Team
Our team combines scientific and drug development expertise
  • Yuri Deigin

    Co-founder and CEO
    Yuri is a biotech entrepreneur with a focus on early-stage translation of scientific breakthroughs into therapies. He has over a decade of drug discovery and development experience, and a track record of outlicensing products to Big Pharma.

    Yuri has previously led several early-stage pharmaceutical startups, including one developing an Alzheimer's Disease therapeutic, and another startup developing small-molecule neuroprotectors for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and a rare pediatric disease.

    Additionally, Yuri has been a vocal evangelist of epigenetic rejuvenation by partial reprogramming with Yamanaka factors since 2017.

    Yuri holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BSc from the University of Toronto.
  • João Pedro de Magalhães, PhD

    CSO
    Pedro graduated with a degree in Microbiology in 1999 from the Escola Superior de Biotecnologia in his hometown of Porto, Portugal, and then obtained his PhD in 2004 from the University of Namur in Belgium.

    Following a postdoc with genomics pioneer Prof George Church at Harvard Medical School, in 2008 Pedro was recruited to the University of Liverpool where he leads the Integrative Genomics of Ageing Group. His lab studies the ageing process and how we can manipulate it to fend off age-related diseases and improve human health.

    Pedro has authored over 100 publications and given over 100 invited talks, including three TEDx talks. In addition, he has a long-term interest in technological trends and their future impact on society.


  • Stephanie Chang

    CFO
    Stephanie brings over 20 years of experience in finance, biology and tech to YouthBio, having started her career as a financial software developer during the dotcom era for biotech and healthcare conglomerates, FI institutions and bulge brackets.

    As Head of Private Shares for an investment bank, she leveraged her expertise in finance and tech to drive innovative capital formation solutions and oversee successful exits in full-cycle startups that include SpaceX, Airbnb, Twitter, Palantir, Spotify and Lyft.

    Stephanie holds a BA in Economics, a BS in Biological Sciences with concentrations in genetics and biotechnology, and dual minors in Computer Science and Management from UC Irvine, and an MBA from UCLA Anderson. She attended both schools on full scholarship awards as a UC Regents Scholar and an Anderson Merit Fellow.

  • Viet Ly

    Co-founder and Director
    Viet is an angel investor and entrepreneur with over twenty years of fund management, trading, equities analysis, market forecasting, and business development experience. He is a recipient of the 2016 Wealth & Finance International U.S. Venture Capital Fund Manager of the Year Award.

    Viet has researched and invested in biotech companies since 2004. He has also been an early investor in Airbnb, SpaceX, and others.

    Viet is passionate about the global markets, building businesses, emerging technology and cancer biotech.

    Viet is a graduate of the University of Washington Foster Business School in 2000, with a Business Administration degree in finance and marketing.


  • Alejandro Ocampo, PhD

    Lead Research Collaborator
    Alejandro obtained his PhD in 2012 from the University of Miami for his work under the supervision of Antoni Barrientos on the role of mitochondria in neurodegenerative proteinopathies and aging.

    Between 2013 and 2017, he performed a post-doctoral training with Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California.

    During his postdoctoral training at the Salk, he developed a novel technology to prevent the transmission of mitochondrial diseases and demonstrated the amelioration of age-associated hallmarks by partial cellular reprogramming.

    In 2018, he joined the University of Lausanne to continue his work on aging, cellular reprogramming and mitochondrial diseases.