Accelerate@Babraham alumni, Shift Bioscience is hiring!

21/02/2022

The longevity biotech company using machine learning to develop therapeutics for safe cellular reprogramming has three open positions. Explore them here and find out more about Shift Bioscience below:

In 2017 Shift Bioscience was founded with backing from Cambridge angel Jonathan Milner, initially to commercialise mitochondrial drugs for age linked diseases. Shift quickly embraced a breakthrough ageing biomarker - DNA methylation or epigenetic ageing clocks. With help from Wolf Reik and his mouse epigenetic ageing clock, we unexpectedly revealed a weak linkage between mitochondrial DNA mutations and physiological ageing, pivoting Shift to a first-principles approach to drug-target discovery for ageing and rejuvenation.

Shift went on to develop an accurate single cell ageing clock, by applying machine learning to gene expression data. This enabled a CRISPR screen for ageing, but more excitingly, the constituent genes making up the clock were enriched for functional 'drivers' of ageing phenotypes, suggesting a ‘causal or 'driver' clock methodology. This methodology was then applied to a powerful but dangerous cellular rejuvenation paradigm (cell reprogramming with pluripotent factors OSKM) identifying drug targets candidates for safe rejuvenation), which Shift is now validating. Find out more here. During a lab tour and interview this month with Eleanor Sheekey, CEO Daniel Ives emphasised: “If you’re smart and you’re interested about this, get involved as soon as possible.” You can view the full interview here.