BRAINS Presents: The Immortalist Audit

The Immortalist Audit is our first science dinner theater event, designed to entertain and uncover what so-called ”Life-Extensionists” or “Immortalists” are doing to cure disease and extend healthy human life. Since literalism plagues the scientific community, we’d like to clarify that the topic of “living  forever” is probably one of physics and beyond the scope of the evening’s focus. We’ll simply be exploring technologies we need to keep ourselves alive and healthy.  As is customary, we will be offering shots of adamantium for those seriously interested in indestructibility.

Jokes  aside, Google’s CALICO announcement planted these technical ideas in the mainstream and allows us to shift the focus from advocacy to execution. To paint a comprehensive picture of what TIME magazine calls the“death solving industry”  we will Stephen Colbert style interview or “audit” the minds a select few who have dedicated their lives to fixing our biology. Visit the PEOPLEpage for the full menu. Our aim is to entertain, educate and inspire through the stories and advice of those who are truly making a difference! For more event details see our PROGRAM.

Aubrey de Grey was among the first and certainly the most famous advocates for viewing aging as an engineering problem. He set forth a plan for identifying all the components that cause human tissue to age, and designing remedies for each of them — forestalling disease and eventually pushing back death. He calls the approach Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS). He is an author, speaker and Co-Founder and CSO at SENS Foundation. While he never claimed it was his goal, he curiously appears in the first few sentences of Wikipedia’s “Immortality” page.

John Schloendorn came to the US to work for the SENS foundation in Phoenix, Arizona, where he finished his PhD and started a cancer immunity non-profit. He then formed Immunepath, a VC funded stem cell startup famously made from a lab he built in a garage. The science had success in mice but did not quite make it to humanclinical trials. Since then he has built a well outfitted lab where he does research, hosts other scientists, and is building Gene and Cell Technologies.

Riva-Melissa Tez founded Berlin Singularity – a group focusing on bringing and promoting pro-longevity and futurist discussions to mainland Europe and co-runs Kardashev Communications a German/US consultancy group promoting and connecting funds to emerging technologies. She is currently touring a talk called “The Three Obstacles that Prevent Emerging Technologies from Fulfilling Their Potential”.

A Jolly is a professional hacker, nomad, and social butterfly. He is co-founder and vice president of the NYC anti-aging non-profit LEAF. His favorite shirt says “Things to do before I die, #1 don’t die”. So far, he’s succeeding and he wants to do everything he can to keep it that way.

Andre Watson is founder and CSO of Ligandal Technologies, where they have developed a novel platform of genome-editing, organelle-localized and ligand-targeted nanoparticles. Ligandal is working to merge next-generation diagnostic tools with their ability to design precisely engineered nano-constructs.

Xander Honkala is also founder of Ligandal Technologies, where he is combining his understanding of immunology and nanotechnology to create a new era of genomically personalized therapies. Together with Andre, he is bringing a leaner startup model to the traditionally expensive biomedical market.

Christine Peterson is co-founder of Foresight Institute, focused on advancing R&D in atomically-precise manufacturing including applications for human health and longevity. She is co-author of Unbounding the Future: The Nanotechnology Revolution, chairs the Personalized Life Extension Conference series, and is CEO of HealthActivator. Christine is credited with originating the term ‘open source software’.

Ryan Bethencourt is a biotech entrepreneur engaged in the war against the ravages of time and disease! He’s working to accelerate innovations in medicine through biohacking, open innovation and collaboration. His primary areas of expertise are human translational medicine, genetics, longevity and biohacking. He is currently CEO of Berkeley Biolabs and Managing Partner at LITMUS Clinical Research.

Kevin Perrott is a Cofounder of SENS Foundation, former Board Member of the Methuselah Foundation, and owner of the largest Honda recreational vehicledealership in Canada. Kevin survived cancer and shifted direction to developing methods of curing age-related diseases, graduating from the University of Alberta in 2006 at age of 43 with a double major in Biology and Chemistry and is finishing a PhD focused on cellular senescence at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging.

Dinelle Lucchesi is an event and media producer, community organizer and the founder of BRAINS. Her current work focuses on accelerating technologies with major implications for humanity. She co-founded the Health Extension Salon and produced the first public spacehacker workshop at Silicon Valley Space Center.

Mark Hamalainen has dedicated his career to developing the technologies necessary to cure aging. He has worked on gene therapy as a researcher at SENS, DNA sequencing at Halcyon Molecular, and is currently focused on lab automation as the Director of Science at Synthego.

Johan Aardal discovered our potential for longevity studying molecular biology in his home country of Norway. He grabbed the chance to work with the SENS Foundation in Paris and then a cancer immunity project in Phoenix. With the help of Mark Hamalainen he made his way to California and joined Halcyon Molecular. He is currently growing his own cosmetics company to fund his and others’ future biotech ventures.