Organizers & Speakers

Professor Strauss is a highly accomplished pediatrician and neonatology specialist, with a wealth of experience in her field. She received her medical degree from the Rappaport Institute of Technology in Haifa, and holds an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health. In addition, she holds a Professor degree from Tel Aviv University.

For over a decade, Professor Strauss has served as the Director of the Neonatology Department at Sheba Medical Center. In this role, she has published numerous articles and reviews in her field, and has been a member of numerous committees in her area of expertise.

In the last two years, Professor Strauss has taken on the responsibility of developing one of the first academic and clinical research centers for longevity in a public hospital. The Longevity Academic Center, which Professor Strauss leads, aims to improve our understanding of aging and longevity, and to identify opportunities for improving the quality of life and function in older age. The center focuses on the study of health and wellness from young adulthood through the centenarian age group (45-100 years old), including cutting edge diagnostic techniques, the analysis and monitoring of health biomarkers, and the study of multidisciplinary interventions.

Internal medicine and oncology University Hospital Renji of Jiaotong University,
Shanghai
Sheba Longevity Center, Tel Hashomer
Specialist in Internal Medicine, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital health, with
extensive experience in scientific research and clinical practice at the following
well known and highly reputable institutions. Research focus is oncology and
longevity medicine, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital health, precision
medicine, biogerontology, and geronto-oncology. EB published over 100 peer-
reviewed papers, is a frequent speaker at scientific and medical conferences in
Asia and Europe. Long term member of various medical societies, e.g. European
Federation of Internal Medicine, World Academy of Medical Sciences, Swiss
Society of Internal Medicine etc.
EB spent a decade practicing medicine, lecturing at medical schools and
performing clinical and translational research in New York, Shanghai and Basel,
with extensive experience in scientific research and clinical practice at the

following well-known and highly reputable institutions: University Hospital of
Basel, Fudan Cancer Institute and Hospital; Zhongshan Hospital, Renji Hospital
and Shanghai East Hospital. EB sits on several scientific and advisory boards of
biotech and longevity hubs. Currently also affiliated with the Centre of Healthy
Aging, Universität Zürich, and prev. senior attending physician of internal
medicine at the University Hospital Basel.
Swiss board certified as internal medicine specialist (FMH), trained in Europe,
USA and China (Harvard Medical School affiliated hospitals (Mass General
Hospital, Beth Israel MD, Dana Farber Institute) and Columbia University NYC;
Tongji University hospitals, Shanghai and University Hospitals of Zurich and
Basel (Switzerland).

Abigail leads the Research and Development unit at the Sheba Longevity Center. Abigail started her academic career with a BS in Molecular Biology, followed by another BS in Nutritional Science, as well as an internship as a clinical dietitian at several rehabilitation hospitals. Her master’s and Ph.D. degrees were completed at the School of Public Health in the Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine Department at Tel-Aviv University. Her main areas of research are aging epidemiology trajectories, predictors of frailty, cognitive decline, and successful aging among community-dwelling oldest-old adults. She specializes in designing large population cohorts and developing computerized prognostic models for the early detection of frailty and predicting adverse outcomes.

Director: Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Dr. Nir Barzilai is a preeminent leader in geroscience, demonstrating in his studies that aging has its
own biology that drives age-related diseases, a process that can be targeted. He is the Ingeborg and
Ira Leon Rennert Chair of Aging Research, a professor in the Departments of Medicine and
Genetics, the director of the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine,
the Director of the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Nathan Shock Centers of Excellence in the
Basic Biology of Aging, and the author of >320 papers. He is leading an international effort to
approve drugs targeting aging. Targeting Aging with Metformin (TAME) is a specific study
conceived by Dr. Barzilai to prove the concept that a single drug can combat multiple diseases
associated with aging and get FDA approval for targeting aging. Dr. Barzilai is a founder and the
President of the Academy for Health and Lifespan Research (AHLS). He is also on the board of
directors of the American Federation for Aging Research, where he co-leads its biomarker effort
(FAST), TAME, and Super Agers initiative. He is an Executive of the Longevity Biotech
Association (LBA) and serves on the council of the Healthy Longevity Medicine Society. He
authored Age Later: Health Span, Life Span, and the New Science of Longevity.

James L. Kirkland, M.D., Ph.D., is Director of the Center for Advanced Gerotherapeutics at
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles and Emeritus Professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic,
Rochester, Minnesota. Dr. Kirkland’s research is on the contribution of aging processes,
particularly cellular senescence, to multiple disorders and diseases across the lifespan and
development of gerotherapeutics: agents and strategies for targeting these aging mechanisms to
delay, prevent, alleviate, or treat the conditions that cause the bulk of disability, mortality, and
health expenditures across the developed and developing world. Dr. Kirkland discovered
senolytic drugs, agents that selectively eliminate senescent cells. Dr. Kirkland and then others
demonstrated that senolytic agents enhance healthspan and treat multiple diseases in animal
models, human cells, and tissue explants. He published the first composite biomarker
gerodiagnostic score of senescent cell burden that is sensitive to drug interventions in humans
and the first clinical trials of senolytic drugs. He is preparing or conducting clinical studies of
senolytics, including for infections, frailty, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes/obesity, osteoporosis,
cancer survivors, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, pre-eclampsia, glioblastoma, complications of
space travel, agricultural applications, restoring function of organs from old donors to enable
their use for transplantation, and others. He has more than 330 publications (H index: 110) and
holds 24 patents.
Dr. Kirkland is Principal Investigator of the National Institutes of Health Translational
Geroscience Network (R33 AG061456), which brings together academic institutions across the
US to translate healthspan interventions, including senolytics and other drugs that target
fundamental aging processes, from bench to bedside, and is currently involved in over 85
interventional and observational clinical trials. He is President-Elect of the Healthy Longevity
Medicine Society, immediate past President of the American Federation for Aging Research, a
past member of the National Advisory Council on Aging of the National Institutes of Health,
past chair of the Biological Sciences Section of the Gerontological Society of America, and past
member of the Clinical Trials Advisory Panel of the National Institute on Aging. He is a
board-certified specialist in internal medicine, geriatrics, and endocrinology and metabolism.
Dr. Kirkland is the 2020 recipient of the Irving S. Wright Award of Distinction from the
American Federation for Aging Research.

Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, is the founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine, a leading clinical-stage
biotechnology company developing next-generation generative artificial intelligence and robotics
platforms for drug discovery. Since 2014, he has invented critical technologies in the field of
generative artificial intelligence and reinforcement learning (RL) for the generation of novel
molecular structures with the desired properties and the generation of synthetic biological and
patient data. Under his leadership, Insilico raised over $400 million in multiple rounds from
expert biotechnology, healthcare, and financial investors, opened R&D centers in 6 countries
and regions, and partnered with multiple pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and academic
institutions. Since 2021, the company nominated more than 20 preclinical candidates, started 6
human clinical trials, and entered Phase II with an AI-discovered novel target and AI-designed
novel molecule.
Since 2012, he has published over 200 peer-reviewed research papers and 3 books. He serves
on the advisory or editorial boards of Trends in Molecular Medicine, Aging Research Reviews,
Aging, and Frontiers in Genetics, and founded and co-chairs the Annual Aging Research and
Drug Discovery (11th Annual in 2024). He is the adjunct professor of artificial intelligence at the
Buck Institute for Research on Aging.

• Founder and CEO of Quantum Life
• Technology Transfer Director of Hong Kong Quantum AI Lab (HKU,InnoHK)
• Managing Director of HK Longevity Medical Centre
• Venture Partner of LongeVC
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine (UK)
• Fellow of the European Society of Preventive Medicine
• Vice President (Longevity) of Hong Kong Biotechnology Association
• Founding President of Asia Longevity Professionals Association（ALPA）
• Forbes China 30 Under 30 (Healthcare and Science)
• Deloitte Outstanding Female Entrepreneur
• Goldman Sachs 10000 Women

Dr. Christine Yuan HUANG is the Founder and CEO of QuantumLife. Dr. Huang is also the
Technology Transfer Director of Hong Kong Quantum AI Lab, and Managing Director of HK
Longevity Medical Centre, focusing on providing end-to-end precision longevity medical
technology solutions to improve health-span. Dr. Huang has vast experience in the
biotechnology and longevity field and shares her professional insights as a Venture Partner of
LongeVC.
Dr. Huang was selected as one of Forbes China 2020 “30 Under 30 (Healthcare and Science)” for
her development of cancer liquid biopsy technology, and she was awarded as the “Pioneer of
Genome Technology ”in 2025. In 2022, she was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of
Medicine in the UK, and in 2024, she became a Fellow of the European Society of Preventive
Medicine. She is also a member of the Advisory Board of Wing Wah Charity Foundation Hong
Kong, and a columnist of Forbes China. Dr. Huang was elected as a Fellow of Guangzhou Youth
Federation in November 2022. Dr. Huang obtained Doctor of Medicine from the Southern
Medical University and Master of Public Health from the University of Hong Kong, Li Ka Shing

Dr. Ira Sobel is the founder and Academic Director of Longevity Academy, a leading organization providing
knowledge and professional consulting on various aspects of aging and longevity for organizations worldwide. Dr.
Sobel specializes in the economic aspects of population aging, focusing on the role of technology in improving the
financial well-being of older adults and their families.
Dr. Sobel is an international speaker and advisor to startups and venture capital firms worldwide. She holds a PhD in
Sociology from Tel Aviv University.

Dr. Sara Bonnes, Associate Professor of Medicine, is the medical director of the
Healthy Longevity Clinic at Mayo Clinic Rochester. She is board certified in
internal medicine and lifestyle medicine. Before starting her medical training,
she pursued undergraduate and graduate training in nutrition at Kansas State
University. She completed her medical training at the University of Nebraska
Medical Center before moving to Rochester, Minnesota for residency and chief
residency. She has been on staff at Mayo since 2014 and continues to practice in
general internal medicine, integrative medicine and nutrition clinics.
Throughout her medical career, she continues to incorporate her nutrition and
lifestyle medicine expertise into care of patients with a wide variety of health
concerns, and interest in preventing chronic diseases. Given increased patient
interest in how to improve their health span, she is working with the
multidisciplinary team- including dietitians, exercise specialists,
pharmacists, resiliency experts, and researchers- to develop a Clinic that utilizes
an individualized, patient centered, evidence based approach to healthy
longevity.

Dr. Brian Kennedy is internationally recognized for his research in the basic
biology of aging and as a visionary committed to translating research
discoveries into new ways of detecting, delaying, preventing and treating human
aging and associated diseases. He is a Distinguished Professor in Biochemistry
and Physiology at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at National University
Singapore and serves as Director of (1) the Centre for Healthy Longevity at the
National University Health System, (2) the Healthy Longevity Translational
Research Programme, and (3) the Asian Centre for Reproductive Longevity and
Equality. Collectively, NUS aging research seeks to demonstrate that longevity
interventions can be successfully employed in humans to extend healthspan, the
disease-free and highly functional period of life.
From 2010 to 2016, Dr. Kennedy was the President and CEO of the Buck
Institute for Research on Aging and he maintained a professorship there
through 2020. Dr. Kennedy has an adjunct appointments at the Department of
Biochemistry at the University of Washington, where he was a faculty member
from 2001 to 2010. In addition, Dr. Kennedy is also actively involved with a
number of Biotechnology companies. In addition, Dr. Kennedy serves as a Co-

Editor-In-Chief at Aging Cell. Finally, Dr. Kennedy has a track record of
interaction in China, where he was a Visiting Professor at the Aging Research
Institute at Guangdong Medical College from 2009 to 2014. His Ph.D. was
performed in the laboratory of Leonard Guarente at M.I.T., where he published
the first paper linking Sirtuins to aging.

Ilia Stambler, PhD, is the Chief Science Officer and Chairman of Vetek (Seniority) Association –
the Movement for Longevity and Quality of Life, Israel http://www.longevityisrael.org/ and
acting chairman of International Longevity Alliance (ILA) https://longevityalliance.org/. He is a
fellow at the Department of Science, Technology and Society, Bar-Ilan University, Israel.His
research has focused on the historical and social implications of aging and longevity research,
including ethical, policy and regulatory implications. He has also been involved in mathematical
modeling of aging and aging-related diseases. He is the author of the books “A History of Life-
extensionism in the Twentieth Century” and “Longevity Promotion: Multidisciplinary
Perspectives” and over 70 academic papers (journal articles and book
chapters) https://www.longevityhistory.com/.
He is actively involved in advocacy for aging and longevity research, serving on the boards of
several national and international organizations for healthy longevity research and advocacy,
including ISOAD, BGRF, GHPI, ESAAM. He has initiated, organized or played an active part in
several national and international advocacy and educational campaigns for healthy longevity,
such as the “International Longevity Day and Month” campaign, the campaign for “Enhancing
research, development and education for healthy longevity and prevention of aging-related
diseases” in Israel, the successful campaign for the inclusion of aging into the WHO work
program, and others.

Gastroenterologist at the Department of Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center;
Primary Investigator at the Research Center for Digestive Tract & Liver Diseases, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center;
Consultant at the Elinav Lab, Immunology Department, Weizmann Institute of Science.

Director of Product Management, Health AI 

Leor is the Product Management Director for Google’s Health AI group, focused on catalyzing the adoption and impact of human-centric AI in health. Previously, Leor served as Head of Device Soware at Fitbit. He co-lead the acquisition of Fitbit by Google and previously held leadership roles in Google's wearables and digital health group since it acquired his wearable soware company, Cronologics Corporation, in 2016. Prior to founding Cronolgoics, Leor worked at a startup called IFTTT, and spent 10 years at Google building and launching new products, services, and operations, including launching Google's Israel oce. Leor also helped found Niantic Labs, which later spun out and launched the hit game, Pokemon Go.

Elena Bonfiglioli Global Business Leader VP Healthcare, Pharma and Life Sciences Microsoft

Elena is Microsoft’s Global Business Leader for Healthcare, Pharma Life Sciences. In this capacity she is responsible for go-to-market, commercial, and partnerships, enabling AI transformation initiatives in health providers, payors and Life Sciences’ organizations globally. In 2023 Elena was elected as Member of the DIA Europe, Middle East & Africa Regional Advisory Council. Elena was selected twice as one of the top 50 AI Innovators by Intelligent Health in 2020 and in 2023. She is one of the founding members of the Holomedicine Association; and Vice Chair of the DIGITALEUROPE Executive Council for Healthcare since it’s creation in 2021. She recently joined the Board of The Movement Health Foundation, an organization founded by Roche, Siemens Healthineers, Microsoft and CIFS to build strong and sustainable healthcare systems. A signature outcome of her work – together with engineering and research - was the design of the AI partnership with Novartis in 2019, and the AI for Leprosy initiative with Novartis Foundation and Fiocruz published in The Lancet/Elsevier. In 2021 Elena spearheaded an innovation project for the prevention of gastric cancer with data and AI, leading to the largest EU working with StratejAI and international health providers. Elena co-chaired the Health Cloud Council from 2015-2019 leading work on secondary use of data and the creation of the first global data collaborative in cardiovascular population health. In 2017, she was elected to the HIMSS Europe Governing Council. Elena has been working in the health sector for 20+ years, starting in health policy at EU level, as leader for Microsoft’s public sector healthcare in EMEA. She is an active advocate and public speaker representing Microsoft Healthcare and Life Sciences’ AI strategy, and how “Data help save Lives”. She supported the creation of the Healthcare Data Innovation Council, a partnership of healthcare actors to progress regulatory frameworks for data sharing in health and life sciences. Elena championed the transformational impact of meditation in personal and professional development, working with the Centre for Evolutionary Learning. She promotes empowerment of women in leadership as founding member of WiL Network and as champion for Diversity and Inclusion at Microsoft.

Shai Shen-Orr is a Professor at the Faculty of Medicine at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, where he heads the Systems Immunology & Precision Medicine laboratory since 2012. Prof. Shen-Orr is an expert in Systems Immunology and his lab is focused on the development of novel analytics for studying the immune system—tools which he applies to study the drivers of immune variation, particularly in the context of aging, and to further Immune-based Precision Medicine.

Prof. Shen-Orr is the founding director of TechAI.BioMed, Technion’s center for AI in life science research and medicine and heads the Zimin Institute for AI solutions for healthcare and the Technion Healthy Aging Institute.

Prof. Shen-Orr is founder and Chief Scientist of CytoReason, a PharmaAI company set on developing the human-machine interfaces needed to tackle biomedical research in the 21st century. In collaboration with world-leading pharma companies, CytoReason’s computational disease models are closing the data-insight gap in drug development.

Dr. Michael Ringel is Chief Operating Officer at Life Biosciences, a company focused on cellular rejuvenation therapies for diseases of aging. Prior to joining Life Bio, Michael was Managing Director and Senior Partner at BCG, where he worked for 25 years. He is on the Board of Hevolution Foundation US, the charitable organization focused on extending healthy aging for the benefit of all humanity, the Board of AFAR, one of the oldest organizations supporting healthy aging through biomedical research, and on the Executive Board of the Sheba Longevity Center, a clinic devoted to healthy aging at one of the world's best hospitals. Dr. Ringel holds a B.A. summa cum laude in biology from Princeton University, a Ph.D. in biology from Imperial College, and a J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School. 

Life Sciences, Bar Ilan University

Prof. Okun completed his B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. at the Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University.  He conducted his postdoctoral studies with Dr. Mark P. Mattson at the National Institute on Aging (NIH) in Baltimore, MD, where he explored how innate immune pathways influence cognitive learning and memory. 

In 2012, Prof. Okun established the Paul Feder Laboratory for Alzheimer’s Disease Research at the Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University. He currently serves as a Full Professor and Vice Dean for Infrastructure and Research Development.

Prof. Okun's research focuses on basic and translational neuroimmunology. His work examines the role of B-cells, a subset of adaptive immune cells known for antibody production, in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Down syndrome (DS)-related cognitive decline. This includes investigating sex-based differences to understand why women are twice as likely to develop AD as men. Another research focus is identifying novel targets for vaccination strategies to delay AD and DS-related cognitive decline. Additionally, his lab explores the mechanisms of fetomaternal transfer contributing to maternal cognitive decline following pregnancies with a fetus affected by Down syndrome.

Dr. Lauren Petrick is the Director of the Center for Metabolomics and Molecular Phenotyping at the
Sheba Medical Center, Israel and Professor in the Department of Environmental Medicine and Climate

Science at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NYC, USA. She is an analytical chemist and
exposure biologist. Dr. Petrick’s research group develops untargeted chemical assays using high
resolution mass spectrometry and applies them to discover biomarkers across disease contexts. She is the
Principal Investigator (PI) of several NIH grants, and now applies her methods to unravel the biology and
risk factors of women’s health outcomes in midlife.