CCI president explains why Japan’s longer-term vision is well suited to supporting innovation in longevity and healthspan.
The recent launch of health-focused non-profit Corundum Convergence Institute (CCI) offers a potential new source of funding for those conducting early-stage research and development in the longevity field. Formed by global investment firm Corundum Corp companies Corundum Neuroscience and Corundum Systems Biology, CCI’s mandate is centered on health and well-being, with a focus on supporting initiatives with the potential to increase healthspan and lifespan in a sustainable way.
With an interest in scientific areas ranging from neuroscience to the microbiome, CCI is particularly focused on the intersection of these fields with areas including AI, CRISPR and systems biology. The institute believes that by adopting a “non-reductionist mindset”, new biological insights can be more rapidly translated into solutions to improve healthspan and longevity.
Longevity.Technology: Almost everyone working in longevity agrees that the field needs more funding to deliver on its promise, but investment can sometimes be constrained by investors’ demand for short-term returns. With its origins in Japan, Corundum appears to exhibit a more patient investment philosophy, and this patience is also reflected in the philanthropic approach of CCI. To learn more about the institute and its views on supporting progress in healthspan and longevity, we sat down with its president and executive director Dr Caleb Bell.
Bell, who served as Venture Partner at Corundum Systems Biology before helping to found CCI, explains that the institute’s origins and mandate stem from Corundum CEO Yasushi Yamamoto, who had a vision for addressing the world’s toughest challenges via a global venture network built on strategic patience.
“The institute itself is relatively new, but the philanthropic and charitable work Corundum has been doing has been ongoing for the past decade,” he says. “Our founder and limited partners are really interested in the health and well-being aspect of society; they want to do good business and create returns, but they also have a longer-term vision.”
A long-term view
According to Bell, Corundum’s origins in Japan are significant when it comes to the firm’s investment philosophy.
“When you think about an American VC firm, for example, they are very short term focused, very capitalistic – how quick can you turn a return?” he says. “Corundum are also capitalists, and want to create returns, but the timelines and the expectations are more balanced with some of the other health and well-being goals and philanthropic goals. That was very refreshing for me.”
By way of an example, Bell cites one of the institute’s flagship initiatives, the Human Phenotype Project (HPP), which he likens to the groundbreaking Human Genome Project.
“The HPP is tracking 100,000 participants over 25 years, monitoring their microbiome and other health metrics,” he says. “That is an incredibly long timeline, which is quite unusual for American venture capital firms, but it’s the kind of patient capital approach that the Corundum Group embraces.”
Unlocking longevity secrets
Bell says that the HPP has already yielded valuable insights, with a recent publication exploring the implications of the data for longevity.
“The potential of the HPP is mind-boggling,” he says. “By tracking the ‘movie’ of people’s lives over a quarter-century, we can unlock far more information than the ‘closing credits’ of the genome alone.”
To further leverage the HPP data, CCI will be launching a request for proposals (RFP) in 2025 to support researchers in using the rich dataset.
“We want to catalyze more researchers to use the HPP data and mine it for insights,” Bell explains. “The amount of information is simply too vast for one entity to extract all the value, so we’re looking to spread the wealth and provide funding to help unlock its full potential.”
Beyond the HPP, CCI’s areas of interest span a diverse range of health and longevity-focused domains.
“We’re very interested in neuroscience, mental health, and the microbiome, particularly the intersection of these fields,” Bell says. “We’re not as constrained to just FDA-regulated products, but rather anything that can improve human performance, behavior, and longevity.”
The institute’s funding approach reflects its broad perspective. “We can fund both startup companies with venture philanthropic capital and academic researchers with sponsored research grants,” Bell explains. “The grant sizes vary, but we typically provide a few hundred thousand dollars per year for a couple of years, with the flexibility to go up to low single-digit millions for the right projects.”
Health equity is key
CCI is also mindful of the need for equitable access to healthspan and wellness innovations.
“We acknowledge that it’s a larger problem than what we can solve alone, but we try to choose projects and technologies that are more accessible by nature,” Bell says. “We’re not only interested in investing in expensive treatments or procedures; instead, we also focus on non-pharmaceutical approaches that are generally less costly.”
Looking ahead, Bell emphasizes that CCI’s primary objective is to have a significant impact on health and well-being.
“It’s about partnering with the most bleeding-edge innovations and working with inspiring people who share our vision,” he says. “We want to be involved with the best and brightest, supporting early-stage investigators and innovators who can help us achieve our mission of improving health and longevity for all.”
“But we’re not just interested in pure science for the sake of science. We want to support projects that have a clear path to transitioning from academia to the commercial sphere, where they can truly make an impact.”
This focus on translational research is a key differentiator for CCI. “We’re not constrained to just FDA-regulated products,” Bell says. “We’re looking at a wide range of technologies, from non-invasive devices and apps to probiotics and other interventions that can improve human performance, behavior, and longevity.”
