Drug emerges from research into cardiac protection mechanisms of hibernating ground squirrels – clinical trial expected in 2026.
Last month, longevity biotech Fauna Bio quietly revealed that its first development candidate will be a therapeutic targeting heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). The drug, Faun1083, was discovered through the company’s AI-powered drug discovery platform, which leverages comparative genomics and AI to identify novel therapeutic targets by studying naturally occurring disease resistance mechanisms in animals.
Based in Emeryville, California, Fauna is applying learnings from “extreme mammal” biology to drug discovery, focusing on species that have evolved natural mechanisms of disease resistance. Its discovery platform integrates genetic data from such species, including hibernating animals, with human genomic datasets to identify promising therapeutic targets. The company’s unique approach has even attracted the interest of Big Pharma, and resulted in a collaboration with Lilly, said to be worth a potential $494 million.
Constituting nearly half of all heart failure cases worldwide, Fauna says HFpEF affects up to 27 million patients and has limited treatment options beyond symptomatic relief. A novel small molecule therapeutic, Faun1083 emerged from research into the cardiac protection mechanisms of the 13-lined ground squirrel, a well-characterized hibernator. The company says its candidate demonstrated efficacy in multiple preclinical models, including those widely used to study key aspects of heart failure and pulmonary hypertension.
For some, Fauna’s initial focus on heart failure will come as no surprise. When we first spoke with the company’s founder and CEO Dr Ashley Zehnder back in 2021, she told us that the company had studied the genes implicated in repairing the hearts of hibernating animals.
“We ended up with a small peptide from a gene that was highly expressed at these time points, a small molecule that we found by matching gene expression signatures,” she told us at the time. “And then we found four wholly novel genetic targets, and showed in rodent studies that we’re almost able to fully protect those hearts against heart attack.”
According to the company, Faun1083 also demonstrates strong potency, selectivity and pharmacokinetic properties suitable for oral dosing, while toxicity assessments, including recent large-animal dose-range finding studies, further support the case for its development.
Speaking about the nomination of its first development candidate, Zhender said it was “an important validation” of the company’s discovery approach.
“Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction affects millions of patients worldwide, and current treatments often fail to address the root causes of the disease. We plan to advance Faun1083 into the clinic in 2026.”
Fauna Bio’s approach
Traditional drug development is often hindered by a lack of understanding of disease mechanisms, leading to high failure rates and prolonged timelines. Fauna’s approach aims to circumvent this challenge by leveraging evolutionary biology and comparative genomics to identify disease resistance traits that have been refined over millions of years.
The company’s AI platform identifies human druggable targets by comparing protective signatures from extreme animal datasets with human data. This involves mapping disease resistance mechanisms observed in animals to human genomic data and validating findings in human cell models. The process culminates in predicting compounds that can mimic these protective traits, advancing them toward clinical development.
As part of its research, Fauna collaborates with the Zoonomia Project, an international research initiative that has produced the largest whole-genome alignment of mammals to date. Through the partnership, the company says it has analyzed genetic adaptations across 240 mammalian species, with protein-coding alignments extending to 428 species. The work has uncovered key evolutionary adaptations that hold potential for human therapeutics, including disease resistance traits in species such as the Siberian musk deer, Java mouse-deer and North American beaver.
Beyond hibernation, Fauna Bio’s research has reinforced broader genomic insights into disease susceptibility. Findings from the Zoonomia Project confirm that genes most conserved across mammalian evolution are often linked to human disease. Genes that remain unchanged over millions of years are likely to play essential roles in survival, as mutations in these regions tend to be detrimental. This has direct implications for drug development, highlighting genes that are crucial for health and identifying targets for therapeutic intervention.
To quote a certain Albert Einstein: “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”
