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CEO Seeking Fountain of Youth to Speak at COSM 2021

Published at Mind Matters
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COSM is described as “an exclusive national summit on the converging technologies remaking the world as we know it.” What fits that description more than a company working to extend human life using advanced technology?

Matthew Scholz

This November, Matthew Scholz – CEO and co-founder of OISIN Biotechnologies – will be one of the many accomplished leaders in science, technology, and business to speak at COSM 2021.

Based in Seattle, OISIN Biotechnologies is dedicated to “ameliorating age-associated degeneration and disease.” How so? Explains GeekWire:

[OISIN is] currently developing preclinical therapies that target and kill damaged cells that have been biologically turned off or are “senescent” and supposed to die. But as people get older, the cells can persist as “zombie cells” that accumulate and are associated with aging-related diseases.

Lisa Stiffler, “Oisín raises $5M to develop treatments for ‘zombie cells’ associated with age-related diseases” at GeekWire

OISIN offers further explanation on their website of what “senescent” cells (or, “zombie cells”) are, and why their treatments single them out:

When cells detect that they have been irreversibly damaged, they enter a non-dividing condition known as cell-cycle arrest, or senescence. It’s believed this occurs to prevent cells from going rogue and turning cancerous. Ideally, they should die by the process known as apoptosis, but as we age, more and more frequently they don’t. They become zombie cells – unable to kill themselves or resume normal function.

Senescent cells secrete molecules that cause inflammation in an effort to attract immune cells that would usually clear them. But for reasons that are not fully known, as we age, persistently senescent cells accumulate, leading to a vast number of age-related diseases.

“Our approach is pretty much the exact opposite of the traditional pharmaceutical approach,” Scholz told Longevity Technology. “With our approach, there is no drug, no poison at all – just a little program written in DNA. We’ve effectively taken targeting out of the realm of chemistry and brought it into the realm of information.”

OISIN reports that in experiments on mice, their treatments have accomplished “as much as an 80% reduction in senescent cells in cell culture and significant reductions of senescent cell burden…”

Scholz received his B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Washington. He went on to found Immusoft, where he worked as the CEO from 2009 through 2017. He left Immusoft to co-found OISIN Biotechnologies, where he has once again taken the CEO mantle.

This is not Scholz’s first time at COSM. He joined a panel at COSM 2019 alongside Babak Parviz, George Gilder, and Lindy Fishburne where they discussed the role of artificial intelligence in modern medicine. This time, Scholz will be addressing the topic, “The New IC: From Nanoscale to Waferscale.”

For a taste, here is a short interview between Scholz and Jay Richards at COSM 2019. There’s still time to purchase your ticket for the COSM 2021 conference this November 10-12.

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