Thomas Rando, MD, PhD
Co-Founder, Executive Chairman, Board of Directors

Dr. Rando has more than 20 years of experience in aging research and has published over 150 research articles on stem cell aging and tissue repair.

Dr. Rando is the director of the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center. At UCLA he is a professor in the Departments of Neurology and Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology. Prior to joining UCLA, Dr. Rando served as the director of the Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging at Stanford University School of Medicine. While at Stanford, he was a professor of neurology and neurological sciences and deputy director of the Stanford Center on Longevity. Dr. Rando also served as chief of the neurology service and director of the Center for Regeneration, Repair, and Restoration (CTR3) at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System (VAPAHCS), where he was previously director of the Rehabilitation Research and Development Center of Excellence/REAP and Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center. Dr. Rando is a founding director of the Muscular Dystrophy Association clinic at the Stanford Medical Center.

Dr. Rando has been a pioneer and leader in the use of heterochronic parabiosis to study the role of blood and circulating factors in the biology of aging. In 2005 Dr. Rando published a seminal Nature paper demonstrating that factors in young serum can directly reverse many aspects of cellular and tissue aging. Publications from his lab have over 25,000 citations and he has given more than a hundred keynote lectures over the years at a variety of national and international research conferences and high-profile research and medical institutions. He actively serves as editor and board member of numerous scientific journals, including the Journal of Cell Biology, EMBO Journal, PLoS Biology and Aging Cell.

Dr. Rando is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences. Over the course of his career, Dr. Rando has received more than 40 award nominations. He is a former Paul Beeson Physician Faculty Scholar in aging, awarded by the American Federation for Aging Research and a former Ellison Medical Foundation senior scholar in aging. In 2005, he received an NIH Director’s Pioneer Award for his groundbreaking research in stem cell biology. He was also a member of the Advisory Council of the NIH’s National Institute of Aging, and holds board positions at numerous institutions, including Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing and the Buck Institute for Age Research

Dr. Rando serves on the scientific advisory board of several biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, including NDLX Health Sciences and Novo Biosciences Inc. He previously served on the scientific advisory board of Fate Therapeutics, a $1.2 billion market cap company.

Dr. Rando received a B.A. from Harvard College, and holds an M.D. from Harvard Medical School and a Ph.D. in cell and developmental biology from Harvard University.

Ash Khanna, PhD, MBA
Partner, Pivotal bioVenture Partners (US)

Ash Khanna, Ph.D., M.B.A., joined Pivotal in 2017. Ash brings 20 years of experience in the venture capital, pharmaceutical and biotech arena. Most recently, he co-founded SutroVax, a Pivotal bioVentures portfolio company, where he served as Chief Business Officer. Previously he was President & Chief Business Officer of Imagen Biotech, a VC-backed startup developing treatments for severe ophthalmic diseases. Prior to his operating roles, Ash was a Principal at SV Life Sciences (SVLS), a healthcare focused venture capital firm, where he led and managed investments in many biotech and diagnostic companies including, among others, Ophthotech, Mpex Pharmaceuticals, Good Start Genetics and Itero Biopharmaceuticals. He started his career in the pharmaceutical industry at Bristol-Myers Squibb where he held various positions including Team Leader responsible for the clinical advancement of multiple Diabetes programs including the currently marketed products, Onglyza® (Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor) and Farxiga® (SGLT2 inhibitor). Ash is a co-inventor on the Onglyza® patent. Ash has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics from SUNY-Buffalo. He is also a Kauffman Fellow and initially trained as a pharmacist.

Alex Morgan, MD, PhD
Partner, Khosla Ventures

Alex Morgan, M.D., Ph.D., is a Partner on the investment team at Khosla Ventures where he has a special focus in biotechnology, healthcare, data science, and AI/ML. Alex has an M.D. and Ph.D. in biomedical informatics from Stanford, with a dissertation on machine learning methods in precision medicine under the supervision of Atul Butte. Alex has completed additional graduate work in biology and physics and a short postdoctoral fellowship in biochemistry and genetics with Ronald W. Davis at the Stanford Genome Technology Center.

As a scientist, he has published over 50 scientific publications, primarily at the intersection of computer science, biology, and healthcare. As an inventor, he has licensed IP to three separate companies. As an entrepreneur, he has worked as an early employee or co-founder at a range of startups. He currently sits on the boards of some of Khosla Ventures’ investments, including Deep Genomics and HeartVista.

Alex is committed to improving access to healthcare to underserved communities through community service, and served as co-manager of the volunteer-staffed Arbor Free Clinic in Menlo Park, where he also worked as head of IT and helped develop and deploy their electronic medical records system. Alex is particularly interested in helping to advance diversity in STEM fields, including technology entrepreneurship.