On Deck Longevity Biotech Fellowship is on a mission to increase the number of people working to build longevity biotechnology companies.
The ODLB describes itself as “a continuous community for people to come together to build, join, or invest in revolutionary longevity biotechnology start-ups” – a longevity bootcamp where antiaging ideas can be workshopped and developed under the guidance of mentors (“Founding Fellows”).
Longevity.Technology: The longevity space is booming; just recently we launched our investment portal, featuring a carefully-curated set of opportunities and bringing innovators and investors together. Now, with the launch of this Fellowship, there is tuition and guidance available for those with the gleam of an idea that’s crying out for nurture.
Hosted on the established On Deck platform, the Longevity Biotech Fellowship aims to offer talented entrepreneurs, graduate students and academics guidance in building aging/regenerative medicine biotech start-ups by embedding them in a community of experts and mentors (experienced founders, pharma veterans, VCs and scientists).
The Fellowship programme includes seminars, talks, mastermind groups, networking events, mentor office hours, and pitch competition / demo days, with speakers such as David Sinclair, Laura Deming, Jim Mellon, George Church and Aubrey de Grey already lined up.
Founding Fellows who have agreed to provide advice and guidance include Marco Quarta of Rubedo Life Science, Kristen Fortney of BioAge Labs, Jean Hebert of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Matt Kaeberlein of the University of Washington, Morgan Levine of Yale, Sebastian Brunemeier of Apollo Health Ventures and Cambrian Biopharma, Reason of Repair Biotechnologies, Daniel Ives of Shift Bioscience, Anastasiya Giarletta of R42 Group, Sergio Ruiz of Turn Bio, Petr Sramek of Longevitytech.fund and Marc Bernegger of Maximon.
The Longevity Biotech Fellowship came about when Erik Torenberg, the co-founder of On Deck, decided a longevity fellowship was needed and reached out to Nathan Cheng, the man behind Longevity List, Longevity Marketcap and Biohack Stack.
Cheng, who is now ODLB’s Program Director and Ada Nguyen, Program Partner, hope to address the fact that as more and more capital flows into the antiaging biotechnology sector, the major obstacle to progress has become the lack of founders.
“Many mission-driven individuals who want to get involved in longevity biotechnology don’t know how to get started, or feel like they don’t have the necessary background, network, or resources to have an impact,” says Cheng. “The Fellowship aims to change that.”
The programme costs $2990 per year or $1490 per year for academics, with a limited number of scholarships also available. The first cohort will kick off on 12th September later this year, and the fellowship aims to onboard three cohorts per year. Operating mostly online (for COVID and geographical reasons), there will also be some in-person events in San Francisco and Boston.
Founding Fellow Daniel Ives of Shift Bioscience says of his role as mentor: “Leveraging their extended exposure to the Longevity field, mentors can help maximize signal-to-noise for founders, directing founders to the frontlines of science and drug development. Longevity is also a difficult and long-term mission – by setting expectations, mentors can help founders stay faithful to the mission and not fall prey to mission-second monopolists.
Even in the fast-paced race for rejuvenation, experience still counts for something, and mentors can help steer founders away from the traps and dead ends they’ve previously encountered.”
Founding Fellow Marco Quarta of Rubedo Life Science said: “It is our responsibility to pass our experience to others and help them to succeed. Enabling and facilitating extraordinary people to join the mission of extending life span and health span can only be for everyone’s benefit.”
We look forward to seeing longevity dreams start their journey towards reality – perhaps when they become start-ups looking for investment, we’ll even see some featured on our portal!
Learn more about the Longevity Biotech Fellowship HERE and find out all about our investment portal HERE.
