Shift Bioscience identifies novel single-gene target for safer cellular rejuvenation therapeutics

Shift Bioscience (Shift), a biotechnology company uncovering the biology of cell rejuvenation to develop new therapies for age driven diseases, today announced the publication of new research identifying a novel, single-gene target for cellular rejuvenation. Capable of reversing cellular aging across multiple cell types, without inducing dangerous pluripotency pathways seen in other approaches, SB000 is well positioned as a target for safer, next-generation cell rejuvenation therapeutics, with broad application across age-driven diseases.

Existing approaches to cell rejuvenation primarily focus on the Yamanaka Factors (OSKM), a combination of genes that can be used to reverse cellular aging but are known to induce pluripotency that may result in tumorigenesis, limiting their use in a therapeutic setting. In this seminal study, SB000 demonstrated cellular rejuvenation at both methylome and transcriptome levels across multiple cell types without evidence of pluripotency. Not only is this approach safer when compared to OSKM, it also demonstrated comparable methylome rejuvenation, consistently across multiple cell types.

The discovery of SB000 marks a major milestone, both for Shift and for the cell rejuvenation field more broadly, and demonstrates the power of our unique, dataset-driven approach to target identification. Offering comparable efficacy to the Yamanaka Factors without the safety concerns associated with pluripotency, SB000 is well positioned as a target for next-generation, safer cellular rejuvenation therapeutics, helping us bring about a future where we have substantial control over the aging process and age-related diseases. We are pleased to progress SB000 on to proof-of-concept studies and expect this paper to be the first in a series of publications as we uncover the previously hidden biology of cellular ageing and rejuvenation."

Dr Daniel Ives, CEO, Shift Bioscience

Shift Bioscience will now proceed with further studies to progress SB000 as a therapeutic target, including research to confirm efficacy across an even broader range of disease-relevant cell types, and to advance to in vivo proof-of-concept rejuvenation studies.