Shift Bioscience Secures $16 Million for Age Research
On October 15, 2024, in Cambridge, UK, Shift Bioscience, a pioneering biotech company, announced a significant milestone in its quest to combat age-related diseases. The company has successfully secured $16 million (£12.5 million) in seed funding, led by BGF, with participation from esteemed existing investors such as F-Prime Capital, Kindred Capital, and Jonathan Milner. This critical influx of investment is poised to enhance the development of Shift Bioscience’s innovative artificial intelligence (AI) platform, which focuses on identifying safe rejuvenation genes. Such research is groundbreaking and represents a pivotal step forward in designing specialized therapeutics aimed at treating a variety of conditions linked to aging.
The growing concerns surrounding age-related illnesses are brought to light by the increasing average life expectancy, which has inevitably placed additional strain on healthcare systems worldwide.
Cellular reprogramming techniques, especially those utilizing Yamanaka factors, have shown promising potential to rejuvenate cells, thus paving the way for new therapies capable of addressing multiple diseases associated with aging. Nevertheless, a pressing challenge remains: the urgent need to pinpoint gene factors that can safely reprogram cells. Dr. Daniel Ives, CEO of Shift Bioscience, remarked on the importance of their technology, stating that it directly addresses existing limitations in cellular reprogramming and affirms the company’s innovative approach as one of the earliest funding rounds dedicated solely to the emerging field of cell simulation for target discovery.
Shift Bioscience is actively building a cutting-edge cell simulation platform that melds generative AI with a highly precise biological aging clock, enabling the prediction of gene sets that could effectively and safely rejuvenate cells. Their commendable preliminary results garnered positive reactions during the 2024 Gordon Research Conference on Systems Aging, showcasing the potential efficacy of their approach. This newly acquired seed funding will not only expedite the development of their AI-driven platform, but also facilitate the creation of an intellectual property portfolio surrounding the novel rejuvenation genes identified by the team. The recent investment brings the total funding raised by Shift Bioscience to an impressive $18 million (£14 million), reinforcing their mission to revolutionize regenerative medicine and offer treatments that could preserve health well into old age.
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