Dr. Sam Sharifi
Sam Sharifi, Ph.D. is the Chief Scientific Officer and Cofounder of Matter Bio. He is a biogerontologist with over a decade of experience in aging research and translation and is an expert in epigenetics, metabolism, RNA, and DNA biology.
At Matter Bio, a longevity holding company focused on preserving genome integrity and founded in 2022, he has assembled a world-class team of scientists and executives to help counter missed errors, mutations, structural variations, epigenetic drift, and other types of critical information loss in the genome that occur while we age.
Sam has been the CSO and Cofounder of Mutagentech and Loki Therapeutics since 2022. At Mutagentech, he developed a novel approach that can accurately identify point mutations and DNA structural variants in normal cells and tissues. These somatic mutations and structural variants have been found associated with human diseases, including cancer as well as the aging process itself.
Loki Therapeutics is an immune oncology company focused on treating solid and metastatic tumors. Sam uses a breakthrough approach that harnesses childhood vaccination and attenuated bacteria to help the body recognize and eliminate cancer.
Sam is also an On Deck Longevity Biotech Fellow. On Deck Longevity Biotech (ODLB) is a continuous community for people to come together to build, join, or invest in revolutionary longevity biotechnology startups.
Previously, he was the Scientific Project Manager at Vincere Biosciences in 2022, a longevity company developing mitophagy-enhancing compounds.
In 2021, he was a Scientific Researcher at the Fritz Lipmann Institute (FLI) Leibniz Institute on Aging, where he studied the curtailment of pre-rRNA synthesis and its impact on metabolic health and longevity.
Sam earned his Ph.D. at the Leibniz Graduate School on Aging (LGSA), Friedrich Schiller University Jena between 2016 and 2021. In the Bierhoff Lab, he researched the impact of rRNA synthesis on aging and the role of epigenetic regulation by RNA:DNA triplex-forming ncRNA. During his academic career, he coauthored various longevity research publications including DrugAge, a database of anti-aging drugs. Read Moderation of rRNA gene activity triggers metabolic adaptation promoting geroprotection in Caenorhabditis elegans and Regulation of RNA Polymerase I Transcription in Development, Disease, and Aging.
He earned his Bachelor’s Degree of Science in Biology from the University of Amsterdam and his Master’s Degree of Science in Biomolecular Sciences from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam).
In 2013, he was Research Intern at AMC Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam where he worked on the coagulation-based characterization of beta2-Glycoprotein I (β2GPI).
He continued as Research Intern at the Universitair Medisch Centrum Groningen (UMCG) in 2014, where he studied the function of G-quadruplex structures in telomeres and its role in senescence.
In 2015, he became Research Assistant and Research Intern at the University of Liverpool, where he compiled data for the DrugAge database and identified two novel lifespan-extending caloric restriction (CR) mimetics.
Sam was an invited speaker at the SPARK Europe Innovator Café, discussing Secrets of success in the biotech business. He and Matter Bio joined ShareLab Oslo in 2023, the premier Scandinavian biotech lab incubator for academics, start-ups, and industry.
Read Reducing the metabolic burden of rRNA synthesis promotes healthy longevity in Caenorhabditis elegans and Mitigating age-related somatic mutation burden.
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