Dr. Carina Kern
Carina Kern, PhD is a Geneticist and Biotechnology Executive known for her work on the biology of aging, the molecular mechanisms of chronic disease, and space biology. She is the Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Scientific Officer of LinkGevity, a trailblazing biotechnology company at the intersection of artificial intelligence and longevity science. The company’s mission is rooted in the belief that aging can be addressed at its biological source. LinkGevity is based at the Babraham Research Campus; affiliated with the University of Cambridge.
With a distinguished background in molecular biology, pharmacology, evolutionary biology, and genetics, Carina is renowned for her pioneering work on aging mechanisms and lifespan extension.
At LinkGevity, Carina developed the proprietary Blueprint Theory of Aging, a systems-level framework that integrates insights from genetics, molecular biology, evolutionary theory, and medicine to explain how aging-related diseases arise from conserved biological constraints. The theory identifies molecular pathways that drive aging and age-related diseases, enabling the company’s AI platform to uncover and target the fundamental drivers of age-related deterioration.
Read The Architecture of Aging: How Ageing Drives Disease (Blueprint Theory) and Cities, communities and clinics can be testbeds for human exposome and aging research.
Carina’s research has led to the development of a first-in-class necrosis inhibitor, referred to as Anti-Necrotic™. This novel therapeutic targets necrosis, an uncontrolled form of cell death implicated in tissue degeneration, chronic disease, and aging, aiming to preserve cellular integrity and enhance cellular resilience.
Read Necrosis as a fundamental driver of loss of resilience and biological decline: what if we could intervene?. LinkGevity gears up for clinical trial of aging-focused ‘anti-necrotic’ drug, and Building a ‘Swiss Army Knife’ longevity drug.
LinkGevity’s Anti-Necrotic™ program has received significant institutional and government support, including a Horizon Europe grant from the European Union, a Smart Grant from Innovate UK, the UK government’s national innovation agency, and equity investment from the Francis Crick Institute through its celebrated KQ Labs Programme, for which only 10 startups are selected annually after a rigorous due diligence process. LinkGevity was also selected for the inaugural NASA/Microsoft Space-H Accelerator program due to its potential to alleviate accelerated ageing in astronauts.
Carina’s work has attracted global interest and she regularly appears on global media such as BBC News, Sky News, and The Observer podcast, and has been featured in the Financial Times, The Times, and The Independent.
She has also given a mainstage lecture at the Royal Institution in London: Watch The fight against time: can we slow down ageing? — with Carina Kern.
Listen to Necrosis Inhibitors To Pause The Diseases Of Aging, Biotech beyond earth: The future of medicine in space, and H-Span Podcast EP 8: Dr. Carina Kern.
Read Could ‘pausing’ cell death be the final frontier in medicine on Earth and beyond? and New Anti-Necrotic Therapeutic Guides Longevity Science.
Visit her LinkedIn profile, Wikipedia page, ResearchGate profile, and Google Scholar page. Follow her on YouTube.