenitor cells) for tissue ischemia and AGEX-BAT1 (brown fat cells) for Type II diabetes. AgeX’s revolutionary longevity platform named induced Tissue Regeneration (iTR™) aims to unlock cellular immortality and regenerative capacity to reverse age-related changes within tissues.

Sergio Ruiz

As Managing Director of the Methuselah Fund, Sergio Ruiz has years of experience discovering, analyzing, vetting and propelling longevity biotechnologies that can move the needle in the mission to increase the healthy human healthspan. He is also an entrepreneur-investor with a positive hands-on approach to investing who prides himself in helping with the incubation and formation of young academic teams and developing them into successful industry leaders. He currently holds several senior advisory roles for longevity biotechs and is also the Chief Operating Officer for a Stanford-born company called Turn Biotechnologies, focusing on epigenetic resetting of the age in a cell.

The Methuselah Funds, LLC (M Fund) is designed to accelerate results in the longevity field, extending the healthy human lifespan. Our success is measured by financial return on investments and furthering the mission, with the mission being the priority.

Our DNA stems from The Methuselah Foundation, which has been working hard during the last 16 years to extend the healthy human lifespan. Our access to the key players in this space is significant and our ability to help our companies thrive is proven.

Yuri Deigin

Founder and CEO of Youthereum Genetics, VP of the Foundation for Support of Scientific Research “Science for Life Extension”. Yuri is an entrepreneur in the field of drug discovery and development, particularly in translation and commercialization of medical discoveries. Over the years, Yuri has held various roles in biotech startups where he oversaw research and development of original pharmaceuticals and led fundraising efforts. He has extensive experience in working with venture funds and grant agencies. Since 2013 Yuri also serves as a vice-president of the “Science for Life Extension” non-profit foundation whose goal is the popularization of the fight against age-related diseases. To further this cause, Yuri frequently blogs, speaks, writes, and participates in various TV and radio shows. Yuri holds a B.Sc. from the University of Toronto and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School.

Youthereum Genetics is an early-stage startup dedicated to translating the approach of epigenetic rejuvenation via partial reprogramming into a gene therapy for pets and humans. At this point, Youthereum is focused on validating the efficacy of this therapeutic paradigm in normally-aging mice and increasing its safety margin. The subsequent set of milestones is focused on IP creation around additional safety features of their planned gene therapy construct.

Joe Hawkins

Braintrain20:20 is a groundbreaking cognitive science development company. Their first product, SleepCogni, is a proprietary pioneering electronic sleep aid device which winds you down to a sleep-ready state using audio, visual and tactile stimuli. We use personal bio-algorithmic data to drive the products responses, reducing the time taken to get to sleep and improving overall quality.

Kingsley Advani

Kingsley Advani is a British investor. He started investing in 2013, funding 50 companies, 5 funds and donating to nonprofits including: SENS Foundation, Methuselah Foundation & National University of Singapore. Kingsley invests in breakthrough ideas and focuses on extending healthy human life, life on mars and safe artificial general intelligence. He has invested across biotechnology, space, AI and fintech. Some of his investments include: Juvenescence, Oisin, Turn Bio, Oncosenx, Relativity Space, SpaceX, Momentus, TransAstra, Fathom Computing, Monzo, Robinhood, Abra, Coinbase, Carta, Demonpores, 64-x, Nectome.

Peter Fedichev, PhD

Peter’s scientific background lies in the field of condensed matter physics, biophysics, and bioinformatics. He was top-2 cited Russian physicist under 35 and has conducted research at the Kurchatov Institute (one of the leading science government agencies in Russia), AMOLF (national research center in the Netherlands), and the University of Innsbruck.

Peter studied theoretical physics at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Amsterdam. Currently has over 70 publications in peer-reviewed journals and multiple patents. As a MIPT researcher and a head of the Biological Systems Simulation Lab, he is working on modeling complex biological systems with the help of methods borrowed from statistical physics, kinetics and physical dynamics. As a biotech entrepreneur, he led the projects in research and pre-clinical development of anti-inflammatory, anti-infectious and anti-aging compounds, technology licensing and drug discovery collaborations with pharma (including members of World Top 20) and Academia.

Gero

Gero (Singapore) is an AI-driven drug discovery company using big human medical data for identification of innovative therapeutics. Recent results include experimental therapies rejuvenating / reducing biological age and frailty in mice. Gero works with leading academic partners , including Brian Kennedy, Robert J. Shmookler Reis, Vadim Gladyshev, Yuri Aulchenko, Andrei Gudkov and others to translate aging biology into life-changing interventions. Featured with Google and IBM among the top AI companies in life extension.