Company Leadership

Kris Barnes, PhD

Founder and CEO

Kelsey Moody, PhD, MBA

CEO at Ichor Life Sciences and Strategic Advisor to Lento Bio

Aaron Wolfe, PhD

CSO at Ichor Life Sciences and Strategic Advisor to Lento Bio

James Frederich, PhD

Director of Medicinal Chemistry

Scientific Advisory Board

Ram Nagaraj, PhD

Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine

Mark Breazzano, MD, FACS

Associate Professor at Flaum Eye Institute/University of Rochester

Igor Bussel, MD, MS, MHA

Ophthalmologist and professor at UCI School of Medicine

Board of Directors

Kris Barnes,
PhD

Lento Bio Founder and CEO

Kelsey Moody, PhD, MBA

CEO at Ichor Life Sciences

Houman Hemmati,
MD PhD

Ophthalmology Pharmaceutical Entrepreneur & Executive

Kenneth Scott

CEO at VivaSparkle

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Kris Barnes, PhD

Dr. Barnes’ principal professional interest has long been to develop therapies to protect valuable human lives against aging and age-related disease. He earned his BS in Biology from SUNY Oswego and his PhD in neuroscience from Weill Cornell Medicine, where he published his thesis work on neurodevelopment in eLife while also gaining exposure across multiple therapeutic areas including ophthalmology drug development. He served as VP of the Tri-Institutional consulting club and subsequently joined Lifescience Dynamics, where he provided competitive intelligence consulting services for established pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in indications across immunology, ophthalmology, rare blood disorders, and cardiology. He founded Lento Bio with the goal of developing novel treatments for chronic diseases.

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Kelsey Moody, MBA, PhD

Dr. Moody is a process-oriented drug developer and executive who has specialized in the study of aging and aging mechanisms for over a decade. Since 2013, Dr. Moody has successfully built Ichor Life Sciences from a living room start-up into a premier, vertically integrated research organization focused on drug discovery and development for pathways of aging. His work has been published in high impact peer-reviewed journals, including Cell. Dr. Moody holds a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, an MBA in risk management from Concordia University Wisconsin, and a BSc in biochemistry from SUNY Plattsburgh. Dr. Moody also attended medical school at SUNY Upstate while starting Ichor but withdrew after his second year to build the company full-time after raising over $1 million in funding.

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Aaron Wolfe, PhD

Dr. Wolfe holds a PhD. in Structural Biology, Biochemistry, and Biophysics from Syracuse University. During his graduate work Aaron moved from single molecule biophysics to high throughput assay development of detergent membrane protein complex interactions to fill the lack of quantification that plagues the field. In this time Aaron also founded Finger Lakes Bio LLC. where he worked as CEO. Finger Lakes Bio licensed a proprietary expression tag from SUNY research foundation that allows for the scaled manufacturing of complex proteins in E. Coli. After raising $300,000 for this technology, Finger Lakes Bio was acquired by Ichor Life Sciences where Aaron became partner and Chief Science Officer. Upon becoming a partner at Ichor Aaron took part in over $14 million of fundraising across the Ichor portfolio of 7 independent companies. As a biophysicist with over 15 years of experience Aaron continues to look at the world and ask how we can illuminate scientific black boxes as fast as possible.

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James Frederich, PhD

Dr. Frederich heads an NIH-funded research laboratory at Florida State University that focuses on developing new strategies and tactics to build complex natural products. His laboratory is specifically interested in biologically active structures that modulate protein-protein interactions in vivo. Dr. Frederich received his PhD in synthetic organic chemistry from UC Irvine under the supervision of Prof. Larry Overman. He then served as an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA with Prof. Patrick Harran before starting his independent career at Florida State in 2014. To date, his laboratory has raised over $3 million in federal funding to tackle challenging fundamental problems at the interface of chemistry, biology, and medicine.

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Ram Nagaraj, PhD

Dr. Nagaraj is a Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and a renowned researcher in lens biochemistry. Dr. Nagaraj’s educational background includes a Ph.D. in Biochemistry, and he has dedicated his career to investigating the processes that lead to lens aging. His research focuses on protein crosslinking in the lens, which contributes to protein aggregation, insolubilization, light scattering, and the loss of lens accommodation. He has also extensively studied the accumulation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) in the lens capsule and how they may contribute to secondary cataract formation with age. Currently, Dr. Nagaraj is actively testing novel small molecules aimed at combating AGE-mediated protein crosslinking and restoring lens resilience in aging eyes. His work addresses conditions such as presbyopia by targeting the underlying biochemical causes of lens stiffness and loss of accommodation.

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Mark Breazzano, MD, FACS

Dr. Mark Breazzano, M.D., F.A.C.S., serves on the LentoBio Scientific Advisory Board. He is a board-certified ophthalmologist at Retina-Vitreous Surgeons of Central New York and serves as Clinical Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences at SUNY Upstate Medical University. Dr. Breazzano enjoys a reputation as a talented vitreoretinal physician and surgeon, frequently presenting to national and international audiences. His interests include treatment of endophthalmitis, retinal detachment, subluxated intraocular lenses, and age-related macular degeneration, among other age-related conditions and complications.

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Igor Bussel, MD, MS, MHA

Igor Bussel, M.D., M.S., M.H.A is a Clinician-Scientist, Board-Certified Ophthalmologist, and Felllowship-Trained Ophthalmic Surgeon. Before starting a private practice, Dr. Bussel was an attending surgeon and teaching faculty at UCI Gavin Herbert Eye Institute and the Director of the Glaucoma Section at VA Long Beach Hospital. Dr. Bussel earned his medical degree from Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in Chicago, where he also earned master’s degrees in biomedical science and healthcare administration. He completed his residency in ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and a fellowship in glaucoma and advanced anterior segment surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He remains an Assistant Clinical Professor at the UCI School of Medicine and has served as a consultant to numerous biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies focused on developing interventions for age-related diseases.

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Houman Hemmati, MD PhD

Dr. Hemmati is a Board-Certified ophthalmologist and an Ophthalmology Biotech & Pharmaceutical Entrepreneur & Executive. Dr. Hemmati’s received his Ph.D. in Biology from Caltech and completed his postdoctoral fellowship in Chemical Engineering and Drug Delivery at MIT, and is an Adjunct Assistant Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology at USC Keck School of Medicine. He now serves as Chief Medical Affairs Officer at Vyluma, Inc., where he helps lead the development of pharmacological treatments for nearsightedness (myopia) and other refractive eye conditions. Dr. Hemmati has played a key role in the development of innovative ophthalmic therapies, most notably at Allergan, where he served as Director of Clinical Development. During his time there, he was instrumental in the clinical development of Vuity, the recently approved eyedrop treatment for presbyopia. Furthermore, Dr. Hemmati consulted for Viewpoint Therapeutics, a company previously focused on small-molecule therapies targeting lens protein aggregation. His hands-on experience with the clinical development of eyedrop formulations for presbyopia gives him unique insights into the challenges and opportunities in developing effective solutions for this condition.

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Kenneth Scott

Kenneth is a seed investor in biotech companies addressing age-related infirmities, with a deep knowledge of modern therapeutic development in the field. Additionally. he has excelled in a wide range of career pursuits, from an economist, software developer, international software consultant, and serial entrepreneur, to a real estate developer. In recent years, he has funded and supported several newly breaking biotechnologies in senolytics, exosomes, and peptides, amongst others. Today, Kenneth spends much of his time working to advance his passion by promoting an understanding of meaningful longevity and providing insights on rejuvenation and activities in the longevity space.