LONDON, July 10, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via PRWEB - Deep Knowledge Ventures last week sponsored the inaugural 21st Century Medicine Forum on 'Commercialising Longevity Research' and welcomed a host of London-based investors, scientists and entrepreneurs to the London Bioscience Innovation Center for the event, organised by the UK's Biogerontology Research Foundation and Aging Analytics Ltd. The meeting highlighted the need for both philanthropic support and investment in translational research for age-related disease, as well as the crucial role of social awareness of advances in regenerative and preventative medicine. This point was well made by attending actress, campaigner and international model, Katya Elizarova, who said:
"It's clear that the most important thing is to support projects for preventing aging. If researchers are clever enough to develop methods to prevent age-related damage accumulating, it's much more likely that they will have an ability to treat with success", adding, "If I, as a media person, can increase the awareness of what you are doing here today and involve as many people as I can, then I shall do it."
The evening was marked by the announcement that former Chairman of the International Employee Benefits Association and pensions industry expert Geoffrey Furlonger is to join Aging Analytics as its new CEO. Deep Knowledge Ventures Senior Partner Dmitry Kaminskiy made the announcement during his talk on Impact Investment in Regenerative Medicine and highlighted Aging Analytics success in deploying its unique investor decision support software, VITAL (Validating Investment Tool for Advancing Life Sciences) and the publication of its first report, 'Investing in Regenerative Medicine: Technology and Market Outlook'. Participants of the forum were handed out free copies of the report at the event. Introducing Geoffrey, Dmitry noted that under his leadership we could expect to see Aging Analytics draw attention to the opportunities for investment in the regenerative medicine industry that the pensions and life insurance industries have, as well as the significant use for the research the company could now generate.
Deep Knowledge Ventures investment remit includes artificial intelligence research and robotics, as well as longevity related biotechnology. On the subject of investment in pioneering technologies
Mr Kaminskiy said: "According to our estimates we are at an exciting historical point - even with a relatively small amount of investment - hundreds of millions of dollars - but with well-organized and inspired teams, it's possible to accelerate the exponential growth in science and medicine.
Our first joint task is now to create a convenient format for investing in this field for conventional investors, who got used to think in very narrow categories. But we need to go beyond this and change the paradigm. Investors in this field stand to gain more valuable results than profit alone. The logic is effective: in case of successful investments, they automatically get direct access to the actual technologies of personalized medicine and life prolongation for themselves and their families. What other business could be better? When you prolong life and still earn a lot of money on this.
This is the same for all stakeholders. People engaged in charity get closer to the technologies of personalized medicine. Investors get even closer as they make money on it. In the forefront though are the entrepreneurs, who invest not only money - but also invest their infrastructure resources, time, expertise and managerial talent.
I estimate that the growth of the market for regenerative medicine is in a situation similar to the beginning of DotCom boom in the late 1990s. We can see it through big investments – Google with antiaging project – Calico, IBM with Watson, famous startup Human Longevity and even Lockheed Martin with their personalized medicine project.
Personally, my opinion is that the most basic prospects of the 21st century are at the intersection of biotechnology, personalized medicine and artificial intelligence. I think, that next fundamental task in artificial intelligence development is to exempt progressive businessmen from the routine work of making money.
I foresee that progressive businessmen will begin to use artificial intelligence (AI) and that it will give them a fundamental advantage over traditional businesses. I'm absolutely sure that in 5, maximum 10 years the average oligarch will not compare the length of ocean yachts or popularity of their football clubs, but will compare powers of their financial AI, access to technologies of personalized medicine and their level of ability to prolong their own lives."
Speakers during the event included Dr. Alex Zhavoronkov, CEO of Deep Knowledge Ventures portfolio company InSilico Medicine, who explained "By bringing together class-leading researchers, pensions experts, financial heavyweights and science communicators at meetings like this, we hope to facilitate collaboration across disciplines and produce the next generation of projects that will take longevity science from the bench to the clinic". InSilico Medicine recently announced that Dr Charles Cantor, former Director of the Human Genome Project, had been appointed Chairman of their scientific advisory board, placing the company at the vanguard of efforts to apply bioinformatics to longevity research. Dr. Zhavoronkov also made available complementary copies of his new book 'The Ageless Generation: How Advances in Biomedicine Will Transform the Global Economy'.
Participants of the event were extended invitations to attend the International Symposium on Geroprotectors meeting on 'Practical Applications of Ageing Research for Drug Discovery', at the MipTEC conference in Basel, Switzerland September 23rd - 24th 2014.
Notes to Editors
The speakers at the inaugural 21st Century Medicine forum included:
Dmitry Kaminskiy, Senior Partner, Deep Knowledge Ventures, Hong Kong on 'Impact Investment to Advance Longevity Research'
Kate Elizarova, Actress, Model & Campaigner on 'Raising Cultural Awareness for Medical Advances & Longevity Research'
Eli Mohamad, Co-Founder, Organ Preservation Alliance, NASA Ames Research Center on 'An X-Prize for Organ Preservation'
Geoffrey Furlonger, CEO, Aging Analytics, United Kingdom on 'Longevity As a Challenge for Pension Funds & Life Insurance Companies'
Charles Groome, Consultant, Aging Analytics, United Kingdom on 'Novel Sources of Investment for Translational Research'
Henry Stanley, VP Strategy, BGRF on 'Charitable Contributions to Translational Longevity Research'
Alex Zhavoronkov, CEO, InSilico Medicine on 'The Importance and Future of Longevity Research'
Videos of the above talks can be viewed will be made available shortly on the Aging Analytics and BGRF websites. The next Forum event is anticipated to take place in Oxford, UK in October 2014.
About Aging Analytics
Aging Analytics Agency Ltd performs innovative research in biotechnology and regenerative medicine, keeping abreast of the newest processes and technologies for extending life. Through development of databases, frameworks and software supporting financial decision making it provides tools to qualify capital allocation decisions in the public and private sector. The company also provides strategic consulting in the field of regenerative medicine and anti-aging research. Aging Analytics has also launched VITAL (Validating Investment Tool for Advancing Life Sciences), a decision making support software focused on a subset of thousands companies in the sector. For more information, please visit http://www.aginganalytics.com
About Deep Knowledge Ventures
Deep Knowledge Ventures is a Hong Kong-based venture fund management company focusing on mid- to long-term biotechnology investments at an early-stage. It routinely invest in both private and public companies specializing in biotechnology, regenerative medicine, oncology, drug discovery, bioinformatics and personalized medicine. For more information, please visit http://www.deepknowledgeventures.com
About InSilico Medicine, Inc.
Insilico Medicine, Inc. is a Baltimore-based bioinformatics and drug discovery company specializing in cancer and aging research and personalized medicine in age-related diseases. The company is developing models and softwares to predict the efficacy of the various targeted drugs in oncology and extrapolated these methods to evaluate the possible geroprotective properties of the many drugs with known molecular targets. The mission of InSilico Medicine is to find working solutions to treat, cure and prevent age-related diseases and aging itself through excellence in knowledge management, machine learning and bioinformatics, relentless pursuit for new drug, omics and clinical outcomes data, development of reliable in silico drug screening methods, novel validation approaches and strong international partnerships in personalized medicine. This mission will be achieved within the regulatory frameworks as well as the legal and ethical boundaries and by working with the outstanding scientists, academic and medical institutions and pharmaceutical companies of impeccable credibility. For more information please visit http://www.InSilicoMedicine.com
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