Alejandro Ocampo

Impact

Alejandro Ocampo studies how to slow or reverse ageing at the cellular and molecular level. At the Salk Institute he was among the first to show that epigenetic reprogramming could extend lifespan in mice, and he later led a laboratory in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Lausanne. His UNIL group developed a chemical partial reprogramming approach in which a mixture of small molecules improved several ageing markers in aged human cells while preserving cell identity, reported in EMBO Molecular Medicine. In 2022 he co-founded EPITERNA as a spin-off of his Lausanne laboratory, and he serves as its CEO. The company, based at the Biopôle in Epalinges, runs a high-throughput, cross-species drug-screening platform that tests already-approved medicines in animal models of ageing, with the aim of developing affordable products to slow ageing in companion dogs and cats and in people. A 2026 Cell Reports paper describing this platform lists both EPITERNA and the University of Lausanne as his affiliations. EPITERNA announced EUR 10 million in funding from Prima Materia in 2023.

Metrics

• h-index 28 · google scholar as of 2026-09-23 source ↗
• EUR 10M raised by EPITERNA as of 2026-09-23 source ↗

Research output

66 works · 5,517 citations · h-index 26 OpenAlex ↗

Selected publications

• In Vivo Amelioration of Age-Associated Hallmarks by Partial Reprogramming ↗ 2016 · 1,024 citations
• A Werner syndrome stem cell model unveils heterochromatin alterations as a driver of human aging ↗ 2015 · 557 citations
• Interspecies Chimerism with Mammalian Pluripotent Stem Cells ↗ 2017 · 512 citations
• Mitochondrial Regulation in Pluripotent Stem Cells ↗ 2013 · 394 citations
• Regulation of Yeast Chronological Life Span by TORC1 via Adaptive Mitochondrial ROS Signaling ↗ 2011 · 320 citations

Links

Research fields