Keynotes

Update on the PROSPR Program

Andrew Brack, PhD

Program Manager, PROactive Health Office, ARPA-H, Washington DC – USA

Dr. Andrew Brack joined ARPA-H in April 2024 from the University of California San Francisco's Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. For 16 years, his lab studied the cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate skeletal muscle repair during aging. He was the co-founder of Arrive Bio, a longevity company that uses machine learning to identify drugs to treat age-related diseases.

Brack received a Ph.D. in molecular biology and biophysics from King's College London and completed two postdoctoral fellowships, one at King's College London and the second at Stanford University. Throughout his career Brack has led multidisciplinary teams with the goal of restoring healthy function during aging.

The Challenge of Multi-Domain/Composite Endpoints in Healthy Longevity Trials

Stephen Kritchevsky, PhD

Professor, Gerontology and Geriatrics, Internal Medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine – Winston-Salem, NC (USA)

Stephen B. Kritchevsky, PhD is the Toby R. Alligood, MD Endowed Professor in Geroscience at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine where he leads the Sticht Center for Healthy Aging and Alzheimer's Prevention and Wake Forest's NIA-funded Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center (OAIC). He received his doctorate in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill.

Dr. Kritchevsky studies nutritional influences that affect trajectories of health and disability in older adults including vitamins, protein, energy balance, obesity and exercise. His current interest is in the evaluation of geroscience-inspired therapies. He has held leadership positions in notable aging studies including the Health ABC study, the LIFE trial, and the on-going Study of Muscle, Mobility and Aging. He was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences from 2012–2016 and is a past member of the National Advisory Council on Aging. He also leads the NIA-funded Translational Geroscience Network.

Geroscience Drug Development

Joan Mannick, MD

Senior Vice President, Chief Medical Officer and Head of Product Development, Altos Labs – Redwood City, CA (USA)

Joan brings extensive drug development expertise to Altos including from her time as Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Tornado Therapeutics. Prior to that, Joan was Head of Research and Development at Life Biosciences, and Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of resTORbio. resTORbio was a spinout of a clinical program targeting aging biology that she led as an Executive Director at the New Indications Discovery Unit of the Novartis Institutes of Biomedical Research.

Before joining Novartis, Joan was a Medical Director at Genzyme working in multiple therapeutic areas and was a faculty member at Harvard Medical School and University of Massachusetts Medical School. Joan received her A.B. from Harvard College and her M.D. from Harvard Medical School.

IHU HealthAge Translational Program on Intrinsic Capacity and Healthy Longevity

Bruno Vellas, MD, PhD

Founding President, IHU HealthAge, Toulouse (France)

Bruno Vellas is the founder of the Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire HealthAge, focused on healthy longevity, prevention, and geroscience at the Gérontopôle of Toulouse. He is a member of INSERM UMR 1295, the Aging research unit. He studied medicine in Toulouse, earning his Doctorate in Medicine in 1987 and his Doctorate in Science, specializing in Human Pathophysiology, in 1990 from Université Paul Sabatier in Toulouse.

His main research areas are clinical trials in Alzheimer's disease, frailty, and geroscience, supported by numerous national, European, and international grants. He has authored and co-authored more than 500 publications in scientific journals, with an H-index of 130.

Since 2016, he has been a titular member of the National Academy of Medicine, Officer of the Legion of Honour, and commander of the Order of Merit. Between 2009 and 2013, he served as President of the IAGG. Since September 2017, he is also Director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Frailty, Clinical Research and Training in Geriatrics and PI of the INSPIRE program.