Appointment of Joan Mannick as CMO is a sign that company’s cellular rejuvenation programs may be nearing readiness for human studies.
Longevity biotech giant Altos Labs has appointed Dr Joan Mannick as its Chief Medical Officer and head of product development, signaling a shift toward advancing clinical programs based on the company’s cellular rejuvenation technology. As Life Biosciences reportedly prepares to enter clinical trials with its partial epigenetic reprogramming candidate, is Altos about to join the party?
Altos, which launched with $3 billion in funding in 2022, is focused on reversing disease and age-related decline by restoring cellular health through partial epigenetic reprogramming, a technique inspired by the work of Nobel laureate Shinya Yamanaka and Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte. The company’s approach, which reverts cells toward a youthful state without altering their identity, has demonstrated benefits in animal models, extending both lifespan and healthspan in mice.
Although Altos has not yet launched human trials, the appointment of Mannick, who has significant experience designing and running clinical programs in aging biology, indicates the company is shifting into clinical applications of its technology. She will operate within Altos’ Institute of Medicine, collaborating with discovery and development teams to shape the clinical direction of its therapies.
Mannick brings decades of experience in aging-focused drug development, including her leadership roles as CEO and co-founder of Tornado Therapeutics, where she oversaw the development of mTOR inhibitors, and at resTORbio, which she co-founded to target age-related immune decline. Her background also includes leadership positions at Life Biosciences, Novartis, and a faculty tenure at Harvard and the University of Massachusetts medical schools.
Mannick’s experience is particularly relevant given the unique regulatory and clinical challenges of targeting aging biology, as seen in her prior work at resTORbio, where clinical endpoints and regulatory pathways were largely uncharted.
“At resTORbio, our goal was to improve the function of the aging immune system, which was completely unexplored territory in clinical development,” she told us in a previous interview. “This was also new territory for the FDA. I think the endpoints that were chosen for the resTORbio trial weren’t optimal but we learned a tremendous amount from that program.”
Mannick’s role at Altos will focus on steering experimental science toward therapies intended to reverse or prevent age-related conditions, leveraging the company’s multidisciplinary expertise in cellular programming and computational modeling.
“With its pioneering approach to cellular rejuvenation programming, Altos is advancing an incredibly exciting and ambitious mission that will change the practice of medicine,” said Mannick in a statement. “I am thrilled to be able to help bring this groundbreaking science to patients.”
With research hubs in the San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego, and Cambridge, UK, Altos has attracted many leading scientists to its labs, including the likes of Yamanaka, Belmonte, Peter Walter, and CEO Hal Barron.
“Joan’s extensive clinical development experience and her passion for translating science into medicine make her an invaluable addition to Altos Labs,” said Barron in a statement. “Her leadership will be instrumental in translating our research to deliver medical breakthroughs that will change peoples’ lives for the better.”
