Introduce yourselves here. What's your background?

How did you get interested in aging, and what are your areas of relative expertise?

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Background: Bachelorā€™s Nuclear Engineering. Masterā€™s in Physics (Quantum Optics). Technically was doing a Ph.D but ā€œmastered outā€.

How I got interested in aging: Watched a Ray Kurzweil documentary, which led me to finding Aubrey on YouTube.

Expertise: Mostly just building random websites and projects that I think might be useful to the longevity industry or aging research. I track the development of longevity biotech companies closely. Iā€™m trying to learn as much as I can about biotechnology/bioengineering. I have a secret ambition to start my own biotech startup one day.

Iā€™ve been described as ā€œhaving processed the highest amount of broad information about the world of anyone I knowā€ and ā€œhaving powers to transcend dunbarā€™s numberā€ and an activator for early-stage people.

I know pretty much all the aging online communities and keep track of all the people (eg someone said ā€œI know everyoneā€). Iā€™m also on MANY other places online (starting with Quora).

Uhh you can google-stalk me for more. Iā€™m a unicorn - Iā€™m utterly unlike anyone else (though I do spend much of my time reading and not necessarily as much on doing my own thing [yet]). Longevity is what matters most, but I originally came from astronomy/climate science.

Main interest is being an agent to end technological stagnation to make LEV faster (this can be done through a huge array of different routes - but focusing on encouraging the boldness/courage of new people is big here - this is why the thiel fellowship had a uniquely important role in my psyche.)

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**Background: ** First year phd student working on cardiovascular NAD metabolism.
Why I like aging: I was originally more interested in cardiovascular disease due to being born with a rather severe congenital heart disease. I wanted to learn how to help myself and others like me with cardiovascular disease to extend our lifespan and healthspans. I recently decided that the lowest hanging fruit in treating cardiovascular disease was to delay the aging process. So naturally became interested in all things aging. I see delaying of cardiovascular disease/aging as the ā€œfirst generationā€ modality of aging therapeutics.

In the future Iā€™d like to start a lab or company focused on " second generation" modality of aging therapeutics in the cardiovascular space. This would be centered around cardiac reprogramming or regeneration to turn fibrotic ventricles ā€œyoungā€ and flexible again.

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Background: Bachelorā€™s Mathematics, Bachelorā€™s Philosophy. Masterā€™s in Biotechnology, Completed Stanford MOOCs on AI and ML.

How I got interested in aging: Misc articles I came across while searching PubMed for other articles got me intrigued. I started digging in deeper after coming across Longevity Market Cap website.

Expertise: I have some experience with building random websites, AWS cloud servers, and interests in startups. My actual coding skills are akin to a 4 yr old writing their name with a crayon. But I am fairly computer literate and can accomplish what I setout to do. Iā€™m pretty good at seeing patterns in data and coming up with novel hypotheses. Iā€™m good at data analysis of bioprocesses and figuring out the art side of biotech.

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Background: Bachelors degree in Evolution & Ecology and Doctorate degree in Optometry. Spent 4 years Active Duty Army, then 1 year residency at a private ophthalmology practice. Currently on faculty at an academic medical institution, primarily clinical care.

How I got interested in aging: Read the publication ā€œReprogramming to recover youthful epigenetic information and restore vision.ā€ and went down the rabbit hole from there. Iā€™m very excited for the future of this technology given my fascination in biology and experience caring for patients that could benefit from this technology.

Expertise: Information about eyes, eyecare, healthcare delivery and evolutionary theory.

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Background: Author of ā€œFinding the Fountain: Why Government Must Unlock Biotechā€™s Potential to Maximize Longevity,ā€ former US House and Senate Staffer, BA in government and history from Scripps College, MA in public affairs from Georgetown University, incoming MPhil in Public Policy student at Cambridge University.

How I got interested in aging: While working on healthcare reform in Congress I realized that changing insurance policies was not the full solution to Americaā€™s healthcare problems. The most effective way to reduce costs for the government and families - and to improve healthcare - is to tackle the diseases that make us the most sick and are the greatest financial burdens.

Expertise: I have an understanding of how Capitol Hill works and what needs to be done to increase government support for aging research.

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why did you decide to go to britain?

Background: Bsc + Msc Informatics/Computer Science & Bsc Molecular Biology. 10 years software development experience, including 2 years startup founding engineer experience in Biotech company, Oslo Norway.

How I got interested in aging: For the last 10 years Iā€™ve thought understanding aging mechanisms would become a reality in our lifetimes, and after reading Sinclairā€™s Lifespan I started actively pursuing opportunities.

Expertise: Expert software, AI, and data science professional, with fundamental understanding of biochemistry and molecular biology. Exploring opportunities in the space as co-founder and other ways to contribute to exciting projects! Direct message me!

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Welcome, Simen! Really cool to have you here. Will DM you ā€“ Iā€™m secretly building something that might be of interest to you.

Background: Bsc Business Administration - Technology Management at the University of Groningen. Currently pursuing the Msc ā€˜Healthā€™ at the economics faculty.

How I got interested in aging: At a nightly thinking session in 2017 I pondered why learning rates decline over age. I figured that we needed to solve aging. Then to find out bigger minds already were decades ahead :slight_smile: This then ignited my inner motivation which culminated in me reading aging literature during my bachelor.

Expertise:

Slight understanding of the nuances of aging as a phenomenon and complex systems thinking. How is this helpful? This is not always clear. One example might be the approach of ā€˜damage repairā€™ as outlined by de Grey. This might be fundamentally flawed if the ā€˜damagesā€™ we seek out to remove are actually the building blocks for future development of the body.

An other remark of de Grey is about funding of aging: ā€˜just give me more moneyā€™. I donā€™t think that is scale-able :slight_smile: Globally we spend only a few percent on preventative healthcare let alone longevity. The problem is thus not the total amount of resources we spend on healthcare, it is the wrong allocation of resources. I therefore devised a new way to allocate resources in healthcare with the startup FinalStand.

Hi everyone! So glad to have found this. My name is Aastha Jain and I write on longevity science in a fun manner!

Background: Bachelors in Economics. 3+ years in Credit Investing & Private Equity. Currently heading a product at a Series A Insurance startup.

How I got interested in aging: Was looking to take charge of my own health and some friends recommended looking into David Sinclair, Rhonda Patrick, and Peter Attia. I fell in love with the topic since my introduction to it and couldnā€™t stop learning more about it!

Expertise: I present the research of top longevity scientists in a fun creative manner in the form of stories, comics, and character-based conversations. https://livelongerworld.substack.com/
I think some of the science can be too dense for people and any way to make it more engaging might draw more people to this field. Thatā€™s what Iā€™m hoping to do!

Iā€™m also trying to learn as much as I can about cell biology and eventually longevity biotech.

:wave: About me: Hi everyone, my name is Rebecca Vaught (https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-vaught-ph-d-4741761a6), I run a biotech company called Van Heron Labs (vanheronlabs.com weā€™re actually messing around with the site - sorry). :globe_with_meridians: Based in: Huntsville, AL. We use multi-omics data + bioinformatics and AI to determine optimal nutrient profiles to streamline cellular metabolism and enhance performance. The bio-platform is ubiquitous and works for any cell or organism. Right now a lot of our clients are in the bio-manufacturing space - pharma, synthetic biology, alternative protein, and precision fermentation. However weā€™re also ramping up our human optimization platform, mostly dabbling in the military space right now so Iā€™m looking forward to joining this community. I did my Ph.D. on aging / lifespan and have been working in genetics / genomics / physiology / mitochondrial and sex chromosome biology for the better part of a decade.

Background: Masterā€™s in Bioengineering and Plant Science.

How I got interested in aging: Watched a documentary on the topic ā†’ Hallmarks of Aging ā†’ Down the rabbit hole of interlinked pathways.

Expertise: Honestly, Iā€™m mostly hoarding, organizing and refining information I deem interesting or important. It requires systemisation, which Iā€™m continually improving.
Meanwhile, I try to steer myself towards longevity and a way out of the 8-16 rat race.

So, Iā€™m purpose driven and with collections of organized information and templates of how to do things.