The Quest for Human Longevity by Lewis D. Solomon

Author:Lewis D. Solomon [Solomon, Lewis D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Public Policy, Science & Technology Policy, Political Science, General
ISBN: 9781412809696
Google: OiRBDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 16474871
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
Published: 2005-09-27T00:00:00+00:00

Business: Elixir Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Kenyon’s and Guarente’s genetically-oriented research complemented each other. Recognizing the commercial significance of their scientific discoveries, the two co-founded Elixir Pharmaceuticals, Inc., in June 1999, with the help of an experienced venture capitalist, Cindy Bayley. In 1997, Bayley met Guarente through a mutual friend. “We realized we had to form a company. We knew this could be one of those big breakthroughs,”24 recalled Bayley, who holds a Ph.D. in virology and an M.B.A., both from the University of Chicago. Bayley had previously co-founded two biotechnology firms, Adolor Corp. and deCODE Genetics, and had helped establish the biotechnology investment portfolio at ARCH Venture Partners. Liking the technology, she decided to work full-time organizing an anti-aging company, becoming a Vice President of Elixir; currently Bayley serves in an advisory role.25

Prior to co-founding Elixir, Guarente had two introductions to the business world. First, he founded a start-up firm, BioTechnica International, with several postdoctoral fellows and faculty at Harvard. As Guarente put it:

Our company…taught me many lessons about what to do and not to do to develop a successful company. We had a fantastic scientific staff, especially in the area of genetic engineering of agricultural crops, but little business experience. This latter deficit was never made up, eventually spelling doom for the company. The remnants after the wheels came off were absorbed into a midwestern company sold seeds to farmers, a sorry end to our labor of love.26

Second, following his publication of a paper in 1995,27 Guarente was invited to join Geron’s Scientific Advisory Board, where he served from 1996 to 1998,28 during the high point of the telomere hypothesis. Guarente learned several things from his Geron experience. First, he saw the shortcomings of telomeres as an anti-aging technique. An experiment designed to merge telomere and genetic research, Guarente recalled, “[D]id not extend the lifespan, but instead told us that telomeres were not what was important.” He continued, “There was no reason to think that telomere shortening was playing any role here. Now, of course, you should know that the only system where telomere shortening really seems to happen is humans. The data are a little bit less compelling in vivo, but there’s a general trend toward telomere shortening with age in people. But, for example, not in mice. So, if one thinks dispassionately about it, there’s no reason to think that telomeres are doing anything [in aging], and our experiments said that they weren’t.”29 In research study published in May 1997, the Guarente team bluntly stated, “Our findings suggest that the reverse may be true, i.e., telomere shortening provides a redistribution of silencing factors that promote longevity. Consistent with this surmise, we have found that shortening yeast telomeres by genetic manipulation actually extends life span.”30

Instead of focusing on telomeres, Guarente wanted to form a company “to look for drugs that would modulate Sir2 activity. If we had such a compound we could isolate in the test tube, we could start feeding it to mice and see what it does to their aging.

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