Company’s platform identifies gene-factors likely to rejuvenate cells without triggering the risks associated with using Yamanaka factors.
British biotech Shift Bioscience has raised $16 million in seed funding to further develop its AI-driven cell simulation platform designed to identify safe gene-based therapies for age-related diseases. This investment will enable the company to accelerate the development of its platform, which focuses on discovering rejuvenation genes that can safely reverse the aging process at a cellular level.
In 2006, Professor Shinya Yamanaka made the Nobel Prize winning discovery that an aged cell could be reverted into an embryonic stem cell, and sparked a global race to harness the potential of the technology to treat age-related diseases. However, while Yamanaka factors have shown promise in reversing aging in a laboratory setting, their application in clinical treatments remains limited due to safety concerns. Shift’s platform aims to address these limitations by identifying gene-factors that do not induce stem cell identity, making them safer for therapeutic use.
Founded in 2017 by CEO Daniel Ives and CSO Brendan Swain, Shift operates from its labs at the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge, where it leverages generative AI models combined with high-throughput, highly accurate biological aging biomarkers. These tools allow the company to simulate and predict the gene sets most likely to rejuvenate cells without triggering the risks associated with using Yamanaka factors, for example.
“Our technology is addressing the current limitations of cellular reprogramming for treatment of age-related illnesses,” said Ives. “This additional funding will allow us to accelerate the development of our platform and bring cell rejuvenation therapeutics closer towards clinical trial.”
The company’s AI-powered platform is designed to test and validate these findings at scale, screening over a billion conditions digitally and tens of thousands of genetic interventions in the lab to pinpoint the most promising candidates for rejuvenation therapies.
“If we can identify a safe and disease agnostic pathway, which is the great promise of cellular rejuvenation biology, the more than 200 age-linked diseases become an opportunity to de-risk drug development, and select the disease with the lowest risk profile,” added Ives. “So a major task is to map the risk landscape of age-linked diseases.”
Shift claims it has already made significant progress, discovering multiple new approaches with the potential to reverse cellular aging.
“On the scientific frontline, we’ve identified six new gene-based interventions that reverse epigenetic age without inducing pluripotent colonies, one of which is a single gene,” Ives told us. The funding round, which brings the total investment in the company to $18 million, was led by BGF, with additional support from existing investors F-Prime Capital, Kindred Capital and Jonathan Milner.
“Combining machine learning with lab-based biology, Shift’s well-developed platform represents a significant opportunity to address the growing challenges of treating age-related disease and illnesses,” said Tim Rea, head of early stage at BGF.
The round, which will fund the company through to 2026, will also support the development of an intellectual property portfolio around the novel rejuvenation genes identified by the platform.
As average life expectancy continues to rise, the need for therapies that target the underlying mechanisms of aging, rather than individual symptoms, is becoming increasingly urgent. Shift’s long-term vision is to develop a family of drugs capable of treating multiple age-related diseases, such as cardiovascular issues, osteoarthritis and hearing loss – potentially extending healthy life expectancy.
“The founding team of two has grown to almost 20 who I class as best in the world for the two key enabling technologies, single cell aging clocks and single cell simulations,” said Ives. “From receiving the first angel cheque from Jonathan Milner, we’ve been able to build conviction and attract larger and biotech focused VCs who have the expertise and network to make the vision real.”
