Leslie Kenny, an Oxford-based entrepreneur

Leslie Kenny is an Oxford-based entrepreneur born in California and a graduate ofBerkeley and Harvard Business School. In her 30s, her life changed dramatically whenshe was diagnosed with an array of autoimmune conditions – lupus, rheumatoidarthritis and hypothyroidism. Her doctors told her there was no cure and they couldonly be managed with strong immunosuppressants. This didn’t sit right with her.Coming from a Taiwanese background, she was raised with the mentality that it’s bestto work with your body’s innate wisdom to heal itself. Why would she suppress herimmune system rather than support it in its natural abilities? On a quest to revive herown health, she went back to school at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in NYC.Her passion for health optimization grew and her career took an exciting andunexpected turn when she moved to Oxford and began working with Oxford University scientists and doctors. As well as becoming a certified health coach, Leslie began helping scientists atleading European universities, including the University of Oxford, to raise money fortheir health discoveries. It was at a meeting with one such scientist that she learnedof a natural compound called spermidine, found in a Japanese fermented soybeandish called natto. Spermidine showed great promise in supporting healthy aging withits ability to induce autophagy, our body’s cellular renewal process that slows as weage. The science was compelling – scientists were calling it ‘an anti-aging vitamin’’ –and it was safe. However, because it was a natural and food-derived compound, not adrug that would bring in more money, no one was interested in promoting it.Leslie tried (and struggled) to find natto in the US, and when she did come across it,she realized with its seriously sticky texture and funky taste and smell, that it wasn’tfor the faint-hearted! Spotting the unmet need for an alternative to natto, shedecided to bring a highly concentrated spermidine supplement to the US market. Withthe support of the esteemed University of Oxford scientists and doctors that make upour Board of Scientific and Clinical Advisors, she launched Oxford Healthspan with itsflagship product, the plant-derived spermidine supplement, Primeadine®.Today, at age 58, Leslie has reversed her autoimmune conditions and is living proofthat we can get better with age, so long as we take responsibility for our health andtap into our body’s natural healing abilities.