The latest longevity updates from our investment news desk.
Impact funds and dementia research
Hannah Kuchler at the Financial Times reported on how impact investment funds are being used to finance the fight against dementia and antibiotic resistance. She explains how investors’ ROI expectations are leading more companies working on these challenges to consider other forms of investment.
Lineage updates on cell therapy program
Cell therapy company Lineage Cell Therapeutics provided an update on its auditory neuronal cell transplant program for the treatment of hearing loss. Preclinical testing has begun through a collaboration with the University of Michigan. Dr Yehoash Raphael will serve as Principal Investigator and direct initial preclinical testing in collaboration with the company. Hearing loss is a significant unmet medical need, and by 2050, nearly 2.5 billion people are estimated to be impacted by listening impairments across the globe.
“In less than one year, we created new methods of differentiation which successfully advanced a new product candidate from the concept stage to the successful manufacture of a discrete cell type at clinically testable scale,” said Brian Culley, Lineage CEO. “Along the way, we generated new intellectual property and advanced that product candidate into preclinical testing. This new pipeline program was created with less than $1.0 million of investment from our R&D budget and without the use of third-party grants or intellectual property.”
Maximon appoints senior co-living CEO
Longevity company builder Maximon announced Chris Monkman as the co-founder and CEO of the Swiss firm’s new “senior co-living” venture. Details on the new company are light at this point but it is described as providing an “upscale curated form of living for active and healthy seniors.”
As serial entrepreneur, Monkman has built several venture backed companies in the real estate and technology industries. Formerly the co-founder and CEO of Neighbourhood, a UK wide coworking platform, Maximon describes him as a “visionary leader with passion for community, longevity and real estate.”
