LongeVC

Ilya Suharenko is an investor with over 17 years of experience in traditional banking, including roles at Rietumu Bank in the Baltics, where he started as Secretary of the Supervisory Board in 2004 and later served as senior VP of sales and advertising, Deputy Head of the Board, and a Member of the Council. His background includes regulations, risk management, and oversight of a loan book exceeding $1 billion. He holds a bachelor's degree in Business Management from King's College London.

Sergey Jakimov is a serial entrepreneur who co-founded three deep-tech ventures and raised over $50 million in venture funding for his own companies and as an entrepreneur in residence. He has advised early-stage therapeutics companies on fundraising, IP protection, and clinical trial strategy, with attention to cardiovascular, oncology, and neurodegenerative treatments, and lectures on venture capital and intellectual property law. He holds a BSc in International Affairs from Rīga Stradiņš University and two MSc degrees from Central European University and Riga Graduate School of Law.

Artem Trotsyuk is a bioengineer and computer scientist who focuses on early-stage investments from pre-seed through Series A, working with founders to build companies. He previously worked at the venture capital fund R42 and lectures on bio-entrepreneurship at Stanford University. He earned a PhD in Bioengineering and a Master's in Computer Science with an AI specialization at Stanford, where his research covered gene editing, wearables, CRISPR therapy, regenerative medicine, and ethical data use in drug development.

Garri Zmudze is co-founder and managing partner at LongeVC, a venture capital firm focused on biotech and longevity. He co-founded the Longevity Science Foundation, a nonprofit funding early-stage research on extending the healthy human lifespan, in 2021. He is an active angel investor with exits in biotech and emerging tech, and advises companies across web3 and biotech.

Pascal Schümperli previously served as a Partner, Group Head of Private Market Investments, and board member at a multi-family office and asset management group operating in Switzerland and Singapore, where his work covered governance, liquid asset management, private markets (venture capital, private equity, M&A), and business development. He is the Founder and Principal of XESS, a private family office focused on venture and private markets investing, and also a Partner at Ameliora Wealth Management, a Zurich-based SEC- and FINMA-licensed wealth manager. He has co-founded and exited two technology companies and is a member of the Milken Institute's Young Leaders Circle.

Investment banking executive with 30+ years advising public companies on capital raising and major transactions. Former real estate industry head at Scotiabank. CA(SA) and part-time business instructor.

Artemy Shumskiy is a researcher with a background in molecular and cellular biology and biotechnology. He evaluates investment strategies for early-stage biotech and longevity startups, and previously worked as a research analyst and bioinformatics scientist at the Longevity Science Foundation and BostonGene. He is a fellow of the Longevity Biotech Fellowship program and holds a bachelor's degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Illinois and a master's degree in Biotechnology from the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology.

Vlad Cernoutan has a background in business and finance, with experience in data analysis, microeconomics, managerial accounting, and international finance. Before joining LongeVC, he worked as a Fixed Income Trading Operations Specialist at SEB Global Services and as Chief Microeconomist at IFund. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Business from the Stockholm School of Economics.

Evelyne Bischof (MD, MHP, FEFIM) is an Advisory Board member at LongeVC and Chairman of the Longevity Science Foundation Visionary Board. She is a longevity physician at Human Longevity, Inc., specializing in internal medicine and oncology with a focus on preventative and precision medicine, biogerontology, and geronto-oncology, and works on AI applications in biomedical research. Harvard- and Columbia-trained, she has held academic and clinical roles at institutions including Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, University Hospital Basel, and University Hospital Zürich, and has authored more than 40 peer-reviewed papers.

Evgeny Izumchenko is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, Section of Hematology/Oncology, at the University of Chicago, and serves on LongeVC's Advisory Board. His research examines the genetic and epigenetic changes driving carcinogenesis and disease progression, with a focus on cancers of the upper aerodigestive tract, early cancer detection biomarkers, and risk stratification. He previously conducted research at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Florida, and holds a PhD in Molecular Biology and Immunology from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Luis Angel is a technology executive with nearly two decades of experience leading global teams in health information technology and consumer innovation. He began his career as Director of End-to-End Solutions at DeRemate.com, later led consumer innovation teams at Novartis as Head of Marketing Effectiveness and then Head of Commercial Innovation, founded GetMyRx in 2013, and joined DrFirst in 2016 as President of its Consumer Solutions Division. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Biological Engineering from Texas A&M University and an MBA from INSEAD, and completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.

Matt Kaeberlein, PhD, is a Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the University of Washington School of Medicine, with adjunct appointments in Genome Sciences and Oral Health Sciences, and serves on LongeVC's Advisory Board. His research addresses the biological mechanisms of ageing to support interventions that extend healthspan, and he has authored over 200 scientific papers. He founded the Healthy Aging and Longevity Research Institute at the University of Washington, directs the Nathan Shock Center of Excellence, and co-directs the Dog Aging Project; he holds a bachelor's degree in Math and Biochemistry from Western Washington University and a PhD in Biology from MIT.

Matt Toner is a Venture Partner at LongeVC, where he helps portfolio companies build teams as they move from scientific proof toward commercial scale. He has more than 15 years of experience in executive search, leadership consulting, and recruitment for early-stage biotech, and was co-founder and former CEO of LifeSci Search, an executive search firm focused on early-stage biotech that grew to operate in the US, Europe, Israel, Japan, and China. His work centers on human capital strategy for biotech, including C-level hiring, board composition, and organizational design across areas such as gene and cell therapy, mRNA platforms, microbiome therapeutics, and longevity biotech.

Michael Levitt is a biophysicist and Nobel laureate (2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry) whose research has focused on the molecular structure of biological compounds, protein folding, and computer modelling in biology, including the first computerised model of an enzyme reaction. He earned a bachelor's degree in Physics from King's College London (1967) and a doctorate in biophysics from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and the University of Cambridge (1971), and has held academic positions at the Weizmann Institute of Science and the MRC Laboratory. He has been a Professor of Structural Biology at Stanford University since 1987 and serves on LongeVC's Advisory Board.

Mike Martin is a professor of gerontopsychology at the University of Zurich (UZH) and serves as an Advisory Board member at LongeVC. He directs the UZH Gerontology Center, previously co-directed the German Center for Research on Ageing in Heidelberg, and has collaborated with the World Health Organisation on measuring healthy ageing. He initiated the UZH Research Priority Program "Dynamics of Healthy Ageing" and the UZH Healthy Longevity Innovation Cluster, with research focused on cognitive and social development across the lifespan.

Miro Venturi is an Advisory Board member at LongeVC with a background in the pharmaceutical sector. He began in the pharmaceutical industry in 2002 as a Biomarker Laboratory Head at Pharmacia Corp (later Pfizer) in oncology R&D, later serving as Divisional Head in Biomarker Development at Novartis and holding senior biomarker and diagnostics roles at Roche, including Global Head of Diagnostics Biomarkers. He holds a Master's in Biochemistry from the Università di Bologna, a PhD in Biochemistry–Molecular Biophysics from Goethe University, and completed postdoctoral work at the National Institutes of Health.

Timothy Morris has held CFO and COO positions at pharmaceutical and biotech companies including Humanigen, Iovance Biotherapeutics (where he supported the approval of AMTAGVI, a cell therapy for solid tumors), AcelRx, VIVUS, and Questcor Pharmaceuticals. Across eight companies he has raised over $2.7 billion in equity and convertible securities, including two IPOs, and executed more than 100 strategic transactions totaling $5.7 billion. His experience covers capital formation, commercial strategy, manufacturing, and business development, including drug approvals and launches such as QSYMIA and DSUVIA.

Tzipi Strauss is the Director of the Neonatology Department and NICU at Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv, Israel, and is board-certified in paediatrics and neonatology. Her research focuses on hemostasis and coagulation in preterm infants, and she advises on cell rejuvenation and longevity at Sheba's forthcoming academic longevity center. She holds a master's in Healthcare Management from Harvard University and an MD from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, and trained in anti-aging and aesthetics in London.

Vadim Gladyshev is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Director of the Center for Redox Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and a faculty member of the Broad Institute. His lab studies aging, rejuvenation, and lifespan control through experimental and computational methods, and he is known for characterizing the human selenoproteome. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and a recipient of NIH Pioneer, Transformative, and Eureka awards.

Dr. Christine Yuan Huang is a physician-scientist and biotech entrepreneur focused on translating laboratory technologies into clinical applications. She serves as Technology Transfer Director at the Hong Kong Quantum AI Lab, Managing Director of HK Longevity Medical Center, and a biomedicine investment consultant for China Internet Investment Finance Holding Limited. She holds degrees in Medicine and Science from Southern Medical University, a Master's from the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong, and trained in Neurology at Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong.

James Bogenberger is a translational precision oncology researcher whose therapeutics development experience spans functional genomics target identification through clinical correlative studies, including preclinical and clinical work on small molecule, biologic, viral oncolytic, and gene therapy approaches. He previously held roles as an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellow and as a Research Associate and Assistant Professor of Medicine and Molecular Medicine at Mayo Clinic. Since 2020 he has served as CSO at Statum Capital Partners' multi-family office.

Jiahao Liang's research examines how synapse ultrastructure modulates neurotransmitter release and the structural basis of pathogenic β-amyloid processing in Alzheimer's disease. He holds a B.S. in Biochemistry-Molecular Biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and later worked at the University of California, San Francisco, where he built yeast-display antibody libraries to study the Hedgehog signaling pathway. He co-established the Bay Area chapter of Nucleate, a non-profit focused on life science company formation.

Konstantinos Maitos is an HCMC certified portfolio manager with over 11 years of experience in the financial sector, covering asset valuations, financial strategies, and portfolio monitoring for early-stage VC funds. He previously worked as an investment analyst at HSBC and as an equity analyst at Axia Ventures Group. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from the University of Patras and an MBA in Finance from the Athens University of Economics and Business, where he is also a PhD candidate in Financial Engineering.

Kaczmarek's research focuses on optimizing ex vivo machine perfusion conditions to preserve metabolism and mitochondrial function in human kidneys for transplantation, using techniques including qPCR, ELISA, RNAseq, and mass-spectrometry. She holds a B.Sc. in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Manchester and previously worked on improving remyelination with CRISPR-edited human ES-derived oligodendrocyte progenitor cells during a placement year at the University of Edinburgh. She serves as Vice-President of the Cambridge Society of Ageing and Longevity Research and participates in the University of Cambridge iTeams programme, working on commercializing a material for in vivo detection of senescent cells.

Naftali Horwitz is Head of Investor Relations at Phaze Ventures, a MENA-based venture capital firm. He works with institutional and private investors on technology investments across the AI, energy, and enterprise SaaS sectors.

Nir Barzilai is Director of the Institute for Aging Research and a Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Genetics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and serves as Principal Investigator at the Nathan Shock and Glenn centers. He leads the EXCEL Study, which aims to recruit centenarians and their families to identify longevity genes, and the TAME study, which tests whether aging-related conditions can be delayed in humans using metformin. He has authored over 290 peer-reviewed papers, received the NIH Merit Award, the Irving S. Wright Award (2010), and the IPSEN Longevity Award (2018), and wrote the book "Age Later" (2020).

Thomas A. Rando, M.D., PhD., directs the Broad Stem Cell Research Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, and serves as Professor of Neurology and Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology. His laboratory studies the biology of stem cell function in degenerative diseases and aging, including work using heterochronic parabiosis to examine reversal of age-related changes in stem cell function. He has received the NIH Director's Pioneer Award and is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Tom Sturitis has more than ten years of experience in attracting foreign direct investment and supporting international companies with business development. Prior to LongeVC, he worked at the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration and Management, an MFA from BA School of Business and Finance, and an MBA from SBS Swiss Business School.

Yifei Wang conducted research at McGill on Parkinson's disease and the role of vitamin D in innate immunity, and currently studies mitochondrial function in hematopoietic stem cell aging and related conditions such as leukemia, fatty liver, and atherosclerosis. She has four publications, is a member of the Longevity Biotech Fellowship program, and has worked as a consultant at Bay Area Biotech Connection and Berkeley Innovative Solution as well as a therapeutic investment fellow at UCSF Innovation Venture.

Yousin Suh is the Charles and Marie Robertson Professor of Reproductive Sciences in Obstetrics and Gynecology and Director of Reproductive Aging at Columbia University, and serves as an advisor to LongeVC. Her research examines the genetic and epigenetic basis of aging and age-related disease, studying genome sequence variants in middle-aged and long-lived individuals using methods such as in silico modeling, cell culture assays, and mouse models. She has received the Glenn Award for Research in Biological Mechanisms of Aging and sits on the editorial boards of journals including PLoS Genetics and Aging Cell.

Katie Petrakos is Chief Operating Officer at LongeVC, a venture capital firm focused on biotech and longevity, where she leads operations and supports the implementation of the firm's investment strategy. Her background includes work in foreign direct investment, site location, government relations, and international business development. She previously held roles at Latvia's Investment and Development Agency, where she focused on foreign investment, and at the Liepaja Business Incubator, supporting emerging businesses.