Elastrin Therapeutics

Elastrin Therapeutics is a longevity therapeutics startup that is working to develop a biotechnology to repair damaged elastin invented by Dr. Naren Vyavahare of Clemson University. As the name suggests, elastin is a key ECM protein that gives tissues elasticity. Mechanical stress, protein-degrading enzymes, and free radicals damage elastin as we age, leading to the loss of elasticity in aging tissues. Damaged elastin contributes to age-related stiffening of the arteries (and thus hypertension, kidney disease, aneurysm, and stroke), the lungs (and thus age-related loss of lung capacity, emphysema, and perhaps idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis) amongst other tissues. Elastrin’s lead candidate, flexibzumab, is an antibody-functionalized nanoparticle that binds to damaged elastin and delivers a therapeutic payload locally, removing calcium deposits and simulating new elasin synthesis in animal models of arterial calcification, aneurysm, and other diseases of aging elastin.