Repair Biotechnologies Raises a $2.15M Seed Round to Fight Age-Related Diseases

As many of you know, Bill Cherman and I founded Repair Biotechnologies in 2018 with the intent of developing promising lines of rejuvenation research into clinical therapies. There are many opportunities given the present state of the science and far too few people working on them. This remains true even as large amounts of venture funding are entering the space; our field needs more entrepreneurs. I'm pleased to note that we're making progress in our pipeline at Repair Biotechnologies, and have recently closed a seed round from notable investors in order to power us through to the next phase of our work.

What does the Repair Biotechnologies team work on? When we initially set out, after a survey of the field, we settled upon regeneration of the thymus via FOXN1 upregulation as the lowest of low-hanging fruit, a project with good evidence in the literature and the potential of a sizable upside to health in later life when realized. The thymus atrophies with age, and this is a major factor in the age-related decline of the immune system, as the thymus is where T cells mature. Reductions in the supply of new T cells eventually leads to an immune system packed with malfunctioning, senescent, and overspecialized cells that are incapable of defending effectively against pathogens and errant cells.

A little later we picked up development of a fascinating line of research relating to the vulnerability of macrophages to cholesterol. The pathologies of atherosclerosis are caused when macrophage cells become ineffective at clearing out cholesterol from blood vessel walls. They are overwhelmed by oxidized cholesterol in particular, but too much cholesterol in general will also do the trick. Macrophages become inflammatory or senescent, and die, adding their debris to a growing fatty plaque that will eventually rupture or block the blood vessel. By giving macrophages the ability to degrade cholesterol, we can in principle reverse atherosclerosis by making macrophages invulnerable to the cause of the condition. This is, we believe, a much better approach that that of trying to reduce cholesterol in the bloodstream.

Repair Biotechnologies Raises $2.15M Seed Round to Develop Drugs for Age-Related Diseases

Repair Biotechnologies, Inc. announced today $2.15 million in seed venture funding, to accelerate the preclinical development of its pipeline of drugs targeting thymus regeneration, cancer, and atherosclerosis. The $2.15 million in funding was led by Jim Mellon, the billionaire investor and chairman of Juvenescence Ltd. Also participating in the round are Emerging Longevity Ventures, Thynk Capital, and SENS Research Foundation.

"We are committed to developing treatments for the root causes of aging and its associated diseases through the damage repair approach," said Reason, co-founder and CEO. "With this funding round, we will be able to further develop our therapies and validate them in animal models, bringing them closer to the clinic and patients."

The thymus gland is vital to the adaptive immune system, but with age, the thymus shrinks, leading to a decreased immune cell production and a compromised immune system. Repair Biotechnologies is developing a therapy with the aim of reverting this atrophy of the thymus, which the company believes can be an effective treatment against some forms of cancer. Repair Biotechnologies' second major project relates to atherosclerosis, which is caused by the accumulation of intracellular waste in arteries. While present therapies focus on reducing cholesterol, Repair Biotechnologies has licensed a technology to make the macrophage cells responsible for repairing arteries resilient to excess cholesterol, and thus able to repair atherosclerotic damage.

"SENS Research Foundation was founded to push forward proof-of-concept work demonstrating the validity of the SENS paradigm to the point at which people can actually do something with it. Now we're seeing some of these technologies getting the recognition from investors that they deserve, which in turn is driving critical growth in the private-sector side of the field," said Aubrey de Grey, co-founder and Chief Science Officer of SENS Research Foundation. "I'm thrilled to see Repair Biotechnologies taking things in this area to the next level."

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Nothing in this post should be construed as an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any security or investment product. Certain information contained herein may contains statements, estimates and projections that are "forward-looking statements." All statements other than statements of historical fact in this post are forward-looking statements and include statements and assumptions relating to: plans and objectives of Repair Biotechnologies' management for future operations or economic performance; conclusions and projections about current and future economic and political trends and conditions; and projected financial results and results of operations. These statements can generally be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology including "may," "believe," "will," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "continue", "rankings" or other similar words. Repair Biotechnologies does not make any representations or warranties (express or implied) about the accuracy of such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, you should not place reliance on any forward-looking statements.

Comments

Thank you

Posted by: Peter Christiansen at May 7th, 2019 1:56 PM

Congratulations! I look forward to becoming a customer.

Posted by: Corbin at May 7th, 2019 3:28 PM

I remember only 2 short years ago Reason was wondering if the appearance of Jim Mellon on the scene was going to be a net positive for the community.

Two years and 2.15 Million later, I think we have our answer.

I'm glad to see this. Like.. really glad.

Only good things can come from it.

Posted by: Mark Borbely at May 7th, 2019 3:43 PM

Congratulations!

I'm wondering... about the macrophages therapy, don't you need robust gene therapy for that?

Also... I thought a NPO like SRF can't invest in private companies. Did they spur a subsidiary organization or something?

Posted by: Antonio at May 7th, 2019 5:16 PM

Well done guys :)

Posted by: Steve Hill at May 7th, 2019 6:18 PM

I wonder what the approach to reducing oxidised LDL in macrophages is?

Posted by: jimofoz at May 8th, 2019 12:01 AM

Congrats, 2 million is not peanuts. As soon I heard about Reason founding a company I thought to myself, wow, I'd like to invest in that. But I'm not a big shot investor :(

Posted by: marten at May 8th, 2019 12:49 AM

Thank goodness some of the Juvenescence money got diverted away from calorie restriction mimetics and into real damage removal rejuvenation.

Posted by: jimofoz at May 8th, 2019 2:07 AM

Congrats Reason! Must feel like a project 15 years in the making.

Posted by: ale at May 8th, 2019 5:26 AM

congratulations reason and bill. heres hopefully to the start of something very exciting

Posted by: scott emptage at May 8th, 2019 5:53 AM

Congratulations. My parents already need a renovated thymus

Posted by: Cuberat at May 8th, 2019 8:34 AM

Congratulations! Good progress!

Posted by: albedo at May 11th, 2019 11:42 PM

Congratulations Bill and Reason. I'm glad to be a small part of this seed funding along with such hi profile investors. Looking forward to the fantastic potential outcomes of this line of work.

Posted by: Guilherme Campos at May 14th, 2019 9:45 AM
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