36Kr learned that Regenerative Bio, an anti-aging biotechnology research and development company, completed tens of millions of dollars of angel and angel + round of financing, of which the angel round was led by IMO Ventures, K2VC (Dangerous Peak Evergreen), Uphonest Capital (Weicheng Capital), Taihill Venture followed, Angel + round led by 5Y Capital (Wuyuan Capital) and Yael Capital (Yael Capital) followed by investment. The financing will be used for the improvement of domestic laboratories, the optimization of AI screening platform, and the promotion of LAIFE, a scientific anti-aging brand.
Regenerative Bio was born in the Boston area of the United States, incubated by Forcefield Venture, an early-stage fund for biotechnology, and officially set up an operation center in China in 2021. As the world's first anti-aging biotechnology company driven by artificial intelligence and cloud supercomputing, Regenerative Bio combines AI pharmaceutical-related technologies with biology to explore ingredients, formulations and therapies with anti-aging effects, solve a series of health problems caused by aging, and extend human health lifespan.
"Healthy Lifespan" concept map, courtesy of respondents
Zhao Xuechen, co-founder and CEO of Regenerative Bio, said: "The development of modern medicine has extended the maximum lifespan of human beings, but the proportion of healthy life expectancy in total life expectancy has not increased, which means that human beings have more and more time to be tormented by diseases. We hope that the purpose of promoting the development of anti-aging industries is not to make people immortal, but to prolong the lifespan of healthy and productive human beings. ”
Preventing health problems caused by aging is a long-term and important expense for both individuals and governments. In recent years, China's aging degree has further deepened. According to the seventh census data of the National Bureau of Statistics, there are 264 million people aged 60 and over in China, an increase of 5.44% compared with 2010. How to alleviate the pressure of public health expenditure, to ensure the quality of life of the elderly has become a top priority. Therefore, on the basis of modern medicine to solve specific diseases, how to slow down the aging process of the human body at the bottom and reduce the risk of related diseases has become a popular research topic.
Longevity is one of the most difficult biological puzzles to overcome, answering "How do people age?" This is the premise of making technological breakthroughs in anti-aging technology. Under the long-term research of researchers, a series of key "aging molecules" have been discovered. According to Professor Brian Kennedy of the National University of Singapore, published in the journal Nature Reviews · According to a review in Drug Discovery, successful attempts at anti-aging include inhibiting nutrient discovery networks, removing senescent cells, reversing stem cell senescence, microbiome inhibition, guiding autophagy, and reducing inflammation. At the end of 2021, the journal Rejuvenation Research published a study on gene therapy using growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) to achieve anti-aging effects, and according to the results of related treatments, this gene therapy, although not necessarily extending the maximum lifespan, can improve health and increase health (Healthspan).
While breakthroughs have been made in academia, Silicon Valley elites have made big bets on anti-aging. Among them, Altos Labs, which attempts to reprogram the epigenes to rejuvenate parts or the whole of the body, has raised $3 billion in cumulative financing, and the investor lineup brings together well-known rich people such as Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, and Yuri Milner, founder of DST Global. In addition, investment firm Apollo raised $180 million in December to focus on anti-aging startups.
However, anti-aging drug research is still in its early stages, clinical trials need to fully verify its feasibility, and drug development is usually long, uncertain and costly. In order to solve the above problems, Regenerative Bio is the first time in the world to apply AI pharmaceutical technology to the field of anti-aging research, through the construction of pharmacological information knowledge graphs including FDA Approved Drugs, OTC Monograph, Dietary Ingredient, GRAS and other known substances, to carry out targeted high-content screening experiments, with lower research and development costs. Efficiently find ingredients and combinations of substances with anti-aging properties.
At present, Regenerative Bio has built the world's first artificial intelligence-based anti-aging substance screening platform PASS, which can improve the effectiveness and stability of commercializable anti-aging products in terms of drug delivery, drug preparation, and composition ratio, and significantly improve product research and development efficiency and reduce research and development costs. According to Zhao Xuechen, in the past year, the PASS platform has completed technical feasibility verification and achieved preliminary commercialization results.
On the ToB side, Regenerative Bio performs technical output through the PASS platform to assist partners in product research and development. Among them, the anti-aging industry chain company "Cell Companion" empowered by Regenerative Bio has independently completed tens of millions of yuan of financing. On the ToC side, Regenerative Bio brings pharmaceutical logic into the nutraceutical industry, launching the "scientific anti-aging" brand LAIFE, which means "LIFE with Al", positioned as a new generation of anti-aging products that are safe, effective and can be used for a long time.
LAIFE product graph, courtesy of respondents
It is reported that LAIFE's first ANTI-AGING series products are built around the NAD+ pathway, and the anti-aging super ingredient Fisetin (fessarone) is reconstructed from the role logic of Nicotinamide Riboside (nicotinamide ribose) and Nicotinamide Mononucleotide (β-nicotinamide mononucleotide), through NAD+ multi-source precursor compounding, NAD+/NADH ratio regulation, metabolite discharge, Cyclic salvage pathway activation works together to build the NAD+ internal circulation pathway and contain multiple anti-inflammatory, antioxidant synergists screened from a high-throughput platform. At present, this series of products has been launched on JD International.
According to Zhao Xuechen, the formula can increase the bioavailability of NAD+ supplements by more than 180%, while solving the problem of the decline in the long-term use effect of related products. It is reported that the order of the first month of the launch of this series of products exceeded 10 million yuan. In addition, in response to the needs of different C-end users, Regenerative Bio began to prepare a new nutrition brand YOUNG & for "oral anti-lamentation", focusing on providing sustainable nutrition solutions for emerging female consumer groups aged 25-35.
In terms of team, regenerative Bio core team members come from Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California, Berkeley, Imperial College and other top universities, with rich experience in technology research and development and commercialization.
Investor views
Liu Hai (Founding Partner, IMO Ventures):
There is no doubt that anti-aging research is the direction that needs to be developed in the next few decades and has the greatest potential for development. More than 75% of the population on the mainland is in a sub-healthy state, and such people are likely to have a series of health problems as they age. Regenerative Bio chose aging as a research direction, which can not only solve the problem by discovering new substances and innovative solutions, but also provide solutions through traditional supplements, radiate the nutritional health product market, and solve the problem that the safety of traditional nutrition and health products is unknown and the effectiveness is difficult to verify.
Jing Xutian (Managing Director, Wuyuan Capital):
Aging, as a research direction that has become increasingly popular in recent years, has huge development opportunities under uncertainty. In line with the research objectives of the NIH (National Institue of Aging), it is particularly important to understand the underlying mechanisms of aging and its association with related diseases. Regenerative Bio is an efficient solution by building a knowledge graph of pharmacological information, using artificial intelligence tools for exploratory research. At the same time, bringing new drug development and new methodologies of AI into the nutritional supplement industry can greatly accelerate the research and development and innovation of high-value new products.
Wei Guo (Founding Partner of Uphonest Capital):
Aging is an eternal issue of human development, and with the development of biotechnology in recent years, the popularity of the Longevity track in Silicon Valley has skyrocketed. Whether it is Altos Labs, which Amazon founder Jeff Bezos heavily invested in, to raise $3 billion, or Apollo to raise $180 million to lay out the Longevity track, it shows that anti-aging technology has great promise in the future. Regenerative Bio, as the first company to explore anti-aging routes based on artificial intelligence ideas, has the opportunity to take the lead in finding effective anti-aging solutions through efficiency and cost advantages.
Yang Runxin (Vice President of Jianfeng Changqing):
Applying AI pharmaceutical technology to anti-aging product development is a bold and innovative approach, and Regenerative Bio spans a combined founding team of science and business, with the ability to solve new problems through new approaches.