Life Biosciences Doses First Human in Sight-Loss Trial
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- Life Biosciences dosed its first human patient with ER-100, testing safety and side effects in a study of approximately 18 adults to be conducted over the next year.
- The trial targets patients with glaucoma and NAION, two conditions that damage optic nerve cells, with ER-100 designed to rejuvenate those cells and restore sight.
- ER-100 is the first cellular rejuvenation therapy of its kind to receive FDA clearance for human clinical trials, and the company claims the drug has already restored vision in monkeys.
- David Sinclair, Harvard Medical School professor of genetics and Life Biosciences cofounder, framed the study as the first opportunity to test whether restoring lost epigenetic information can ameliorate human disease.
- Boston-based Life Biosciences says it is developing its cellular rejuvenation platform for other age-related conditions beyond vision loss, including fatty liver disease.
Why it matters: If ER-100 succeeds in its 18-patient safety trial, it would mark the first human validation of cellular rejuvenation as a treatment, opening Life Biosciences' broader pipeline of age-related therapies including fatty liver disease. Patients with glaucoma and NAION—conditions with limited treatment options—have the most immediate at stake.
