MITCNC Talks Science Series: Reversing the Aging Clock
Agenda
01:00 PM - 01:15 PM Welcome Remarks
01:15 PM - 02:15 PM The epigenetics and cellular determinants of aging: how to turn back time
02:15 PM - 02:30 PM Break
02:30 PM - 03:30 PM Longevity & AI
03:30 PM - 03:45 PM Break / Tour of the Valley Research Park
03:45 PM - 04:30 PM Panel Discussion
04:30 PM - 06:00 PM Closing Remarks & Networking
Saturday, October 14, 2023
1:00 PM - 6:00 PM PT
Hosted by the MIT Club of Northern California and
Co-Hosted by the Oxford University Society Northern California, and the Harvard Club of Silicon Valley. Held at Valley Research Park’s CoWorking Lab Space.
The field of longevity and aging research has been rapidly expanding, with numerous discoveries advancing our understanding of the biology of aging. This area has attracted significant interest from pharma, biotech and tech companies, and has led to the emergence of multidisciplinary approaches to aging interventions, spanning science and artificial intelligence.
Join us to learn about some of the ground-breaking research on aging and hear from experts about the challenges, perspectives, and actionable insights that have revolutionized how we think about reversing the aging clock.
SPEAKERS
Matt Buckley
Retro
Co-Founder
Matt Buckley, PhD, cofounded Retro in 2021. He conducted research into the molecular basis of aging and various rejuvenation strategies using single-cell RNA-sequencing and machine learning while at Stanford. He published first-author papers in Molecular Biology and Evolution, Nature, and Nature Aging before leaving academia to start Retro. Retro exists to accelerate the translation of aging research into lifespan-extending therapeutics and focuses around the themes of autophagy, blood plasma, and epigenetic reprogramming.
Anil Bhushan
Deciduous Therapeutics
Co-Founder
Dr. Anil Bhushan is currently a Professor at UCSF School of Medicine. After PhD studies at University of California, Davis, he did a fellowship at the Salk Institute of Biological Studies and Institute Curie in Paris. He was a principal investigator and faculty at UCLA before joining UCSF. He is the scientific founder of Deciduous Therapeutics, a startup developing immunotherapies for fibrotic and metabolic diseases. His recent research interests revolve around stromal immune circuits in cancer and autoimmunity.
Graham Ruby
Calico Life Sciences
Principle Investigator
Dr. Graham Ruby is currently a Principal Investigator at Calico Life Sciences. His lab applies quantitative genetic and demographic analyses to describe the aging process and discover its genetic foundations in humans and model organisms. His research activities include genetic association studies, deep phenotyping with the use of artificial intelligence and genome annotation using “-omics” data sets. As a postdoc with Dr. Joseph DeRisi at UCSF, Graham wrote software (PRICE) for the discovery of novel viruses from metagenomic deep-sequencing of clinical specimens. As a graduate student with Dr. David Bartel at MIT, he analyzed deep-sequence data for the annotation and characterization of microRNA genes.
Vittorio Sebastiano
Turn Biotechnologies
Co-Founder
Dr. Vittorio Sebastiano is an Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Stanford School of Medicine. His lab has established a new technology named ERA (Epigenetic Reprogramming of Aging), which repurposes the conceptual idea of reprogramming, with the goal to promote epigenetic rejuvenation of adult cells leaving their identity untouched. This new technology was patented and is being implemented by Turn Biotechnologies, of which Dr. Sebastiano is co-founder, Head of Research, and Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board.
Ronjon Nag
R42 Group
Founder and President
Ronjon Nag is an inventor, teacher and entrepreneur. He is an Adjunct Professor in Genetics at the Stanford School of Medicine, becoming a Stanford Distinguished Careers Institute Fellow in 2016. He teaches AI, Genes, Ethics, Longevity Science and Venture Capital. He is a founder or advisor/board member of 100 start-ups and President of the R42 Group, a venture capital firm which invests in, and creates, AI and Longevity companies. As a smartphone pioneer his companies have been sold to Apple, BlackBerry, and Motorola. More recently he has worked on the intersection of AI and Biology. He has been awarded the IET Mountbatten Medal by the Institution of Engineering and Technology, the 2021 IEEE-SCV Outstanding Engineer Award, the 2021 IEEE-USA Entrepreneurship Award, the 2023 COGX AI Conference Lifetime Achievement Award and as Chair of Bounce Imaging, the $1m Verizon Powerful Answers Award. Professor Nag has a Ph.D from Cambridge, an SM from MIT and a B.Sc. from Birmingham in the UK. He is Director of MIT Alumni Angels of Northern California, winner of the 2023 MIT Bronze Beaver Award.
Christin Glorioso
NeuroAge Therapeutics
Co-Founder and CEO
Dr. Christin Glorioso is a physician scientist and co-founder and CEO of NeuroAge Therapeutics. NeuroAge is a winner of the US National Institute on Aging Startup Challenge, a winner of the Stanford Longevity Company Competition, and was named one of the top 10 companies to watch in 2023 by Life Science Nation. Dr. Glorioso is a pioneer of aging clocks in the human brain and has published more than 25 scientific papers. She is an expert on AI-based predictive modeling and built the top model out of 104 teams worldwide for US COVID case prediction in the XPRIZE Pandemic Response Challenge. Dr. Glorioso is passionate about community building and also founded and directs the non-profit, Longevity Global. She completed her MD and PhD at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) and her postdoctoral training at MIT.