Life Biosciences Receives Translational Research Funding from Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation

BOSTON, Sept. 28, 2021 — Life Biosciences, a pioneering life sciences company developing therapeutics that target the biology of aging, today announced translational research funding from the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) to support the development of chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA) activators for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.

Chaperone-mediated autophagy removes unwanted soluble proteins from cells.  CMA activity declines with age due in part to decreased expression of LAMP2A, a key protein regulating CMA activity. The age-related decline of CMA leads to an accumulation of insoluble proteins that disrupt cellular function in age-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.

In groundbreaking work published in the peer-reviewed journal Cell in April 2021, Professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Life Biosciences founder scientist Ana Maria Cuervo, MD, PhD demonstrated the benefit of the CMA-activator platform in two mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease. In both models, oral doses of CMA-activator compounds led to improvements in memory, depression, and anxiety. Life Biosciences has an exclusive license from Albert Einstein College of Medicine for this underlying technology and will continue this research by evaluating CMA-activator compounds for key early attributes needed in Alzheimer’s disease drug development.

“We are pleased to have received this translational research funding from the ADDF, which further validates the potential of our CMA platform to treat devastating diseases such as Alzheimer’s,” said Jerry McLaughlin, Chief Executive Officer of Life Biosciences. “Our preclinical work to date has demonstrated that CMA activation may be a viable therapeutic strategy in halting the progression of age-related neurodegenerative disorders and ultimately increase healthy human lifespan. We look forward to advancing this platform towards the clinic with the support of the ADDF.”

“Life Biosciences’ innovative pathway holds exciting promise for the potential treatment and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease,” said Howard Fillit, MD, Founding Executive Director and Chief Science Officer of the ADDF. “After substantial scientific review, we believe that CMA could offer a unique approach to Alzheimer’s disease, and we look forward to partnering with Life Biosciences as it advances its important research towards the clinic.”

About Life Biosciences
Life Biosciences is a private biotechnology company dedicated to developing novel therapies to extend healthy human lifespan. The Company is focusing on three platforms targeting key mechanisms underlying aging biology: mitochondrial uncoupling, chaperone-mediated autophagy, and epigenetic reprogramming. Therapies developed within each platform have the potential to prevent, treat, and/or reverse multiple aging-related diseases. For more information, please visit www.lifebiosciences.com.

About the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation
Founded in 1998 by Leonard A. and Ronald S. Lauder, the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation is dedicated to rapidly accelerating the discovery of drugs to prevent, treat and cure Alzheimer’s disease. The ADDF is the only public charity solely focused on funding the development of drugs for Alzheimer’s and related dementias, employing a venture philanthropy model to support research in academia and the biotech industry. Through the generosity of its donors, the ADDF has awarded more than $168 million to fund over 650 Alzheimer’s drug discovery and biomarker programs and clinical trials in 19 countries. To learn more, please visit: http://www.alzdiscovery.org/.

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Maggie Farrand
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