NIH and DoD-backed Ridgeline targets muscle decline

Biotech start-up readies for clinical trials of an oral drug that rejuvenates aged muscle stem cells – increasing muscle repair, strength and function.

University of Texas spinout?Ridgeline Therapeutics?is on a mission to reverse a host of chronic global health problems, including age-related muscle degeneration (sarcopenia), obesity, and muscular dystrophies. The biotech start-up is focused in part on developing small molecule inhibitors of nicotinamide N-methyltransferase (NNMT), an enzyme highly expressed in select tissues, where it plays a critical role in regulating energy metabolism and epigenetic pathways.

My take on Ridgeline: An effective treatment that prevents and even reverses the loss of muscle strength that occurs during aging would help people stay active, healthy and independent longer, and be hugely beneficial to our aging society. Ridgeline’s technology has already caught the eye of some influential organisations. The company is backed by more than $10 million in grant funding from the US Department of Defense and National Institutes of Health. It is now?raising an initial $8 million?in equity funding for clinical trials of its lead compound, targeting sarcopenia. To learn more, we caught up with the company’s founder and CEO, Dr Stan Watowich.

Watowich is a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Texas. About five years ago, his lab conducted some “ground-breaking research” that showed potential in the obesity and metabolic space and appeared to have applications in the muscle aging space.

“We’ve been moving rapidly, expanding into different clinical indications", says Watowich. "We now have different molecules that target several different diseases. But, as we have limited resources, we strategically picked muscle regeneration in the elderly as the first medical indication for clinical trials.”

DISCLOSURE: Longevity.Technology (a brand of First Longevity Limited) has been contracted by the company featured in this article to support its current funding round. Qualifying investors can find out more via the?Longevity.Technology?investment portal.

Read the full interview HERE.

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