Event at a glance

4th Annual Regenerative Medicine and Longevity science Forum

The World Congress brings the world’s most prominent regenerative medicine and longevity scientists together, presenting the new research, responsible drug development, novel therapies and commercialisation to target age-related diseases.

Tuesday 26 April

09:00 Welcome

Jade Osei-Tutu, Conference Director, LSX

09:05 Opening Remarks

Chairman:
Stephen Helliwell, VP discovery biology, Rejuveron,

09:10 Keynote Panel: Regenerative, Rejuvenate or Reprogram?

An in-depth discussion about the applying geroscience to regenerative and longevity research. Investigating how the deeper understanding of ageing biology can progress the next 10 years of stem cells and longevity therapeutics.

Speakers:
Thomas Rando, Co-Founder, Fountain Therapeutics
Georgina Ellison-Hughes, Professor of Regenerative Muscle Physiology, King's College London
Nir Barzilai, Director, Institute for Aging Research, Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Moderator:
James Peyer, CEO, Cambrian

09:55 Keynote Panel: The COVID-19 Impact

COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus Sars-CoV-2, is most prevalent in older adults, causes more severe symptoms in this population and over 90% of deaths are in the over 65 year olds.

Gain insights into how COVID-19 has impacted on social issues and research data on ageing science, including describing how an aged immune system contributes to this increased morbidity and mortality in older adults and also discuss research into the long term consequences for immunity and overall health in COVID-19 survivors. Then discuss how any lesson learnt can be applied to improve healthspan going forward.

James Kirkland, Director of the Robert and Arlene Kogod Centre on Aging, Mayo Clinic
Janet Lord, Institute of Inflammation and Ageing, University of Birmingham
Kristen Fortney, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, BioAge Labs

Longevity Therapeutics

Advancing mechanistic understanding

11:10 Presentation: Targeting Mechanisms Underlying the Biology of Aging to Treat and Reverse Disease

Exploring three platforms targeting key mechanisms underlying aging biology: mitochondrial uncoupling, chaperone-mediated autophagy, and epigenetic reprogramming. Therapies developed within each platform have the potential to prevent, treat, and/or reverse multiple aging-related diseases.

Jerry McLaughlin, CEO, Life Biosciences

11:35 Presentation: Harnessing endogenous immune biology to ablate pathogenic senescent cells and treat disease

• Identifying the endogenous immune mechanism for clearing senescent cells
• Therapeutically harnessing the immune system to remove senescent cells in a disease state
• Achieving therapeutically relevant endpoints and durable effects
• A paradigm shift for systemically treating age related multi-morbidities

12:00 Presentation: Data-informed drug discovery and clinical development for therapies that target aging

BioAge’s AI-based platform analyzes human aging to discover key longevity mechanisms, and then targets these pathways with drugs aimed at age-related conditions with clear regulatory strategies and well-defined patient populations. We will describe our human data–driven platform and the three mechanistically diverse clinical-stage programs it has inspired to date.

Kristen Fortney, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, BioAge Labs

12:25 Lunch

15:15 Afternoon Break

15:45 Panel: Translating and commercialising regenerative medicine and ageing science into therapeutics and consumer products

Assessing the route to market options by developing biologic or medical device designation. How do they differ in IP potential and market access parameters (pricing and reimbursement strategies)?

How important is buy in from big Pharma critical for commercialisation for regenerative products over companies establishing themselves as ‘big’ biopharma. Discussing how the advancements of regenerative medicine to translate real world interventions can be applied to longevity therapeutics and gain more interest from larger player and payers.

And assessing the market opportunities for rejuvenation applications that can be utilised direct-to-consumer such as wound management, skin care and dental care.

Ben Turner, Director - Venture Science, Eli Lilly and Company
Joshua Hare, Co-Founder, Chief Science Officer and Chairman, Longeveron
Saranya Wyles, Assistant Professor of regenerative medicine and dermatologist, Mayo Clinic School of Medicine

Moderator:
Nir Barzilai, Director, Institute for Aging Research, Albert Einstein College of Medicine

   

16:30 Roundtables

• Commercial and market access strategies for regenerative medicine and longevity therapeutics
  Hosted by Mark Chalmers, Ernst & Young LLP
• Company building, biotechnology operations
  Hosted by Juliette Han, Cambrian
• Exploring the Hallmarks of Aging for druggable targets
  Hosted by Georg Terstappen, Cambrian
  
• The right indication for drug development in longevity therapeutics 
  Hosted by Siham Ceballos, Bioartemis
• Targeting aging muscle: preclinical models, novel targets, and clinical development strategies 
  Hosted by Justin Rebo, BioAge
• Chronic disease management for healthspan extension and successful ageing
  Hosted by Ariana Adjani, Fine Treatment

Roundtable hosts:
Mark Chalmers, Partner, Ernst & Young LLP
Juliette Han, Chief Operating Officer, Cambrian
Georg Terstappen, EVP, Drug Discovery, Cambrian
Siham Ceballos, Founder and Managing Partner, Bioartemis
Justin Rebo, SVP Translational Aging Biology, BioAge
Ariana Adjani, Co-founder, Fine Treatment

17:45 Close of day 1 and Rejuvenate reception

Wednesday 27 April

09:00 Chair Opening Remarks

David Weinkove, Co-Founder & CEO, Magnitude Biosciences

09:05 Keynote Panel: Investment landscape within Regenerative medicine and Longevity Therapeutics

Removing the taboo of longevity and regenerative medicine within traditional biotech investment dynamics. Understand how the landscape is changing with new investment providers and deep dive into their due diligence process.

Alexandra Bause, Investor Director, Apollo Ventures
Ronjon Nag, Managing Director and Founder, R42 Group
Tobias Reichmuth, Co-Founder, Maximon
Petr Sramek, Managing Partner, Longevity Tech Fund

Moderator
Jennifer Garrison, Co-Founder & Director, Global Consortium for Reproductive Longevity & Equality, and Assistant Professor, Buck Institute

09:50 Fireside Chat: Rejuveron’s outlook on the next decade opportunity for aging science

A fireside chat with Rejuveron’s CEO, Matthias Steger who will share his thoughts on where he sees interesting approaches within longevity therapeutics and how Rejuveron are working with emerging biotechs to progress their science to clinical stages and commercial entities.

Matthias Steger, Chief Executive Officer, Rejuveron

Moderator:
Jerry McLaughlin, CEO, Life Biosciences

10:20 Panel: Commercialising skin with hard data

Skin, the largest organ, has seen commercial success in rejuvenation, particularly in Aesthetics and Cosmetics. But robust clinical data for dermatology is scrutinised. How much is the consumer is driving the market, is there enough data to back up the demand clinically? And what can be done to address the gaps? Hear about the innovative companies and technology the cosmetic and consumer market leaders are reviewing to back robust clinically proven research.

Sibylle Jager, Scientific Directorate Manager, L’Oréal
Stephanie Manson-Brown, Head of Clinical Development, VP Allergan Aesthetics R&D, AbbVie
Cristiana Banila, Chief Scientific Officer, MITRA BIO

Moderator:
Carolina Reis Oliveira, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, OneSkin

11:00 Morning Break

Ageing science: moving to the clinic

11:30 Panel: Challenges in clinical trials for longevity therapeutics

What are some common obstacles to clinical trials of longevity-based therapeutics — and what are the strategies that might be used to successfully overcome them? The panelists will discuss the challenge of indication selection, including an assessment of the decision process in previous p53 and mTOR longevity trials; the development of clinical tools for aging, including biomarkers and endpoints; navigating existing regulatory frameworks; and the impact (and value) of clinical trial “failures” as the field moves forward. 

Joan Mannick, Co-Founder and CEO, Tornado Therapeutics
Jimmy El Hokayem, Programme Director, BioRasi
Jamie Dananberg, Chief Medical Officer, UNITY Biotechnology

Moderator:
Eric Morgen, CMO & COO, BioAge

12:10 Presentation: Targeting Aging with Metformin (TAME): A Concrete Plan to Pave the Way for Targeting Aging

• Is animal aging really relevant to human aging? We have studied the exome sequencing of 500 centenarians and 500 controls, all from in the DNA of the homogenous population of Ashkenazi Jews, and using a system biology approach asked what are the pathways that are district for exceptional longevity. We discovered that alterations in centenarians included the insulin/IGF-1 signaling, mTOR pathways and other pathways that suggest that human aging and longevity are conserved through evolution and pose targets for therapy.
  
  
• Can we establish criteria for biological aging that will change with therapies that will target aging? I will demonstrate how we discovered, by looking at 5000 protein levels (by Aftamers) in 1000 subjects between ages 65-95, the fingerprint of biological vs, chronological aging.
  
  
• Can we change the regulatory establishment to recognize aging as a target for preventing age-related diseases? I will talk about the rational for study that is about to be launched, Targeting Aging with Metformin (TAME). Metformin is ‘tool’ to pave the way for the FDA to show that targeting aging will prevent age-related diseases.

12:35 Presentation: Macular degeneration clinical development via targeting BCL pathways

Explore ocular biology around the senescent triggers of disease and targeting the BCL-xL pathway as a senolytic mechanism. Discuss the lead compound through the clinic including early phase results.

Jamie Dananberg, Chief Medical Officer, UNITY Biotechnology

13:00 Lunch

14:15 Fireside Chat: Tackling Immunogenicity in gene therapy, cell therapy and organ transplantation

Discussing the triggers of allogenic graft rejection, the mechanistic understanding of immunogenicity and importance when developing cell and gene therapy.

Stefan Tullius, Professor of Surgery, Transplant Surgery, Harvard Medical School

 

Moderator:
Michael Hufford, Co-Founder and CEO, Lygenesis

14:40 Pre-clinical development of new senotherapeutics via modulation of RNA splicing

• Regulated mRNA processing is achieved by the combinatorial action of splicing factors; proteins which activate or inhibit splice site choice.
• Splicing factor expression declines during ageing because of constitutive and unresolved cellular signalling, with is a provocation towards cellular senescence.
• Treatment of senescent cells with small molecules or targeted oligonucleotide interventions designed to restore splicing factor expression can ameliorate multiple features of senescence in human primary skin cells.
• Dysregulation of mRNA splicing may represent a new (and druggable) driver of cellular ageing, which can be targeted to treat the causes, rather than the consequences, of cellular ageing.

Lorna Harries, Chief Scientific Officer, Senisca

15:05 Presentation: Targeting age-related pathways to treat aging disorders

• Discuss construction of age-related gene expression signatures (AGES) to identify and target common age-related pathways that may create permissive or causative environment for disease.
• AGES point to potential mechanisms that contribute to age-related disorders and can be used for therapeutic target discovery.
• Discuss pre-clinical studies conducted in rats, targeting TORC1 (target of rapamycin complex 1) to modulate age-related pathways and morbidities.

Tea Shavlakadze, Director of Aging/Age-Related disorders, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals

15:30 Presentation: Lymphatic Bioreactors, Ectopic Organs, and the Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine

• Lymph nodes’ natural, evolutionary-based purpose as part of our immune response system can be made to act as in vivo bioreactors for a variety of tissue types
  
  
• Cell therapies engrafted into lymph nodes are capable of producing organogenesis – the generation to functional, therapeutic tissues to complement a native organ’s functioning
  
  
• A translational medicine program has enabled this technology to move from the lab to the clinic, with a first application in patients with end stage liver disease
  
  
• The commercial advantages and disadvantages of an allogeneic cell source with low COGS will be discussed

15:55 Closing Remarks

16:00 Congress Closes