Life Length possesses a strong combination of financial resources, technical expertise, management capabilities and entrepreneurial spirit
Dr. Jerry W. Shay is the Vice Chairman of the Department of Cell Biology at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Associate Director of the Harold Simmon's Comprehensive Cancer Center, and holds the Southland Corporation Distinguished Chair in Aging and Cancer Research. He is also the Director of the Cancer Biology Graduate Program. Throughout his career, Dr. Shay has been interested in the relationships between aging and cancer. His seminal work on the relationships of telomerase to aging and cancer has received much international recognition. He received the AlliedSignal Award, the American Association of Aging Hayflick Award, and the Ted Nash Foundation Award. Dr. Shay was also named an Ellison Medical Foundation Senior Scholar. Dr. Shay was placed in the Institute for Scientific Investigations as one of the most highly cited scientists in the field of "Molecular Biology and Genetics". Science Watch placed Dr. Shay into the Doctors of the Decade list and he was ranked as one the most cited authors in the area of General Biomedicine.
Dr. Sandy Chang graduated with a B.S. from Yale College in 1988, and obtained his M.D. from Cornell University Medical College and his Ph.D. from Rockefeller University in 1997. He completed residency training in Clinical Pathology at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and did his postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Ronald DePinho at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School. He was an Assistant and then Associate Professor in the Department of Genetics, MD Anderson Cancer Center, before joining the faculty at Yale Medical School in 2011. He is currently the Associate Director of Molecular Diagnostics in the Dept. of Laboratory Medicine. Dr. Chang's research interests focuses on generating novel mouse models to understand how telomere binding proteins protect chromosome ends from engaging a DNA damage response. Dr. Chang is the recipient of numerous awards, including those from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Ellison Medical Foundation, the Sidney Kimmel Foundation for Cancer Research, and the Ellis Benson Award from the Academy of Clinical Laboratory Physicians and Scientists. He was elected into the American Society of Clinical Investigation in 2009.
Dr. Kathleen Collins is a Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. She joined the Berkeley faculty in 1995 after postdoctoral studies at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and pre-doctoral studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale. Her awards include a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Award in the Pharmacological Sciences, Early Career Life Scientist Award from The American Society for Cell Biology, and a University of California Berkeley Miller Professorship. Dr. Collins is currently an RNA Society Director, Editor for the journal RNA, Faculty of 1000 member for Nuclear Structure and Function, and Program Director of one of the largest National Institutes of Health pre-doctoral training grants; her previous appointments include National Institutes of Health Molecular Genetics study section Chair, University of California Cancer Research Coordinating Committee Executive Policy Committee member, and Monitoring Editor for The Journal of Cell Biology. Her group has led the way in reconstituting recombinant minimal telomerase complexes, for studies of enzyme structure and mechanism, and in defining the composition, assembly, and regulation of the larger biologically active telomerase holoenzymes. Her group made the first connection between human genetic variation in telomerase subunit genes, premature telomere shortening, and inherited syndromes of bone marrow failure; this continued research demonstrates the significance of individual differences in telomere length on the human health span.
Dr. William H. Andrews has worked in the biotech industry for 30 years, focusing the last 18 years on finding ways to extend human lifespan through the intervention of telomere shortening in human cells. Dr. Andrews earned his Ph.D. in Molecular and Population Genetics at the University of Georgia in 1981. He was a Senior Scientist at Armos Corporation and Codon Corporation, Director of Molecular Biology at Codon and at Geron Corporation, and Director of Technology Development at EOS Biosciences. He is presently the founder, President and CEO of Sierra Sciences, a biotech company in Reno, Nevada focused exclusively on finding drugs that will transiently induce the expression of endogenous telomerase in human cells. Sierra Sciences has already identified more than thirty such drugs and is presently characterizing their mechanism of action. While Director of Molecular Biology at Geron Corporation, Dr. Andrews was one of the principal discoverers of both the RNA and protein components of human telomerase and was awarded 2nd place as "National Inventor of the Year" in 1997 for this work. He is presently a named inventor on 43 U.S. issued telomerase patents.
Dr. Mark Rosenberg, M.D. is the President of The Institute for Healthy Aging; at this center, patients are treated with the combination of conventional and complementary techniques. In addition, Dr. Rosenberg is the program director for the first and only existing Integrative Cancer Fellowship in the U.S. He is now collaborating with doctors from Yale and Harvard, as well as researchers from Cancer Treatment Centers of America and will soon be initiating the first human clinical trial on advanced-stage cancer patients using his novel technique. This technique has been successful in causing an apparent “complete remission” in a patient with metastatic (stage 4) endometrial carcinoma. Dr. Rosenberg obtained his M.D. at Georgetown University School of Medicine in 1988.
Dr. Marcelo Viegas studied Molecular Biology and Informatics in the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Later on, he obtained his Ph.D. from the prestigious European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the University of Heidelberg (Germany) where he investigated a novel mRNA degradation pathway found in eukaryotic cells. Dr. Viegas brings 12 years of experience in biotechnology to the company in which he has been involved in a wide spectrum of developments including bioprocessing, genetic diagnostic assays, production of monoclonal antibodies and diagnostics based on genomic and proteomic biomarkers. He has deep expertise in PCR, NGS, ELISA, biosensor, microarray and bead-based arrays technologies. Dr. Viegas was the CSO and Technical Director in Abyntek Biopharma and the Director of Development in Transbiomed. He was also scientific advisor for µTAS developments in various companies.
Dr. Alessandra Spagnolo is a Laboratory Technician at Life Length. She obtained her Ph.D. in Cellular Biology and Biotechnology at the University of Messina in Italy. During her Ph.D. program she joined the laboratory of Dr. Stefano Fiore at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she developed her thesis project on the regulation of the inflammatory response in rheumatoid arthritis. After obtaining her Ph.D. degree, she worked in the laboratory of Dr. Douglas Feinstein at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her work was mainly focused on studying the therapeutical potential of some novel drugs in an animal model of multiple sclerosis. Later she joined the laboratory of Dr Carmen Guaza at the Institute Cajal in Madrid to evaluate the regulation of the immune response and neuroinflammation by endocannabinoids in an animal model of multiple sclerosis.
Dr. María Diez is a Laboratory Technician at Life Length. During her final university studies she joined the laboratory of Dr. Manuel Guzmán at the Complutense University of Madrid, studying the proapoptotic effect of cannabinoids on a tumoral cell line. She obtained her Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the Complutense University of Madrid under the direction of Dra. María Teresa Miras Portugal and Dr. Miguel Díaz Hernández, focused on purinergic neurotransmission. During her thesis she joined Dr. Herbert Zimmermann's laboratory at the Goethe Universitat in Frankfurt, where she worked on the study of ectonucleotidases which evolved into her thesis on the effect of one of these enzymes on axonal growth. In addition, she collaborated with Dr. J.J. Lucas at the Centro de Biología Molecular "Severo Ochoa" in Madrid, extending the work of her thesis to the study of one purinergic receptor on Huntington's Disease.
Stephen Matlin is Chief Executive Officer of Life Length. Mr. Matlin brings over twenty years experience as a senior executive, investment banker and entrepreneur to the Company. Mr. Matlin is the founder and Managing Partner of the corporate finance and strategy consultancy firm, Matlin Associates, which acted as the advisor in all of the work prior to creation of Life Length on behalf of the other shareholders, the Botín Foundation and Dr. Blasco.
Prior to starting Matlin Associates, Mr. Matlin worked in investment banking on Wall Street with Lehman Brothers and Rothschild, in strategy consultancy and as an entrepreneur and senior executive in the hospitality industry. Mr. Matlin is a graduate of the Harvard Business School where he obtained his MBA with honors and holds an undergraduate degree, cum laude with honors, from Dartmouth College.
Nuño is Vice President of Corporate Development and Investor Relations at Life Length. He is also a Partner at Matlin Associates, a corporate finance and strategy consulting firm based in Madrid. He holds a Master’s degree in International Management from the Centro de Estudios Económicos y Comerciales and a B.A. degree in Business Administration from the University of Deusto, Spain.
Previously, Nuño worked for KPMG Corporate Finance, Gestlink Negocios, an M&A boutique, PricewaterhouseCoopers, as business consultant, and in the Embassy of Spain in Washington D.C., as an investment analyst. Nuño’s s background includes extensive business strategy consulting and corporate transactions ranging from M&A deals and private placements to privatizations. Nuño speaks fluent Spanish, English and French
