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BGRF trustees present at Financial Times and The Economist Longevity Conferences

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Monday, November 27, 2017, London, UK: Biogerontology Research Foundation  Trustee Dmitry Kaminskiy and Chief Science Officer Alex Zhavoronkov spoke at the Aging and Longevity Panel at the Financial Times Global Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Conference on November 10th, 2017, alongside Aubrey de Grey, Chief Science Officer of SENS Research Foundation, and Joseph Antoun, Chairman of the Global Healthspan Policy Institute.

The panel discussion focused on how close geroscience is from bringing practical and actionable results in extending healthy, productive longevity and how far the biopharma industry is from a paradigm shift from treatment to prevention. The fact that this subject is being as part of the agenda at one of the biggest biotech conferences in UK and Europe, featuring the majority of global biopharma companies, is a very strong indicator that geroscience and ageing research is now entering the mainstream consciousness of the public, policy makers and healthcare industry thought-leaders.

The Financial Times' biotech conference follows close on the heels of The Economist's The Business of Longevity Conference 2017 in Hong Kong on October 27th 2017, where Biogerontology Research Foundation Trustee Jim Mellon spoke on the subject of investing in the emerging longevity industry soon after the UK release of his new book Juvenescence: Investing in the Age of Longevity.

Furthermore, this is not a chance occurrence but a legitimate trend, given the World Economic Forum's Prosperity in the Age of Longevity) panel discussion in Davos earlier this year, and The Economist's Ageing Societies 2016 in London and The Business of Longevity 2016 conferences in San Francisco.

"The fact that very well-renowned and respected brands such as The Economist and Financial Times are now regularly hosting conferences and panel discussions on the subject of ageing shows the credibility building around the business of longevity. A mere three years ago optimism toward the real emergence of geroscience and longevity was very low, and it was nearly unthinkable that this topic could be included in the agenda of top-tier conferences whatsoever. But the outlook has now changed, and healthspan extension is now a logical topic of discussion for world-leading healthcare thought-leaders. The science of ageing has matured, and we are now witnessing the dawn and rise of the longevity industry" said Dmitry Kaminskiy, Managing Trustee of the Biogerontology Research Foundation.

The Biogerontology Research Foundation is pleased to have participated in these landmark conferences and to have had early draft of our upcoming Longevity Industry Landscape Overview 2017 (Volume 1: The Business of Longevity and Volume 2: The Science of Longevity) distributed to the conference's participants by Financial Times. The first two volumes of this report have been in production for over a year, and will be published online, free to the public, by the end of the year.

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About the Biogerontology Research Foundation:

The Biogerontology Research Foundation is a UK non-profit research foundation and public policy center seeking to fill a gap within the research community, whereby the current scientific understanding of the ageing process is not yet being sufficiently exploited to produce effective medical interventions. The BGRF funds and conducts research which, building on the body of knowledge about how ageing happens, aims to develop biotechnological interventions to remediate the molecular and cellular deficits which accumulate with age and which underlie the ill-health of old age. Addressing ageing damage at this most fundamental level will provide an important opportunity to produce the effective, lasting treatments for the diseases and disabilities of ageing, required to improve quality of life in the elderly. The BGRF seeks to use the entire scope of modern biotechnology to attack the changes that take place in the course of ageing, and to address not just the symptoms of age-related diseases but also the mechanisms of those diseases.

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