Building the longevity organisation they wished had existed

Three students from Romania and Canada came together a couple of years ago around a shared frustration. Denisa Lepadatu co-founded LongX with Marvin Yan and Sufal Deb, both in Canada. They cared deeply about longevity biotech, and there was no clear path into the field, Denisa Lepadatu says, "unless you were already in the right place, knew the right people, had the right credentials, or could afford to take risks."

Longevity, she says, "is often misunderstood as a quest for immortality." To her and her co-founders it is simpler than that: "the effort to help people stay healthy, independent, and able to choose their own path for longer."

“We built the organization we wished had existed for us.”

Denisa Lepadatu

They started LongX because they saw talented, ambitious people being excluded from that mission because of where they lived, their academic background, their age, or their lack of access to networks. "We know this because we were those people in 2024," she says. She grew up in Romania. She "spent years feeling disconnected from opportunities and communities," she says. Her co-founders experienced similar barriers.

Today LongX runs courses, fellowships, expert talks and career resources for people entering longevity biotech, alongside mentorship and a community. These, she says, "don't discriminate based on geography, age, ideology, etc." LongX is not looking for the top 1% of students. She wants the average people with potential, "who need a chance and want to give this field a try," she says.

Everything has been 100% volunteer-driven. "We invested thousands of hours and our own money into LongX while receiving no compensation," she says.

Their fellows come from countries including Pakistan, Ivory Coast and India.