SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oisín Biotechnologies, a privately held, preclinical biotechnology company focused on mitigating the effects of age-related diseases, today announced that it has been included in MIT Technology Review’s TR10 list of the Top 10 Breakthrough Technologies of 2020. Alongside this honor, Oisín also announced it has closed a $3 million pre-seed SAFE funding round to further the company’s research and development efforts.
TR10 is an annual feature published by the editors of MIT Technology Review that highlights ten different fields with the potential to change the world. As detailed in the March/April 2020 issue, the publication recognized Oisín as a key player in the development of anti-aging therapeutics, which MIT Technology Review’s editorial team believe have the potential to impact medicine on a time horizon shorter than five years.
Oisín’s promising research into mitigating the effects of age-related diseases has really taken hold in recent years for Matthew Scholz, the company’s chief executive officer and co-founder. “The growth and interest we have seen in developing therapeutics that can slow or halt damage caused by the aging process has dramatically increased in the past few years,” said Scholz. “While the world has always been interested in the proverbial ‘fountain of youth,’ Oisín is pursuing a scientifically sound, targeted approach that may have the potential to address the biological underpinnings of some of society’s most devastating age-related diseases.”
Oisín believes that the solution to mitigating the effects of age-related diseases is to address the damage created by the aging process itself. When cells detect that they have been irreversibly damaged, they can become senescent, permanently entering a non-dividing state known as cell-cycle arrest. Ideally, these cells should die by a process known as apoptosis or be cleared by the immune system, but as humans age, this process is increasingly disrupted. Oisín is developing a highly precise, DNA-based intervention to clear these cells. In preclinical studies, the company’s investigational therapeutics have significantly reduced senescent cell burden in naturally aged mice and extended median lifespan by more than 20% even when the treatment was started in old age. Oisín’s technology platform also extends beyond explicitly age-related disease: in 2017, Oisín spun out OncoSenX to focus on advancing the company’s technology for oncology applications.
Oisín’s investors to date include MFund, Methuselah Foundation, SENS Research Foundation, Kizoo Technology Ventures, and Advani Family Office, as well as notable high net worth individuals. Funds from the company’s SAFE round will be used to further Oisín’s research and develop its proprietary technology, SENSOlytics®. Oisín is continuing its preclinical efficacy studies working towards a regulatory filing to begin its first clinical trial.
“Biologists are making great progress in identifying some of the processes involved in aging, such as senescence,” said David Rotman, Editor at Large, MIT Technology Review. “Targeting these processes is a promising new way to treat the many diseases associated with aging, and now we're starting to see encouraging results using these approaches.”
About Oisín Therapeutics
Oisín is a late preclinical-stage biotechnology company developing therapeutics to identify and kill senescent cells to reduce the effects of the aging process. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, the company’s therapies target cells using their proprietary technology platform, SENSOlytics®. For more information, visit www.oisinbio.com.
