Startups in the field of anti-aging biotechnology, which will be relevant in 2019

Below is a list of topical projects in the field of anti-aging biotechnology in 2019, which in the near future will turn into promising startups. This is still a new industry with almost unlimited potential, and only a small part of the possibilities is being actively developed.

This is the case despite the infusion of hundreds of millions into venture funds managed by companies such as Juvenescence or Life Biosciences . The research community is heavily engaged in potential rejuvenation techniques that lie on the surface. Anyone who is minimally informed about this area knows about them. And any uninformed person can easily figure out the matter - simply by writing an email to Aubrey de Gray or other members of the SENS Foundation . There will be no more suitable time to found a company that is engaged in anti-aging biotechnologies!

With the development of new senolitics it is better to wait

When it comes to methods of destroying senescent cells , many people have something to offer, but there is an opinion that it is better for everyone to slow down with the generation of new ideas and, to begin with, wait until existing options for Senolytic therapy begin to be introduced into clinical practice.

New companies involved in Senolytic therapy are now using a dozen different techniques that compete with each other, and it will take several more years to develop them. There are a huge number of old people in the world who would benefit from the Senolitics. Within the vast medical ecosystem of rejuvenation, there is room for a multitude of competing methods for the destruction of senescent cells.

Nevertheless, there is a real danger that the failure of any of the leading companies in this field will provoke funding problems for the entire industry. If you create a Senolitic company now, your future will directly depend on the results of tests conducted by Unity Biotechnology . Unity programs do not reflect other, much more promising methods of cleansing the body of senescent cells. Of course, this situation is unfair, but, alas, it works that way. If Unity does not succeed, investors get nervous.

Delivering cheap Senolitics to the elderly

The most remarkable thing in the entire history of the development of senolitics over the past five years is that the first drugs that have been tested on animals and people really work well. In addition, they are cheap and easily accessible. The combination of dasatinib and quercetin , fisetin , piperlongumin - all these substances have been tested on animals and there is convincing evidence confirming their senolytic effect. And they are all very cheap.

Why, then, dozens of millions of people in the US alone still suffer from arthritisand other age-related inflammatory pathologies, the main reason for which is the accumulation of senescent cells in the body? Why has no one yet launched a logistics company to significantly improve the quality of life of these people with just one dose of Senolitics? Production and delivery of the drug will cost about $ 50-100, and the sale price can be twice as high. A rare case when you can simultaneously make a profit and help humanity.

Estimation of biological age

An epigenetic clock that allows you to determine the biological age, which may differ from the chronological, is a great idea in theory. In practice, no one knows exactly what they measure, so they are currently useless for evaluating the results of specific approaches to rejuvenation, such as the use of Senolitics.

Nevertheless, this technology is already well developed, and in principle it is possible to launch a company engaged in a personalized assessment of biological age, the results of which can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of senolytic therapy or other methods in the problem of aging. It is believed that technologies for measuring biological age should be developed in parallel with the advent of new therapies - only in this case they will be useful. Nowadays, this niche in the market remains free - a great opportunity for those who want to do this.

Revel Pharmaceuticals competitor in the breakdown of interprotein crosslinks formed by glucosepane

Revel Pharmaceuticals is the only company that works to break down the protein- free cross-links formed by glucosepane . Inter-protein crosslinking is one of the main causes of wrinkles on the skin and a decrease in the elasticity of blood vessels. Success in this area will be as significant as in the case of the Senolithic. Many researchers are interested in this problem, are working on it and need funding to move on and develop methods for solving it. Where are the competitors of Revel? It is believed that this will be the next big step in anti-aging biotechnology.

A platform for finding bacterial enzymes that destroy metabolic debris

As for the development of methods for the destruction of toxic molecules in the human body, a forecast was made according to which the process of screening bacterial strains taken from soil and sea water samples to find enzymes useful for this purpose would be much more cost-effective than developing small molecules , even if apply machine learning methods.

The prognosis seems to be correct, given what progress has been made over several years in the cultivation of bacteria. However, no one has yet created a company that would specifically develop this technique as a platform for many, many potentially possible methods of anti-aging therapy.

There are many amyloids , various oxidized lipids.and the countless components of lipofuscin that we have to deal with, and this is just the beginning. Companies such as LysoClear and Revel Pharmaceuticals found substances that were prototypes of their drugs, working with the bacterial world, but did not create platforms based on their processes. This should be done by the next generation of companies that will work in this area.

Blocking telomere enlargement as a universal cancer therapy

Work on blocking the process of lengthening telomeres using telomerase is ongoing in the laboratories and has already advanced far enough to make a breakthrough and launch a startup. It’s time for someone to obtain a license for one of the methods and begin the process of introducing it into clinical practice.

More effective, cheaper and widely applicable cancer therapy that will supplant immunotherapy is a matter for the near future. And it will be based on blocking the increase in telomeres. All forms of cancer "work" by lengthening their telomeres, respectively, if you block this process, the tumor will disappear. Being put into practice, this only form of therapy can cure any form of cancer.

The Three Pillars of Immune System Rejuvenation

Rejuvenation of the immune system is based on three key points. Now there are very few companies working in these areas, and it is important that they become much larger. First, you need to restore the size and function of the thymus . It will be good if more competing companies and more receptions appear on the market, and not just those offered by Repair Biotechnologies , Intervene Immune and Lygenesis .

Secondly, we need a new way to clean and replace damaged and malfunctioning cells of the peripheral immune system, without gross and risky methods of chemotherapy and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. A softer targeted cell destruction strategy that can be applied to older and sick people.

Thirdly, the industry needs a method of introducing a new, functional and young population of hematopoietic stem cells , which again will be softer than existing transplantation methods, and thus may be applicable to elderly patients. Success in any of these three areas will give a serious impetus to the development of the other two.

A universal platform for cell therapy - delivery and implantation of a new stem cell population

A key feature of aging is the reduction in stem cells . Existing cell therapies do not address this issue at all. The population of old stem cells should be replaced by new, young stem cells. The stem cell niche and signaling pathways should be adjusted to protect new cells from deactivation. We need platforms that will achieve these goals for any arbitrary stem cell group, or at least for most of the most important stem cell populations. This is a way to significantly improve the health of older patients.

80/20 solution in universal gene therapy

The community needs a gene therapy platform that works with minimal changes for most tissues and, in most cases, provides a high degree of cell coverage and configurable targeting by cell and tissue type. Perhaps it will be possible to build it on the basis of the best viral vector AAV or it will arise as a result of the development of one of the programmed methods of gene therapy, such as that of Oisin Biotechnologies .

One way or another, this platform is very necessary. Much could be achieved right now if it were not necessary to develop each new gene therapy literally from scratch, spending years on finding ways to get enough cell coverage and overcoming serious obstacles, such asimmune response .

In the future, gene therapies will replace small molecules in most cases, but this requires a significant increase in the efficiency of their development. The first 80/20 platforms, which will prove to be quite well applicable in most cases, will bring incredible results.

Solving the problems of medical tourism

In the future, hundreds of times more people will resort to improving therapy, including rejuvenation, than the number of patients who are currently undergoing medical procedures. There are many more healthy people who want to improve their body than those who need medical treatment. The very nature of medical tourism will change dramatically, as with the advent of many new methods of improving health and potential customers will become much more.

The current market is chaotic and filled with swindlers, but we have a great opportunity to solve this problem and attract the full potential of regulatory authorities in order to conduct trials and introduce new therapeutic methods into clinical practice.

Many companies prefer to conduct the first trials of their therapies in humans in Australia , because they cost them half as much as the same tests in the USA or Europe. There is no reason to believe that in other places companies' costs cannot be ten times lower than in the USA or Europe, and new methods of therapy will be introduced into clinical practice exclusively with the help of medical tourism. This kind of competition is the only way to temper excessive insane regulation that slows down progress.

Methods for direct restoration of mitochondrial function

The loss of mitochondrial function is central to aging-related processes of extinction, which cause many age-related pathologies.

Mitochondrial antioxidants are developing, and several drugs have already been released to the market, but in order to solve the problem of mitochondrial damage and their extinction with age, more powerful methods are needed. For example, the implementation of allotropic expression of the MitoSENS program as a backup source of vital mitochondrial proteins. Another example is the delivery of new mitochondria to cellspossibly altered in such a way as to be resistant to mutations and damage that provoke a general inhibition of mitochondrial function. Or methods of reliable and complete restoration in the old tissues of normal, characteristic of young people processes of mitophagy and reproduction of mitochondria .

This is a serious problem and we need ambitious solutions.

Translated by Irina Abramidze , SENS Volunteers