# Shift Bioscience

Canonical page: https://technooptimist.io/companies/shift-bioscience
Cambridge (UK) biotech that uses AI models and an aging clock to find single genes that make old cells younger without turning them into stem cells. Its first target, SB000, was disclosed in 2025.

## In brief

- Looks for single genes that reverse cellular aging as well as the Yamanaka factors, without the cancer risk of pluripotency.
- SB000, found by a machine-learning screen of 1,500 genes, rejuvenated three cell types in a 2025 preprint.
- $16M seed in October 2024 led by BGF; $18M raised in total.

## Facts

- Headquarters: GB
- Status: private
- Raised: $16M
- Frontiers: [Longevity](https://technooptimist.io/longevity.md) (Cellular reprogramming)

## Programs

- [SB000](https://technooptimist.io/longevity/sb000.md) (Longevity): Research; next: Testing in more disease-relevant cell types. Cell-culture results in a 2025 preprint; moving to more cell types and first mouse studies.

## Technical approach

- **Aging clock: A fast readout of cell age**: A transcriptomic clock (AC3), trained on donors aged 1 to 87, scores how old a cell's gene activity looks, so thousands of gene tweaks can be ranked quickly.
- **AI-guided screen: Models predict, the lab tests**: Generative AI models predict which genes should make a cell look younger; the lab switches them on, measures the clock, and feeds results back into the model.
- **Safety filter: Young again, but same cell type**: Hits must keep cell identity and show no stem-cell (pluripotency) markers, the property that makes Yamanaka-factor reprogramming risky.

## Open problems

- **From dish to body** (open): SB000 has only been tested in cultured cells; it has not yet shown the tissue repair or lifespan effects reprogramming has shown in mice.
- **Delivering a gene to old tissue** (open): Any therapy must switch the gene on in the right cells, in the right amount, which needs a delivery vehicle that does not yet exist for most tissues.

## Latest updates

- **9 Jun 2025**: Shift Bioscience unveils SB000, a single gene that rejuvenates cells as well as the Yamanaka factors without pluripotency. Shift Bioscience disclosed SB000, a single gene found by a machine-learning screen of 1,500 candidates against its AC3 aging clock. ([our story](https://technooptimist.io/stories/shift-bioscience-unveils-sb000-a-single-gene-that-rejuvenates-cells-as-c1de8d80.md) · [original source](https://longevity.technology/news/single-gene-rejuvenation-target-promises-safer-cell-age-reversal/))
- **15 Oct 2024**: Shift Bioscience raises $16M seed led by BGF to find single genes that rejuvenate cells. Cambridge-based Shift Bioscience raised a $16M (£12.5M) seed round led by BGF, with F-Prime Capital, Kindred Capital and Jonathan Milner. ([our story](https://technooptimist.io/stories/shift-bioscience-raises-16m-seed-led-by-bgf-to-find-single-genes-that-256433d7.md) · [original source](https://www.biospace.com/press-releases/shift-bioscience-raises-16m-to-advance-cell-simulation-ai-platform))

## Funding

| Date | Round | Amount | Post-money | Leads |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Oct 2024 | Seed | $16M |   | BGF |

## Partners, customers and investors

- BGF (investor): Led the $16M seed round (October 2024).
- F-Prime Capital (investor): Existing investor; joined the October 2024 seed.
- Kindred Capital (investor): Existing investor; joined the October 2024 seed.

## People

- Daniel Ives, Chief Executive Officer
- Brendan Swain, Founder and Chief Scientific Officer

---

The Techno Optimist tracks every frontier of technology, program by program: https://technooptimist.io/ (a Markdown version of any page: add .md to its URL; site map for agents: https://technooptimist.io/llms.txt).
Data API (JSON, realtime stream): https://technooptimist.io/developers. People read 5 pages free, then Reader $10/month; these Markdown pages are open to agents.