Dr. Marco Quarta
Marco Quarta, Ph.D. is the Cofounder and CEO at Rubedo Life Sciences, Cofounder, Chief Scientific Advisor, and Board Member at Turn Biotechnologies, and Research and Strategy Advisor at the Center for Healthcare Innovation.
At Rubedo Life Sciences, founded in 2018, their mission is to extend health and life span. They do that by making novel drugs customized for the elderly to treat age-related diseases. Using their innovative discovery platform ALEMBIC, they make engineered small molecule-based therapeutics designed to target selected cell types and to prevent toxicity to the healthy cells in the body. Their first pharmacological treatments are designed to eliminate senescent cells and other pathological cell drivers of aging and age-related diseases.
In 2018, Marco also cofounded Turn Biotechnologies where he is helping reverse cellular aging by epigenetic reprogramming. Turn Biotechnologies develops mRNA medicines that induce the body to heal itself by instructing specific cells to fight disease or repair damaged tissue. They are focused on reprogramming the epigenome — a network of chemical compounds and proteins that control cell functions by influencing which genes are active — to restore capabilities that are often lost with age.
Since 2011, Marco has been Research and Strategy Advisor at the Center for Healthcare Innovation (CHI), a nonprofit research center committed to excellence and innovation for the global life science industries, including the biotechnology, medical device, and pharmaceutical sectors. They provide rigorous, objective thought-leadership and solutions for the international life science ecosystem.
In 2012, Marco became Affiliate Scientist at Glenn Center for Aging Research at Stanford, and is still ongoing to this day. The center is focused on the fundamental biological processes that drive cellular, tissue, and organismal aging, with a particular emphasis on stem cell aging.
Between 2013 and 2018, Marco was the Director and Team Leader at the Center for Tissue Regeneration, Repair, and Restoration (CTR3 Center of Excellence) at VA Hospital Palo Alto, Stanford University.
Marco earned his Ph.D. in Neuroscience in 2008 from the Università degli Studi di Padova. He earned his Doctorate in Biotechnology in 2004, where he was also part of the NeuroTech Team, Young European Biotech Network, and National Association of Italian Biotechnologists.
Between 2008 and 2012, Marco had his Post-Doctoral training at the Thomas Rando Lab on Aging, Stem Cells, and Regenerative Medicine at Stanford University. In 2013, he finished his Leadership and Management and Business Administration and Management Training at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Marco was Cofounder and Executive Chairman at the Young European Biotech Network for 5 years between 2001 and 2006. YEBN is a bridge-builder between academia and industry. YEBN is a bioleaders network of European countries. During his two-year leadership as chairman, the organization grew from 4 to 13 European countries and several thousand individual members, turning the YEBN into a stakeholder at the EU Commission – Research and Science Affairs.
For seven years until 2007, he was the Delegate to International Affairs for the Associazione Nazionale Biotechnologi Italiani ANBI (National Italian Association of Professional Biotechnologists).
Between 2004 and 2007, Marco was also Executive Board Member at the European Federation of Biotechnology, the umbrella organization of all national and cross-national Learned Societies, Universities, Institutes, Companies, and Individuals interested in the promotion of Biotechnology throughout Europe and beyond.
After Marco earned his Doctorate in 2004, he became Research Fellow at the University of Padova, where he researched neuromuscular biophysics, particularly in biochips technology, muscle biology, and regenerative medicine.
In 2006, Marco became Founder, President, and CEO at WetWare Concepts. The company does research and development in nano-biotechnology. Wetware develops hybrid devices that merge the power of living cells and microelectronics to make unique thinking biosensors for biomedical applications.
For a short time in 2011, he was also BioMed Consultant for Scheiman Rebuild Fitness, where he was consultant on physiology, biophysics, and bioengineering in R&D and innovative regenerative medicine product development.
Marco is the author of several scientific publications in top-tier journals, such as Nature, Nature Biotechnology, Cell Stem Cell, and Nature Communications. He is also an inventor on U.S. patents.
Watch SymBioWatch: a Wearable for Longevity and Inspire Longevity: Zachary Harpaz Interviews Marco Quarta.
Read Marco Quarta to present at the 9th Aging Research & Drug Discovery Meeting 2022.
Marco was speaker at the Longevity Therapeutics Conference, where he gave talks on An Evaluation of the Rise of Senolytics & the Future of Targeting Senolytic Cells and Computational Discovery of Cellular Senescence in Age-Related Diseases to Develop Selective Senolytics
Marco is also a Live Forever Club member. Read and watch Ending Age-Related Diseases 2020.
Marco is the director of the film Secrets of Apulian Italian Martial Arts Documentary. He also researches, teaches, and promotes Italian Martial Arts (IMAs) at Stanford and in the San Francisco Bay Area. Overall, his work, for the Nova Scrimia philosophy, is dedicated to proposing original IMA traditions actualized in modern combat and self-defense methods.
Marco grew up in Bologna, Italy. His journey in the martial art world started at a young age with judo and jujitsu (where he earned a black belt) to join mixed martial arts. As a cofounder, he served as senior instructor of the Nova Scrimia brotherhood from 1999 until now. He is also maestro of historic fencing at Scrimia Scuola d’Armi. Since the late 90s, he has been teaching and promoting IMAs with publications, lectures, festivals, tournaments, and seminars at Italian and International Universities and fencing/martial art symposia, including the University of Bologna, Stanford in California, Vancouver International Swordplay Symposium, Western Martial Arts Workshop WMAW in Chicago, and the Bone Breakers MMA Academy in Mexico City.
In 2008, he moved to California, where he founded Nova Scrimia International, teaching and promoting IMAs in Canada, USA, and Mexico. In 2000, he opened Salles d’Armes in Bologna (IT), Padova (IT), San Francisco Bay Area (USA), and supported additional openings in the USA, Mexico, and Canada, training new generations of teachers. He is also one of the founders of Hic Sunt Leones, a fighting club based on traditional fencing assaults, duels, and ritual combats.
Marco has a personal interest in the body-mind-spirit elements embedded in the core of western martial arts and fencing traditions, including the symbolic and philosophical aspects.
Visit his LinkedIn profile, ResearchGate page, and CrunchBase profile. Follow him on Academia, Loop, Mindmaps, and Twitter.
