In today’s episode, Chris welcomes Sebastian Brunemeier, a biotech VC and company builder focused on longevity and regenerative medicine. Sebastien is the Co-Founder and General Partner of Healthspan Capital, a longevity VC firm that invests in biotechnology startups developing therapies to slow or reverse aging, and the CEO and Co-Founder of ImmuneAGE Pharma, a new company based on a drug discovery platform for immune rejuvenation.

At Healthspan Capital, Sebastian is looking to invest in fellow “true believers” in longevity and regenerative medicine—companies that understand the importance of aging as a focus for biotech and won’t pivot away from longevity as a focus.

 Sebastian’s newest venture, ImmuneAge Pharma, is focused on rejuvenating the immune system. With over 100 years of combined drug discovery expertise, the company aims to systematically identify small molecules that rejuvenate hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). As Sebastian points out, the goal of longevity and regenerative medicine is not to extend lifespan at any cost, but rather to increase quality-adjusted life years.

The Finer Details of This Episode: 

• Healthspan Capital and the importance of aging as a focus for biotech
• Investing in fellow believers who won’t pivot away from aging
• Alzheimer's drug development and the “amyloid mafia”
• ImmuneAge Pharma and immune aging 
• The importance of restoring immune function
• Key misunderstandings of regenerative medicine

Quotes: 

“We noticed that there was a gap in the market for more traditional structured VC, the longevity biotech space, and actually I and my co-founders launched Healthspan because we were looking to invest our own money into a broadly diversified portfolio and a long bio space, and there was no way to do it. So we had to create it ourselves.”

“I would argue that if you have a drug that enhances robustness and resilience and extends lifespan, and it works in multiple different animal models and disease, contrived or not, that is a much stronger preclinical signal for efficacy down the road.”

“We've already found a couple of interesting molecules that we're doing med chem on to improve their properties that identify the molecular target. And so, we're hopeful that we'll find a whole pipeline of assets that rejuvenate the immune system.”

“If we can dramatically improve outcomes for patients who receive chemo, that would be an absolute home run. It's a huge unmet market need. And this is something that I would want for myself and my friends and family to be available.”

“We want to gently, slowly replace the existing HSCs in the niche.”

“I'm primarily not in this for the money at this point. I am in this to extend healthy lifespan in myself and my loved ones and the world, and showing Big Pharma that there is a new way, another world is possible. We can actually treat disease at the root cause: the fundamental biology of aging.”

“We want to compress the time in which we're spending years in poor health at the end of life, which is very expensive for the whole world and the whole system. ”

Links: 

Email questions, comments, and feedback to podcast@bioagelabs.com

Translating Aging on Twitter: @bioagepodcast

BIOAGE Labs Website BIOAGELabs.com

BIOAGE Labs Twitter @bioagelabs

BIOAGE Labs LinkedIn

Healthspan Capital Website: https://www.healthspancapital.vc/ 

Sebastian A. Brunemeier on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sebastianaguiar/ 

Longevity Marketcap Newsletter: https://sub.longevitymarketcap.com/ 

The DeSci movement: https://ethereum.org/en/desci/