Laura Deming (born 1994) is a

venture capitalist Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in terms of number ...

whose work focuses on

life extension Life extension is the concept of extending the human lifespan, either modestly through improvements in medicine or dramatically by increasing the maximum lifespan beyond its generally-settled biological limit of around 125 years. Several resea ...

, and using biological research to reduce or reverse the effects of

aging Ageing (or aging in American English) is the process of becoming Old age, older until death. The term refers mainly to humans, many other animals, and fungi; whereas for example, bacteria, perennial plants and some simple animals are potentiall ...

Education

Laura Deming is the daughter of John and Tabitha Deming; she grew up in

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. Deming and her brother, Trey, were

homeschooled Homeschooling or home schooling (American English), also known as home education or elective home education (EHE) (British English), is the education of school-aged children at home or a variety of places other than a school. Usually conducted ...

; she says she taught herself "calculus and probability and statistics, and French literature and history". At age 8, Deming became interested in the biology of aging, and at age 12 she joined the lab of Cynthia Kenyon at the

University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It is part of the University of California system and is dedic ...

. Kenyon successfully increased the lifespan of the worm ''C. elegans'' by a factor of ten through

genetic engineering Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the modification and manipulation of an organism's genes using technology. It is a set of Genetic engineering techniques, technologies used to change the genet ...

. Deming was accepted to

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

at age 14 and studied physics, but later dropped out to accept the $100,000

Thiel Fellowship The Thiel Fellowship (originally named 20 under 20) is a Scholarship, fellowship created by billionaire Peter Thiel through the Thiel Foundation in 2010. The fellowship is intended for students aged 22 or younger and offers them a total of $20 ...

and start a

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

firm. Deming was one of only two women in the 2011 initial class of Thiel Fellows.

Career

Deming is the founder of and partner at The Longevity Fund, a venture capital firm focused on aging and life extension. The firm raised $4 million in its first fund and $22 million for its second fund, in 2017. The Longevity Fund investments include Unity Biotechnology, which develops senolytic drugs targeting diseases of aging, Navitor Pharmaceuticals, and Metacrine. In 2018, Deming launched the AGE1 accelerator, a four-month startup program aimed at supporting founders developing longevity-focused companies. The program graduated its first cohort of six on October 10, 2018, including Fauna Bio, a startup using the biology of hibernation to aid in heart attack and stroke recovery. In August 2018, Deming also began advising the newly launched Pioneer, a fund designed to find talent and "lost Einsteins" around the world, for projects in longevity. In 2023, Deming joined forces with Alex Colville to launch ''age1'', a next-generation venture capital fund building on the success of The Longevity Fund. With $55 million in funding, ''age1'' is dedicated to advancing breakthroughs in longevity and aging science by supporting innovative early-stage companies. Colville, the fund's co-founder, has been recognized for his leadership in driving innovation and advocating for regulatory reforms in aging-related drug development. Deming believes that science can be used to create

biological immortality Biological immortality (sometimes referred to as bio-indefinite mortality) is a state in which the rate of mortality from senescence (or aging) is stable or decreasing, thus decoupling it from chronological age. Various unicellular and multicellul ...

in humans, and has said that ending aging "is a lot closer than you might think". She has been featured in " 30 Under 30" by ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' magazine, and was one of the stars of "The Age of Ageing", a documentary by

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

television channel. She also spoke at the 2012 Singularity Summit and at the 2013

TEDMED TEDMED is an annual conference focusing on health and medicine, with a year-round web-based community. TEDMED is an independent event operating under license from the nonprofit TED conference. Background , TEDMED staff operates from Stamfor ...

conference.

References

External links

The Longevity FundLongevity FAQ
{{DEFAULTSORT:Deming, Laura Life extensionists New Zealand businesspeople 1994 births Living people Thiel fellows American venture capitalists Women venture capitalists Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni

Education

Career

See also

References

External links