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Posted on Nov 07, 2006, 10 a.m.
By Bill Freeman
Within a two-mile stretch of Cambridge, two competing biotech firms - one founded by a brainiac from Revere, the other his Aussie protege - are racing to bottle and sell the fountain of youth. In this corner, Elixir Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Kendall Square company co-founded six years ago by Massachusetts Institute of Technology biologist and Revere native Leonard Gaurente, whose research on yeast uncovered the genes that regulate aging.
Within a two-mile stretch of Cambridge, two competing biotech firms - one founded by a brainiac from Revere, the other his Aussie protege - are racing to bottle and sell the fountain of youth.
In this corner, Elixir Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Kendall Square company co-founded six years ago by Massachusetts Institute of Technology biologist and Revere native Leonard Gaurente, whose research on yeast uncovered the genes that regulate aging.
In that corner, on Memorial Drive, Sirtris Pharmaceuticals Inc., whose co-founder and Gaurente protege, David Sinclair, made headlines this week after he co-authored a study that shows a red wine extract, called resveratrol, countered the ravenous ways of mice fed a high-fat diet and prolonged their lives.
“We’re good friends but we’re both competitive people,” said Sinclair, a Harvard Medical School professor who came to Guarente’s MIT lab 11 years ago from Australia as a post-doctoral fellow.
“We are heading down parallel paths in a race.”
But this is hardly a Ponce de Leon-esque expedition.
The Food and Drug Administration does not consider aging a condition that requires treatment.
So researchers are developing drugs to treat or prevent aging-related diseases like diabetes or obesity.
The current explosion of anti-aging research dates to the 1930s when scientists discovered that dramatically reducing an animal’s caloric intake will pile on extra years.
But a near-starvation diet is beyond reach for most.
Sirtris researchers have developed small molecules aimed at triggering the health-promoting effects from caloric restriction found in sirtuins, a class of enzymes.
Elixir is also researching sirtuins, but it’s seeking ways to treat diabetes and obesity by targeting ghrelin, a protein released in the stomach that regulates hunger and metabolic functions.
Guarente could not be reached for comment. But as the cross-town rivals, who downplay suggestions of fierce competition, both pursue sirtuins, another researcher who worked side by side with Sinclair in Guarente’s lab has cast doubt on whether the key to unlocking the anti-aging effects of caloric restriction has been found.
“We think that there are other pathways involved,” said Matt Kaeberlein, a pathology professor at the University of Washington.
Still, Bill Heiden, Elixir CEO and president, said the research is crucial considering that the epidemics of diabetes and obesity seriously threaten life expectancy.
“We’re about to reverse the clock if we don’t get this diobesity challenge under control,” he said.
“We’re certainly hopeful the pharmaceuticals can be an integral part of it.”
