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ER-100Life Biosciences—ER-100Life Biosciences—ER-100Life Biosciences—

Life Biosciences

Reprogramming, ER-100, eye disease

USprivateest. 2017lifebiosciences.com (opens lifebiosciences.com)Checked 25 Sep

The brief

Analyst view
  • ER-100's first trial plans up to 18 people (12 glaucoma, 6 NAION) at four sites.
  • The eye is a good first target: small, reachable by injection, sheltered from the immune system, and easy to test.

Technical approach

As reported
Factors

Three factors, not four

Leaving out MYC, a cancer-linked gene, lowers tumor risk while still resetting age in mouse and monkey eye cells.

Switch

An antibiotic on-off switch

The genes only switch on while the patient takes the antibiotic doxycycline, so the reset can be started and stopped.

Target

Optic nerve cells

The cells that form the optic nerve decline with age, glaucoma and blood-flow loss, and don't regrow on their own.

Programs

Life Biosciences, one program

Updated 2d ago
ER-100A gene therapy injected into the eye, carrying three Yamanaka factors that switch on with an antibiotic. It aims to make optic nerve cells young again and restore their function.ProtoNextTrial fully enrolled (up to 18)Updated 2d agoView program →
Research · Proto · Pilot · Deploy · Scaling

Research & demos

1 item

Open technical problems

Open · Active · Partial
  • Is it safe in people?Open

    No one had received a partial reprogramming therapy before 2026; inflammation and long-term effects are unknown.

  • Extending beyond the eyeOpen

    Reaching the whole body with the same control is much harder.

Upcoming catalysts

Company-wide
  • May2027ER-100 Phase 1 (NCT07290244) primary completion, per trial registryER-100by ~8 mo

Peers

Cellular reprogramming · 4

Company & funding

HQ
US
Founded
2017

People

Key people
Primer