About the speakers

DR GHADA ALSALEH, Leader, UK Space Innovation Lab, Principal Investigator, Botnar Institute of Musculoskeletal Sciences, University of Oxford

Dr Ghada Alsaleh is a pharmacist as well as a scientific researcher with a focus on osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, autophagy and the immune system. She also established the United Kingdom's inaugural Space Innovation Lab at the Botnar Institute for Musculoskeletal Sciences. This pioneering initiative serves as a hub for interdisciplinary collaboration, aiming to advance cellular and molecular biology research within the realm of space exploration. The lab's focus lies in enhancing our comprehension of human physiology and health by investigating the impact of microgravity on aging and age-related diseases.

SIR CHRISTOPHER BALL, Academic, Poet & Former Warden of Keble College, University of Oxford

Sir Christopher Ball has been a university teacher, Warden of the University of Oxford's Keble College, Chancellor of the University of Derby; consultant and advisor on human learning and educational provision, a fundraiser for numerous charities, marathon runner (founder of the Lakeland ‘10 in 10 Challenge’), and poet (as John Elinger, his alter ego). He also Co-Founded the Oxford Longevity Project.

DR ROBIN CHOUDHURY, Oxford Heart Centre, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, Oxford University

Professor Robin Choudhury is a consultant interventional cardiologist (honorary) at the Oxford Heart Centre and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust (since 2005) and Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at Oxford University. He qualified in medicine at the University of Oxford with postgraduate training in London at Royal Brompton, Hammersmith and St Mary’s hospitals and in New York at Mount Sinai Medical Centre. His NHS clinical practice is in interventional and general cardiology. He has particular expertise in optimising cardiovascular risk factors. He is UK Chief Investigator for the ZEUS trial of the anti-interleukin-6 agent, ziltivekimab and leads the Novo Nordisk Foundation funded MeRIAD programme on metabolic influences in cardiovascular disease, an international collaboration between Oxford and Copenhagen Universities and the Karolinska Institute. He has published over 200 articles on aspects of cardiovascular disease.

SIR MUIR GRAY, How to Live Longer Better - the Oxford Elixir of Life

Sir Muir Gray began his career in the NHS in 1972 and since then has made an indelible mark on it, developing screening programmes in the NHS for pregnant women, children, adults and older people. He has published numerous books and articles and was the first to identify the 'fitness gap' in the British Medical Journal. Sir Muir has held a number of NHS regional and national roles, latterly as the NHS's Chief Knowledge Officer, and he was the principal expert adviser to the European Union in the production of their report on Value Based Healthcare in 2019. His mission, of 50 years, is how to help people live longer better. He has authored or co-authored the popular health books, Sod70! and Sod60!, Sod Sitting, Get Moving and Sod It, Eat Well! Sir Muir has developed a new model to help people Live Longer and Better. In his model, morbidity at the end of life is compressed and the incidence of dementia and frailty and, therefore, the need for social care is reduced.

DR SANDRA KAUFMANN, Anaesthesiologist, Author, The Kaufmann Protocol, Longevity Doctor, Miami

Dr Sandra Kaufman is a highly respected longevity doctor practising in Miami. She is well-known for creating the Kaufmann Protocol and writing two books, Why We Age and How to Stop It and Aging Solutions, which lay out 7 pathways down which humans age and the various molecules individuals can easily access now to slow or reverse this process. Kaufmann is a regular speaker at healthy ageing conferences in the United States and has been on numerous podcasts around healthspan.

NIKOLINA LAUC, Founder, GlycanAge, biological age testing company

Nikolina and her father, Gordon Lauc, Professor of Microbiology and international glycome expert, founded GlycanAge to give individuals a tool to measure their biological, as opposed to chronological age. Nikolina is an international speaker and seasoned health tech entrepreneur based in London and Dubai.

PROFESSOR DENIS NOBLE, Systems Biologist & Emeritus Professor of Cardiovascular Physiology at the University of Oxford

Professor Denis Noble is a British biologist who held the Burdon Sanderson Chair of Cardiovascular Physiology at the University of Oxford from 1984 to 2004 and was appointed Professor Emeritus and co-Director of Computational Physiology. The recipient of many distinguished academic awards and distinctions, he developed the first mathematical model of cardiac cells in 1960 and is a pioneer in systems biology.

DR SOVAN SARKAR, University of Birmingham

Dr Sovan Sarkar is a Birmingham Fellow (equivalent to Assistant Professor) at the University of Birmingham, and holds the distinction of Former Fellow for life at Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge. He studies the biological process of autophagy, which is an intracellular degradation pathway essential for cellular survival. Utilizing human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and disease-specific human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) to establish human cellular platforms, his lab works on the regulation and therapeutic application of autophagy in relation to human physiology and diseases. He aims to develop a pipeline originating from basic biology to drug discovery, and potentially translate the findings for biomedical applications. He has made several contributions in the field of autophagy including the identification of mTOR-independent signalling pathways and small molecules modulating autophagy.

DR SASI SENGA, University of Oxford Neurosurgical Oncologist, Lecturer in Medicine, Author

Dr. Sasi Senga is a neurosurgical oncologist with two Masters - one in Neuroscience and another in Cancer & Therapeutics - and specialist training from the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and the Barts Cancer Institute. He graduated as an Oxford Clarendon Scholar and Excellence Award/Top Honours Award recipient from Harvard Medical School. He also runs a cancer foundation for the underprivileged in two countries in memory of his mother, Kalavathi, who passed away to cancer, has authored a few books on cancer, and is currently working on a paper on the Hallmarks of Cancer.