# SB000 by Shift Bioscience

Canonical page: https://technooptimist.io/longevity/sb000
Frontier: [Longevity](https://technooptimist.io/longevity.md) · Field: Cellular reprogramming · Company: [Shift Bioscience](https://technooptimist.io/companies/shift-bioscience.md)
Stage: Research (1 of 5: Research → Proto → Pilot → Deploy → Scaling)
Updated: last update 2025-06-09, facts checked 2026-10-11
Goal: Find a safer switch for cellular rejuvenation. The Yamanaka factors reverse cell age but can turn cells into tumour-prone stem cells; one gene that rejuvenates without that risk would be far easier to make into a medicine.
Status: Cell-culture results in a 2025 preprint; moving to more cell types and first mouse studies.
Next milestone: Testing in more disease-relevant cell types

## Milestones

| Status | Milestone | Date | Slip |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Done | $16M seed to build the AI cell-simulation platform | Oct 2024 |   |
| Done | SB000 disclosed: rejuvenation in 3 cell types, preprint | Jun 2025 |   |
| Current | Testing in more disease-relevant cell types |   |   |
| Planned | In vivo proof-of-concept rejuvenation in mice |   |   |

## Most important 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))

## Current obstacles

- **Not yet peer reviewed**: The data are in a 2025 bioRxiv preprint; independent replication and peer review are still to come.
- **No animal data yet**: Clocks in a dish are a proxy. Whether SB000 restores tissue function or health in a living animal is untested; mouse studies are next.

## Physics limits

- **Clocks are proxies**: Aging clocks read chemical marks and gene activity that track age; turning them back does not by itself prove a tissue works better or that a person would live longer.
- **Identity and youth share machinery**: The same DNA marks that record age also lock in what a cell is, so any rejuvenating switch risks loosening identity if dosed too strongly or for too long.

## How it works

### The problem with OSKM: Four genes that overshoot

The four Yamanaka factors wipe age-related DNA marks but, given too long, erase cell identity and can seed tumours; dosing them safely is the core problem.

### Clock-guided search: Screening genes against an aging clock

Shift switched on 1,500 candidate genes one by one and read each cell's age on its AC3 gene-activity clock, guided by a machine-learning model.

### The hit: One gene, rejuvenation without reset

SB000 lowered cell age on several DNA-methylation clocks while cells kept their shape, made normal collagen and formed no stem-cell colonies.

## Spec sheet

| Spec | SB000 | Provenance |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Candidate genes screened | 1,500 | reported |
| Cell types rejuvenated | Dermal and lung fibroblasts, keratinocytes | reported |
| Epigenetic age drop (PCHorvath2013) | >13 years in keratinocytes | reported |
| Pluripotency markers | Not activated | reported |
| Genes switched on | 1 | reported |

Provenance: reported = stated by the company; estimated = our estimate; sample = a sample figure.

## Papers and demos

- **Jun 2025** (paper): [SB000: a single-gene target that rejuvenates cells without pluripotency (bioRxiv preprint)](https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.05.657370v1). First disclosed single-gene alternative to the Yamanaka factors with comparable methylation-clock rejuvenation.

## About 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.

- 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.

- Headquarters: GB
- Status: private
- Raised: $16M
- Last round: Seed $16M, Oct 2024, led by BGF
- People: Daniel Ives (Chief Executive Officer); Brendan Swain (Founder and Chief Scientific Officer)
- Partners, customers, investors: BGF (investor); F-Prime Capital (investor); Kindred Capital (investor)

Company page: https://technooptimist.io/companies/shift-bioscience.md

## Related programs

Everything in Longevity: https://technooptimist.io/longevity.md

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