Embrace the Lokahi Life
Our mission
We believe we are at the start of an exciting healthspan revolution.
Transformative science and medicine are evolving so quickly that we can now imagine the time when adding healthy years to your life is not a far-away dream — but an expectation.
We curate the most advanced diagnostics and breakthrough interventions that are proven to have an impact on the biological mechanisms of aging.
A Lokahi physician serves as your champion and expert guide.
You can actualize a purposefully younger life. You are in the driver’s seat when it comes to enhancing your healthspan — ensuring that vibrancy, vigor, and optimal health can be achieved in your life.
Lokahi’s origin story
The Hawaiian Islands, the most remote from any landmass on earth, have been largely known as a place where people travel to for calming rest and stunning natural beauty. It was not known as a vibrant nest for tech ambitions and science innovation.
There have been bursts of names of Hawaii native sons who made headlines: President Barrack Obama and AOL Founder Steve Case among them.
But little is known about the longevity science research that began here in 1965, and today is fueling great excitement and interest globally. It was in Hawaii that the role of a master aging regulator gene called FOXO3 in human longevity was elucidated.
If you carry the optimal form of the gene, your chances to live to be 100 and healthy increase meaningfully. Read any longevity bestselling book in the last three years and you'll find citations of the FOXO3 gene.
It was also here in Hawaii that a compound from wild salmon was found to activate the FOXO3 gene. This compound was subsequently tested in the NIH’s gold standard longevity study, the Interventional Testing Program, and found to extend mammalian life by the equivalent of nearly 10 human years.
Hawaii has been quietly building a nexus for longevity innovation for more than half a century. We are at the start of a new era in healthy aging. Hawaii’s unique stamp is a spiritual imprint in this hotbed of scientific discovery. We call it lokahi, the Hawaiian word for harmonious community.
Lokahi’s founders believe a harmonious community starts with healthy individuals. Lokahi Longevity was born to share with the world our special expertise in a new science revolution.
Hawaii’s lineage in longevity science began in the 1960s
Today, Hawaii is home to the longest-living Americans. Hawaii’s lineage in cutting-edge longevity science harks back to the 1960s with the NIH-funded Honolulu Heart program that began studying the Japanese population for clues to aging.
The University of Hawaii’s John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) and the Kuakini Medical Center are home to the MDs and scientists who validated the importance of the master longevity regulator gene, called FOXO3.
While everyone has a version of the FOXO3 gene, if you have the most activated version or “allele,” you are three times more likely to live to 100 healthy than the large majority of people who have the normal allele.
Meet the team
-
Medical Director
Robert Peterson, MD, leads the team of Lokahi’s longevity physicians and is the medical director of the clinic. He is a renowned expert in longevity medicine and is the author of Athena Longevity Guide to the Adventure of Aging. As the founder of Athena Clinic in Honolulu, he has helped develop innovative protocols for anti-aging and disease prevention, including a personalized mRNA cancer therapy at the Hainan Disu medical center in China. He is also affiliated with anti-aging clinics in Japan and Vietnam.
-
Longevity Physician
Terry Shintani, MD, JD, and MPH, a Harvard-trained nutritionist, has been featured in Newsweek, CNN, CBS News, ABC national radio, and Dateline NBC. He holds a unique place in the Islands as an active health advocate and nutritionist among the underserved and Native Hawaiian communities.
He has close to 200,000 followers on his Instagram, drshintainiforyourhealth. He is the author of Peace Diet: Reverse Obesity, Aging, and Disease by Eating for Peace, Mind, and Body.
He was formally designated a “Living Treasure” in 2006 by the Hongwanji Mission in Hawaii, a program modeled after Japan’s famed Living National Treasure program.
-
Scientific Advisor
David G. Watumull is Lokahi’s co-founder and chairman.
Mr. Watumull is chairman & CEO of Cardax Inc., a Hawaii-based bioscience company, and co-founder of its affiliate, AX3 Life LLC. The Cardax technology combines large-scale organic synthesis and derivatization of compounds found in nature with rigorous scientific development and robust IP to deliver potent anti-inflammatory dietary supplements and pharmaceuticals with the safety of food.
He is co-developer of AX3, a unique, exceptionally safe longevity intervention proven to extend mammalian life in the National Institute on Aging’s (one of the National Institutes of Health) gold standard Interventions Testing Program.
Mr. Watumull is listed on 14 U.S. and global patents. He was previously a Wall Street biotech money manager, biotech industry analyst, and investment banker. He received the 2014 Life Science Entrepreneur of the Year award by the Hawaii Venture Capital Association.
-
Scientific Advisor
Brian Kennedy, PhD, is internationally recognized for his research in the basic biology of aging. He is a visionary committed to translating research discoveries into new ways of delaying, detecting, preventing, and treating human aging and associated diseases. He is currently director of the Centre for Healthy Longevity at National University of Singapore; sits on the Scientific Advisory Panel of the Hevolution Foundation in Saudi Arabia; and was formerly the CEO of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in Novato, California.
-
Scientific Advisor
Tim Donlon, PhD, is a board-certified medical geneticist and genomicist (ABMGG). Dr. Donlon has authored more than 130 peer-reviewed scientific publications on the biology of aging, genomics, biomarkers of chronic diseases, and geroscience, including important studies on the genetics of FOXO3 gene resilience and longevity.
-
Co-founder and CEO
Shirley Gines was at the front lines of three Silicon Valley-led revolutions that resulted in breakthrough technology that today touches every part of people’s lives: PC, Internet, and ecommerce.
She believes we are witnessing the dawn of the Longevity Revolution. Armed with scientific and medical knowledge augmented by AI, we are pioneers in a new era transforming health care.
Ms. Gines is the co-inventor of Lokahi’s AI technology. She is founder & CEO of Bosq Younger, which developed science-backed skin health products for men that rewind skin aging.
She is also an award-winning PR executive who advised CEOs and trailblazers in technology, bioscience, and consumer industries to navigate the journey from being an emergent business to becoming a viable and vibrant market player.
