Marvin Yan on Aging Biology, Science Communications & Building Longevity Communities

Message from Sachi

Hi friends,

Welcome, 1,600 of you, to today’s Invite Health newsletter. It feels surreal to see that number - 1,600 subscribers.

I received this kind message recently - these types of messages remind me of why I love building Invite Health. This is the list of paid summer research programs the person was referring to.

I’m currently in the midst of a term break in my studies, so going to spend the next few weeks dedicated to resting, completing job applications, and pursuing the creative side quests I put aside when the term was going on. I also hope to get back into leisurely reading - would appreciate any book recommendations!

This week, I invited one of my friends, Marvin Yan, to share his story. Marvin and I are both McMaster grads - but connected only a year ago. Myself, Marvin, and Sufal got in touch last year to talk about building our ventures, Invite Health and Longevity Xplorer (LongX), and how we could support each other’s work. Now I’m excited to share one of the interviews we’ve done!

What you’ll learn from Marvin:

• The process of building Longevity Xplorer (LongX) - a global community for longevity enthusiasts, and their flagship fellowship program (and how students can get involved!)

• How fellowships, accelerators, and community programs have supported Marvin in his undergrad career & beyond (and examples of which ones he got involved with)

• Advice for students on how to navigate careers when you haven’t found your ‘passion’ yet

Enjoy today’s read,

Sachi 💌 

Marvin Yan on Aging Biology, Science Communications & Building Longevity Communities: Interview with Marvin Yan

First off, tell us about your journey so far. Where do you study, what inspired you to pursue this, and what’s next? What else do you like to do outside of studying?

Hey, I’m Marvin (he/him). I graduated in 2023 from the Biology and Pharmacology Program (2nd BioPharmer on Invite Health!) from McMaster University and I’m currently working with Cyclarity Therapeutics via the SENS Research Foundation (SRF) post-baccalaureate program. SRF holds summer students and graduate student interns but the post-baccalaureate is a research program for students who have recently finished their Bachelor’s to work in the United States with SRF or a SRF affiliated-partner for 9 months. My project focuses on engineering cyclodextrins as a treatment for age-related macular degeneration. Cyclodextrins are cyclic oligosaccharides (think of a ring of repeating glucose units) that have unique properties which are useful for drug delivery or as a therapeutic agent. My passion is for all things aging biology but because my end goal is to develop new treatments in the longevity field, learning about novel structures with a biotechnology company is a truly valuable experience. I’m hoping to enroll in graduate studies this fall as the next step. 

I wasn’t always interested in aging, let alone biology. Growing up, I had thought about a variety of possible careers: architecture, journalism, criminology. As the end of grade 12 approached I still didn’t have a single subject that I was passionate about or particularly strong in. Despite the lack of clear direction, I felt pressure to attend university at the same pace as my peers and enrolled in McMaster’s Life Sciences gateway program to expose myself to a variety of fields. While I enjoyed the content taught, I wanted my career to be mission-focused rather than subject driven. I don’t think there’s a wrong approach either way but some people are more focused on the outcome while others are more focused on the tool. For example, Scientist A might want to find a therapy that cures Disease X while Scientist B just adores the technology behind gene editing. Scientist A is likely to become an expert in the biology of Disease X while Scientist B will be able to leverage their knowledge in a variety of contexts. 

I actually think technologies that can be applied to several domains are more interesting/useful but because the science education in university can be fairly general, it makes it hard for me to see the translation to the real world. While learning about metabolism or cell biology is important, the subjects themselves don’t have a call to action. This feeling ate away at me and led to me turning to the library for inspiration in my second year. After all, all smart students must read smart material, right? Thanks to the lovely librarians and the rotating scientific displays at the legendary H.G. Thode Library, it wasn’t long before I found a cause I believed in, in the book that changed my life.

Long for This World: The Strange Science of Immortality by Jonathan Weiner. 

While I didn’t quite give Jonathan 5 stars (sorry Jonathan), the question of why we age or change at all kept me awake at night. We’re taught that aging is this natural, inevitable phenomenon that just happens but what if we could do something about it? This sent me on a reading frenzy with some notable early influences being:

• Human Errors by Nathan Lent (December 2019)

• Spring Chicken: Stay Young Forever (or Die Trying) by Bill Gifford (January 2020)

• Truly Human Enhancement by Nicholas Agar (February 2020)

From there on out, everything else just fell into place. I knew what I wanted to work on (aging) and how I wanted to contribute (science). Over the past few years, I’ve slowly become more involved with the global longevity community. The next step? Doing aging biology research for my graduate studies! 

As much as I enjoy the work I do, I also value learning and personal development outside of the lab. Guitar, chess, and fitness are interests I am currently exploring.

You run a fellowship called the Xplore Program and started LongX. Can you tell us about this summer program and how Invite Health readers can get involved? 

I created Longevity Xplorer (LongX) July 2023 alongside Sufal Deb and Denisa Lepădatu to address the lack of representation and opportunity available to young early career professionals in the longevity sector. The two areas we thought were most important to address were:

1. Broadening longevity beyond traditional hubs and borders (increase awareness) 

2. Engaging people in longevity outside of science in academic institutions (introduce interdisciplinarity)

Initially, we wanted to highlight youth around the world working on longevity in some capacity via a quarterly magazine. However, we pivoted around October 2023 from being advocates to builders. Rather than only highlight existing opportunities or people already engaged in the space, why not create new spaces to grow the longevity community ourselves?

That sparked what is now known as the Xplore Program, a virtually-accessible fellowship that provides both education alongside a practical way to engage in the longevity sector. Our fellowship was conducted in 3 stages throughout the summer. 

1. Longevity Primer Courses. A 1-month learning period that covers everything from ethics and aging biology to venture capital and product management in the longevity sector. 

2. Incubator. An ongoing workshop-based program where fellows develop basic skills such as pitch deck development and entrepreneurship while also receiving support by LongX in their personal projects and ventures. All coupled with exclusive Fireside Chats with industry professionals held through the summer. 

3. Career Development Experience. A 2-month placement with one of LongX’s biotech partners where fellows directly engage in a project under the supervision of an industry mentor. Depending on the placement, fellows may learn about patent laws, data analysis, funding rounds, bioinformatics, in addition to the company’s science and technology. 

We kicked off the first cohort from June 2024 - August 2024 with a total of 10 fellows joining us from India, Bangladesh, Russia, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. We’re extremely proud of the work our fellows did and we’re aiming to repeat the success we had with a second edition in 2025. If you’re interested in joining our program, we have applications open until March 31, 2025. We also encourage you to join our mailing list on our website to keep up with our resources, work, and progress!

What advice do you have for students (especially high school + undergrads) who want to pursue biotech, especially if they don’t have any experience yet? How can students from different backgrounds (ex: non-STEM, non-biotech) break into the field?

Even as a STEM student, I find it particularly hard to work in biotech. I can’t even count the number of rejections I’ve had applying to entry level positions. The best way to break into any field is to leverage your professional network to find opportunities, especially if you’re after a specific niche such as longevity biotechnology or looking to work abroad. My experience as an intern at Rubedo Life Sciences was only made possible after I reached out to someone in my network for general career advice months before I ever started my role. Developing that network is difficult but I’d recommend starting with:

1. Finding communities that are oriented towards helping people in the early stages of their careers. I highly recommend TIME Initiative for those interested in longevity. On the biotech side (other than LongX of course), many universities have biotech clubs, incubators, and community pitch events which would be great places to start. There’s also a strong affiliation with Nucleate in certain cities/universities, a student-run organization focused on biotech.

2. Engaging in initiatives that allow you to engage with leaders in the field (starting a podcast/blog, volunteering at relevant conferences, attending coworking sessions, or helping on community projects). For those still interested in research, It’s also a small consideration to work with a lab that is translation-minded or with a supervisor who has industry affiliations. 

For people who might not want to get involved in the STEM side of biotech, I’d recommend familiarizing yourself with the profile of the companies you’re interested in. What stage are they in? What are their priorities at that stage? What are they lacking right now? You can normally find some general information from a company’s website and LinkedIn but reaching out to particular individuals/departments within the company may be helpful as well. Depending on your own subset of skills and what their needs are, you may be able to volunteer or even work as a contractor to get your footing in the industry. 

You’ve been part of fellowships, accelerators, and community programs that have helped you with your career. Can you talk about what some of these are? How have they helped you and why / how should students get involved with them?

I think these programs can broadly be split into communities that introduce a project/idea to students and those that support/feedback to initiatives brought forward by participants. Both are great for students to find like-minded peers, cofounders, mentors, etc. so which one to join depends on your interests. If you are more focused on entrepreneurship, I would recommend League of Innovator (LOI) Labs and iGEM Venture Creation Labs (VCL). LOI Labs is for founders under 30 who are looking to receive support to develop a business in any sector. In my case, this was LongX. VCL is the first step of a multi-stage program that guides founders from ideation to finding funding for their startup with the short-term goal of doing a showcase at the iGEM Grand Jamboree. 

For those who are looking for their first research-based experiences, I recommend STEM Fellowship’s initiatives, particularly Indicium, a free annual competition where undergraduate students are paired with a graduate student supervisor to write a literature review and present a poster. In my case, I worked with a team to write a systematic review on the intersection between aging, cognition, and driving. I find a lot of research experiences are quite narrowly focused and as such, Indicium provided me the opportunity to exercise new methods and tools while gaining a broad understanding of the literature in an area of interest. 

On the longevity end, the first community program I joined was the Longevity Biotech Fellowship (LBF) in 2022. LBF is a longevity community that hosts 12-week cohorts consisting of talks and workshops from people working in longevity. While the material is all online, there are also opportunities to attend a 3 day retreat to meet fellow LBF cohort members. However, LBF is a fellowship that costs money and is geared for longevity enthusiasts intent on working in the field rather than being an introduction for early career students. Communities like these require you to be active and as such, what you get out of it depends on how much time and effort you put into networking and attending events. What I appreciated the most about the experience was my Mastermind group as it provided me regular opportunities to ask more experienced people in the field questions and to learn about their work and struggles.

What types of experiential learning opportunities did you have in undergrad that you think were the most pivotal in getting you to where you are today?

Without university co-op work terms, I don’t think I would be where I am today. The first part is obvious. Having the opportunity to engage in internships is great for exploring possible career paths, getting a bit of extra money and time to pay off student loans (co-op normally adds an extra year to your degree), and for building your resume. Going into my co-op terms, I knew I wanted to focus on aging biology but still didn’t quite know the approach I wanted to take. I was aware that it might be difficult to find something that was explicitly focused on aging but I figured exposing myself to different industries around biology as a whole would give me some direction in the long run. 

I think the one downside of co-op is the constant change. Not only is it stressful to have to hunt for a new opportunity just as you’re setting into one, but it’s a struggle to engage in any university activities whether this be clubs, events, or research unless your placement is on site or close to campus. Frankly, I’m jealous of all the non co-op students who were working in a research lab for 8 - 10 hours a week during school. However, if you’re interested in other careers outside of academia, then co-op is a great way to explore.

During my co-op terms, I rotated through both academic and biotech labs but I found the most value during my paid work experience with MitoCanada, Canada’s non-profit health foundation for mitochondrial diseases. I found them when emailing various professors about creating educational content for their labs and one of them connected me with the organization. During my 4 months there, I created a series of educational animated videos explaining mitochondrial diseases to the patient community. However, the additional benefit of co-op terms is that they give you way more freedom than the average school term. Not only are you capped at a certain number of hours per day/week but those hours are on a regular schedule. Not to mention, my job was completely remote due to COVID. This allowed me to leverage the skills I gained in science communication and education at work through personal projects of my own. 

While I was working at MitoCanada, I also created Im a Mortal with Sufal Deb, a podcast exploring the non-biological aspects of life extension and immortality. We tackled this project over the summer in 2021 where we interviewed 40 experts in a variety of fields ranging from ethics and religion to economics and psychology. In addition to animations with MitoCanada, this experience gave me a tangible product to share with future employers that demonstrated my initiative, organizational skills, and interest in aging. While I don’t think it’s always feasible to take on projects like this, there are ways to create long-term value from your undergraduate work. This could be creating a blog that takes ideas from your assignments or creating videos rather than slides for assignments that require a presentation. In our current digital age, having an online paper trail is valuable and you would be surprised just how much a personal website, writing samples, or videos can highlight your potential to employers.

In the context of my biotech work today, I think it’s also important to engage in exploratory scientific experiences. This not only exposes you to different areas of research (which is super helpful for graduate school interviews, networking, etc.) but it also promotes the innovative thinking that is appreciated by startups. For me, this included research proposal competitions such as Scinapse, Bench to Bedside McMaster, the STEM Fellowship Big Data Competition; clinical debates like Encephaloma hosted by Students Advancing Brain Cancer Research (McMaster) ; and longer term competitions such as iGEM. The additional plus side is that some competitions or hackathons only need a weekend to a month of commitment while also allowing you to add to your resume. For someone who doesn’t have their name on a journal article [yet], having presentations, competitions, or published abstracts can be a helpful supplement.

Where can students go if they want to learn more about your experiences?

LinkedIn is the best place to reach me. I’ve received a lot of great mentorship over the years and I’m happy to pay it forward and help anyone else along their career journey. Definitely reach out if you’re interested in aging biology, biotech, education, or sci comm! 

If you have a keen interest in being involved in the longevity space, reach out to our team at LongX. Our Website, LinkedIn, and Substack is where we’re most active. You can also email us at [email protected]

Is there any final advice or resources that you would like to share with Invite Health readers?

1. Kind of controversial but... You don’t need a passion to kickstart your career. I think there’s a lot of societal pressure to “follow your passion” but as someone who was fairly clueless on what they wanted to do in life until halfway through university, my recommendation is to just do something. Anything! Expose yourself to new experiences. Some of those might take root as an interest, and maybe one of those will blossom into a passion. There’s a chance that nothing sticks at all and that’s fine. I think people are capable of doing great things without needing to have an “ultimate purpose” involved. You can watch a sunset everyday of your whole life without any greater meaning than simply opening your eyes, and liking the view. 

2. If you can do the same thing in different places, pick the place you haven’t been. As a kid, I always thought I would spend my entire life in Toronto. My bubble wasn’t any bigger than the school I attended and the supermarket across the street. With all my friends and family here as well as the access to education, work, and an overall decent quality of life. I didn’t see a reason to ever leave. However, escaping familiarity has shaped my perception of “normal” and helped me discover new cultures, hobbies, and friends. I realize existing commitments, finances, visas, and familial/cultural expectations might restrict where you might be able to go but I encourage readers to broaden their horizons. For example, if you're a co-op student, look for work opportunities that aren’t just on campus. Try a different part of the city, a different city, maybe even another province or country depending on how adventurous you are. This has helped me tremendously in building independence and becoming more adaptable. 

Jobs, Opportunities & Resources 💻️ 

Most of these resources are reposted on Invite Health’s LinkedIn page.

• JiuDing Scholarship program for Chinese-Canadian students

• advice from Dunja Matic on cold-messaging people & building your network as a student

• Propel Impact Consulting Fellowship

• i4i THRIVE - April 2025 | NIHR 

• Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation (CDPE) | Full-time Research Assistant II – Interviewer

• Canada Information Sessions | Rhodes Trust

• Zinc NewCo Open Roles - Airtable 

• Fellowships: Applications for our Fellowships Program 2025 are now open | Bayer Foundation 

• Research to Action Fellowship Application – Diabetes Action Canada 

• Young Researchers Award Program | Sickle Cell Awareness Group of Ontario

• Student Placements - CMHA Toronto

• Merck Canada Indigenous Student Scholarship

• Equity-Free Funding Opportunity for Fem Tech Solutions  | UNICEF Office of Innovation  

• Gender and Health Summer Institute Scholarship Application

• Suresh Rattan - Scientific Thinking and Unscientific Life - LongX Fireside Chat · Zoom · Luma

About Invite Health 💌 

I started Invite Health for my younger self who was trying to figure out what to do with my health sci degree that wasn’t a career in medicine.

Today, I’d say this quote is the primary reason I continue to build Invite Health:

The mission of Invite Health is to close this talent-opportunity gap for students in the life and health sciences.

Since 2022, we’re the leading resource for students figuring out what to do with a life sci / health sci degree. I interview students pursuing diverse careers in healthcare, and how they got there - no gatekeeping here. Every newsletter is rich with resources and insights.

Our main channel is this newsletter, and I occasionally share resources on social media (LinkedIn and Instagram).

You can read more about why I built Invite Health here

How to get the most out of Invite Health 🫶

1. Connect with the interviewees: At the end of every newsletter, the interviewees leave their contact information for you to contact them. In your message, mention that you learned about their journey through Invite Health, and that you’re curious to learn more!

2. Share the word: Share Invite Health with your friends and networks. Start a conversation about something you learned- an opportunity, a piece of advice, or a recommendation that an interviewee made.

3. Bet on yourself: Apply to the opportunities that are shared in the newsletters. You have nothing to lose, and so much to gain. Circling back to point #1 - always reach out to the interviewees if you want advice!

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Read all of Invite Health’s past interviews

How I Built Invite Health - BTS 🌼 

I’m building a series where I share strategies on how I built Invite Health. In two years, I’ve grown Invite Health organically to 1,600+ subscribers (meaning, I’ve spent $0), building it sustainably as a solo student founder throughout undergrad and my Master’s.

Cold Message Subscribers

One of the best ways I’ve found to grow Invite Health is by individually messaging people asking them to check out Invite Health. Even though I post about Invite Health frequently on LinkedIn, I know that it’s easy for potential readers to miss an Invite Health post that may be useful for them.

Yes, it can be time consuming and might come off as a bit awkward. But I believe it is worth the investment: I created Invite Health because I wanted to provide value to life science and health science students like myself. By doing lots of cold messaging, I gained a lot of new subscribers and even got to interview some of them on Invite Health!

You never know what value or outcome you’re providing to people. Worst outcome is that someone never responds or reads the message. Best outcome is that you have new subscribers! There’s this Substack essay I like that talks about these ‘asymmetric’ gestures a bit more.

Free Links & Resources 🫰 

• Applying to Grad Schools Notion Guide by Sachi

• 15 Paid Summer Research Programs in Canada

• 25 Paid Summer Programs for Life Science & Health Science Students in Canada

• Paid Summer Programs in Research, Policy, Tech, etc.

• Paid Healthcare x Business Opportunities for Students 

• How to Write a Cold Email

• How to Secure Research Funding

Made with 💝 & 🍵 by Sachi

Invite Health’s Impact 💌