Can a Senolytic Vaccine Slow Ageing? Dr David Scieszka on Senescent Cells and Longevity

What if a vaccine could help the immune system clear senescent “zombie” cells — damaged cells linked to ageing, chronic inflammation and age-related disease?

In this episode of Beyond Longevity, Daphna Stern sits down with David Scieszka, PhD, MBA, a biomedical scientist, computational biologist, and Founder and CEO of Vertical Longevity Pharmaceuticals (VeLo Pharma). His route into longevity has been anything but conventional, spanning service in the US Army, wet-lab science, computational biology and, eventually, biotech entrepreneurship.

VeLo Pharma is developing a senolytic vaccine designed to help the immune system recognise and remove senescent cells. Often described as “zombie cells”, these are damaged cells that have stopped dividing but remain active. As they accumulate with age, they can contribute to chronic inflammation, tissue dysfunction and age-related disease.

The company’s first focus is atherosclerosis, where plaque builds up inside the arteries. The aim is to target senescent cells within the vasculature — the network of blood vessels that carries blood around the body — as a potential new way of tackling vascular ageing and cardiovascular disease.

But this conversation goes far beyond one experimental vaccine.

David and Daphna explore one of the biggest problems in longevity science: why so many promising discoveries look exciting in the lab, yet so few make the difficult journey into treatments that patients can actually use.

They discuss where artificial intelligence can genuinely help drug development — and where the hype may run ahead of the science — what animal and primate studies can and cannot tell us, and what evidence would be needed before an approach like this could move towards human trials.

David also talks candidly about the business of building a biotech company: learning how to approach investors, getting the fundraising ask wrong, understanding what investors actually need to see, and building a company around a mission that goes beyond simply creating another expensive longevity treatment.

Running through the conversation is an even bigger question: if we do find effective ways to slow parts of the ageing process, who gets access to them first? Will longevity medicine remain something available primarily to those who can afford it — or can longevity eventually become something for everyone?

Guest

David Scieszka, PhD, MBA

Biomedical scientist, computational biologist, and Founder and CEO

Vertical Longevity Pharmaceuticals (Velo Pharma)

Vertical Longevity Pharmaceuticals

LinkedIn - Vertical Longevity Pharmaceuticals

Reach out to David on LinkedIn to find out about the upcoming “Ask VeLo Pharma Anything”

00:00 Welcome and Big Question

00:25 Meet David Cheska

02:53 Army Roots of Longevity

04:38 Choosing Biotech Path

05:49 Wet Lab Meets Computation

08:48 AI Promise and Limits

13:19 Longevity for All Mission

16:54 Vascular Ageing Explained

19:29 Senescent Cells 101

22:31 Lytic Vaccine Overview

24:11 Dosing and Study Strategy

26:12 How VLP Vaccines Work

29:02 Safety and Public Trust

29:58 Vaccine Safety Basics

31:14 Senescent Cells Strategy

32:42 Evidence So Far

35:35 Primate Trial Goals

36:40 Why Translation Fails

39:55 Personalised Longevity Care

42:41 PhD MBA Path

44:51 Fundraising Lessons

49:35 Mission-Driven Team

51:32 Longevity Next Decade

53:16 Rapid Fire Wrap

55:17 Final Takeaways

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