Tom Benson is the founder and CEO of Mitrix Bio, a Pleasanton, California biotech building toward whole-body mitochondrial transplantation. A serial software, hardware, and science entrepreneur, he managed the Linac Coherent Light Source femtosecond X-ray laser at Stanford's SLAC before turning his attention to the cell's power plants. His pitch is audacious and specific: grow young mitochondria from a person's own stem cells in a bioreactor, then transfuse them back to restore cellular energy and push the human lifespan toward 130 years.
Loyal is a San Francisco clinical-stage veterinary biotech developing the first FDA-track drugs designed to extend the healthy lifespan of dogs. Its lead candidate, LOY-002, is a beef-flavored daily pill for senior dogs that targets metabolic dysfunction in aging. In 2023 it became the first company to receive an FDA acceptance that a drug can be developed to extend lifespan itself - in any species.