Non-Traditional

Many people want to get involved in longevity but hesitate because of they think a Ph.D or B.S in biology is a strict requirement.

Not true!

Not everyone in longevity comes from the traditional biology track. The overarching mission of the longevity biotech industry tends to draw in highly motivated people from diverse fields -- many from outside of the biological sciences. 

This is important.

There is a lack of founders in longevity so encouraging those with non-traditional backgrounds increases the founder pool and diversity in ways of thinking. Note: Historically speaking, some of the biggest advances in biology were catalyzed by those outside the field (Delbruck, Schrodinger, and Crick, for instance) 

Here’s a non-exhaustive list of some of the prominent people within the longevity industry that came from backgrounds outside of the traditional biological sciences. 

Note: There are also ways to get involved in the longevity industry that are specifically NOT biology or AI machine learning jobs. See LongevityList.com for job listings.

Note 2: A majority of the founders of longevity-focussed venture funds do not come from traditional biotech.

Ben Kamens

Affiliation: Founder, Spring Discovery

Background: Software engineering, computer science

Ben Kamens was founding engineer and VP of Engineering at Khan Academy. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in computer science and philosophy from Duke University. In a Clubhouse conversation with General Catalyst’s Katherine Boyle earlier this year, he recounted how he self-learned biology and went down the proverbial rabbit hole of aging biology. 

Ben Kamens @kamens

Laura is a big reason Spring exists. What’s happening in the aging space is so ambitious — and so important — it can feel daunting to try to play a part. She encouraged: “You can build and run a team. That’s what we need. And people who put careers on the line.” She’s right.

Laura Deming @LauraDeming

Testing this out - we believe many great founders self-select out of starting longevity companies, and would love to help educate / just give you more info about what it entails. Literally, our #1 job this year is just helping people think through this. https://t.co/A0OVtqLN2l

4:00 AM ∙ Feb 14, 2020

In 2017, with the encouragement of Laura Deming, he founded Spring Discovery, a startup with a drug discovery platform that uses AI/ML and lab automation to develop therapies that treat aging and its diseases. Spring Discovery raised a $18M Series ...